“I don’t know how else to explain it!” Dain exclaimed in exasperation. “I’m using the simplest terms I can possibly think of.”
Kre rubbed at his temples and tried to process Dain’s explanation as best he could. It had been their third round of their first lesson of the arcane, and Kre just wasn’t quite getting it. “Why aren’t the words important again?”
“The words don’t summon the power,” Dain explained again, now for the fourth time, “the words help you summon up the fortitude and rigor required to muster the arcane power safely.”
“But isn’t that the same thing as saying the words equal the power?”
Dain cursed softly and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down and buy some time to find different words to explain the situation. “Let’s try it a different way.” He gave the boy a long look up and down before continuing, “You’ve worked a farm, right?”
Kre nodded and was about to elaborate a bit about his life growing up in Mintas, but Dain waved him off quickly. “The details don’t matter, but have you ever pulled a large rock from the ground or yanked a stump from the earth?”
Again, Kre nodded, recalling all too well those painful labors as all the townsfolk, young and old, were called upon whenever one of their own was expanding their plots.
“When you are doing that work, have you ever made noises to help you along? Maybe grunting or yelling even, as you applied force to the problem? Or working as a group, have you called out a ‘one, two, three’?”
“I suppose so,” Kre said, recalling the work. “Sometimes we’d argue about whether it’s pulling on three or after three, but usually everyone agreed that it was after three.”
“That… doesn’t matter,” Dain muttered, trying to keep it on track. “What matters is that you made a noise that allowed your body to sync up with your mind so that you could achieve your goal. When you were working as a group, it allowed you to ensure that everyone involved was acting in concert so that no effort was wasted.”
“Makes sense,” Kre admitted, still unsure how Dain was going to tie all of this into how magic worked.
“Invoking magic is done in the same way. The words are there to act as the mechanism by which you get your thoughts in the right frame of mind for the work that you need to perform.”
Kre gave it a bit of thought. “But the exact words aren’t really important then,” he started, much to Dain’s dismay, “just that you use the same words in practice as you do in the actual act so that your mind and body can execute them using that muscle memory.”
Dain blinked his eyes in surprise. “Yes,” he said softly. “Yes, that’s exactly it.” His smile grew wider, and his hands started to move about animatedly as he grew more excited for Kre’s newfound understanding.