Aida was awoken early the next morning by the rustling in her room, though it was still dark.
Reaching out with her mana senses, Aida recognized the mana drifting from three other bodies still laying prone beside her, and a fourth body that was already up and about.
It was only then that Aida remembered she was at Loded Peaks, on a special sponsorship assignment with the rest of Class 2. The previous night had been oddly euphoric, where Aida joined her classmates in dancing her heart out to the melody-less singing and drumming the Peak dwellers had engaged in. She had felt drunk, despite not having partaken in any food or beverage or other mind-altering substances; just dancing with the entirety of the village.
Aida quietly crept out of her fur blanket, being careful not to disturb her three other classmates who were still in deep slumber. Despite having been so giddily light-headed last night, she now felt amazingly spry and hyperaware of her surroundings.
Ruth was waiting for Aida at the mouth of the cave given to the Maglica girls. “Good morning!” she whispered. “I didn’t think you’d be up yet.”
“I didn’t either,” Aida replied, squinting out at the landscape below them. The sun was beginning to rise, but it wasn’t high enough for the rays to reach into the cavern where the girls had been laying. Loded Peak was so high up on the mountain that it felt like they could see over the horizon to the other side of the world. “I feel really energetic and alert, though. What was that event last night anyway?”
“Oh!” A grin spread across Ruth’s face. “That’s just something we do every night to keep our spirits up. All the villagers come together after a hard day of work, when we’re all tired, to partake in some community-building and encourage each other to keep going.” She peered more closely at Aida.
“How are you feeling, by the way? Adventurer Shan was mentioning that your elemental pools were starting to become imbalanced, and that your mana pool was running low with all of your healing work yesterday.”
Aida looked down at her body, swinging her arms and legs to check their function as she pulled up her stat boxes. Surprisingly, her mana pool - which ticked down incrementally as she watched it, prompting her to begin mana cycling again - was significantly more replenished than before she had started dancing with the villagers. “I’m feeling pretty good! My mana isn’t as full as when I’m at Maglica, but it’s not like it’s been draining overnight, so that’s a pleasant surprise.”
Ruth nodded, pleased. “I’m glad! That's the whole point of our nightly celebrations, actually. Those of us with higher constitutions share some of our energy with people with lower constitutions.”
Aida ooh-ed as Mana Siphon’s description made more sense. “So you guys are siphoning mana from others?”
Ruth glanced at her, suspicion tinging her smile. “Have you heard of that ability? I haven’t heard of anyone down below talk about it. Is it something Ezra mentioned?”
Aida’s mood fell as she thought of Ezra, wondering what he and the rest of Class 1 were up to. It’s only been one day and night. Probably nothing has happened yet. “No, actually. It just…seemed like an appropriate description of what was happening.”
Ruth nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, the technique’s name isn’t very unique. But I would say it’s definitely something of a…secret technique I guess? Those of us who leave the Peaks don’t exactly talk about it.”
“It’s not taboo or anything, is it?” Aida asked, concerned. She remembered how apprehensive the Gullbeaks were about their exercise for filtering mana so that other elements could use it.
“Oh, not at all! It’s just there’s no reason for folks in other environments to know about the specifics of Mana Siphon, you know? Since they live in such mana-rich environments.” Ruth shuffled a little bit, running her fingers through her long hair. She seemed a bit nervous. “…I’m not trying to make myself seem smart or anything, but I think I’m the one who…named the technique, for lack of a better word.”
Aida cocked her head, curious. Gratified at the attention, Ruth continued. “I mean, I guess it’s because I’m the first one from the Peaks to be born with the ability to use mana right away, while everyone else kind of just…developed the ability to use mana a little bit over time, so I have a better sensitivity of what’s happening in the air.”
Shivering slightly as the morning breeze brushed her face while Ruth seemed completely unbothered, Aida asked a question that had been floating in her mind when she first learned of Mana Siphon. “So what exactly is the difference between Mana Siphon and Mana Cycling? I thought in Mana Cycling, we draw mana from the air, and mana in the air comes from mana that’s passively released by other living things. Mana Siphon seems like it acts just like Cycling.”
Ruth brightened, eager to talk theory. Despite being nearly polar opposite of Ezra with her personality and appearance, her fascination with how mana worked reminded Aida of him, her heart panging. “Oh, for sure! That’s also why I didn’t really want to talk about the specifics at school, because I can see it becoming a totally hot debate as everyone tries to tell me my name for this technique sucks.” Ruth grimaced at the thought, and Aida couldn’t help but grin at Ruth’s very accurate assessment. The competitive spirit at Maglica would definitely compel their classmates to try to one-up Ruth’s discovery, poking holes in her theory and eventually criticizing the name itself if the uniqueness of her technique withstood their scrutiny.
“Anyway, even though there’s an active and passive component to Mana Cycling - where active is when you are generating your mana within yourself, and passive is where you draw from the environment - the difference between Cycling and Siphon is that for Siphon, it’s more of an active giving from the participants; people are participating in sharing their energy. Plants can’t willingly give their mana, you know? I mean, you could definitely Siphon from a non-practitioner kind of easily,” Ruth said, eyeing Aida shiftily. “But that’s a fast way of developing ill will among the community, so…please don’t do that.”
Aida nodded thoughtfully, trying to combine Ruth’s explanation with what she felt last night during the community clubbing event. She supposed it was similar to sports games, concerts, and other large events, where athletes and performers would say the more hyped the crowd was, the more energy they received and the better their performances were.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As far as siphoning from an unwilling participant…Aida imagined Ruth was describing social vampires: extroverts who either couldn’t or refused to read the room, and would drain an introvert’s social battery, thoroughly exhausting the introvert. Aida couldn’t help but grin at the analogy, making Ruth more worried.
“What? What are you smiling about?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking you’re right. Your name for Mana Siphon could be better,” Aida said, forcing the corners of her lips down so she could shake her head disapprovingly at Ruth.
The dark-haired girl huffed, whipping her head away from Aida as she crossed her arms defiantly. “And I thought I could trust you!”
“I’m sorry!” Aida said, a giggle coming out as she touched Ruth’s shoulder lightly. “I can’t think of a better name, either.” She glanced at the Mana Siphon skill again, before blanching.
You have unlocked a new skill to learn:
1. Mana Siphon (Lv1) - Costs 140 RP to learn.
Total RP: 127
Did the cost to learn this skill just decrease? She recalled how she had gained RP from learning skills as other people taught her, or from skills she had stumbled upon herself. Maybe the cost to learn the skill decreases the more I understand the skill…or maybe I can get Ruth to teach it to me directly.
“Hey, so…I was able to feel the mana gain from last night, but do you think you can teach me how to Mana Siphon? I mean, maybe I can ask some of the healthier warriors, or those who are willing to share, if I can Siphon from them as I treat the rest of the patients today?” Aida held her breath, watching Ruth’s body language as she continued to keep her nose in the air.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Ruth said slowly as she turned towards Aida. “And if I can teach you this skill, then that means there’s a distinct difference between this skill and Mana Cycling, and that should legitimize my discovery!”
Aida nodded enthusiastically with Ruth’s rationale, eager to save herself 140 RP. Ruth nodded decisively, pulling some dried meat jerky out of a bag at the entrance of the cave and handing it to her. “Here, eat this for now. I was thinking we’d get breakfast with the rest of the village, but let’s not waste time.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Ruth led Aida up to the very top of the Loded Peak village, where there were no longer any caves but only a small plateau. The air was even thinner and Aida’s mana drain accelerated. It still wasn’t the very top of the Peaks, though; the rocky wall extended even further, up into the clouds.
Ruth had the decency to apologize for their training environment as she helped pull Aida over the ledge, unable to catch her breath. “Sorry about the locale. I wanted us to be completely away from anybody who might accidentally become a source of mana for you.”
“Understandable,” Aida gasped, hyperventilating. Ruth took Aida’s face in her hands, forcing her to look into her coal-dark eyes.
“Hey, look at me. Breathe with me. Slowly.”
Following Ruth’s lead, Aida fought to control her breathing, taking measured breaths. Through the nose. Out through the mouth. When she had finally acclimated, Ruth smiled and released Aida’s face. “Great! Let’s take a seat.”
They sat cross-legged facing each other, where Ruth instructed Aida on how to notice the mana in the air - in their case, there was literally only their two mana on the top of the mountain, which made for an interesting deconstruction of how Aida’s mana normally interacted with the environment when she was at school.
Because there was so much mana in the air at Maglica, Aida’s mana seemed constrained there - her mana was almost forced into specific paths or shapes, diverting around other people’s or living beings’ mana. But here, where there was almost nothing living, she felt like her mana could spread and dilute easily - which incidentally was how her mana was draining so quickly. Maybe if I exert more control over my mana, I can minimize the amount of mana drain…
Thankful that Professor Bruce forced them to meditate on their mana control so much in Mana Control class, Aida established firmer boundaries around her mana, not letting it leak where it wanted to.
“Ooo, very nice,” Ruth said appreciatively. “I didn’t realize that you weren’t controlling your mana boundary. This will be really helpful for your mana resistance, too.”
Aida made a thoughtful noise, intrigued. Anything will help. “What’s next?”
“This is the hard part. Remember how Lloyd wanted us to use each other’s mana?”
Aida made a face. I haven’t done much of the Gullbeaks’ practice for this…
“Don’t worry, it’s not the same thing, otherwise I could have done it in class,” Ruth said, smiling at Aida’s expression. “So, instead of focusing on my mana…focus on my feelings.”
What?
“I know it seems crazy,” Ruth said quickly, unable to stop a blush from running up her neck. “But see if you can feel my energy…like how you would for a non-practitioner. I’m kind of excited right now, because I’ve never taught anybody this technique, but if you can learn it…”
Swallowing her doubts, Aida closed her eyes and tried to ignore Ruth’s very obvious mana, a light gray that was the color of the morning clouds, and probed for Ruth’s feelings. How does someone feel someone else’s feelings?
After sitting in silence for what felt like eternity, Aida was about to give up and apologize for wasting Ruth’s time, except she suddenly noticed Ruth’s heart rate spike. Following her natural Water senses, Aida dug underneath the mana to get an overall sense of Ruth’s emotional state, finding that once she was aware of Ruth’s emotions, she could feel the girl’s feelings wash over her body, infusing her with the same jittery excitement as if she herself was excited.
“No way,” Aida breathed softly, her own excitement fueling Ruth’s fueling hers fueling Ruth’s… “What is this?”
“You see?” Ruth said eagerly. “You feel my feelings, right? It’s just like last night, you were feeling everyone’s excitement…except this time you’re more aware of it, since it’s only me. Last night, with everyone else’s energy level being so high—“
“—I had no choice, I was swept along with it,” Aida agreed in realization. “But right now, I’m making an active effort to…connect with you? Emotionally—“
“—instead of mana, that’s right!” Ruth crowed.
“But how does that relate to mana?” Aida asked, bewildered. She checked her mana pool, gasping before Ruth could respond.
“Well?” Ruth asked, her dark eyes glinting.
Congratulations! You have learned Mana Siphon (Lv1). +5 RP
Total RP: 132