"First of all, let me explain to you what you currently hold inside of your kidney," Victor spoke while pointing at the stomach of Jack.
"The pressure," Jack spoke plainly, leaving Victor smiling at the response, putting his cane on the coffee table. "No... While it's true that any conscious system in the world can feel it as pressure, it doesn't do justice to what it truly is."
Victor took his hand and held his fingers pinched upwards, moving it back and forth while speaking.
"Its assigned name from back when only dragons and their counterparts walked the earth up to now is—" He took a small pause before finishing.
"Instability."
*Instability... Its name alone tells me it's not natural, but then again magic itself is not natural.*
"What is this instability? Is it magic?" Jack asked, wanting answers.
Victor scratched his ear, feeling that he had to explain this in more depth. It was something he personally liked to do, chatting about things he knew. "Before I explain what instability is, I feel that there is a need to educate you in terms of what magic is."
*That works as well.* Jack attempted to show a smile, but his face was numb due to the sedative.
Victor sat back in the couch, taking a relaxed position. "Heh... Where do I begin..."
"First I'll start with what is commonly accepted in the high mage circles." Victor tapped his knee with his finger. "Magic at its very core is the exchange of energy for effects."
"Now notice that I said energy. Not mana, not life force, not spiritual power, or any of the other."
Victor took his right hand and moved it forward while revealing a thin chain bracelet with small jewels made of silver. Jack was slightly taken aback as it didn't match the persona of an old man, and in fact it would have looked better on the two twins from before.
"This one can store energy from the sun and store it in a compressed state. I made it with instability."
Victor cleared his throat; this was probably a habit of his when speaking. "It took a decent time to get it right. For example, when I first made it, it stored the energy but it became very hot."
"At first I thought it was because I left it to sit in the sun and the metal was normal, but after I tried to take it at night, it was even hotter after the full day's sun."
"So how did you solve it?" *I could make a storage item for my mana...* Jack was curious about this; he was specifically interested in making his own item such as this.
Victor responded, "I made it so that it converts the outer layer to the exact opposite of the temperature it currently has and maintains it."
"Of course, this brought about more problems..." He looked at Jack, who was listening attentively. He saw that this discussion was going off rail again, so he decided to quickly finish it.
"It froze things. To solve this, I had to make it so that rather than the opposite temperature, it will be at room temperature."
Victor's train of thought about this short explanation was something like: "*This didn't even cover half the process.*"
Victor lifted his hand and waved it as to shoo away the thought and continue the chat. "Anyway, energy in the magical perspective is the ability of something to do something. You move a chair, you spend energy."
"The sun is a literal ball of energy, so it can be used for it as long as you know what you are doing."
Jack moved his finger to his mouth and thought for a moment.
*I think I remember this from basic physics. Energy is the capacity of a system to cause change, transfer heat, and do work...*
*Luckily I did refresh my memories on this matter back in the wasteland... If what he said is possible, then you can use kinetic energy to fuel spells.*
Jack quickly asked, "Can I see a spell casted using the sun energy?"
Victor leaned forward and spoke, "This conversation is somewhat getting off track yet again, but sure thing. I barely use this thing anyway."
"And while I'm at it, I may teach you some things about magic as well."
He moved back into the couch as he spoke. "Now while I usually don't need to chant anymore to cast my spells, I will do so that you may learn something."
"While chanting can be done in any language, using popular or old languages such as Latin-based ones will give out better results."
*Latin?! Based? Could it be that there are others like me? No wait... It makes sense. The universe at the church is probably a clue! Someone in the Church of Mardrago is from Earth!*
Jack couldn't contain his smile. Victor saw this as his eyes narrowed, but he continued his lesson.
"The process of casting has two parts: the chanting, which is optional, and the second is the deep logic behind the spell; this is done inside the head."
Victor swallowed before continuing. "Now, this is bastardizing the process a little bit, but I can't go in depth about it right now."
"Chanting is a way to transfer the burden. If you chant, it takes a lot longer but the effects get better since a lot more willpower is placed into speaking rather than thinking."
Victor looked around the room, top to bottom, left to right, as well as the objects around him.
"Now... Let me begin the casting, and after it is done, I will explain what I did, then get to explaining instability."