Breathe in. Breathe out. In. . . out. I kept repeating those words in my mind each time I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself in check while battling the pain as I tried keeping my mana in check.
Right as I was about to succeed, a pulsating pain caused me to cough, dispersing the mana.
“Dammit!” I yelled, clicking my tongue out of frustration.
“Relax, you’ll get it next time,” Alice said, letting out a chuckle as she pulled back her hands that were glued to me for the past two hours. “Father did warn us that it might take a while because we’re both inexperienced with this.”
Taking a deep breath, I stood up and glanced at her.
“You look tired. Let’s take a short break.” My guess was she was low on mana after infusing it in me for so long.
“I’m fine. . .” She resisted unsurprisingly.
“How about this? I’ll drink the elixir, and you spend a bit of time recovering the mana you’ve lost. The last thing we want is for you to end up like me. Sound good?”
“That I’m fine with.” She sighed in relief.
Shaking my head, knowing that she refused to take a break for my sake, I plodded over to the table.
Asia made three elixirs that were packed in small vials that helped quell Mana Freezing symptoms. Initially, I wished to avoid using them so I could get used to the pain and learn to maintain control despite the various distractions, but it turned out to be much more challenging than anticipated.
It wasn’t as if I wanted to give up trying, but Alice couldn’t stomach the thought of taking a break while I suffered the symptoms in silence.
Popping one of the vials open with my thumb, I gulped the thick liquid in one go, but it didn’t help at all when it came to the horrible taste that perfectly matched its smell.
“Ugh. . .” I covered my mouth while quickly setting aside the vial and leaning on the table.
“That bad, huh?” Alice cracked a coy smirk.
“God, I hope you never find out,” I said, burping accidentally, which only made it even worse. “I’m going to be sick. . .”
“Want me to get you water?”
“I’ll be fine.” I waved my hand around, taking a deep breath.
While the taste was horrendous, the efficiency of Asia’s elixir was undeniable. Within seconds, the cold that made my body tremble and the crushing pain in my chest subsided. It was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulder temporarily.
“Feeling better?” She asked, still sitting on the carpet.
“Yeah. It worked flawlessly,” I reassured Alice before turning around and leaning with my butt against the table, pushing myself up to sit.
“Great. I’ll focus on recovery so we can quickly get back to it,” Alice said, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath.
“Take your time.”
At first, I struggled to keep my mana in check as Elwyn instructed me since I hadn’t formed a core using conventional methods, and I lacked the proficiency in Mana Breathing that Alice and other elves used. Once I understood how to do it, other problems arose. Between the distracting pain that made me lose control and Alice messing up a few times due to inexperience, we failed over a dozen times. That’s without mentioning all the times my frozen core acted up, causing unpredictable surges of coldness since I couldn’t sense it.
She eventually grasped how much she needed to imbue, so it was up to me to figure out a way to deal with the pain and maintain control. Finally I understood why Elwyn forced Alice to master Mana Breathing, something that became impossible for me to learn.
Alice explained Mana Breathing to me before, but curious, I asked Elwyn for a more detailed explanation. That’s when I learned that my constant absorption was just a different form that granted other benefits.
Compared to my ability that allowed mana to be absorbed while moving, their Mana Breathing helped elves manipulate the flow, which affected the speed of strengthening, mana recovery, and repairing a cracked core. At first, I believed that the way I channeled my mana through my body to enhance my speed and strength was the same thing, but it turned out that I was developing what was known as aura, albeit poorly.
Of course, the next thing I wanted to know about was aura, but Elwyn told me not to worry about it just yet, which explained why he insisted I stopped doing so during training when I first arrived. He wished for me to avoid bad habits that would hinder me in the future, insisting I should just enjoy the minor physical benefits of a lower dantian core.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about calling it a minor benefit, considering it allowed me to crack a wall by slamming a person with one hand against it, but to each their own.
“Alex, Alex. . .” I heard a whisper before Alice carefully touched my shoulder, snapping me out of whatever trance I entered on top of the table. Seeing as I was looking at her, she smiled and let out a chuckle. “Damn, were you asleep with your eyes open?”
“Maybe,” I joked, returning the smile. “You done already?”
“Oh, boy. . . You were in deep if you thought that was fast. Come on, let’s get back to fixing you up.” She tapped my shoulder, taking a step back.
“Well, you know what they say, twenty-seventh time’s the charm,” I joked, joining her on the carpet.
“Has it been that many?”
“No clue. Haven’t counted. . .”
“Well, let’s do it right this time.”
“Agreed.” I nodded, taking a deep breath and crossing my legs.
Alice placed her hands on my back and soon hit me with a timid stream of mana. Closing my eyes, I felt my core filling to the brim, a sign that it was time to focus on control.
Steady breathing and a clear mind, I needed both if I wanted to succeed. Keeping the mana compressed while filling in the gaps was more like a puzzle than a grueling task when there was no pain I needed to deal with, and with enough time, I was able to see the shape of the spectral core and the discharged residue that looked like smoke. All I had to do was wait for the mana that Alice fueled me through the pathways to solidify and merge with the core’s barrier.
Sitting in silence for what felt like hours but were mere minutes at best, I noticed a change. The breaks were slowly mended as if the mana itself crystallized.
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“I did it?” I looked down at my chest in surprise, shocked at how easy it was in the end. “I did it!”
“Already?” Alice chuckled, tapping my back. “Good job.”
“Thanks.” I looked back at her, standing back up and giving her a hand. “And thank you for helping me.”
“Just do the same for me in the future.” She winked, stretching her legs since she was sitting the entire time. “Though, I’m surprised how easy that was in the end. Guess we just needed a break?”
“I mean. . . without the pain and with your help, what’d you expect?” I chuckled, thankful that it was over. “Still, it’s a bit frustrating that I couldn’t do it without the elixir.”
“Maybe next time,” she joked, but she was right. “Anyway, I’ll go grab my aunt so we can do the healing ritual, okay?”
“Mind if I come with you? I haven’t left the room in days. . .”
“You ain’t leaving just yet,” she brushed off my request. “She warned us not to let you do anything strenuous until she checked up on you again.”
“I don’t think she meant light walks as well. . .”
“I’ll ask her.” Alice pointed her tongue at me.
“Fine, fine. . .” I sighed.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t worry,” Alice said, leaving the room.
“How many times have I already heard that?” I mumbled to myself, letting out a sigh. “Oh well. . .”
----------------------------------------
“How long will it take?” I asked Asia as she closed the balcony door and wandered around the room.
We were alone since Asia needed to focus on the ritual. Alice must’ve been disappointed to miss out since she loved watching.
“The ritual itself lasts an hour, but I’ll need time to prepare everything,” Asia explained, walking over to the table where she set up her stuff. “And after the ritual is done, you’ll be blindfolded for a few weeks to let your eyes heal naturally.”
“Naturally?” I furrowed my brows. “Out of curiosity, wouldn’t it be better to use magic to help with recovery?”
“If it were a simple poison, I’d agree. However, the nature of the poison used on you is not what you’d expect.” She took a small vial with a bubbly liquid inside and walked over to me. “Drink this.”
“Is that the antidote?” I asked, taking it from her.
As soon as I opened it, I sniffed the content, hoping it didn’t have the same sour taste as the other elixir she gave me. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it smelled fruity instead.
“No, I’ll give you the antidote at the start of the ritual. This mixture is meant to help reduce the pain.”
“Pain?”
“Alex, the poison used on you wasn’t meant to kill the target but make their life a living hell. If you weren’t a mage, I doubt you would’ve been able to stand. That’s because mages are naturally more tolerant when it comes to curses.”
“Are you saying that the poison was cursed?”
“Yes. Someone applied necromancy to the poison, causing it to do harm long after the poison itself was gone. Saying that I’m treating poison right now would be wrong.”
“But if you’re going to poison someone anyway, why go through the trouble of cursing someone with it? If cursing someone was the main goal, is there no other way to do so?”
“Curses are hard to use but are just as hard to dispel.” Asia gestured for me to drink. Gulping it in one go, I licked my lips and placed the vial on the bedside table, finding that to be the best-tasting elixir thus far. “If someone knew you were poisoned and managed to treat it, any after-effects might throw them into confusion since this method of cursing isn’t common.”
“So the reason behind my blindness is a curse. . .”
“Yes, which is why I wasn’t able to cure you straight away. Luckily, we have everything we need to dispel it, but I could’ve gone without the hassle of having to fix your body.”
“Sorry about that.” I awkwardly laughed, scratching my head.
“Instead of saying sorry, just make sure not to come back like that too often.”
“I’ll. . . try.”
“That’s what that moron used to say all the time,” she sounded vexed. “But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt since you’re just a kid. . .”
“Are you mad at him for something?” I asked, wondering what Elwyn had done to make her so annoyed with him. “Ah. . . Sorry, that was probably inappropriate to ask.”
“Do you know how often that idiot came to me with a broken body pretending like it was nothing? I already told Sylphena she should’ve just locked him up in the Palace and kept him there for his own safety. . .”
“Was that during the war?”
“Some of it.” Asia lowered her voice, looking down briefly before continuing her preparation for the ritual by drawing a transmutation circle on the floor using ashes. “The warring period wasn’t kind to us, but we pulled through.”
She was referring to a hundred-year war between humans and elves that ended when our King negotiated peace with Queen Sylphena a few years before the Notish invasion of Eleron. King Edward Lionheart wanted to put an end to the bloodshed his predecessors started, while the only reason other kingdoms agreed to it was due to how fragile the alliance had become.
History books tried justifying it, portraying the new leaders as progressive under the pretense of wishing to stop the war between the two races, but the elves knew better. Without Eleron in the alliance against them, the humans suffered a massive loss of military power, making any prolonged wars detrimental to the safety of their lands. Little did they know that it was already too late for that.
Before attempting to invade the worn out Eleron, the newly crowned Emperor of Notish had declared war on three minor neighboring kingdoms that fell in less than two years, doubling the landmass. It was a miracle that we withstood the invasion, and I still remember some of the horrors of being under siege for six months when I was only about seven or eight years old.
“Do you. . . hate humans?” I dared ask, dropping my gaze.
I could sense her looking at me, but I couldn’t force myself to look at her knowing what my kind did to hers. Plenty of elven cities had fallen during the hundred years and a dozen more centuries before when humans first colonized Nuia.
“You think humans are the only ones capable of war?” She sighed, still focused on preparing the ritual. “Elves had a long history of fighting way before humans arrived. Though I doubt you’ve heard of the Great Elven Wars.”
“The Great Elven Wars?”
“Let’s cut the history lesson here. You can ask Elwyn yourself. I’m sure he’d be willing to tell you all about it.”
“Right. . .”
“Now come here and sit inside the circle, but make sure you don’t ruin it. . .”
The preparation required me to sit in the circle with my legs crossed, surrounded by weird sigils drawn within it. Asia took her time to use ink to draw runic markings on my body before lighting up incense that soon filled the room.
“Drink this.” Asia handed me another elixir, but this one looked more like spiraling mana than an actual liquid. “It’s the antidote, so make sure to take it in one go.”
Doing just as instructed, I opened the lid and chugged the tasteless potion; however, its effects were felt immediately as a tingling sensation passed through me.
“Are we ready?” I asked, gripping my knees.
“Yes,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry for any pain you might feel despite the elixir I gave you earlier.”
“I’ll endure. Don’t worry,” I tried reassuring her.
“Then let us begin,” she said, stepping behind me. “Oh, and to answer your question from before. No, I don’t hate humans. And I don’t dislike Elwyn either. I just can’t handle watching those I care about cry.”
I stayed quiet, understanding well what she meant.
After the ritual started, Asia proceeded to chant in an ancient elven language. I couldn’t understand a word, but some of them were recognizable since Alice insisted on helping me learn elven during my stay.
After about ten minutes, I realized why she had given me the elixir beforehand as pain surged through my body while her magic cleansed the curse that plagued me for months. It wasn’t that bad at first, but it got worse as time passed.
Puking tainted blood, I wasn’t sure if it was tears or blood running out of my burning eyes, but knowing Alice waited outside the room, I gave it my all to keep my desire to yell angrily at the pain in check.
It was a gruesome task, but one that needed to be done, and by the end of it, I was left gasping for air and unable to open my eyes. Asia made sure to bandage them up so they could recover, helping me lay down in bed.
Alice wanted to visit me immediately, but Asia insisted that I be left alone to rest after such an ordeal and even went as far as to give me a sedative that had me falling asleep within minutes.
Few more weeks and I was finally going to be able to see again.
Chapter End.
Thank you for reading.