The moment that Nikita stepped through the portal she took a few moments to calm herself. Her breathing was erratic, the simple transition from one place to the next had taken her by surprise, considering that she was still in denial (slightly) about magic being real. Pale cheeks had flushed a dark red with a blush, a cold sweat rolling along her form. Rolling her shoulders forward the female peeked out through her eyelashes, a gasp of wonderment slipping from between her thing lips as she stared in wonder at the purple walls.

True, the female disliked the color, but her gaze slid along the colored walls, to the dome, and the shuddering that had stopped earlier, started up once more. Fear was still inhibiting her, making her quiver and slink backwards from the female who had introduced herself, hardly catching her name except to catologue the name, and to note that she needed to have the same response back to the female.

"My..My name is Nikita.."

The words were spat out of her lips, her body twisting some, her hands curled around her upper arms and clinging to them, her nails dragging along her soft coat, head shaking a little bit. Did she -- did she really want to be taught the ways of magic, to -- to learn and allow herself to see the specters that flitted around the outside of her vision?

"I..I don't know.."

She mumbled, spitting the words out, quickly and suddenly. She was fearful of this other woman, and rightly so, despite not knowing that she could be locked away with saying the wrong thing. It was simply the fear of the unknown that stole Nikita's voice, and the fear of what was going to come- what she could become.

Senestrous smiled at Nikita, trying to express an air of confidence and civility to the girl. From the looks of things Nikita was terrified; most new apprentices in te schooling of magic usually were at the prospect of learning this unique abilitiy. Though this was not the worst she had seen a novice react. At the Academia, when she was a student there, she had seen some apprentices go into a state of permanent shock after learning that they could cast. Some of them even commited suicide shortly after they were told by some higher mage. Nikita wasn't a special case, though she was only Senestrous's second student. The other one had disappeared unde mysterious circumstances; still Senestrous was confident she could succeed with this one at least.

"Well, hello then Nikita. Good to know your name at least." She had heard the indescision in Nikita's voice, and so decided to help sway her the way Senestrous wanted. "Well, if you're not sure, would you mind going through the introductory lesson with me? There won't be any magic handling involved, but it can help apprentices calm down and make a rational descision. It helps to teach a mage control, calness and serenity when dealing with the forces of magic which is very important unless you want to light your hair on fire. Do not worry, I won't hurt you during training or at any time in the future."

Senestrous tried to summon a small spell to entice Nikita into at least being curious about magic. She calmly spoke the word "Water" and a blue glowing orb appeared in her hand until her mind formed it into ball of floating water hovering a few centimetres above her hand. The water shifted form as it hovered, changing first from a sphere, into a cube, a star, and then a rough imitation of a human form. "Think about, all this could be yours and more. Think of the power, the strength you'll have to do whatever you want."

Nikita was still utterly and totally terrified, her eyes following the orb of shimmering water. Something inside of her- around her chest area, seemed to 'awaken', and her body flooded with sensations, emotions. She -wanted- to be able to command an element like the other woman, yearned for the ability to manipulate something that, upon thinking herself unable to use magic (or that magic was not even real) she had not thought possible. A shudder ran through her form, her head tilting to the side, several strands of bleached-white hair sliding over her face, creating a shadow. It was as if, for a moment, Nikita forgot all that she was- and became this ball of yearning and wanting trapped in a meat suit.

She -needed- to be able to do that, with a simple thought, with a whim. She -needed- to be able to command things, to make those ghosts that she saw leave her alone, or fear her. The fear was swept away, and for a moment, she grew assured of what she -had- to do. It was a choice, but not much of one. A choice that she wanted, and needed, and craved, and dreamed about- Dreamed about without even -knowing- that she dreamed it!

The girl's teeth sank into her lower lip, dark orbs focused intently upon the orb of water, her ears filtering what the woman was saying, barley catching any of it- besides the chance for one lesson. Just one, to make up her mind, or to decide that magic was not her thing, was not what she wanted (but she was so craving it!). Yes.. The woman decided, right then and there, that no matter how the first lesson, the trial, went, she'd learn magic.

But the only question would be if she could learn it from this woman. Sure, she seemed nice enough, and even appeared to want to help her- well, help her understand the vision and wraiths that danced along her peripheral vision, and how to shape and manipulate things with simplistic words and thoughts. Her lips parted, a soft sigh escaping her as her mind caught up with her yearnings. If she said yes (which, she would be saying) she could never go back..Ever.

It was a lunge off the side of a cliff that she would simply have to take and so, with another quiver and jerk of her form, she spat out the words that would change her forever.

"Yes."

Senestrous tried to smile warmly, though she had trouble doing so. Being genuinely nice to someone was not in her nature, but she had to keep the charade up. Someone with this promise could very well sense the magic even at this early stage if she tried to use a spell to make herself seem more approachable. The ability to sense magic was an uncommon trait in mages, but there were plenty of accounts of it happening other than her. She was not going to risk the apprentice learning of this prematurely; something like that could jeopardize her hold over the girl, which she would not let happen.

After thinking for a time, the girl nodded, replying "Yes" to her request; this was a step forward, for both of them though for different reasons. Senestrous nodded, and the ball of water seemed to vanish into thin air, the rush of escaping air into the space where it had been making a loud pop.

"Alright then Nikita; since this is the first lesson, the rules won't be too strict, but if you decide to continue afterwards you should know some things before we start. First off, during teaching I am to be referred to as Mistress Aslin. Second, until you reach a certain stage in your magical development, the artefact collection room and the library are off-limits. They are connected by the corridors over there."

She gestured with her hand towards the corridors leading to the rooms on the right side of the enormous antechamber they were currently residing in.

"Lastly, if you manage to find some kind of magical artefact while exploring outside of the training, you are to bring it directly to me before you even attempt to interact with it. Some artefacts can have uses that can be harmful to the user if not controlled properly, while others could be broken and therefore could hurt you if you tried to interact with them."

She gave a pause to allow Nikita to absorb the information given to her before continuing

"Now then, follow me to the training room. Come along now, tardiness is something I won’t allow in any of my students.”

She hurried off to the training room, her skirt shuffling with each step she took on the stone floor. she made only one small hand gesture for Nikita to follow her, confident that the student would follow her. The corridor led on for around 3 metres before leading into a room half as tall as the antechamber, though what it lost for height it certainly made up for in length. The room was almost twice as long as the antechamber. This was undoubtedly the largest room in the dwelling, and it needed to be for practicing training with magic. The walls still seemed to be built from the same dark purple stone, and there didn’t seem to be any windows like the rest of the building. The room itself was a blank slate, with little to no furniture or trappings beyond the stand lamps attached to the walls.

She swiftly spun around on her feet, appearing to look over Nikita for a few moments to decide if the girl was really worth all the effort. Judging that Nikita was worth it, she placed two hands on her hips and said
“Now, first off we’re going to practice a technique usually taught to apprentices before they’ve learned even the most basic spells or enchantments. It’s a technique that helps to calm the mind, body, soul and also helps to create control in the student. If a mage had no control, they would be unable to control the flow of magic within them, to the point that they could kill themselves. Now, the first step is to reach deep inside you, past your heart, your brain, even your soul to find the little well of energy through which we cast magic. The well of energy feels different for everyone, but I guarantee you’ll know it when you find it. Don’t touch the well; just make sure you find it. Understand?”

Nikita kept her dark gaze upon the other woman, a flinch making her facial features scrunch up slightly when the loud pop invaded her hearing. It was amazing for the young girl to see something that had just been there a few moments before to dissapear, but it helped to cement the idea that magic was indeed real. Nikita mumbled out a soft sigh, shaking her head some and shoving her fingers through the matted white strands that clung to her scalp, forehead, and the back of her neck from the cold sweat that had broken out. The remnants of her fear that had been slowly slipping away from her. The girl nibbled upon her lower lip, head cocked to the side as the girl crinkled her nose upwards, a soft, inaudible groan slipping out between her lips as the woman mentioned rules, and what she was to be called.

Mistress Aislin, she repeated, over and over inside of her mind, trying to cement that idea the woman, whom had already said what her name was earlier, was now to be called something different. Nikita figured it would just be easier, for her limited amount of sanity, to just always call the other woman by Mistress Aislin.

Flicking her gaze to the two rooms that were deemed off limits, the woman nodded, and promptly attempted to forget about the rule. It was just Nikita's nature to attempt to break any rule that she, personally, knew about. It was an amazing thing, to be honest, to be able to follow a rule, but breaking it could even possibly have Nikita ending up dead, or something else!

As the woman started to walk away, Nikita hurriedly followed, with little prompting from the other. Her dark, mud-covered boots made small tracks along the ground, and her eyes searched the area, rolling her eyes as the new room revealed to be made with the same purple stone, but bare. She'd never seen such a place -to have no trappings but the wall-mounted lights. It was odd for the female, to be in such a place, but she figured she could get used to it.. It was just such a large, unadorned, place. The woman shook her head, nose scrunched up as her fingers started to mess around with the edge of her large, blue-Grey, t-shirt that jutted out beneath her dark jacket. She hoped, for her sake, that the area would not be spent much time it, despite this first lesson. She would not be able to stand it, being in such a space for too long. Her mind wanted her to fill it up, to put stuff in it, to take away from it's enormous siz--.

“Now, first off we’re going to practice a technique usually taught to apprentices before they’ve learned even the most basic spells or enchantments. It’s a technique that helps to calm the mind, body, soul and also helps to create control in the student. If a mage had no control, they would be unable to control the flow of magic within them, to the point that they could kill themselves. Now, the first step is to reach deep inside you, past your heart, your brain, even your soul to find the little well of energy through which we cast magic. The well of energy feels different for everyone, but I guarantee you’ll know it when you find it. Don’t touch the well; just make sure you find it. Understand?”

Nikita nodded her head, letting out a slight breath, and closing her eyes. The woman's shoulders rolled forward a bit, her back straightening and becoming erect as she widened her stance, trying to feel herself, to become aware of her entire form. She began, then, to dig deep into herself, making sure that her body was lax. It started, first, with knowing how each of her breaths squeezed out from between her lips, the way that her heart beat, a deep, lulling, noise. It was calming to her, and helped her look down, past her heart, past her 'soul', and suddenly the woman found herself at the edge of a catalyst.

Nikita did not understand why the other had stated it as a well. It was not a small, narrow circle inside of her being, closed off and kept for her to channel. No, the dark mass was large, nearly strangling her entire form, a deep chasm for her to stare at in wonder. It feel like- goosebumps, the strange, prickly feeling that could overtake one's form and change them into a quivering mess. It held a dark tint- and smelled like a musky attic, with cobwebs and dead creatures.

Senestrous studies Nikita as she began to go through the exercise. There were little physical signs Nikita was doing anything, besides an increased look of concentration. However, Senestrous had seen a certain look around people who took this first novice examination. Those people usually had an air of apprehension, a little bit of disbelief, with a pinch of excitement thrown in for good measure. She had seen it on numerous novices during her acceptance into the Academia, and it crossed her mind that that might have shown through on her as well, though it seemed quite the opposite at the time.

She returned her attention to the girl and continued the lesson. "Now, I have described the source of energy as a well; closed off, easily accessible, and above all else controllable. More than likely a well is not anything close to what you will see; I just used that as a sort of analogy. What you'll see may seem all-encompassing, uncontrollable, and hard to reach. That image will change in time, so that you'll be more able to control your abilities. Mine started out as a raging ocean, waves crashing against the shores, swirled by some unseen wind. It then gradually diverged into a calm well. For now, you will try and control how much of the energy radiating from your internal source is used. First, grab a small amount of that energy; feel it radiating through your body but do not let it escape. Just feel how the energy feels, how it flows through your body. It feels different for everyone, so describe what you are sensing in great detail."

She waited for Nikita to describe how the magic felt coursing through her body, almost impatient for the girl to continue. She was anxious herself in a way, to get to the next stage. In the future she could teach her summoning spells, and other sorts, but right now she was stuck getting the girl to go through novice exercises. After all, she would hardly be a worthy pupil if she was not properly trained. That could lead to disaster, not just for the girl, but for Senestrous as well. She gave a sigh, and continued with the lesson.

“Once you have the energy contained within you, begin to push it back to its source. Force the energy to go back where you took it from, like pouring a bucket of water back into the ocean. If you can manage this, take out a larger amount of energy than you did previously, and push it back. Repeat 5 times, increasing the amount of energy you take out and put back in. If you choose to continue your training, we will perform this exercise before every lesson, as a measure of how far you are progressing. If you managed to go through the five levels without much resistance, then we’ll go up another five. Understand? Good, now begin.”

The words that Strenous spoke seemed to flow over Nikita, as she was focused so intensely upon the vast chasm before her, but they broke through her concentration. The woman was trying hard to focus on not loosing control, on not breaking into mass hysterics and running from the power that she knew was inside of her.

Sadly, one could never run far enough away to escape their own selves.

She didn't think she could control it, despite the way that Strenous was speaking, the words of reassurance that she spoke and the way that she was confident. Nikita knew that the other woman must have lived through the same thing, and an Ocean seemed almost worse than the chasm that she was faced with- but how could she draw a bucket and take power from something that was so.. So -there-?

Gulping a little bit, her face was pinched in effort, and she started to slowly try and siphon the power that she had, taking tiny bits of the power to 'hold' it above the chasm, before she put it back. Once more she continued, until she had repeated the process five times. Opening her eyes, the woman fell upon her knees. Her form was drenched in sweat- the physical toll that the power had put upon her body enough to make her shaky, enough that she was terrified.. If she tried to do it again, would it kill her?

If she tried to do it again would she see more of the dead things that were drawn to her?

"It's like.. It's like something I can not explain. Like it's a chasm, a deep, never ending, canyon that's inside of me, yearning to be.. To be expanded, until -I- am a chasm, and nothing but a hungry, hungry.."

A shudder ran along Nikita's form. Her power scared her, it terrified her.. She didn't want it.

Senestrous could feel the woman taking the energy out and putting it back in. From her expressions, Senestrous could easily assume her physical state. She steadily became more exhausted as time went on, until the fifth attempt where she fell onto the floor. This allowed her to reasonably guess as to how much training Nikita needed in control. She had actually done rather well to not back out before the fifth attempt, which likely meant she would need less training in control than Senestrous had thought before. She leaned in beside Nikita and began to speak to her in a firm tone.

"Magic has no free will, no thought of its own, no matter who is controlling it. Whether mortal or otherwise, it cannot and will not control someone of their own free will. It only seems all-encompassing right now, but that is only because you have not reined it in. Through time and experience, you will learn to control it, not the other way around. You were born with this ability, and lying down on the ground will not make your gifts go away. Now get up before I decide I was wrong about your potential."

She waited for a few seconds for Nikita to pull herself up. She did not offer the girl any aid with getting herself up. She had to grow a thick skin if she was going to be of use to Senestrous. A weak-willed person wasn't unlikely to do the dangerous tasks Senestrous would ask of her, or at least she wouldn't do them correctly on account of nerves. However, there was a fine balance between thick-skinned and defiant. Defiant was a place Senestrous did not want to drive Nikita towards. She would never get anything done that way. In fact, she might have to kill Nikita if she became too defiant, but such was the risk of becoming a teacher. After waiting for Nikita to rise, she continued on with her lesson.

"As I said, you will do this exercise before every lesson to show how far you've progressed. I also urge you to perform the exercise numerous times outside of your lessons to help with your control. Now, let's test you on elemental magic. I need to know how adept you are in various elements, or if you’re even adept at elemental magic at all. I have a guess as to what kind of magic you’re adept in, and it isn’t elemental, but elemental magic is ore versatile than other forms which is why I’m testing you on this to start off.”

“First, think of fire. Think of burning, combustion, heat. Now channel a small amount of energy outside of your physical body while concentrating on those feelings. If you're lucky, you'll create a small ball of fire. I urge you not to lose control of the energy you draw from your internal source. Keep a tight leash on it and do not let it overwhelm you; once you re done, cease channelling. Repeat this process using water, earth and air. There are other elements, but they are mostly offshoots of those main four. Now, begin.”

Nikita stared at the other woman in shocked for a few moments, each breath that rasped between her lips was labored. She very much wanted to stalk away from the other woman and allowed her denial she had once held so close. The denial hat she was gifted with dark powers, that she was weak and how she just.. Simply loved the fact that she could see, feel, and experience the power that would course through her. A tangible mass of- something, that perforated her entire being. Made her feel happy, warm.. Powerful. But she couldn't accept it, couldn't admit that she was.. Something that was not human.

Her chest heaved, sweat was sticking her dark shirt against her flesh- but she got up on shaking legs, locking her pale blue orbs onto Senestrous' own. A slow, deep breath was pushed past her lips once more, sleeve covered arms moving up to swipe a crossed her forehead, clearing it off the sweat that was trying to drip into her eyes. Feet, planted firmly, spread a bit so that she could shift and be on balance. A grim smile curled her lips upwards a little bit as she considered it - it was time to bite the bullet. It was time to do as she said she would, and she had promised the other woman at least one lesson.. And after that lesson, maybe there could be another one, and another one and another..

But it was not correct for the woman to get a head of herself, at least, not yet.Senestrous was speaking, form a little ball of some sort of element. Earth, wind, fire, or air. Of course there were others (at least according to the woman) but they were based off of the other elements.

Nikita bit onto her lower lip, contemplating, deciding. What was she going to pick- what could she choose? A slight shake of her head as she took a deep breath, attempting to center herself. She needed to be relaxed, she needed to pick which she was going to do first. The internal struggle was over, choose.. Choose.. Choose.

Another deep breath and she shifted some, raising her arms. She looked- felt, silly doing that, but she had to. It just..It felt right. The woman nodded some, another cleansing breath as she thrust a metaphorical fist deep into that chasm of power deep within herself, curling her fingers around that elusive strands and letting it slip from between her fingers, slowly controlling the amount of power..

She thought of fire. The pretty flickering, dancing flames, that sweet heat that she could bask in. Opening her eyes, Nikita expecting a large, bonfire sized orb- she wanted it, she believed it.

Instead, the woman was greeted with a tiny, mocking, flickering flame that winked out of existence the moment she stared at it with wide, horrified eyes.