Miel woke up from her nap, feeling rested. Stretching in the sun, she smelled her owner’s scent in the backyard. She decided to see what Melody was doing, she had been working on that transparent structure recently and it had piqued Miel’s interest. It had piqued her interest mostly because it had great perspective as a napping place, but still.
Miel jumped down from the tree she was resting in, hopped over a fence, crouched under a hedge and trotted over to Melody, greeting her with a small ‘meow’. Melody grabbed the cat and held her in her arms, looking intently at the stranger that had been so nice to Miel. Since not much was happening Miel was relaxing, almost going for a second nap in Melody’s arms, until suddenly a small ripple got her full attention. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt. It was like a small gust of wind all over her fur, but also going through her bones, tickling her whiskers, bringing her a fresh unknown smell.
Her eyes snapped open, and she looked around her, looking for the sudden sensation, but nothing had changed. Until she felt the strange pulse again, washing over her. But this time she was ready and paying attention, she turned her head toward where the wave was coming from and it was… the nice guy who fed her ? Inside her future napping place ? She stared, confused. Calian was crouching, his hand touching a plant sometimes, earth at another moment. She looked at Melody, expecting to see her as confused as she was, but her owner had an expectant look, and she didn’t seem to have felt the two strange pulses.
Curious, Miel decided to jump down and inspect the greenhouse. She wanted to enter but found no entrance. When she circled around the transparent structure, she felt the pulses happen again and again. The more she waited, the stronger the pulses and the closer the interval. Finally, a longer and stronger pulse was emitted, and when she looked at Melody she seemed to have noticed it this time because she was frowning and looking around. Just after this Calian stood up and got out of the structure.
Miel decided she couldn’t let a stranger do strange things inside her territory, so she decided to investigate. She trotted over to Calian and meowed repeatedly. She sniffed him and brushed against him, and she could faintly sense the same smell on him that she sniffed on the pulses, but nothing more. Dispirited at having found nothing she decided to keep watch over her backyard and hopped on a nearby tree. There, she laid down and watched intently Calian and Melody, before dozing off to sleep.
///
Calian took a deep breath and entered the greenhouse, he’d imagined the scene countless time during the past week, but now that he was ready to do it, he didn’t expect to be so scared. Once he was inside all ambient sounds died.
He was alone with the greenery around him, a situation he’d grown to love on his home planet. Calian had always liked the calm and the quiet, preferring to read and play with spells quietly rather than mingle with the other kids. Once, looking for a quiet place he’d once intruded in the private orchard of a retired mage. Instead of taking offense the old women had been curious of the quiet child. She watched him cast spells and relax in the orchard and took a liking to him. She taught him some botany, gave him a few lessons about potion making, then disappeared, leaving the orchard abandoned, for Calian to use.
Calian shook his head, snapping out of his reverie, he’d a task to accomplish dammit ! He paced around the greenhouse for a bit, entering the right state of mind and admiring the beauty of earth’s flora. After some time he stopped, and put his hand against the biggest bush he’d planted. It was the greenhouse masterpiece, a large plant, with expansive roots and ample leaves, its thicker branches covered in ivy, and providing shade and protection to various smaller plants, flowers and mosses.
Calian caressed the leaves of the bush and started to slowly drain his mana in the environment. It felt strange, like casting a spell but not quite. When a mage normally cast a spell, he concentrates on the shape and effect, this time Calian was just admiring the plants and not wishing for anything to happen. His mana just seeped out and flooded slowly the greenhouse. The mana concentration rose, but eventually it stabilized even as Calian was pushing more mana out, the ambient mana in the greenhouse wasn’t rising. But Calian wasn’t worried, it just meant that the plants had started absorbing his mana.
While he relaxed, slowly feeding his reserves to the plants, he felt a jolt. It was a familiar sensation, his skin prickled slightly, he got goosebumps. When he moved, he felt it around him, the mana field roiling about, a sensation most people couldn’t imagine, only practiced mages able to sense the mana around them with their body. He sighed, the moment of truth was upon him, the pulse he felt was an indicator everything went well but he had to check. Calian activated his mana vision.
A glorious arc of brightness around him was all he saw. His mana vision reveled to him the mana flow of the greenhouse and it was glorious. A mana loop passing through larger plants, linking them all in a chain. Every larger plant was the center of a network linking it to smaller plants. This cycle repeating to the smallest of blade of grass or the tiniest moss. The large jolt Calian had felt was the biggest loop spanning the entire greenhouse snapping into place. As he looked calmly at the mana cycle of the greenhouse, he felt the mana moving, swirling around him, going from the air to the plants and back in the air.
The largest bush that was the center of the greenhouse was getting livelier and livelier, his green deepening, his flowers becoming more vibrant. The effect was present on every plant of the greenhouse, every plant looked like it had been given fresh water after a long drought. Every cell was healthier than ever. The leaves weren’t hanging low but were held up, firm and strong, one could almost see the plants grow in real time.
Calian took a moment to admire his work, the healthy plants, the mana cycle, the greenhouse. He was satisfied. A big, genuine smile was plastered on his face when he realized his crazy theoretical idea had worked. He’d done it, he’d made a mana generator on a mana barren planet. He basked in the still thickening mana permeating the greenhouse, replenishing slowly his reserve, not drawing on the young generator too much. Finally, he let out a big sigh, his stress was gone, washed away by his success. The future looked bright. He decided it was time to give Melody the result of their operation and exited the greenhouse with confidence.
Calian was immediately greeted with an anxious question from Melody, “Did it work !?”
He said nothing, just snapped his finger and created multiples spheres of light that floated above his hand. He made them fly lazily toward Melody and when they were close to her, they all exploded in littles motes of light that spun around her. Finally, after completing his little show Calian answered her question, “Yes it worked, I can do magic now,” a big smile completing his words.
Melody was simply too mesmerized to answer straight away, only when the last motes vanished did she fumble a, “I really want to do that”, softly. After staying pensive for a bit she snapped back to reality and looked at Calian intently, “Can we go inside ? I want to try and sense mana.”
As Calian was about to agree he suddenly stopped and thought about something. He held her back, “All humans have a mana core at birth, it stores a minuscule amount of mana but it’s there. You’ve never been exposed to mana, so you probably don’t have one. The issue is, nobody knows what happens if you don’t have a mana core at birth. The most probable hypothesis is that it’ll form harmlessly when you’re exposed to mana long enough. But another possibility is that it’ll kill you, or even not form at all. I can’t guarantee anything if you come in here with me,” he warned.
Melody frowned, she pondered briefly about the issue. “I don’t care, I have the chance to be the first person on planet earth to do magic, of course I’ll take the chance of something happening,” she stated, her tone leaving no room for discussion.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Calian shrugged, “As I said the most probable hypothesis is that you won’t feel a thing, if babies can handle it, so can you… I think.”
When both were inside, and Melody didn’t explode in the first few seconds, they relaxed. Melody was pacing around looking at the flowers when she remembered something she’d forgotten to ask Calian due to his display of magic. “By the way, I felt something outside, when you were working here,” she said.
Seeing the questioning look on Calian’s face she continued, “It was quite short, I had goosebumps because it felt like my skin was pricked everywhere, and a sensation like something was brushing against me. I felt something thump inside my chest, and then everything vanished, and I was back to normal.”
Calian stared at her blankly for a second before answering, “Uh, I think that was your mana core forming.”
“What ? But how ? I was outside and the greenhouse is supposed to hold the mana in,” she said in disbelief.
Calian decided to explain what happened when he was working in the greenhouse. “You can’t see it, but all the plants here are linked in a mana cycle. It’s like a big loop made of moving mana, it moves from plant to plant.
When I had pushed enough mana in the air the plants started to absorb it. When they’d absorbed enough, they started to cycle mana between the air and themselves. And a chain reaction was set into place, the plants assisted me, emitting more and more mana, allowing more and more plants to cycle it. When a group of plants had all started to cycle it some sort of synergy happened, and they all cycled together. And when all the groups started cycling the mana, they all linked together in a big mana loop. When it happened all the mana inside had a big reaction, and a large mana pulse exploded outwards. Most of it was blocked by the greenhouse, but it seems that a tiny fraction leaked outside.
Mana pulses are pretty common, they happen all the time : when an enchantment fails, during combat, when plants naturally adjust their cycles… The goosebumps and the feeling of something brushing against you is normal when in the path of a mana pulse. But the thump in your chest is unusual, I’ve never heard of that. And since you didn’t have any mana core, I think your body reacted to the pulse by converting it into a mana core,” he explained. “Problem solved I guess,” he shrugged before sitting on the ground.
Calian was simply sensing the ambient mana, relishing in the feeling. It had been a bit more than a week that he’d been separated from magic, but to him it felt like a lot longer. The familiar sensation that he once thought was so common had disappeared and he’d craved it so much he cherished every moment he could feel it now. He played with the ambient mana, making motes of light, gusts of wind or little clouds move around him while waiting for his reserves to replenish.
As for Melody, a bit lost by the lengthy explanation and the sudden revelation, she decided to follow Calian example and she sat on the floor too, next to Calian. She watched his exercises for a bit before closing her eyes. She focused on what she could feel on her skin, what her body told her. She first tried to sense the ambient mana around her but didn’t find anything interesting. She then decided to sense the mana inside her, in her supposed mana core, but didn’t get any reaction either.
After some time, when Calian had decided he’d played around enough, and Melody was frustrated he decided to help her. He turned toward her, dissipating all his little spells and cleared his throat to get her attention. When she was looking at him he started, “You’re probably trying to sense the mana around you, or in your mana core right ?”
She simply nodded.
“We all make the same mistake at first, don’t worry. It’s a rule among mages to let the apprentices fumble around a bit,” he explained, laughing. “They let me try blindly for two days,” he added grimly. “Don’t try to sense the mana first, it’d be like staying still in a place with no wind and trying to sense the air. You need to either be in a place with wind, and in magical terms that mostly means in the middle of a fight or other somewhat dangerous process, or you can simply blow on your hand to sense the air. And magically that means exerting your will upon the ambient mana. You have to cast spells before being capable of sensing the mana. Does that make sense ?”
She looked at Calian with a blank stare, “And how am I supposed to cast a spell ?”
“As I said, you have to exert your will. Just focus on a spot in front of you and imagine there’s a small light here. Think of it so hard you can almost see it. Concentrate on it till you’re not sure if it’s your mind making things up or if there’s really a light. Before you go ranting about how stupid it is, I know : it’s boring, it’s ungrateful, but it’s the first step to anything. Mages make it look easy, but it’s like driving a car, after a while it gets easy and reflexive, but the first few times are extremely hard.”
“Do I have to imagine a light ? It seems a bit underwhelming, why not a little butterfly like you did earlier, or fire ?” she asked, almost pouting.
“Oh, you can try, but good luck with that. Remember how you can’t sense mana yet ? That also means you can’t sense your personal mana nor control it. And what did I say during our first theoretical magic lesson ? Simply exerting your will on ambient mana won’t produce much, because it opposes your will. So except making the faintest light appear or blow some wind around not much can happen without personal mana,” he explained. “Try to imagine something like that,” he added, making the tiniest, dimmest mote of light possible. If one didn’t know where to look at they’d probably miss it.
Melody didn’t bother responding, she simply nodded slowly and sat a bit farther, trying to copy Calian’s example.
///
Calian’s Notebook – Magic research :
I am writing this while waiting for my mana to fill up in the greenhouse. It is the greatest success of my life. In the empire I’ve always been a random peon, somewhat skilled at magic. I was above the class average at the academy, but I was never excellent, never promised to a great future. I was okay with this, living a quiet life, living from a decent job with a correct salary, having kids and a wife. But since I’ve been stranded here, I can’t help but see this path with contempt. Just look at what I’ve made one week after ending up on earth. Under pressure I gave the best of myself and got a proper access to magic. So many opportunities await. I still wish to go home, but that won’t happen before a while, and I definitely plan to have fun here before ! But I’m digressing, I was supposed to talk about my recent discoveries.
Melody presented to me some materials I’ve never heard about. Those either don’t exist in the Empire or require too much technology for us to use in public civil magic. Plastics are simply unknown because they require complex extraction and chemical processes but would be extremely useful at home. I don’t know much about magical objects manufacturing but it’d probably reduce the cost of plenty of plenty of objects requiring scarce materials. I’ve also had the opportunity to study some other materials during last week. I found silicon and some rare earth ores in computer chips, I’ve studied glass wool, examined lithium batteries and disassembled an old touchscreen for indium. Since I didn’t have much mana to spare, I could only test their basic properties, and none of them are as impressive as plastics or graphite, but I’m sure if used properly every material listed has promising applications.
But above all I’ve been discovering earth physics, it’s a complex but fascinating subject. It strongly relates to magic, as Melody proved when she linked mana affinity to carbon atoms. I have been so fascinated by the subject during the last week that I’ve come to ask myself if both subject aren’t linked more than our mages thought. While physics and science are known in the Empire, they clearly aren’t as developed as on earth nor do they follow the same guidelines, our focus resting much more on magical development. Such disdain for science as a whole can be explained that instead of trying to understand the limits and origin of the mundane world it is more efficient to study the magical world.
Another of my discoveries is Internet, an immaterial network earth inhabitants use to exchange and publish knowledge almost instantly. I don’t yet understand how they have achieved such high speed of communication for such low cost, in the Empire even the teleportation of the smallest of object still has an important cost. I plan on using Internet to further my studies, mostly in the fields of physics and chemistry. I’ll also try to broaden my horizon to other fields like Earth medicine, medications, botany and engineering.
While I have much to study, for now I must plan my next moves. I want to make money to finance the next greenhouse version, and thus will have to use my magic to generate a satisfying income. However, I’ll need to be smart about it, if I reveal my powers everywhere I go I’ll end up as a guinea pig for some organization. I’ll need to focus on producing commodities that are difficult to obtain for non-magical folks. I’ll also have to find my own accommodation, I won’t be able to stay with Melody for too long because she’ll pester me for more magical knowledge I don’t necessarily want to give, and she’ll probably try to snoop on my more sensitive projects that are to come. I plan on exiling in a dense forest, a perfect environment for mana generation, magical testing and hiding my magic. But to settle in such a remote place I’ll need some more magical tools and spells, otherwise I’ll have to rely more than I’d prefer on external supplies, and for now all interactions bring some level of risk.
That raises the last topic I need to talk about : how to acquire more magical knowledge. I’ve been stranded here with minimal belongings, and a library is unfortunately not included. However, if I ever want to return to the Empire, or even do some more advanced magic I’ll have to obtain some form of magical knowledge. And to obtain it I’ve already thought of an acceptable solution. Mom, if you ever read this, thank you, I don’t know how I’d have done it without the ritual you taught me as a kid, I’ll never look down on our Videris origins from now on.