Lilianna spent what felt like hours trying to form both runes simultaneously, growing increasingly frustrated at each failed attempt. It was like trying to look backwards and forwards at the same time. It just made no sense. Lilianna could feel her brows furrowing in anger.

She’d never felt like this before. To be asked to perform magic and then fail was not something she’d ever experienced. Lilianna wasn’t so conceited as to think she was a perfect conjurer, but these things usually came easier to her.

This was ridiculous. This professor was ridiculous. What would a sorcerer know about conjuring, anyway? Even a master would have a hard time with this, and he just expected her to get it immediately?

“I can’t do it! This is impossible!” Lilianna snapped, the words coming out harsher than she meant them to. She sounded petulant even to her own ears, but she couldn’t help it. What was this awful feeling in her chest? And why did her stupid eyes sting?

Professor Aldric just sighed. “Fine, but you only get one hint.” He walked over to the chalkboard intending to write, but stopped as he realized it was still soaking wet. Shrugging to himself, he produced a knife from nowhere and carved into the chalkboard itself. Everyone else winced as the sound tore at their ears. “There you go. Next try is all on you, though.”

Normally Lilianna would have criticized his vandalism of academy property. She was too stunned to speak, however. As soon as she saw the rune diagram he’d carved, everything just clicked in her head, the way the runes fit into one another. Not as separate formulas, but as two pieces of a greater whole. Lilianna had seen nothing like it, and yet...it just made sense.

Excitement unlike any she’d known before filled her. She quickly closed her eyes and tried to mold the shape she had seen. The runes fit together better now, but there was still something wrong. It was as if they were fighting her intentions, like forcing two similar sides of a magnet together.

“Stop,” came the professor’s voice. He sounded like he was just behind her. “Mana isn’t something you can strong arm into place. Mana wants to change, to take the form of a spell. Think of it like a piece of paper with a lit candle beneath it, just before it lights up. You don’t need a lot of effort, but just enough to tip it over the edge. Don’t make it, tell it. Let it. Think about this; what would wind and water in harmony look like?”