“What are you doing?” Penny asked as the carriage bumped along the dirt road. Zeek sat cross-legged on the bench across from her, his hands resting on his knees and his eyes closed. He was practicing the mana manipulation technique, and it was getting easier by the hour. Not that he could tell her that.
“Meditating,” he replied.
“You don’t seem like the type that meditates.”
“I might surprise you,“ Zeek replied, opening one eye and grinning at her. Penny glanced away, looking out the window. She’d been doing that all morning when he looked at her. It was very odd; he assumed she wouldn’t talk to him at all after he smacked her yesterday. Instead, she’d occasionally ask him a small question, then reply sarcastically and stop talking to him. Zeek wasn’t sure what to think.
“Are you nervous?” she asked, still refusing to look at him.
“For what?”
“Going to the capital, being away from home, becoming a mage.”
Zeek thought about it a moment. He really wasn’t nervous, and it was hard to say why. He loved Granny, but the village wasn’t a great place to grow up. He was eighteen now and he spent all his time helping her gather herbs or assist with healing or medicine making. But it all felt so…mundane. It was true he was a troublemaker. When he was little it was probably just to get attention, but as he aged it was more out of boredom.
“I’m excited,” he said, as Penny looked back at him.
“Why?”
“Were you excited to grow up in the village?” he asked.
“I never considered anything else,” she said honestly.
“I always wanted something more. Living out my days in the woods making poultices and socializing with trees sounded awful. The capital will be full of new adventures,” he replied.
“I thought I’d meet someone nice, get married, and settle down.”
“Like your mother did?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And like her mother did? And her mother before that?” Zeek asked again.
“Is that so wrong?” Penny said.
“No, it’s just not what I want for myself,” Zeek answered. Penny nodded slightly before returning her gaze to the passing forest. Zeek kept practicing, rotating his mana around inside himself. After practicing for the past day, he was able to evenly distribute his mana to his arms. Each limb he added required intense focus, but Penny didn’t notice his sweating.
The next village was identical to the first, only the faces were different. Zeek didn’t wander this time. He spent the day there moving between the main hall of the inn and his room. Practicing was absorbing him completely. No one noticed since the mages were busy with the ceremony. Penny attended with them, not because she had to, she was just curious.
When dinner finally came, Penny and Unibrow were sitting together again while Archi drank his after-meal digestive. Zeek waved to him before returning to his room for more practice. He spent the evening reading the mana manipulation section again and working on distributing everything to his legs. He couldn’t stop wondering what mana tiers were; the book hadn’t shown him a chapter on it.
“What are mana tiers?” he muttered as he stared at the pages. They began turning quickly to a blank page, where text appeared. Zeek smiled when he realized what it was—a definition of mana tiers. It turned out the book had a built-in dictionary, it just required him to ask a question. The book wouldn’t show him things that weren’t mentioned in the text, likely requiring him to unlock new pages by completing tasks.
Definition: Mana Tiers
Refer to the movement, amount, and purity of mana in the body. Beginner tier consists of five levels. At level 2, the mage can begin focusing mana in specific areas of their body. By tier 5, the mage can begin using mana outside the body. Tiers are as follows: Beginner, Journeyman, Full Mage, Expert Mage, Archmage.
The book explained that each tier takes longer to reach than the last, but beginner was intended to be very simple. A talented mage could reach tier 5 within two months or sooner. Information on the other tiers was locked to Zeek for now. He now viewed the tiers as a challenge: he was already nearing tier 2 after a day and a half.
The exercises would change a bit as he progressed, but he was excited for the challenge. By the time he looked outside, the moon was at its height. He giddily opened the book again.
Progress:
Mana Tier 2
Task List:
1. No substitute for good old-fashioned hard work. Reach Mana Tier 2 (Complete)
2. Open your eyes, sunshine! Learn Mana Vision Basic
Zeek whooped as he fell back into the bed and took a much-needed rest. He woke up the next day, with the book lying open over his chest and someone pounding on his door.
“Wake up!” the gruff voice shouted.
Zeek wiped sleep from his eyes before jumping into his pants and opening the door. Unibrow was waiting for him, with a much-exaggerated scowl. Zeek nearly laughed when he saw the man’s face but managed to smile crookedly instead.
“We’re leaving,” Unibrow said as he turned and left. Zeek followed behind him, shoving the book in his pocket. The carriage was waiting, the knights already mounted, as Zeek climbed inside and yawned. Penny was waving to a few villagers as they began to move.
It was still just the two of them; the mages didn’t find any more students. Zeek got into his meditation position and placed the book in his lap. He opened it and muttered “mana vision” under his breath. The pages showed him a technique for circulating mana through his eyes.
If done correctly, he should be able to see when a person or item contained mana. The book made it clear that everything in life had some mana, but mages and enchantments should stand out or glow. The tough part was, it required that he kept circulating his mana with the basic technique. Zeek clicked his tongue. Mana tier 3 required circulating the mana through his head. This was just a technique to get him practicing it, and it was useful to new mages.
If he got proficient with the magic, he would be able to identify what mana tier another mage was at. Something very important for a book that emphasized “spiting” powerful people. Zeek relaxed into his seat, preparing to practice. The caravan was two days from the capital, and he planned to spend them staring at Penny.
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That lasted about two hours.
“Why are you staring at me?” she said. Zeek nearly jumped when she spoke. He was so lost in his practice he didn’t realize she’d been glaring at him for a few minutes.
“Sorry,” he muttered, moving his focus to Penny’s stomach. Penny watched him another fifteen minutes before she yelled at him again.
“Now you’re just staring at my chest!“ She was scowling now.
“Would you believe I’m trying to see your mana?” he asked, feeling a bit embarrassed himself.
“Never heard that excuse before,“ she replied.
“Seriously, I’m trying to see your mana. I’ll just stare at your legs, ok? Don’t mind me.”
Penny’s mouth hung open and her finger raised. She was preparing to give him an earful when she noticed he instantly started staring at her legs. She thought about telling him to keep his eyes to himself, but if staring at her legs kept him from causing trouble, it seemed like a fair compromise. She did spend the rest of the day fidgeting and debating whether he was serious or not.
Later that night, Zeek was sitting off to the side of the campfire staring at Unibrow when Archi sat down next to him. The old man patted him on the back.
“Penny says you’re trying to see her mana?” Archi asked.
“Yep,“ Zeek smiled.
“Gotta say, kid. Great excuse. Wish I’d thought of it honestly, but maybe wait till we’re in the capital?” Archi smiled back. Zeek’s flabbergasted look wiped the smile off Archi’s face.
“You were serious?” Archi asked.
“Yeah, I’m trying to move my mana around,” Zeek replied.
“You can move the mana in your body?” Archi asked, his face becoming serious.
“Just a little bit.”
“How did you learn that?”
Zeek didn’t want to reveal the book; something about it made him hesitant to tell others. “Figured it out myself,” he replied.
Archi sighed. “Listen, kid, even archmages can’t move their mana very well. Most of us learn a few spells and that’s it. You don’t want to reveal what you’re capable of when we reach the academy.”
“Why not?”
“The whole system is designed to produce mages with a spell set dedicated to one task. But the most important mages for the kingdom are war mages. Anyone who can move their mana a bit becomes a war mage. If you reveal what you’re capable of, they’ll pick your affinity for you,” Archi explained.
“Why do they become war mages, and why are they so important?” Zeek asked.
“They become war mages because once they learn a bit of mana control, it accelerates their ability to learn spells. The top war mages know several times more spells than the rest of us. And think about that, would you prefer a war mage with five spells or twenty?”
“But why are they so important? We aren’t at war,” Zeek said.
“The balance of power between countries relies on their magical capabilities. If a rival nation had more war mages, we’d have less political bargaining power. In other words, the more war mages we have, the more powerful our king becomes. Politics aside, mages are used to clear monster nests and dungeons. Keeping the kingdom safe from magical creatures is the royals’ duty,” Archi replied.
“I thought that was what the adventurers’ guild was for?” Zeek asked.
“Oh, a bit. Adventurers keep all the less deadly monsters clear. But if a dragon or Bogwitch or Deviltalon shows up, they call the knights to come deal with it.”
“So I should keep my mana stuff secret,” Zeek said.
“At least until you have an affinity decided. Once you’re in a job, they won’t move you around,” Archi replied.
“What should I tell Penny?” Zeek asked.
“I’ll explain things to her. She could accidentally reveal your secret.”
“There’s one thing I don’t get. Don’t you have to tell the kingdom about this? Why are you helping me?” Zeek said.
Archi looked at the sky, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “I’ve been recruiting for decades now, kid. If you’d met me in the beginning, I would have told them. But I’ve sent too many young people like you to die in the king’s armies. How many of them would have spent their lives in peace if I hadn’t shown up? I ask myself that more and more these days. Your secret’s safe with me.”
Zeek smiled at him. He liked the old mage. Archi reminded him of Granny in some ways: kind, despite a coarse exterior, and the only people who cared for him. They continued talking until the others started turning in for the night. He noticed Archi motion to Penny, speaking in hushed tones for a few minutes, occasionally glancing at Zeek. He took advantage of the moment and slipped into the carriage.
He pretended to be asleep when Penny came back, still practicing his mana technique. She sat on the bench across from him, leaning back as she looked at him. It was dark enough that Zeek didn’t think she could see his face.
He was wrong.
“Still practicing, aren’t you?” she said. Zeek pretended to snore loudly.
“You don’t sleep with your eyes open, idiot,” she said. Zeek laughed and propped himself up on the bench.
“I thought you couldn’t see my face,“ he replied.
“I couldn’t.”
“Then how’d you know?” Zeek wondered.
“I didn’t. But it was pretty obvious when you started snoring right after I spoke to you.” Zeek could just make out a small smile on her face. He fidgeted as they looked at each other for a moment.
“So is it true? You can move your mana already?” she asked.
“A bit.”
“Archi told me what it means. I won’t say anything.”
Zeek paused. “Why?”
“I don’t want to see someone I know sent off to fight,” she answered. Zeek nodded. Even though he and Penny had grown apart as they aged, they came from the same village. To Penny that was important; Hake was home and even troublemakers like Zeek were part of it.
“If you need anything while we’re in the capital, I’ll help you,” Zeek said, and Penny smiled. They bid each other good night as Zeek lay back down and continued his practice. Within a few minutes, Penny’s breathing became softer and he could tell she’d fallen asleep. Zeek practiced while considering her words.
If their positions were reversed, he’d have kept her secret. But for different reasons. Zeek valued freedom, and he wouldn’t want to sentence someone to a life of fighting if they didn’t want it. Magic represented an adventurous, exciting path for him, and if fighting became a part of what he chose, then so be it. To take away someone’s choice, though, that was unforgivable. Archi had been very candid with him, and the emotion in the old mage’s voice when he mentioned the prior recruits was obvious. Zeek was heading to a totally foreign world, going from the village delinquent to a chess piece to be moved about by the powerful.
The thought of it made him angry. Why should royals view mages as chattel? They were rare and unique and each had endless potential to create. Yet some man with a crown used them to gain a few extra gold coins or parcels of land. Zeek’s mana moved quicker as he considered the reality of Numera’s academy.
At some point in the night, while he was lost in reflection, Penny began to glow just slightly and Zeek realized he’d learned the mana vision technique. The secret was making his mana move faster. Move too slow and it was difficult to direct throughout his body. Move it too fast and he couldn’t control it. The balance came naturally as his mood rose and fell. Mana clearly responded to emotion, and fickle thoughts made it much harder to control.
When it clicked, he couldn’t help but admire how beautiful it was to see mana. The previously black carriage was illuminated ever so slightly and Penny glowed just enough to cast a light softer and subtler than the moon. According to the book, that meant she was a beginner mage, her mana was tier 1. He could tell her abilities weren’t unlocked because the mana core in her chest was still.
Enchantments and higher-tier mages would let off even more light—never enough to be blinding, but enough to highlight themselves even in broad daylight.
Zeek kept his vision up and opened the book. It was easy to read, as if there was no darkness at all. But the book didn’t cast light, it just glowed in the darkness. Another sign of high-quality magic, it contained the mana so well within its pages that none was released into the environment.
Progress:
Mana Tier 3
Task List:
1. Open your eyes, sunshine! Learn Mana Vision Basic (Complete)
2. Clock’s ticking! Learn the mana strengthening technique before you reach the capital.
Zeek made the pages turn with a thought, and another technique appeared before him. This one was very similar to the vision technique; it required focusing mana into the muscles of his arms, legs, and torso while maintaining circulation everywhere else. The book claimed it would help him move quicker and strike harder with his fists. Zeek wondered why a mage would need such an ability, but the book explained it was the basis for all magic used on yourself.
A timed task was new, and Zeek was confused why it was pushing him so fast. The previous chapter on mana tiers suggested it should take him about a week to reach his current point, but he’d managed it in two days. Curiously, the book also knew he was headed to the capital. The best explanation he could find was the book tailored training to the mage using it and was able to learn some information from the environment. It wasn’t sentient, per se, but it clearly had a personality with the cheeky task descriptions.
After reading the chapter several times and memorizing the new technique, he went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a full day of travel, with one more night on the road. They were expected to reach the capital by noon the following day. Plenty of time to practice and consider what came next. And, hopefully, find answers in the book.