CHAPTER 142: THE GUIDANCE - 2

Lor let the silence stretch, his hazel eyes steady, his lean frame relaxed but attentive. Then, softly, "Did that make sense?"

Lia blinked first, her green eyes brightening. "Honestly? Yeah."

Sophia nodded slowly, her voice quiet but earnest. "Like much more than anything Miss Silvia’s has taught us this entire term."

"She keeps using words like conduits and channel alignment and interwoven ritual harmonics and what not," Lia muttered, her curvy figure shifting as she leaned back, her green eyes narrowing. "I still don’t know what harmonics even means. Is that even a thing? or is Miss Silvia spelling out some random words to sound smart?"

"I think it’s something musical?" Sophia offered, her blue eyes flickering with uncertainty.

Lor gave a low, amused exhale, his tousled black hair catching the lamplight. "She’s teaching you spell theory like you’re already mid-circle casters. No wonder you’re lost."

"Well," Sophia said, a hint of a smirk tugging at her lips, "you did just break it down with sparkles and triangle drawings. That helps."

Lor smiled faintly, his hazel eyes softening. "That’s the trick. Make it feel like play before it starts feeling like control."

He pushed to his feet, stretching briefly, his shirt pulling taut across his lean chest, then turned toward Lia’s desk. "We’re not done yet."

Lia frowned, her red curls bouncing. "More magic?"

Lor opened Mia’s study desk drawer, shuffled a few items aside—pens, a notebook, a stray crystal—and pulled out a thick stack of parchment and an ink pen. "Nope," he said, his voice calm but firm. "Math."

A beat.

Then twin groans filled the room.

"Noooooo," Sophia whined, flopping backward onto the rug, her blonde twin tails splaying out, her blue eyes dramatic.

Lia slapped a hand to her face, her green eyes narrowing. "I just understood this spell theory and now Maths? I am going to die processing all this new information."

Lor just chuckled, uncapping the ink pen, his hazel eyes glinting with amusement. "You want to cast without blowing your eyebrows off? You’ll need to calculate mana ratios. Spell lengths. Angles. Distances. Time. That’s math. Real spellwork requires it."

Sophia sat up, pouty, her petite frame slumping. "But why addition? That’s like for children."

"You can’t do it," he said calmly, his voice steady, "can you?"

"...Not without counting on my fingers," she admitted, her cheeks flushing faintly.

Lia huffed, her curvy figure shifting. "She’s right."

Lor handed them both parchment and a pen, his movements deliberate. "Let’s fix that."

They sat reluctantly, legs tucked under them, brows already furrowing as they stared at the blank sheets.

Lor drew a simple line on his own page:

7 + 6 =

He tapped it with the pen. "Start here."

Sophia muttered, her blue eyes narrowing. "Thirteen."

Lor arched an eyebrow, impressed. "Fast."

"I remember this one," she said, a faint smirk tugging at her lips.

He scribbled another:

9 + 8 =

Lia paused, her green eyes focused. "Nine..."

Lor looked at her sharply, Lia changed her mind"...Seven ...teen?""

He nodded.

"Good. Think of nine as almost ten. Ten plus eight is eighteen. Subtract one. Seventeen."

"Oh." Lia blinked, her red curls bouncing. "That’s... smart."

"It’s math," he said, his voice calm. "The trick is to see the numbers instead of counting every finger."

They worked down the sheet, one problem after another, Lor hovering behind, correcting missteps with gentle nudges, never judging—just guiding them to think quicker, sharper.

Sophia started fidgeting, tapping her quill against her lip. "Okay but—14 + 7?"

"Think: Four plus seven is eleven. Keep the ten from the fourteen, add the eleven—"

"Oh! Twenty-one!" Sophia’s blue eyes brightened, her voice triumphant.

"Exactly."

It went like that for nearly twenty minutes—number after number, hands stained faintly with ink, their groans fading, replaced by furrowed brows, biting lips, silent triumphs.

Then Lor flipped the page.

"Now. Subtraction."

Lia groaned again, her green eyes dramatic. "You sadist."

"Subtracting’s harder," Sophia muttered, her petite frame slumping.

Lor grinned, his hazel eyes steady. "So is everything else for you in math’s."

He wrote:

15 - 6 =

Lia squinted, her red curls falling into her eyes. "Nine?"

He nodded.

"Try this: 23 - 7."

Sophia’s blue eyes narrowed, her voice thoughtful.

"Twenty-three take away seven... okay, three take away seven is... you can’t. So you borrow one from the two. That makes it thirteen minus seven is six. So the two becomes one. One and six: Sixteen."

Lor raised a brow, impressed. "You’ve done borrowing."

"I hated it," she muttered, her cheeks flushing faintly.

Lia leaned over her shoulder, her green eyes curious. "Do 32 - 18."

More groans, then mistakes, then the spark of understanding.

Sophia grinned, her voice triumphant. "Fourteen!"

"Now we’re getting somewhere," Lor said, his voice encouraging.

An hour passed like that, the room quiet save for the scratch of pens and soft murmurs of numbers.

When the numbers started swimming, Lor leaned back and tapped the desk. "Last challenge. Bonus round."

They looked up—tired, ink-smudged, but wide-eyed, their faces glowing with quiet pride.

Lor smiled. "Multiplication."

"Noooo," Lia whined, flopping back again, her red curls splaying on the rug.

"Small ones," Lor promised, his hazel eyes glinting. "We’ll stop at nine."

He wrote:

3 x 4 =

Sophia bit her lip, her blue eyes focused. "Three fours. Twelve."

Lor nodded. "5 x 5?"

"Twenty-five," Lia muttered, her green eyes narrowing.

"Now," he said, drawing a small table with a few blank squares.

1 x 1

2 x 2

3 x 3

4 x 4

"You start filling it."

They did, clumsy at first, then quicker, their pens scratching as they worked through the table.

By the time Lor finished the ninth line, they were sweating—but smiling.

9 x 9 = 81.

They both got it, their voices overlapping in quiet triumph.

"Good," Lor said, finally sitting back, his hazel eyes steady.

"That’s the foundation. Addition, subtraction, and single-digit multiplication. That’s the backbone of spellcasting math—ratios, geometrics. All of it’s built from this."

Sophia leaned against the bed, wiping ink from her nose, her blue eyes bright. "This... actually made sense."

Lia looked at her notes, then up at Lor, her green eyes warm with gratitude. "The Guiding Light’s a better teacher than anyone I’ve ever had."