So magic exists. Ain’t that crazy? I mean, realistically maybe I ought to have seen that coming after probably dying and then meeting a village of literal scorpion centaurs. But I didn’t see it coming. I could not have possibly seen it coming. Naturally my first thought was to learn it if possible. And so I did, or rather tried to.
As it happens, magic is not simple, nor is it easy to just pick it up — if you’re from another world that is. Jasko and I had found that out the hard way.
“First, you must understand what it is that you want to do. Keep your intentions simple, do not try anything complex. You will only hurt yourself if you do that without a runic catalyst. Today you will learn to cast create water.”
Jasko and I had moved to a secluded location on some sandstone just outside of the village. He claimed that since he had found me, it was his responsibility to make sure that I could survive on my own. For this reason, he made it a point to ensure I knew at least some magic.
Jasko was standing about a meter across from me, arms crossed.
“After you solidify your intentions, you must channel the mana in your body into where you wish to cast from. We will use our hands this time. When you cast without a runic catalyst, you must speak the components of your spell, in this case, ‘create’ and ‘water’.”
I’d originally had questions, but he refused to answer them insisting that there was a ‘process’. I didn’t even know how to channel mana! Regardless, I still tried with a sort of blind determination.
“You really aren’t going to tell me how, are you.”
Jasko shook his head. “No, I am not. This is how children are taught, and it is done this way because it works.”
I sighed and hung my head. No getting through to him right now. “Alright fine.”
I didn’t really know what to look for, so I simply opted to close my eyes and concentrate. Concentrate on what, you ask? Everywhere…? I sort of just focused my attention on my chest as I breathed slowly. I could hear my ears begin to ring as my attention lingered on my lungs. The ringing became more intense the longer I lingered, and I took that as a sign to begin speaking.
“Create. Water.”
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Have you ever felt that prickly feeling on your skin when you lay on your arm or whatever for too long and it goes numb? Well that’s what I felt after casting that spell for the first time. Or rather, it was that prickly feeling combined with an intense burning sensation as arcs of what looked to be electricity frolicked across my body.
I had found my mana. God had I found it. And boy was it painful. It was like every nerve in my body had been lit on fire and doused in liquid nitrogen at the same time. And I had definitely cast the spell too — an explosion of steam and water came from around my hand as I was knocked back and onto the sandstone, hitting my head. I laid there on the ground seizing in pain as I experienced the worst possible combination of sensations until my muscles failed me and I went limp on the ground, blacking out shortly after.
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When I came to, I was once again in Jasko’s mudhut. The sun — Dumana? — seemed to be setting.
How long was I out for? It couldn’t have been long. I don’t even remember what happened. I had been concentrating on my mana when everything went black.
“You’re awake.” is what I heard Jasko say from across the room, startling me out of my thoughts.
I sat up on the admittedly large bed. “Evening Jasko. What’d I miss?”
He cracked a smile for the first time since I had met him… or was it more of a grimace?
“Worry not, you have only been asleep for about five hours.”
Five hours? Wait how long have I been here? It looked like it was midday when I first appeared here. My phone had read 3:30 PM when I checked it earlier while Jasko was out…
I reached over to my phone, which was on a table next to the bed.
12:46 AM?! Wait so it’s been nine hours?? How long are the days here???
I looked at Jasko. “Hey Jasko? Weird question, how long is a day here?”
Jasko looked confused, but still responded. “A day and night are thirty hours. Why do you ask such a question?”
An extra six hours? That would definitely explain a lot. Helsa's rotation must be quite a bit slower than Earth. “Our day and night are only 24 hours on Earth, so I was confused by the apparent time.”
“Hm, I understand why that would perplex you. Even so, we have something we must discuss — you had quite the adverse reaction to that spell.”
This didn’t surprise me all that much. If I had woken up in Jasko’s mudhut again, nothing good must have happened.
“I don’t remember much after I did the incantation. How bad was it?”
Jasko grimaced again, and his legs chittered once on the floor in nervousness. “I won’t be dishonest Max. You experienced the worst mana discharge I have ever seen from a person.”
“Mana discharge?” I queried.
Jasko nodded. “When an object is saturated with mana, enough stress — like being struck — will cause the object to discharge its mana, often violently if there is enough. This doesn’t normally happen in people or animals, since they tend to hold mana better, but sometimes if a caster doesn’t channel their mana properly then it can go out of control and harm them. This is most common in people that are new to casting or have never done it before. But I have never in my life seen a discharge as violent as yours. I would say that you are lucky to still draw breath, Max.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Like Jasko said, I experienced a really fucking bad discharge. It nearly killed me, but fortunately I recovered quickly, which had apparently surprised Jasko. My quick recovery aside, I still wanted to learn magic. Jasko was still determined to teach me, so we set to training daily, in addition to helping me adapt to the conditions of the desert and the village.
On the second day, I woke up very early, or at least that’s what Jasko had told me. As it happens, my internal clock does not line up with a 30 hour day/night cycle. I awoke to a truly awe-inspiring sight. Looking up into the sky I saw not just a sea of stars, but two moons.The larger of the two must have been magnitudes larger than Earth’s moon. It was covered in craters, and seemed to be a yellow color similar to Io of Jupiter. The smaller of the two seemed to be tectonically active, and not enjoying its proximity to the larger moon as it appeared to have streaks of cracks running across its surface, glowing red with magma. The Roche Limit probably won’t let that moon exist for much longer.
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That morning Jasko and I went to the same tavern as the previous day. I decided to try a local delicacy, as I had kept to familiar items the day prior. They seemed to have a fondness for the meat of a creature called a sunagmy — a type of large sandworm apparently. The meat was similar to crustaceans like crab or lobster, though much tougher. I also met the neighbor that Jasko had seemed rather eager to not anger. Her name was Nailah, and she was actually very friendly.
“Oh so you are the outworlder the elder has been talking about! It is so nice to meet you, I am called Nailah. And you are Max, yes?”
Jasko visibly flinched when he heard her voice. There must have been some history between the two for him to be visibly disturbed by her approach.
Nailah was built more slim than Jasko, though I had no doubt she could still pulverize me if she fancied the idea. Like Jasko, she had stark white hair, though it was kept in a long ponytail that reached her lower back. Her top was nondescript outside of being burgundy and not extending past her ribs, leaving her midriff exposed, likely to help with the desert heat. Her skin was darker than Jasko’s, though she was noticeably lacking the tattoos that Jasko and many other Girtablilu in the village sported.
I chuckled lightly at Jasko’s reaction to her presence before responding. “Yeah that’s me. Are you the neighbor that Jasko seems to be so afraid of?”
“Afraid? Oh my is that what he thinks of me? Dear Jasko only woke me up at a bad time, I get quite cranky when that happens!” tittered Nailah.
“You broke down my door and beat me! I understand that your solstice is important to you, but that was going too far!” Jasko retorted.
Nailah scoffed. “I remember nothing of the sort! I simply asked you to keep your snoring down, and when you didn’t I merely became assertive with you.”
“I-I’ll be outside Max. Don’t rush yourself, we have plenty of time to train.” Jasko sniffled.
Nailah turned to me. “You simply must tell me about your world some time. I would love to hear all about it.”
“I might have to take you up on that later.” I responded, smiling.
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Later that day, I began training my magic with Jasko.
“Create. Water!”
I almost immediately keeled over, with arcs of mana once again bursting from me, and a small explosion of steam and water around my hand. I didn’t pass out or seize up this time though, as much as it hurt.
Jasko shook his head and sighed. “Another discharge. But it wasn’t nearly as intense. You’ve opened yourself to casting. In the coming days we should begin seeing more stability. Let us stop for today.”
“Yeah, let’s stop for today, I’m beat.” I wheezed.
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“So are you some kind of elf?” Nailah questioned.
“No, I’m a human. Are there no humans on Helsa?”
“Mm, I can’t ever remember meeting any, though my only experience with other races is from the occasional trade caravan. I’ve never left the village. What about the other races of your world?”
I laughed. “We don’t have any others. It’s just us humans.”
Nailah gasped. “Really? Humans must be very lonely!”
“I wouldn’t say that necessarily, though we did always wonder what might be out there in the stars.” I mused.
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“Create water!”
I felt a bout of vertigo, but it quickly faded. What didn’t fade was the painful burning sensation on my hand. A loud FSHH emanated from my hand as hot steam ejected itself from the nearly cooked appendage.
“Oh fuck that’s HOT!” I growled as I began swinging my hand around in a panic.
Jasko put a hand to his face. “Max you need to cut the spell or you’ll drain your mana.”
But alas, the warning fell on deaf ears as I blacked out with an intense inward pressure in my torso.
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For the third time I came to in Jasko’s mudhut. Going through the motions, I sit up.
“Alright doc what’s the prognosis.”
“Doc? Er- no enough of that. You nearly died again Max. You should have cut your spell off, because now you’ve experienced mana depressurization.”
I didn’t need to think about what that meant. I only needed to think about what happens when a tin can is suddenly opened in a vacuum.
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CRUNCH!
Nailah devoured a sunagmy steak as we talked, crunching right through the shell that it was served in.
“So-” Nailah said between bites. “I heard you had some trouble stopping your spell yesterday?”
I grimaced. “Yeah, Jasko said I went through ‘mana depressurization’?”
Nailah nodded enthusiastically. “Mhm! That’ll kill ya if you aren’t careful! Here’s a little pointer from your good friend Nailah. Try sharply exhaling and not breathing after. That always kills my focus on a spell and stops it dead in its tracks!”
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I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
“Create! Water!”
The vertigo was even less pronounced this time, with only a quiet buzz in the back of my head. I looked down at my hand, to see the familiar glint of the sunlight being refracted by the water, distorting my hand inside.
“Holy shit… holy shit I did it!”
And it was in that moment, that I fucked up. In my excitement I broke my concentration on the spell, causing the water to instantly boil and begin to sear my hand.
“Fuck fuck fuck that fucking hurts.” I hissed before I remembered Nailah's advice.
I immediately exhaled and stopped my breathing. It took a lot of willpower to not start breathing again, but sharpening and placing my focus on something else took the wind right out of the spell’s sails.
“Again!” Shouted Jasko. If I had known any better, I’d have thought he was excited.
Alright Max don’t lose your momentum here!
“Create water!”
And my efforts finally saw their fruits, for water was born at last.