Theo stumbled through the door to The Pub, looking like he’d completed an entire ploughing season by himself. Alan looked up from where he was stacking chairs upside-down on tables, stools already neatly arranged on the bar counter like bricks in a wall. He did a double take at the sight of Theo (the way one would if they spotted a clown at a funeral).
“Hey Alan.” Said Theo, sheepishly. Alan sighed.
“You’re not normally this late. Missed everything.” Times like this, Theo was very glad that his working arrangement with The Pub was more of a working suggestion, as he performed most nights anyway so it was fine to miss one or two like this without much notice. The Pub never went a single night without something interesting or entertaining anyway, so he didn’t feel too guilty as he scanned the place for any new bloodstains.
“Yeah, had a thing for class.” Theo said, rubbing the back of his neck, trying to hold back a yawn. “There’s a tradition with the Arts Excha-“
Alan sighed, cutting off Theo’s explanation as he turned his attention back to his work. “Well, I’m packing up now, so you might as well just head home and rest.”
Theo nodded his head, turning around to leave before he paused, and looked back at Alan.
“By the way, The Dancing Wind got their hands on coins from the other Colleges, so we can check to see what happens when all the coins are joined together.”
Alan perked up, as he slowly placed down another chair with precision and finality. He turned around to properly face Theo.
“That’s good. Let me know what they’re for. I’m curious what makes them special.”
Theo nodded, as Alan shooed him away. Leaving The Pub, he headed back to his home. His head was filled with thoughts of the coin, but as he walked through an alley in the serene peace of a moonlit night, he paused.
It took him a moment to realise what felt off. This was the alley that he had met Sparrow in, only a few months ago. It looked pretty similar to how it did the last time he paid attention to it, and if he looked very closely (once again thanks to Owl’s Eyes), Theo could just make out some dimples in the dirt near the edges where the gang’s feet were trapped. Even though this alley didn’t see much traffic (which was why it was one of Theo’s shortcuts, and also why the gang confronted Sparrow here), the rain and general going-ons of a city had wiped the centre clean. The sides, protected by awnings and trash and other general refuse, were better at preserving those markings.
At least, they were. Humming to himself as he walked, the mud smoothed itself out.
---
For the second time this week, Theo woke up exhausted. For the first time, he couldn’t wait for the weekend.
He was excited and curious about his last two classes (especially since Sparrow taught Motion), but those were a stale bit of bread you could hammer nails with compared to the cake of learning about other forms of magic, and the clotted cream of finding out what the coins did.
Still, Theo managed to force himself out of bed as he cycled Meditation and Self Awareness. For some reason, he’d found that he could cycle the two of them together with no problem, but self-awareness plus anything else didn’t quite work.
Sure, they were both difficult and required some input, but together they cancelled each other out to a degree. He paused, shirt half off, eyes widening as he had a mad thought.
One helped with focus. One helped with awareness. Would awareness help him to focus? Would focus help him to be more aware?
Theo sat down, as he prepared to do something completely utterly stupid. In his defence, he would argue that it had been months of practicing both of them, and he could do them easily while multitasking and walking like Sparrow had required. And Meditation WAS another internal magic, so it counted for that too. And worst case scenario, he had brushed up against the threshold to the third step multiple times now, and knew how to stop if it wasn’t taking before any damage had happened.
Before that, he tried each individually, sending over slightly compressed mana, and found that it wasn’t stable enough for him to commit to activating it. Theo sighed.
Bracing himself, he compressed mana ever-so-slightly and sent it around his person and into his head, trying to simultaneously use the third step for both Self Awareness and Meditation. There was a struggle as before, as the mana was once against unstable, but just before he was about to stop, they stabilised. Together.
The world seemed to both expand and shrink, slowing down. Looking at his hand, he could see every small detail, and it moved like he was swimming. His clothes were moving a fraction slower as well, almost waving in the wind. There was a clarity, as if someone had made the world out of glass that he could peer through. Everything made more sense, including his own actions.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Theo let go, with a gasp. The world resumed its normal pace. The focus was gone too. He could feel his heart beating against his ribs, trying to escape. It calmed down soon enough, but he stayed giddy as he packed lunch, closed the door to his shack, and walked to the College of Song.
Along the way, Theo experimented, and found that he could now use the third step of both Meditation and Self Awareness comfortably. Meditation made it easier for him to focus on anything, and Self Awareness really did warp his perception of time. The clarity that he found by doing both was missing, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
In fact, Theo didn’t try to use both at the same time again. Something felt a little off, and an alarm was ringing in his head. Still, he was feeling pretty good so he let it be.
He did try to use Meditation to see if that helped him with properly performing The Fisherman’s Song, but it made no difference.
Theo sighed. It was worth a shot.
---
Motion was taught in a rather expensive room that Theo couldn’t help but gawk at. A wooden floor, made of actually sturdy, shiny wood! Walls lined with mirrors, all clean without smudges or dust. The entire College of Song had seemed pretty fancy, but this cemented it as a place where the money he could get for working the rest of his life wouldn’t be enough to buy enough room to stand on. Sparrow was stretching, while Sasha was warming up with some calisthenics next to some drums.
“Welcome to Motion! The Silent Fist and I will be teaching this together.” Sparrow began. “Today is all about finding your feet, and your flow. How you move, and how to move with the music that you hear and the music in your heart. Let’s start off with some simple movements.”
Sasha started to play the drum, and a regular, plodding beat emanated through the room. Sparrow moved to the front, and started to move side to side, stepping every second beat. On the beats they didn’t move, Sparrow seemed to pulse, as they grooved to the music.
Slowly, everyone started to follow, with Drew being the first to understand what was going on. The giant helped everyone else, as he emphasised and nigh-exaggerated the motions and movements. After a few minutes, everyone was grooving along.
They kept at this for a while, but it didn’t get boring. Theo realised that it was just…fun to dance along to music like this, even if the steps weren’t hard. The room felt a little hot and he fanned his shirt to cool down a bit of the sweat that had built up. It looked like a lot of the class had started to feel the exercise, especially Horace and the other nobles. Rowena was having slight difficulties, but was managing admirably.
Sparrow introduced other moves, including stepping to the side with one foot behind the other, clapping on the step, emphasising the motion more, and emphasising the motion less.
Eventually, after Drew started incorporating some different rhythms and Jade worked in fancier footwork, everyone (including Sparrow) started to simply dance in the room, having fun. Sasha had changed what she was playing to a livelier beat to match.
After a few minutes of fun that left Theo breathing hard, Sparrow stopped dancing, and motioned for Sasha to stop playing the drums. Everyone stopped, taking a moment to catch their breath. Even Jade and Drew had a slight sheen of sweat on their skin.
“Good work everyone! You’re starting to feel not only where your feet should go, but also where the music is telling you to go. Now, let’s move onto some different types of dances…”
---
The class had ended after Sparrow had gone over a few dances. It was fun, and Theo was surprised at how much he was struggling. Shaking his head, he chastised himself for forgetting to use Striding Wind and Endless Song to help his muscles and breathing. As everyone was packing up, he tried to cycle those…and found it difficult to cycle even the first step of either. All of a sudden, his chest grew painfully tight, and he toppled over, a statue about to kiss the ground.
He landed with a thud. It echoed across the room, and he found it hard to see. His vision started to darken, and he realised he barely felt the impact of the ground.
---
Theo didn’t know how much time had passed before he felt his body glow, as he gasped and his senses returned to him.
He was sore all over. He was still in the room they had done Motion in. And everyone was looking over him, concerned, as Sparrow held him in their grasp and sang. Theo vaguely remembered the tune from his compressed mana injury when he hadn’t been ready for the third step. He also realised that he’d been glowing this whole time.
Sparrow tightened their grip as they started to tut, looking over him with concern, and Theo felt something similar to Meditation envelope his body. It felt like someone had wrapped water around his whole body, and the surface tension was pressing against his skin, but if the water was tingly and prickly. It was odd, to say the least.
That being said, the tension had left Sparrow’s face, so he assumed that things were okay. Sasha did the same.
“Okay everyone, Theo’s alright. Let’s give him some space and let The Dancing Wind understand what happened.” Sasha said, corralling everyone out of the room. She turned her head back, looking questioningly at Sparrow. They nodded back, and she nodded, satisfied, as she closed the door.
“What did you do this time?!” The moment the door was closed, Sparrow started to yell. It was close enough for Theo’s ears to ring. It was now that he noticed the worry and panic on their face.
“I-“
“Do you know how it feels to have an apprentice who seems hell-bent on killing themselves at every turn? I have never met someone with such a callous disregard for their own wellbeing.” Sparrow interrupted, spittle flying as they almost frothed at the lips. They paused, closing their eyes as they took a deep breath.
“Sorry. What exactly did you do?” Sparrow asked, much more calmly, eyes still closed. Their breathing was still shaky.
“I uh, I found that I could cycle both Meditation and Self Awareness at the same time, and figured that the awareness would help me find focus, and the focus would help the awareness. So I cycled both at the same time.” Theo answered, getting quieter with each word, shrinking into himself, eyes stuck on the floor.
Sparrow groaned. “Why do you keep taking risks like this? Next time you want to do something stupid, tell me first so I can slap that idea out of your head. Do you know what happens to people who decide to just recklessly infuse their body? That’s how you get the mana cursed.” Sparrow ranted, before groaning further and taking another deep breath.
“But I was just doing them together! I’ve done that for other third step internal magic, and I’ve bumped against the threshold enough to know when to step back.” Theo protested. “Well… I thought I knew when to step back.” He trailed off, mumbling by the end.
Sparrow sighed. “Just because internal magic is less risky than the other forms of magic does not mean it has no risk at all. Meditation and Self Awareness are not your typical internal magic. The easier ones? Sure, go for it. But you are not close to the level of experience you’d need to understand how to innovate without putting yourself at risk. And essentially brute-forcing your way into a second-tier magic? And the second step of second-tier magic? I’m surprised you’re still alive and sane.” Theo felt sheepish.
Sparrow had let go of him, and was currently sitting on the ground, left arm hanging off their left knee, right hand massaging their temple. It was a look that required a three half-empty bottles of wine and a thousand-yard stare to complete. “…did it work?” Sparrow asked, into their hand.
Theo demonstrated Meditation and Self Awareness one after the other, and he felt that prickling sensation again as Sparrow looked carefully at him.
“Okay, that looks good. No more mana channel damage.” Theo felt relieved, “But if something like this happens again and it’s not caught early, then Hymn of Healing won’t be enough. Might even be permanent, if you’re unlucky.” Theo felt more relieved than he thought possible.
“Go have lunch, you should be fine to go to the Survival class.” Sparrow shooed him away, and Theo started to get up. “…you’re lucky it worked, but it did work. So good job. I think you’re ready for Tome of Memories.”
Theo headed out the door, as Sparrow shouted after him, “Just don’t kill yourself doing it.”
He had an inkling that Sparrow wasn’t joking.