CHAPTER 25: DRAINING
"Make yourself comfortable," Professor Davenport told Hiro picking a large cushion out for herself.
Hiro picked out an orange cushion and grabbed a blanket to put over her lap. They settle into the middle of the room facing one another a little ways apart. The other professors had left to work on other things while Davenport took the lead.
"Alright Hiro," she said passing over the headband gemstone from earlier. They settled them over their brows as she continued, "The first thing we need to do is prepare a core to hold your water mana. Right now it has spread all through your body drowning out your other magics. So we will need to drain your system. However," she held up a finger, "If we began draining without a way to hold it, it will just leak right back out."
"Makes sense," Hiro said as she adjusted the band around her head. "Like cupping water in your hands, it'll just run back out again."
"Yes!" Davenport's bright smile beamed at her, "Except when we're done, you'll be able to hold water wherever you want and make it stay. But you have the right idea for anyone without a Water concept. So first, we will construct a temporary core to hold your unintegrated power and drain your channels, and then we will work to combine your cores how you feel best. Finally, we can run your magic back through your channels, and bam! Stronger than ever!"
Professor Davenport's energy was so infectious Hiro couldn't help but smile back. "This should be fun with her guiding things," Hiro thought to herself.
Cheerfully the professor guided her into meditation.
An hour later Hiro regretted her previous thoughts. Professor Davenport never lost her cheer, but was a demanding teacher. She had shown Hiro how to build a container for her power. She guided her carefully through weaving her water magic into a bowl. After correcting her initial attempt several times she finally let her build up a whole form. Twice she had finished thinking it was a good bowl, double the size of one of the massive orbs of one of her cores. Each time the professor poked a hole in it with a thought using her connection from the headbands. Then she had her begin again.
"If I with next to no influence in your core can make your construct spring a leak, what happens when you unconsciously pull on your power?" She didn't wait for Hiro to answer instead raising an ethereal hand in the air, "You would release a floodgate that's what!" The professor had said the first time she had poked a hole. She guided her in refining her control and made her start again.
The second attempt had gone better but again the Professor had torn a hole into it within thirty seconds. Hiro just signed as the professor told her to start again. "This requires control and precision! You're doing well on your first day. Most students can't form constructs that can withstand pressure until at least two months in. Unfortunately for you, you don't have that amount of time."
Hiro sighed internally took a breath and also signed externally. Then she began again. She tried three more times, incrementally getting better at forming her construct. The final time was able to withstand the Professor's prodding. They were just about to put some water magic in it when they both felt a gentle tug.
"Ah, I was wondering why it was taking him so long. Let's take a break and see what Gendry has for you."
"Oh thank god," Hiro muttered as she felt Professor Davenport's presence leave her mind. She looked at her constructed bowl and took a moment to collect herself before pointing her consciousness back out into her body and away from her center.
She blinked in the soft light of the room. Her center was dim with the light coming from her magic glowing throughout. Even so, her physical eyes were unused to the light of the room after having them closed for over three hours. Her internal clock told her it had been three hours and eighteen minutes to be more precise. Hiro almost missed not knowing how long things took down to the millisecond. Then again, she could stop time and do amazing things, so intrusive time calls were the least of her concerts.
Professor Gendry had come into the room with a young woman. Once he saw both of them awake he took an object from her and shooed her out of the room before Hiro could think to scan her.
"I hope you haven't gotten too far Allyson, We had a few issues getting the monitor small enough to be portable, but my team solved them while I built the program." He brought the small device over to Hiro. She clambered to her feet and stretched before taking the device and examining it.
The device was silver and the size of a walkman or large walkie-talkie. It had several wires coming out of the top. Five of them had pads with crystals on them and the final looked like the suction cups used to interface with the gemstones behind their ears. A small indicator showed a green light.
"The suction cup attaches to your PGA crystal. The others we will fasten to your torso and limbs." Professor Gendry held up something that looked like medical tape. This should allow us to monitor all your energies while you work to fix your mana channels and core." He showed Hiro how it would clip to her belt. "The light indicates charge and we're almost done making a charging station for your domicile. So don't try charging it with your magic. I read the report, you'd blow the batteries if you stuck it with lightning." He leveled his red eyes at her.
"I never even thought about it." She said truthfully. The concept of being able to charge electric devices hadn't occurred to her yet. But if she could throw around bolts of lightning, once she learned control, couldn't she control smaller bits too? The lightning came from her confluence of Sky and Electricity and she chose it specifically to throw lightnight bolts, but humans had learned to harness it in smaller forms and so apparently did the denizens of other universes.
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This line of thought just sparked excitement in her to progress on her path to draining and mastering her cores. She had been feeling tired and frustrated after so many failures this afternoon. She was still tired now, but the frustration was blunted against her newfound excitement.
Professor Gendry's eyes glowed with a rim of blue around the red. The wires and their pads floated into the air as he controlled them. "I'm going to get these attached. It will require some minor attire adjustments when I have to tape them in place. Is that acceptable?"
She glanced at the other woman in the room. Davenport gave her a reassuring smile. "I can do the taping if you prefer."
"As long as I don't have to disrobe completely." She shifted her weight a bit uncomfortably. She was never fond of disrobing in front of doctors or anyone else she wasn't being intimate with. Even then, she preferred dark rooms. Years of snide comments about her looks and side eyes of disgust from her mother had built up a supreme discomfort with how she looked and dressed. It didn't help that when she tried to compare herself to people on social media she constantly felt like she fell short of what she thought she should look like.
"At most a slight raising of your shirt in the back and lowering of your pants to get to the thigh spots. We should be able to get to the arm spots from rolling up your sleeves." Professor Gendry told her.
Hiro nodded stiffly at him to proceed. Davenport stepped forward to hold the tape while he started the attachment process. She squirmed as four of the wires found their way up the back of her shirt as he controlled their movement. One of them came through her collar and suctioned onto her gemstone.
"Connected to the Mana Monitor Module. Ready for contact connections." Button said in her ear. "Do you permit the Mana Monitor to report about your mana channels and core progress? It will send feedback about overall mana flow and how much mana is in your center. It cannot see all mana channels and uses algorithms to infer progress from what it can detect. It is a moderately accurate system and its purpose is to help the team understand the process of fixing mana channels without having you in the observation pool the whole time."
"Yes, Button," Hiro replied. As she lifted the back of her shirt where one of the leads had found a place between her shoulder blades. The professors quickly attached it with several pieces of tape.
"I already have the team manufacturing a better way to attach this. However, I wanted them to be in place as soon as possible. I don't want to miss out on valuable data!" Professor Gendry said enthusiastically. He tapped her hand holding up her shirt to indicate he was done on her back.
"Assessing center core baselines," Button said into her ear and a pulsating cube appeared in the corner of her vision expanding and contracting into different forms.
They continued to tape on the rest of the leads, Button informing her each time one was correctly attached and changing the glow on the pulsating polygon as each one was attached. The two on her arms were easy. They went on the back of her arm near right above the elbow. She was only slightly uncomfortable as she had to pull her pants down to her knees to attach the final two leads to the outside of each thigh.
As she shimmied her pants back up as swiftly as she could without disturbing the tape Professor Gendry's eyes went distant and he muttered to himself, "All points attached. Spin up the machines and begin the programs."
The swirling polygon in her vision coalesced into a sphere before growing in her vision. She knew her own eyes went distant as she watched it. Button pulled up the generic outline of herself and then the overlay of mana channels they had mapped that morning. The polygon expanded spikes out to touch each spot one of the crystal leads was attached. The areas around them lit up and she could see the flow of magic through her body like blood. Her breath caught. It was even more beautiful lit up and thrumming with her power.
The polygon then settled around her center cores taking the rough shape of the cavern she saw when she was meditating within herself. A bright mix of colors was bundled there. In hazy indistinct masses roughly corresponding to her cores. As her vision traveled away from the center all the other colors faded until the only color remaining was a bright blue color.
A line of text and a progress bar appeared beneath her floating mana map.
Progress of Water Mana coalescence: 0/100%
"Button can you put the word quest in front of that?" She muttered trying and failing to keep a smile off her face.
"Certainly Miss." The words flashed away and then reappeared.
New Quest: Progress of Water Mana coalescence: 0/100%
"Gamification!" She muttered excitedly. She didn't need to gamify her progress, she was already motivated. But she was a gamer at heart and quests made everything more fun. Oddly it helped her feel more grounded as well. Shifting her sudden ability to use magic into a more normalized space in her brain.
Professor Gendry and Davenport had pulled out a tablet from somewhere and were looking at the data coming in. The device responsible for the monitoring was floating in front of her Wires spooling out from it to her. "Please attach that wherever you feel most comfortable. On your belt perhaps?" Professor Gendry told her when she started looking around again.
Hiro reached out and took the floating device before she clipped it to her belt. She put it on her hip where older people would clip their phones letting out a snort of air as as she did so at the thought.
"Good thing you haven't gotten too far in the process. I'm excited to see what this process looks like!" Gendry told the pair of them his level voice not showing any hint of the excitement he claimed. "I am going back to my lab down the hall to monitor and work check in on my team. Hiro, please leave the monitor until tomorrow. By tomorrow we will have a more comfortable way to attach the leads. Until then, please leave them."
"Is it water safe? Can I shower and sleep in them?"
"Oh yes. I sealed it up quite well, though perhaps don't submerge it if it can be helped. Version two tomorrow will take into account underwater activities more thoroughly. As for sleep, just place it by your bed and try not to get tangled in the wires. One of my students is convinced he can construct a way to get rid of the wires altogether but for now, I deemed a secure connection necessary." The professor told her. "If you have any more questions or concerns about the device feel free to send me a message."
Hiro nodded and he gave a slight head bob to the two of them before leaving the room. Closing the door softly behind him.
Professor Davenport smiled at Hiro warmly. "We have a few more hours before the end of the day. Let's see how much farther we can get your construct in that time.
Hiro groaned before following Davenport back to their comfortable seats on the ground. They both settled into meditation once again. Hiro was determined to get a useable vestibule for her mana before the day was through.