 | I eventually got the apple floating halfway up in the air and let it gently swaying up and down, my eyes never leaving it. "All right," Numair said. "Let it down - gently - on the table." I concentrated and slowly the apple began its descent. Finally, it lay undisturbed looking on the table. I had a breather, getting my heart back to normal. "Very good," Numair said. I could feel the admiration in his voice and smiled halfway. I was really tired, but after three days of this I had grown used to the unusual hours and had stopped complaining. I think Numair was glad of that, personally. "Try the book now." I fixed my gaze on the leather-bond book and slowly gave it the order to rise. Numair had told me that by right I shouldn't be giving orders, that my will alone should be making the things rise, but, as I had an already strange magic, Numair decided I would probably always have to bend the rules for my magic, so I'd have to use a mixture of an order and my will. I personally didn't really care about bending the rules or not, but Numair did. But, on the other hand he knew a lot more about magic than I did and bending the rules would make it harder for him to teach me. The book slowly moved and I repeated the order, forcing my will onto it. How the book could understand me I did not know. Come to think of it I didn't even know if the book rose, because of it understanding me or what. Probably not. Books have no minds, I reminded myself. I really was going nuts. The book slowly rose. It was harder to make the book stay level than the apple, as it was bigger and had a larger mass. I wrestled with my mind to keep it floating levelly and I knew Numair knew I was struggling. But he also knew to leave me alone until I gave up. He knew that if he ordered me to stop, I'd just ignore him. Well, unless I was tired. Then I'd drop it like a shot. I'd actually broken things because of that. I think he was still sour about that vase. I sent the apple crashing into it once. I didn't mean it - honestly. The book was nearly at Numair's eyelevel. YES! I thought and then my concentration was broken. CRASH!!!! I snapped my head towards the closed door, where the sound had come from and the book dropped onto the table with a loud slap. I snapped my head back to look at it and groaned. "And I was just getting it!" I wailed. "Don't worry," Numair said kindly. "You'll have another try." Then the doors opened and Alanna and another man walked in, laughing. "What's so funny?" Numair asked. "Oh George just walked straight into a table and everything went flying off it. You should have seen his face. It was hilarious!" Alanna explained. George! That had to be Alanna's husband the Baron of Pirate's Swoop. Then I realized he had been the one who'd just caused me to lose my concentration and my expression turned sour. Alanna noticed. "What's wrong?" she asked. I couldn't trust myself to speak, I was afraid I'd let go a flow of language that would even shock them. Numair sensed this and quietly told them. "I'm afraid when you sent the table's contents flying, Rachel was in the middle of levitating the book with her mind and the crash broke her concentration. This had ben the only time so far it had come this easy to her." Alanna's hand flew to her mouth. She knew how hard my magic was already, as it was different from normal magic and I could tell she was deeply sorry. "Oh I never knew. I'm so sorry." I shrugged. "It all right. There'll be another time." I waited to see what her husband would say. "Levitating?" he asked. "What do you mean? Her?" His look of disbelief was enough to make me scratch his eyes out. Well, I obviously couldn't as Alanna would calmly gut me if I did. "Yes, what's so strange about that?" I asked, my tone icy. Alanna recognised this as a sign my temper was about to explode. "George please take her word for it -" "No," George brushed his wife's words away. "Show me yourself young one. Show me you can." Needless to say, I was confused to say the least. This was not the George I had read about in the Lioness and Immortals series'. And from the looks on Alanna's and Numair's faces they didn't recognise the George in front of them, as the George they knew either. "Show us right here," George said, spreading his arms out wide. "Or are you too afraid?" he taunted. "George!" his wife snapped, "Stop acting like such a noble!" "What's going on here?" Jonathan entered. "Come on young one. Some of us have better things to do than to watch a child who claims to be able to do magic make a fool out of herself." "George!" Alanna and Jonathan gasped in unison. Numair just stood, gazing at George, stunned. Something in me snapped. "Fine!" I snarled. "I'll prove it to you!" George just smirked. "Don't kill him," Numair muttered, his voice low. His dark eyes were serious. "I don't intend to," I muttered back. I stood facing George squarely. I raised my arms and let myself give in to my magic. It was an act I dreaded, as I was afraid I'd lose myself so I always kept an image of myself in my head the whole time. George suddenly gasped, as I flung him against the wall. I kept him there, as I searched for something to tease him with, when it happened. And my life was never to be the same again.  
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