After observing the detailed notes that Bilel had left, Finn felt confident he could pull this off. The requisite mana channeling and gestures were different and complex, but they seemed manageable, especially after Abbad’s training.
Speaking of which…
Finn’s hand rummaged in his pack nearby, sifting through the supplies that the librarian had given him. A moment later, he pulled out the familiar stylus, the same tool the librarian had used to inscribe the tattoos along Finn’s left arm. He frowned at the instrument, his thoughts racing.
Why did Abbad give me the book and the stylus?
When the librarian had mentioned the power that the book might hold, had he been speaking of the ability to see mana? Presumably, Abbad had read the journal. Did that mean he intended for Finn to attempt the ward?
He squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. The fire in his veins was demanding – insistent. It urged him to move forward. And the stylus was certainly compelling evidence of Abbad’s approval. More than that, and despite the risks, Finn wanted to do this. Yet he knew he couldn’t do it alone, not if he was going to follow Bilel’s instructions to the letter.
He would need help.
“Daniel,” Finn called out into the darkness. A moment later, the AI’s glowing form came flashing back toward him.
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m going to need your help with something,” Finn began hesitantly. “But first things first, can you lift this stylus?” He asked this while holding out the instrument in the palm of his hand.
“Um, I’m not certain,” Daniel replied, sounding suddenly uncertain and weaving an awkward pattern in the air. “I’ve never tried to pick up something before.”
“Well, why don’t you try,” Finn urged him, trying to tamp down on the impatience that entered his voice.
“Okay….” The AI hesitated for a fraction of a second before dropping down toward the instrument. Daniel gingerly allowed the edge of the stylus to enter the glowing orange orb that made up the AI’s torso. Then he lifted back into the air ever so slowly. The stylus wobbled, but then gradually began to rise.
“Perfect,” Finn murmured, a grin creeping across his face as he watched Daniel. “You did wonderfully.” The AI swiftly set the stylus back down and flashed once, literally glowing in response to Finn’s praise.
“That was… interesting. I didn’t realize I could manipulate objects,” Daniel observed, a note of pride coloring his voice. He dipped and spun in the air happily.
“Neither did I, but now I have a task for you,” Finn urged him, pointing down to the journal in his lap. “You see these patterns here? I need you to use the stylus to carve them into my temples.”
“What?” Daniel replied, freezing in the air. If he had a human face, Finn imagined he would be staring at Finn as if he had grown a second head.
“I’m going to need you to draw these patterns alongside each of my eyes,” Finn repeated more slowly. “More than that, I need you to break the skin to form the ward.”
“I just figured out I can lift an object 33.27 seconds ago, and now you want me to cut into the skin around your eyes? I’m not sure—” Daniel began skeptically.
“You can do this,” Finn said firmly. “We can have you practice in the sand a few times. It will be easy. You just need to trace the design and keep up the pressure. Why don’t you scan the image and then start practicing?” At his gesture, the AI reluctantly floated over to the book, a thin beam of light touching the pages of the journal.
“And if I accidentally stab you in the eye?” Daniel demanded.
“Then I’ll heal,” Finn responded in a dry tone. “You can’t permanently harm me here, remember?”
“I’m not sure Julia would approve of this,” the AI said. “Skimming the related text and notes, this appears to be an experimental ward. We can’t be certain of its effects. Even the author warns—”
“Don’t worry about Julia. All progress comes with risk, and I need your help,” Finn interjected once again. “I will have to expel my own mana and channel a portion into the stylus at the same time, so I can’t do this by myself.”
“I don’t know…” Daniel murmured, clearly groping for an excuse not to do this.
Finn tilted his head, watching the ball of flame. The AI actually seemed deeply anxious about this task. “I… I trust you, Daniel. It will be okay.”
The AI seemed to freeze in place for a moment, before glowing with a hotter orange fire. He seemed… pleased?
“Okay,” Daniel replied finally. “Just let me practice a few times and then tell me when you’re ready.”
Despite his assurances, Finn could feel his stomach flip flop as he watched the AI flit over toward the stone embankment, drawing the pattern repeatedly in the sand. He knew that if Kyyle or Julia were here, they would caution him against performing this strange experiment on himself. Yet that was also why he needed to do this now.
If he didn’t act before they returned, he might never get the chance.
Rachael’s face flashed through his mind, followed closely by the images of Kalisha’s mechanids and Malik’s tattoos and weapons. Finn had too much riding on this to back down or hesitate. His opponents were strong, and they had years – possibly decades – of training and experience with this world. If he was to succeed in this competition, Finn needed to keep evolving. If this ward might help him unlock the secrets to creating new spells, then it was worth the risk.
Finn felt his resolve harden even as his fire mana ignited through his body. He embraced that fiery sensation, feeding it until it simmered in his veins and drove away any lingering traces of doubt – until all he felt was a bubbling excitement.
At the risk he was about to take.
At what he stood to gain.
“Alright, let’s begin,” Finn grunted.
The AI abruptly stilled, and then drifted toward him, the stylus still embedded in the fiery sphere.
Without giving himself time to back down, Finn’s hands began to move, twining through an intricate series of gestures as he followed Bilel’s instructions. For this to work, he needed to remove all mana from his body. Flames soon appeared around him, shifting and spinning in the air in a dizzying display. Yet he kept channeling – funneling the mana out of his body in a torrent until the entire area around him was awash in fire.
Within only moments, the air was beginning to boil, and he shifted the energy farther away, trying to create a small pocket of clear air so he could breathe. He couldn’t afford to pass out in the middle of the ritual.
Even at a distance, the heat was oppressive, pushing at him in almost-palpable waves. It was difficult to control the energy. These were not the delicate spinning balls of flame that Abbad had taught him to channel. These were heavy things – boulders of flame that he strained to keep stable and aloft. The energy bucked against his control. It felt like he was trying to keep hold of a fire hose.
Sweat dripped into his eyes, and Finn blinked it away even as he watched his mana finally hit zero. He was regulating the channel with his fingers so that he was expending an amount of mana exactly equal to his regeneration – allowing him to maintain the channel indefinitely. That small trickle was directed toward the stylus, the metal instrument now glowing with a soft red light as the AI held it aloft.
“Okay,” Finn said, his voice strained as he tried to both speak to Daniel and concentrate on controlling the flames. “You can start now,” Finn gasped.
“Yes, sir. I suspect you will feel a small burning sensation…” the AI said, sounding nervous as he drifted closer.
Finn squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for the piercing bite of the stylus. He felt it only a moment later, a stinging heat located right at his temple, and Finn let out a hiss of pain.
Daniel hesitated at the sound.
“Keep going,” Finn ordered. He was struggling to keep his fingers moving.
The AI hesitated only a second longer before stabbing forward again, barely pierc
ing the skin as he traced a faint line. He moved with painstaking slowness, the stylus creeping across Finn’s skin as Daniel focused on replicating the design perfectly.
Finn felt the metal break his skin, his blood beginning to well and drip down his cheeks. He heard more than felt a faint hiss and pop as his blood touched the heated stylus, tendrils of smoke curling up into the night air.
The process seemed to take forever as Finn sat there with his eyes shut, his mana surrounding him in a torrent of flame.
As Daniel finished his left eye and switched to the right, Finn could feel involuntary tears streaming down his cheeks, mixing with the sweat that beaded on his skin and the blood from the tattoos. Then another lance of pain shot from his right temple as Daniel started the second design.
Finn felt himself wavering as the seconds ticked past.
Notifications were flashing in the corner of his vision, and he was struggling to breathe now, the air growing thinner as his flames consumed the nearby oxygen. His breath came in rapid, panting gasps. Yet he kept his fingers moving and his mana flowing out into the ever-growing inferno hovering around him.
Just a little bit further.
Finn needed to focus on something else – anything besides the pain.
His eyes popped open, ignoring the stinging heat and smoke that now clouded the area. He peered into the flames that roared around him as though he sat within an ocean of orange and red, hypnotized by the crackle and pop of the fires. In that moment, two eyes seemed to open before him. The flames curled and bent unnaturally, creating two massive irises composed entirely of the burning energy, streamers of fire spiraling around them like silken bands of cloth.
Finn recognized those eyes – that face. The Seer.
“Hello Finn,” the goddess murmured. “I know you cannot speak right now, and we don’t have long. However, I have an important message to impart.
“A storm is coming, but you cannot be afraid to leap.”
Finn blinked, struggling to focus on her words. They were vague… confusing.
“I know you’re in pain and that my instruction may not make sense now, but you will remember it when the time comes. You must. For Rachael.”
At those words, the eyes transformed. A face appeared in the flames – so achingly familiar. Brown eyes and auburn hair. A glimmering sequined dress that reflected the flickering orange light of the fire. It was the dress she wore during the accident, Finn realized. But his attention was riveted on those kind eyes that stared at him, so full of love and compassion.
And then, in a flash, the face disappeared, and Finn was alone once more. Alone and surrounded by a sea of flame. Alone with the burning sensation in his temples, the smell of burnt blood, the heat that caused his skin to welt and blister, and the impossible strain of holding his mana suspended.
But with a trace of hope…
Everything he had done so far was for her.
His training. The fighting. The deaths. The journey.
And now this experiment.
It was all for Rachael.
I won’t give up, Finn thought, forcing himself to continue.
The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Despite his resolve, Finn could feel his body reaching its limit. His fingers were slowing. His head was pounding. His vision blurring. He was having difficulty thinking clearly with the pain throbbing through his temples, but his fingers were still winding through their rhythmic pattern.
With the pain and fatigue came doubt. Had that conversation been real? Or just a pain-induced hallucination? Even now, he felt like he could hear the muted drone of someone shouting at him, but it sounded so far away.
“Sir!” the AI screamed more urgently this time.
Finn’s attention suddenly snapped back into focus, realizing that Daniel was hovering beside his ear, shouting at him. “Sir, I’m done, but you need to release your mana.”
He shook his head. He couldn’t do that. Bilel’s notes had been clear.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes, and his fingers twitched. Instead of sending the flames hurtling away, he pulled them back toward himself. The flames rushed back to his body with a soft whoosh, enveloping and lapping at his skin before absorbing back into his limbs. As it entered him, it felt like his entire body was alight with flame. The fires burned through his muscles and organs in a rush. And yet, at the same time, his energy began to return, and his limbs began to feel springy and light once more.
Only a moment later, it was done.
Finn sat there in the darkness with his eyes closed. His body was drenched in sweat, and his own blood trickled down his cheeks, a fiery tingle itching along the skin beside his eyes. He gave himself several long, precious seconds to catch his breath. And as his pulse and breathing finally slowed, Finn’s attention shifted to the next step.
This was the moment of truth.
Had it worked?
“Mashhad,” Finn murmured, recalling the word emblazoned in Bilel’s journal.
Light suddenly erupted behind Finn’s eyelids. It was like staring into a blinding kaleidoscope, a rainbow of colors swimming and running together in a chaotic pattern that was almost overwhelming. Finn fought the chaos, trying to make sense of the streamers of energy that filled his newfound sight. Yet as he struggled, it only became more difficult, the bands of light meshing and dividing more erratically.
Then he did the opposite.
Despite everything he had just gone through, Finn forced himself to relax.
He slowed his breathing, un-tensing his muscles and limbs until they hung limp and motionless. He didn’t try to fight the flow of the near-blinding color and light. He simply looked with his newfound sight – a passive observer.
And as he finally let go, the colors suddenly snapped into focus.
What he had first thought of as chaos actually had a pattern. In his normal vision, the division between objects was stark – denoted with harsh and concrete lines. However, in this newfound sight, objects didn’t have clear borders. They blurred together with the surrounding energy, creating muddy bands of color in so many varying hues that Finn didn’t even have names for all of them.
He tilted his head down, observing a rock he knew rested beside him. It glowed with a soft green light, blending into a vast green field below him.
That must be the stone beneath me.
Yellow swirls of energy overlaid the emerald, the colors mixing together as though bleeding into one another. It was like viewing the world as a watercolor painting. As he studied his surrounding, Finn could make out the rest of the shapes around him, identifying rocks and boulders. The sand at the edge of the stone was a slightly different shade of green, with tendrils of yellow streaming through it and across it – the wind drifting across the rock.
Then Finn made a mistake.
He opened his eyes…
Suddenly the colors were overlaying his normal sight, blurring together into a double vision that sent his head spinning and caused a sharp pain to arc away from both temples. He squeezed his eyes shut again quickly, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Okay, eyes closed while this is on, Finn thought with a grimace, trying to will away the pain. It took several long moments for the sharp burning sensation to subside.
I can’t open my eyes, but can I move? he wondered.
Finn was more cautious this time. He moved slowly, trying to rise to his feet.
Only to immediately regret that as well. The colors blurred together into a now-familiar chaotic, kaleidoscopic rainbow of light. Objects blended into one another and spun together so rapidly that it made it impossible to distinguish his surroundings. He immediately began to feel nauseous and disoriented.
Finn froze in place, slowly lowering himself back to the ground.
Got it. I can’t move either.
“Mashhad,” Finn murmured again, and the colors abruptly bled away, leaving only darkness. Finn hesitantly opened his eyes. They ached – deeply and at the root – as though someone had
punched him directly in the retina. Yet his sight had returned to normal, darkness once more filling the world around him.
Although the move cost him with the way his eyes ached, Finn glanced at the corner of his vision and saw a couple of notifications. He swiped at the air, moving gingerly to avoid jostling his throbbing head.
New Spell: Mana Sight
You have gained the ability to see ambient mana in the world. However, this ability is not natural and is costly to use, interfering with your normal vision. Further practice will refine the sight, allowing you to sense mana more acutely and at greater distances.
Skill Level: Beginner Level 1
Cost: 50 mana and stamina per second.
Effect: Ability to view ambient mana. Current vision is [poor].
New Skill: Warding
You have learned how to inscribe a person’s body with ambient runes. Masters of this craft are able to turn their body into a living weapon, tapping into their natural mana without lifting a finger or uttering a single word. However, these gifts come with a cost, putting a significant strain on both the user’s mana and stamina.
Skill Level: Beginner Level 1
Effect 1: Ability to inscribe novice-level spells.
It took Finn several pain-filled minutes to read the prompts since he had to keep giving his eyes a moment to rest, squeezing them shut.
Yet, as he finished, a broad smile stretched his lips.
“It worked,” Finn croaked. His voice sounded harsh and dry.
“Are you okay, sir?” Daniel asked abruptly, his voice thick with concern. The AI darted around Finn nervously as though inspecting him.
“Y-yes,” he rasped. “But please stop that. The light hurts my eyes.” Daniel slowed his movements but still stayed close, hovering near his shoulder.
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