Even with all my training, I still could not see color without magic. I had assumed it to be like my perception of fine detail, and would come in time, so long as I continued to practice and maintained my patience, but it was beginning to grate on me.

Internally, I considered myself a relatively patient person, and it was possible that I might have been able to wait for much longer, but seeing the world through Feras eyes had lit a fire in me that I couldn't put back out.

The proverbial genie was out of its bottle, and, truth be told, I wanted to see the flowers of this world, in all their glory.

Scent would have to wait until I could figure out how to replicate the sense with mana, but I assumed that if sight and hearing worked, the other senses should be possible as well, though likely not easy.

My musings – and telekinetic training – were interrupted by the distinctive crash of a spell impacting reality, larger than any I'd felt thus far, more annihilating the space around it than 'simply' collapsing into it, and the Archmagus appeared in the second chamber of my abode along with an over-saturated wave of neon mana.

[Callahan. Welcome back,] I greeted him, as soon as he seemed to catch his bearings. Under one of his arms, he held a box, a coffer, made of wood decorated with rather skillful engravings around the edges of its lid. Vines, perhaps, with small, simplified flowers running their length.

Color hung in the air around it, faint, but noticeable, like a thin mist or the steam from a kettle.

"Ah, Lycoris, my friend, I hope I did not surprise you," he replied, the grin of a man who'd succeeded a gamble plastered across his face.

[Not at all, Archmagus,] I assured him. [Is that the mana crystal Davyn and Markus spoke of?]

"It is, it is," he said, nodding.

I murmured a word of acknowledgement to the man, and updated him on the goings-on of the camp while he made his way to my Core chamber, taking a moment to check on the progress of the wall as I did. It was nearly complete, or, at least, as complete as it was going to be on short notice.

"So, how did you find Evlynn?"

[She is knowledgeable, and easy to talk to,] I replied slowly, wary of the question. Something about how he'd asked it set a warning off in my mind. Likely because of who she was, or, rather, who she slept with.

"That one's spoken for, my friend," he said, with a twinkle of mirth in his eyes.

[Even if I wanted to – and I do not, I could not. Besides, she's a child, Callahan.] I knew he was ribbing me, but I couldn't help it. Might as well get my own jab in return.

He placed his hand over his heart in mock surprise as he stepped into the room. "Then I must as well. How vexing! And after all I've taught you..."

[That's the price you pay for being friends with an immortal, young man.]

The Archmagus snorted in amusement and set the coffer of mana crystal on the desk, popping the lid to show me what lay inside and dismissing my guards – not Enna and Tesha, today – as he did.

The crystals were small, not much larger than a thumbnail, for the most part, though one stood out among them. A fist-sized lump of faceted color, shimmering with untapped energy.

"As you can see, mana crystals are, well, mana in solid form. They're usually found in places with very high mana concentration, like near a wild Core or in a dragons nest," he explained, picking up a small one to show it off. "Some can be found inside powerful monsters, like this one here, and they're characterized by a unique deep blue color that lets even those without refined mana senses tell what they are."

[Ah, speaking of seeing color. During our first lessons, you acted like I should be able to see color already, but I still cannot. Do you have any ideas as to why that may be?]

The man blinked slowly in surprise. "You still can't? Interesting... I wonder why... For the most part, once someone figures out mana sight at all, color isn't far behind. Perhaps something to do with the conceptualization of sight?"

[The... conceptualization? How do you mean?]

"Well, magic, as you well know by now, is largely based on the imagination. Even without a spell to guide you, you could throw flame at things before, no? Fire, and heat, more accurately, is an easy concept to understand," he replied, replacing the small crystal back in the box and closing the lid before taking his seat. "Mana senses are no different, at least in theory."

That... made a great deal of sense. Once I figured out I had no eyes, I had been imagining my sight to be working similarly to LADAR, more or less 'pinging' objects with mana in order to see, and hearing... Well, I'd assumed I was sensing the vibration of the mana clinging to air particles, but if it was based on concepts, then...

[I suppose the fact I understand how light interacts with the eyes to produce sight has hindered me here.]

As soon as the realization crossed my mind, I felt something click into place somewhere in my thoughts, and my perception subtly shifted. There was no color, not yet, more the impression of color, but it was more progress on that front than I'd made since I awoke.

If that's the case for color, then should it not be the same for all the other senses, as well? I've been worried about the difficulty of replicating chemical senses for smell, but it's magic, I don't need to interact with the chemicals themselves at all, just like I don't need to interact with light at all to see.

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A second shift in my perception surprised me from my thoughts. It couldn't have been that easy, could it?

"Lycoris? Are you alright?"

[Ah, yes, yes, I am. I... realized a few things about magic, and started to question my other senses. I've been interacting with magic as if it followed physical laws, but it doesn't, does it?] I explained, speaking faster as I began to put my thoughts into words. [I've been trying to replicate phenomena using magic by going through each successive stage that mundane physics uses to accomplish the same or similar things. My knowledge of classical mechanics can still help, of course, particularly in visualizing the concept, but it will hinder my development if I allow it to build my assumptions for me as I have been. I will need to re-examine all of my magic for unhelpful biases.]

As I spoke, Callahans small smile slowly grew into something of an excited grin. "It takes most magi half their lives to come to that conclusion, my friend. Sometimes, we as magi get asked why we call it magic," he started, shifting in his chair a little to a more comfortable position. "Particularly when we live with it every day and the word means something unmundane. This is why. It doesn't interact with causality normally, it breaks it. One could argue that means it operates on cause and effect, of course, but that's semantics, really. At least, I've never met an Archmagus that would agree with that line of thinking."

[Yes, I believe I'm beginning to understand that...]

The implications were enormous. Folding space to teleport, snatching souls from other realities, creating life from nothing, and none of it had to interact with standard physics. If it did, the amount of mana I would have needed to create my children would have been literally nuclear, and that was assuming perfect efficiency in the conversion of energy to matter, which was impossible.

No, it might not be. Magic may not be subject to that at all, I reminded myself.

[Anyway, let's put that aside before I get too distracted. We simply don't have the time for ruminations on the nature of reality and magic right now. The mana crystals?]

"Ah!" he exclaimed, sitting up sharply before wincing. "Mm, damn back. But yes, you're right. Honestly, using mana crystals is extremely simple. For us mere mortals, we have to have them very close, but for you, you should be able to readily drain the mana from them as long as they're within your demesne, as it is, more or less, you. Go ahead, give it a try. Just... take it slow."

I began to consider how I might draw energy from a physical object without causing an atomic reaction before I caught myself.

Just do it, Lycoris, you fool. There's nothing complicated about it, it's magic. Intuition and conceptualization are the most important things here.

I reached out with my senses, focusing on the crystals and the color they gave off, and pulled, and mana flooded my Core, filling my reserves to bursting before I swiftly cut the flow off, leaving a little to disperse in the air. I did not know what would happen if my mana 'overflowed', as it were, so swiftly, and did not wish to find out first hand.

[That... Why did you bring so much, Callahan? I could power a small Imperial city for a month with that.]

I, of course, did not know the amount of nuclear material a power plant needed to supply a city off hand, and I could not compare it to what I'd just felt, even if I did, not in that manner, at least, but the raw energy in just one of the smaller crystals felt like it could level a city block, easily.

The man grinned wide at my reaction. "I had to show off the power of our world somehow, after everything you told me about the capabilities of your ships, you know. I couldn't let my home be shamed without a fight."

[I do hope you did not bring your entire supply of these crystals, Archmagus. I can't imagine the Queen would be pleased if you had.]

"No, this is... a third of what I personally have access to. I am quite wealthy, my friend. One does not get to be the court mage of a nation and stay poor," he said smugly, but stopped and scratched at his beard. "Most of the rest of it is tied up powering various devices in my tower, though. I'll be taking three quarters of whatever's left after the battle back with me, thank you. That's a lot of money, even for me."

[You... Yes, please do so. I do not want that kind of power simply sitting on a desk next to me long term without sufficient protections. In fact, please put it in the chamber you arrived in, as far from the living quarters as possible.]

Callahan barked out a laugh at my reaction and agreed to my request, and before long, I was explaining to him what Tesha had taught me, to update him on my progress, as he inspected the rooms the Kobolds had carved out. The soldiers made regular trips to the village, purchasing various supplies, furniture, and equipment, carried by hand-cart, to furnish the rapidly-growing fort we were building, and the Archmagus seemed to approve, to some extent, of the beds they'd purchased.

My set of cast-iron training tools arrived not long after, with the witch-hunters sent out today, along with a large cook-pot and another bed. They could only bring so much a day, without horses and without allowing the villagers near, however, and it would take months to fill the barracks with sufficient bedding, not least of all because there were only a few carpenters in the village, and they could only work so quickly.

They were well-paid, though, according to Markus, more than twice the usual amount for the beds and tables the camp had requested.

Unfortunately, to make Markus' plan work, Callahan could not leave the mountain until the siege was well under way, in order to properly take the cultists off guard, so he could not look over the fortifications himself.

He made do by talking to me, and Evlynn, when she visited later in the afternoon, energetically about the barrier spells Tesha had taught me. Eventually, though, as Evlynn was breaking out her wine skin once again, something in the forest caught my attention.

[No, of course no- ah. Apologies, one moment,] I told the pair, and focused on Carna and Chrys, to find them dragging a deer through the underbrush, and fending off Bann and Davyns offers of help. [Well done, children. Carna and Chrys managed to take down a deer. The pelt is nigh-ruined, of course, and it's a small one, but they did it.]

"Oooh," the Elf exclaimed from around the mouth of her drink. "Didn't they only start hunting a few days before I got here?"

[Yes, the day Callahan left, in fact.]

"Stars, they learn quick, don't they?" he said, laughing. "Well, I suppose we're having venison stew the next few days."

It didn't take long for my two youngest to reach the edge of my territory, and when they did, they struggled mightily to lift the comparatively large animal above their heads together in excitement.

"Lord-Mother! Deer caught! We hunt!" Carna proclaimed, and the occupants of the camp outside paused their work to cheer for them.

[Well done, you two. Let Bann and Davyn show you how to process the carcass. We'll share the meat with the rest of the soldiers to thank them for protecting us.]

Carna gave his best roar of elation at my praise - which came out more as a long yip, but I wouldn't dare tell him that - and marched through the gates with Chrys behind him, propping up the other half of their prey on their shoulders while the soldiers went back their work, a little more energy in them at the idea of fresh meat.

That night, the camp ate well, and I had to gently let my children down when they tried to offer me some of the food, explaining to them that I couldn't eat like they could.

Little Chrys was devastated at the news, and curled up on my pedestal with me, bowl of steaming venison stew clutched in their claws.