Althea expected words, paragraphs of instructions. What she got was a glowing green light that made her slip into a trance. The light spilled into her, making mana spin around her, and then inside her in various forms.

The amount grew rapidly, coalescing into a little typhoon inside her. The mana compressed some more, reaching towards a shape, a shape she instinctively knew would bring about the next step.

Althea stopped it in the nick of time, she was still not eighteen. The mana did not stop, not condensing anymore but instead accumulating. Althea slipped out of consciousness, feeling like she was on a boat. The only time she had been on a boat was when they had to catch a ferry. The feeling was like that, just much worse.

The rocking of the boat kept her from slipping out of consciousness, but also in a lull. A part of her felt the mana rush through her body, through her bones, muscles and every cell, and wondered how painful it would be. Perhaps that was why she was in this state to begin with.

As soon as the thought came, it faded, her mind slipping into darkness.

sc

Althea felt like she was in a whirlpool, the sucking motion pulling her out of her state. Why she resisted, she did not know, but something within her protested this state. But her effort bore little fruit, the power succeeded, pulling her back to consciousness.

Pulsie's leaves were staring down at her as she opened her eyes. Althea did not get up for a few seconds, feeling peaceful as she tried to remember where she was. And then she sat up with a shock.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I think, Countess Althea Diery, you are the first in a thousand years to cultivate the Diery family's ancestral manual." Pulsie replied. "I have been reading around while you were in a trance. “

“The list there” Pulsie pointed to the stone slab. "Is a list of 27 cultivation manuals the Diery family has in addition to the one you used. The supplementary manuals. I can't be sure, but I think the family was practicing the one meant for the army this while."

Althea tried standing up, nearly falling again in a dizzy bout.

Pulsie paused. "I was about to recommend that you read my source." the plant raised a piece of paper. "But I would suggest eating and sleeping instead. The manual must have consumed a lot of energy to start you on it. And try cultivating, you will need the strength to walk."

Althea called on mana, her call more desperate than she expected it, as she felt a black hole in her stomach. Mana answered her call, making her less lightheaded. Picking up Pulsie, she rushed outside, nearly collapsing when another dizzy bout shot to her head, coming with a pounding headache. Althea leaned against the clutching the wall with her one free hand.

Althea began walking again, walking to the gates before she collapsed again. The next came as she was pushing the gates open, but she leaned into the doors and simply charged past the barrier.

The second she cleared the barrier, mana rushed to her, surrounding her and improving her condition. But it was temporary, she could feel it as she straightened. The damage was only stalled, not lost. What she needed was food. A lot of it.

The Steward was waiting for her, the Diery family's 'ancestral weapon' in his hand. Althea wondered if they had fooled the Bern march back then.

"The staff needs to be returned to the Treasury, Countess. If you could-" the Steward began before she could say anything.

"What food will be available right now?" Althea said, pulling more mana towards her. A smaller, weaker, dizzy bout had just struck her. Even mana wasn't stalling it, she required more. And she needed to eat. And digest.

"The cooks haven't begun preparing dinner yet, your grace. The palace does not have much of a food store-"

"Steward Ven." Althea interrupted rather rudely. "I need food. Can you please tell me where I can get some?"

The Steward paused looking at her as some kind of realization dawned on him.

"I will have the cooks send over what they can," he replied.

"Thank you." she said. "I presume we are leaving together?" she asked, walking towards the lift as another dizzy bout struck. Althea paused, looking towards the staff in the Steward's hand.

"Could you please give me the staff?" she asked softly.

"Yes." the Steward said, a smile tugging at his lips. "And I can hold your familiar too."

Althea wordlessly handed over Pulsie to the Steward before walking towards the lift and clicking the down button. To her surprise, the button drained a bit of her mana, making her clutch the staff as the weakness returned. But the mana needed to open the doors was little, and she was able to breathe again.

The Steward stepped into the lift, Althea behind him. The lift nearly hurtled her. The mana connection nearly cutting off as it started. The bloody lift was pulling at the mana around her! But the Steward funneled his mana in, and soon she just had the extra fast motion of the list to contend with.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

ALthea closed her eyes and tried to ignore the queasiness in her stomach. The fatigue in her eyes. The headache-breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. And they had reached the ground floor. Althea stepped into the floor staff first, aware that it would be a while before she could.

"The cooks will be nervous if you go to the kitchens and demand food." the Steward chimed in.

"I know." she said. "I just need to take a minute. Where is my bedroom?"

Steward Ven pointed to the inside of the palace. "The Count or Countess has the entire inner section of the first floor as their living space."

Althea walked towards it wordlessly, wanting to get it over with as quickly as she could.

The Steward went a different way, probably to get her food.

Althea entered her bedroom, a vast circular thing with a private garden in between. But she did not have time to appreciate it. As soon as she saw the bench in the garden’s outer edges, she was walking towards it, ignoring what was probably a private library. On the other side, she could see a bed through transparent glass, a maid cleaning the bedroom.

Sitting down on the bench, she called on the mana, finding it much easier to do than when she had been moving. The mana swirled around her, coalescing again. Althea stopped it again, controlling the mana to stay away from the middle.

The headache became worse as she concentrated, making her give up, but the mana started coalescing again. So she controlled it, keeping it away. The staff began vibrating in her hand, a trickle of mana flowing through it. The mana was small before what she normally got, but it was steady, calming and somehow…heavier.

The two mana found each other and somehow merged, flowing through her body in a faster and more powerful flow. But not coalescing. Not yet. Althea was glad for that. Perhaps the staff really was the ancestral staff.

The mana cycle continued like before, but soon it was growing faster and faster, coming together. Althea stopped it, pushing it to keep away. The staff suddenly stopped supplying mana and so did the air. Althea opened her eyes, surprised that the weakness hadn't- oh, there it was. But it was weaker, suppressed just by the mana in her body.

"Countess." Steward Ven said, holding a plate towards her.

"The cooks are cooking meals as we speak, I expect you will be needing a lot of food," he said.

Althea just began eating the cooked potatoes.

The maids arrived carrying more dishes as she ate. The Steward suggested pausing and moving to the bed somewhere along the fifth plate of appetizers. Althea wasn't sure how her stomach was digesting so much stuff. And so quickly. A dizzy bout told her that it was not. The food hadn't worked.

Althea sat on the bed, sure that she would collapse the second she let herself. The weakness was subsiding now, and she was feeling much better. And the mana had slowed down too. But it was still rotating, almost as if stalking its prey.

"I think I am going to stay awake till midnight." she said.

The Steward looked at her as if she were mad.

"That would not be advisable just because of the coronation tomorrow. And I doubt you will be able to in our current condition." he replied.

"I am about to break through. The manual pushed me right to the peak, and the cultivation after that…" she said.

"I can help." Pulsie, who had been silent till now, said. A leaf extended towards her, and she met it with a finger. A pulling motion extended from the leaf, not pulling her mana from her, but expanding the mana's circle.

The way she perceived it was weird. A mental image appeared when she wanted it to, but the image did not merge well with biology. The body was only so big.

"I can keep a look on you and keep you from breaking through." Pulsie said. Althea was just about to thank him when the Steward interrupted.

"That will not be enough. The Countess was born at midday, she cannot break through before that." he said.

Now Althea was irritated. "Why is that rule so important? I was born tomorrow, just call it eighteen and leave it.

"The rule is there for a reason." the Steward warned. Oh, that stuff again. "The Apprentice stage brings changes that can damage your potential if you break through early. The changes are usually over by the time you are eighteen, hence the restriction.

But it doesn't really matter if you do it twelve hours early. The probability of things going wrong is low. The problem is the people. The coronation will put have you out in public the entire day. I doubt we would be able to hide your breakthrough."

And then she would have broken a law. Althea huffed, looking at the Steward in irritation. But he didn't deserve her anger.

"I can do it." Pulsie said. "I am not a part of tomorrow's festivities. I can sleep in the day, you can't,"

"Thank you." Althea said, meaning it. And then she collapsed on the bed.

sc

Pulsie

Pulsie looked at his bonded with complex emotions. Just hours ago, he had tried to kill her. Or at least threatened to. In his defense, she did take over his best friend. And was her at the same time? Pulsie could not understand how that worked, or how it was possible.

But there was a lot he did not know. The maids left, having finished clearing up the food. Mira had checked in twice, but had not woken her up. A good thing, Althea wasn't in a good enough position to be woken up.

What the manual had done he did not know, but he had seen it. The mana going to every cell of her body, breaking and mending the cell walls, seeping into her very dna. Ok, fine, he did not know that. The dna discovery was recent to begin with, there just weren't enough spells to see it. And he couldn't cast even if there were. But that was what he imagined happened.

The manual had absorbed most of the mana inside the barrier, mana that had accumulated for centuries, perhaps even longer. Mana he was going to use. How much mana was in there, he did not know. But he cared.

As strange as it was, he cared about this new weird stranger. A stranger that would be all the things his Althea had wanted to be. A natural leader, someone that could actually use the skills Althea had cultivated with great effort.

A bonded that could read and research elemental theory with him. Oh, that one was…something. Pulsie had known, then, that this was not the Althea he had known. The sudden confidence he could take as a particularly convincing act, but the interest in elemental theory? The intelligence?

The old Althea was kind and friendly, but she wasn't the brightest pea in a pod. Or he just had high standards. The other humans he had met didn't seem to have even her intelligence.

Pulsie held his leaf against his bonded's skin, making sure that she wasn't breaking through to the Apprentice stage. Mana had been pooling into her for a while now, but there didn't seem to be any real change in her.

A silent transformation? Pulsie observed her. Where this stranger would go he did not know, but he knew it would be interesting. And probably a lot less lonely than he was used to.