Witchy Woes

-[Damon]-

Things had been too quiet since they got rid of the rest of the tomb vampires. Well, all the tomb vampires except Pearl and her daughter. The two of them hadn't shown their faces for a while and he was going to get answers. 

Knocking on the front door, he tapped his foot impatiently. He could hear someone inside the house but they were taking their sweet time coming down. 

Soon, the door was opened and he was greeted with the familiar face of the 550 plus year old vampire, giving him a dry stare. 

"What do you want, Damon?" Pearl asked, she didn't look particularly happy. That wasn't his problem. 

"I thought we were friends. You see I was just going about my day and you know what happened? Your little vampires show up at my doorstep and start causing trouble." Damon started, noting her lack of reaction. "Unfortunately, their hearts are now missing from their chest so I guess that must suck for you."

"Believe it or not, I had no part in that." She denied with a shake of her head. 

"Bullshit." Of course he didn't believe her. They're her vampires. "They all listen to you. You can't expect me to believe that they suddenly grew a pair and marched off at the same time without you knowing about it."

"I never said I didn't know about it, I just wasn't a part of it. Like I said, believe it or not, you and your brother are the least of my priorities." She said, and he would almost believe her except for the fact that he didn't. 

She was hiding something. 

"Well either way, you've kind of outstayed your welcome." 

The scoff she gave stung his pride a bit but that was to be expected, in fact, he was counting on it. 

"You do realize that I can kill you if you try anything. I'm far older than you are." She spoke as if talking to a child. 

"Then it's a good thing I brought this." He smirked, pulling something out of his pocket, a matchstick. It was then that she noticed the smell of fuel and flammable liquids he had Alaric spread around during the conversation. He'd poured some out here which he'd use to light the spark and start the domino. 

Despite that, she didn't look bothered in the least. In fact, she looked amused. "You have no idea what you're messing with here Damon."

"Oh yeah? Then show me." He taunted. Lighting the match, he dropped it to the floor, fire lighting up and spreading through the trail and quickly covering the house. 

The heat had him stepping back as the house was consumed by the fire. Rather than answer, Pearl just walked back inside without a care in the world, closing the door as if the house wasn't on fire. 

It was then he noticed something. The fire that started was quickly disappearing, revealing no damage done to the structure. Not even a single part was charred. Not even a bit!

What the hell?

-[Nathan]-

"Why exactly are we out here?" Bonnie asked as we stood in the woods. "We should be at school."

I turned to her, my amusement clear. "You watched an ancient witch go all Voldemort in my living room, I think you're allowed to skip school for a day."

She wanted to argue with that but she really couldn't, shrugging her shoulders. "So, woods?"

"Yeah, we're here so we can start your first lesson in magic school, taught by yours truly. I chose this place because I figured a more natural environment would help." I said, gesturing to that clearing we were in. 

"Okay." She said with a small laugh. 

This is the perfect time to test the teaching aspect of the archmage essence I have neglected so far. 

"This isn't going to be like your usual brand of magic. There's no incantation to it, just breathing and movement." I explained, getting a confused look from her. 

Rather than simply explaining in words, I took a deliberate breath, holding my palm faced up, a puff of flames sparking to life in my palm. Moving my hand through the air, a trail of heat followed as the flames licked the air. 

Yep, I'm going to teach her firebending. Not necessarily the whole martial arts part of it, just the generation and manipulation of fire which happens to be a vampire's weakness, daylight ring or not. 

Clenching my fist, I extinguished the flames. "It comes from inside you and the best part, it doesn't take a lot of you." 

The amazed look in her eyes tenderly stroked my pride. "That's amazing. Where did you even learn that?" She asked.

"I came up with it when I realized I ran out of matches." I said, partially telling the truth. I'm not the originator of firebending but the rest is true. 

"Unbelievable." She said in disbelief. "You're telling me that you learnt a whole new type of magic just so you wouldn't have to buy a box of matches?"

There was a moment of silence before she spoke up again. "You know what? That actually isn't too surprising."

I let a smirk show on my face. "Don't worry, you'll understand it soon. I'll turn you into a fire breathing witch in no time."

"So where do we start?" Her smile showed that she was excited to get into it. 

"Step one is very simple, breathing." I said, barely holding my laugh at the gobsmacked look on her face. 

"You brought me out here to breathe?" 

"Yes and no. I want you to feel the energy inside of you. Close your eyes and try to relax. Take slow breaths, focus on keeping it steady and controlled." As I instructed, her eyes were already closed, the rising and sagging of her shoulders hinting to the pace of her breathing. 

Walking silently behind her, I spoke gently. "Keep it deliberate. Fire is alive, it has a mind of its own and will spread if you do not control it. Before you can attempt to control fire, you must be able to control yourself."

While doing all this, I kept my senses focused on her internal energy. I want to see what kind of changes learning a technique foreign to this world would make. 

To her credit, she was able to focus on her breathing as time passed. Ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour…

Then I saw it, well, felt it to be specific. It wasn't a staggering change, more like a subtle tweaking to what she already had. The essence didn't go into details of how exactly this worked so I can only guess that it's some kind of low level reality warping that bent the laws of magic for a specific individual that I try to teach. 

Despite the confusing nature of it, it doesn't hinder my excitement. If anything, it only bolstered it. I'm a nerd by heart, who wouldn't want to study magic extensively? This is going to be a lot of fun.