Alice stayed where she was, still reeling from the massive revelations that the System dumped into her. It was only when the other children took notice of her presence and began encouraging her to come over that she did so, tentatively looking at Tamara to see if the older lady would make her stop.
No such sign came and Alice settled in between Robert and his auburn-haired friend, who draped herself over Alice’s lap the moment she said down. Alice’s breath hitched in her chest when she looked down at her and the only thing Alice saw was the jumbled mess of letters and words. Then she blinked and the girl was back to being a child, who was impatiently staring at Alice’s hand. Cautiously, Alice patted her hair. The girl purred and there was a clammer as all the other children pushed their heads into her hand, demanding her attention.
“Alright, enough playing around. We’re behind schedule as it is, we don’t need to make it worse,” Tamara said, setting the stack of papers on a table next to her. She flicked her hand at Alice and like they shared a hive mind, the children turned their heads in a synchronized motion to stare at her. Alice drew herself in closer, trying not to imagine the stats. “That’s Blanche’s apprentice. I’m sure you remember the fool. Anyway, she’ll be attending these lessons with you and she’ll take you to the Juggarntorn if you behave.”
The children started whispering among themselves, a buzz like a hummingbird filling up the air. The girl on her lap pulled at Alice’s sleeves, a question getting asked through her shimmering eyes: ‘Was this true?”
Alice shrugged.
She hoped not. Even without whatever weirdness was happening with the stats, Alice was still uneasy about being in charge of a group of children and having responsibility for them, in a foreign village, while attending a tournament that sounded like it’d been ripped out of her nightmares.
“Anyway, for the apprentice, let’s have a quick recap. Does anyone remember what we went through yesterday?” Tamara asked. Her eyes skimmed the crowd, seemingly not really trying all that hard. After a casual look-over, she zoomed onto a girl sitting on the outskirts of the carpet, coincidentally the only person with her hand held up. “Yes, Lilah?”
Lilah kept stretching her arm into the air like she was trying to reach for the ceiling. In a strained voice, Lilah said, “We were learning about Manergy Cores and their origins!”
“That’s right, very good,” Tamara approved. With a heavy exhale, Lilah finally dropped her arm, her tiny body visibly sagging as she did so. There was a tired smile on her face, pronounced dimples revealing themselves. Alice studied Tamara, waiting to see if the elder would comment on Lilah’s behavior. She couldn’t say she was surprised when Tamara simply moved on.
Judging from the lackluster response from the other kids, Alice could deduce this was something that happened on a daily basis. Still, it definitely wasn’t good for the kid. While Alice didn’t want to pry, she couldn’t help a lingering thought that there might be something wrong with Lilah’s childhood that made her so eager to please. . . .
A part of Alice felt bad for micro-analyzing a child’s behavior, but if she had no other choice but to save them, then she needed to know what the problem was first. Tearing her attention away from the young dwarf, she refocused on Tamara, who was in the middle of explaining the concept of these ‘Manergy Cores.’
“–Cores are very important. Why? Because they’re in everybody. Everybody in this room, everybody in this village, and even everybody in the world!” Tamara exclaimed.
One of the kids raised his hand, and Tamara nodded. “Even her?” He pointed at Alice.
Alice started. That…was actually a good question, though likely not for the reason the kid had been thinking of when he asked. Due to her gaining her magic from the contract with the Devil, it could be possible she didn’t get a Manergy Core.
“Of course. As I said, it’s not constricted to a single species. Even people who don’t have a particularly strong Manergy Core and thus, cannot channel magic, still contain a Manergy Core. If you don’t have one, well, you can’t really be considered living.” Tamara said, a chill descending in her voice. Alice shuddered; the way Tamara had said the last sentence sent prickles across her neck. There went her theory, down the trash can.
“Class, what is the function of the Manergy Core?” Tamara asked.
Lilah’s hand shot into the air with all the speed of an artillery missile. This time, Tamara declined to call on her, searching among the masses before her eyes landed on Alice. “Can you answer the question, Alice?”
Her brain stuttered to a stop, not expecting Tamara to call on her when she’d explicitly stated they were recapping because of her. Alice wracked her mind, trying to dredge up any memories from her time with Blanche when he’d mentioned Manergy Core. She thought he may have said something, but if he did, he didn’t elaborate.
The silence was telling and Tamara sneered. “Idiot Blanche still hasn’t gotten to the basics yet?”
Alice had intended to take the biting remarks to Blanche lying down–this wasn’t the first time she’d heard them, and she didn’t have fond memories of Blanche herself–but she found herself blurting out, “That’s not fair! We’ve only been toge–I mean, I’ve only been his apprentice for a day!”
Silence followed her outburst for a few seconds, with Tamara raising an eyebrow. Somebody whispered, “So cool,” and Alice wanted to bury her face in her hands. What was she thinking?! Blanche was the one who had dumped her here after making them deviate from the way to the capital, why was she supporting him!?
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“Hm, so it seems. The Manergy Core is what determines the Manergy Capacity of a being. Am I correct to assume he hasn’t taught you that either?” Tamara asked, part of her lips tilting up in an animalistic fashion.
“No, he didn’t,” Alice replied softly. Even though the sense of embarrassment remained, it was quickly becoming overshadowed by the genuine interest Alice had in the topic. Tamara hummed before moving on.
“The Manergy Capacity is the innate amount of Manergy a living being can withstand within themselves before suffering from Manergy Poisoning.” Alice stilled, feeling like the temperature had just dropped a few notches. Was that the pain she’d experienced when seeing Manergy for the first time? Alice concentrated on Tamara desperately, fists clenching and unclenching. Am I…dying? She held herself back from yelling at the elder to continue, knowing it would have the opposite effect.
“The Manergy Capacity also counts as the amount of Manergy a living being can keep inside their body without letting it drift away. Of course, Artifacts are a different matter altogether, and I doubt any of you are going to see one in your lifetimes.” Tamara added offhandedly.
Alice grit her teeth. Learning about the Manergy Capacity was definitely helping her, but she needed to know if she was going to keel over dead within the next five minutes! Her life notwithstanding, she didn’t think it’d be good for the children’s mental state to have a person die right next to them. Not to mention she had no idea what’d happen to the Quest if she perished.
“Wha’ do you mean by ‘keep inside?’” a kid asked.
Tamara scratched the back of her head, clicking her tongue. “Erm, let’s put it this way. If two people are both given the same amount of Manergy, 100%, then a person with lower Manergy Capacity will only be able to retain 40% of that Manergy in their body. Any more and their body can’t handle it, nor should it. Meanwhile, a person with higher Manergy Capacity would keep, let’s say 90%. Obviously, the person with the higher Manergy Capacity will be able to use higher-level magic. That’s why the Manergy Capacity is so important to cast magic,” Tamara summarized,
Alice listened on with wide eyes, leaning forward in anticipation. Opening her mouth, she tried to gleam more information about that but Tamara bulldozed over her, not even bothering to take questions.
“Of course, this all started because we were talking about Manergy Cores. The Manergy Core is what the Juggarntorn revolves around, and it's regarded as the physical representation of the right to exist in the World. The Manergy Core is the most integral aspect to magic, and also the most important part of one’s body. People with unique scanning magic or Artifacts are able to tell the Manergy Capacity and the Manergy Conversion Rate based on the shape, structure, color, and more of the Core. Not to mention the most essential thing: inscribed on the Core is–”
Whatever Tamara was going to say never reached Alice’s ears as a shrill noise pierced the air with all the subtlety of a foghorn. She was sure they could hear this noise all throughout town, and she covered her ears, grimacing. The noise was like a dagger, gently digging into her brain.
Funnily enough, when she looked around, none of the children or Tamara seemed to find any trouble with the noise. That was all she saw before she closed her eyes, hoping that would help with the pain.
Luckily, the volume soon tapered off and Alice cautiously uncovered her ears. Sometime during her struggles, Tamara had begun moving the kids out of the room. Her chair was over to reveal a trapdoor, in which the kids were gradually making their way in. As the last of them faded from view, Alice didn’t miss the way Lilah shot one final look at her. Alice wasn’t certain what emotions were clashing in her eyes, but she did know that there was something warped going on in the young girl’s head.
When they were all down in their scary basement, Tamara spun around. Alice stumbled backward, her arms coming up at the blazing fury in Tamara’s eyes. In that instant, Alice forgot Tamara was old enough to be a grandma; right now, she looked like she could fold Alice over her knee and break her in two.
“What the hell was that?” Tamara demanded to know.
“What?” Alice asked when it looked like she wasn’t going to get attacked by an old lady. Tamara groaned, pinching her nose.
“You kept opening your mouth after I talked about Manergy Poisoning. Look, I get that you might be worried you or someone you care about has it, but if it’s yourself you’re worried about, forget it. You don’t have it.” Tamara assured her brusquely.
Alice relaxed, feeling like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. “Thanks,” she murmured. A thought occurred to her. “Wait, why are you so angry? Is–did I do something wrong?”
Alice knew she’d said the wrong thing the moment Tamara ballooned up. It was like Alice was seeing a raging beast in Tamara’s shadow, rather than the hunched-over dwarf she actually was. Tamara took a single step forward, the granite floor splintering under the force, and Alice scrambled back until she hit the wall. Alice bemoaned her lack of an offensive Skill; how was she supposed to fight?!
Then the fight drained out of Tamara’s body and she staggered into her chair. “Of course, you don’t know,” Tamara reached into her cloak and took out an object that resembled a tube cigar Alice saw a merchant use once. Placing the tip in her mouth, she snapped her fingers. Before Alice’s eyes, Tamara performed what was unmistakably magic, a tiny flickering flame between her fingers. Touching the other end of the cigar, Tamara shook her wrist, the motion putting the fire out. She inhaled deeply and pulled the cigar away, a cloud of smoke puffing out from her mouth.
Alice was unsure of her next course of action. Did Tamara’s bouts of anger mean she was no longer welcome here? A gut feeling was telling Alice that there was something more to it, although she didn’t want to risk Tamara’s wrath any further by interrupting her in what was obviously a ruminative moment.
Before she could do anything, Tamara took another swig of her cigar and said, “You can sleep on the carpet here. If I decide to, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
Right away, Alice knew what the ‘it’ Tamara was talking about was. Nodding, Alice approached the carpet, laying down with her back to Tamara and curling up in an effort to conserve her body warmth. The carpet was coarse against her skin, rustling uncomfortably across the flesh that wasn’t covered up.
Even though she couldn’t see her, the notion that Tamara was only a few feet away made sleeping a near-impossibility. Luckily for her, only a couple of minutes in, Alice heard Tamara heave to her feet and walk down a set of stairs, closing a door behind her. She was left alone in the room, and with her thoughts.
Today had been one hell of a day, that was certain. She’d learned a lot of new things, both about magic and the world outside the walls of her village. Alice stifled a yawn. The Quest was a big problem, but she’d deal with it tomorrow………..