The First Law
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Energy under normal conditions cannot be created or destroyed, simply transformed from one type of energy to another.
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He collapsed into bed last night exhausted; not just from the duel of fists, which had exacted a physical toll on his body in the form of tired muscles and deep bruises, and his work at the Clinic, maintenance and mind-numbing paperwork. No, also he found himself strangely tired from his studies, perhaps because of the additional mental work on top of what he already needed to do that day. It could not have been from any sort of magical expenditure, he assumed.

Except that was a very large part of his exhaustion. Tiny, fleeting bits of energy burned off, all their power escaping as just a barely felt increase in his body temperature. He had merely assumed his room a bit stuffy. After all, with no visible show of the magic he had been trying to call, he had assumed that nothing was occuring.

If he had paid close attention, he might have noticed the same faint buzz in his head, centred between his eyes, that he had felt the night he duelled magic against Anya. Except he'd been too frustrated by his perceived failure to realise that he was actually raising the tiniest of magics.

Today, as soon as he got off work, he headed straight back to his room to try and figure out where he had figured wrong. There had to be something that he was missing, something overlooked. Something that, as soon as he unlocked it, would seem patently obvious? much like the fact that when teleporting someone transwarp, one needed to consider space as the force in motion. So readily apparent when known, but until that detail was revealed, the entire proof fell apart.

He drummed his fingers on his desk as he thought. It was energy. At it's core, what he could tell of magic was that it involved creating energy. The elements involved were largely irrelevant, because energy was energy. Except, something about that seemed very off in a terribly important way. He just couldn't figure where it was wrong.

How was it that others could create energy where he could not? It didn't make sense, much like it made no sense that magical methods of healing had no effect on him. He rubbed his temple in frustration, then down the side of his face, fingers grazing over the faintest lines remaining from his surgery. It felt like his mind was all blocked up, like someone had put a dam in the river of his brain.

Hmmm? a dam might be more useful than his brain, though. Dams were used to make energy, whereas his mind was not creating any? ideas?

"Of course!" He slapped his hand down on the desk in front of him as realisation dawned. Snowball startled out of her nap on his pillow with a squeak, but he paid little heed as he frantically searched out a pen and resumed scribbling notes.