Despite the pain and the weariness that riddled his limbs, and the strange whispered warning from the Seer, Finn felt a glow of accomplishment. He had taken another step forward. Already, the implications of this new ability were tumbling through his mind. It might allow him to sense magical traps, identify spells, pick out weapon enchantments or abilities. With time, it might even help him fully unlock the secrets behind his Spellcrafting.
“What now, sir?” Daniel asked quietly. “Perhaps you should rest?”
Finn laughed, the sound harsh and brittle, causing his burned throat to throb. “No, Daniel. It’s not time to stop yet.” He turned to look at the AI, his eyes glowing with orange energy as his fire mana flared in his veins – mirroring his excitement.
“We have some training to do.”
Chapter 11 - Conspicuous
Bilel’s Journal – Entry 37
Developing a way to detect and view ambient mana has changed everything.
It is challenging to explain the difference in mere words. I had long felt that something was… off. That I was blind and bound. It was as though I had lived my entire life without a sense, only to be suddenly gifted my sight, smell, or hearing.
Upon walking outside, I also observed something splendid – perhaps a sight that no other mage has witnessed before. The sky was alive with color, a dense, flowing river of energy that drifted across the heavens. I can only guess at its purpose. Perhaps what I am witnessing is the ambient flow of energy through the world? Or something beyond the sky and stars? Either way, I have taken a massive leap forward in my research.
The only caveat is that I need to grow more accustomed to using the sight. It comes with many limitations – interfering with my natural vision and quick movements, causing disorientation and nausea. But I am not discouraged. Instead, I will focus on training my newfound ability as I continue my research.
***
Finn sighed, resting his back against a smooth boulder as he let his enhanced vision fade away. When he opened his eyes, he saw that his normal vision had returned. Streamers and colorful clouds of chaotic energy now gave way to straight lines and sharp angles. The sun had just barely crested the horizon, a great flaming eye that had opened up on the desert, driving away the few creatures that struggled to survive there during the twilight hours.
He had spent the entire night in-game training, which consisted of activating his newfound Mana Sight, inspecting his surroundings, and then dropping the ability as his stamina and mana bottomed out. After a few dozen tries, the headaches and extreme lethargy had begun to recede. Although, he could still feel a dull ache at his temples that indicated that he was experiencing the side effects. Maybe he had just learned to ignore them.
Finn swiped at his system UI to review his progress.
x1 Skill Rank Up: Mana Mastery
Skill Level: Intermediate Level 6
Effect 1: -8.5% to the mana cost of spells.
Effect 2: 3.5% faster cast rate.
x5 Spell Rank Up: Mana Sight
Skill Level: Beginner Level 6
Cost: 50 mana and stamina per second.
Effect: Ability to view ambient mana. Current vision is [poor].
The tooltip hadn’t updated despite gaining a few levels, still listing his enhanced vision as “poor.” Perhaps he simply needed to keep training. Glancing at his UI, he noticed that his stamina and mana had recovered again, allowing him to reactivate the sight.
“Mashhad,” Finn murmured as he closed his eyes.
Behind his eyelids, the world was now awash in color. Finn still hadn’t managed to get the sight to work while using his regular eyesight. According to Bilel’s writings, the mage had complained of the same disorientation when he tried to use Mana Sight with his eyes open – an experience made even worse with movement. The mage posited that the native mana of a person’s eyes interfered with the wards, but only when a person was actually using the organs. Similarly, Bilel had gone into great detail outlining the mana systems that affected a person’s inner ear – his second hypothesis being that the proximity of that mana might also contribute to the dizziness.
Perhaps the mage was right.
Despite these limitations, Finn felt he had made progress. The sight had become more accurate with each attempt and less disorienting. He could now distinguish between objects more easily. As his ability to detect mana improved, he had already tried to practice moving with the sight active – keeping his eyes closed and his movements slow. This seemed to become more manageable over time. Perhaps he could eventually learn to use the ability in combat if he kept his movements to a minimum and his eyes closed.
Although that might have been his imagination since anything more than a glacial shift of his body still caused the streamers of energy to twist and spin into complete chaos.
So maybe not.
During his practice and experiments, Finn had also happened to look down at his arm. He had discovered that a fiery vein of orange ran through the limb like a river of magma. However, across his skin, he also sensed small tendrils of other colors. Blues and greens as his hands tapped at his UI. A flash of white if he tried to cast a spell. His theory – one mirrored by Bilel’s writings and the game’s prompts – was that a person wasn’t composed of just one affinity. He wasn’t just passion. Or logic. Or confidence. He was a combination, a cocktail of emotions, constantly in flux as his body converted the energy dynamically.
In contrast, the rock beside him remained a solid dim green. Inanimate objects seemed to retain their singular mana, although Finn supposed idly that his sample group was quite small. There could be materials that had more than one characteristic. This theory was partially borne from the desert before him.
Finn looked out at the sea of sand and no longer saw grainy yellow particles. He now stood before an ocean of green, ribbons of yellow sweeping across its surface. As the sun crested the horizon, a massive glowing orange ball of pulsing energy, rays of light speared outward. A fan of white and orange danced in the air and mixed with the yellows and greens in a chaotic medley.
It was beautiful.
There has to be a way to isolate specific energies, Finn thought to himself as he watched the scene. If he was looking at a single object up close, the sight was quite accurate. However, moments like this, where multiple types of mana merged and combined, made it difficult to tease them apart. However, if Finn could remove specific energies at will – like the lenses on a microscope – he might be able to further refine his sight.
“Well, look at you taking a break!” Kyyle spoke up abruptly from behind Finn, causing him to whirl in surprise. “Watching a sunrise and…”
Finn abruptly let his vision fade, cradling his head and steadying himself on a nearby boulder. The fast turn had his stomach complaining loudly. His eyes drifted up to the earth mage, shock etched across his face. Kyyle had trailed off as he caught sight of the tattoos along Finn’s temples. Then his attention shifted to the stone platform where Finn had been training.
In the daylight, the damage looked worse. The stone was charred a dark black in a ten-foot circle around Finn, parts of the rock partially melted into small rivulets of magma that had then re-hardened in the cool night air. The effect was that Finn had melted the stone into a smooth dark circle.
“Or maybe I spoke too soon,” Kyyle murmured.
“What the hell did you do now?” Julia asked more bluntly, coming up behind the earth mage and glaring at Finn.
“Uh, well…” Finn was struggling to think about how to explain what he’d done without it sounding… well, crazy. “It’s not quite as bad as it looks,” he tried weakly.
Julia just snorted and rounded on the AI who hovered beside Finn’s shoulder. “What did he do, Daniel? And don’t you dare lie to me.”
Finn thought he heard the AI gulp, but that didn’t seem possible without a throat.
“Finn read the secret journal that Abbad gave him. He then decided to undertake an experiment outlined in the book, enlisting m
y help to carve tattoos into his temples. The destruction to the surrounding stone is a direct result of Finn expelling the entirety of his mana and holding it suspended outside himself for the duration of my work.”
“Nark,” Finn muttered under his breath. Maybe he needed to update the AI’s software so that Daniel could only respond to his commands.
Julia and Kyyle just stared at Daniel for a long moment.
Then Finn’s daughter slowly rounded on him, giving him a look he’d only seen a few times before – and never on her face. “You did what?” Julia asked through clenched teeth.
Finn coughed. “Daniel didn’t exactly—”
Julia rounded on the AI again. “After he decided to do this incredibly dangerous thing by himself and while his enemies slept nearby, what did he do next? Or, more specifically, did he log off and take care of his real body?”
“I don’t think—” Finn tried again.
“No, ma’am,” Daniel replied, interrupting Finn. “He practiced his new ability constantly for 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 47 seconds until you both logged back in.” A brief pause as the AI noticed Finn’s expression. “My apologies, he actually took the occasional break to read that strange journal while his mana and stamina regenerated.”
“That’s not better,” Finn muttered at the AI. To make things worse, Finn swore the damn ball of flame flashed once like it was winking at him. Maybe this was revenge for making Daniel tattoo the designs on his temples?
“So, let’s recap,” Julia said, stalking toward Finn. Kyyle just looked uncomfortable and seemed to be edging away.
Finn’s daughter began listing points on her fingers. “You did something dangerous, while alone, despite the cost of a respawn back in Lahab. You then sat here in the middle of the evidence of your own stupidity and trained for more than five hours straight instead of taking care of yourself. Am I close?”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” Finn offered.
“What is wrong with you?” Julia snapped. “Like, seriously? What about food? Going to the bathroom? And all of this for an in-game ability? Why are you so hellbent on training in this game?”
Those were all great questions… which Finn wasn’t sure how to answer.
What was his response going to be? “It’s all for your dead mother. A mysterious fire god inside this so-called ‘game’ offered to resurrect her – or at least her digital ghost.”
Somehow, he thought that would just be throwing gasoline on the fire that was already burning in Julia’s eyes. Those same eyes that were still glaring at him – waiting for an answer.
“I-I don’t know,” Finn finally offered. He glanced at Kyyle, seeing some sympathy flit across his face. Suddenly, he recalled their discussion before his fight with Lamia.
Maybe a partial truth would work.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a goal… something to work toward,” Finn offered hesitantly. “I’ve always lost myself in my projects. And now, after… after what happened, I need that again. For just a moment, I can finally forget…”
…forget what’s at stake here. That I’m fighting for your mother, he added silently.
Julia’s expression softened slightly, but not enough to fully put out the fire blazing in her eyes. “Fine. Fine,” she muttered, shaking her head. Then her attention snapped back to his face. “But you’re still being a careless idiot. What if the other champions had attacked while you were vulnerable?”
“I had Daniel keeping lookout,” Finn offered.
“Was that before or after he carved tattoos onto your face,” Julia snapped. “Or you apparently decided to undergo an experimental procedure in the first place.” She pointed at Bilel’s journal. “What even is that thing?”
“It’s a journal – Abbad gave it to me before we left. It was written by another spellcrafter,” Finn explained. “He was trying to find a way to see mana, which is actually the point of these tattoos.”
Julia’s eyes widened, and she took an inadvertent step back.
In contrast, Kyyle perked up, his eyes shining with interest. “I don’t want to interrupt this moment or whatever,” he offered tentatively, glancing at Julia before turning back to Finn. “But did it work? I mean, you spent hours practicing…” He trailed off, letting the implication linger in the air.
A slow smile crept across Finn’s face, and he nodded excitedly.
“Damn,” Kyyle murmured. “So, what? You can see mana now?”
Finn cocked his head. “I have to activate the ability. Like Kalisha explained last night, spells can be woven into the tattoos and activated at will. Although, I still haven’t managed to use it with my eyes open, and I can’t move much while it’s active.”
“Damn, that’s cool,” Kyyle replied, an excited grin suddenly painted on his face. He swiped at the air as he pulled up his terminal, and only a moment later, his fingers were dancing across an invisible keyboard as he took notes. “I have so many questions. How do you activate it? What can you see? How far away? Have you tried observing active spells?”
Julia clamped a hand on the young man’s forearm, her grip like iron. “You’re not helping.” Her eyes shot back to Finn. “We’ll be leaving soon. You need to log off and take care of yourself. Eat. Go to the bathroom.”
She sighed as she looked at her in-game clock. “It would be better if you could get some sleep, but I’m not sure we have time before the caravan leaves. So, you’ll have to make do with one of your power naps.”
“But…” Finn tried to interject, looking between her and Kyyle and gesturing at the book.
Julia abruptly flashed forward in a blur of movement. An instant later, she held Bilel’s journal in one hand, waving it at Finn. “Let me rephrase. You’ll get your book back after you’ve acted like a grown-ass man. Now log out.”
Finn watched his daughter, and he couldn’t help but see the resemblance to Rachael again. She would have done the same thing. Besides, even as Julia mentioned logging off, Finn finally took stock of himself. His head ached, a now-permanent pounding pain behind his eyes. His limbs felt heavy, and a fog of fatigue clouded his thoughts. As he rubbed at his eyes, he realized he hadn’t even wiped away the dried blood at his temples, his fingers coming away with flecks of crimson.
“She’s probably right, you should take a quick break,” Kyyle spoke up. “We can go over your new sight when you get back.” Daniel pulsed once in acknowledgment.
Finn looked up to see all three of them staring at him – Daniel’s flickering form and Kyyle’s and Julia’s dour expressions. It seemed he had been outvoted.
“Alright,” Finn muttered finally, tapping at his UI. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Then, for the first time in a long time, Finn logged out.
Chapter 12 - Harried
Bilel’s Journal – Entry 38
After months spent in intensive research and study, I had almost forgotten my original purpose in developing the sight…
Upon arriving in the crafting ward, I saw another mage for the first time – not blind and tethered but with my newfound faculties. I saw a being composed of rainbow colors, shifting and shimmering with each movement and thought. These were fantastical creatures composed of light, darkness, and color – a moving canvas of energy painted by the universe. I couldn’t help but sit and stare in awe.
I can only imagine the others thought me insane – gaping at my colleagues. Yet as my shock eventually wore off, I began to notice something interesting. Among the shifting streamers of energy, each mage’s mana was bound tightly in clusters within each limb and in the center of their chest – forming a rough star shape.
I resolved immediately to call these clusters “Najima.”
***
Finn logged back into AO with a flash of multi-colored light.
And, once again, he was whole. His legs moved on their own – no longer dead weight saddled to his chair. His muscles felt limber and spry – no longer worn down and damaged by age and entropy. He stretched for
a moment, reveling in the responsive tight feeling of this new body. Even a short break had begun to feel like a chore.
Why do people ever leave? he wondered.
Probably pesky things like eating and drinking.
Shouts of alarm went up behind him, and Finn whirled, his eyes scanning the rocks, now illuminated by faint rays of morning sunshine. Finn had logged out on the perch where he had performed the warding ritual, and he was now forced to navigate among the columns of rock back toward camp, breaking into a light jog even as he summoned his blades with deft movements of his fingers.
Finn skidded to a stop a moment later as he saw the source of the noise. The members of the caravan were all clustered along the southern edge of the rocky edifice, staring out at the desert. Guards hustled about the area, packing up the makeshift camp and beginning to round up the beetles. It looked like they were in a hurry. However, Finn didn’t see any immediate threat, and he dismissed his blades as he approached.
“What’s going on?” he asked as he walked up behind Julia and Kyyle.
“Sandworms,” Julia answered, waving a hand at the horizon. A cloud of dust had been kicked up by something, creating a rolling yellow avalanche that tumbled across the dunes. It looked like a miniature storm front, the sand jetting a few hundred feet into the air. At a guess, it was nearly two miles long.
“How big do they have to be to create that?” Kyyle muttered. Finn was on the same page. He was struggling to imagine the creature that could create that rolling sandstorm.
“We need to get moving now,” Altair barked overtop the murmurs of the caravan. “Everyone get your gear loaded and mount up. We leave in two minutes.”
The other champions didn’t put up any resistance to this order, rushing to their mounts along with the guards. Even Vanessa – who usually took any opportunity to work in a jab at Finn – was mysteriously quiet. They looked… worried.
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