Kyle was a little over a year old when he started to test the capacity of his magic. Though only a few months ago he had confirmed his mana pool was equivalent to what it was before he was reborn, but it was changing somehow, and at a much faster rate than normal.
Kyle was going to test is mana pool size, but to do that he would have to actually cast spells. Certain spells like Revive and Resurrect took huge amounts of mana, and Kyle could only cast it once before completely running out of mana, so he started with that. Kyle cast a Resurrect spell on the wall, and luckily there were no skeletons in the wood, however unlikely that it was.
Kyle could feel a surge of mana flow out of him, but it was much less than when he cast the spell a few months ago. With one cast of Resurrect, Kyle felt fine. 'That wasn't so bad.' He thought, and then tried it again... and again and again. On the third Resurrect, Kyle was starting to feel very tired.
'I can probably get out one more.' Kyle thought as he tried to cast Resurrect a fourth time, but he was unable to and lost consciousness. Fortunately for Kyle, he was in bed when it happened. Unfortunately for Kyle, he did not get his consciousness back for several days.
----------------------------------------
POV: Fred Mercer, 3 Days after incident
'I can only pray to Ajoras that my child makes it out of this alright. He will get better soon, I know it.' Fred thought while in the town guard barracks courtyard in the 1st district. It had been 3 days since his son Kyle lost consciousness in his sleep.
"Are you paying attention Fred?" Someone yelled to him while they practiced sword techniques.
"I'm here!" Fred yelled back as he performed a basic chop a little behind everyone else.
----------------------------------------
POV: Elena Mercer, Morning after Incident
'I'm going to wake up Kyle and then I'm going to make breakfast and then i'm going to...' Elena was going through all the things she planned to do that day while she got dressed and walked into Kyle's room.
When Elena got to Kyle's room though, she discovered that he was barely breathing. Elena panicked and yelled through the house, "Fred, quickly, get a doctor!"
"What is it?" Fred said while quickly coming into the room without a shirt on.
"Something is wrong with Kyle." Elena said, holder her head close to Kyle. "He is barely breathing."
'My baby...' Elena cried while she placed her hands on Kyle, certain that he was going to die soon.
Fred heard these words and dashed out of the house as soon as he could, still shirtless and only wearing his nightly clothes.
----------------------------------------
POV: Healing Mage
'I have cured over 80 diseases and healed innumerable amount of wounds, but this boy has something I only ever heard about.' The doctor thought as he observed Kyle's condition after applying his spells Heal and Cure.
"What's wrong with him doctor?" Fred asked him as Elena was unable to compose herself and sat in the other room.
"I don't think it is possible but..." The doctor started to say and then trailed off. 'It's really impossible in this situation.' he thought.
"Just tell me what is wrong with my child?" Fred asked him, certain that the point of paying for a healing mage was to get anything healed.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"I'm sorry, but this is something that cannot be healed with my magic." The doctor said, not quite sure how to explain something he had only read in an obscure textbook before he went to practice medicine and healing in the west.
"Then will herbs or potions work?" Fred pleaded with the doctor. Fred knew that the doctor at this point would be forfeiting his pay because he was unable to heal the subject, but he wanted to know if other means would work.
"What is affecting your child is something from far away." The doctor started to explain. "In a land far the the west is a monstrous beast called the anima furabatur. This monstrous beast has the power to eat souls from it's prey, and what your son is currently experiencing are the side effects from having the soul partially taken from the body."
The doctor finished explaining and looked at Fred Mercer who was shocked. Something about souls, and something about monstrous beast, these were two things Fred did not hear every day.
"Are you saying a monstrous beast sneaked into the town and was able to partially eat my son's soul?" Fred Mercer asked.
"I know, it sounds impossible, especially when an anima furabatur would be larger than this house even." The doctor spoke and Fred Mercer was stunned. He was expecting the anima furabatur to be something small, but in reality it was huge.
"How can I get my son's soul back?" Fred Mercer asked the doctor.
"There is only one way. You must wait for it to naturally come back on it's own." The doctor told him.
"But how long could that take?" Fred continued to ask questions of the doctor.
"I am not sure about this exact case, but in other situations it lasted for a few days." The doctor was unhappy with the diagnosis, but he was unable to do anything else. Fred did not say anything else to the doctor and he left the room. He passed by Elena Mercer and apologized, and then left without collecting any payment.
----------------------------------------
'Note to self #1, do not use up all my mana.' Kyle marked a thought as very important when he woke up. As he looked around, his mother Elena was sitting nearby. He knew something had happened, but was not sure exactly what, just that he didn't want it to happen again, and that using his mana completely up was the cause of it.
"Kyle you're awake!" Elena said very excitedly and quickly moved over to him from the other side of the room. Kyle was in his room, and from what he could remember there was not a chair in it before, so Elena or Fred must have moved it from the other room.
Kyle was not ready to start speaking, so he just remained silent and watch Elena pick him up.
"You were asleep for 4 days, but it's all alright now." Elena said to the infant.
'Wait a second, 4 days?' Kyle thought and requested for time to stop. He did not expect to be unconscious for 4 days. The Resurrect was a very powerful spell, but at the rate he was using mana he should have only been just touching the side of empty.
This effect is called rebound. When a mage does not have the required mana for a spell, the effects do not activate but the mana is still taken and the mana unable to be taken is instead taken as mental damage. Rebound could have effects lasting for a few minutes or a few hours, but for it to be days was almost impossible. At that point, the mage would likely die.
'Note to self #2, do not use up all my mana.'