Leo

Alea’s cabin, Germany

The morning came quickly, and everyone was up at first light. After a quick breakfast, Seb, Heidi, and Evan went to the basement to catalog the items they had found previously, leaving Leo to his own devices. Leo’s plan was clear - after spending so many hours in training, he had to try and cast his first spell.

Finishing up his coffee, Leo went outside in the garden and sat down for a minute to enjoy the serene morning atmosphere. The sun was shining without a cloud in sight. Birds were chirping, welcoming the day and their new adventures. ‘It sure is nice here,’ Leo thought and opened his eyes, standing up to get another crystal from the boxes.

Injecting his mana in it, a monochrome figure of Alea, the Walpurga sprang up and said, ‘Welcome back, initiate! I trust that your training has been going well, and you have managed to grow your mana core and its capacity slightly! Well done!

‘In this lesson, we will talk more about affinity. What it is and why it matters for a young and aspiring mage like yourself. Understanding what affinity is will be the first step you need to take to cast your very own first spell, so listen carefully.

‘Let’s recap how your internal mana differs from the external. As you remember and have observed, your inner mana has a specific color. This color is the first sign of how we can tell the development of an individual mana core.

‘Mana all around us is featureless, and in its basic form, it has a white-blue color. When you gather and convert this mana in your core, it gains your core’s color. Affinity has no color that you can distinguish.

‘Affinity is basically how well your core will enable you to manifest magical effects. For example, if you have a fire affinity, it will allow you to channel mana and mix it up with external mana to ignite something easier. Water affinity will allow you to create water around you, and so on.

‘Each mage starts with a particular affinity when they form a core. The most common ones are air, earth, fire, and water. Each can morph into exotic variants, such as ice, lightning, wood, or magma. There are also very rare, legendary affinities, such as creation, chaos, void, and others.

‘Having an affinity does not mean that you can only cast certain types of spells. It just means that those types will be easier to grasp. Others are still possible. However, they will take longer to cast, making it harder for you and your core.

‘Let’s say you have a fire affinity, which is the easiest for young mages to grasp. How does it affect your casting? First, to cast a spell, you need to understand the underlying principles of the effect you want to cause on the nature around you. To start a fire is simple.

‘There are these little bits that interact with air. Your job is to use mana inside your core and expel it through your mana channels and your mana gates, with an intent to cause this effect - speed how the little bits in, say, wood will interact with air. Accelerate this process with your mana.

‘The process to expel the mana is easy. You have already done it while training your channels. The tricky part is the intent. You have partially exercised intent while moving those little bits of mana around your core. Casting a spell is similar. You just have to extend your will with the mana you move through your channels.

‘To try this, you need to start small. Such as moving a feather with air, for example. No matter your affinity, you can try this little feat to grasp the basics. Once you have understood this part, we will talk more about how to apply intent to more complex spells, or in simple words - mana interaction with the world around us.

‘As for affinities, please refer to scroll number hundred twenty-seven, to read on implications of having a certain affinity. As for testing for affinity, please use the standard affinity test stone you surely have on hand. That is it for today. See you next time!’

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The figure finished and winked out. Leo put the crystal back in the box and sat down to think. The explanation alone made it unclear what it meant to cast a spell. In games, it meant pressing certain buttons. The stories he read were a matter of speaking words of power and waving a wand. Or have some mysterious system accept your command.

From what Alea said, for him to use his mana, he needed to imagine and use intent. To extend his will on mana within him and move it out through his channels. Deciding on something, Leo got up and went up to the old oak tree. He plucked a leaf from it and sat back down at the base of its roots.

Closing his eyes, he imagined how the mana from his core would travel out in the channels, especially the one connected to his hand where the leaf sat, and would move out through his palm.

Nothing happened. Focusing, Leo tried again, this time imagining the movement of mana, slowly traveling from his navel upwards, through his chest and in his shoulder, to continue down his arm and in his palm. He felt a slight tingle at the base of his palm. Turning on his mana sight, Leo noticed that green specks of mana gathered below the leaf.

Nothing happened with the leaf. It sat on his palm, unmoving. ‘Intent. How do I make my mana do something?’ Leo thought and tried again. This time he willed the specks of green mana to lift the leaf, but the effect did not change. His mana passed through the leaf and dispersed in the world around him.

‘It must mean that I cannot affect the leaf directly. She said it affects the air. I know what air is. It is just nitrogen and oxygen molecules.’ Leo thought to himself, and this time aimed his mana with the intent to affect the tiny bits of air below the leaf.

For a moment, nothing happened, but after a second, Leo could see that the leaf moved slightly. Leo managed to lift the leaf from his palm a few centimeters in the air by increasing the flow of mana from his core and concentrating harder on the invisible bits of air below the leaf.

Excited, he thought back to Heidi and the spell she cast on him and Leo and increased the mana flow at the leaf, releasing a burst at it. The effect was instantaneous, as the mana caused the air below the leaf to shred it to bits.

Leo stared at what was left of the leaf as it fell to the ground. ‘Damn, that is dangerous. Heidi must have toned it down, not to cut us in half,’ he thought. ‘Alright, it seems it was easier than Alea made it to be. Let's try fire next.’

Leo got another leaf, this time a dry one from the ground. He took it between his fingers and channeled some mana through his body. This time he felt resistance in the route where the mana moved. He did not notice before, being too excited. Ignoring it, he proceeded to concentrate on affecting the leaf.

Understanding that fire occurs when the atoms in the leaf vibrate releasing gasses that will interact with the oxygen around it, Leo willed the mana to accelerate the molecules in the leaf, thus releasing said gasses. The leaf went up in flames and burned Leo’s finger. “Ouch,” he exclaimed, dropping the burning leaf.

‘Alright. So I can easily burn myself,’ Leo thought, blowing on his slightly burned fingers. ‘This is a lot easier than I thought!’ Remembering his initial goal, to cast a fireball, Leo thought about how one goes about it.

‘If mana burned the leaf, causing its molecules to speed up, and the air moved the leaf, affecting the air below it, then it must be connected somehow,’ he reasoned. As before, Leo gathered the mana inside his core and focused on what he will do.

His idea was simple. Gather as much mana as he can, and expel it through his palm, applying intent to speed up the air molecules in front of his palm and move the whole construct away from his hand. Simple.

Without thinking too long, he pulled together whatever mana he felt in his core and expelled it in one big burst through his palm, thus igniting the air before it. However, before he could make the air at his palm move, the ignited ball of fire away from him, it exploded with a loud bang, throwing him against the oak tree.

Leo hit his back and fell to his knees, his head dizzy at the impact, adrenaline rushing through his brain. He thought, ‘Yes! I did it!’ However, before he could gather his wits, Leo’s vision went hazy, and his head swam. In a second, he fainted face-first on the ground next to the large oak, not noticing a hooded figure observing him sneak away.