Chapter 21

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

As the combat lesson wrapped up, Kate began to feel whatever Reah had done to her start to wear off. The pain came in slowly, but every student in the room was injured. The grand total of that pain would be unbearable, but even the little bit that Kate felt now was aggravating.

Reah had said that she would learn what her affliction was during today’s lesson. So far, the combat lesson had told her nothing about her affliction.

The usual break between combat training and their aether space lesson wasn’t given today. Instead, Primrose gathered everyone in a close circle around her, asking them to settle into the same delving pose they had used for the past month. “Close your eyes and reach into your aether space. Feel your way to the deepest part of your mana well.”

Kate followed the instruction carefully, ignoring the pulses of pain that came from around her. Kate focused on the bottom of her mana well. Like always, it remained stubbornly in place. If the membrane of the aether space she had dug the well into was dirt, it felt like she had hit bedrock. No matter what she did, the membrane there refused to erode away.

“By this point you all should have reached the point where you can’t dig your mana well any deeper, correct?”

Kate was surprised to find that everyone in the group was nodding along. She had embarrassingly thought the problem was unique to her.

“What you are sensing is a natural barrier. These are commonly referred to as subfloors. They occur several times in your aether space as you delve deeper and deeper. We don’t know how many there actually are, but the average human is only capable of breaching 5 of these. Breaching the sixth subfloor requires beyond human capabilities. There have been a few recorded instances of humans being able to overcome this, but, as of yet, there is no reproduceable method of doing so.”

In their delving sessions the previous month, Primrose had stressed the importance of deepening their mana well as much as possible first. Kate had a suspicion that she had been pushing them to reach this first subfloor as quickly as possible.

“The method of breaching the first subfloor is relatively simplistic, but it is very draining. Within your mana well, start gathering all of your mana and condensing it into a tiny point.”

Kate pulled her mana into the middle of her mana well and began the process of compacting it together. The effort required to do so was great and Kate felt pinpricks of sweat start forming on her forehead. She managed to resist the urge to wipe them away, instead continuing the process of bring all of her mana into one point. At a certain point, when Kate tried to compress more mana into the same spot, some leaked out.

“If you have difficulty condensing all of your mana, wrap a layer of mana around the entire process and slowly squeeze.”

Kate followed the advice and found that she was able to condense more mana in. Still though, as she kept adding more mana, the effort to do so was rising. Kate was quickly forced to wrap the small ball of condensed mana in more and more layers, each applying pressure to the one underneath.

Primrose waited for a while, carefully studying the students faces for indications of their progress. “When you are able to condense all of your mana into one spot, channel it into your subfloor and break it apart.”

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Kate finished the process, channeling the tiny point of mana that seemed to fiercely glow in her mind’s eye into her subfloor. Something in her cracked. Where before Kate felt like the aether space was completely separate from her body, now the lines between the two were somehow blurred. Kate held herself together and pushed the ball of mana through her subfloor, tearing it apart.

As soon as she finished tearing through her subfloor, completely draining her mana in the effort, Kate collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. As tired as she was, Kate was still eager to explore the new feeling that breaking through the subfloor had given. She quickly came to realize that there was what seemed like a hairline fracture where the subfloor used to be. Somehow, Kate could feel herself on the other side of the fracture.

Everyone finished around the same time. Despite how draining the event was, it took a remarkably short time to accomplish.

With the entire group was slumped over, Primrose stepped away for a minute to give them a little time to recover. When she returned, she carried the same cup of tea she had drank from during their first class.

“Congratulations. You have all just stepped fully into the realm of arcaners. How do you feel?”

A collective groan came from the group.

Primrose took a sip from her cup with what looked like a smile of genuine amusement. “We should continue the class. What you have just done was a significant first step. In Rork, nobody is allowed to act as a soldier in any official capacity until they have broken through the first subfloor. Does anyone have a guess as to why that may be?”

Mercy was the one to respond. The strain of breaking through her subfloor was easy to pick up in her voice. “Does it have to do with the weird crack in the aether space?”

“It does, but I was looking for a more practical answer. Think back to your missions. What were you lacking the most when you were in a combat situation?”

Kate answered immediately. After spending days locked up, feeling every injury her squad had, she had seriously considered the problem. “We lack defense. We can evoke pure mana, but its reactive in nature. When facing great numbers, we have no means of ensuring we can escape the fight without serious injury.”

“That’s exactly right. The ‘weird crack’ that you mentioned is called the first connector. It fundamentally links your aether space to your body. When used with pure mana, an arcaner can keep a highly efficient suit of pure mana around their body. The connector works both ways, meaning you can both send mana into your body and pull mana from your body back into your aether space. This process is called commutation”

Kate had a sudden thought. If breaking through the first subfloor revealed the first connector, did that mean that breaking through other subfloors would reveal other connectors?

Before Kate could voice her thought, Primrose took another swallow from her cup and continued on. “We call the commutation connector the first connector, but it is technically not the first connector. When you originally created your mana wells, you gained access to the evocation connector. That connector is a one-way connection between your aether space around you. Because it is only one-way, it is far more difficult to perceive.”

Kate reflexively looked into her aether space, trying to find another tear in her aether space, but she couldn’t sense anything.

Primrose seemed to weigh something for a second before she continued. “What I’m about to tell you isn’t common knowledge within this province. I, myself, only know about it through my training in the proper Perralin empire. I had originally planned on teaching this much later, but…Reah…told me that this bit of information directly impacted one of you, and she happens to be uniquely qualified to know such things.”

Kate felt a chill as Primrose looked directly at her.

“Would you mind telling us about your ‘affliction’, Kate?”

Kate felt the weight of her dormmates’ eyes on her. She had known that this moment was likely to come, but it was hard to talk about it. How many times had she tried to explain her affliction? How many times had she been laughed at, yelled at, accused of avoiding her responsibilities? In the moment, Kate clammed up. Then a hand fell on her shoulder.

“I think I know what you’re going to say. I’ll support your claims, so, don’t worry.”

Kate looked back to see Myles give her a respectful nod. That was all the support she needed. “When others get injured around me, I can feel their pain as if its my own.” It was a simple statement, but she could already see skeptical looks forming on the other students.

Myles seemed like he was about to bring up a point, but Primrose beat him to the punch.

“Kate is telling the truth, but what she calls her affliction is in fact a one-way connector. That said, it is not a connector that can be artificially opened—at least not with any method we know of. The evocation and commutation connectors are examples of what are called material connectors. They connect the aether space to the physical world around us. There is another type of connector that is not commonly known. These connectors connect the aether space to the larger aether. One such connector brings in the mana that fills your wells. Kate’s affliction is actually the result of being born with another of these types of connectors open, one that most people do not have open. This connector brings in a trickle of mana from the aether spaces of other people. Since humans have a strong connection between their mind and their aether space, that mana comes bearing certain sensations such as pain.”

Kate wanted to believe the explanation, but she had a hard time. She still wasn’t certain that her affliction could be caused by her aether space. Still though, the explanation had been presented in a logical way. It made sense that the mana the flowed into her aether space had to come from somewhere.

“Starting tomorrow, you will work with Reah to learn to use your connector.” Primrose suddenly produced an incredibly hot flame in the palm of her hand, causing her tea glass to melt. She flung the melted substance at herself. Before it impacted, a thick armor of pure mana started rotating around her body, blocking the liquid, sending it to the sand below which rapidly turned to glass under the heat. “In the meantime, we will work on commutation.”