"Try to draw something with your wand". Shireena'il looked at Clariette in disbelief. "Yes, find a way to drain the mana through your wand and write or paint something with it" Clariette added. As a last helping hand, she told her that painting would be the easier one.
Just recently she had taught her how to use the wand, and how to focus the mana on a certain arcane structure by concentration. Clariette gave her the task of applying what she had learned to chickens.
Now she stood in the cave passage in front of an open wall surface. The surface was damp, small colonies of fungus had formed in some places, but otherwise this wall was quite flat and clean in a gallery near Galmair. She looked around and listened to see if there were any sounds of people approaching. Only the soft gurgle of a few drops of water dripping from some of the ledges could be heard. A light breeze was also flowing down the corridor from the south.
Clariette did not give her many clues for this task, only that she must not leave any permanent changes to structures. So the solution had to do with what Clariette, Renar and her had already been taught. They both learned how to direct the mana to her wand as well, in the way she could imagine it in her mind's eye, with maximum concentration on the wand and the target. During this exercise, she realized that the ability of absolute concentration played a significant role in this. A magician must be able to detach himself mentally from his surroundings and concentrate on the spell.
This was also the reason why she retreated into this gallery for the experiments. At this time, there was very rarely anyone else in these tunnels, she had made sure that the miners were all gathered in the tavern, from where they always went to camp for the night, before the first rays of sun called them back into the mine.
Somewhat hesitantly, she pointed her wand at the cave wall, holding it with both hands as she had learned. She looked at the wall and considered what to focus on. "Let the mana flow out of the wand and paint with it..." she remembered Clariette's words. Her gaze slid from her hands to the staff tip to rock wall. Nothing happened. Her thoughts tried to focus on the wall but still drifted into uncertain thoughts of what she was actually trying to conjure.
"Don't leave any structural changes..." Clariette's words came to her.
She set the staff down and looked at the wall for a while, perplexed. She touched the wall with her right hand and felt the rough surface that was very clean and smooth when wetted by water. When she removed her hand again her palm was damp, she rubbed dry her old robe thoughtlessly. But suddenly she paused "Water!", it escaped her half aloud. She looked around for a moment, then touched the rock wall again with her fingertips, finally smiling. Everything we see and feel, even we ourselves, consist of arcane structures formed by mana. This is what Clariette had taught her. She understood that this thin film of water on the wall must also be an arcane structure formed by mana. And what consists of mana can be changed by mana.
Now she realized what she should concentrate on. She stepped back a bit and pointed her staff at the wall again. She tried to concentrate her thoughts on the water film. Despite her concentration nothing happened, she didn't feel the tingling she had experienced during previous training with the staff. Her concentration faded a bit and she thought back to that training for a moment, then imagined how to color the wall with mana. At the same moment, a twitch ran through her and she felt that tingle again. From her staff a cloud shot out like a kind of mist, which seemed to contain a luminous matter wrapped in darkness. This matter collided with the wall and spread over the wall.
She backed away for a moment, startled, but then curiously approached the wall to look at this apparition. Faintly, flat mist-like formations in various color nuances glowed on the rock wall. The structure slowly sank down the rock face to the ground and then slowly dissolved into dark swaths.
She looked at the rock wall, but found no more traces. In some places, however, the wall felt a little drier than the rest. A smile of relief flitted across her face. "It's the water, I have to concentrate with on the water film".
She waited a while for a new film of condensation to form on the cool rock wall, then tried again. Mentally she concentrated on certain colors and shapes, and after several attempts she succeeded in making strokes appear on the wall, which shimmered for a while. Gradually, the colors corresponded to her imagination, but were still partially overlaid by other colors. She felt how much the quality of the image depended on concentration. A short distraction of the thoughts was punished by a deviation of the form, the color or even with abortion of the mana flow.
The pauses she needed to rewet the dried areas were now also more and more necessary to replenish her supply of mana. It took a long time, either she herself was not yet able to absorb the mana faster, or the place was not very suitable. However, it was well suited for her experiments and she learned to control her concentration better and better after each break.
Finally, her ambition took hold of her and she decided to paint a circle on the rock face. Relaxed, she stood in front of the wall again and focused her thoughts completely on the water film on the rock wall, she imagined a circle and moved the wand as if coupled with her thoughts. She gazed intently at the wall and felt slight tingling in both hands as a stream of mana released from her wand and settled on the wall as a glowing circle of mana.
Relieved, she lowered the staff and took a step back to look at the work. Almost according to her imagination, the circle appeared on the wall, after a while it slowly dissolved and fizzled out in small gray clouds that mixed with the light breeze through the cave and disappeared.
Satisfied, she looked at her staff and then paused for refreshment. While eating the last of Clariette's chicken soups, she considered how to present Clariette with the solution to her task. An observer would probably have noticed the sparkle in her eyes that gave her an idea.
She practiced all night on a picture that she projected over and over again with her wand on the wall, before she set off for Galmair, exhausted but satisfied.
When leaving the tunnel someone could hear her muttering to herself "you can do better than that".
