Deal. I retrieved the stools from the deck and set them in the dining room, then took my notebook, quill, and ink from the table and made my way to the backyard. My goal for the afternoon was to build a bed frame; it would have to be built the old-fashioned way, as it was far too large to be crafted out of a single log, but I planned to take advantage of my new skills. With my notebook balanced on my knee, I began to sketch the various pieces required as my Detection mana crept around the house to watch Marin’s training.
It started the same as Lia’s training had back behind her father’s barn in Tolamar; Marin drew her sword and took what she thought was a battle pose, and Lia corrected the grip and adjusted her stance. When Marin’s form was correct, they walked through the proper way to swing a sword, followed by a detailed breakdown on how to move during combat and how to respond correctly to an opponent’s movement. After a brief lesson about the best ways to dodge and parry attacks, Lia invited Marin to attack her with the promise that, until Marin landed a hit, she wouldn’t strike back.
What followed was an amusing afternoon of frustrated yells from Marin and hidden amusement from Lia. Every time she ducked an attack and sent Marin teetering off to one side, I could feel a small twinge of satisfaction through our shared connection. Marin, on the other hand, was a much more vocal student than Lia had been, clearly and loudly announcing her displeasure whenever she was thrown roughly into the dirt. Despite her constant protests, her spirit never faltered, and she always retook her stance and attacked again with increased determination.
I had just finished putting together our new bed frame when Lia called a stop to their practice, and Marin immediately collapsed onto the grass with a whimper. There was a gentle tug at the edge of my consciousness as Lia sat down cross legged and instructed Marin to do the same. You can come outside now, if you want. Please.
I found both girls side by side when I stepped down onto the ground, each with their eyes closed. “...And just focus on your breathing. Nothing else for now.” Without opening her eyes, Lia pointed to the spot on the opposite side of Marin, and I took my appointed seat quietly and joined in the meditation circle.
“After all of that work, this is—”
“No, Marin, no talking,” Lia chided. “Just breathing.”
Marin harrumphed loudly, but I heard her breathing level out into an equal, measured rhythm. After a few minutes had passed in silence, Lia nodded. “Good. Now we can talk about magic.”
“Oh, magic!” Marin exclaimed, then clamped her hand over her mouth. She scrunched her eyes shut again and retook her meditative position, then nodded.
“I know that you’ve learned that magic is done by channeling the power of the Major Primevals, but that isn’t exactly true. The energy you need to cast magic, called mana, is already inside of you,” Lia explained. “It’s deep in your core, and right now, it’s all blocked off. Unless it’s activated unconsciously in a life-or-death situation, it is perfectly content to sit undisturbed for your entire life. What we want to do is open up those channels and let the energy out so it can be used.”
Marin shifted uncomfortably in place, biting at her lip as she processed the information. “Does that mean Unity is a lie?” she asked quietly.
“No,” I answered quickly, “it just means that Unity’s specific ideas about how magic works are wrong. The Major Primevals very well could have created the world, just like you’ve been taught, but they aren’t granting you their power when you do magic. That power comes from you. Saying a prayer to a Prime is just a good way of specifying what you want that power to do.”
She mulled over the information for a moment, then looked down at her hands. “I don’t feel any energy in me like that.” She prodded a finger into her stomach. “Are you sure I have it?”
Lia laughed. “You do, I promise. I can see it right now.”
Marin’s eyes widened. “You can? You’re sure?” She tapped her hands excitedly against her legs in anticipation. “How do I use it?”
“You’ll start by meditating again,” Lia instructed as she stood up and circled around behind Marin. Kneeling down, she placed a hand gently on the small of Marin’s back; Marin let out a surprised squeak at the unexpected contact, then did her best to regain her composure and return to her meditation. “Picture your mana like a deep pool of water, right here. When you let it out, it flows like a river up and out to all of your extremities,” Lia explained, tracing a line up Marin’s spine and down the outside of her shoulder.
Marin’s eyelids fluttered as her body shuddered involuntarily. “Okay, what do I, uhm...what do I do next?”
“Normally, you would meditate and practice until you found the mana and released it yourself, but there’s an easier way,” Lia explained, nodding to me.
Taking my cue, I spun to face Marin and took her hand, squeezing it tightly. The pale skin of her palm was remarkably clammy, further betraying her unease. Her eyes snapped open and stared into mine, and she gave me an awkward smile as her eyebrows danced back and forth between emotions. “Close your eyes and clear your mind,” I said in a calming voice. “Focus on the rhythm of your breath: deep, slow, and even.” Mana ran down into my fingertips and hovered at the shared boundary of our skin. “I’m going to break the barriers holding your mana back. When I do, you’re going to feel an intense rush of energy throughout your body, as well as some very strange sensations that are...sort of hard to explain. No matter what happens, I promise you’ll be okay.”
Her eyes bounced back and forth as she processed the information, and she eventually gave me a timid nod. “I’m ready,” she said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.
I broached the surface of her skin cautiously and found the reactive barrier of energy as expected. As opposed to the constant golden glow of Lia’s mana that surrounded us with an intense focus, Marin’s seemed to flicker like a small pink flame, rippling in a razor-thin sheet along her hand where my energy attempted to pass through. I punctured the defensive line with a single, sharp spike of mana and felt the satisfying pop as the energy raced away to her core. Her hand began to tremble between mine, and I gave it a reassuring squeeze.
My mana chased after hers, rushing up her arm and into her spine before making the final plunge down to her core. The blue lightning struck against her final barriers and shattered through them, sending a bright pink light burning outwards in all directions. I gasped as her physical sensations melded with mine, and I became intimately attuned to the rapid beating of her heart and the tingling new sensations of channeled mana through her arms and legs. Our eyes opened in sync and, for a brief moment, I forgot which of our faces belonged to me as I observed them both through different eyes.
She let out an ecstatic moan as another shiver rattled down her spine, and she looked around the clearing with wide, frantic eyes. “This is incredible!” she yelled between heavy, panting breaths. “I feel amazing. Amazing!” As I withdrew my mana from her body, I was satisfied to see that the subdued pink embers in her core had become a crackling fire that radiated brightly throughout her body. When our connection severed, I felt a fleeting sensation of emptiness, which I saw echoed in her face. “Ooh, now I feel...less, uhm, good, I think,” she mumbled as she began to sway back and forth.
I tugged gently on her hands and, with Lia’s help, guided her down into my lap. She stared up at me and blinked slowly. “Are you...me?”
“No, you’re you, Marin,” I laughed.
A wide, carefree smile spread across her face. “Good,” she answered, a moment before falling unconscious. Her head lolled to the side as her body went limp, and I gathered her up delicately into my arms.
“I believe this is yours,” I chuckled, holding the sleeping girl out to Lia.
“Right,” she grinned as she gathered Marin into a bridal carry against her chest. “I’ll take her home.”
“Tell your parents they’ll probably have a hard time waking her up tomorrow. And to make sure she eats a big breakfast.”
“I know, I know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Anything else?”
“Oh, grab us something to eat while you’re there,” I added. “I’m sure your mother cooked up something lovely for dinner.”
It looked as though she wanted to complain, but she paused mid-turn and considered the prospect of freshly cooked food. “That’s a good idea, actually. I’ll make sure to find something.” She turned and dashed to the edge of the clearing. “Maybe I’ll even bring something back for you!”
I shook my head and laughed as she disappeared into the trees. Without the company of a normal person, her sprint through the dark forest only took a few minutes in each direction, and she soon returned with a large pot of stew. We ate it together directly out of the pot with a pair of freshly crafted wooden spoons, fighting each other for the largest chunks of meat and vegetables as they appeared from the dark broth. When the pot was emptied, we retired to the bedroom and climbed into our newly supported bed, which sat on a large, unornamented wooden frame.
“So,” Lia started as she slid under the covers beside me, “how did I do today?”
“Honestly? I think you were amazing,” I answered. “You were patient and helpful, but firm when you needed to be. Even though she complains a lot, Marin clearly respects you and wants to learn everything you have to teach her.”
She blushed and pulled the blankets up to cover her face, peeking out at me through a small crack by her eye. “Thanks, Lux. It really means a lot to hear you say that.”
I slipped my head under the blanket, invading her hiding spot. “You deserve it,” I said, smiling. I reached out a finger and tapped her lightly on the nose. “But don’t think that means you get to slack off now! You’ve got to keep up the effort every day, no matter how tired you get or how loud Marin whines.”
She giggled. “I can do that.” We stayed beneath the covers, hiding from the rest of the world in our private sanctuary of blankets and pillows. She wiggled her way closer to me and spun around, dragging my arm tightly across her chest as she snuggled further into the covers. “Goodnight, Lux. I love you.”
“I love you too, Lia,” I answered. Sleep came quickly, but I awoke a few minutes later when Lia tapped her finger insistently on my hand.
“Lux?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think every day is going to be like this?”
“Like what?”
“Like this one. Amazing.”
“I don’t think so. I’m sure we’ll have some hard days too, but that doesn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’ll be together.”
“Together, forever.”
“Forever.”
***
10. ADVANCEMENTS
The following days were by far the most productive of all my lives. Every morning, Lia and I awoke at dawn and picked a topic from the board to study. We sat together and discussed the various facets of each particular strain of magic: what it was meant to do, how it could relate to our existing knowledge, and how best to approach testing it. When the topic was a more mundane magic like Detection advancements or enchantments, we sat together in our living room and meditated, constantly sharing notes about our successes, failures, and new ideas. The study of more dynamic magics in the elemental school was done outside, well away from our newly constructed home.
On our first real day of testing, it quickly became apparent that a detailed discussion of our proposed topics was necessary before any hands-on study could be done. “Water magic,” I pondered out loud after Lia had made her first choice. “What does that actually mean?”
“You know,” she said, gesturing vaguely with her hands, “water magic. Controlling it to put out a fire, making a still pool of water flow, throwing it at an opponent. That sort of thing.”
“I don’t know if that’s really water magic,” I mused, suddenly confused about what had seemed like a simple topic when we first added it to the board. “It sounds like you just want the ability to move water around.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “How is that not water magic?”
“It’s just...throwing magic,” I answered, chuckling at the words as I heard them out loud. “If you could find magic that would let you pick up and control water, why wouldn’t it work on other things? If magic can throw water, it could throw rocks and wood and metal too, right? Why would it be specific to just water?” My train of thought brought me to my feet and carried me to our noteboard. “No, I think what you want is just telekinesis,” I said, writing the word under our miscellaneous category.
“Telekinesis,” she said slowly, testing the word. “That just means throwing magic?”
“Basically, yes,” I laughed. “It just means controlling objects at a distance.”
Lia rubbed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “I guess that also applies to earth magic, too. All I really wanted was to throw rocks and move dirt around.”
“No, this is good! It isn’t what we originally thought, but now, if we figure out telekinesis, we figure out all of those old ideas at the same time,” I said excitedly. I added a small question mark next to our entries for water and earth, unwilling to cross them out and discount the topics entirely. “Now, do you think this idea applies to anything else on our board?”
“Light and Dark seem to be in their own category, but...ice, maybe?”
I nodded and moved to write a question mark beside the entry, but my hand froze before the quill could make it’s mark. “No,” I murmured, suddenly consumed by a new idea, “ice is different.” I ran into the kitchen and grabbed Hana’s empty stewpot without an explanation to Lia, then burst out of the front door and made my way into the trees. The door opened a moment later as she followed me on my mad dash, laughing to herself as we went. When we reached the stream, I knelt down and filled the pot half full with water.
“Fire magic was the first type of magic I used that wasn’t combat enhancements. I chose it because it was a natural process that was easy to visualize and understand; fire is just heat energy and fuel, right?” I asked aloud, mostly speaking for my own benefit. “Ice should just be the opposite of that. Instead of using mana to add energy to something, I’ll just use it to take energy away.” Mana rushed down my arms to the metal pot and suffused into the water as if I meant to boil it. Concentrating on my intentions, I confidently gave the command. “Freeze.”
I felt a brief wave of heat pass by my hands as the energy rushed away from the pot, and a series of sharp cracks reverberated up at me as the water expanded and froze in an instant. The metal in my hands began to sting, and I hopped away from the frozen pot with a huge grin. “You did it!” Lia shouted. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but it worked immediately!”
“Don’t expect all of our tests to go so smoothly,” I chuckled. “This one is exciting, though; it’s our first success!” I put an arm around her shoulder and turned us back towards the house, leaving the pot to thaw out in the sun. “Now that we know it’s possible, we can start discussing all the potential uses for ice magic.”
“Ice skating!” she answered immediately. “Ice skating whenever we want!” We both laughed as we walked back through the trees, discussing where our new ice rink would fit in with the other planned expansions to our homestead. When we entered the house, Lia rushed to our noteboard and stole an empty sheet from the front, pinning it to the empty backside. She wrote “Ice Magic” in large letters, then set the quill down with a satisfied look. “So, what’s next?”
Our advancements came in rapid succession after our initial breakthrough. Lia was as successful with her attempt at using light magic as I had been with ice magic; after a long discussion of what light magic would actually do, she chose to experiment with Solette’s diamond orb as her implement. With only a brief moment to meditate over the crystal, she produced a white light so powerful that I could see it even as I shut my eyes against the glare. When our vision finally recovered from the unexpected nova,
we spent the remainder of the morning fine-tuning the new power to a more usable state.
The new control of light magic provided us the skills necessary to make inroads into dark magic. Initially, the concept of controlling darkness had stumped us when we talked through its implementation; darkness, being just the absence of light, didn’t seem to be an entity one could control at all, magically or not. Once I had the knowledge of how it felt to create light, though, it seemed an almost trivial matter to do the opposite. When the revelation came to me, I dashed to the window and placed a hand against the glass to suffuse it with mana. As soon as I incanted the word, the pane of glass faded to an impossibly dark matte black that was disorienting to view; with no reflection along its surface, the window seemed like a gap in space that had simply failed to exist.
Our forays into storing mana yielded similarly speedy successes. Overwhelming evidence told us that it was not only possible to do so, but a common occurrence in the Unity Church, and it was simply a matter of attempting the skill to realize how easy it truly was. The sensation of instantaneously losing connection with our extended mana was unsettling and slightly nauseating at larger quantities, but the practice itself was trivial to master. After taking a moment to celebrate, we gathered a collection of items and began to work through my list of curiosities under the umbrella of mana manipulation.
Most of my questions were answered in a single, explosive test. While Lia focused on channeling as much mana as possible into the diamond orb, I cut a large branch from a nearby tree and attempted the same experiment. There was an immediate resistance to my influx of energy that felt as if I were trying to push the mana through a drinking straw instead of the usual open floodgates. The force of the resistance increased as I continued to struggle against it until the fight ended with an abrupt crack; the branch violently exploded in a flash of blue light, leaving behind a momentary arc of glowing plasma as the mana burned away all at once. It took Lia and me the rest of the morning to remove the splinters from my hands and face, but the knowledge I had gained from the experience carried me through with a grin.
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 20
