Understanding Metal Magic - Kinsley Dresden

[21:08:51] Mom's words echoed in Kinsley's head.

"Dirt ain't just dirt. It's lots'o things. Dirt's dust, rock, minerals and metals. You can use all'o these things to your advantage. You jus' gotta understand them. Each piece of dirt's seperate, it ain't just one big lunk. No, when y'lift up a rock, it ain't jus' a rock. It's lots of lil tiny things pushed together into a rock. When y'get that and y'can manipulate that, yer a truth earth magi."

Kinsley's technique of manipulating earth was earlier imagining it in shapes, like a block or a circular rocky object, and projecting that into her mana. It was easy to visualize dirt in a certain shape but once she got it out of the ground it was hard to change it from there. She could lift it, she could throw it, sure, but what good did that do her?

Furrowing her brows, the young girl stared down at the dirt that rested beneath her palms. It couldn't be that hard.
(Kinsley Dresden)
[21:17:23] Her focus switched to her mana circuit. Blessed with the easy access to magic and the tutorship of her adoptive mother, Kinsley had been able to manipulate and project her mana at a ripe age of eight. Even with two years of streneous practice under her sleeve, she still found herself improving every day.

With her palm resting on the ground, Katherine tapped into her circuit and began to examine it's connection with the ground, the dirt that layered her skin and the dirt that lay beneath her hands. Sure, it was dirt, she could tell that, but what if she delved deeper?

She found pebbles, tiny pebbles. Deeper, tinier pebbles. The condensed dirt were just tiny pieces of dirt, all clumped together... all tiny little particles. Is this what her mother was talking about? Not all of it was dirt, upon further inspection. Pieces of tree, root, some particles even tiny flecks of metal or iron if she delved deep enough into the dirt.

The composition of simple soil was easy enough to figure out. If she focused enough, she could single out the tiny particles... Squinting, her steel gaze focused on the tiniest fleck of metal that pulled its way out of the ground with her command.

What could she do with this?
(Kinsley Dresden)

After a long afternoon of pouting, dinner was done and Kinsley's determination to get stronger had returned in a fervor. Next to her dinner plate was a book which earned her a strange look from her mom. It was dusty and old and was one of the only few books they kept in their house. The cover read, The Basics of Metal and How To Manipulate It.

Through the next few days Kinsley absorbed the book's contents like a sponge. Metal is a refinement of earth, metal comes in different complexities, metal is the makeup of all things armor, weapon or tool. Just like how without earth there would be no Eternia, without metal there would be no war, no fighting, no Inquisition. There would be no tools, no farming, no food.

Metal was an essential, just as was earth. They were the same thing, but metal was more complex, more rigid, more hardheaded. Kinsley came to the decision that if she could learn metal magic, she could learn anything. This hill would be the hardest, and would dwarf everything else in her path.

On a piece of paper, she began to compile a list of things she needed to do in order to learn metal magic, all retrieved from the book. You could do anything with a list!

TO DO
-Gather different types of metal
-Research the different types of metal (complexity, relation/similarity to earth, etc...)
-Bond mana with different metal objects (coin --> shovel --> sword --> armor, etc etc)
-Condense earth to metal (is this possible???)
-Attempt to manipulate metal
-Manipulate metal
-?????
-METAL FORM

The first step was always preparation, and Kinsley had just taken it.
(Kinsley Dresden)