It took another hour, or what felt like an hour, just to stabilize the dot of light inside the void. Concentrating, I began moving the image, removing the static around it and letting the light push back the darkness.

Astra said to picture it like a bright gem glowing in the sea of night. Unlike the night sky filled with endless stars, there was only one, and one that needed to compensate for its lack of brethren to share the load.

One pulse, the void shifted. Two pulses, it bent away. After the third, the void rushed inward, aiming to swallow the light, but I stopped it, unwilling to cede control.

No. You will listen to my command.

The dot grew bigger, becoming brighter. The darkness hissed, forced to retreat. My mana clawed at the edges of my mind, begging for release, eager to set the world ablaze, but I refused.

My will wrapped its claws around the mana, squeezing it to a slow trickle. The light consumed, the dim flicker it produced intensifying with every drop.

Now for the next step.

I began painting the lines for the runes inside the light once it was big enough to hold them. Stroke by stroke, each new line caused a surge in mana, the light hungrily devouring its fill and demanding more. Without any effort on my part, my mana shot forward to serve. The light grew brighter, almost too bright, the once endless abyss pushed back to the edges of the mental dimension.

The runes were complete, the mana flowed, and the image glared like the sun.

“Ek kalla á lýsandi stjörnu,” I chanted.

Veins filled with fire erupted as my core pulled back the floodgates. The energy condensed in my palm. At first, a light appeared, casting a shadow of my splayed fingers against the walls of the wagon. As the light grew, it slowly engulfed my hand, forcing me to squint.

It flickered, and my mana roared, so I grabbed my arm and squeezed. The slight pain grounded me, and I regained control. Now holding a ball of light, I felt a weight that I knew wasn't real outside of the tethers of mana connecting it to my flesh.

"Hah! I did it!" I grinned and fist-pumped the air. "Woooho-"

My celebration was cut short as the light lost cohesion; the spherical shape it took began to ripple at the edges, bubbling as my mana entered the ball, causing it to balloon in size.

Oh crap!

Bright white light shifted into neon-orange, then turned yellow at its edges. The sphere broke apart and became a flame that burned white at its core.

I rushed to cut the flow, squeezing my harder. The ball stopped growing, but the flames didn't die; they became increasingly unstable and started to spin.

Crap, crap, crap!

Launching myself up, I rushed toward the entrance, where the guardswoman's arm reached to push the flap aside.

"Is everyth-" she started, but I knocked her arm aside. "Aaagh!"

My foot nearly twisted trying to scramble over the wagon's lip, but I corrected it at the last second and managed to push myself off, jumping out just as liquid white flames began to spread over the back of my hand.

Dirt cushioned my fall, but I kept my arm up, extending it into the sky. I watched the ball flicker and closed my eyes. Like a bottle rocket, a whistling sound filled my eardrums, and the sphere zipped into the air. As I opened my eyes, the orb exploded against a branch. White-orange flames spread like napalm against the wood, sending a current of smoke into the air. It burned intensely, reducing the healthy brown wood to smoldering ash.

The light-fire didn't last long; it quickly faded, its life cut short and becoming motes that disappeared from view. A single black chunk of wood flaked off the main branch of the unfortunate tree and crashed to the ground, bouncing once before settling into the ash pile below.

Cries of alarm echoed behind me, and I turned as vibrations shook the earth, with four pairs of thunderous hooves bolting toward me.

"Oh no…"

In the driver's seat, Yadalee looked back at the guards rushing our way and then back to me, her eyes wide and her mouth stuck open. She shut her mouth and stared straight ahead. Not a word exited her lips. She didn't even glance my way.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

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Devon tapped his foot while Alice copied over the runes from the vellum to the small journal on the floor. Unlike my impulsive self, she had the foresight to bring a journal and some charcoal wrapped in wax to write things down.

I kept my eyes low, avoiding the gaze of the looming man sitting on a crate.

"Cain," he said, his voice clear and low.

A long, drawn-out sigh left my body, and I met his eyes. "Y-yeah?"

"Don't do that again."

"Alright…"

He reached a hand over to Alice, and she finished scribbling the last line on the page before handing over the scroll. He held it up, his face obscured behind the vellum. To the right, Alice tapped her chin and then the page.

"I don't understand why your incantation turned into fire. I know that's the one you've used the most, but why did it corrupt itself?" she half-stated, half-asked.

Devon lowered the vellum and searched my face. After a brief pause, he nodded, and I faced Alice. "Remember how I asked you if your brother used a lot of fire incantations?"

Subtle, but I noticed the involuntary tensing of her fingers.

Her eyes narrowed. "I do. And I answered that I wouldn't know. I never went on a hunt with Eli."

Her face remained neutral, but the slight shift of glowing red that spread across the bottom of her irises was unmistakable.

"Right…" I cleared my throat. "Well, part of what he gave me included a passive skill. It's called Ember Soul."

She didn't react, and I didn't expect her to.

"And?"

"Well, hmm…" I waved a hand at Devon, who lowered the scroll again. "When you sent mana into me, you didn't need a mental image or anything. That's not a hidden incantation you mastered?"

"No. Just will it like you usually would."

"Okay," I replied, turning back to face Alice and holding out my hand. "Feel my palm, notice something?"

She reached forward without hesitation, grasping my wrist and pressing her fingers across my palm. "What am I looking for?"

I tapped into my core and let mana flow down my limb. She stared, subtly leaning her head forward as if that would help her see past my skin. "Hot. Your skin is a furnace."

I nodded. "Yeah, well, let's try this."

Her own hand was getting warmer, and I summoned the energy up, envisioning it blossoming out from the center of my palm into hers. There was…

Alice flexed her fingers and gripped my wrist tighter after adjusting. Unimpeded, my mana pushed through, and I felt it leave my core. Alice stared and squeezed until my bone began to ache from the pressure. I cut the flow, and she released my wrist. As I cradled my sore wrist, she held up her arm and felt it with her other hand.

"That's a weird feeling. It's hot, like Volto's soups."

Weird analogy, but okay, not wrong.

"That's what my mana naturally feels like. It's always hot, like I have a well of lava in my chest. When it rages, or I call for it, it's explosive, wild; it bubbles and burns. I'm apparently a natural for fire incantations, and according to Astra, this is why."

She pressed the back of her hand to her cheek. "The system doesn't provide you info?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Vague impressions, but nothing concrete, not like the way my summoning skill works."

"Unfair."

"Huh?"

It might have been my imagination, but when she said it, it didn't sound like she was talking about the skill.

"So your mana tried to insert itself into the incantation and morphed it. I know this; I never learned it, but Adeline used it. It's a simple light spell that increases in brightness the more mana you feed it."

A frown stretched across Devon's face, but he quickly erased it and set the scroll down. "But the incantation has a limit. At a certain point, no matter how much mana you put in, it won't get brighter than a bright light. The sorcery you enacted consumed a good portion of your mana pool, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. None of my fireballs had ever taken that much before; it hurt."

'Hurt' was an understatement. After trying to stand up and deal with the spooked guards, it felt as if my ribs were crushing my lungs.

Devon called it backlash; I thought of it more as punishment.

He held up his hand, palm facing the ceiling. “Ek kalla á lýsandi stjörnu.”

A small, multi-pronged star came into being, the light bright enough to light the room, but he quickly dimmed it to a more pleasant intensity level.

I pointed an accusing finger at the star. "If you knew this, why did we rely on little vial-lights? What the heck?"

He lowered his hand and rested it on his lap, illuminating his face from below in an eerie light. "I never knew the words to the incantation, but it's been explained to me before." He gently lifted his hand up. "You described the light taking the image of a sphere. Why? When one envisions a star in the sky, this is what usually comes to mind. Alice?"

She nodded. "We draw them with fewer points, but most kids know how to draw one."

"Is there a reason you let it take the shape of a ball?"

With my memory being faulty, it was hard to tell what I remember and didn't. I knew of the basic concepts, things I learned in school even if I couldn't recall when I learned it. At least, when it came to basic science, I felt confident in explaining the concept of stars.

Switching between the two, I sighed and leaned back while scratching my head. "So, I'm from a different world, right? There's no magic, just the idea of magic, stories, fables, legends, fantasy is what we call it."

"Hard to believe a world has zero magic in it. Not completely, especially if you know of it," Alice interjected.

"Okay, somewhat fair, but as far as we know, it's nothing more than a story. We do have technology, inventions, and so on. You guys have uh, astrology? Telescopes?"

"Astrology is used for some rituals, but nothing that I know requires it. Astra might know," Devon answered.

"Well, a telescope is a long tube with a lens. We have, hmm… hard to explain, but we have the ability to see really far away and can scan things with devices we make. Stars don't look like what you're holding. They're giant burning balls that float in space. I didn't even think that that might ruin the image required."

Devon shook his head. "Maybe, but keep practicing. Tame your mana and force it to comply. You're the master, not it."

He closed his hand and formed a fist. The scroll landed on my lap as he tossed it, and I looked up to see him cross his arms.

"I can practice later?"

My lungs still struggled to breathe correctly.

I really don't want to try that again.

"We have a few more hours until the next stop. Try again."

Yes, taskmaster.