Cassius stared at the diagram Grindelwald had unrolled down the wall.
Lines traced through the parchment like rivers across a map, branching outward from a radiant core centered in the chest.
"These are your magical pathways," Grindelwald said, tapping the heart-shaped center with his staff. "They are not blood vessels, though the ignorant often mistake them as such. They are conduits. Energy flows, shifts, and when you cast, they spark like lightning through a stormcloud. But they are fragile while you are young. Push too hard, and you will shatter them."
Cassius leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
"But you said they could be trained?"
"Precisely. Just as a muscle tears to grow stronger, so too must pathways strain to widen their channels. It is painful, yes. But pain with purpose. What separates mediocrity from mastery is not talent—it is the willingness to endure that pain."
Grindelwald raised his staff, and the room dimmed.
With a flick, he drew four glowing obelisks from the stone, their faces etched in silver glyphs.
They pulsed like heartbeats, filling the chamber with a low thrum.
"You will riot here," he said, gesturing to the mat. "You will push your magic to its edge, again and again, until it becomes pliant. Not wild, but wielded."
Cassius swallowed, but stepped forward, sitting cross-legged at the center.
"What must I do?"
"Close your eyes," Grindelwald instructed. "Breathe. Feel your emotions, start with anger, bring yourself to rightous fury, as if the subject of your revenge was right before you."
Cassius obeyed.
For a moment, there was nothing but his heartbeat.
He steadied himself, clearing his mind of all unnessessary thought simply replying the night of his rebirth over and over again in his mind.
Then, a pressure—like someone was gripping his heart in their bare hands clutched at his chest, but he pushed past it, calling forth more rage and fury at the bitch who had rejected becoming his mother, his emotions soared higher and higher, and suddenly the room groaned, the air itself thick with magic power as it radiated out from his small frame.
The obelisks shivered.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
A nearby chair lifted a few inches into the air before slamming down again.
Cassius' breath hitched.
It lasted for only a moment, before he could feel it beginning to ebb, but then a voice reached him in the darkness of his mind.
"Hold it!" Grindelwald barked.
His voice cut like steel.
"Do not give in, this is your power, you control it, it does not control you, so command it!"
Cassius grit his teeth, sweat breaking across his brow.
He tried to summon forth more power from within, almost feeling like he was a space wizard trying to channel his hate to control this force within him.
Opening his eyes, cassius hallucinated seeing Lily before him, eyes staring down at him mockingly, like he was a bug, as she cradled young harry in her arms.
Grrrrrrrr.
His emotions soared further, and with it he extended his hand like a blade towards the chair in the room, before slowly raising his arm, which also brought the chair up into the air with it.
Anyone watching would asssuming this was telekinesis, afterall Cassius was performing wandless magic, without incantation... as a four year old child!
The chair only floated about 2 feet off the ground before his control slipped, the power receeded, and the chair came crashing to the ground.
Cassius gasped, his chest aching.
"I—I couldn't—"
Grindelwald struck his staff once against the floor, silencing the air.
The obelisks hummed while glowing, as Cassius himself quickly came to be at ease.
"You lasted longer than i expected for your age. Do not whine, this was just the first time."
He stepped closer, eyes gleaming.
"now then, again."
And so it continued.
For close to an hour, Cassius pushed, rioted, failed, and began again.
Each time, his core trembled, pathways burning with strain.
When his control faltered the wards on his sides activated and helped to recenter him again.
During one of these breaks Cassius pulled up his status that was not visible to his mentor, finding that while Magic Riot training was not a thing he could train idly, magic control was, so switching out charms for magic control, while his Magic itself had in this last hour risen from 107 to 113, a growth of 5 points, nothing really special but if he could get 5 points growth for an hour of training, then repeated it two times a day, every day, by the time his core stabilized fully, he could have thousands available making his spell, and skill growth exponentially massive!
And so his training regime was updated, in the beginning right after waking Cassius would train in magical riots for no more than 1 hour, then an hour of physical training, to strengthen his body just as he had his 'soul', once these were completed he would strengthen his mind, starting with core knowledge like a first year, he was made to study Charms, transfigurations, potions, and astronomy.
While he was not allowed to wield a real wand, Grindelwald himself would show in slow motion how to perform each spell, along with advanced concepts such as castless, motionless, and even wandless casting.
Then going into their strengths and weaknesses.
It was a staggaring mountain of course work that only Miss Know-it-all Hermione Granger could ever manage, except that after a week, a new development happened, a new skill appeared on his status screen 'Thinking' while it appeared already at level 2, the desire to rank it up fast was strong.
Since to increase thinking would mean to up his ability to read, comprehend, and memories the theory he was being made to absorb creating more time for practical lessons.
Evenings he wasnt free either, while it was indeed downtime, where they would play wizards chess or other games, the air was still thick with discussion.
Centering on Cassius's plans for the future, or experimental theories on the origins of magic, the purpose behind its use, even how magic differs the world over.
In time once his pathways strengthened enough a second hour of magic riot training would happen in the evenings.
As a self-declared nerd of his previous life, Cassius used this downtime to theorize on the nature of language to magic.
Since magic existed in many different languages, English/Latin, French, German, Afrikaans, Portuegues, Chinese, Japanese, American... etc.
But what if you had a language of magic itself?
Since all the languages previously mentioned were all muggle languages adapted into magic, but what would a magic language be?
Runes?
How about something foreign to this world entirely?
For example Elvish, a language that was born from the world song in the fictional works of Tolkien?
Elves themselves were a species bathed in the light of magic, blessed with sudo immortality and the ability to even cast spells.
So what if one took their magical language and brought it into the magical world?
Taking his training wand out of its holster he held it up, preparing to cast the Lumos spell but just as he was about to make the movement required.
"Calad"
From his wand tip, the previously simple while light, flared into a bright golden light like the tip of his wand had been lit on fire.
Even Grindelwald seemed to be shocked by the development, be it because of the reaction, or the word used to cause it.