Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maya:
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Maya looked at the young woman raising her hand. "Anyone can enter the magic guild, even Guardians. I encourage people to enter with their charges to make it easier for their kid to adjust and learn, actually," she explained. "And it's all right, even stupid questions are okay, haha."

At Vira's question, Maya turned to to the girl. "A Gate is just the term we use for it, because there is really no other way of explaining it. But it's not literal. A Gate is just a limit in your head that your own mind imposes on you... and instead of a key, Gates can be opened with things such as strong bursts of magical energy, personal enlightenment, or strong feelings of self-preservation when in danger."

Maya raised an eyebrow at the frowning red-haired woman. "Don't worry, since I'm the president, I'm going to be the one teaching the recruits. Your kid is safe with me."

Maya:
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"Is that it for the questions?" Maya asked, sending a questioning look to the group. "Let's move on, then."

"Here is a basic run-down of each magic: elemental magic is that of the four elements, water, wind, fire, and earth; animation magic is anything dealing with movement or transition; healing magic is just as its name implies; protection magic is any kind of spell which shields things from harm or preserves them in a certain state; summoning magic allows a person to call a spirit or creature from the Aether; sealing magic deals with locking or sealing something away or into something else (usually a spirit into an object); creation magic, as per its name, is the act of changing the energy of the Aether into a corporeal substance or being; destruction magic on the other hand, is about decomposing things into energy." She paused, "Questions?"

"Can you make money? " Vira immediately wanted to know as soon as Maya finished talking. (It wasn't clear as to whether she was actually listening or was just too busy coming up with her own nefarious plans as to how she was to rule the world someday -- apparently through money.)

Thankfully, Jafar was paying attention, but only in the way that one would entertain a fairy tale.

During the woman's second speech, Sankh look down to check on Rabi, who had crawled several feet away from him. His oversized head was bobbing up and, mimicking the woman's movements as she talked.

Well, at least he was paying attention. Not that he could understand any of what she was saying. Sankh was just worried about whether the boy would someday stay awake long enough to learn any magic.

For a moment, Nonia was rather satisfied with the answer she had recieved. At least this woman might make a proper teacher. She seemed to know what she was doing, what with all the talk on gates and magic and such. While she had not displayed talent quite yet, the warrior already had an idea that the lady might have quite a bit.

Plus, if all else failed, she was pretty hot.

Ceasar was too young to be intimidated by the random bursts of information. While it may have had to sink in with his mother, he had the power of youth in that his mind was still very flexible. Perhaps he did not understand everything he was hearing, but he would remember it.

"Aether?" the boy asked in a mellow fashion. He didn't entirely expect an answer.

Maya:
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"Well, I'm guessing I can continue," she snorted. "Now, onto actually casting spells, which is what this whole demonstration is about, huh? Well, first, you need a seal. There are three basic types of seals: corporeal seals (seals that are drawn or etched into a surface), retained seals (seals that are drawn but are not visible, and the “retained” image of the seal is what activates; ex. trace a seal in the air, and the “retained” image of that seal will activate, even though the seal is not physically visible) , and metaphysical seals (also known as “seal-less magic” due to the fact that a seal can be simply thought or pictured in the mind for a spell to work).

Since you’re all pretty new to magic, you kids need to actually draw the seal somewhere before using a spell. You can draw it anywhere and with anything, but it must be correctly drawn and it must be visible to work. A seal that is not activated or has been made incorrectly is called a “dead seal”. Dead seals aren’t of any use to anyone, so you guys better draw your seals correctly!!

Retained seals are a bit harder to control since you have to focus on the seal more than if you actually drew it, but they’re probably more practical in a battle situation since you can just trace them in the air or on something without needing a pencil or anything. Metaphysical seals, however, are so difficult to control that only extremely powerful mages or those with incredible innate talent can ever learn to use them."

Maya:
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"..." Maya stared at Vira, quietly thanking the god who had made her fail Guardian School and saved her from the apparent horror of raising a kid.

"Nobody has any questions?" Maya asked slowly. "Can I continue?"

"Anyway, so, after you’ve drawn your seal, you gotta activate it. Make sure you’ve opened the necessary Gate for the spell (if you want to use creation magic but you’ve only opened Uido, it’s not going to work, buddy). You have to focus on the seal and picture in your head what you want the spell to do, and then just say the Gate name and then the spell’s name. For example, you want to use All-Consuming Dark (crazy s**t spell, if you ask me *snorts*), you draw the seal and say “Daara, All-Consuming Dark”, and voila. But remember that an activated seal will burn up and turn dead after the spell is finished, so you can only use a corporeal seal once.

So, you’ve got that memorized, kids? Time to finally start with the demonstration…"

Tobias frowned. "But when you have money... well, isn't it heavy? You'd have to carry it around everywhere. Especially if you throw it at people. You have to carry it to them! You can just pick rocks up from anywhere.” He nodded matter-of-factly, expecting the Lotus girl to agree completely with his logic.

Then he noticed that Maya had continued talking and tried to make sense of what he'd missed.