Chapter 13: Art Of Legilimency, and Aiming To Be The Greatest (2/2)
For the rest of the lesson, they repeated the process so that Quinn could get used to it. That was the end of the first legilimency lesson.
- (Scene Break) -
It turned out that the decision of increasing the frequency of lessons from twice a week to thrice a week was a good one as, unlike occlumency, legilimency was tough to practice alone. Quinn couldn't practice legilimency on anyone in the house and could only wait for the next lesson. The only thing he could do was read the theory, and that too was restricted by Alan, who had spelled the legilimency book so that he could read what they were going to learn in the next lesson.
For the next two weeks, Quinn trained with Alan to strengthen his legilimency probe, so that he could dive deeper and faster into others' minds. Lesson-after-lesson was dedicated to improving Quinn's legilimency. The result of the two weeks was that Quinn had gone from feeling the presence of a mind to finally finding the mind.
The first time Quinn had chanced upon Alan's mind was surreal. It was a mental-sight that awed Quinn. Quinn had looked into Alan's eyes, and the next second, his mental sense showed him Alan's occlumency defense.
All he saw was the color blood-red, a blood-red semi-liquid sea as occlumency defense that covered Alan's mind. Quinn noticed how at equal intervals, there would be slight disturbances in the sea of blood-red, and the semi-liquid would move in concentric circles, just like when you touch water, and it creates circle waves. Quinn wondered if Alan was using those disturbances as sonar used sound waves.
Quinn didn't dare approach the blood-red sea, as he didn't know what would happen if he made contact with Alan's defense. An occlumens at the level would have some counter-offense tactics built into his defense.
”How is it, Mr. West?” He heard Alan's voice in his mind. Alan had gotten used to listening to Alan speak directly to his mind, which was disturbing as it meant he had bypassed his defenses and was inside his mind.
Quinn took a moment to gather his thoughts and then spoke, ”I feel fear when I look at your defenses.” Even though Quinn hadn't touched Alan's shield, it still scared him.
Alan chuckled and revealed, ”You feel fear because it is a feature of my defenses. It induces fear in the attacker. I am using legilimency as part of my occlumency defense.”
As Alan finished speaking, Quinn found he was no longer feeling fearful and he was feeling normal. ”Did you just remove the fear inducer feature?” He got a hum in response.
Quinn continued to observe the blood-red sea and asked, ”Is this blood-red semi-liquid your detection layer?” Quinn's own detection layer was translucent in color.
”I don't have a separate detection layer and shields. A separate detection layer and shields is a basic level technique. My defenses are from a much-advanced system. Someday, you too would move on from your current system. And, the blood-red sea isn't even my first line of defense,” was Alan's response.
Quinn frowned as he asked, ”But, I encountered nothing else.” The blood-red sea was the first thing he saw. Quinn was sure he would've noticed something else.
”You didn't notice anything else because I removed my first layer of defense. If my first layer had been active, you would be lost in my defense.”
Suddenly, Quinn saw a fog appear around him, but it kept at a distance from him.
”This is my first line of defense. If you had encountered this fog, you would have been lost in it. I designed this fog to confuse the attacker's probe. You wouldn't find the blood-red sea if you encountered the fog. It would have caused you to wander inside itself until you gave up. Mr. West, my defenses incorporates all three occlumency aspects and many of the legilimency aspects. It is an intricate system of multiple parts that work in harmony,” said Alan with pride in his voice.
Quinn wondered how much time would it take to reach this level? He wondered if he could ever reach Alan's current level. Unlike Alan, Quinn wasn't aiming to become a mind-arts specialist, and that would divide his time between many fields, so it made him wonder when in his life would Quinn reach Alan's level.
Quinn decided to end his legilimency probe, and when he did, Quinn couldn't help but ask, ”How long did it take you to build your defense.”
The answer Quinn got showed why Alan was one of the world's best mind-arts specialists. His answer was, ”From the day I started learning mind-arts to this very day. It took me this much time to build my defense.” He smiled softly before continuing, ”I never stopped improving my defenses. It has been decades since someone had broken into my mind, but I still haven't stopped working on it. Mr. West, even I don't know what would it take to break into my mind.”
Alan paused before saying something that would stay with Quinn for the rest of his life, ”In the past, I always wonder if those powerful ancient magicals could break into my mind if they were alive.” Then his eyes glowed with confidence, and he declared, ”But, then I concluded that no one could break into my mind, not even those ancient magicals. Do you know why I think that? People always believe that the golden age of magic has passed, that we could never reach the level of ancient magicals like Merlin and Solomon.”
Alan scoffed with pure pride as he continued, ”I don't believe that the golden age of magic has passed. I am confident that even if the mages who became so powerful that they become gods to non-magicals, they won't be able to break into my mind.”
Then he declared,
”I am the golden age of mind-arts.”
Quinn felt goosebumps on his skin at the last sentence. Quinn could see that Alan considered himself the best mind-art master that ever lived. Listening to him changed something in Quinn's mindset.
Somewhere in his heart, Quinn thought he could never match the likes of Merlin, mages-turned-gods, Hogwarts founders, or any ancient magical people who reached such a level of magic that we turned them into legends. Just before he was wondering if he could ever surpass Alan in the field of mind-arts. But, listening to Alan made him wondered, why can't he surpass those ancient magicals? Why can't he reach a level where people would turn him into a legend? What is stopping him? Both them and he had the same magic, so he should be able to reach their level.
In his excited state, Quinn looked at Alan and made a declaration of his own.
”I will become the greatest magical that ever lived! I will surpass everyone that came before me and will set myself so high-and-above that no one after me will ever catch up to me.”
Alan hearing that let out the loudest laughter Quinn had listened from his old teacher. ”Yes, that is the spirit! Aim high and achieve the greatest goal possible.”
Both teacher and student laughed loudly. If Alan hadn't warded the room to be soundproof, the other people would definitely wonder what was going inside.
Quinn looked at Alan and challenged, ”I will become the greatest, so I will also surpass you in mind-arts. One day, I will break into that mind of yours, and build a defense so strong that you won't be able to break into my mind. So, be ready for that day.”
Alan grinned a smile that split his face, ”Ha! I will wait for the day you challenge me, brat. You are still wet behind your ears. I guarantee that no one much less than you would be able to break into my mind.”
After that day, Quinn continued to learn legilimency with Alan, potions with Elliot, and his own secret magic studies with a renewed and increased vigor caused by a higher goal and belief that he could achieve his aim.
Almost a year later, came July of 1990, and arrived the time for Quinn to enter the next phase of his life. In the first week of July of 1990. Two letters arrived at the West Manor.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn West - MC - Ten years old - Wants to be the greatest magical that ever lived.
Alan D. Baddeley - Mind-Art Specialist - Considers himself the G.O.A.T in the field of Mind-Arts
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.
The link is in the synopsis!