"I'm tired, Sarraya."

"So am I," she snapped in reply. "Now sit up and pay attention."

He blew out his breath and sat up, pulling in his legs and crossing them, then looking down at the Faerie with a weary expression.

"Druidic magic is nothing like Sorcery," she began calmly, taking a curiously serious, sober tone. "So let's get that out right up front. In Sorcery, you take in the magic to use, then make it what you want it to be. Sorcery lets you hold the power and not do anything with it. That's not how it's done in Druidic magic. With Druidic magic, you have to know what you want to do before you do anything. Then you come into contact with the All and will it to be so. If you're strong enough, it happens. If you're not, it kills you. It's that simple.

"Since you've used Druidic magic before, I'm not really going to go into the mechanics of how it works. You don't need to know that, because you've already done it. Druidic magic is like Sorcery that way. Once you use it once, you'll always know how to use it again when you need it. That's one of the main reasons I'm teaching you. What you do need to know is that it works the same way, no matter what you're trying to do. There are no spells, no formulas, in Druidic magic. All you do is come into communion with the All and tell it what you want done, and it does all the work. You're nothing more than a tool for it, an outlet for its power."

"For everything?"

"For everything," she affirmed. "Conjuring a gnat or attempting to change the orbit of the Greatest Moon would be no different. The only difference comes when the energy to do what you ask comes through you. If your body can't take it, poof. No more Tarrin." She eyed him speculatively. "You're a Were-cat, and you're also a Sorcerer. I'll lay odds that that means that you're going to be a respectably strong Druid. Your body is acclimated to dealing with alien energy, and your Were affinity for magic increases your tolerance to it. But since I can't evaluate your power, we'll be depending a little on luck."

"You don't exactly fill me with confidence, Sarraya."

"I'm sorry, but that's the way it is," she sighed. "Believe me, I wouldn't even be doing this if I didn't feel that your life depends on it. I'm only going to teach you the basics, Conjuring, Summoning, some minor spells of healing and Creation."

"If the All can do anything, why do you have to teach me anything? Couldn't I just ask for it myself?"

"And you wouldn't be here long," she replied. "The All is very fickle when it comes to things like that, Tarrin. It always seeks to grant the maximum amount of power required to do something. Because it does that, you have to be very careful in how you envision what you want to do. If you reach into the All and ask it to conjure apples without telling it how many, it'll try to conjure a few square longspans of them. That would kill you. And if you envision your request vaguely, or you're distracted when you make the request, the All takes liberties with your intent. Those liberties usually end up killing you, because they get to be exotic. Exotic is bad in Druidic magic. That's why a Druid is trained exhaustively by his tutor before even trying to use his magic. So he knows exactly what he needs to do to make it work, without killing him."

"Oh," he said in a slightly worried voice. "So, it can do anything, but you have to be careful to make sure it does exactly what you want."

"Exactly. I can't stress that enough," she said with a steely expression. "That kills more Druids than anything, Tarrin. They forget that fundamental rule, they get sloppy using their Druidic magic just once, and they're dead. It requires discipline, Tarrin, more discipline that Sorcery requires. Familiarity breeds sloppiness, and that's what gets them. If you can survive the period after you get comfortable with Druidic magic, but before using it becomes second nature to you, you should be alright. That's the most dangerous time for any Druid."

"I guess that makes sense," he said.

"Since I don't know exactly how strong you are, we'll stick to the simple things. Conjuring should be easy for you, as long as we don't get greedy."

"So, there are Druidic spells," he reasoned.

"What do you mean?"

"If you teach me exact ways to imagine what I want, then there really are Druidic spells. A spell is a standard method of reaching a consistent result. That sounds like what you're about to teach me."

"Alright, if you want to get technical, then yes, there are Druidic spells," she said, a bit tersely. "I don't like to think of Druidic magic in such confined terms, however. It's degrading."

Tarrin actually laughed. "Such a big ego for such a little body," he teased.

She glared at him, then laughed ruefully. "Alright, listen. Conjuring is easy. It's probably the easiest thing we do in Druidic magic, that's why you see it used so often. You've used Druidic magic before, but I think that it was a reflex action, so let's walk through how it works again."

"Alright."

"There are two steps to using Druidic magic," she told him. "The first is forming intent, and the second is carrying it out. The first step is the important one, Tarrin. Always know exactly what you want to do when you use Druidic magic. Form an exact image of what you want done in your mind, and don't let any stray thoughts interfere with it. The All will catch any stray thoughts and try to use them to subvert your intent, and that can kill you. So it requires absolute concentration. Form your intent, and make sure that there is nothing else there to change its meaning. Before moving to the second step, always make sure that your image and your intent are pure. If they are, then you carry through with it. You come into communion with the All. It reads the image and intent in your mind, and then acts on what it finds there. It requires no will on your part, no work, no effort. The All looks into you and performs the task it finds there. After it finds your intent, you'll feel the power come through you. That's that feeling of greater you felt, Tarrin. When you're in communion with the All, you become a part of its greater whole. The experience never gets old," she said with a slightly dreamy voice.

He remembered that. It was a feeling of expansion, as if his mind and soul had gone beyond the constraints of his mortal form, and for the fleetest of moments he felt as if he were touching the soul of the earth itself. It had been a very pleasant feeling, a feeling of security and belonging. Feelings that were sorely lacking in his own chaotic life.

"And that's Druidic magic," she said with a smile. "It's the simplest form of magic, but it's also the most demanding and the most dangerous."

"Mother always said that the simpler it is, the more dangerous it can be," he mused. "But she was talking about plans then."

"It's a wise saying," Sarraya agreed. "Now then, since you're a brand new master of Earthmagic, let's showcase your towering abilities."

"What?"

"Let's Conjure dinner," she grinned. "We'll start with apples."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

Tarrin gave her a sideways look. He couldn't answer that one. He laughed ruefully. "Alright, alright. What do I do?"

"Conjuring is the bringing to you of something not here, so the imagining of it isn't as important as the intent," she told him. "Remember, the All reads both, and it's not always necessary to have both a mental image and the intent of effect. Sometimes intent alone is all you need, for simple things like Conjuring or Summoning. Will three apples to appear, imagine what kind of apples you want, and then commune with the All. If you do it right, they appear."

"What would happen if I didn't imagine what kind of apples I want?"

"Then the All would decide for you," she replied. "It would Conjure the three closest apples to your location, and they may not be good. They could be too small, or rotten, or worm-eaten, or not ripe. So you have to tell it what kind of apples you want, and it will find them for you and bring them to you."