"All right, we need to talk."
Kyle had been laying down on his living room's floor for a while before he got up, picked Colin up by the back of his jacket, stared him in the eyes and said it.
"Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted. What do you wanna talk about?" Said Colin unfazed.
"Firstly" Said Kyle as he lowered Colin over his couch, and sat besides him. "I -do not- wanna be subjected to any kind of magic without my consent. Do you understand?"
"Ok, that sounds reasonable."
"And I want you to at least try to answer my questions about magic and how it works."
"I'm fine with that."
"AND I want you to turn me back to how I was tomorrow when I have to leave the apartment and go to work."
"Yeah, sure!"
"Ok, this was too easy, what do you want in return?"
"Oh, how kind of you to ask! It is not much, actually, I only want 2 things from you: that you let me stay here with you at least until I can understand well enough about the modern world that I can live on my own and I want you to help me recover my full magical powers."
"Well, the first part is actually what I had planned on doing already, so that is settled. But I wouldn't even know where to start to help you with your powers..."
"Not a problem, for I actually know where to start. We will start by finding more magic practitioners so we can ask them if they know about this... Phenomena..." Colin paused, in thought. "And in the meanwhile I'll try teaching you a thing or two about magic."
"Fine by me then, we might discuss how we are going to look for those other mages first thing tomorrow then, what do you think?"
"Perfect. And for now, do you have any magical questions?"
"I actually have. First question: what was that spell you did to me just now? The blue thing?"
"Oh, that was an enchantment, I believe I had mentioned them before. If magic is a flow enchantments are like magic under pressure. It is hard to explain, but it is like putting a lot of magic in a single spot, in a rune, and then liberating it at a given speed. The effect of the spell is dictated by the shape of the rune."
"Oh, like aerosol, then?" Kyle went into the bathroom and retrieved his can of deodorant. "It is the same principle, a lot of a substance pressurized into this can here, and then you press the lid and-" Kyle pressed the lid and the deodorant sprayed out.
"That is very smelly. But I think the comparison is a good one. Any more questions?" Colin was curious about the smelly gas coming out of the can, but he was more of a hands-on learner than a classic student.
"Yeah, you had also said that enchantment wasn't you -expertise-, if you can make an enchantment, then what does that mean?"
"It is not because something is not my expertise that I can't do it. There are 3 main ways of casting magic: Enchanting, Direct Casting and Imbuing. Direct Casting is what I did to you back in the bar, it is also the simplest of the 3 of them, you just focus your magic into a spell and it happens in real time. Enchanting has the advantage of not needing real time focus, I can prepare an enchantment and then leave it to cast itself. And imbuing, the hardest, is the art of aligning the magical currents so you can make a spell happen indefinitely in a place, or around an item or something like that. Actually I am an expert at imbuing, but in my current state I can't muster enough magic to imbue anything, it is a very demanding process. And Direct Casting and Enchantment can be done gradually, with little magic flow, if I have the time. Did that answer your question?"
"Actually yes. I am surprised, I thought you would be more cryptic and mysterious."
"I could, if I wanted, but I had to put up with that kind of stuff from my asshole teachers, and I would like to break that chain of suffering if I could. Anything else?"
"Yes. Can -I- learn how to do magic?"
"Only one easy way to know. Do you have any wood?"