I wake up. Slowly, I rise in bed. I sway back and forth. Where am I? When am I? I look around but it's hard to really focus on anything. I feel strangely well rested, but also so drowsy it's hard to even move right. I look down at myself. I have a blanket. Where did I get a blanket? No wait, this isn't my bed. Where am I?

It takes some time for the fog in my head to clear enough to get some idea of what's happening. I'm in that room Mister Fredricson takes me to when I faint. Did I faint? No, I just woke up normally, I was definitely sleeping. I hold my head, but then notice my hand. It feels funny. My arm really hurts. There's this hot, burning feeling and it sends spikes of pain when I move it. The pain is enough to jolt me more awake. What's wrong with my arm?

I finally look down more clearly. I'm lying in a bed with a blanket, I'm not wearing my clothes, and there are bandages wrapped all around my body. The ones on my forearms are soaked through with blood.

That's right, I got really hurt running away from those kidnappers. I don't know how long it's been since then. I probably spent at least a day sleeping since I don't feel tired now. But this burning, are the injuries infected? Why can't I feel my mana wherever I'm bandaged? Is it the bandages or the injuries themselves causing it? Either way, I have a strong suspicion that my mana is what causes my injuries to heal so quickly. It seems to make my body much stronger, so it's the most likely thing I can think of. I pull the sticky bandage off of my right arm-

I'm back on the bed again. The white wave of pain quickly withdrawing. I... I think I just knocked myself out, probably just for a few moments though. Shakily, I sit back up and look at the wound. What was a simple stab wound has already started to discolor different shades of red, green and black. It looks like removing the bandage even ripped away some of the flesh. So this is how bad infections get?! Frantically, I rip off the rest of the bandages, despite the agonizing pain and fresh flowing blood that comes with some of them, to the point it almost knocks me out a few more times.

Most of the bruising is fine, as well as the small cuts and bruising on my head, and the gravel scratches all over. But the hits I took to my chest are also badly discolored and hurt with a kind of pain that seems to reach deep into my chest. These injuries are really bad, I have to do something about them. All I can think of is using my mana, but how?

I lie back down, trying to focus on my mana again. It seems I used up a lot of it while trying to get out of that room. There just... isn't as much floating around inside me now. But with that empty feeling, and the numbing effect over most of my body, I feel like I can just barely sense something else now. Something very small and hard to detect, usually covered up by all the mana moving around. Deep down, I can feel my mana flowing outward very, very slowly. I look all the way inside and find a kind of pool. Or a well maybe. I close my eyes and try to picture it, feeling it closely. It feels like there's more mana inside. Like a deep well filled to the top with water. It overflows, just a little bit at a time, refilling my mana bit by bit.

I try to scoop some out. Or maybe draw some out. Like pulling, but more directed. The most fine, gentle manipulation I can clumsily manage as I lift just a little off the surface. But just that bit somehow explodes out like a flood, washing through my entire body. I shudder as it fills me to the brim once more. I almost feel like I'm going to overflow, like I can't contain it and the mana is going to burst out of me, but then the feeling passes as it all settles.

Ok, I'm full of fresh mana. Now to try... something. I try pushing it all around to wash away the numbness from my wounds. It takes a little while, but it seems to be working. Eventually, I get the mana around there to begin moving again. I try to wash away the pain and infection, though I don't know if my mana will actually work for that. I mean, it made me way stronger, I have to at least try it.

I keep going, cycling the mana all through my body over and over, even as I start to grow tired. I guess controlling my mana like this actually takes a lot of energy. It's not much longer before I end up falling asleep again.

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

I feel clarity unlike before, the horrible images of my nightmares all playing before my eyes, but I just... don't really feel as scared as usual. Is this another effect of the earth mana? Does the happiness it causes make it harder to feel other feelings? I kind of got that impression earlier.

Whatever the case, I eventually wake up again. The foggy feeling in my head is gone, and my body feels like it's in much better condition than before. Most of the burning feeling is gone from my injuries. However, when I look down, it seems I've been bandaged again and the bandages are still treated with whatever is stopping me from healing properly. They must not have been applied that long ago though, the numbing effect isn't that bad yet.

As I hastily pull the bandages off once more, I scan the room. But stop immediately, shocked when I find Emily sitting in a chair next to my bed. She's fallen asleep sitting up, but startles awake at the sound of me pulling off the bandage on my arm.

"A-Aria? You're awake?" She blinks a couple times, then exclaims, "What are you doing?! You need to leave those bandages on!"

"Emily? What are you doing here?" I ask, flustered.

"I was watching you! You've been asleep for so long, but as soon as you woke up, you tore all of your bandages off!"

"These are stopping me from healing properly!" I complain, really annoyed. Well, at the bandages, not her.

"They're what?"

"Ugh, no, there's no way you would know that. I'm sorry." I shake my head and apologize immediately. "I didn't even know that until now." Wait, I still have way too much earth mana, I'm still blurting out almost any thought that pops into my head. I'm going to wind up telling her everything! Then she'll hate me, I'll get kicked out, and die!

"What do you mean? They're stopping you from healing?" I shake my head to try and get rid of my terrible thoughts, only to wind up answering her question too honestly again.

"Whatever is on these bandages stops my mana from working properly."

"Mana?" she asks.

"Aahh! I've been trying not to tell you about that!" I hold my head in my hands, but just keep talking. "But they said they never heard about it before, so I guess it's a safe topic. But you might tell someone who does know about it!" I shake my head, anxiety eating at me at the thought of Emily mentioning it, only for someone to tell her only rail units have mana.

"You've been... trying not to tell me?" she looks hurt. That just makes me guiltily ramble even more.

"I didn't want to tell you because I didn't know if you knew that only-" and then I grind to a halt. Even with the earth mana screwing with my head, I forcefully clamp my mouth shut so I only grumble out the words incomprehensibly. Doing so feels like I'm doing horrible mental contortions, sending a spike of pain through my conflicted mind. Then I continue rambling the rest of my thoughts anyway. "But you don't know, so it's safe to tell you, I don't need to worry about it that much. Except that I do, because you might tell someone else! Please, please please please don't tell anyone else I told you about this!"

"Umm? What? Wait. No, I don't get it." Emily looks really flustered at my sudden outpouring of information, waving her hands to slow me down. "Why are you telling me about this if you don't want to?"

"Because I absorbed too much earth mana, so I'm way too honest right now. I just keep saying whatever I think and can't stop myself." I bury my face in my hands

"Too honest? So you'll tell me anything I want to know?" There's silence for a moment, before I answer.

"Yes, but I don't want to! There are things I definitely can't tell you! Please don't ask me!" I cry.

Emily is conflicted. I can see it in her face. She desperately wants to know what I've been hiding this whole time. But she's my friend and doesn't want to force me to do something I don't want to do.

She's definitely going to ask! I'm going to tell her and my life will be over. I have to change the topic somehow.

"I-I-I," I stutter, my mind racing for something else. "I remembered what happened the other day!" I finally think of something and blurt it out. Does it have to be this?! "When I was kidnapped-"

"You were kidnapped?!" she shouts.

I stop. "You didn't know?"

"Ah, no, sorry. Mister Fredricson said you got kidnapped," she shakes her head. "But it's really scary to hear it!"

"Yeah, uhh, I guess so?" I don't really understand. If she already knew, why is she still surprised? I shake the thoughts away, but that just launches me straight back into rambling. "But we got away from the kidnappers. I couldn't get away with everyone else, and I got really hurt."

"I see..." she mutters. Then she looks startled. "Wait, go back, you said you remembered the other day?!"

"Y-yeah! I remembered when I was kidnapped... I'm really sorry. I never meant to hurt you. And I never meant to say any of those things I said either. I'm really, really sorry."

"A-actually... I would like to ask you about some of the things you said then..." She looks down a little, only glancing up at me. I open and close my mouth a few times. Why did I have to divert to this topic? It's hardly any better! She slowly meets my eyes. Those are all dangerous topics, but her look says she knows I'll answer her questions right now. And I have to, don't I? After the terrible things I said...

Then she asks her first question. "First... why were you screaming about bread, of all things?"

I mentally sigh a little. That one isn't too bad. "Where I came from, we were only ever given hard bread to eat. Even though they knew there was no nutrition in bread, even though they knew what it would do to our growth, they fed it to us anyway. That's why I was so angry. That they would knowingly do that to us..." I clench my fists. Even thinking about it still makes me angry.

"Who... who are 'they'?"

"The ha-" I grind my teeth together, forcing myself to give a less direct answer that doesn't directly identify any part of the rail program. "The... people in charge of raising us."

"Who is 'us'?" she furrows her eyebrows, clearly annoyed.

"The... others I grew up with..." I painfully force out another vague answer, my head starting to pound. Emily sighs.

"Even like this, you still won't tell me anything definite..." she mutters. "You mentioned that you would need to leave... What were you talking about?" She's starting to tear up as she asks in an angry tone.

I look down. "I meant that I have to leave, and I don't think I'll be able to come back. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay, but I was selfish and became friends with you anyway. Even though I knew I would just leave and I'd hurt you. I'm terrible..."

Emily inhales sharply, a few tears escaping her eyes. "Even though you knew the whole time...?" I nod, unable to meet her eyes. She almost sounds furious, "Why do you have to leave?"

"I have to go- away from here." I wince again.

"Where do you have to go?!" she finally demands.

"I can't tell you!" I squeeze my eyes shut and completely deny her an answer. It feels like all of my insides twist up in response. It's hard to think straight, like there's fire in my brain.

"Why not?!" she grabs my shoulders angrily. "Why won't you ever tell me anything?!"

"Because if I tell you, you'll hate me! And you'll tell, and I won't be able to live here anymore!"

"What?" she looks shocked by my honest answer.

"I decided that I would live my life for myself with the time I have left! So I absolutely can't tell anyone!" I shake my head over and over.

"The time you have left...?" she says quietly. "That makes it sound like you're going to die!"

"I don't want to die! But I can't think of any way to avoid it! I'm not strong enough! I'm never strong enough!" I cry.

"Strong enough for what?" she asks. There's no way she understands what I'm talking about.

"Strong enough to survive! To win and live and survive! Everyone always expected me to just die!" I'm not even sure if what I'm saying makes sense anymore, especially without context. "I've always been broken and useless. I do nothing but drag down everyone around me. I hate it. I hate it so much." I wrap my arms around myself. "I don't want to be like this, but I am. I've always hated the way I am! I'm always thinking they're right! If I just died, I wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore. But I don't want to die either! Isn't that disgusting? I'm just selfish and useless. I can't do anything but hurt the people I care about."

"..." Emily doesn't say anything. I just look down sadly. I've always tried to bottle up and ignore these feelings of self-loathing, but now that I've laid them all out, they just hurt even worse. Even the earth mana can't stop these feelings.

Then Emily finally speaks. "You're right, it is disgusting. Selfishly getting close to me when you knew you'd need to leave again..." I tremble, tears leaking from my eyes. She hates me now. Even without telling her, she hates me. Of course she hates me, why would anyone like a worthless thing like me? She releases a long, long sigh.

"My parents died four years ago," Emily's voice goes quiet, wavering as she randomly changes topics. I look up, unsure why she is suddenly talking about this.

"My mother died right after giving birth to my little sister. I tried to care for her, but I had no way to support a baby, so she died shortly after she was born." Tears quietly fall from her eyes while she stares down at her hands. Did her baby sister... I shake my head before I can finish that thought.

Emily stays that way briefly, before looking back up at me. "When I met you, the way you asked questions about every little thing reminded me of a baby, discovering everything for the first time." She covers her face with her hand, her voice shaking. "I've been thinking of you like my baby sister. Like a replacement for the sister I couldn't save." My eyes go wide. "Disgusting, isn't it?" she asks.

"I... I had no idea..." I mutter.

"You aren't the only one who's selfish. Everyone takes advantage of others, that's how it works around here," Emily says quietly. "I guess we're both awful friends, aren't we?"

"Maybe we are..." I respond. Somehow, knowing that she used me as a replacement for her sister just makes me feel even worse for Emily. Even worse that I've done nothing but lie about what I really am. I can't leave things like this. After everything, I have to set things right somehow. Or at least my deception if nothing else. I take a shaky breath. "I'll tell you." I say. Her eyes go wide. "It's only right, after everything you've done for me. Before I leave, I'll tell you everything."

"Before you leave? H-how long do you have?" she asks hesitantly.

I open my mouth, but before I can respond, I need to clarify something. "How long have I been asleep?"

"A day and a night." So all the way from Shanaday to Venaday?! I shake my head, I can get into that later.

"Then I have about twenty three days left."

"Only that long?!" she gasps. I just nod.

"And you don't think you'll be coming back...?" she asks in a quiet voice.

"I don't think so. Especially not after I tell you everything..." I mutter.

Emily groans slightly. We both sit quietly for some time, before she speaks up again. "Since we're... both at fault here, can we... maybe just call it even? I... do still want to be your friend. Is it fine, even if I'm using you as a replacement for my sister?"

I grin. "I still want to be your friend too. Is it ok, even though I'm just a selfish burden?" Wait, I shouldn't be grinning here.

"It's fine by me," Emily smiles slightly, wiping away the tears still in her eyes. She looks down a little, but her eyes settle on my half-bandaged arms. I never did get to the other bandages after she started asking me questions.

"Don't think I forgot, I still want you to tell me about this 'mana' thing and what it has to do with your injuries!" Emily says with a huff, clearly because she did forget until she saw my bandages. I take the opportunity to pull the bandage off of my other arm and my chest. My other injuries are much more minor and not as much of an immediate concern. Just looking at my arms, they are still somewhat red, but the stab wounds are starting to close, and the green and black colors have disappeared. Some of the flesh I ripped up with the last bandages still looks kind of off, but that's started to heal some too.

Once I finish, I answer. "Well, I already told you, so I guess I have to explain. Mana is some sort of energy I have." This is way too easy to say, even as worried and terrified as I am about saying something wrong. "I told you about the blessing I received from Reena. The thing I got is a lot like my mana. I've basically been pushing it around with my mana ever since I got it."

"So it's just some sort of energy? What does that have to do with your injuries?

"As far as I can tell, if I push my mana into one part of my body, I can make that part stronger. I'm pretty sure it also makes me heal more quickly too, and it's why my injuries don't get infected. I think I was doing it unconsciously though. I never noticed until recently, because I didn't really have a good feel for my mana."

"Wait, why didn't you?" she asks with a confused look, "if you've had it all this time, then..."

"Well, I never really did anything with it. It wasn't until I got the blessing that I started paying attention to my mana. Because the thing was always there, bumping into my mana and messing with it, I started to pay attention to the way it moved all the time. I realized that there have been a bunch of things I do with it without even thinking about it. I got a lot more practice moving it around at will, and became a lot more sensitive to the way the mana feels," I'm probably being overly honest and informative right now, but now that I'm telling her, I really do want her to understand.

"So... you only started getting used to it recently?"

"Yeah, only because of Reena's... No, that couldn't be it..." I make a sudden connection.

"What?" Emily raises an eyebrow.

"I've been expecting her blessing to be something that The Reeb can do. Something it will interact with, or that it will tell me, or, or do something on its own. But every time I thought it was doing something, it was just reacting to my own mana, even if I wasn't good enough with it to actually sense that yet." Emily just nods along vaguely like she doesn't really understand where I'm going with this. "So I just thought, maybe the blessing I received is just a... thing? Like a child's toy? Just some thing to play with so I get to practice? But that's way too simple. A god wouldn't be that vague about a blessing, would they?"

Emily shakes her head. "I have no idea. A god blessing a commoner is really weird, especially Reena..." What does she mean? But Emily is clearly still thinking about something. "Hey Aria, what exactly did you pray for when you received that blessing anyway?"

"Umm..." I think back and try to recall it exactly. "I think it was uhh... 'I pray for the knowledge to survive these trying times?' Probably?" I feel my blood start to run cold after saying that. "Wait, knowledge to survive? Did she take that literally?" My head is spinning at the possibility.

"I don't get it, what do you mean?" Emily asks with a concerned look.

"Aaah, it's hard to explain." But again, the words just start to rush out on their own. "The most likely thing to help me survive is my mana, but I never really had a strong grasp of how to use it before, so if she gave me that blessing so I would learn how to use it, it might be that I can learn enough to survive. But I still don't really know what I need to know, or what I need to do. If I just go to the most likely possibilities... I need to learn as much as I can about metals, that seems like the biggest mystery in front of me right now."

"Wait wait wait, you completely lost me." Emily waves her hands frantically again. "What is this about metal? Can we take a step back? You think she blessed you with a thing that would help you learn enough to survive... something?"

"Ahh, yeah, where do I start...?" I scratch my head. There are a ton of things to explain about this. "It's actually pretty complicated and I don't understand a lot of it very well. I guess I should just start back at the beginning then?"

Emily nods emphatically. "Y-yeah, start at the beginning please?" She offers a nervous smile.

But before I can get into it, the door opens and Mister Fredricson walks in. "Looks like you're finally up," he throws something white and cloth-like at me. It takes me a long moment to finally realize what they are, even after they land on me. My robes? I turn them around a couple times, but they're a bright, clean white like I haven't seen since Marrianne washed them. Cleaner even, so white that it almost feels like all color was washed out of them. I literally did not recognize them...

"I had someone take a look at those while you were out. Said they'd never seen anything like it before. Where did you get those?" he suddenly asks without warning.

"They were given to me when I turned three years old," I respond automatically, then work to prepare myself mentally for more of his questions.

"Given to you? By who?" he presses.

"The people who raised me," I answer him the same way I answered Emily earlier.

"Where can I find these people?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"S-somewhere southeast of here." It's true enough, but also vague enough not to be useful.

He rolls his eyes at my evasion, but continues questioning me. "What are they made of?"

"I have no idea."

"Where did they come from?"

"I have no idea."

"Is there anything you do know about them?" he growls.

"No." I shake my head.

"No good, huh?" he sighs.

"What is no good?" I ask before I can stop myself.

"It would be profitable if I could find the source of such a unique material, but clearly, you are useless." I wince a little at his words as he shakes his head like he's dismissing the whole thing. "If you're awake, go back to your room."

"Ok," I respond shortly. Getting out of here while saying as little to Mister Fredricson as possible is definitely the safest option right now. But before I can do that, I dig through my robe. "Umm, where did the things in my robe go?" I ask.

"On your bed," he says simply, already walking back to the other room. So I just nod and leave quickly while slipping my robe over myself. It feels incredible! Totally soft to the touch. Almost fluffy against my skin or something. It wasn't even this clean when Marrianne washed it for me.

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

We make our way upstairs, and I notice that it's light outside right now. So it's sometime in the middle of the day now? Once we make it to our room, I find all of my things scattered across my bed, like they were all just dumped out of my robes. Actually, that might be exactly what happened. I sweep them to the side for now and sit on the end of my bed.

Emily sits on hers, clearly intent on picking up our conversation right where we left off. "So, you said you were going to start at the beginning and tell me all about this... mana thing?"

"Yeah. I guess that means I should start... well, all the way back. As far as I know, I've always had mana, but I've never really had anything to use it for. It was only when I received the blessing from Reena that I started focusing on it more." She nods, she understands this much already. "There are some special objects that can kind of... react to my mana. I kind of tried to mention it earlier, but the divine totems are one of those objects."

"The divine totem?" she asks, eyes going wide.

"When I touch those objects, I can use my mana to make various things happen."

"What sort of things?" Emily questions, leaning in.

"Well... it's kind of hard to explain. Everything seems to have a different effect. The only connection I've noticed so far is that all of the things are metal."

"Why metal?" she questions.

"I have absolutely no idea. I only have a handful of examples to even base it on, so there could be lots of other things too. I just don't know enough yet."

"Hmm..." Emily thinks on idea for a few moments. "It's a little hard to understand, could you give me an example maybe?"

"Well..." I reach over to the pile of stuff on my bed and grab the nuvrite coin. I hold it up for her to see, and she tilts her head.

"A coin?"

"Apparently nuvrite coins are one of the things. I'm... kind of assuming anything made of nuvrite will work too, but I've only ever touched nuvrite coins before."

"Didn't you say you never used money before?" Emily asks. "So how...?" Then her eyes widen.

"Yeah, Shanaday was my first time touching coins like these. That's how I realized they reacted to my mana. But I spent them all before I could take a closer look at them or anything."

"That's... uh, unfortunate..." Emily mutters. "Wait, then where did you get that coin from?"

"Aiden gave it to me. He told me to give it back when I was done with it, but I never got the chance..."

"Aiden?" she questions the new name, but then adds another before I can respond. "What did you do with it?"

"Escaped from the kidnappers-" I shake my head as I immediately start rambling through the next question, "Wait, I'm jumping ahead." Emily's interest is clearly piqued, but she lets it go for now as I step back again.

"Umm, back to what I was saying before... I eventually did figure out what I can use nuvrite for. I can push my mana through it."

Emily blinks a few times. "Push mana through it? What do you mean?"

"That one is really hard to explain. I can kind of push and pull my mana around inside me. If I try to push it, I can make it go through this particular metal. Like in my hand," I hold the coin up between two fingers. "I can push it out from one finger and it will flow through into my other finger." I use my other hand, pointing to follow my descriptions.

"Huh... I guess I can kind of picture that. But what does doing that actually, well, do?"

I scratch my head. "Well, it turns out to have all sorts of uses. Basically, when I do it, it causes the coin to interact with other metals in different ways." Emily nods slowly, uncertainly. "The easiest to explain is tin. It makes it glow."

"Glow?" She asks.

"Yeah." I grab the tin ball and hold it near the coin. "See this tin ball? When I hold it near the coin, it normally doesn't do anything." She nods again. That's normal after all. "However, when I push my mana through the coin, it starts to glow." I push some and the tin ball immediately lights up.

"Woah!" Emily gasps when she sees it. "It really does glow!"

I just nod. "So this is what I figured out. I can use my mana with one of these coins to do different things. What I haven't figured out is the connection between my mana and the effects it actually has on things. For instance, I have no idea why it makes tin light up," I shake my head. "Anyway, moving forward..." I'm not sure where to go from there though.

But Emily prompts me, "S-so you said you used it when you were kidnapped?" It seems Emily can't wait any longer to hear the details about that.

"Yeah. Honestly, everything I've figured out I learned while just trying anything I could think of to escape." She nods seriously.

"Tell me everything," her eyes are glowing with curiosity and worry. She... did say she thinks of me like a replacement for her baby sister... "How did you get kidnapped anyway?"

"I got lost in the northwest district of the city. One of the kidnappers pretended to be leading me back to Main Street, but then he pushed me into a small room with no way out."

"What were you doing in the northwest district?" Emily asks incredulously. "Didn't you go to the river?"

"After I finished washing off, I went to look for the guard barracks."

"Why would you do that?" she tilts her head, clearly not understanding my seemingly random behavior.

"Well, I wanted to know the exact location so I could get there quickly in the morning because I wanted to meet Francis to ask him if people know about mana so I'd know if it was safe to talk about or not-"

"Hold on, I have so many questions," Emily waves her hands to cut off the rush of information. "First off, who is Francis?"

"Francis is..." I'm not actually sure where to start. So I just start counting off the basics. "Well, he's a really nice person. He's Marrianne's husband, he gave me my name, and he's the only person who really knows about me." I stop, rethinking a little. "Well, I guess now there's Aiden and Mary. I don't really know for sure, but they didn't tell the guards about me at least...?"

"Wait, wait, stop." I think I'm just raising more questiontions... "Who are Aiden and Mary?" Emily shakes her head when I suddenly start rattling off new names she's never heard before one after another.

"They were the kids who helped me escape when we were kidnapped."

"I... see..." Emily says slowly. "What was that about telling the guards something? How were the guards involved in this?"

"When we escaped, they ran to the guard barracks and called the guards to help me because I couldn't get away. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself again..."

"You couldn't..." Then she shakes her head. "Y-yeah..." Emily says nervously. "Getting back to Francis, you said he... knows about you? Like, knows what?"

"Everything I can't tell you... more or less," I look down as I say it.

"But you told him?" She sounds hurt.

I shake my head. "He... well he knew mostly from the start, but... eventually I got a chance to explain, and he actually believed me. I still don't understand why he decided to believe me, but he did."

"I don't get it. If he believed you, why won't you tell me?" The pleading in her voice feels like a spike through my heart. I clench my teeth.

"I'm sorry, I just... He already knew. He didn't say anything for his wife's sake, and I really just wanted to stop him worrying all the time..." Emily clearly doesn't understand without context. But I can't explain any more than that. That last bit may have crossed over the line of what's safe to say if she really stopped to think about what it might mean...

She shakes her head. "Then what about those others you mentioned? You said those other kids knew too? Why did you tell them? Didn't you hardly know them?!"

I scratch my head. "I didn't want to. But I'd already met Mary before, and her mother told her about me."

"I don't understand... Her mother? How do you know her mother?" Emily questions. Again, there's no way she could understand without context.

"That's... kind of complicated..."

"And you can't talk about it..." Emily finishes with an annoyed sigh.

I try to pick up and continue quickly. "Since she already knew, there was no way to hide it from the others. The only reason they even listened to me was because they were locked in a room with me..." Emily gasps a little, but I continue, "Even after I explained everything, Mary said she wasn't sure... In the end I guess they decided to give me the benefit of the doubt, since they didn't say anything, but still..."

"Hmm..." Emily hums vaguely. I wonder what she's thinking about all of this... "So, whatever it is... You really can't expect anyone you tell to believe you at all. Not even me?"

I just nod sadly. "I'm sorry. Like I said, I'll still tell you because you deserve to know, but... I'm really sorry."

Finally, she sighs. "Ok, I'll drop it for now. But you're going to tell me everything later!" I nod seriously. Even though it will destroy our friendship, she deserves to know. I just... I'm not strong enough to tell her until I'm leaving... As pathetic as that is.

"Leaving that topic aside... Why were you trying to meet this Francis person exactly?"

"I wanted to ask him if it was normal for people to know about mana. I wanted to know if it was safe to talk about or if it would give away... my secret..." I mutter. I know she just said she wouldn't ask about it anymore, but it still bothers me every time I mention it. "I wanted to know if I could talk to you about it. But after Mary and Aiden found out, I asked them instead and they told me they didn't know anything about it, so it shouldn't be too bad to tell you. At least as long as you don't mention it to anyone else..."

"Why is that?" she asks curiously.

"Well, if you do mention it to someone who knows about mana, then you'll immediately figure out my secret..." I look away as I answer. "So please, please don't mention it," I plead. "I want to be the one to tell you. Even though I know you'll hate me, I at least want a chance to explain..."

"Fine..." she sighs, scratching her head with an annoyed look. "I won't mention it to anyone. I want your full explanation, every single detail." She crosses her arms with a huff. "It's up to me if I hate you or not afterward."

"Thank you, Emily..." I say quietly, blinking away a few tears. She's too good. Even though she knows I'm hiding something from her, she's willing to wait patiently for my explanation. Even though she'll just run for her life when I tell her, like every other person who found out before I got good enough at hiding it.

"So you were there to find the barracks, but you got lost?"

"Yeah, I got lost. One of the kidnappers told me he would help me get back to the main road, but then he pushed me into a dark room, like I said. There was no light, and the door wouldn't open from the inside, so we were trapped." Emily nods slowly. "At first it was just Jenny and me."

"Jenny?"

"Uh, she was a little girl who was already trapped there when I was caught. Then Aiden got caught, and then Mary. There was one more girl we took with us, right when we escaped, but I never got her name." Emily nods again.

"So, you said you escaped by figuring something out with that coin?" Emily asks, pointing to the coin I've been holding idly for a while now.

"Yeah. When Aiden got there, he had this coin and he let me borrow it. That's when I figured out I could push my mana through it and it would do things. I was just trying anything, so I sort of just ignored the consequences at the time..."

"Consequences?" Emily asks nervously.

"One of the results of pushing my mana through the coin is that it changes based on what it interacts with. Sorry, it's a bit complicated and there's no really good way to show you." Emily tilts her head a bit. "I sort of mentioned it earlier. I have too much earth mana right now."

"Earth mana?" she questions the new term.

"That's what I've been calling it. It kind of has a brown, rock-like, dirt feel to it. Basically, it makes me think of earth, so I've been calling it earth mana."

"Huh..." Emily, "So what's wrong with this... earth mana?"

"Well, it turns out that when I use my mana to affect iron, it changes into earth mana." She nods, that part is simple enough.

"It was hard to notice at first, but as I started to accumulate more, I started to feel weird."

"Weird... how?"

"Well, I've sort of been able to nail down three specific things. First, I'm more honest. Like I said, I just keep telling you things honestly, even when I don't want to." This makes her frown. "Ah! But I don't mean right now. I really do want you to know about this! But well, earlier, I just blabbed about mana without thinking about it. I could hardly even keep from just telling you my secret..." She looks obviously displeased by that, but doesn't say anything. "Besides that, I'm too happy."

"Uh, too happy?" she raises an eyebrow.

"I don't mean it like that. I like being happy," I assure her immediately, "but uh, it's kind of like, it's hard to feel anything but happy about things. Like even when I was being kidnapped, I was really happy anyway. It was really weird."

"Ok, that does sound really weird," Emily admits.

"Besides that, it seems like I'm kind of, uh, more prone to worrying about things. Which seems weird when I'm too happy. It kind of felt like I was swinging back and forth randomly... It made me feel sort of unstable."

"The way you're talking about it, it sounds like it's not as bad as before?" she questions.

"Yeah, I've been working on converting the earth mana back into, well, I've been calling my mana colorless, since it doesn't have a special feeling like the others."

"Others? So there's more besides earth?"

"Yeah, so far I know of light mana. It kind of feels like bright sunshine or something, so I'm calling it light. That one comes from tin."

"So, like when you made it glow before...?" Emily asks vaguely.

"Exactly. When I use it to make tin glow, some gets converted into light mana. So far I haven't noticed any weird effects from the light mana. I didn't really absorb as much, and it's much easier to convert back, so I don't know if there are any strange effects if I take in a lot of it. Generally, it seems a lot less troublesome than earth mana."

"Huh, sounds like it," she agrees. "So, you found out all of that stuff while trying to get out? What did you actually do to escape?"

"That was actually Aiden's idea. Since there was no handle on the inside, we took the door off the hinges."

"Wow." She glances over at the door into our room, tilting her head as she looks at it. "How did you do that exactly?"

"Well, I found out that iron has a very uhh... complicated interaction with my mana." That raises an eyebrow again. So I grab the two hinge pins from my bed. They're stuck together right now, so I just hand them to Emily. "This is what I mean."

She holds the hinge pins for a few moments, turning them around like she doesn't know what to do with them. Then she tries to pull them apart, and suddenly looks shocked when they don't immediately separate. "What the...?" Whe pulls a little harder, and they snap apart. She blinks at them a few times, then looks back at me. "You did this?" I nod. "But didn't you say you already have too much earth mana? Is it alright to do this just to show me?" her tone full of concern.

"Oh no, that's not it." I point at the coin in my hand to show that it's not even near them. "They stay that way." I explain to calm her.

She blinks blankly. Then, "Wait, they stay like this even when you stop?!" She moves them closer and they suddenly snap back together. "So they keep sticking together... forever?"

"Well, yes and no... and I'm not really sure how long it lasts, since I only did it... well, I guess two days ago now. So it does seem to last a while at least... But there's more to it than them sticking together. Try flipping them around." I motion for her to turn them and she does. As expected, they won't go together anymore. When she tries to push them together, they push apart, or start to spin so they can connect the other way.

"They also push apart? But why?"

"Like I said, I don't understand why they do what they do, but I figured out enough to use them. Sorry if this isn't really clear, but the way I think of it, I've been calling the ends Up and Down. The Up and Down ends pull together, but the Ups repel each other, and the Downs too.

"Up? Down?" she questions the odd terms.

"Well, I came up with it by thinking about the river. When I push my mana through the coin, the direction I do it matters. If I push it through in the opposite direction, it will cause the ends to flip. So I kind of thought of the place I started as upstream, flowing to downstream. So I called the end near the upstream side Up and the other Down. It's weird, but does it make sense?"

"I... don't know..." Emily giggles a little. "I'm not sure if I can really understand this completely..." She smiles awkwardly.

"Sorry, it's really hard to understand, isn't it..." Especially when she can't actually feel any of the things I'm talking about...

"Well anyway, go on. How did you use all of this to escape exactly?" She looks down at the mysterious hinge pins as she asks.

"When I figured out I could attract iron, we pulled out the nails from the wall. But it took two of us pulling. Then we couldn't reach the top hinge, and had to change our plan. That's when I figured out they could repel too, so I used that to push the pins out of the hinges. That's how I got those," I point at them.

"Wait, so that's what these are? They're from the hinges?" Somehow, she seems amazed by that.

"Yeah," I nod. "Since figuring out I can use these metal things for all sorts of stuff, I've been trying to hold onto them in case I need them. The hinge pin turned out to be really useful later too."

Emily tilts her head. "Useful how?"

"Well... Uhh, when we actually got out of the room, we were really unlucky and one of the kidnappers was right outside.

"W-what?"

"That's how we got the last girl who I didn't get the name of. I guess he was about to push her into the room with us. But we were escaping, so we stunned the man and took the girl with us as we ran away. Then we ran to the guard barracks."

"Wait, what? How did you get to the guard barracks? Didn't this all happen because you didn't know how to get there?"

"Uhh... I can't really explain that one... All I can really say is that we knew how to get there when we escaped."

Her eyebrow twitches a little. There's no way she can accept that easily. "Ok fine. So you knew how to get there... somehow. Weren't the kidnappers chasing you? How did you get away? How many were there?"

I try to go through her list of questions. "Well, there were three men that showed up as we were running away. I kept them from catching up while we ran, but then they cut us off when we got near the garrison..." I sigh just remembering how badly that fight went.

"No no, that's what I don't understand. How did you keep a bunch of men from catching you?"

"I... hit them and tripped them? I wasn't strong enough to do anything more than delay them though..." I shake my head.

"That's kind of hard to believe, but ok...?" Emily mutters.

"Well, you know how I said mana makes me stronger? It felt like all the earth mana I had made me way stronger than normal," I explain. "I'm pretty sure that helped a lot." It definitely felt like the earth mana had a stronger effect than my own normal mana for that too, I should check that.

"Hmm..." She nods slightly, though she still doesn't look that convinced.

"Unfortunately," I go on, "they cut us off before we got to the barracks. I was too weak and tired to clear a path- wait, I missed a part," I shake my head when I realize I missed an important part of the story. "At some point along the way they stabbed me, but I took their knife."

"They stabbed you?!" she gasps. I blink a few times.

"Yeah." I just hold up my arm to show her the stab wound we were already talking about earlier.

"Oh, right..." She puts a hand to her forehead. "But it's really shocking to hear you say it you know!"

"Ahh..." I can't help the giggle that slips out. Despite the topic, her reactions are funny... "Anyway, I took the knife and it turned out that it had an even stronger effect with my mana than the coin did."

"Ok...?" She has no idea where I'm going with this.

"That's why I said the hinge pin was really useful. I knew I couldn't get us past all three, so I used the repelling trick I learned to launch it at one of the men. I was only trying to stun him, but it was way stronger than I expected and punched right into his shoulder." Emily suddenly jolts a little and looks at the pins in her hands with a worried expression, back and forth like she's wondering which pin it was. It looks like whichever it was, the blood on it got rubbed away in the time since, so I don't know which it was either.

"I got the other two out of the way while he was stunned, so the rest of the kids got away. But I was too weak to get away from them myself. So weak I barely managed to hold them off long enough for the guards to show up," I sigh. "I also got really hurt too," I kind of gesture to myself as I refer to all the injuries. "I think I also overused my mana and overstressed my body. After the guards rescued me, I couldn't even walk and they had to carry me here."

"I see..." Emily looks pale at the description. "I don't know what's 'strong' in your head, but holding off three adults at all is incredible you know?" I'm not sure if she's trying to praise or encourage me or something, but...

Of course I can't tell her this, but 'strong' is how I would describe the functional rail units. A single one could lay waste to an entire city of this size in a day. All resistance would be futile. Only another rail unit could put up any fight whatsoever.

Next to that, not even being able to fight three ordinary humans... Calling that weak is an insult to the word. Useless would be a little better.

I can't help but sigh at my thoughts. "Well anyway, that's basically what happened, and what I figured out."

Emily thinks for a bit. "Well, I still have all sorts of questions about all of this. But I'm just glad you're alright." She frowns a little as she looks me over one more time. "Well... mostly alright...?" She grumbles a little, then perks up a bit. "Oh right, what was it you were originally saying about the bandages anyway? They stop you from healing?"

That reminds me of where this all started. "Yeah. I don't know why, but it feels like my mana stops working wherever the bandages are wrapped around." And now that I tore them all off once and everything immediately started healing, I can be completely sure it's the bandages, not the wounds. "It seems like it won't go to the injuries, so they don't heal right. But I don't know why." I shake my head. "Bandages themselves never seemed to be an issue before, so I've been thinking it must be whatever the bandages are treated with. I hand one to Emily and she looks at it.

"Mmm, it just looks like regular healing herbs and stuff though?" She rubs a finger against the bandage questioningly. "These are just basic things used to promote healing of injuries. Nothing special about it." She hands the bandage back, and I sigh. What could it be?

"Still, I want to figure this one out. Could you tell me each of the things on this bandage? I'd really like to check each one to be sure."

"Well..." She looks closely. "It mostly just looks like a mixture of crushed up sholly, frenin, lacet..." She picks a few bits of herbs off of the bandage to look at them more. "I think there's some sela too."

"What's sela?" I don't recognize that one. I lean in close to look at it.

"It looks a lot like sholly, but it's a darker green, see?" I nod at the little dark green fleck she shows me. "It doesn't really taste good, so it's mostly used for medicines." She passes me the bit of crushed up green herb. I turn it around in my hand, examining it closely. Then I sniff it. It smells kind of sweet, but that might be a leftover scent from the other herbs it was mixed with. Then I put it in my mouth and grimace at the harsh, bitter flavor. "Why do you always eat weird things...?" Emily sighs while shaking her head.

"Hmm, I kind of don't think that's it. It doesn't seem like it really does anything..."

"Let's see, there's also mashed lele fruit and mira sap." She rubs some of the sticky stuff between her fingers.

"I don't know those," I shake my head. So she explains.

"Well, mira sap is kind of expensive, but it's good for helping wounds heal. Lele fruit is a bit cheaper, but also makes good medicine. When you mash it up it gets sticky, so it's good for bandages. It also helps with cuts and other wounds. You can eat it too, and it's really nutritious, but it's mostly used for medicine since it costs a lot." She explains them while working to separate the two sticky substances.

"Huh..." I mush the sticky stuff between my fingers. The lele fruit is yellow, and the sap is brown. I sniff them a little. The lele fruit smells sweet, and the mira sap smells bitter. I lick the sap first, confirming it's as bitter as I expected. I shudder from the taste, and Emily giggles, but it's still not as bad as the sela.

Then I try to lele fruit too. "You really do just taste everything new, don't you?" she asks, still giggling. I mush it in my mouth a bit. It's sweet, and sticky like she said. I swallow the strange, sweet fruit.

"Hmm..." I mutter. No luck. "Is there anything else?"

"Umm..." She pokes at the bandage. "Let's see..." Wait.