The second Riley accepted the offer James Henry Blackstone was on the move. The tiny elephant disappearing, only to be replaced by the coin he had started out with. There was no half measures when it came to magic; well there were, yet those methods usually resulted in a backlash of energy or some other misfortune. However hearing the younger man express earnest desire to give it his all...that was enough to convince the professor to give this a shot. Truthfully, James had never had an apprentice before. He had learned magic on his own, studying scraps of information and old tomes that he had spent a sizable fortune to acquire. Now though, well the illusionist hoped he could make the experience a bit more easy for Riley. At the very least, try to help steer him clear from the mistakes that James himself had made back when he was first starting out.
Without saying a word the professor was already up and out of his chair; heading inside his wagon where the sound of clattering and rustling could be heard as Blackstone dug through his vast collection of books and papers. A few minutes later James returned though, carrying eight large books in his hands, along with a journal he had penned ages ago when he first began his trek to become a proper sorcerer. "Excellent, this should do nicely! I'll start you out reading these books here; pay particular attention to the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. While a lot of Éliphas Lévi's treaties bear little fruit when it comes to the actual application of magic through spells...well his philosophy on magic as a concept is quite sound."
Oh he knew that a few of the books were purely 'science' books pertaining to biology and energy economics. However all those books were the ones that Blackstone himself considered to be foundational cornerstones when it came to his magecraft. "My journal details the scientific method I developed for converting alchemical and pharmaceutical compounds into proper potions. Plus there is a sizable portion of notations in there too relating to herbology and the study of the senses. As far as actual spells and potion recipes go, we'll start off very small. After you've digested these reading materials, and a few other books and treaties too, we will begin with a very simple spell. Namely the coin trick one that I showed you."