“My name is Minerva Riverthorn. I am…Yule’s aunt.”

The woman introduced herself to Penelope with a broad smile as Yule quietly stood off to the side. A quick explanation went all around, about who Minerva was and who Penelope was, though many details were omitted on both sides.

“You say you were traveling?” Minerva had inquired.

“Yes, I am,” Penelope had replied, smiling.

“…”

“…”

A silence, followed up another line of questioning that gently got sidestepped.

“So, um, Madame Riverthorn…”

“Minerva, please.”

“Madame Minerva.”

“Just Minerva.”

“…"

“…”

It went something along those lines when a question no one really wanted to answer came up. However, Penelope did learn some solid information about Yule and Minerva, gleaned carefully from listening to the right parts of their conversation. All the years of carefully listening to the words of people who had no problem hurting her in order to avoid conflict paid off, in its own sad way.

Minerva Riverthorn, the sister of Yule’s mother, was a mage who had long been living far from the rest of her family. She was considered strange by practically everyone in her family, aside from her sister, because she chose to stray from the path her family normally took and became independent store owner. She relocated to Ceralde some years ago in order to get away from everyone’s nagging, too.

They were seated in one of the backrooms, after Minerva locked the store door and put up a closed sign. The area was homey and well lived-in; several bottles and other odds and ends littering the walls. Were they something like potions? Penelope couldn’t help, but to look around curiously and in quiet amazement. Her eyes must be so wide. Yule seemed used to this space, though, as he had prepared drinks after being prompted by Minerva and he found things easily.

Well, it’s to be expected, if he walked all the way from the capital to Ceralde, Penelope thought, drinking a juice prepared for her, he must have known the way. What a smart kid. He must be the kind of kid who excels in school.

Minerva smiled at her curiosity, rather than frown at it, though Penelope was too preoccupied to notice her gentle expression.

“Have you never been in a mage’s home before?” the older woman inquired, looking clearly amused.

Penelope shook her head. “No, never. It’s so…”

“Cluttered?” Yule supplied.

“…interesting,” Penelope finished.

“Do you know much about magic, Penelope?” Minerva asked.

“Only a little,” came the honest answer. What Penelope knew of it was that it existed and that her own magic, which she learned through trial and error. And who knew if there was more than what she had already tried?

“Do you know about the basic principles of magic, my dear?”

Penelope shook her head. Minerva chuckled, while Yule just huffed impatiently.

“Well, how about a quick little lesson, then?” Yule groaned, while Penelope was simply charmed by the idea. Her friend may have possibly heard this lecture before, but she had only been in this world for less than a week! Anything she could learn would only help her further in her life in Iraloné. After all, Penelope had no idea why Yule had even brought her here. Obviously, for nothing nefarious, since Minerva seemed nice enough, but she did not hold out hope that she would remain with Yule for much longer. He was with his family, after all. He need not keep being by her side anymore.

From past experiences, she knew better than to expect anything lasting.

People used her and then dropped her. That was just how it was.

A small smile entered Penelope’s face and she nodded in agreement. “Yes, please.”

There was an odd, small silence as Minerva considered the little girl in front of her, before beginning her lecture.

“All right, then. So, magic in Iraloné is divided into three categories: Divine, Natural and Unnatural.”

“Unnatural? Does that mean it’s bad?” Penelope asked, surprised at these terms used. This wasn’t the archetypes she was used to hearing in passing and Unnatural Magic sounds a little menacing.

Minerva continued her explanation, “Not at all. No one type of magic is either ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. It all depends on who use it. No, these classifications allows us to carefully assign magics into clearer definitions of what they are capable of doing. For instance…”

The mage held up her hand, palm upwards, muttering a few words and a ball of water came into being above it. It gently remained aloft, like a solid bubble, some particles floating gently and disappearing into the air.

“This is one type of Natural Magic. Natural Magic is defined as magic that can be drawn from the existing world around us, as it already is, in some shape or form. Such as water. Other examples can be the earth, the wind, plants…magic can be drawn the world around us and is quite abundant. It can never come from nothing and everyone is born with a natural capacity for it intuitively. In my case, I have a preference for manipulating water.”

Minerva closed her hand into a fist, popping the water bubble and allowing the water to flow from her fingers and disappear.

Then, for her next demonstration, with a few words the mug of tea that she was drinking from began to lift slowly into the air.

“The second classification is Unnatural Magic. It is call this because it was magic that was researched, studied and created by many different mages over the years. Some call it Refined Magic, as it takes what is found in Natural Magic to be made into something else entirely. The best way to explain it is if it cannot be done or found in the natural world, then it is considered a type of Unnatural Magic. What I am doing right now is called telekinesis, which is a refined form of Natural wind magic, which can manipulate objects that I am looking at, without using my hands. There are a much larger variety of spells to be found in Unnatural Magic and they are something you must learn in order to have them in your own repertoire.”

“And what about the third one?” Penelope piped up.

Here Yule finally said something, “Divine Magic is the domain of the gods and those they favour only.”

“That’s right,” Minerva said, “Whereas the other magic classifications require a base, Divine Magic does not have that requirement. However, the way to attain it is nigh impossible for most. For instance, in Birain, it is widely known that those reborn in this world are blessed by Tulilith, our goddess of rebirth. And they are capable of Divine Magic. Making something from nothing. In essence, mortals gain the power of Creation, which is a domain exclusive to the deities of our world.”

“How do you know that someone has Divine Magic?” Penelope asked, doing her best to hide her rising worry and anxiety.

“Well, the temples of this world possess magical devices to determine it one way or another, but what usually gives it away is an ability to heal,” Minerva explained, looking a little perplexed at the younger girl. She leaned closer to Penelope, making her jump a bit. “Do you know someone who can do that, Penelope?”

“Erm…”

Minerva was so uncomfortably close that Penelope could easily see her reflection in the mage’s dark eyes. The girl didn’t know what she was trying to see or if this was some kind of intimidation tactic, but she squirmed from the proximity. It just simply brought back very horrible memories of older people getting too close and doing terrible things. Nothing good ever got to being close to others like this. Unable to help it as the silence stretched, she closed her eyes and braced herself as words came tumbling out of her mouth.

“I-I’m sorry!” Penelope blurted out.

Did she tell the truth or did she lie? Divine magic…it sounded much too close to what she did. But no, she had to use items to make her magic work, so that couldn’t be it, right? Penelope was mentally reasoning with herself as she tried to come up with something else to say, other than an apology. What did she even have to apologize for? But, even if there was nothing to be sorry for, that was often her go to reaction to stressful moments. If she said sorry, people would leave her alone, right?

Was that why Yule had looked at her so weirdly before? Penelope struggled with the suffocating panic rising in her.

Yule came up between them and guided Minerva’s face away from Penelope’s.

“Come on Aunt Minerva, don’t be rude to her, she helped me out on the way here. Be nice.”

Minerva placed her cheek in her hand, looking somewhat contrite, though confused seemed to match her expression more. “Oh, am I? I’m sorry, my dears. Talking of magic just gets the old blood going, hahaha. My apologies, Penelope. I just love magic, you know? It’s all so fascinating. So…you don’t have to look at me like that.”

Penelope had no idea what kind of expression she was wearing, but she turned to Yule who just nodded calmly. Though there were the flutterings of nervousness still, she just nodded slowly.

“But well, I do have to say, it’s very lucky that you helped out my impolite nephew. So I do owe you a bit of gratitude. So, my dear little Penelope…how about you stay here with us?”