Azir reappeared on the deck of a large ship. Immediately, a barrier of light encompassed the entire boat, lifting it up out of the water. "Thank the light. I'm not sure we could've waited any longer. What kept you?" Azir spun around, almost losing his footing, trying to identify where the voice was coming from. "Where are you Swaine?" A hand appeared in the corner of his vision, and he felt a firm grip stabilising him, then turning him to the right. The vague outline of a face came into focus. "What's happened to your eyes old friend? Hardly seems like the ritual went well." Azir reached out, grasping the other man's shoulder to steady himself. "It most certainly did not my friend. I may have doomed as all." A ragged sigh escaped from his chest. Swaine pulled him into a hug. "Always trying to hold the weight of the world. The ritual was a risk, we all knew that. Taking full responsibility for it's failure is just as much arrogance as it would've been to take full responsibility for it's success." Azir nodded. "You are probably right my friend, but even our worst predictions did not account for a failure of this magnitude."

"Are you saying I can channel now? Why didn't you start with that?" Raising his hand, Mico started to concentrate. Cutter quickly reached over and smacked his hand down. "Stop that. Rushing blindly into this has been the death of many foolish young people, and it will yet be the death of more. You will not actively channel again until I have permitted it, understood." Mico's face was pained. "Come on Cutter, just a little bit? Surely something tiny would be safe?" Cutter growled, "You are literally exerting your will on the world. If you lack understanding, the results are completely unpredictable. This is my final decision, do not push it." Mico's fists clenched, his feet tapping rapidly on the ground, before he took a deep breath. "I understand, I do. But aren't either of you excited too?"

Felix had an unexpectedly sour look on her face when he glanced at her. Assuming it was because he'd interrupted, Mico quickly apologised. "Sorry, sorry. You can keep going now. Can we start with that other thing Cutter said though? Thresholds. If they're such a big deal how did I miss the first one?" Felix shook her head. "Oh no, you didn't. It was when you first started to draw. Not sure why Cutter didn't call it a threshold, but that's the standard way of referring to those moments. Where you manifest a new ability to interacting with the energy in the light of the sun."

Mico's head tilted, "Why does it happen so suddenly? And so consistently align with your age? Seems pretty arbitrary." Felix was about to start answering but Cutter interrupted again, "Even if our surprisingly knowledgeable friend knows something about that, it would be getting way too deep into the theoretical. For now at least. Ask me again in 5 years when you know a little bit about more than a couple of things." Felix frowned. "Harsh way of putting it, though the point about it being unnecessarily complicated is probably true." Mico sighed again, "Always with the limits on what I get to know. Fine, fine. Well at least tell me a bit more about shards and source slaves." he pleaded. "I'll get this one." said Cutter. "This is the last point before we talk about channelling Mico. I thought you could hardly wait?" Mico looked a bit sheepish at that, nodding eagerly.

"Source slaves can realistically be anyone. That's what makes it so prevalent despite the practice being fairly abhorrent to my tastes. Because everybody starts to draw at the age of 7, anyone with a strong will can take as much power as they need by draining others. Well, not as much as they need. They are still limited by the speed they can drain from others and their own capacity. This is where shards come on as any excess can be stored. A mage with a disciplined mind can even drain and channel simultaneously. In this way, regular people can be used as force multipliers for powerful mages. Thus the war continues." Standing up and heading outside he said. "Now, I can see that you are already coming up with more questions. I'll give you a moment to write any down that you want to come back to then I expect you outside ready for training."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Mico hurriedly scribbled in a small bound book using a charcoal stick, his handwriting tight and orderly despite the poor implement. Cutter had spent a good number of evenings in Mico's younger years developing his ability to read and write. Mico found it very helpful for organising his thoughts, particularly after dense explanations like the one he'd just sat through. Not too long after, just as Cutter was getting impatient, he dashed out the door and took a seat in front of Cutter. "The first step is for you to calm yourself. Work on finding that space between relaxed and focused where your draw is at it's strongest. Once I think you're ready I will explain more." Mico struggled, his mind racing with all of the new information he'd just had dumped on him. Here though, Cutter always showed a surprising depth of patience. He'd realised very early on that pressuring Mico to be calm and focused was thoroughly counterproductive. After about ten minutes of regulating his breathing and marshalling his thoughts, Mico slipped into that space. He could once again see those two sphere's. He was briefly distracted by the realisation that they'd almost entirely merged, but his focused mind was able to push that thought to the side.

Mico heard a slight shattering sound, and Cutter spoke in a low voice, "Hold yourself there Mico. I'm going to place a shard in your hand. He felt something small contact his hand and he almost lost his focus. What you grabbed was in fact a bunch of shards, mostly held together by clumped dirt. What you've get in your hand there is a single piece, a proper Brightshard. Now, you've already been channelling into these shards subconsciously. All we're going to do is bring the process to the front of your mind." Very quickly, Mico lost focus and his eyes popped open, staring at the shard. He was a little disappointed at how much smaller it was compared to the lump he'd been holding. That disappointment mostly faded though as he saw the slight glow emanating from it and remembered that he'd done that. He glanced up, seeing Cutter looking right at him. "Sorry, too much to think about." Cutter seemed calm. "Take a moment, organise your thoughts, and then regain your focus state."

Mico nodded. As he often did, he envisaged his little note book. He pictured opening it up to specific page, the one he'd been writing on. He'd got so practiced at this that he could even see and read the words he'd just written, like the page was before him. In his mind he took each of his thoughts, questions, distractions, and placed them on the paper. As he did so, his mind cleared once again and he felt himself sinking. Without realising, his grip had tightened around the shard. In amongst the pressure on his palm, the slight pain from sharper edges on the crystal pressing into his skin, he felt it. He was somehow expecting it to feel like the opposite of drawing. Instead, it felt almost the same, the only difference was in how he focused his will. When drawing, he would focus on his body. Specifically, he would usually focusing on drawing energy to his core, imagining it merging with his lifelight. To channel energy into the shard, he instead focused his will on a point at it's centre. His mind was so deep in that zone of focus that he barely felt it when the shard started to burn his skin.