Mai smiled, "Thanks. This is one of the highest level spells I know. It's called 'void' and even though it's a motion charm, it really is a barrier that cancels two opposing motions from mixing. In simpler terms, it's a motion charm that acts like a super shield."<br/><br/>"But all magic has its limits," said Maryann. "These depend on the wizard."<br/><br/>Mai nodded, "A person's mental stamina determines how long they can hold a spell. Their mental strength determines how powerful the spell can get, within its own limitations."<br/><br/>"Basically," Maryann said, "all spells don't have a set power, but a range. If a wizard is mentally weak, the spell will fall to the weaker side of its potential. If they're strong the spell will become stronger within its own limits."<br/><br/>Mai smiled and nodded again. "The degree to which a person believes in magic and themselves dictates how many different kinds of spells they can use within their type. Because each wizard can only use a single type of magic," Mai said, directing the last bit at Silver who hadn't heard yet. "And finally, the person's knowledge about the spell they're casting dictates its success rate. In other words, a great deal of magic really is natural talent."<br/><br/>"In order for us to teach you any spells," said Maryann. "We need to know what type of magic you have the natural aptitude for."<br/><br/>"So now," said Mai, "we go back to shore. You're going to sit down in a way that feels comfortable to you and hold your hands close to each other, but not touching, like this. Mai sat down in the grass cross-legged and held up his hands. He focused and a small swirling sphere like thing formed between his hands.<br/><br/>"It's just pure magical energy," Mai said. "I'm not casting any spells or anything. It's leaving my body on its own like magic constantly does, I'm just focusing on its feel to hold it in place."<br/><br/>"The longer he does it," said Maryann, "the bigger it will get. Once it envelopes your body you'll enter a trans."<br/><br/>Mai nodded, "Monks do it when they're meditating, though I don't think they can see the magical energy."<br/><br/>"When you're in this trans," Maryann continued, "you'll enter your inner world. Multiple people can let their magic envelope each other and enter a combination of their inner worlds. Mai and I will go with you two, so you don't get lost."<br/><br/>Mai looked at Blue and smiled, "She's joking. You can't get lost. If you become emotionally distressed you'll just lose control of your magic and be pushed back out. There's no way to hurt yourself during this exercise." He smirked, "But you will look pretty weird to someone who can't see what you're doing." He let go of the magic and gestured for Blue to sit facing him. "I'll go with you Blue," he said.<br/><br/>Maryann sat down on her knees and gestured for Silver to sit facing her, "I'll go with you Silver," she said.<br/><br/>------------<br/><br/>The water was getting really high and Reina was forced to drop her blades so she could swim better. "I was thinking," she said, "Insei can't really<span style="font-style: italic">kill</span>us can he? Wouldn't it be pointless if he let us die in this exercise. I thought the point of the tests was so that people who weren't up to it wouldn't go and die. Killing us would be counter productive."<br/><br/>Still though, even with that said the water kept rising and soon they were almost at the top, just a foot or two from being cut off from air. Suddenly Insei was standing there, looking down at them. "If you give up," he said, "I can let you out, but you'll fail the test."<br/><br/>"Come on," said Reina, "we can't do that!"