She closed her eyes once again, and concentrated. She could not feel anything. How could she make store energy in an object if she could not feel the magic? She had also dealt with the issue of control. Ana's biggest worry was getting a dangerous amount of magic that she could not manage to contain.

Ryuuri sighed, "Have you been practicing like I told you to?"

Ana shook her head with a frustrated yes.

"You do realize this is the most difficult thing to do, correct?"

She nodded again.

"That's enough for today. When you get frustrated you go no where," The griffin nodded and left the room in a flurry of feathers.

Anastasia was left to meditate on her magic problems. So she needed to understand how to control the forces that be, so she could put them into an object. She had read a good stack of books on this, and they had been worth diddly squawt.

She glared at the spot where her teacher had been. She could do this perfectly fine on her own!

Ana took a deep breath, and let her mind go blank.

She felt it! She felt the magic! Now she just had to put it in her cross... how could she go about doing that? It was like dealing with a jellyfish covered in oil, impossible to hold on to and if the user was not careful, he or she was stung. It was like that pain in the back of your neck that would suddenly appear and disappear at will...

This magic thing was not as simple as people made it sound. Ana cursed as she let the magic slip away. At least she could feel where the magic was now. With a huff and a low sounding fwee she closed her eyes. What had she done differently this time in comparison to all the other times?

She had let her mind go blank, but how could that change anything? She was still as far away from the magic as she had ever been, but maybe she could become closer that way. After all wasn't materialism the opposite of magic?

Tomorrow she would find out.

***

She closed her eyes, and did exactly as Ryuuri said. Absolutely nothing happened. It may have been because she had slept in terribly late, and was being punished by some divine force. This force must have delighted in her hard work and absolute misery.

What the hell did she need to do to feel the magic? She inhaled deeply, and stood up. With a frustrated twitch of her tail, and quickly opening her eyes she backed away from her instructor.

"What do you think you're doing young lady?"

*I need a bit more space, I'm sort of nervous with you that close to me.* She would have to get over that eventually, but for now she would back up. If that were the problem, it would make her feel better. If it were not... she would come to that.

She closed her eyes once again, and concentrated. She felt something, it was a warm fuzzy feeling, similar to the pressure you get at the beginning of a sinus head ache, but it slowly faded away.

Well, she was closer.

Ana opened one eye to look at her trainer. "You need to understand that magic is part of the flow, rather than a force to be dealt with. If you go against the flow, there's no way you can ask to get something from it."

The dragon raised an eye tuff. It was so much easier saying something than doing it. So, think of magic as a river. It has a flow, and if you go the opposite way, then you will not be able to do anything.

She held her breath and concentrated. It should not be that difficult, she should have been able to do it. She could not grasp it. The untamable power that she so desperately wanted to use refused to yield to her weak pleas.

Anastasia burst into tears.

***

Alexei hugged his bondmate, "It's okay Ana! It isn't the end of the world if you don't understand right away. Everything takes time."

The dragon spoke between sobs, *It's not fair! I bet all the other dragons don't have it half is bad as me!*

The vampire hunter sighed, "You're over reacting. What happened to the happy excitable Ana that I love?"

*She's currently in crying because she's stupid!* The dragon coughed into her bondmates lap.

"Never say that, Ana," Alexei's voice took a sudden change in tone. A dangerous one that Ana had never dealt with before.

She fell silent.

"I'm going to prove to you that if I can do something that was nearly impossible at first, that you can do something the same way." Alexei gave her a pat on the head, "Now I want you to rest while I go out with Pictor for supplies."

*Fine...* She lifted her head and watched her bondmate leave. How could he teach her lessons on magic when he claimed to know none.

She shrugged and wander over to her bed, there was a small bouquet of flowers and a small box of chocolates with notes attached to each. The young dragon blinked, who would send her a box of chocolates and flowers?

***

"Why are you learning magic?"

*To become an adult.*

"Why did you choose this path rather than another one?"

*Because this is the road not often taken. It's my road.*

"Now, try focusing once again on finding the magic."

Doing what she was told, Ana closed her eyes and concentrated. She did not think of anything but the flow of magic and life itself. It was a terribly difficult thing to do when you were frustrated at how things had worked in the past.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Nothing came and nothing went from her thoughts or feelings. It was complete and utter darkness.

The teacher watched intently from her perch on a window ledge. They young dragon looked like she was meditating on the existence of the universe. If she did not get it this time, she probably would never be able to find the magic.

Who was Ana doing this for? Herself, for her bondmate? For all of the dragons who she hoped to meet in the future? They were all really excuses to learn magic, they were not the reason why she wanted to learn magic. She wanted to learn magic because it was part of her. No one could take that away from  her, even if they said it was impossible, she would always believe she had some magic in her. Maybe she was just like her bondmate, and just did not realize it was right there ready to be tapped into.

Magic. The word itself had an indefinable meaning. If people could not decided the meaning of the word 'fantasy' who could decide the meaning of 'magic.' She felt something there, it was warm, like a freshly baked chocolate cake. It reminded her of all the good things that she like, and yet there was something hidden in it.

Something awful, something painful, and something more dangerous than anything she had ever faced. They were like those feelings of dread she received from Alexei and some of the people closest to him.

This flow of magic was both sides of the same thing. She needed to understand and feel both to control the flow or even to touch it for that matter.

Alexei was like the cool darkness. He was not evil, but he was dangerous and could inflict much pain on any one who crossed him. Ana was like the warm sunlight. She could brighten the day of anyone, and choose the path of sociability. Yet both of them remained with each other. A perfect balance of a sort.

So, she could not disrupt the flow to take magic out, she needed to divert the flow for a short period of time to get to use the magic.

How would she go about doing that? Mages simply concentrated the power in their hand, they made it look simple, but it took years of discipline. Ana was hardly a mage, and she highly doubted that the rules applied to her. She would be able to tap into the stream of magic, all she needed was a bit of patience. If she waded those waters and waited for the perfect moment to strike, she would be able to put that magic into the object. To perfect it would take years of hard work and training, but for now she needed to touch the flow. That would be enough for her.

Slowly she felt the magic seep into her body, and slowly with the greatest possible care, she let the magic flow into the object. As soon as she stopped concentrating the magic fizzled out of the cross with a loud hiss, but that was all right really.

Ryuuri hopped down from her ledge, "That was wonderful Ana! For a month of training that was amazing. I thought you were completely hopeless, and then you managed to find the flow!"

Somehow... that did not make Anastasia feel better.

***

Meanwhile, in a place not too far, there was a man of pale skin, with bleach blonde hair, pointy ears, with a rather nasty look on his face. He was also covered in the blood of innocent people. Fire danced across the landscape, and a smile danced across the man's lips. Two white fangs protruded from them.

A girl, a lovely girl with dark brown hair and bright colored mismatched clothing, was standing before the man, bloody and panting from exhaustion. Her blue eyes were shooting daggers at him, "Lady Conway will NOT allow this."

"It's such a pity, because you can't stop me." He laughed. A sound that sent shivers down any human's spine.

Agari Yamabuki was back to destroy the world.