More magic

A question non mages often ask, when they discover you can do magic is "how do you do it?" and "can you teach me?"
I'll start with the second question, cause it's over quickly and leads to the first. I'd tell them to find someone else to teach them, first off I don't think I'd make a very good teacher and I'm not a very talented mage, so they're better off learning the craft from someone who really grasps what they're doing.
Besides, people with any magic affirmaty usually finds out along puberty, so earlier, some later. So it's not something you can teach, if people doesn't have the connection. might as well try to teach a mute to sing.

Now the how is more tricky, how to explain a sunrise to a blind man. When I first discovered I could do magic or more correctly, a kind old coot explained to me, why my laptop would constantly crash. magic and technology, doesn't go well together, but I'll get back to that.
Now, my awakening, as the circle of mages I loosely studied with refered to discovering magic was pleasent gentle. I've learned that the opening of the third eye (as it is also refered to) can be a harsh experience. mine was more like a slow discovery of a sixth sense.
And what a sense it was, personally I prefer the third eye reference. you see the world differently, when you open yourself to it, you see what's really there or what isn't. you can sense the magic, alround you, like wind across your skin, but more like it's your soul that gets goozebumps.
now you've learned to sense the magic around you, you've become aware of the flow of it. next step is using it and that's the dangerous step, where many mages without someone to guide them come to an ugly end.
To use magic, you have to draw a portion of it into yourself, like filling your hands with water, or drawing a deep breath. First of the it's the drawing in that's tricky, more than dangerous, cause like water, magic will slip from you if you don't control the movement. once you learn that, then it's when it starts to get dangerous. You also gotta know when to stop drawing on the magic you wanna use, like taking a deep breath, imagine not being able to stop. You'd lungs would burst eventually, magic's a little more volatile than air. That's the second step. when you've learned to draw in magic and stop, your body is now a container for pure energy, but our bodies arn't meant to hold onto magic. imagine the handful of water, the longer you hold it, the warmer it gets and eventually it will scald you and beyond that boil the meat right off your bones, if you don't let it go or use it. Magic is like that, and the more you take in, the faster it "heats" up.
The final step is using the magic you have store in your body, that is where you mold the magic with your mind and focus it into the effect you want. But the body can naturally hold more magic than the mind can naturally stand, so if you filled your body with magic and used it all at once, you'd spend the last moments of your life looking at the pretty lights as your mind ignited. Again, it's about control and focus. ofcouse the image I paint of a wouldbe mage keeling over with smoke pouring from the ears, eyes and hair aflame is the worst case senario. But many wouldbe mages, that unknowingly draw in magic and instinctively use it, often suffer an overload in lack of a better term. Their minds simply collapsing under the stress. The lucky ones get by with the worst headarch of their lives, others go out cold or into a coma. Others wake up damaged or changed or worse. Doctors tend to put it down as anuyrismes or strokes when people don't wake up, supposedly the effect on the brain are pretty much the same.

follow that explanation, I tend to get a third question "why do you do it?"
Because magic is awesome, it's magic. I don't have to worry about forgetting my key, cause I've set a charm on my door, so it will unlock itself at my command. Can't find aforementioned key, there's spells for locating it. I've never had anything but a cold beer, since I learne to use magic. and ofcause, a fireball is always handy in a pinch.
and using magic, feeling yourself filled with it, dancing at your fingertips, the secret wheels of the world yours to manipulate and turn. I'd say it was better than sex, but I really like sex. so it's a close second.
Ofcause there's a price, universal rule number one: there is ALWAYS a price.
Using magic wears you out, like any other activity. but not just physically and mentally, but also spiritually. often mages go over the edge, not even aware of it, cause they've lost their sense of self and the lose control and suffer the price of playing with the forces of the univers.

magic and technology: Mages and technology don't work well together, we can use it just fine, it just doesn't always work as it should around us, the more sophisticated, the more likely it is to malfunction.
and that's just when we're around, now using magic around technological gadgets, there's a recipy for disaster. Don't turn on your cellphone on a plane? Don't turn on your mage. =P
I've heard various theories on this, the one I find most probable is this; All human technology is based around electrical circutes, that run on the flow of electricity, which are electrons. charged particals.
Magic is not too dissimilar, being energy. So like EMP screwing with electronics, in a way so does magic.
That's why electricity works just fine without mages around, as magic and it exists on different planes. But when mages are around, we connect to the magic and broadcast interference, that screw with anything electrical.
A final strange detail, technology never gets permanently damaged. When the mage leaves, it works as intended again.