"Probably back at the Tower, where it's dry," Tarrin growled as he stepped in a deep puddle.
The visit to his little mother and her family did much for his spirits, but it also didn't stop him from getting back to work. That night, Spyder didn't call him out, so he spent the time with Jasana. He gave up trying to teach her how to touch the Weave the way normal Sorcerers did, because she had proved utterly incapable of it. She had touched High Sorcery, and just like it had done to him, it always rushed to her. It made trying to teach her standard Sorcery a complete waste of time. Since he couldn't do that, he started teaching her how to access High Sorcery. He was painstakingly detailed about it, going over it again and again, and never failing to emphasize how hard it was to control, and how dangerous it could be. He made her repeat back what he told her, almost word for word, until she had the entire process memorized. At that point, there was nothing more he could teach her by word. She had to start learning by deed now, and that terrified him. He remembered what it was like for him, how many times he had nearly killed himself with his power. But Jasana was stronger than him, and the two times he'd seen her use her power or heard her talk about using her power, she had demonstrated an ability to control it that he had lacked. Where he was at the mercy of the power unless he was enraged, Jasana seemed to have some modicum of control. He was afraid to take that next step, but he knew that it had to be done. Jasana had to touch the Weave, had to touch High Sorcery, and he had to let her do it.
After the rain stopped, he decided that the best place to do it was the courtyard. With the Goddess right there to give him a hand in case things got out of control. He was confident he could manage Jasana's power in case it got away from her, but with her being so strong, he still didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. He took her out there quietly, without attracting attention, and then sat her down on the bench and explained why they were there, and what she needed to do.
"Remember, cub, as soon as you feel it, you have to push it away," he said again. "But not completely. You need to push just as hard as it pushes at you, until it can't move towards you anymore. If you can do that, you can hold it long enough to use magic. But you can't hold it long," he warned. "High Sorcery gets harder and harder to control the longer you hold onto it, so the trick is to touch the magic, do what you have to do, and then let go before it gets more than you can handle. Do you understand?"
"Yes, papa," she said with a nod of her head. "Can I try now?"
He wished it had been so fun for him. He pushed that thought aside and cleared his mind, then put a few feelers out on the Weave, ready to draw High Sorcery in an instant if it was needed. The Weave shivered a bit when he laid his awareness upon it, and Jasana seemed to sense that subtle alteration in the magic. "Did you just do something, papa?"
"Yes, but don't worry about it," he told her. "Alright, cub. Give it a try, and remember, if you succeed, don't try to do anything with it. Just let it go. Alright?"
"Alright," she said, her expression becoming serene and her eyes closing. He could feel her power rise up within her, build upon itself, and then it pushed out from her in a sudden wave. As soon as that wave struck the Weave, the strands responded instantly, sending their flows out and into her. Jasana's paws suddenly limned over with the ghostly radiance of Magelight, and Tarrin felt the power try to flood into her.
He was about to intervene, but he felt the strangest thing. Jasana pushed back against that torrent, and where he had always failed to stop it, she succeeded. He was so stunned that he forgot to tell her what to do next. She could control High Sorcery! Maybe not control it enough to weave powerful spells, but she could touch High Sorcery and hold it without it getting away from her!
"Am I doing it right, papa? Is this right? Papa?" she asked in sudden concern.
Tarrin blinked, staring down at his little daughter. "I-yes, Jasana, that's perfect! I'm very proud of you! Now let it go, like I showed you. Remember not to try to cut it off too fast, or you're going to suffer a backlash. Those hurt, if you didn't know."
"Alright," she said, closing her eyes again. He felt her constrict the pathways into her, felt her choke off the power flooding her, but she was closing them too fast. Tarin first thought to intervene, for she was about to generate a backlash, but he decided against it at the last moment. It would be better for her to find out what happened when you messed up. The pain would be a good learning experience. The flows rushing into her shuddered, and then they suddenly evaporated. Jasana made a squeaking sound as a sudden rush of air blew away from her, enough to make her shirt billow, and her fur suddenly stood on end as the power built up inside her suddenly drained away, forming its own link back to the Weave to do so. She had been too rough with it, and broke the connections before she had fully closed them. She had suffered a mild backlash.
"Ouch!" she gasped, jumping off the bench and rubbing her bottom, as if she'd been spanked. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow! That hurt!"
"You did it too fast, cub," he told her. "Now that you've had a taste of what can happen when you do it wrong, maybe you'll pay more attention to what you're doing."
"I thought I was doing it right," she protested.
"You were, but you did it too fast," he told her. "You have to do it slowly, so the power you have inside you has a chance to go back into the Weave before you break the connection. If you have power inside you when you break the connection, it causes a backlash, and I just told you that they hurt."
"Boy, do they!" she said. "That was worse than Mama spanking me!"
"And that was a mild backlash," he told her. "That's as weak as they come. If it had been a real backlash, I'd be scraping you off the ground. A backlash can kill if it's strong enough, Jasana. This isn't a game, and magic is not something you take lightly."
"I noticed, Papa. You always take it so seriously."
"That's because I don't want to get killed, cub," he said dryly. "Remember, a backlash can kill you, so you have to be very, very careful when you let go of the Weave."
"Can they hurt worse than that?"
"Oh, yes," he said with a steady look. "Remember, that was a mild backlash. Trust me, cub, you do not want to find out what a strong backlash feels like. Take it from experience."
"I don't want to feel that again!" she said emphatically. "I'll do it slow this time, Papa, I promise!"
"That's a healthy attitude, cub. Alright, let's do it again. Remember, touch it, feel it for a few seconds, then let it go."
"When can I do real magic?"
"When you can touch the Weave without trying, and let it go without hurting yourself, every single time," he said adamantly. "Not a second until then."
She nodded, and her little face took on a very serious expression and they began again. Tarrin put her through her paces, having her touch High Sorcery, hold it for a little bit, then let go, over and over and over again. Just as he had done when he started, at first she had trouble touching the Weave, even for High Sorcery. She failed the first three times she tried, until she composed herself and remembered what she was doing. But just as he had done, she learned the art of touching the Weave quickly. Once she knew where to look for it and how to reach out to it, it began to respond to her much more readily than it had before. He realized that that first time, she had reached out instinctively to the Weave, where the three attempts after that were conscious attempts. But after a little instruction, she learned how to touch the Weave consciously, and it became easy for her. Every time she touched it after that, he had her draw in just a little more power, and then a little more, then a little more, slowly introducing her to the way it felt to hold the power inside her. He knew that they'd not come close to her limit, and he didn't want to get anywhere near that. He just wanted her to get an understanding of how different it felt to hold different amounts of magical power, and how to sense how much she was holding at any one time. When the time came to weave spells, the ability to know how much power one was holding was critical for efficient weaving. Trying to weave a spell when one didn't have enough power to finish it or release it could cause a fizzle, or even worse, a Wildstrike. A Wildstrike generated from someone of Jasana's power would be something he did not want to see. She was still having trouble letting it go, however, and for the first half an hour, she generated a backlash every single time she let go. He observed her both physically and from the Weave, sensing her ability to draw the power, and gauging how it responded to her. She became more and more comfortable with it, and by the time he decided that she was too tired to go on, she was at the point where she could release it without causing a backlash about half the time. Jasana came to dread the part of letting go, but to her credit, she didn't shy away from the exercises. Jasana was one determined little girl, determined to learn how to do magic.