Emily helps keep my nightmares at bay again, and I wake in the morning feeling pretty well rested today too. I'm still kind of sleepy while I yawn and head down for breakfast, but I'm feeling good. I check my wounds once more and find that all but the worst have healed. Even the knife wounds on my arms are mostly closed already. I only wrap the last two remaining cuts again.
Over breakfast, I tell her briefly about the different effects I found yesterday without going into much detail with everyone around us. I cover how ignium gets hot and nickel gets cold, and how durite makes much, much stronger magnets than iron does. I leave out the effects on my mana for the time being, especially since I don't know much beyond descriptions of how the different types feel. I would need to accumulate more to really test their effects. And as I found out with earth mana, that can be very troublesome.
We finish pretty quickly and head upstairs to get our things. Today, Emily brings the bait, her knife, and thread like before, while I load my basket with the bandages, mollite, nuvrite, and copper. I think for a bit before adding the iron and durite as well. I have no idea what the relationship is between mana, lightning energy, and magnets. I'll test that today to see what I can figure out. It will also give me some more metals to test, to see which types can carry lightning energy.
Once I have everything, we leave. Even with my clothing dirty after days in the forest, I still feel everyone's eyes on me as we begin our walk south. "Hey Emily, is there anywhere I can get some clothing? Everyone's always staring at me all the time. I'm really out of place wearing this..." I say. She glances around and grimaces.
"Yeah, I didn't really want to mention it in case you hadn't noticed..." she mumbles while looking off to the side. She... knew the whole time... "Uh, don't worry though, it'll be fine. Now that we're making so much money, we can go pick something up for you. There's a place I always go that buys and sells old clothes," she explains. "You can sell them anything you grow out of, and they resell for cheap. Well, for clothes anyway. Your size should be about... two coppers, I think."
"Wow, that is pretty expensive," I comment. It's even more than the metal ingots I bought. Why is cloth so expensive?
"Yeah, but it's nothing compared to new clothing. I can't even imagine how much those would cost. They aren't something people like us can afford, even making money hunting like we are now. That's why most people just buy the cloth so they can sew their clothes themselves. At least my parents did," she doesn't show it, but her voice wavers slightly. "It's a lot of work, but at least thread is something we can afford." After last night, with the talk of bed time stories, she must still be thinking about her parents. She probably doesn't want to talk about that now, so I put those thoughts from my mind to keep up the conversation.
"I see..." I rub my chin in thought. At least I can afford the clothing at the reseller. That'll get me out of my robes so I don't attract constant unwanted, unnerving attention. I've only been living a few weeks in this area, and the stares are only getting worse. In fact, the stares are starting to feel hostile right now... Without making a show of it, I carefully glance around a few times as we walk, but can't pinpoint where the terrifying presence is coming from. I hide my nerves and wait for the presence to vanish, making a mental note to get new clothes on our way back today.
We head out the West Gate and into the forest, moving toward our usual spot again.
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Once we're out of range of anyone else, I elaborate on my observations from yesterday, explaining what I know of the new types of mana I discovered. As we approach, I call Maven over.
"Uhh... Maven... I think you're getting fat..." I mutter at the positively round hobin. "Just because you can get food more easily now doesn't mean you should eat yourself sick you know." He pouts for a bit, but he clearly understands he's been eating too much and needs to cut back. Emily just chuckles awkwardly as she pets the fluffy creature. We go a little ways before he leaves once more, and keep walking. Finally arriving back around our hunting spot, we get set up.
With the bait in place and stick hanging up high, we take our places. I make sure to straddle a nice sized branch so I'll have plenty of room to work. I leave my small basket wedged in a good spot like before, and unwrap the bandages around my six copper coins. I set the coins in a circle on a thick tree branch so they're touching. I... think I'm ready to study them and figure out... something.
To start, I do the same thing I did the other night, to make sure everything works the same. I use the mollite ingot to create a moderately strong force. Actually... I stop briefly to check something else when it comes to mind.
What I really need here is tin, but I didn't think to bring any with me. So I grab an iron pin instead and hold it near the ingot. I run a small amount of mana through and feel the force attraction increase on the pin. I increase and decrease the quantity, noting how to pull changes with it.
Next I try it with the bit in my wrist instead. Yes, that wasn't just my imagination. It's much easier to push my mana through the larger piece of metal than the small one. The more I try to push through, the harder it is to force it all through at once. The larger ingot is far easier to push more mana through than the tiny bit in my wrist. The end result feels the same judging by the force on the iron pin though. So the same amount of mana has the same effect, but larger pieces of metal take a lot less effort to push that mana. It's very good to know, especially if I need to use a lot of mana for something.
With that finished, I go back to my tests with copper, creating a moderate force with the mollite ingot. I slide two coins apart and find the small arc of lightning I expected. So it's still working fine. I turn it off and reset the coins. First, let's see if there's a better way I can observe the energy. I guess the most obvious one is by just checking if I can carry it through myself like I can with mana. That way I'll be able to feel it directly. For that, I just try putting my finger between two of the coins, and pushing a little. I immediately feel a small, kind of unpleasant tingle across my finger. Good, I can feel it at least. I increase the force, and the feeling grows. It's actually kind of painful. I pull my finger back and stop pushing with my mana. I shake it a little, it still feels weird and tingly. Definitely not a good feeling.
I wonder if lightning mana has any effect on lightning energy...? I grab a nuvrite coin and the durite from my basket, just using them to convert some mana to lightning mana. I let it accumulate for a while so I have a decent amount to use.
By now my finger has stopped tingling at least, so for my first test, I run the lightning energy through my finger again, and push all the lightning mana into my finger to see if it changes anything. Huh, it makes the feeling a lot less unpleasant. It still just goes straight through. I try moving the lightning mana around. "Woah..." I mutter. I can feel the lightning energy flowing through the lightning mana. I pull it out into a longer path, and can feel the odd tingly sensation go all the way along the path of lightning mana. What happens if there's only some? I pull away most of the mana, leaving just a small bridge across my finger. The lightning energy flows easily over the bridge. Then I pull the lightning mana apart, essentially breaking the bridge, and fill the gap with normal colorless mana. This time, the lightning goes as far as it can along the lightning mana, travels in a straight line across the colorless mana, over to the other lightning mana, and gives the same unpleasant feeling as before. It's just like the way I saw it jump between the coins the other night.
So the lightning energy always tries to follow the easiest path. When it has to go through a more difficult substance, like colorless mana, it moves along the shortest path it can to reach a better material... My thoughts are suddenly interrupted when a hobin appears. I stop my experiment, pulling my finger out of the gap in the coins, and go to catch the hobin. I knock it out like usual and give it to Emily to dress. I take a few extra steps away today because the smell is kind of getting to me and makes it hard to focus. I try keeping my thoughts on the experiments and off of the animal, until she's finished. Then it's back to the copper.
So, lightning tries for the easiest thing to travel through. But what happens to the energy when it stops? It was flowing through my finger when I stopped to catch the hobin, but now it's gone. I test it a couple more times. As soon as I apply force with my mana, the flow starts up, seemingly instantly, and stops the same way as soon as I stop pushing. But there doesn't seem to be any energy at all when I'm not pushing on it. So it's not like mana, because the only energy is the energy of movement? I'm not sure, but that's what my observations seem to indicate. It's the best I can do for now.
Now it's time to test other metals and figure out what this energy can travel through. I've already determined it can go through me, so at least I can feel when it's working. I swap out one of the copper coins for a nuvrite coin. Immediately, the flow hits what feels like a massive amount of resistance compared to before. I need to push a lot more mana through the mollite ingot, producing a much stronger effect, for the lightning to have as strong a feel going through the circle now that the nuvrite is there.
However, it does work, it flows through. I try it again, replacing the nuvrite coin with the mollite ingot. I have to use the mollite in my wrist to push, but I manage. My findings are similar, but a slightly less intense level of resistance compared to nuvrite. Iron is much easier, but still noticeably harder than copper. Then I try the durite, which strangely enough, is also very resistant. Not nearly as much as the other more difficult metals, but way more than either copper or iron. Even though it creates lightning mana? That seems really odd to me, but I don't understand why any of this works the way it does, so I just take it for what it is and move on.
So lightning energy can seemingly travel through anything? Well these are all metals, maybe it can travel through any metal? Uhh, plus me? I scrape a small scrap of tree bark up from the branch I'm working on, and try pinning that between two coins, keeping a finger between another two so I can still feel the energy. I push with my mana once more... Nothing this time. I push harder, and it kind of feels like I might be getting a tiny bit of current? It still needs more power? I let a large rush of mana flow through the ingot and, and feel the current finally increase substantially.
Then the bark catches fire.
"Eek!" I gasp, and immediately smother the fire with the sleeves of my robe.
"What is it?" Emily asks quietly
"I umm..." My voice drops to a tiny whisper. "I set the tree on fire a little..." I answer guiltily. Emily just heaves a long sigh. I make a mental note not to do that again. Like, ever.
Apparently I can force lightning energy to travel through... seemingly anything? It's just way harder with things that aren't metals. And it lights them on fire for some reason.
I've more or less figured out what lightning energy travels through. Next up is... I glance around at the things I have to work with. I guess the next thing would be trying to find what links all of this together. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pinpoint anything specific, but it's at least worth a shot. I might not get it right away, but it's worth checking, just in case it's something obvious.
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Alright, first thing is to start with what I know... When I run my mana through mollite or nuvrite, they can cause effects on different metals, and become magnets temporarily.
I want a name for it finally. I think of it like the current of a river that flows through the materials. The area around the river, where things are affected... Outside town, the area around the river is a field, so I'll just stick with that and call it the mana field. While I'm at it, I may as well use the same to describe the others. So mana field, magnetic field, lightning field? Well, the lightning energy doesn't seem to have an area of effect like the others, so I guess I'll leave that one out.
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Moving on, other metals made into magnets don't cause the same effects that mana does, so I can conclude that the magnetic effects and mana effects are definitely separate things. Then there's the lightning energy. It can be caused by mana interacting with copper, but is that it? Does it have any relation or interactions with magnets? Is there any other way to cause it? I was able to create magnets with other magnets, is there anything similar for lightning energy?
I start with the ring of six copper coins. I still use my finger to complete the circle so I can observe any change in the energy. I put a magnet in the middle to see if it does anything. At first it kind of feels like there might be something, but it stops immediately. So they have no normal interactions, it seems. At least, not by just being near each other like magnets do.
I go to move onto the next test, but stop when again, I sort of feel like a little energy moves. What is that? I put the magnet back in place between the coins, and it's there again, just for a small fraction of a moment.
There's definitely something going on. But what? I try moving the magnet around the circle of coins to no effect, then up and down, and side to side. It feels like I get the greatest effect when moving it up and down. I try in different spots, around the edges, and in different places inside, and find that moving it up and down in the center of the circle causes the strongest little pulses of lightning energy. I'm using the durite magnet already, and I'm still getting such a tiny response, how strong of a magnet would I need to use for this? But the fact is, I can clearly feel a small lightning energy current created by certain movements of a magnet. They can definitely interact.
I don't know how or why, but I can at least confirm what happens in a way I can repeat. If I can repeat it, maybe I can refine it and come up with a better method. Something I can use for... something. Of course I have no idea what applications any of these things might have, but it feels like that's exactly what I need to figure out. What can I actually do with all of this? Later of course, after I discover what I can do.
So mana fields and magnetic fields can create lightning energy. Can magnetic fields or lightning energy cause mana fields? I try letting the lightning energy flow through my finger without directly controlling the mana in my finger to see if it orders it or moves it in any way, like what happened when I couldn't control my mana and it clumped up around the bits of dark mana. However, nothing happens. Just an unpleasant shock from anywhere the lightning energy passes through colorless mana because the lightning randomly disperses on its own. So I remove my finger from the circle, giving it a few shakes to get the painful tingling to go away.
Then, making sure to push the coins together so it doesn't break the connection, I just hold my finger near the copper coins while creating a strong mana field with my other hand. That will create a strong flow of lightning energy, but I don't feel it cause any effect on my mana at all, even when I try touching one of the coins the energy is moving through. So no effect near lightning energy, or when directly interacting with it either...
As far as I can tell, lightning energy can't affect mana or create mana fields. What about magnets? I have to stop briefly for another hobin, but then I get back to it.
For magnets affecting mana... I can't think of anything. I've held them and worked with them so much at this point, but I've never noticed them having any effect on my mana before. Wanting to be extra sure, I try a number of tests anyway. This time, I make sure not to hold my mana under control. Since I normally have it controlled all the time, this should fill in that gap.
I try pressing the magnets to my hand, seeing if the mana moves. Then test with each different type of mana, but see no differences between them. I move the magnets around, then rub them up and down on my skin, but there doesn't seem to be any interaction at all. Well, I'll leave that for now. Maybe I'll come back to it if I learn something that gives me some new ideas.
After that would be reversing the process, seeing how I can make magnets instead. I can already do it with mana and other magnets, but what about with lightning energy? But first, if I want to test the ability to create new magnets, I need to figure out how to change a magnet back. I've only seen it happen once. What could the cause be?
I go back over how it happened. It takes some thinking before I can recall exactly how it happened. I pulled apart the two pins and handed one to Gremory. They both should have been magnetized at that point. He looked at it, hit it, and pressed it against his anvil before handing it back, demagnetized.
The most likely possibility is hitting it. That's the most violent, impactful event at least. The only other thing I can think of would be... maybe how close it was to a much larger piece of iron. If the anvil is made of iron? I don't actually know what it's made of. Anyway, that's another possibility. Maybe it breaks if it tries to spread the magnetic effect to another piece of metal too large or something... For now I'll just test hitting it, since that's quick and easy.
I look over my ingots briefly. Ignium lights itself on fire, so that's out. Mollite is really weak and might break, and durite is also a magnet. Well, I guess that just means I can test on both iron and durite at the same time. So I take the ingot and give one of the pins a few hard whacks.
When I test it with the other pin, it's definitely not magnetic anymore. The same goes for the durite ingot. So that's it after all? Just hit a magnet a few times and it stops being magnetic? It seems too simple, not to mention random, but it definitely works.
Just in case, I use the mollite to strongly magnetize the durite again, just to make sure it's possible. It works and doesn't feel any weaker, so there shouldn't be any issues with having metals switch between magnetic and non-magnetic. It doesn't seem to be a one-time thing with each piece of metal at least.
Now that I have regular, non-magnetic iron, move on to test if lightning energy can make it into a magnet again, or if only mana and magnets can do that.
How to do this... I can't put the mana field too close to the iron, or it'll just make it a magnet. I have to cause the lightning energy away from where the circle actually is. As soon as I think that, I get an idea.
If it just needs one point where the push comes from... I lean my elbow on a copper coin, holding the mollite ingot right next to it with my other hand, then touch two different copper coins with my fingers. They don't touch one another, but do touch other coins to form a small circle. This way, the coin at my elbow will be in the mana field, providing the push to send the lightning energy up my arm, around the circle of coins, then back down my arm to complete the path.
I make sure to create an easy path through my arm with lightning mana for the energy to flow through so I don't set my arm on fire or something. It takes some careful work to get the lightning energy to separate into two different parts, one going to each of my fingers without hitting each other along the way. If that happened, the lightning energy would just jump between the two sections, circling right back to the coin without going up through all of the other coins.
Finally, I push my mana through the ingot to start the whole thing. The flow of lightning energy works as expected. So then I place the iron pin inside the small circle of copper coins. If the flow works the same way as mana, it should set one side to Up and the other to Down. I give it a good strong push so the lightning energy can flow powerfully around the iron, then give it a test. It sticks to the other pin as expected of iron. I turn it around and find a very, very weak magnetic effect. It's hardly noticeable, but it's there. It just barely tries to repel away.
So magnets can be created by mana, magnets, or lightning energy, though lightning energy is by far the worst at it. Interestingly, this also proves that lightning energy can have some effect on things around it without direct contact either.
Actually... It made all of the hairs on my arms stand up when I was first testing it the other night, now that I think about it. Even that was some effect, no matter if I still don't understand it. So I can conclude there are lightning fields too. That also gets added that to my list of new words I made up today.
With a tap on my shoulder, I stop working again for another hobin. When I climb back up into the tree, I keep thinking things over. Mana can create lightning energy and magnets. Lightning energy can also create magnets, and even magnets can create magnets and lightning energy.
The only things missing is some way for lightning energy to create lightning energy. And of course, a method of creating a mana field other than directly doing it myself. So far it seems like nothing else can accomplish that though.
For now, how would I have one flow of lightning energy create another flow of lightning energy? It's the only piece missing here, so I want to assume it's possible, but I'm having trouble thinking of a way to accomplish it right now. Maybe I could split the coins in half with three on each side... I slowly rearrange the coins as I think things over. Only one side has a copper coin near the mollite, and I use my elbows to push mana through the mollite, while lightning mana in my arms allows the lightning energy to flow up to the coins?
No, I shake my head. I can do it with just energy going through one arm. I can put the other coins next to them... No wait, if they're side by side, the lightning field probably won't be strong enough at that distance to push on the other coins enough to create another flow of lightning energy... I scratch my head. Ideally, I would want them stacked on top of each other, right? That way they would be right in the field with their directions matching the other ones. But I would need some way to separate them so they don't directly touch the other coins, or wouldn't it just turn it into one flow? I need something to keep them apart.
From what I learned earlier, the flow should follow the easiest path. I use some tree bark to separate the coins. It had a huge amount of resistance earlier, so the energy should just flow through the coins since it's a vastly easier path. That... should do it maybe? I think I have it set up in the way most likely to work, so I give it a try. Running mana through the mollite at my elbows, I let the energy flow up one arm to the coins on the bottom. I give it a pretty strong push so I can get a strong flow of lightning energy, and use a finger on my other hand to feel for a flow of lightning energy through the coins on top. I push pretty hard before I feel a small tingle in my finger. Again, it's working, but with a very weak effect. I stop and let out a breath. Part of me is glad that my guess was proven right. But another part is bothered by how weak the effects are. It's so weak it's hard to detect. I need to put a whole lot of mana into it to even feel the change. Isn't there some way to make the effect more powerful besides burning a ton of mana on it? If not, how am I going to make any use of it?
Sure, I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't know what I'm supposed to figure out, but it worries me that some of the things I've found are weak to the point of nearly undetectable. How could something like that possibly be used to save my life in combat against living weapons of death?
I feel like I'm still missing some critical piece of information here. Besides how I've learned to knock things out by pulling out mana, and launch magnets with great force, I can't think of how these things I'm learning can be applied to combat. Lightning can set fires I guess. Maybe I can burn things with ignium if I make it really hot? None of this seems useful against rail units, at all. A tap on my shoulder draws me from my worried thoughts. I look down again to find another hobin approaching our bait. I drop on it and knock it out. Emily kills and dresses it. I'm still further away than usual, the stench making me sick to my stomach. I thought I was getting over this, but I guess it's going to take more time.
It's basically at the end of my studies today, and the sky is beginning to darken as the sun sinks. We'll be getting most of our hobins soon. I wrap things up for now, putting everything back in my small basket. I can keep thinking things over while waiting between hobins.
I keep thinking over possible applications while I wait. Setting fires, hot, cold, lightning, and magnetic force. I keep turning the possibilities over in my head, but I'm not coming up with much. The best I can think of is using strong magnets to launch myself away from enemies for defense rather than trying to use them offensively. As I think things over, the hobins start coming in faster. Maybe I'm still not thinking of this right. Besides the direct effects, there are the changes they can make to my mana. I still feel like the earth mana caused a greater effect strengthening my body than the colorless mana, even if I haven't tested it to be completely sure. Maybe the answer lies in the effect different types of mana have on me. But that'll require me to accumulate more of those mana types. I have no idea what it might do to me in the process, but I'll have to work on it anyway.
By the time I've worked through all of this, it's nearly time to get going. After we catch another hobin, I see that we have ten again today. I give it to Emily and go back over near our tree, rubbing my chin in thought. Today is Nuvoday, I'll have to start working on it tomorrow, after church maybe, unless I can get a better hint from Reena of course. I picked up a good bit of lightning mana today for my tests with copper. It's not an extreme amount, but I should definitely have enough to feel some effects. Though I can't pinpoint exactly what it's doing yet.
Just as I'm thinking that, I twitch a little, and turn.
"Aria!"