The Shadowlands lived up to their name. Shrouded in eternal darkness, the world around me looked like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

In stark contrast to her surroundings, Sylvia sat crosslegged next to me with a smile on her face that seemed to light up the world around her. She leaned in and gave me yet another hug and whispered, “My parents want to meet you. I told them that you cured me with magic but don’t worry, they promise to keep it a secret.”

I was only half paying attention while looking at my hands and trying to focus the healing aspect of my mana into a corporeal form. Thus far, my healing had always been to inject the patient with my mana and correct problems when I discovered them. It was an active process that required a hands-on touch. How was I supposed to make that airborne? I couldn’t exactly touch everyone in the middle of combat.

“Melvin? What do you think about that?” Sylvia asked tentatively, leaning closer to get my attention.

“What?” I asked, dropping a blob of mana on the ground.

“Will you come meet my parents?” She asked, trying to will me to say yes with her biggest smile. “They want to thank you in person. “Daddy has lots of money. He says he will buy you a car if you want.”

I laughed out loud at the thought of someone buying me a car. Several years ago, I would have given anything for someone to get me one. With the ability to edit a rock into virtually whatever I wanted, my desire for physical things was pretty low.

Still, the kid was waiting for an answer. “Sure. I’ll meet your parents. I hope they aren’t mad that I pretended to be Make-A-Wish.”

Sylvia giggled. “No. They weren’t mad at all. I heard Justin Beiber was mad that someone impersonated him. He wasn’t in California though, so he didn’t get in trouble. Did you really kill a baby?”

Recalling that incident made me feel sick to my stomach.“I was too late. There wasn’t anything I could do.I tried.”

The kid frowned and hugged me again. “It’s not your fault, Melvin.”

Even though she was little, I felt like I was being comforted by an adult. Shaking my head to clear the negative thoughts, I said, “Let’s work on our healing. I need to figure out how to make mine airborne.”

Sylvia smiled. “Me too! How can I hug people without touching them?”

I rubbed my chin and laughed when I came up with an idea. “You could always blow them a kiss.”

Just then a powerful explosion blinded us. I rubbed my eyes, trying to see what just happened. What I saw was amazing. Brilliant blue and red light swirled together as Kalli and Shiv’s magic collided. The ice hissed and steam rose as cold embraced heat.

“Woah.” I gasped, watching the girls work.

SMACK

Something hit me on the cheek, sending a tingling sensation down my spine. I turned to find Sylvia giggling profusely. I touched my face and asked, “What did you just do?”

She beamed at me. “I blew you a kiss. Did it heal you? Did I do good?”

I groaned out loud and sent my frustrations over to Kalli.

I just got outdone by a kid.

Kalli laughed at me as she focused on her spell. I know! I saw that.

Looking up, I saw tears in Sylvia’s eyes. “Did I do it wrong? I’m sorry.”

I held up my hands and tried my best to smile. “No! You did it perfectly. I was just jealous because you figured it out before me.”

She smiled again, and that infectious happiness returned. “I can show you how I did it if you want.”

The kid was amazing. She managed to create a new skill with just a few words from Lavender.

When I nodded to her, Sylvia took a few steps back and placed her hand on her lip. Then she removed the hand and blew me a kiss. “Muah!”

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SMACK

I felt her mana strike my face again, sending the same tingling sensation through my body. Unlike Kalli or Shiviria, whatever Sylvia was doing was invisible.

I said, “You’ve grown a lot since the last time I saw you.”

She nodded in excitement. “I’ve hugged a lot of people since you cured me. Mostly in the hospital. It always makes them feel better. Lavender says I’ll level up fast once I get bigger.”

“Okay, now it’s time for me to try,” I announced, cracking my knuckles as I climbed to my feet.

“Yay!” Sylvia cheered me on. “Show me, show me, show me!”

Picturing the flame hand spell “Pvruzth” I pointed my hand at Kalli. Only, rather than changing the element to fire, I focused on corralling my natural element into a steady stream that I could channel through the air.

The spell went everywhere. Rays of light that only I could see spread in every direction and dissipated harmlessly. Groaning in frustration, I turned to look at Sylvia who was watching me quietly. “How did you control where your kiss went?”

“I blew it to you, silly,” Sylvia said with a giggle. “Everyone knows that.”

I couldn’t help but laugh when faced with the kid’s logic. It worked because she knew it would work. Was that the reason Lavender paired me with her and not because we both were healers?

Forgetting everything I knew about the world, I imagined my mana flowing like water from a fire hydrant and channeled another spell at Kalli. The pyromancer was taking a break, chatting with her sister when my spell hit.

The force of the blow lifted her off of the ground. Kalli let out a pained grunt as she tumbled through the air. Realizing my error, I teleported to her and did my best to catch her. The collision was so strong that Kalli knocked the air out of me and we both crashed back to the ground.

“A little warning would be nice next time,” Kalli wheezed, rubbing her stomach where the spell had hit.

I felt her pain through our connection and pumped some healing into her the old-fashioned way as I said, “I’m sorry. I wanted to surprise you. I guess I need to fine-tune it.”

Kalli ran a finger over a tender spot on my chest, causing me to wince. “Don’t forget to heal yourself. Thanks for trying to catch me, at least.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch me as I trudged back to Sylvia. She gave me a curious look when I arrived and asked, “What did you just do? Is Kalli okay?”

“I used too much pressure,” I muttered to myself as I refocused my efforts.

The problem was that if I used the wrong concept my mana became an attack. I needed something gentle. Something soothing. I began by making my mana into a ball and passing it from one hand to the other. The good thing about light was that it was much faster than any of the other elements. The problem was that it liked to spread off in every direction.

Giving mana the density and nature of water turned it into an attack. I needed something that broke the rules, similar to Sylvia’s kiss. If water was too much, I needed something that wasn’t. Something pleasant.

I turned to Sylvia and asked, “Do you mind if I try something on you?”

She looked nervously at Kalli who was still rubbing her belly where the mana blast hit her. “Will it hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” I replied honestly.

Sylvia bit her lower lip but nodded anyway. Channeling more mana to my hand, I willed it into a fine mist and sent a tiny stream of it at Sylvia. She spluttered and held up a hand to block her face. “Eww, what is that? Why does it feel wet?”

I adjusted the spell and instructed my mana to flow like a gentle breeze. “Try healing wind.”

Sylvia’s hair blew back as my mana washed over her. She giggled and said, “That feels good.”

The problem with wind was that it wasn’t very effective over a great distance. Being like the wind meant that actual wind affected it, essentially blowing my spell off course the farther it traveled.

After more trial and error, I made a finger gun and pointed it at Kalli, shouting, “Healing laser!”

A beam of light only I could see shot from my finger and went straight into Kalli’s hip. She yelped and glared at me. Stop using me as a training dummy!

But it worked.

She stuck her tongue out at me. No more!

Sylvia counted off spells I invented on her fingers. “So that makes Regenerating Wind, Cure Bomb, and Healing Laser. What’s next?”

The laser was nice and it worked at range but it was too small. I needed something bigger. I scratched the back of my head while I thought. “It needs to be a beam.”

“What do you mean?” Sylvia asked, trying to blow kisses at Kalli.

Kalli didn’t seem to have as much of a problem with Sylvia testing spells on her as she did with me. It must have been something about kids being adorable or something.

Focusing my mana like a spotlight, I shone a beam of healing mana on Kalli. She glowed in my eyes as my mana bathed her in light. Kalli looked up at me when she felt the effect. Then she shrugged and gave me a thumbs up.

“I think it worked,” I said, taking a moment to celebrate.

----------------------------------------

A short while later, Lavender showed back up with a rather pleased-looking Eddie. “I trust you all made some progress. Are we ready for monster number two?”

After getting an affirmative from everyone, Lavender made her way over to me. “Look, Melvin. I want you to try something during this next fight. I know you just focused on learning to heal but I want you to start thinking about fights like a manipulator. Look for opportunities to edit.”

Her latest advice went against everything she told me in the past. “Didn’t you tell me to hide what I am?”

Lavender chuckled. “Well, that cat has been out of the bag for some time, Melvin. It’s no big secret that there is a manipulator in the world. Another thing that is known about you is that you are a world traveler. Be wary of people you don’t know trying to get you to smuggle them off of Earth. In some cases, that is a crime.”

“It never occurred to me that teleporting between worlds could be against the law,” I replied, worried that there was a warrant out for my arrest somewhere.

Lavender gave me a reassuring smile as she replied, “Don’t worry. While rare, there are exceptions in the law for gifted mages who possess abilities like yours. Few are aware of how you did it but your passage has been approved.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” I sighed, turning my attention back to training. “So, how do you want me to edit things during battle?”

“Use your imagination,” Lavender replied. “You used it to great effect on some occasions. Just always be mindful. That is a sign of a good leader.”

I grinned. “This is going to be fun!”