This story is part of the Wanderer series.
Standing in front of the group, Karin pointed the branch in her hand towards the loosely packed dirt ground.
“The Magical Renaissance divided energy into eight attributes that we commonly accept today, each with their own common and uncommon aspects, or types,” Karin began, drawing a circle. “Those attributes are fire… water… earth… wind… lightning… light… life… and strength…” She then connected all symbols representing the eight elements with two intersecting squares, forming a familiar geometric shape. “Arranged on the octagram… as you see, with the original classifications of fire, water, earth, and wind on the cardinal axes, in clockwise order from the top, and the other four attributes filling out the axes in between.” After tapping around the circle, she reinforced the line between the symbols for fire and water. “Where they sit on the octagram matters, as attributes clockwise on the same axes are known to be the most effective against the other. For example, fire is countered by water, water countered by earth, and so on…”
Karin glanced up at the group. Alisan was still sat on her knees, back straight and hands on her lap, observing the diagram on the ground with eased shoulders. The rest were crouched, arms rested on their knees, leaning forward. Chiara was studying the shape hard, brows furrowed, but lips drawn in, eyes darting back and forth as if there was something she could not quite grasp on the diagram, while Rin looked completely disinterested, only posturing with the rest to look like she was paying attention. Nozomi had raised her head with Karin, smiling as their eyes met.
“Do you follow?” Karin asked her, returning her gaze.
“Mm-mm!” she vigorously nodded. “Right!”
Seeing the exaggerated smile and utter naivety on Nozomi’s face, Karin sighed, slightly frustrated. “You don’t understand a thing, do you?”
The wide grin on her face broke away to an embarrassed gape, her eyebrows slanting outwards, trying to maintain her smile with a straight face. “E-eh…?”
Alisan smiled along with Nozomi, sympathizing with her embarrassment. “I think it’s too early to teach her about the counteracting attributes and aspects. Maybe it would help to first define the two types of Wanderers.”
Karin turned her head towards Alisan, thinking for a moment before returning an assenting look. Nozomi nodded along cluelessly. “Yes, yes…! Two is easier!”
Rin, on the other hand, frowned. “How can you bundle all of these elements into two types?”
“No…” Raising the other hand, Karin stretched out two fingers in front of her and tapped them with the stick as she elaborated. “There are two types of weavers, regardless of their dominant attribute: potent and complex. Potent weavers are proficient at resonating energy, while complex weavers are proficient at controlling, or manipulating their energy.”
Lifting the stick off her two fingers, she unfurls the other fingers and lets the stick rest in her open palm. She gauges the expressions of the three pupils, who each adopted a new air of curiosity as they one by one relaxed from their crouch to sit cross-legged on the ground.
“The talent of any weaver is demonstrated by the complexity or the potency of their techniques. For Nozomi…” The pink-haired girl perked up upon hearing her name, locking eyes with Karin. “… and Rin… your talents lie in potency, whereas Chiara’s talent lies in complexity. During training, each of you should focus on that talent.”
All three straightened up upon hearing this. Karin continued.
“Unlike me, Nozomi has a hard time grasping any complex techniques…”
Hearing this, Nozomi sulks back, scrunching her face into a pout.
“However, unlike me, Nozomi has an enormous amount of energy, which she should take advantage of.”
Rin frowns in confusion once more, drawing Karin’s gaze to her. “But…” Rin began. “Your techniques are potent as well, aren’t they?”
“They are not potent, but, rather, complex. I make up for the lack of potency through the compression of my energy, which requires proficient control.”
Nodding, Rin cleared her face.
“It is possible to use both potent and complex techniques, as Alisan does. They are not mutually exclusive. But, for now, Nozomi should focus on one.”
“Karin does have a large amount of potency compared to weavers,” Alisan clarified. “Since she has a Celestial within her. But, compared to other Wanderers like you, she is not as potent of a magician, and better suited for complex abilities.”
Karin nodded. “Water attributes generally are not suited for potency.”
“So, make the biggest ball of energy I can and throw it at them, right?” Nozomi clapped her hands together, then opened her arms wide, arching over her head and out to her sides, sticking them in front of Chiara and Rin’s faces. Rin flinched her head back a little bit, blinking with annoyance. Nozomi did not notice, continuing her big grin. “I can do that!”
“Well, yes, we can start there…” Karin started slowly. “But you shouldn’t haplessly throw around your energy like that. You aren’t making the best use of your energy that way.”
Her arms lowered a bit, her grin giving away to curiosity. “What do you mean?”
“Magical combat is not only about throwing energy around. It’s utilizing it wisely… It’s about saving portions of your energy to perform other techniques in quick succession, or in some cases simultaneously… or to defend yourself… and of course saving energy to resonate more energy.”
“Ah, right!” She nodded rapidly, swinging her expression back to a big smile.
“That seems simple enough, doesn’t it?” Rin said, half to herself, half as a question as she looked between Karin, Nozomi, and Chiara.
“Simple enough to say,” said Karin. “But difficult in reality. It involves a great deal of strategy, awareness, reticence… It’s all tactics.”
The girls all turned their gaze towards Karin, eager to hear what she had to say on the subject. Even Alisan began to take an interest, abandoning her eased posture and straightening.
“Energy management and generation are very important. You should practice those first.”
“Right,” said Rin, raising a hand off her lap and smacking it down on her knee, uncrossing her legs to get up. “Let’s get to work, then.”
Nozomi started to get up with her. “Yes!”
“Hold on,” Karin stopped them, whacking the stick in her palm. “Before we get down to application, you need to learn the theory behind energy resonation. And for that, you first need to learn about gates.”
“Gates?” Nozomi and Rin echoed simultaneously.
Karin nodded. “Energy needs a gate to flow in and out of your body,” she explained. “The smaller the gate, the better concentrated it is to do anything meaningful. Over centuries, energy-manipulating species naturally figured out optimal gates for their body.”
Rolling her open hand to face the group, she stretched out her fingers, keeping the branch pressed against the back of her hand like she was pointing at it.
“For humans, these are the hands… given how versatile they are.”
Alisan leaned back, glancing over Rin’s shoulder towards Nozomi to chime in. “That is why you find it easier to resonate your energy with your hands.”
Her face lighting up, Nozomi raised her hands and gazed at her open palms with new realization.
“Over time, the arms became better paths for energy flow in humans,” Karin continued. “More preferred than the torso itself. Linking your hands together also completes a physical circular path for resonating energy, rather than trying to focus the circulation to generate its own arbitrary path within your torso.”
Nozomi looked up. “Why a circle?”
“The path needs to be closed in order to feed back into itself, increasing its ability to regenerate and generate more energy. Thus, allowing it to resonate.”
A big grin stretched across her face. “Ah! So it doesn’t need to be a circle… It could be a triangle…” Bringing her arms above her head, she pointed her fingers together, making a pointed shape with her body. “Or a box?”
Karin was not amused with her silly poses. “Whatever! You get my point!”
“Although, a perfect circle offers the least resistance,” Alisan pointed out. “That’s why you see seals as circles rather than triangles or boxes”
Leaning forward, Chiara finally piped up to join the conversation. “What are the triangles and boxes inside the circles then?”
“To allow the energy to flow from one side to the other faster,” Karin explained. “It’s slightly less efficient, but faster.”
“Shortcuts, essentially,” added Alisan. “The more paths, the better… to a certain extent.”
“Faster is more practical for combat. But of course, you still want to maintain a certain level of efficiency. Having a bunch of shortcuts dilutes the energy in all different directions, making it less concentrated and interfere with each other.”
Chiara nodded, continuing to stare intently at the shape on the ground.
“Centuries ago, it was calculated that the ideal number of paths be limited to eight. Thus, the octagram. Though, some societies still stick to the hexagram.”
Reaching out, Rin pointed at the center of the circle. “Why not have eight paths down the middle? Allows the energy to get to the other side faster.”
Karin shook her head. “The efficiency drop is too high, because of the angle the energy would have to turn to get off the circle”
“Think of it as hitting a wall,” said Alisan.
“Ah…”
“Also, having eight paths crossing each other at one point would generate a lot of interference. An octagram limits the crossings to twice per path.”