Falling into the inky blackness..

Time stretches on, but my descent continues eternally..

The light above me is so close.. Yet it still remains beyond my grasp.

Falling deeper into the black below me. I look around and see nothing, but I know below me is something of endless hunger. This abyss around me desires to consume me, but is unable to.

The power enshrouding my soul in a deeper black than the darkest shadow cast by this abyss is protecting me from being devoured.

The power speaks to me, but what is it saying? It wants me to understand, and I can’t tell what it is trying to convey.

It grows angry and I don’t know how, but I know it is not at me. Itself? Angry at the inability to understand?

The light above me grows brighter, and brighter..

---------------------------------------------

I forcibly sit up in my bed, breathing heavily and drenched in my own sweat. My head is pounding. Looking around, I notice this is my bedroom.

Everything looks like it is supposed to, and there is no hungry darkness looking to eat me.

A dream? No. I don’t know what it was, but it was not some dream. A vision? Perhaps. What does it mean?

It was hard to think from the throbbing headache and this was no time to rest. What happened after my conversation with Selene? Why did I faint? How long has it been since I was stuck in the darkness? There were so many questions, and no answers to them.

I need to find my parents and figure out what I can. Laying in bed will do me no good right now.

I get out of bed, and ignore the growing dizziness and stumble my way into the kitchen. My parents were sitting at the table and I saw my father caring for my mother, both having dark bags under their eyes and looking worse than I felt.

“Mom? Dad? Could you help me into a chair?”

“Lucian?” Despite being exhausted, both of my parents quickly looked at me and rushed to hug me. The hug was warm and excited my nausea, but I could tell that they both needed this so I chose to ignore it.

My mother was squeezing me tight and crying while saying a lot of things I could not understand. She’s… Worried about me? That makes sense, that’s what a parent does for their child right?

… I don’t want her to be upset because of me.

I wrap my arms around her and squeeze as much as my little body can muster, which is a humiliatingly low amount.

“I’m here, Mom. Welcome back from the job as well, Dad.” Comforting people is not my expertise, but I hope this provides a little to them.

After a while of calming my parents down, which mostly consisted of my father and I helping my mother to a chair and finally sitting down in one.

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“How long was I out?” I asked my parents once it felt like the right time. My father answered for my mother, “Three days, Luce. You apparently looked fine one second and were happy to go to the bookstore, and then passed out before getting inside of it.”

Three days? I was stuck in that darkness for three days? Wait, that means my mother just saw her child pass out and not wake up for three days.

I looked at my mother and said, “I’m sorry for worrying you, Mom.”

She gave me a small smile and nodded, “You didn’t do anything wrong, all that matters is that you’re awake now.” She looked at me twitching from my head throbbing, “Let me take a look at your head, Lucian.”

“It’s okay, just a headache.” All I got was that motherly stare of she was not asking and leaned my head towards her. She held a hand up to the side of my head, and started to chant, “O’ Water, Sustainer of Life. Grant this soul reprieve from pain with your soothing embrace” and her hand started to glow with a green and blue glow that felt like touching a cool river stream.

I felt my mother’s mana circulate around my head and the headache started to fade. Even with the danger of my mana core, I desperately wanted to understand how the magic worked in this world.

The conversation with Selene opened my eyes a little regarding some of the complexities, but why does the chant allow a mage to cast a spell of a certain kind?

Wait!

“Mom, I have a favor to ask if you are able to. I want to watch you cast the spell again, and could you do the chant slower this time. I’ll explain afterwards.” My parents looked at each other confused, and I could not blame them. “Please?” I gave them my cutest version of cute baby eyes.

My mother, still confused about the request, said, “Of course sweetie. I will begin now.” She began to chant the spell slowly, and I focused my eyes on the path from her mana core to her hand the spell would be seen, closely watching the ambient mana’s behavior.

Nothing was visible to my eyes from her core to her wrist, but I could see the ambient mana react around her hand. My eyes saw all the patterns of the little specks of water mana swirl around her hand, and I could see the pattern that started the green and blue glow on her hand!

A pattern! The water elemental mana in the ambient mana formed what looked like a strange character and triggered the spell in my mother’s hand. “Is this good, Lucian?” My mother asked, and I failed to realize that she was already exhausted prior and holding a spell looked draining enough as it was.

“Yes, you can stop the spell Mom” I said to her and she cancelled the spell. This is so exciting! I could see the pattern! It looked like the chant used a mage’s mana to gather their elemental mana and the corresponding type of mana in the ambient to produce the spell.

Was it like laying bait to attract your target? The mage used their elemental mana to entice the corresponding type in the ambient and continued to drain their personal supply of refined mana to keep the spell going once the ambient forms the pattern?

“What tier is the spell, Mom?” I asked her, the excitement burning in me. “It is a Tier 1 Water spell called Healing Hand, Lucian. It works close to what a medicinal kit could perform.” She started to suspect why I asked her, and there was no attempt to hide it on my end.

It is a Tier 1 spell. I looked over my mana channels, and noticed there was still a surplus of mana that had not fully been consumed by the abyssal power, or dissipated into the environment. Surely, I could cast this spell even if it for a second or two? The pattern was there, I just needed to confirm how a mage uses their mana to lay the bait.

My father looked to be catching on as well, and asked “What are you thinking of doing, Luce?”. Nothing much, just thinking of casting a spell without a mana core at two years old. Totally standard stuff you would see every day.

Was I confident in doing this? Who knows the consequences to performing magic without a proper mana core or even a tested affinity?

The mana in my channels were refined and colorless, but in no particular element. I do not know why it is not a mixture of different elements, yet my gut is telling me it will work. There is only one way to know if this will work either way.

“Will you trust me if I said that I think I can cast Healing Hand?” I asked my parents. They have worried about me enough, and I know this was selfish to ask after just waking up from a three day coma. They deserve my honesty in this matter, and to be here to supervise instead of potentially finding me after casting it alone and something going wrong.

“What do you mean, you think you cast the spell?!” My mother was not happy. I am not great at gauging emotions with women, yet this was crystal clear. “You’re two years old, no mana core, and we don’t even know what affinity you have!” I looked to my father for help, and he was deep in thought about this. Ever the calm and rational type..

Mom was clearly not going to stand for this, and continued to tell me off for considering this, when my dad asked “How confident are you in doing this, son?”.

“What? Damian, you can’t tell me you are actually considering this?!” My mother shouted at my father. “Think about it, my love. Look at him, he clearly seems to have noticed something when you casted the spell. Lucian is a smart boy, and we have already seen his affinity with mana, and that he has been keeping a supply in his mana channels already.”

Thanks for the assist Dad!

My mother looked to be considering it and I added, “I have wanted to try casting a spell for awhile now. Originally, I had thought to try it on my own with a spell that wouldn’t be noticeable.”

She looked to be getting upset again, and I said “I see that whatever happened with me worried the both of you a lot. I know it is asking a lot, and none of us know what’s at risk. I want, no I need to try this. But only if you two are on board and here to help if someone goes wrong.”

“Can you just wait until you form your mana core, Lucian? You are already refining your mana, and surely that will not take long? We already expect you to form a mana core any day now with how crazy your ability is with mana.” My mother asked me.

“Forming a mana core will turn me into a human disaster that will cause a lot of damage, Mom” I wanted to tell her. Yet, I couldn’t. It would cause her too much worry. She deserved to know, but how could I tell her that her son had an impending death sentence?

I need to figure out magic as much as I can before forming the core, to MAYBE stand even the tiniest bit of a higher chance of surviving. Selene is trying to help me, yet I have no idea if it will be possible. She could access the abyssal power, so surely I can learn to do so as well.

How do I proceed with this conversation without worrying my parents more?