"Hey Rivi," I nudged up against Rivi's shoulder as we trudged our way back out of the ice cave.

"What's up?"

"How did you do that…summoning thing" I gestured into the empty air. "With the cup and the water."

"Oh you mean this?" She reached out and a cap filled with water rapidly appeared in her hand.

"Yeah! That. Is that like, a spell, or are you like freely manipulating the mana? I mean what elements are you even using? Is that creation magic?"

"Oh Silvie…" Rivi gaped at me. "Uh, just how much do you know about magic?" Her voice raised at the end as if I really didn't know very much at all.

I felt my cheeks flush a little. "Well, not much really. The system allows me to cast some spells, but it's not really me doing it. I tried once or twice to branch out a little from that, but I haven't been able to really figure anything out."

"Ah yes. Well, there's two primary ways to train spellcasting. You can freely control the mana…" she summoned water in the palm of her hand, and I watched as it morphed into a dolphin-like creature that swam around both of us. "Which has the advantage of being completely free and controlled, while also being quite complex and potentially resource-intensive. Or…"

The dolphin swam back to her hand and began dissolving, but just as it did the water became a perfectly spherical orb and launched against the opposite wall. "You can cast a pre-fabricated spell. Spells are kind of like muscle-memory for magic—do it enough times and it becomes automatic and thoughtless. Essential in battle, not quite as useful for other uses."

"Why didn't they teach us anything about the…mana control thingy when I was in the human kingdom? Was it just because we were heroes and had the system for magic?"

Rivi sighed. "No, humans are pretty stupid when it comes to magic. Their focus is about 90% on battle use-cases, so naturally their spellcasting systems come to reflect that. Since mana control takes a long time to learn, and normally spells have to be built on that as a foundation, instead human mages practice with spell wands, which forcefully activate mana pathways to form one specific spell."

"So instead of ever learning mana control they just skip right to the muscle-memory step? Isn't that kind of…dumb? How are they effective against other races if their magic is like that?"

"It's all a numbers game to them, really. Yes, an average demon mage is worth ten or even a hundred human mages, but becoming a demon mage takes years of dedicated study. Every one they lose is a precious asset that takes a lot of time and resources to recover. In contrast humans often conscript peasants, slap a wand in their hand, and have them point and shoot until their mana runs dry. Who cares if they die? They're just cannon fodder. It costs almost nothing to get new ones."

"Huh," I looked at my palm trying to concentrate until a shard of ice began to form. To my relief the system was much quieter than when I cast magic in the past. It seemed without specifically trying to invoke a spell it wasn't going to interfere.

"I guess I should really learn the mana control stuff then, huh." I tried to morph the ice in my hand into a flower, but all I could really manage was a slightly thinner blob.

"Oh?" Rivi looked over my shoulder at what I was doing, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "What, you want to be a big bad mage now?"

"Psh." I lost my concentration and the ice crystal fell into my hand, as I turned to her my pointed ears turning red at the tips. "No, I just wanna be a little less useless." I mumbled.

"Hmm?" She raised her eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes and said nothing.

After a moment of silence I frowned. "Hey do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I saw a shadow pulse from her, but she remained nonchalant.

"It's like a…tingaling sound, a little like a…bell?" I tilted my head trying to hear it better.

"Uh no I…"

The sound rapidly started getting louder in my ears, but that evidently wasn't what quieted Rivi as she stopped in her tracks to gape at me.

"What?" I turned to her alarmed, then jumped back suddenly as a blue transparent mist seemed to start coming out of me. "What the!?"

"TingalingalingaLINGALINGALfssshhhh" The sound became so loud I had to cover my ears as it morphed into static as the blue mist materialized next to me.

"SILVIEEEEEEE!!!!" I blinked at the sudden shout of my name as the blue mist solidified into a blurry figure who wheeled on me an accusatory finger out.

"You just left me in there, what were you thinking!? Do you know how lonely I've been! I've been pinging you constantly, and you haven't done anything, so I had to get smart real quick and figure out how to come out here."

"Uh…Are you…?" It started to dawn on me what was happening.

"Yes! And I'm very mad at you, because you still haven't named me yet." The figure crossed her arms, definitely glaring at me if blank, blurry faces could glare.

"Ah. Right. I'm sorry, little bean." I reached out to touch her shoulder, only to have to retract it awkwardly when it passed right through. "Ahem. Sorry, I…didn't realize you were immaterial."

The figure said nothing, only continuing to glare at me icily.

"Ok. Um. Names, names, right. Um…Probably not little bean, right, something that's actually a name…Question? Question Mark?" I asked hopefully.

The figure looked affronted. "I'm a person not an entity! My name only appeared like that because you hadn't given me one yet."

"Ok, ok." I looked down at my feet trying to ponder. "Bell?" I asked, suddenly remembering that tingling noises the figure's manifestation had caused. "How about that one?"

"Bell, huh…?" The figure put a hand to her chin and looked up, pondering. "Yeah! I like it!" She jumped up and down. "Bell, I'm Bell now!" She laughed and her laughter was like the tinkling of silver.

I grinned. "Alright, Bell. Welcome to the family."

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