I'm currently heading west on the shopping street. Just south of main street, and we walked pretty far, so I'm probably close to the central market by now. I don't really want to go all the way back just to reach main street, so I look at the fancy shops on the right side of the road, searching for an alley between two of their buildings. When I spot one, I walk through. It's only when I'm in the alley that I remember, there is another row of buildings facing Main Street. I end up needing to squeeze through a tiny gap between the back of one of the shops and the building behind it to reach the alleyway between them.
Squeezing through the narrow spaces, I see that even this alley is narrow. Both buildings facing East Main Street have stairs in this alley, so they must be multi-story housing buildings, not shops. I never really paid much attention to exactly what sort of places were directly off any of the big main streets, did I? Since both houses have their second and third floor entrance stairs in this alley, it's really tiny. The two staircases run side by side, up both buildings. The space between them is just enough for me to squeeze my small body through, and I need to carefully wiggle my basket through as well. Only after, I think to glance down at myself a bit. Good, I didn't snag my clothing or anything.
I sigh a little and let the go of the tension I was holding onto, finally making it back to Main Street, a place I know and can't get lost... As expected, the market is just a few blocks further down. I start jogging, trying to move quickly. I make it all the way through the central market, then about halfway from there to the West Gate, before I'm panting heavily and need to stop to catch my breath. I can run a lot further than I used to, but the metal bars piled up in my basket weigh me down a lot.
As I stand there, I realize I should try mana for this. One of the things I had on my list to check were my lungs. Maybe one of the mana types will make them stronger. This briefly brings back the two new types of mana I've discovered today, but I can investigate them after I join back up with Emily. Pushing them from my mind for now, I fish inside my jumbled up basket and grab one of my nuvite coins. First I pair it with ignium. The fire mana makes me feel... sort of different? I'm not really sure, the feeling is too vague. It isn't helping me catch my breath though. So I get rid of the fire mana and move on.
I already know earth is no good since I've run around with it a lot already. No, that was it! I pull out the durite. When I had a lot of lightning mana, I ran away from that monster, but didn't have a hard time breathing. If it was strange enough to notice during a monster attack, remember it sooner, me! I scold myself.
I generate some lightning mana. As expected, I immediately feel the difference. I take a few deep breaths. I can feel the air fill my lungs and relief spread through my body within moments. No more being out of breath. I nod a little and start running again. I'm able to keep the same jogging pace as before, but my breath comes easy, it's not a struggle at all. Yes, lightning mana will be crucial in the upcoming battle. Both the intuition and the ability to just keep running will be incredibly helpful.
I go right out of the West Gate, and into the forest. I even make it out before the seventh bell. I run and run and run, heading toward Maven and Emily. As I go, I glance back a little bit. Even if there was someone following me, I don't think I would be able to spot them on my own. I have Maven wave to Emily to get her attention. He points toward where I am. Emily looks that way, but doesn't seem to understand immediately. So he kind of makes a running motion with his claws in place of fingers.
"Oh, Aria's coming?" she asks. He nods. Then he points my way again and makes a sort of awkward searching pose, holding one of his paws over his eyes and looking around. "Got it," Emily nods.
So Maven runs my way through the branches of the trees. When he comes near, I slow to a walk while he circles all around, searches the surroundings, and finds no one. Now that I know we're clear, I continue on to Emily quickly while Maven returns to his burrow for a well deserved rest.
"Hey Emily!" I greet her as I approach.
"Hi Aria. Did everything work out alright?"
"It was great," I respond excitedly. "The glassblower gave me a bit of glass that broke, so he didn't need it."
"He just gave it to you? That's wonderful!" She hops out of the tree, petting my head with a big smile. We both just stand for a bit while she pats me. "Come on, let's get to work now," she finally says when she's satisfied. She goes to take my hand, but stops. "Aria... what happened to your hand?" she asks with a worried look.
"Oh, I just cut it on the glass. Apparently it's really sharp."
"Seriously?" she sighs a little. "It isn't too bad is it?"
"No, Eryk stopped me before I grabbed it too hard. But listen to this. Apparently glass is so sharp that when it cuts you, you don't feel it. It doesn't even bleed."
"Hmmm?" she tilts her head a bit. "Are you sure he wasn't joking or something? A cut that doesn't hurt or bleed?"
"No no, I checked, it definitely broke the skin. Apparently it will hurt a lot later, but I don't really know when, so..." I just sort of shrug.
"Huh... Well, I guess we'll find out later then," she says. I nod. Since we both know we're done talking, we turn to the tree we'll be in. I take a few quick steps, beginning to jump up the tree as usual, when my legs don't feel right. I kick away from the tree instead of going up, and Emily catches me. We both stagger a few steps together.
"See, I knew you would mess that up eventually..." she complains.
"Oh, no," I shake my head. "That was on purpose."
"Huh?"
"My legs are tired..." I mutter. As soon as I started my maneuver, the sore feeling in my legs told me I might not be able to push them far enough to execute it properly, so I kicked away.
Wait, of course they're sore and tired. I just ran here from all the way past the central market. I used the lightning mana so I wouldn't get winded, but it seems like my leg muscles get tired separately from that.
"Sorry, give me some time, I'll see if there's something I can do about it."
"Sure," she nods easily. While she waits patiently, I dig through my basket once more. If it's my muscles, let's try earth mana. I pull the iron ingot with a nuvrite coin, since I'm still a little concerned with the problems I had using the nuvrite bar, and convert some earth mana. It should strengthen my muscles, but I don't really feel much. Well, I guess they feel a little better. I try pushing the mana down into my legs. No real difference, though. So strengthening muscles and helping them recover from fatigue are different?
Since the lightning obviously isn't helping, I try fire next. For some reason, that does it. As soon as I have a relatively small amount of fire mana, I can feel my heart thumping hard in my chest, and my fatigue quickly begins to melt away. I wonder if fire also makes the heart stronger? Or maybe that's part of relieving tiredness? Or even the cause?
Either way, I have puzzled out just a little bit more information. Fire keeps me from getting tired. Also great in battle.
"Ok, I think I've got it," I tell Emily, and she nods. With my legs feeling better, I maneuver up the tree like usual. She follows, and we settle into our usual positions. She sits up against the trunk, while I sit with the lowest branch extending out in front of me. However, today I turn around to face her.
----------------------------------------
In a quiet voice, I recount what happened after she left. How we went to the glassblower, how he gave me the glass, along with how I gave Eryk a little earth and lightning mana.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" she asks.
"No, it was probably really stupid, but I had to thank him somehow..." I mumble.
Emily just sighs. "Well, he was really nice, and he gave us that juice too. Aahhh..." she puts a hand to her cheek, closing her eyes and apparently remembering the taste. "I've never had anything so tasty before..." she reminisces. I can only pout. I barely got to drink any of mine.
"Well, he invited me back to talk more next week, he said he would have more juice too."
"Lucky! You're going to go, right?" her eyes shine as she questions me.
"I would, but I don't know if I'll still be around then. I told him I might not be able to make it, but I would if I could."
"Aahh..." her enthusiasm dries up instantly at the mention of me leaving.
"A-anyway!" I immediately change topics. "I actually learned some more about mana today too."
"Oh?" she says, her spirits lifting a bit.
I quickly summarize, "Fire increases anger, relieves fatigue, and probably makes the heart stronger. Oh, and it makes your sense of taste stronger too."
"So... that's why you were licking the tree yesterday..." Emily's worried smile twitches a little as she giggles nervously. She must really worry about my sanity sometimes...
"Ahem!" I clear my throat and push away those thoughts. "Lightning increases sense of smell, lung strength, intuition, and fear."
"Umm, 'lung strength'? What is that?" She asks.
"I mean it makes your lungs stronger so you can breathe better."
"Ok, I understand breathing better, but what exactly are 'lungs'?" she clarifies her question.
"Hmm?" I blink. "They..." then it clicks. The handlers taught us all of the vital organs so we would know where they are and what they do, and how they keep us alive. Of course normal people wouldn't need to know stuff like that. "The lungs are the part of your body that you breathe with. They take the air you breathe and supply it to your body. Here, feel your chest right here." I take her hand and press it to her chest. "Now breathe deeply." Emily closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths.
"Oohh..." She nods a little, able to feel them expanding with each breath.
"Those are your lungs." I wait for a moment for her to look up at me again. "We both know earth very well now," I grin a bit, and so does she. "Muscle strength, healing, happiness, honesty, and worry. What I figured out yesterday is it also makes your sense of touch better. I never quite noticed it before..." I trail off. I probably don't pay attention to my sense of touch enough, since I'm mostly used to pain more than anything else... "Anyway, that's what I've figured out so far. But today, I discovered two new types of mana!"
Emily grins, "So? What do you know about them?"
"I... haven't had a chance to study them yet..."
"Yeah, we were pretty busy earlier," she giggles.
"Well..." I close my eyes and feel around for a bit. I've been leaving the two new mana types alone, but now I take a closer look at them. "The one from the glass is... Kind of whooshy..."
"Whooshy?" she smirks.
"It feels sort of airy, like... Oh." I blink a couple times. "It's air." I blush a little. That's really obvious now that I think about it. Voicing my vague, rambling thoughts is kind of embarrassing.
"So glass makes air mana..." Emily mumbles.
I move on. "As for the other one..." I furrow my brows. This one isn't like the others. "It's... different. It feels hot, but... also sort of broken up bits... hard and flickery..." my vague impression slowly rolls out of my mouth as I think about it. "I think it feels like... different mana types got all mixed together. Wait, mixed together!?" I jolt as the realization hits me all at once. "Shit, shit, shit..." I mutter curses, biting my finger.
"W-what is it?" Emily stammers.
"I never considered that it might be possible to mix the different elements together before. If we exclude absolute mana, that leaves air, fire, lightning, earth, light, and dark." As I calculate, I continue to mutter to myself, "Six possibilities, all possible combinations would be two to the sixth. Sixty four minus the six individuals and one empty leaves fifty seven total combinations of all six elements. And those are just the ones I know of now... I look up at Emily attempting to smile to hide my worry and certainly failing miserably. "There are fifty seven different ways to mix the mana types I know of. I have no idea if each one is unique or not..."
"Fifty seven?" she goes a little pale. "F-for now, you should start with what you have and figure out if they are unique then... right?"
"Yeah, I'll do that." I nod quickly. Although, I haven't figured out exactly how to test them. I've singled out a number of effects each mana type has, so I guess the easiest thing to do would be get two types of mana and mix them together. But how do I actually mix them together? The mixed mana I have now came from nuvrite interacting with all of the different metals in my basket at once. I could do something like that again, with just two types, to see if the changes are the same as both individually, or different in some way.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
But then, how do I know if they're different? It's not like I can compare my experiences with two types directly with the mixed type. The closest I can get is doing the same thing with one, then the other, like with my sense testing yesterday. But how do I do that when I need to generate mixed mana? If I try to generate it from an existing quantity of two mana types, it will be really hard to keep the quantities the same, which could change my results...
Emily wordlessly shakes me out of my thoughts, pointing down. Looks like a hobin showed up. I give her a small nod, pushing my thoughts and worries away for now so I can just focus on work. I jump down, knocking out the hobin, and hand it to Emily.
"Oh yeah, I wanted you to wait to dress them earlier, since that predator showed up yesterday," I say when the thought pops back into my mind.
"Oh, so that's what that was about..." Emily glances over at the hobin she already caught with Maven, lying unconscious in the tree.
"You can start working on them now, I just wanted to be here in case anything happened again. You know?" Emily nods a little.
"Yeah, that was a good idea..." she says quietly. While she moves away to work on the first hobin, I get the other one out of the tree. She dresses both hobins quickly, cutting them open, removing the guts, and burying them under the muddy soil once more. She hangs them up as usual, and we move back to our tree. Though today, we hang the hobins further away than usual, just in case.
Once we're back in place, I turn my attention back to the problem at hand. While I convert the hobin's colorless mana, I consider how to mix different mana types... my thoughts trailing off.
Wow I'm stupid, I think to myself. I don't know how to mix different types of mana? I've been doing it this entire time! Annoyed at myself, I grab the little bit of fire and lightning mana I have left from earlier, and just throw them both together, mixing approximately equal amounts. Just like that, they combine. How did I miss something this obvious for so long? I continue to berate myself.
The fire and lightning mana turn into something new. It basically feels like hot, scorching lightning now. Hmm... I grab some iron, get some earth mana, and throw a little of that in as well. It feels like the heat weakens, the lightning growing still and maybe a little metallic. So I throw in some air mana as well. I get more of the type I made earlier. That strange mixture of hot, flickery solid, but sort of broken up bits of mana. Now what to do with it? I would mix in light, but I don't have any tin with me. Or dark, but I still can't actually feel it, so that's out. For now, I'll just mix it in with my colorless mana to see if that still works.
Sure enough, it mixes in just fine. It's actually easy. Like... really easy. It practically melts away into colorless mana as soon as I mix them together.
"Ok, I've figured out how to mix different mana types." I say, feeling extremely relieved that it's so simple.
"Really? Already?"
So I explain, "I was overthinking it before. All I need to do is just mix them together and they'll change. It's surprisingly easy. I've... basically been doing it this whole time without realizing it. Just only with my colorless mana, none of the other types. I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner..."
"Come on, you're not an idiot," Emily chides me, "look at everything you've learned already. No one can blame you for missing some things!"
I giggle at the way she puffs out her cheeks and crosses her arms. "Thanks, Emily." I smile at her a little. Now that I've figured out how to mix them, I should... no no no. I shake my head. I'm getting off track, this isn't what I wanted to do today. There are tons of combinations of different mana types. It's going to take a lot of time just to go through them and figure out the basics. What I need now is to find specific things I can use in combat. Since lightning is supposed to be dangerous, I wanted to see what I could do with that today. I'll have to put off my work into mixed mana until tomorrow at least.
Leaving that whole new realm of questions and unknowns to the side, I grab the last two copper coins I made sure not to spend so I could test with them today. I clear out all the different bits of mana I have floating around and just grab the durite, making some lightning mana.
Once I'm prepared, I consider what to do. There are two different possibilities: attacking and defending using lightning. When I think about it, nothing actually comes to mind for defending though...
Alright, attacking then. The obvious choice would be getting the lightning to jump onto an enemy to hurt them. Though I'm still not clear on exactly how lightning hurts thngs. Well, I can probably assume that it sets things on fire at least, fire is pretty dangerous all on its own.
The question is how to actually make it jump. I've already determined that it normally follows the easiest path, and those paths usually go through metals. Without using lightning mana, I was definitely not an easy path for lightning to travel through. I feel like I'm missing something here... If lightning is always attracted toward metals, how is it normally dangerous to people? For that matter, how does lightning strike at all? Doesn't it need a completed circle to go through for the lightning to jump?
"Hey Emily, I'm a bit confused about lightning."
"Ok?" she blinks a little at the sudden conversation.
"How do lightning strikes work? What does it actually hit, and where does all the lightning go?"
"Hmm... Lightning usually hits trees and stuff, or just the ground."
"Trees or the ground?" I've already tested lightning with wood. It can go through it with enough force behind it, but it sets the wood on fire in the process. I suppose that would happen to trees struck by lightning too. I suppose the same could go for the ground. But in either case, how does it make a complete circle? With lightning coming down from the clouds, there isn't a way back up. Even the lightning I saw back when I was exploring the city in the rain. It clearly came down from above, nothing ever went back up.
So I'm missing some piece of this puzzle. Either there is an invisible way that the lightning energy returns to the sky after a lightning strike, or there is some sort of exception to the rule that lightning energy needs a circle to move in. I want to think the latter, since the former introduces a very large problem. If there was a complete circle during lightning strikes, why would it stop instead of creating a continuous arc like what I saw during my tests?
So for now I'll assume there's some way for lightning to travel from one object to another. For my most basic test, let's see if I can make it happen between the two copper coins. I got the lightning to arc in a circle between coins before, so let's see if it's simply a matter of more energy. It's a good thing I have two bars of mollite now, I should be able to push on it harder than before.
As I set the mollite bars down, another thought comes to me. Maybe I can use lightning mana for this instead of colorless mana. It might work better or something. Since I already have a lot of lightning, my intuition is probably right. I generate a whole lot of lightning mana since I'll be burning a lot of it.
Then I notice the smell. Why can I smell the hobins we killed? Sure, they are hanging in a tree, but their bodies shouldn't smell that much, it's only supposed to be the guts that smell. Emily buried those, so... I look over, hopping down from the tree to investigate.
"Aria?" Emily asks as I wander off.
I walk toward the other location, sniffing the air repeatedly. With my sense of smell heightened so much, I can actually smell the dead hobins and their draining blood a little, even at some distance away. However, the scent of their guts seems to waft strongly through the entire area. I crouch down over the spot they were buried and sniff again.
That confirms it, the scent is coming right up out of the ground. Is it because the dirt is soft and muddy from the rain the last couple days? "That must be why we attracted that predator..." I mutter. I consider the issue briefly, but it shouldn't be too bad. Even if another predator shows up, we can just kill it like the last one.
"Sorry Emily, I just realized you can actually smell the hobin guts. Burying them doesn't seem to work as well when the dirt is muddy like this," I explain.
"Oh, so that's what that was about. What should we do?"
I just shake my head. "It should be fine, we'll just keep hunting like this for today. We'll have to keep it in mind in the future though."
"Ok," she nods, and we climb back up into the tree to continue what we were doing.
"So, you're back to testing with lightning?" she asks when she sees the copper coins laid out on the branch in front of me.
"Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how lightning can strike the ground without making a circle or anything."
"Aaahh..." she gives an extremely worried smile "So, are you about to make another lightning strike like last time?"
"Yeah... I guess I am?" I try to grin back.
"Ok, I'll just... be over here..." she slowly slinks away, nearly going to the other side of the tree, where she will mostly be shielded by the trunk, but still be able to see our bait on the ground.
"Hehehe..." I chuckle awkwardly as she goes. I... am about to make lightning like last time, aren't I? Even the little trickle of fear at the memory nearly overwhelms me, and I need to forcibly shove those thoughts away with a lot of effort. I really have too much lightning mana now, I need to be careful with my thoughts and feelings, or I'll end up in a bad spot, like I did with the fire mana yesterday.
Trying to clear my mind and just focus on my task, I consider my plans. I want to see if I can get lightning to jump from one object to another without having a complete circle. For that, I have two copper coins set on the branch in front of me, one further away than the other. I place the mollite bars on either side of the closer copper coin. With one hand on each mollite bar, I can push my mana through, going away from me, in order to force the energy from one coin to the other.
"Let's see if this works..." I mutter, taking a slow breath. Using the lightning mana, I push a hard, constant stream through one of the mollite bars, as much as I can without expending every last bit of my effort to force it through. I immediately feel the hairs on my arms all standing on end. This would be caused by the lightning field on the coin, I think. For such a large effect, it should have a lot of lightning energy trying to push out right now, but for the time being, nothing happens.
Time for the next step. While the strong force continuously pushes on the coin, I use my other hand to create powerful, short time forces as well. The same sort of hammering technique I learned before. I hit it over and over, even forcibly increasing the constant pressure from my other hand. I try with all of my might, and I'm definitely accomplishing something, but it simply is not forcing the energy to jump to the other coin. I keep straining until I've burned up most of the lightning mana I generated for this, before deciding I should give up on this one. There must be something I'm missing. I let out a breath, stopping my futile pushing.
As the flow of my mana ceases, I feel something in the air. Some sort of force reverses direction. In an instant, I smell something. A strong, stinging sort of smell. Somehow, I know that it's the smell of lightning. My hand is already going out in front of me.
A piercing crack and blinding light explodes out. Not from the coin I was trying on, but the other one, the coin further away. Fracturing branches of lightning coil out all around, all aimed in my direction. They zig-zag through the air, the afterimages burning into my eyes. Then they all condense on my hand, the easiest route, with lots of lightning mana in it to travel through.
I feel the lightning strike my skin. The heat, the strange buzzing energy. Infinitely more powerful than anything I generated in my small scale tests before. It feels dangerous. It is surging through the lightning mana in my body so fast I can hardly react. I barely manage to move my mana in time. I shove the floating mana into the closest shape I can, creating a path leading from one hand to the other, to direct it through my body safely, and aim the palm of my other hand at the ground below to send the lightning somewhere it probably won't be as dangerous.
As I'm moving as fast as I can to redirect the lightning, it surges through the path I've created in an instant, up one arm, across my chest, and down the other arm I've only barely raised from the tree branch. The energy reaches my palm and jumps once more. I can see the tendrils of lightning as it leaps down to the ground below, another loud explosion echoing so close after the last one I can barely tell the difference.
My breath comes quick, the moment of shock passing.
"Aria, are you alright?!" Emily immediately comes rushing around the tree trunk. I want to tell her I'm fine, but alarm bells are ringing in my head. Something is wrong. Really, really wrong. I press a hand to my chest.
My heart isn't beating.
A whirl of thoughts go through my mind. Your heart stops beating when you die. Am I dead? No, of course not. But the heart is vitally important. It pumps blood to all the other organs. Without it, everything else will fail. That's when I'll die.
How long do I have? Surely not long enough to sit around wondering about it! First, find the cause. The lightning, obviously. I sent it across my chest, right past my heart. It didn't damage anything else, but it stopped my heart. Why? Doesn't matter, how do I fix it? I have no idea.
Let's use more lightning! The stupid idea that immediately comes to mind is just that, really stupid. But I have nothing else to go on. If lightning can stop my heart, maybe it can start it again?
In the few moments it takes for those thoughts to fly through my screaming brain, I can already feel my body starting to shut down. Like dark clouds are closing in around my mind.
I grab the two copper coins and one of the mollite ingots. I don't have enough time, energy, focus, or lightning mana left to create another big lightning bolt like that. I'll have to just try with something smaller. In the moments I have, I hold a coin in each hand. I'm losing my balance on the branch. My muscles aren't responding right anymore. It's hard to control my mana too. I clumsily push the lightning mana into a big arc that goes from one hand to the other and touch the two coins together.
My vision is getting blurry. I feel like I'm falling. I can't think straight. I fling my mana through the ingot in one big push, sending a burst of lightning energy through the circle I've created. It runs over my heart and I feel my entire being jolt.
My vision flashes. A surge of unknown color. My eyes blinking rapidly. And slamming pain, like I was just beaten over the head with something, a splitting burn reaching through every corner of my brain. My ears are ringing, my now beating heart hammering away as fire surges through my veins and everything turns sideways.
I feel sluggish though, the darkness around my mind only slowly retreating. At some point, I become aware that everything actually is sideways.
"Aria! Aria, answer me!" I look up at Emily, she's shaking me, tears in her eyes. I have to answer.
I still feel slow and heavy, but I open my mouth and say, "Sorry Emily, I'm alright. Just... almost killed myself again. Happens all the time." Then I flop back down, my energy spent. She... doesn't look relieved. I just sigh and continue to rest my pounding head.
Eventually I recover enough to wobble back to my feet. I think I fell out of the tree when I started to lose consciousness. The bruised ache in my side supports that guess. We somehow manage to get back up again, but Emily forbids me from doing anything else strenuous today. I agree, I feel awful. I end up basically napping, only half-awake on the branch of the tree while Emily works with Maven for the rest of the day. Before I know it, it's getting dark.
As we make our way out of the forest, at least I've recovered enough to walk properly. I throw my mana around some to convert it all back to colorless as we go, I don't know how long this little bit of energy will last. We get to the market, where the merchant still has the young boy with him. They both look at me with concerned expressions and ask Emily if I'm alright. I must look really awful for them to be asking...
Either way, we eventually get back to the orphanage, where I immediately collapse in bed. Just walking home seems to have taken every bit of energy I have. I think we go to dinner at some point, but I'm barely conscious for it. I end up falling face-first into my stew, sending Emily into a panic yet again. After that, I hear Mister Fredricson send us to our room, where I think I'm snuggled against Emily, probably in bed.
None of it is particularly clear. My splitting headache and dead tired body are most of what I'm aware of. I quickly slip off to sleep.
End of Book Three.