David and his mother sat on the floor of the shed, facing each other. Between them was a jar of healing ointment and two bottles, one light-green and glowing faintly, the other blueish.
“No need to rush, sweetie.” Mom said. She seemed a little tense. “This will be tiring for you, but it won't take much time.”
“What are we doing?” He asked, though he had some ideas. “Is something wrong?”
“Normally, you'd have appropriate tools to learn all this,” Mom said. “But this is the best I can do.”
David felt a pang of disappointment but pushed it away. “I'm happy you agreed to teach me at all.”
“I’m glad for it too, but we really have to be careful. Got it? Alright, take a sip of the sensing potion. Less than you did last time.”
He picked up the shining light-green bottle and tipped it into his mouth. The sour taste was even worse than the last time, but he tried not to pucker. Familiar warmth enveloped him and his body started to prickle even without him thinking about it, especially his face and hands.
Mom grasped his wrist and smeared two lines on it, one of ointment, the other the blue anti-overload potion. It was surprisingly similar to his own experiments, so it seemed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree after all. Good, it was a powerful tree.
“Concentrate on what you’re feeling, sweetie.” She watched him for a moment. “You should start to feel some movement inside you.”
Knowing what to look for from his initial practice, he closed his eyes and focused on the unnatural heat in his body. His skin grew warmer where his mom applied the ointment and the prickling there grew much more intense. But there was also something new. A leak. Across the line smeared with anti-overload, the warmth was slowly seeping out, leaving him colder and without any prickling.
A slow current formed under his skin, moving heat from one line to the other. He described what he felt out loud.
“That’s the first step. The more your mana moves, the easier it is to notice. You do the same thing consciously whenever you want to cast. Try to will the mana to stop, it should follow your will, but it tends to be a bit capricious.”
David flexed his fingers as he followed her instructions. The current stopped and then came the pain. The ointment line became like searing needles, the potion like an ice cube on his skin. He flinched, lost focus, the mana resumed its flow and the pain receeded. “I think I did it…”
“That was... fast.” Mom leaned back, her hands on her hips. “Are you okay?”
David nodded. He swayed a bit, but aside from general tiredness, he felt nothing out of the ordinary. “What next?”
“That's all I had planned for today.” She touched a finger to her lips. “But if you're doing so well, maybe we could try one more thing.”
“Yes, let's!” David wanted to try as much as he could handle, maybe even a little more.
“Let’s try channeling mana, then. Some types of magic you can use directly inside your body, but most of them need you to move the mana outside.” Mom picked up the notebook and put it on the floor in front of David. “This notebook, as you probably noticed, is a magic item. It needs to be fed mana of its owner to make the writing inside visible.”
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“So I can channel into it to practice… but you're the owner. Is that going to work?”
“I never said there can only be one owner. Place your hand on it and clench your teeth.”
He wanted to ask why, but that would just take up more time, so he did as requested. Mom laid her hand over his, and something sharp bit into and through his hand, as if he plunged it into an especially rapid waterfall. His hand went numb and he pulled it away, expecting to see blood, but seeing none. “Ouch.” He shook it and looked at Mom for explanation.
“Sorry, sweetie.” She took his hand between her own and squeezed it gently. Her warm touch soothed the pain. “Now the notebook will recognize you. When you learn to channel, you won't need me to recharge it.”
David picked the notebook up with his other hand. All the knowledge, anytime he wanted. He met Mom's eyes as he lifted his chin up. “How do I channel the mana, then?” He asked, though he believed he already knew the answer.
“The simplest method is to first gather some of the mana in your fingertips, then once you have enough, will it out.” she said, letting go of his hand. “That’s what they teach at the academy and what I do myself. But you have to be precise with the timing. The more you force mana to stack up against its natural order, the more it will resist you, and fighting against it will quickly become exhausting. As I said, mana can do anything. It bends reality to your will if you can control it, but actually getting it to do what you want it to…” She shrugged.
David closed his eyes, braced himself. He repeated what he did just minutes earlier and willed the heat to move down his arm, leaving his elbow and forearm a bit colder. His fingertips burned like touching sizzling embers. He expelled it into the notebook. It was a weird feeling, as if his body slightly hollowed out. If the mana was like hot water filling his body, that water just got colder. Or thinner? Could water get thinner? Something in his head told him that it couldn’t really.
He flipped the pages open. The letters and some jagged runes began appearing on the pages. They were far from legible, but at least it worked. He expected to be tired like always, but still felt, well, great. It was peculiar how different it felt from his own experiment. Or maybe not, he was literally stumbling around without his mom’s help.
“Great work, Dav—”
“You in there?” Dad knocked on the door.
Mom picked up the jar and the bottles, then put them on the workbench with her other materials. Then, she grabbed the mortar, threw in a voel leaf and started grinding. “Yes, dear. Come on in.”
Dad opened the door. “Oh, there you are, David. Come, I finished sharpening the sickles for Seth.”
David grabbed the three repaired sickles from the smithy and walked back to the village. It was about noon. While he walked, he repeated the exercise with expelling mana just like he did with his mom. Each time he repeated it, there was a small pop in the air. Sometimes people would turn to look in his way, but the sound got lost among the bustle of the village. Judging by the rate at which he was growing dizzy from the attempts, it went better than when he was just starting out, but much worse than with the notebook or the [condense] rune. Regrettably, he couldn’t walk around the village with either of those. Yet.
A crowd had gathered on the road just beyond the old farmer Seth’s house. David dropped off the tools, then jogged up to see what was going on.
He squeezed through the sweaty crowd and saw the two columns of knights. They were returning from the forest, their armor covered in blood and dirt, except for Calland’s, whose was still shining. Viel was at the front and didn’t look too pleased. He stopped when he saw Brenn approaching, they acknowledged one another and Viel shook his head. The others continued to their quarters.
Brenn and Viel had a tense exchange, though David couldn’t hear what they said. If the knights had killed the monster, surely there would an announcement. David wanted to think the next day would bring success, but for some reason, he couldn’t get himself to believe it. He shook his head and went home, eager to get back to learning.
Over the next two days David helped his Dad with deliveries and hunkered down with the notebook whenever no one was looking. Every day the knights went out to the forest and yet the predator monster still lived. Nevertheless, the village seemed peaceful, and he wondered if his worries were misplaced.
At noon on the third day, David walked back from the square. The cold winds had ended, and the sun warmed his back pleasantly through his linen shirt. From a distance, he saw Mom approaching slowly, looking to her sides every couple seconds. Then she stopped.
David followed her sight and he staggered. Calland was coming her way, waving and smiling.
Come, let me tell you more of the story.
