Last of The Fae

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"There's proof that a long time ago, rituals used to be cheap, reliable and widely used," Thane answered as he gestured to one book in front of him. 

"So what changed?" Hermione asked as she picked up the book Thane had gestured at and started reading. 

"I don't know," Thane replied with a long sigh, "But from what I've read there is a notable decline in the use of ritual magic as you pass from one era to the next. But the shift really happened during the beginning of the Dark Age, from that point onward Rituals are described as complex, laborious and resource intensive with a high rate of failure. I mean just look at the ritual to become an Animagus." 

Before Hermione could ask, the book in her hands flipped ahead on its own before settling on a new chapter. Quickly reading through the opening passage Hermione frowned as she reached the end, "You have to keep a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month straight?" 

"Exactly!" Thane exclaimed as he reached up and rubbed his face, "And even after that the ritual is highly dependent on random factors and if one piece of the puzzle doesn't fall into place you have to start over." 

"Alright, but that could just be a coincidence. Surely not all rituals are this specific?" Hermione asked but there was doubt in her voice. 

"I can neither confirm nor deny that, but if the Ministry has outlawed them then I can only assume the worst," Thane replied before turning back to the book in front of him, "So after reaching that roadblock I turned to something else, several of the older books mentioned something about rituals needing to harmonize with the ambient mana in order to perform correctly." 

Hermione glanced over once more, "You mean the tiny concentration of mana present that just floats around?"

Thane nodded, "Yes but there's more to it than that, have you ever thought about where mana comes from."

"I guess I haven't really," Hermione answered after a moment of thought, "I thought it was just the internal energy of magical beings, beasts and spirits and ambient mana is just the byproduct of when magic is performed."

"That's the current definition but I think in the past it meant something very different," Thane muttered, "I just can't figure out the connection."

"What even got you down this rabbit hole in the first place?" 

"Oh just some idiot dropping a bunch of information on me with little to no explanation." Thane muttered, garnering a confused look from Hermione who could only shrug, "Anyways…are you going to sit with me-I mean us again?" 

"Hmm…oh I guess if the invitation is still open I don't see why not. Just make sure I don't sit next to you know who," Thane replied, muttering the last part angrily under his breath. 

Hermione smiled and hopped off the table, "Great then I guess I'll see you at dinner!" 

Thane grunted in response as Hermione left his study alcove but once she was out of sight Thane couldn't fight the faint smile that spread across his lips. 

---

For the next month Thane found himself falling into a repetitive but enjoyable schedule. Taking classes during the day that presented little challenge, while spending a majority of his free time in the library continuing to expand his ever increasing depth on every topic related to magic. 

Most of the time he was joined by Hermione, and Thane quickly found himself enjoying her presence more and more as her previously bossy attitude almost disappeared completely while her thirst for knowledge rose to match Thane. But he always suspected that Hermione was somewhat jealous of him as his insights continued to stay ahead of hers. 

In that regard Thane was essentially cheating. While Hermione could only read about the vast amounts of information the wizarding world had to offer, Thane could live it. 

His nightly lessons with Solara had shifted from Thane simply being instructed to him actively participating in his learning experience. For his lessons with Solara Thane began to experiment on projects of his own creation which was harder said than done. Being inside his mind Thane could shape reality at a whim, but that meant if he didn't have the right understanding of what he wanted to create or change whatever he learned from the results wouldn't transfer over to the real world. 

Previously that hadn't been a problem as Solara had taken over shaping Thane's mind. With her possibly hundreds of years of experience Solara could copy almost anything Thane needed with perfect accuracy including rare and expensive alchemy reagents. 

But now Thane was in the driver seat and Solara had taken a more observatory role watching him fail time and time again with little input and often answering only a few of Thane's many questions. Which was annoying considering that Thane was trying to create his own branch of ritual magic. 

After Thalion had revealed that sometime in the near future Thane would have to perform a ritual to awaken his bloodline without any explanation. Thane had become obsessed with the lost magic form. 

But with most information being restricted and censored by the Ministry, Thane had naturally jumped to the next logical step…recreating ancient magic from scratch. Of course Thane had very little success, mostly drawing different runes and symbols on the ground and blasting them with magic to try and get some form of reaction. Thane quickly realized that before he could copy something in a figment of his imagination he needed real world experience. Thus Thane began planning the long and arduous process of becoming an animagus. Putting his plans of experimentation on hold for the foreseeable future. 

On the other hand Elara's training had mostly stayed the same with Thane fighting the Fae queen every night and losing every time they dueled. Even though Elara said Thane was improving he had a hard time believing seeing how easily she defeated him. Fighting Elara was like fighting a force of nature, as she blended blade work and magic together seamlessly. 

The ground beneath Thane's feet rippled and he quickly sent himself flying into the air with a burst of wind from his palm just as the earth went from solid to liquid in the blink of an eye. 

Still rocketing through the air Thane felt the ambient mana behind him being disturbed and he quickly spun around with the help of another gust of wind just in time to parry Elara's blade which had been aimed at his kidneys. 

But the moment Thane moved his blade from in front of his body, Elara's free hand shot forward as lightning arched from her fingers towards Thane. A barrier flashed into existence around Thane but shattered almost instantly and Elara's lightning continued forward undaunted. 

Thane never hoped to completely nullify the attack but it did buy him a split second to act. Swiping his hand through the air Thane conjured a small but dense cloud in front of him that imploded as the lightning struck it with a thunderous clap. The shockwave sent Thane spiraling out of control back towards the ground, but besides some temporary hearing loss he had escaped unharmed from the potential lethal shock. 

After his countless fights with Elara, Thane realized that it wasn't a matter of dishing out the most destructive spells, but utilizing the unlimited possibilities and variety of spells. For example Thane had just used a simple cloud summoning charm to neutralize a bolt of lighting the size of his arm. 

Elara had further emphasized Thane's realization by making it painfully obvious that it should only take one spell hitting its mark to take out an opponent. Which made sense seeing that for almost a month straight Elara had Thane do nothing but defend against an unending slew of spells thrown at him. Training not only his reflexes, but his mind to think of creative solutions at the drop of a hat. 

Pointing his spellblade at the ground Thane cast a quick softening charm turning his bone breaking impact into cushioned landing as the ground jiggled like loose jello. 

Getting back to his feet with a groan Thane went to cast a healing spell to repair his sense of hearing only for Elara to appear a few feet in front of him with her spellblade at the ready and Thane could only resolve himself to tolerate the ringing in his head as he raised his blade ready to defend whatever spell Elara threw his way next.