“I regret asking for information,” Aida muttered to Kuri.

“No, it will be fine!” Kuri reassured Aida. “Arryn’s a nice guy, and we don’t expect anything from you.” Kuri pondered for a second. “That sounded bad, but what I mean to say is don’t stress about it!”

Aida took a deep breath through her nose. “Is it normal to trade for information like this?”

“Not at all,” Tyda said, patting Aida’s shoulder comfortingly. “But we’re also not ones to pass up opportunities for entertainment.”

“We’re ready,” Kawa called from the other side of the courtyard, interrupting Aida before she could do more than give him a mournful look.

Upon Arryn’s challenge, the Gullbeaks had shepherded Aida through the dining room to the back, where there was a large courtyard that clearly used to see a lot of drunken activity. Broken furniture was stacked along the edges of the yard and random potholes pockmarked the ground. The middle of the courtyard itself had several practice dummies, as well as a table Kawa, Arryn, and Lula were fussing around.

Grabbing Aida’s hand, Kuri skipped over to the table, dragging Aida reluctantly behind her. “Should we take bets?”

“No way,” Aida objected.

“That might be fun,” Kawa said, a smile splitting his face. Without his stoic and serious expression, he looked just like Kuri. “I’m going to bet on Wood.”

“I think Aida can get to Fire!” Kuri chimed in. Lula looked at Kuri and Kawa in disappointment before turning to Aida.

“Ignore them. We’re not going to take bets. Just do your best.”

Aida looked down at the objects on the table Lula gestured at: a small bowl of clean water, a bundle of twigs, an unlit candle, a glittering cut gemstone, and a small silver dagger.

“Even though we treat this as a game, it’s really quite a valuable training exercise. The objective is to transfer your mana between each element.”

Aida looked at Lula quizzically. “But…I can only manipulate water?”

“You’re not manipulating the other elements,” Lula said gently. “You’re only transferring your mana through these mediums.”

Aida looked back down at the elements, perplexed. Arryn jumped in.

“Let’s start with some background. You can manipulate water because you have an affinity for it, just like Kuri can manipulate fire because that’s her affinity. However, sometimes when we’re on a hunt, she runs out of mana, and she needs to take some from Yoon or Kawa, who have larger mana reserves than her. Mana itself is all the same, but when it’s in our bodies, it takes on some of our unique characteristics.” Arryn reached for the silver dagger, holding it gently in his hand.

“Watch. I’m going to focus on transferring my mana into this blade, which I have an affinity for, and then I’ll transfer it to the water. I won’t be able to manipulate it like you do, but I should be able to keep it in that medium before transferring it to the wood. And so on and so forth.”

Biting her lip in focus, Aida watched Arryn. His own mana was a dark gray color, and seemed to cause the dagger to take on an ominous dark shade. He moved the tip of the dagger to the bowl of water, where the gray oozed into the water. Arryn’s mana just settled in the bottom of the bowl, lifeless.

Carefully, Arryn set down the blade and picked up the bundle of twigs, dipping it into the water. Slowly, the mana began funneling through the stems, until the brown darkened to the color of iron. Moving as if he was in a trance, Arryn struck a match, lit the candle, and then held the bundle of twigs to the small flame.

Instead of catching fire, the bundle smoldered as the gray receded from the stems, leaving behind only its natural color. The flame, however, burned larger, while also taking on the same darker hue that had been in the bundle of twigs and water.

Aida watched, fascinated, as Arryn then lifted the gemstone and held it within the flame. As the fire licked at the gem, it seemed to shrink, pouring its dark essence into the crystal. Finally, Arryn palmed the gem and picked up the dagger. Pressing the flat of the blade against a facet, he relaxed as the dagger greedily sucked all the dark color out of the gem, now a lighter gray than before.

“I would say that’s about half efficiency,” Kuri said, peering at the blade. She looked back up at Aida. “Don’t worry if you can’t get as much mana transferred as Arryn. Just try to transfer mana for the full cycle.”

“I don’t even know how to do this,” Aida said faintly.

“That’s okay, we’ll walk you through it,” Yoon said encouragingly.

“Let’s detail the terms of the wager. If you can complete one whole cycle, regardless of your efficiency, we’ll tell you whatever you want to know. If you can’t, then…Kuri will have to clean all the bathrooms.” Arryn released the mana in his knife with a sigh, placing the blade back down on the table. He stepped back, ignoring the flail of blows as Kuri pounded his back with her tiny fists.

Aida stepped forward, nervous. Listening to Kuri’s stream of impassioned instructions, tempered by Yoon’s more detailed and serene advice, she pooled her mana into the water, which was easy. Her own hue was a gentle light blue, making the clear water take on the tint of a deep lake.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Following Arryn’s previous steps, she dipped the wood medium into the water, doing her best to forget what her expectations of her mana was. Filter it. She screwed up her eyes in concentration, trying to force her mana into the wood, but all she did was succeed in splashing the water out of the bowl.

“That’s okay! Try again,” Yoon said encouragingly. “Just hold your mana in the water, and let it settle. The longer you can keep it separated, the easier it is to figure out how to let it be on its own.”

Trying to understand Yoon’s advice, Aida filled the bowl of water again with her mana, closing her eyes. Keep it separated. How could she do that? The mana came from her, and it was part of her. They might as well have told her to cut her hand off.

Aida pulled her focus inside, feeling her breath draw mana from the air, cycle it through her lungs, trying to pull her awareness away from the bowl of water while still keeping her essence imbued in the liquid. She was aware that everyone was watching her exercise, their own mana focused lightly around her and the bowl of water. Many hues brushed against her own color, and she noticed the small stream she unconsciously held against the liquid medium. Separate it?

Aida backed her mana away from the bowl, slowly thinning her connection, without retracting it completely.

Success!

Aida managed to sever her connection with the bowl of water, and she felt discomfited - like each eye was focusing on a different image.

Trying not to dig into the logic behind the feeling - treating it as if she saw an image at the corner of her eye, but if she turned to look at it, that image would disappear - Aida slowly reached the bundle of twigs into the bowl again, inserting the base into the liquid.

Still trying not to think too hard - why is it so hard to not pay attention? - Aida tried to command the mana that was no longer part of her to make its way into the wood. The mana refused to budge - but at least she didn’t lose the entirety of the mana in the bowl.

Withdrawing the wood, Aida took a deep breath to recenter herself and get used to the feeling of the mana just hanging around in the bowl, without her interference. When she felt ready again, at Yoon’s encouragement, she dipped the wood back in.

“That’s it,” Yoon said encouragingly. “You already have your mana disconnected, now just let it flow. Think about the wood.”

Falling into a meditative trance, Aida focused her attention on the wood, feeling the small bumps and grains underneath her fingers - and feeling just the slightest bit of mana poking its way into the wood, seeming to be drawn towards her focal point, trying to reconvene with her.

Passing through the wood felt - not necessarily wrong, but foreign. Not at all like when Aida would grab water that was laying around - she felt as if she had stepped into a friend’s home, where they would feel comfortable, and she would feel on edge. Not exactly unwelcome, but afraid to talk or laugh too loudly, pressured to be on her best behavior.

Fortunately, she was able to forge her way into the wooden sticks, aware that there was some stagnant mana from the twigs’ own mana in stasis, but able to flow past them.

Out of curiosity, she prodded at the still mana, and found that she could move it around - but couldn’t do much else with it. Good enough. Next one.

Bringing the bundle of sticks to the still-lit candle, the flames began sizzling on the wood, causing the end to smolder. Panicking, Aida tried to force her mana into the flame, but to no avail - she just fanned the flame, which burst into a small inferno, consuming the bundle.

Aida’s fingers involuntarily dropped the flaming bundle, flying to her lips to quench the singed tips.

“That’s okay!” Kuri cheered, quickly scooping the flames off the bundle. “That’s pretty good - you managed to get through the second one on your first try! All you need is practice.”

“It is difficult to move beyond a compatible element,” Tyda agreed. “But once you can do it, it’s all the same.”

“So this exercise,” Aida said faintly, her head spinning as she finally came back to herself. She felt so disconnected during that exercise - she had no idea how anyone could do it, while also in combat. Although she supposed that was why Arryn had been in a trance-like state while he demonstrated the exercise. “…is it a common exercise?”

“Not exactly,” Kawa said hesitantly. “We…picked it up…before we really started taking off as a company. But we found this exercise makes it so that we can more efficiently convert mana, so we can synergize and synchronize our attacks better. That’s part of why we’re such a versatile and effective team.”

Aida shook her head, bemused. This sounds like a lot of mana mixing…but can I ask that?

“I can guess what you’re thinking,” Lula said softly. “It’s - similar to mana mixing, but it’s not the same. You’re cutting a segment of your mana off. So if someone were to utilize your mana, you won’t feel it as much as if they tried to pull directly from you as a source - it’s much less invasive.”

Everyone quieted, looking at Aida with…apprehension? Aida glanced around at everyone, unable to quell the feeling that she was missing something big. It sounded taboo on the surface, but their explanation of how it wasn't mana mixing was sensible as well.

“That makes sense, I think,” Aida said slowly, trying not to sound as confused as she felt. She scrunched up her face, deep in thought. “Either way, this sounds like the exercise Professor Lloyd has been trying to teach us in Mana Applications, where he wants us to be able to utilize mana from incompatible elements. Is that the core of this exercise?”

She looked up, surprised to see startled and gratified expressions on the Gullbeaks’ faces.

“Absolutely!” Kuri said enthusiastically. “It’s so good to hear that the next generation is being taught this - most practitioners don’t realize how important this skill is, and—“

Kuri cut herself off at Tyda’s warning glance. “Don’t worry about it,” he said smoothly. “It’s just different ways of thinking. Feel free to keep practicing your mana,” he said, gesturing towards the table. “Since Kuri’s your mentor this cycle, she can help you out. We have some other things to take care of to get ready for hunts next cycle, so we’ll catch up with you two during dinner. Don’t forget about the toilets, Kuri.”

“Thank you for all your help,” Aida called to everybody as they gathered themselves to go back to work. She turned back to Kuri, who beamed at her, studiously ignoring Tyda’s pointed glance. “…does that mean I don’t get the information I asked for?”