– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 30 –

“Did they tell you what their mission is about?” asked Terry. Sigille and Matteo were gone for the day.

“Ahh right,” exclaimed Cadence. “You’re not familiar with Tiv geography. We are currently close to a forbidden zone.”

Terry looked around. They were practically standing in a vast area of nothingness. No trees, no greenery, no nothing. The ground was dry earth, cracked in many places.

“I’ve heard that term before,” muttered Terry before looking back at Cadence. “But what does that even mean?”

“It means an area that is particularly dangerous,” explained Cadence.

Terry raised an eyebrow. “As opposed to the ordinary danger in the Wasted Zone?”

“Actually, yes.” Cadence replied without hesitation. “The Wastes are mostly characterized by the abnormal mana concentration that leads to the growing number of mana corrupted and aspect beings. This, in turn, leads to a retreat of civilization over time.”

“Which paves the way for hellspawn and undead to multiply?” surmised Terry.

“Something like that.” Cadence shrugged. “Anyway, the outer edges of the Wastes, or the Wasted Zone from our perspective, have a higher concentration of abnormal mana than the heartland.”

Cadence raised her index finger. “Forbidden zones are an exception. Usually, there is a story behind them. Some abnormality in a dungeon, hellspawn or demon activity, a ritual site. Something of some kind at some time went horribly wrong and left the area seeped in problematic mana.”

Terry pondered the implications. “So they are checking up on the state of the site?”

“As well as exterminating whatever needs to be exterminated in the area and making sure that no one messes around to make it worse.”

“Does that happen?” Terry found it hard to believe that people would be that stupid. “People making it worse?”

“Sadly, yes.” Cadence grimaced. “Deathcults and demons mostly… as well as the occasional necromancer. Making it worse is not always the goal but often a side effect of whatever they are trying to accomplish.”

“Well, that’s…” Terry frowned. “Crap. In that case, wouldn’t it be better to establish some permanent watch over the known forbidden zones?” Terry recalled the stationed Guardians that watched over the stationary dimensional gates in Arcana.

“That’s Arcana speaking again,” said Cadence with a hint of bitterness. “Unfortunately, Tiv doesn’t have the manpower for that.”

More like Tiv doesn’t have the mana users for that.

Terry recalled his aunt Brynn, but kept his thoughts unspoken since he had no interest in discussing Tiv politics.

“Still, I am wondering what exactly has the Tiv army so occupied that they neglect places like this,” muttered Terry.

“You mean aside from Thanatos and the Wastes?” asked Cadence.

“Aside from Thanatos, yes.” Terry scowled. “From what I have seen in the Wasted Zone, the Tiv army doesn’t do a great job against the Wastes, either. The people in Syn City and the Chara Settlement were all complaining that they had stopped sending army patrols to secure the area.”

“Right, the mysterious deployment in the northeast…” Cadence shrugged helplessly. “No idea. Minister Kipkoi is trying his best to get the patrols back, but for some reason, the Royal Faction is completely opposed.”

The Preacher, huh?

Terry furrowed his brow. He was not sure what to think of the minister.

On the one hand, Terry still blamed the man for what happened in Syn City.

Terry saw Ava’s actions as absolutely despicable. It was as if she had considered the people the property of the empire. While it was not clear how much the Preacher had ordered himself, Ava’s words contained the same reasoning as the Preacher’s. She even relied on a similar vocabulary.

The twisted truth that had circulated after the events had further left a sour taste in Terry’s mouth. The fact that Terry had heard the Preacher himself talk about his own interpretation of truth during the matter of the blood idol convinced Terry that this felt as natural to the Preacher as breathing.

There was also the way that the Preacher had talked about Terry’s aunts, which had definitely rubbed Terry the wrong way, and as far as Terry could see, the minister’s policies for mana users were disastrous for everyone.

On the other hand, the Preacher seemed to truly care about Tiv and its people.

The minister followed the same rules that he demanded from other mana users. The man used his power in the Assembly to reestablish patrols. From what Terry had heard, the Preacher worked hard for his district and Tiv as a whole.

Zealot. Terry recalled the word that Sigille had used before.

There was also the situation with the channelers – or cultists, as Sigille would call them.

Terry could understand Sigille’s attitude, but all in all, he felt conflicted about the whole topic, mostly because of his interactions with channelers like Cadence or Harrison.

Terry wholeheartedly concurred with the concerns about handing over influence to a being from another realm. Frankly, the thought of voluntarily opening his own mind seemed insane to Terry.

Nevertheless, neither Cadence nor Harrison seemed like bad people. If the Preacher helped people like them come out into the open and use their powers to help others, then that was surely a good thing.

Except when the risk manifests and a god-like creature comes here to subjugate this realm…

Terry frowned. No fan of the Veilbinder would shrug at that prospect. It had taken a lot to pull down the last group of self-proclaimed gods, to liberate the realm from their yoke, and to open the path for magic self-determination.

I guess that is why Olgorn never considered the channeler-path in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a healer either…

It also feels weird to have a person in an influential position when that person has opened their mind to foreign influence.

In the end, Terry could only shrug.

Not my job to worry about these things. Let the Tiv people worry about Tiv politics. I will go back to Arcana anyway…

“So, up for a spar?” asked Cadence.

“Sure, give me a moment,” said Terry, and checked his equipment.

***

Terry watched Cadence warily while trying to recall scenes of Cadence fighting.

Too bad I was too busy in Syn City to pay much attention to Cadence…

Terry shrugged and resigned himself to go by what he was sure of.

Pure fire-aspected on her own. Channeler of the Bright Lady’s mana and abilities.

AH right, her channeling anchor— No, wait. That would definitely go too far for a spar.

“Ready?” yelled Cadence.

“Ready!” replied Terry, and then dashed forward. While running, he hurled a throwing needle towards Cadence.

Cadence’s skin turned golden and with a flick of her wrist, a wall of gold was summoned in front of her.

*Ting* The throwing needle harmlessly fell to the ground.

Terry could see the gold reshape into a small grid in one place, which revealed the amused eyes of Cadence.

Terry considered moving up into the sky for another angle of attack for his throwing needles, but quickly dismissed the idea.

Cadence would simply pull the same trick again…

Reminds me of my first win against Tiana. Stupid karma.

Wait…

Terry noticed mana movement and instinctively jumped to the side. A moment later, he saw golden chains rise from the ground where he had just been.

Worse, Terry noticed a similar mana movement in his current position and path.

Terry narrowed his eyes and relied on his boots to jump high up into the sky. There, Terry channeled mana into his inscribed glove.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Heh,” exclaimed Cadence with a smirk. A mass of gold was summoned and reshaped around Cadence’s legs and shoulders before digging into the earth.

“Hurgh.” Terry had to stop his bidirectional imprint when he felt his knees strain under the force.

Nearly as bad as the rainbow fishie in Syn…

Terry frowned.

Cadence hasn’t even moved a single step.

Terry realized that Cadence’s fighting style was noticeably different from most of his usual spars.

True, Sigille had not moved at all in the beginning either, but she had allowed Terry to get close first.

True, Matteo had also tormented Terry with long-range attacks, but Matteo did not shy away from getting close himself.

Harrison, on the other hand, had always moved into close combat of his own accord.

Cadence fights more like the pure spell-flingers, ahh…

Terry felt as if he had realized something important when he had to dodge a barrage of light-aspected arrows that came flying towards him.

Terry frowned at the high concentration of mana in the mana projectiles.

While the light-aspect was among the banes of undead and deathlife, it rarely possessed much damage potential on life-based beings. Unfortunately, an intense mana concentration can change the situation.

Terry focused on dodging while staying in the air to avoid the golden chains from below.

Is there no end to her mana? The lack of spell shaping as a warning is also really annoying…

Terry groaned when he realized that contrary to most of his spars against pure spell flingers, his disruption discharges would be of limited use against an opponent that neither had to rely on their own mana nor on regular spellwork.

Normally, Terry could keep up his discharges long enough to close in on a pure spell flinger. His mana sense allowed him to time his discharges efficiently, but the lack of spellwork made this more difficult.

Most mages that Terry had faced in combat were at a disadvantage when it came to their mana pool and regeneration. Terry could allow himself to rely on discharges for a while, even though they were vastly inefficient when compared to proper spellwork.

Cadence, however, was channeling the mana of another being, and Terry doubted he could outlast the Bright Lady.

To make it worse, the summoned gold would stay in place even without supporting mana. In that aspect, it was like Lori’s earthen walls.

Cadence’s gold will pose even more problems than earth though…

Terry inwardly sighed at the prospect of having to break through walls of gold.

I guess I have to be thankful that Harrison cannot control that much of the Bright Lady’s mana. Not that this allowed me to win any of our spars…

Terry tensed when he noticed a glimpse of spellwork. He identified a mana cluster resembling a Fire Spear mixed into the light arrows, and made sure to evade it.

“What?” exclaimed Terry in surprise. While Terry had avoided the Fire Spear with some room to spare, he felt his mana acting weird.

“Crap,” grumbled Terry.

She infused the holy aspect that disturbs the flow of mana into her Fire Spear and with an impressive intensity at that.

Terry groaned and circulated his mana consciously to overcome the mana disturbing effect.

This will be a pain…

***

“I have a question,” said Terry, who was stretching after their spar.

“Shoot,” said Cadence.

“You didn’t move much,” said Terry. “Or at all.”

“I think you are supposed to make me,” teased Cadence playfully. “And that was not really a question.”

“Not yet.” Terry chuckled. “Back in Syn City, I also encountered some channelers that were… how to say…” Terry smacked his lips. “Less enduring than I expected? Quickly becoming out of breath? Not that you were pressured enough, but...”

“I am concentrating on mana abilities and some spellwork,” confirmed Cadence. “Most faithful do actually. Except for late converters.”

“That matches my limited experience,” said Terry. “Not many were proper mana cultivators. But why?”

“Did you always want to be a mana cultivator?” retorted Cadence.

“Uhh…” Terry blinked. “Not at all, no.”

“Same goes for many others,” said Cadence. “Spellwork and, to a lesser extent, mana abilities are more versatile than mana cultivation and many think mana cultivation training even more tiresome than mana foundational training.”

Terry recalled his own younger self and shuddered inwardly.

“Okay, I get that, but…” Terry tilted his head. “I mean, if I had access to free mana and more or less an infinite supply…”

“Not quite, but go on,” Cadence chortled amusedly.

“I would want to get as much use out of it as possible,” said Terry. “At least circulate the mana properly so that it helps strengthen your body beyond the passive effects. Maybe you don’t need burst techniques, but surely, increased physical performance, improved senses, recovery from injuries, more stamina, and so forth are worth it?”

Cadence nodded. “Unfortunately, you are missing a few things. First, channeled mana is still separate, and you cannot use it as freely as your own. I can borrow the mana of the Bright Lady, but I could not use it for the purpose you have described.”

Terry raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Cadence shrugged. “It just doesn’t work like that. I can infuse the holy aspect into my fire-aspected spellwork, but I can’t use the Bright Lady’s mana without immediate purpose.”

“Circulating it in my body is not possible.” Cadence glanced at the sky. “Honestly, I would say it is for our own protection. The Bright Lady’s mana has to stay separate because otherwise, her circle would have to worry about mana corruption. The same applies to other faiths.”

Terry made a dubious expression. “Doesn’t spellwork or infusion carry the same risks?”

“Not to the same degree, no.” Cadence pondered on how to explain it. “The Bright Lady allows me to harvest, shape, prime, and ignite her mana. It does not have to be absorbed by my body for that. I can move her mana or mix it with my own mana outside my body.”

Ignite… Terry recalled one of the Veilbinder’s favorite spells that he had famously relied on when facing magical creatures or curse mages.

The spell – Mana Conquest – allowed the Veilbinder to ignite the mana of an opponent by infusing the opponent’s mana with his own. Without a proper spell structure to limit the effect, the opponent’s mana would then become unusable or even rampage and inflict damage.

That spell had always fascinated Terry. Unfortunately, it required multiple aspects and an extremely complicated spell structure, with countless moving parts and additional adjustments depending on the opponent’s mana signature.

It appears that it’s possible for the Bright Lady to allow someone else to ignite her mana. That would be a second example of a mana user igniting mana without naturalizing all of it before…

Terry was raised from his contemplation when Cadence continued her explanation.

“There are limits regarding spellwork as well,” said Cadence. “Not all aspects and spell structures are compatible with infusion.”

Cadence bit her lip slightly. “It is also much more difficult than simply channeling a complete ability – mana and application. Even that carries risks, though. The channeled mana has to move through your body. That strains your mana channels even if you use your own mana to guide it. The mana pool may be unlimited, but that does not mean you can make unlimited use of it.”

“Mhmh…” Terry nodded pensively.

“It also depends on the being whom you have linked yourself to,” continued Cadence. “Some abilities will only become usable after your relationship has deepened. Others may require certain conditions. Some gods are said to be quite whimsical in how they are sharing their abilities.”

“‘Whimsical’?” Terry raised an eyebrow. “Wait, does that mean that not all channelers get access to the same abilities? Even if they channel the same being? Even if they were equally capable of handling it?”

“Not every being is worthy of worship,” said Cadence with a wry smile. “The gods’ gifts are up to their discretion. Some will rely on less satisfying criteria than others.”

“But isn’t that…” Terry flinched somewhat at the term that rose in his mind. “Stupid? I mean, how are the channelers supposed to share their experience? How can they learn and grow together?”

“Couldn’t you ask the same of spellwork?” challenged Cadence. “Different aspects like different abilities?”

“Well…” Terry crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Not really?” He thought back to what he knew of Samuel’s research on spell structures for fire-aspected healing spells. “If one mage discovers a new spell structure, then everyone with access to the used aspects can benefit from that knowledge.” He bit his lip. “Sure, that’s not everyone, but a lot anyway.”

“Fair enough, but that’s an argument on numbers, not principle,” stressed Cadence.

“Perhaps.” Terry furrowed his brow. “But even for those that do not share the aspect, the spell structure can inform further research with other aspects. My uncle is researching new spell structures and, according to him, it’s a big help if there are structures with similar effects to draw inspiration from – even if the aspects are different.”

“Like I’ve said, it depends on the god,” said Cadence. “The Bright Lady is not known to make whimsical distinctions. I can’t speak for other faiths except that I believe people have a right to make their own choice.”

“Which brings me to one more thing.” Cadence took a deep breath. “This is more of a cultural aspect.”

“Some among the faithful take offense when being called channelers, because to them, it carries the insinuation that the channeled powers are the reason for their faith.” Cadence rubbed her palm while talking. “Channeling an ability is one thing, but siphoning mana to strengthen yourself would be a completely different topic. Even if it was possible, not everyone among the faithful would approve.”

Shouldn’t a self-identified god be happy if their followers grow stronger? Shouldn’t the followers know that? Why share your mana if you are that picky about how it’s used? Unless…

Terry left his contemplations unspoken since they were becoming more and more unflattering towards the self-proclaimed gods and their worshippers. He did not see a reason to pick that fight with Cadence.

***

In the evening, Terry was sitting on a bear’s fur next to his tent.

In front of Terry were his notebook and pen, his mana crafting tools, and one book that his aunt Brynn had sent him.

He was surrounded by transfixed throwing needles, for which he had finished a layered mana shielding: an outer layer of quasi-periodic tiling that Terry considered barely adequate and an inner layer of periodic tiling to fill the gaps where Terry had miscalculated.

Terry looked between his notebook, his tools, and the mana-crafting instructions. Simultaneously, he guided his mana to try to see if he could pick the shielding of the transfixed needles without relying on his hands.

Terry frowned and fiddled around with the tool for stamping three-dimensional shapes for a crystal-based shielding.

Wasted Tiv Empire that is devoid of proper mana crafting instructors that are allowed to teach…

“Haaah.” Terry exhaled a long sigh and read over the instructions again. “I’m really missing the personal instruction where I could follow the actions and mana movement. This book is— What the Wastes is a ‘pinch’ of mana supposed to be? Can’t they at least compare that to the normalized values from mana throughput measurements?”

He could hear Sigille snicker amusedly not far away, and he remembered he was not alone at the camp.

Weirdo.

Terry sighed in frustration. He mumbled: “I guess I should be happy that I even have the books.”

Even possession of these books is apparently already illegal or something. Stupid Tiv Empire. How has it not collapsed yet? One would think they need as many mana crafters as possible to defend against the Wastes, but noooo~

Terry paused himself. “Okay, I’m getting derailed here. Focus.”

Still… Nope. No whining. Look at what Poppy managed even without good books or basic instruction.

Terry read over the instructions in the book again.

Good book.

Adequate book.

Wasted book.

Terry scowled and clicked his tongue.

No whining. If Poppy can come up with her own runic system and inscribe items that saved your sorry butt from Phantoms, then you can deal with a simple tool for crystal-based mana shielding.

Terry retrieved another notebook and made a new entry: ‘Send some gifts to Poppy, Elvis, and the others in the Chara Settlement.’

He returned the notebook to his dimensional bag and then returned his focus to his mana crafting.

***