After a few minutes of discussion the two girlfriends looked towards Helia. Karyn was the one to speak.
"We decided that the permanent pactio is most sensible option. The others are too risky and this one seems to have some perks to it even if I don't end up getting magic potential. Personal magic artefact sounds cool." She said.
Jennifer nodded "Pactio does not seem to have any risks associated with it. And it did not sound like other options are worth it even with the risks. The wish is the only other option that we seriously considered, but even that does not feel safe."
Helia smiled "Glad you both thought about it. And I agree - pactio is by far the safest option. Some risks are not worth taking." She sipped from her cup of tea, it seemed to be still hot even after lengthy talk they already had. "So, Extremus Pactio. I can setup magic circle for it now, if we move table a bit there would be enough room here for it." She looks around "Though it probably would be just easier to do in another room." She hums "Yeah, another room is better. Anyways, I should give you some more information about pactio that I did not mention before. Pactio comes with a few really convenient perks you girls will like." She smiled.
Jennifer blinked "And you did not mention them before why?"
Helia shrugged "I thought they were not important for the decision. After all - the most important things in this case are how safe the option is and how effective option is. I did not consider a few extra perks as important, though likely because to me they seem like parlor tricks. I apologize for my inability to better outline all things involved in pactio."
Karyn shook her head "It is fine. Other options did not seem as appealing as pactio from get go. I would imagine in the past a lot of people tried to use permanent pactio as quick way to get magic?"
Helia smiled "Indeed. And majority failed. Like I said - it seems the success rate depends on the level of bond between partners. Those who were looking for just quick way to power failed. In fact, pactio would not even work for them." She sipped from her cup again. "Anyways, I should mention those perks before I start rambling about the history of whole system." She smiled. "First perk I already mentioned - the unique magic artefacts. Each would be suited for the user and would have some kind of special ability. Once pactio is formed by use of some command words the artefact can be summoned or dismissed." She paused "Second perk is telepathic bond. The pactio partners can communicate telepathically over a certain distance."
Jennifer smiled "That does sound extremely useful. What is the limit of range?"
Helia hummed "Around ten kilometres in metric system so... a bit over six miles, I believe."
Karyn grinned, feeling excited "That is sweet! We will save on phone bills by chatting this way." She giggled and Jennifer giggled too.
Helia chuckled "Indeed. Anyways - the last perk is a summoning command. With special command and the usage of your partner's name you can instantly summon your partner to your location. The range limit is same as with telepathy."
Jennifer grinned and looked at Karyn "That would make sneaking you into my room so easy." Karyn giggled.
"Yeah, it would. Though I guess it is one-way teleportation and you can't just teleport back from where you were summoned?" She asked Helia.
Helia nodded "Yes."
Both girls grinned with excitement "Well, that sounds awesome. Let's go and do it~" Karyn said with bright smile on her face and Jennifer nodded in agreement.
Helia giggled "Very well." She finished her tea and stood up. "Follow me." She said and both girls followed Helia behind the curtain in the room.
They entered a room already familiar to Jennifer - it was a room Helia performed a ritual on her and where they said their teacher-apprentice oaths. This time apart from candles and tapestries the room was empty. There was no circle on the ground anymore or the table on which there was a bowl and dagger before.
Helia just walked into a room and looked at ground. "Please stand near entrance while I draw circle." She asked the two girls who nodded and stood near entrance while watching witch work.
Helia then looked back at the ground and motioned her finger towards the middle of the room. She then focused and glowing yellow light appeared where she was pointing. She then started to do motions in the air and as she did the light mimicked her and started to draw on the ground with what looked like yellow chalk. Helia continued to draw for some time and after a few minutes a complicated magic circle was drawn on the ground. The witch examined her work and nodded, satisfied. "Looks fine. Been a while since I drew this version, the temporary pactio circle is much simplier." She said and smiled to the girls. "Now I just need to charge it with magic energy. Actually, why not make this a bit of introductory lesson for you two?" She said and the girls started to listen to witch in attention.
"Now, there are a few magic systems. But universally magic energy is stored inside a mage. A mage serves as container for magic power. Magic power is drawn from nature. I will spare you the lecture on just how and why everything around us has magic power as it is complicated study you don't need to know yet." She smiled and girls nodded in understanding. "Now, magic power itself is like a muscle. With time, training and usage of magic the amount mage can store increases. There are quite a few other ways to increase magic power too with use of alchemy and so on." She paused "The magic power by itself is not that important. What is much more important for any magic user is magic sensitivity or as it is often called - magic potential." She paused for a bit.
"Magic power deficit can be overcome in many ways. It is incredibly difficult to increase magic potential, however. There were means to do so in ancient past, but almost all of them are no longer viable because of various reasons. The most important one being the lack of experts that can create alchemical medicines capable of increasing magic sensitivity." She paused "Magic sensitivity or potential in simple terms is the ability to sense and control magic energy. Or mana, as it is often called. High sensitivity means that one is able to use more magic power at once and can do so much easier. Taking you two as examples - Jennifer currently has great magic sensitivity, though it is dormant as she has yet to officially start learning how to use magic. It is like she has an extra eye that to this day is still closed. As she learns to use it, however, she will quickly be able to pull magic power towards herself and store it." She smiled and then looked at Karyn "As for you, Karyn - your magic sensitivity might as well not exist. Even if you got magic power it would pour out of you as if you were bucket filled with holes. You would be simply unable to attract magic energy to yourself and it would escape you." She sighed a bit.
"Anyways, back to lesson at hand. At the most basic level to use magic the mage uses their magic sensitivity to feel the magic power and their will to direct it. I could charge magic circle from distance this way as I am proficient in channeling magic, but for the purposes of demonstration I will use a direct contact." Helia knelt next to magic circle and closed her eyes briefly. The magic circle then slowly started to glow with energy.
Karyn watched the light show without any change in expression, but Jennifer looked at circle with a growing sense of wonder. She could feel something. It reminded her of the time Helia did ritual on her. It felt like the circle and air itself was slowly charged with some sort of power she could not explain.
Helia opened her eyes and stood up, looking at the two girls. She smiled as she saw look of wonder on Jennifer's face "You can feel it a bit, can't you?" She asked the girl.
Jennifer nodded "I can feel... something. It is like a charge in air as if some kind of power. I don't know how to describe it." She looked at Karyn "You are not feeling anything?"
Karyn shook her head "I don't."
Helia nodded "That is normal. You can't really feel magic power that well yet, Jennifer. With time it will become second nature. And hopefully if this works you will soon be able to feel it too, Karyn." She smiled at the girl. "Anyways - the circle is ready. I will also stop lecture for now, as we will look over topic in more detail when we have actual lessons. For now let's get the pactio done." She smiled "Just stand in middle, look at each other and kiss." She grinned "Though I can leave the room if you need some privacy." She offered.
The girls blushed a little but shook their heads "It's fine. It is just a kiss. We kissed in public many times." Karyn said, and taking Jennifer's hand led her into the circle. The two girls looked at each other while holding their hands in a middle of the circle. But smiled and lean forward for a kiss. as their lips connected the circle started to glow brightly and everything was consumed by bright light.
A few minutes later the girls got a crash course on command words to use pactio abilities and they were now sitting back in the room they came from, having some tea again. Helia tested Karyn for a last few minutes and smiled.
"Congratulations, Karyn. You now have magic potential. I would even say it is about same as Jennifer's own. Which is honestly amazing." She said with a smile.
Karyn smiled "Thank you. Honestly, I am not sure if I feel any different. Though I think something did change. I feel as if air is bit... heavier?" She struggled to explain.
Helia nodded "You might be feeling mana in the air. You have yet to start learning magic, as such it is still a muted feeling."
Jennifer giggled "I am just happy I will get to learn magic with you, Karyn~" She said happily.
Helia chuckled "Speaking of learning magic, we should discuss your upcoming lessons. I would like to teach you for a couple hours each day after you are done with school. You will get weekends free as I believe a proper break is needed for the lessons to set in. Now, couple hours may not seem like a lot to you both, but I am able to extend those two hours to longer amounts. You will actually be learning for eight hours each day."
Karyn blinked "Seriously? That sounds like some seriously awesome magic." Jennifer nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds really awesome. Though, won't we be aging faster like this technically?" She wondered.
Helia shook her head "I will be able to adjust time like this due to special artefact. As for aging faster - it will not be noticeable, believe me. Mostly because as magic users you two will naturally age slower than normal humans. So don't worry." She paused "Now, one more important thing. Karyn." She turned her attention to redhead who looked at Helia. "Jennifer and I already took teacher-apprentice oath. I would like you to consider making an oath as well." She paused "It is a serious thing to consider, so I would like you to take some time to think about it. I will do my best to teach you two regardless if you make one or not."
Karyn nodded her understanding "I will think about it."
Helia smiled "Good. Now, think we are done for today. We will start your magic lessons tomorrow." She paused "A bit of warning. Now that you are both going to be magic users, try to not reveal existence of magic to others. Once you learn some spells - don't use them in public until I deem both of you ready. If something happens and you are forced to use magic to defend yourselves - do it. I will do my best to deal with consequences later." She smiled "Okay, girls?"
Both of the girls nodded "Yes, teacher."
Helia smiled "Good. Well, unless you have some questions or want to buy something you can go and have rest of the day to yourselves. Return tomorrow then you can to start magic lessons."
Jennifer thought for a bit "I actually have a question - is there a way to safely reveal existence of magic to someone? Me and Karyn have couple friends that we likely would like to share this with."
Karyn nodded "Yeah, their names are Lucy and Claire. We actually told them about this shop too as we said Jennifer will have part time job here."
Helia frowned a bit "Right, forgot a cover job for you Karyn. Well, you could have part time job here as well. Could teach some of things to you separately, depending on how first few lessons go. Well, we will see." She paused "As for safe reveal of magic - there is a way. It is called Geas. It is basically a scroll that is signed that forces the ones who signed it to not reveal secrets discussed. I am sure I have some standard Geas scrolls to make so your friends could not discuss magic with magically unaware. They are pretty common. I will browse my stuff and will give you a few next time we meet." She smiled "Anything else?"
Both girls thought for a bit and shook their heads. "I thought about maybe buying something, but I will have plenty chances in the future." Karyn said.
Jennifer nodded "Yeah. It has been an eventful day and I would like to relax for the rest of a day, personally. Oh, by the way - both of us got detention time so we might come late tomorrow."
Helia raised an eyebrow "There must be quite a story there. I don't imagine you girls getting detention for anything simple. I would really like to hear it, but it should be left for another day. And it is fine - come when you can. Actually, let me give you my mobile phone number so you could contact me easily." She motioned over table and two pieces of paper with phone number appeared before girls.
Jennifer blinked and took the paper. Karyn did as well. "You know, for some reason I did not think you would have mobile phone." Karyn commented.
Helia giggled "I might be a witch, but I do enjoy modern technology. The shop has a great wi-fi connection if you two would like to use it while you work." She grinned "I use it quite a lot." She winked "Anyways, allow me to see you out."
She rose from her chair and the two girls did as well, thanking Helia for the tea. All three made her way back to shop where Helia opened the door and said goodbyes to two girls. Jennifer and Karyn said their farewells and walked away from the shop.
Helia stood near her shop for a few moments, her eyes trailing over girls for some time. She then started to speak to thin air.
"How long are you going to hide there?" She simply said.
Moments later a figure materialized behind Helia and walked towards her, standing right next to her as it looked at disappearing girls too. "Never could fool you. Then again - very few people can." Woman's voice sounded. "Quite good seedlings you got there, Helia. I am almost jealous."
Helia smiled "I know. And for a dead woman you seem to be breathing quite well." She paused "Always knew you managed to give council a slip."
The figure shrugged "It was not an easy thing to do. I will admit I was surprised to sense you here." She paused "Seems you are up to quite interesting things."
Helia narrowed her eyes "I hope you aren't considering meddling in my business, dear."
Figure chuckled "I don't have a death wish. If anything, I am up to help. Things have been boring in hiding. Having an old friend to talk to would be... nice."
Helia hummed "Never thought you will be sentimental like that. Some help would be nice, though."
Figure shrugged "Living in hiding is exhausting." She simply said "Care to tell me what exactly you are planning to do with those two?"
Helia grinned "Where is fun in that?" She said "Though, for old time's sake I will give you a hint." She smirked and whispered something.
Figure did not seem to react "You always were a crazy one. Then again - all magic users at your level are." She seemed to shake her head "Well, I will help in any way I can. Status quo lasted for too long already anyways. Be careful, though." Figure said.
Helia nodded "I will." She paused "You be too." She then said more softly "Coven never considered what you did a crime..."
Figure stayed silent "I know." It then turned and walked into shadows "I will stay in touch." It then vanished completely.
Helia stood alone for a few more moments and then returned to her shop.
