I woke up early after I had my conversation with father later at night, yet I still had a few hours before Marissa came home to play, so I went to Novela’s shop in the meanwhile.

“Oh, it’s Edrie.” The witch-like mage commented as I entered her shop. “What are you doing here alone?”

Novela wore a heavy tunic, not a glance of skin shown besides her face and hands. It was quite a pompous dress, but it gave her a dignified aura. She also had tied her hair today in a ponytail rather than a bun, and to be honest, it was weird. Novela was a bun-type person with her serious old lady presence, if you catch me. The most surprising fact was the lack of comically large hat.

“I have a question.” I observed the emporium filled of miscellaneous magical items and paraphernalia.

“About magic I suppose.” Novela said uninterested.

I noticed I had spaced out for a moment. What could I say, I was but a child in a store filled up with magical trinkets of unknown power. I was interested, to say the least.

“Yeah, yeah.” I said while distracted by a glowing potion. It possessed a light green hue that screamed poison, but I doubt she would be allowed to sell such products. “You’ve said before that my mana pool was so slow to form because my mana is purer than others.”

“That’s true.” She confirmed with a deflated gaze. This woman was magical in her special sense, I didn’t know until now that you could deflate a gaze.

“My question is why I can only cast so few spells.” I explained. “Shouldn’t I be able to cast more than normal?”

“Purer mana is more efficient than common mana, but you are skipping a step. Come here.” The shopkeeper made a gesture indicating to get me closer.

Novela told me and I followed. She guided me to a white ellari stone platform. Ellari as in the sense of the white stone which was commonplace in Ferilyn. I still had to ask the name, if it even had one, but I always forgot about it. And right now doesn’t seem to be the right moment to do so.

“Step here.” I did. “It will itch a bit.”

Wait, are you going to probe my soul again? Before I could tell her that, she activated the inscribed platform and began to glow. Ouch. Yes, yes it did itch. More like I was pinched in the arm than an itch, though. I had worse over the years, though.

“What’s this, by the way?” I asked her, awaiting on top of the platform as it was still glowing. It was quite the light show as the light from runes faded in and out constantly.

“It’s a mana probe.” She explained as she channeled some more mana to the artifact. “It analyzes the quantity of one’s mana pool. Nothing fancy, just a trinket, a true mage would overload it if they put a foot on it. I just have it for people who want to see their progress but don’t want to buy one of the probes I have on display.”

Sometimes, Novela’s honesty was brutal. She didn’t even care to tell that to a child.

“I usually charge a low amount for usage, consider it a novelty for the first time.” Novela joked? I wasn’t sure about that. Ellari proved quite difficult to read, but Novela was on a league of her own.

“When can I step down?” I asked her as the feeling was uncomfortable. The phrase came out as rather childish, but I was the child here, so I really shouldn’t worry about it.

“Wait a bit longer. The process takes a bit of time to inspect the body.” She explained with an unamused face, her finger tapping her arm in a rhythmical yet uncomfortable manner.

Ma’am, I am more tired in this platform than you, I don’t care how many times you’ve done it.

“You can step down now.” She wrote in a paper with a fountain pen. Fancy, huh. Father used feathers and ink to write. “As expected, your mana pool is awfully small.”

“Shouldn’t my mana pool be child sized?” My wording could’ve been a little better, but I think I transmitted the message.

“It should.” Novela affirmed. “Blame your abnormal affinity. Your mana pool is about a third of what a child’s should be, but your mana quality offsets it. Basically, you do have in theory a normal mana pool, but in practice that’s different as you aren’t using your mana optimally.”

I asked the obvious. “How can I be more optimal with my mana?”

Novela laughed at me. “Practice, child. Practice.” Her tone was condescending, and had a demeaning touch, but not without its sincerity. “Either way, most spells aren’t made for such levels of purity. If you really want to optimize your mana, you should make your own spells. But that’s an advanced subject you’ll probably need about twenty years before being taught about it.”

She walked back to the counter, I did the same and went in front of the counter. It was kind of scary how ellari could talk about an extended period of time like two decades with such a dismissive attitude.

“I suppose your father has already given you a basic spellbook?” I nodded. “Then cast, spellcast, or do whatever you do, waste mana in the process. The more mana you use, the easier it will become to use correctly. It’s as simple as that.”

“Father told me the same.” I replied.

“Because it’s the only way, Edrie.” She gave me a smile, as if telling she had suffered the same situation. “Tedious, but it will matter in the future.”

A short exchange of words followed this event, but shortly after I dismissed myself.

I was convinced there should be a better, more optimal way to augment one’s mana pool, and the efficiency of mana usage. But mere suppositions by a child won’t undo centuries of ellari research.

There was time until Marissa normally came to visit my home, so I took the long way. Ferilyn never lost its luster. A glimmering city, exuding with magic and life. Busy bazaars, colorful streets. Interesting flora, eye-catching architecture.

It was monotone sometimes, as ellari like their white-violet-blue-pink palette. Especially violet. The people were violet, the rooftops were violet, and the magic was violet. I didn’t hate it though. The main reason for these particular colors was that they represented the main spectrum of manifested mana. And mana was the foundation for a magic country like ours.

I wasn’t sure if it was right to call Ferilyn a magocracy. Being a mage was important, but ellari didn’t outright discriminate against someone for not being a mage, those people were considered somewhat handicapped. But at the same time, the chief of state was the High Arcanist, literally the strongest mage of the country.

While I was distracted in my mind, my feet still carried me home safe and sound.

Father already went to work, and mother read a book on the balcony. I couldn’t fathom how bored she was. I feel there was a point in your life when you wanted to work out of boredom. To occupy your mind and the empty time you have. If I didn’t have magic, I couldn’t imagine how I would spend my life in this metropolitan lifestyle.

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I bet farmers were more entertained than us.

I opened the children’s spellbook, searching for the most suitable spell to be my first cast. Sorcery was about trial and error, practicing all the time until you achieved that first cast. Then it would be a downslide as the casting time is absurdly reduced. I didn’t want to even begin as sorcery was more mana intensive than wizardry, a resource that I lacked.

Therefore, I looked for the most efficient spell I could find. Not only cheap, but cheap for me. I focused myself on arcane spells, which I was proficient in by nature. There weren’t any soul spells in the book, but again, it was a children’s spellbook. I wouldn’t want my children toying with their souls.

After minutes of research (I told you the book was short) I found the best candidate. Magic Chip. Arcane affinity. “Offensive” spell. Low mana consumption. Notice that I quoted offensive, the book itself described it as a spell meant for practice, and at most, it would be like pricking someone with a needle.

I didn’t know what an idea of damage had the author but puncturing yourself with a needle would definitely hurt. It wasn’t a big deadly explosion like the legendary Fireball, sure. It could still deal some damage. And I also had superior quality mana than the rest, I fear I might summon a drill instead of a needle. But I think I was overestimating myself here.

I started with the casting.

Father gave me some pointers on how to do it, but it was basically resumed to: “it’s like weaving an image”, “have a strong point of reference”, “constantly channel mana to the construct”, and, “that first casting will be an arduous task”.

Magic Chip, here we go.

Mana gathered in my fingertips, my arteries dimly glowing blue. Magic Chip was described as a projectile the size of a coin. An image of a guitar pick came to my head. Even though I hadn’t seen a “guitar” in my actual incarnation, I had a solid idea of what it was. Strangely enough, no mind-numbing headache assaulted me this time. Unexpected, but grateful about it.

I channeled mana in the pick form, only for it to dissipate in an instant. I couldn’t avoid to sigh. I had already done this for a solid pair of hours.

“No luck?” Marissa said, who also failed in casting. She had arrived almost an hour prior, but she was as clueless as I.

Now I could understand more the appeal of spellcasting as a beginner. It was harder sure, but you could obtain results faster without wasting so much mana. The magic resulting from spellcasting would be weak (that was only the case for children, as they lacked control), but at least you managed to cast something, deducting the lack of quality.

“Sorcery isn’t for me.” I laid on a big cushion, tired as my mana pool was near empty. “My mana pool is little, and I don’t have the required imagination.” I sighed again.

Was it a problem from my curious status as a reincarnated soul? I didn’t really dream, aside from the occasional dream of the river that beckoned me, and I didn’t have your average childish imagination. What I lacked in creativity I compensated in cynicism, but that cynicism didn’t help me right now.

“Edrie is a weakling, Edrie is a weakling!” She chanted as to molest me. I couldn’t care less about childish rambling. And even then, I was more powerful than her. In potential, at minimum.

“Yes, yes. But you didn’t cast Magic Chip either.” I counterattacked.

“I have no high arcane affinity.” Marissa refuted.

“I have no months of continuous spellcasting practice.” I deflected.

She growled in defeat. Marissa had a great advantage from her earlier formation of the mana pool, and she knew it. Lest she was in the same condition as I. But the true reason she fled away from battle so fast was because she knew she couldn’t beat me with words.

While I had no idea how was the standard ellari child, Marissa seemed quite mature to me. In the magical way, she had yet to travel a long path in the phycological. Then again, she was a child, I couldn’t expect a lot more.

As I was unable to make any progress, I tested different methods to complete the first cast. Imagery was the main one, obsolete to me. Frame was another, creating a mana proto-construct of the spell. This one showed more advance. The last method was savant. Yes, a weird name. Savant consisted in utilizing a great influx of mana until the spell suddenly worked. Also known as brute forcing your way to completion.

The savant method was the preferred way for adult sorcerers with great mana pools and low patience, yet useless for a child with microscopical mana reserves. Even for a spell that rivaled Mage Light in terms of mana usage, I couldn’t just throw everything I had until something stuck.

These three methods were available, but they looked the same to me. Frame was the evolution of imagery, combining the idea of the spell with a basic mana weaving. Savant was the last step of the chain, while frame abandoned the image and focused on mana.

There weren’t three distinct types, but one adapted to diferent situations. And only one of them was somewhat useful to me.

Marissa failed three more casts until she collapsed next to me, defeated as me. She had been trying longer than me, so she was far more exhausted than I.

“Tired?” I looked at her.

“Yeeeh…” She responded gazing at the celling.

“Same.” My voice came out far too deadbeat for a child, but no one worried about it. Well, no one except me.

While I wasn’t a stranger to trial and error, having no notion of progress chipped away one’s morale. Sickness and dizziness from mana exhaustion didn’t help either. Which according to father, it was actually dangerous. For that reason we had mom looking after us.

Yes mom, I had seen you peaking over your book from the balcony, you were not fooling anyone.

I felt procrastination at my doorstep, telling me to stop and rest. I knew it was procrastination and not wellbeing because my mana pool was already full.

My mana pool was so small that it had recharged by the time Marissa depleted hers. The feeling of lazing around didn’t appear when I was studying ellari language or practicing sal men’ora. One was a necessity, and the other was easy and short.

Sorcery practice was neither. It wasn’t this subject I must know to survive, and it was a tedious, repetitive, and overall a hard task. I needed it to be a better mage, but I didn’t need to be a mage to live.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be a mage. Magic was cool. I was a bit let down by fruitless endeavors. Fun fact, this was the first day of practice and I am overexaggerating, and I hated it.

I stood up to stop the aimless train of thought and depression that I had crafted.

Canalizing mana was easy, it was the first magical feat I had done. Weaving mana, was a tad bit more complicated. It was like tying a knot when the string is made of water. Difficult or outright impossible. But that was the feeling, not the actual task.

I gathered my mana in my left hand, slowly moving the magical fuel to the center. Within seconds, the shapeless amalgam of energy became a coin-shaped construct.

That didn’t mean I had conjured the spell yet. I simply modeled my mana to look like it, nothing but schematics for the final project. And let’s ignore the fact this construct was absurdly inefficient. It was a ball filled with mana instead of a spell weaved to be a ball. It didn’t need to contain such quantity of mana, and it was actually detrimental to its conjuration.

I accelerated the flow of mana in my circulatory system, mana-laden blood accompanied the stream around the coin in a touchless exchange. This augmented the potency of the construct, though that wasn’t specially a good thing.

Slowly but surely, constantly, non-stop more mana gathered to give a foundation to the coin. I began to feel dizzy; my mana pool was strained. I had poured too much mana into a single point to be useful. The most inefficient Magic Chip in existence.

Almost there, I could sense it. The first cast was here.

And the mana dissipated.

I’d lost concentration. I laid in the sofa once more, two thirds of my mana pool withered away.

My head fell to the right side to find a Marissa who shrugged at me. I felt as if I was going to puke, but I held myself. As a well-greased machine, Marissa began to cast, following her turn. She hadn’t actually recovered any mana yet, but she gave it a try, nonetheless.

I got up and went to the balcony where mother was keeping an eye on us.

“I’m dizzy.” I explained. “Can I get a juice?”

“Sure, dear.” Mom patted my head and went to the kitchen.

When I said juice, I indirectly meant orange juice. We didn’t have any stored juice, but we did have fruits. And everyone knows the easiest juice to prepare was orange juice. A menial task that didn’t require more than five minutes.

“Here you go.” Mother passed me the glass of juice a couple of minutes later and disposed of the depleted oranges.

I calmly drank my refreshment in the kitchen table, looking at the girl who had a higher mana pool, and therefore, more training time.

The glass was half-empty when it happened. Marissa’s hands glowed, an unknown yet familiar violet shine.

“I’ve done it! I’ve done it!” She chanted happily, jumping out of the sofa with the violet construct in her fingertips.

In her mindless celebration she forgot the magical projectile that she had conjured was still in her hands. And now it flew at high speed. The Magic Chip impacted in the celling, making a short thud, followed by a small socket after rubble fell down.

“Oops.” Marissa noticed the damage.

I couldn’t help myself but to laugh. Not because of her innocent childish display, but my incapability to surpass a child. This was the third time I had lost to Marissa.