The Garden District wasn't that different from gardens on Earth, but it was vast and operated on a community level. Easier and "safe" crops were grown nearest the city, while the more exotic kinds were kept on the outskirts. The MOST exotic plants were grown outside the Garden District itself, near the well-guarded Travel Gates - of which this city had three.

The Youth Arena, where the Spar was happening, was next to one of the exotic gardens, and so the nearby guards were often able to catch the smaller animals that were attracted to the mystic plant life. Every few weeks, when the cages were full, level 1 and 2 youths would be allowed to come fight the assorted animals, to gain power and control, and to show off their skills to the various guilds and institutions.

Most of the animals (in this area) were similar to their Earth versions. The trick was that nearly all of them had some form of magical skill or enhancement. Squirrels were the most common, because they tended towards flight talents and thus commonly threw themselves into the wards protecting the gardens, and the guards would scoop them up and cage them when the wards flashed and nullified their air-based powers briefly.

Rats were the most dangerous, because they had the greatest variety of abilities and one didn't know what to expect of one - let alone a group. Crows had the greatest range of magic power, and (of course) their flight abilities didn't depend on air magic. Foxes were the largest animals permitted in these low-level events, and even these could challenge the strength of full-grown men.

As the audience seated themselves, a prelude event was staged for those children most newly awakened, as dozens of mice and moles were released and 4 newbie kids were sent in to wipe them out. As usual, the youngsters lack of coordination or control of their abilities led to various "comedy of error" situations. A rock mole resisted their cuts and stabs and eventually had to be held in place while the young "fire mage" slowly roasted it. The rest were taken out by conventional means with only minor magic use visible.

I was much too far away to sense the "energy awards" as the kids gathered around the freshly dead bodies and sucked up traces of magic, but they seemed happy with the results. The animals HAD shown bits of power a few times. One electrical zap had floored a kid for several seconds, and two or three had gotten in some good bites with movement skills. I noticed that most of the kids wore some form of eye and neck protection - probably the only places such small creatures could cause serious damage.

Liam seemed a bit nervous as he tried to imagine how he would do, and I sent some very small pulses of warming energy through him as reassurance. His parents warnings had hit him hard, despite the fact that he could feel that he was safe. I was constantly experimenting to get a clear idea of what Liam's mind and body could comfortably handle.

The sweet spot, it seemed, was Liam's outer aura - the area from the surface of his skin to about 2 feet out. So long as I stayed outside his physical body, he didn't suffer energy burns, as his own astral form kept itself well inside his skin. If I tried to do anything beyond his basic auric sheath, it quickly went out of control, since Liam's body was still my conceptual grounding point and I needed some form of contact with his energy system in order to manifest.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

My other big project was to figure out how to strengthen all Liam's weaknesses - which was funny, in a way, because he was faster and stronger than any Earth child his size had ever been. But trying to feel for the structure of his energy, both physical and astral, was hard work - it was SO delicate. And yet it was the reason his body was so much better than it would have been on Earth. All the magic in his life was used up creating those enhancements, as was expected for all children in this culture.

I was starting to form a plan, but Liam was going to hate it....

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

Liam:

It just didn't make any sense. I KNEW there was a spirit present. In fact, I could feel the humor from it when my parents denied it could be there. It, for some reason, simply didn't WANT anyone else to know it was there - and it LIKED me being labeled as a Burster. Did it not understand how this would mess up my life almost as badly as being powerless?

One thing I already knew - it had some near-perfect way to hide. Me warning people about it would only make them worry that I was unstable, which was a very dangerous thing for a "burster" to be. I had to show that I was in control of myself. The only real advantage was that my plan itself was a total success - I HAD an insanely powerful spirit bonded with me, and I could feel it had no intention of harming me.

I could also feel it was taking an intense interest in the Spar battles - as if it had never seen such things before. In fact, I could feel echoing cracklings of energy just above my skin during some of the more intense moments. After one such, Dad cautioned me not to get too excited, as he thought it was ME releasing a burst of static electricity that caused my hair to frizz a bit.

I said what he expected - that I wished I was allowed to participate. But as I thought about it more - there was no reason to. My spirit could easily provide more energy in a moment than these kids were getting from the entire evening. At that, I got yet another burst of humor and a wave of energy that went all the way through me - exactly what I had just speculated he could do.

Oh my divine! This meant I was going to have to STUDY! I never worried much about the details of forming my energy channels - I had always needed everything I could get for basic health and physique. I still needed those, of course, but now I would be able to form the channels for basic mana control as well.

As the Spars continued, I tried to imagine myself in their place. I could see that my body just wasn't up to it. I would get killed by anything that weighed in at over about 2 pounds, was my best guess, just from being so weak, slow, and soft. As I thought this, I got another impression of a laugh from the spirit, and there was a "CRACK" sound under my hand, as a 4-inch chunk of solid hardwood came loose from the bench I was sitting on and sat calmly in my hand.

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

OK, I shouldn't have. But I had to get the kid out of his defeatist mind-set. Also, I wanted to see if I'd been kidding myself about my actual abilities here. If anything, it was easier than expected. Anything entering Liam's aura would have ME to contend with, should it try to harm him.

But he was right in another way - these people were used to mystical levels of strength, speed, and durability. I could help a lot with the strength and durability, I was sure. Speed would be harder - hopefully Liam would know something about how to do that part. I had always known that time on the astral was subjective, but I had simply never looked into that aspect. There had never been a reason to, and I had no idea how to go about it. And then to synch it up with physical combat just made the whole thing an impossibility for me at my current level of awareness. Guess they still have a lot of tricks to show me. Hopefully this old dog can learn the new tricks.