As the scene stalled and blurred in preparation for the next series of events, Amelia stood motionless, face crunched in an unpleasant expression. There was nothing wrong with the entry that she just watched. It was amazing to watch another story with Perfidelia and Ellie, and it looked like the supporting cast was about to expand a bit.

The problem, Amelia decided, was that she was apparently too stupid to understand what had just happened and why it was significant. Ellie and Perfidelia had been incredibly excited at the prospect of talking about the mana and how it was used in countering and reflecting. Excitement that Amelia didn’t feel.

It was safe to say that Amelia had countered and reflected a few spells in her time. Memorably so, in some cases. A few spells might even have been an understatement. It would be more accurate to say that she’d reflected and countered a few spells with a total mana cost higher than her entire mana pool. It didn’t happen often, but it did happen.

“Okay, so I guess I’ve been taking a mechanic for granted? It’s actually weird when I counter or reflect spells without having more mana in my pool than the spellcost.” Amelia’s face blanked, then the unpleasant expression blossomed again. “What should happen, according to them, is that I shouldn’t succeed. I should just, fail.”

“Pause Entry.”

[Entry Will Continue to Load and Pause at Start]

Fine. Whatever.

Amelia laughed suddenly. “Fail? I’m not supposed to fail! I’m the hero of the story. I’m the video game character that has the world leaned in the right direction -- I only need push for it to fall down and submit to my will! If I succeed in countering or reflecting then obviously it doesn’t matter if I have enough mana, it just makes a check that I’m a Transient and performs the task!”

Amelia turned and started pacing back and forth. “Right? Isn’t that right? Why would it be important to know how it works if… if it doesn’t matter to Transients? There are hundreds, thousands, of Order of the Black transients! No one has complained about not having enough mana, or, any amount of mana! It’s only really used for jobs and colorless spells.”

Amelia was full and truly baffled now. Her brain felt like it had run directly into a wall and was pushing against it. Should she just push a little harder a great relief would come.

The excitement on Perfidelia’s face when Ellie had asked her question. …the right question! Hahahaha!

Quark’s cautious probe.

There is no domineering emptiness within you.

What was the big deal? Why was Perfidelia absolutely stoked? What had Quark meant by that? How does one have an overwhelming feeling of nothingness? No, not nothingness. Emptiness. Not overwhelming, domineering! What was the difference?

Amelia put her hands in her hair and the strangled noises started again. Letting loose a big sigh she hopped forward and pushed her hand out.

“I cast magic against the darkness!” She shouted.

Hopping again she turned the other direction. “Oh! But your spell is so powerful! It takes so much mana to cast! Hahaha fool! I reflect and based on a very small percentage amplify your spell! Take that cur! OOF! I didn’t have enough mana, but it mattered not! The mana came from SOMEWHERE, apparently!”

Playing the role of the original spellcaster Amelia stumbled backward with a heavy ‘ack’ and then fell to her knees. “Why is it that you are so powerful Order of the Black? Why must I spend mana and be out of options and you can just slap down a reverse trap card!”

Amelia got to her feet in a rush and put her hands on her hips. “Hell if I know! Good thing you cast a spell instead of trying to just stab me with a pointy stick or bash my head in with a nearby convenient rock!”

“Oh, I knew I should have used the rock!” Singsong voice without moving this time.

“That’s what they all say! Hahahah--”

“Why do you even have a mana pool?” Cutting herself off, her victim(it was still her) asked in a pained, I am dyyyinnng, voice.

Amelia stopped short, eyebrows narrowing. “Good question you pathetic, non-domineering, absolutely full -- White Wizard. To cast colorless spells! Presumably!Now die!”

“But why does it cost mana to counter or reflect if mana doesn’t matter?”

“You are certainly a chattery wizard.”

“I am sorry. I’ll die now and you can hit play!”

“Thanks!”

Amelia nodded to the empty air and absolutely didn’t worry about the fact she’d been carrying on a conversation with herself. Nope. Not her. The picture of mental health.

“[Play Entry].”

With no consideration for the torrent of emotions and utter ridiculousness that transpired in front of it, or rather, inside it, the imagery around her sharpened into the usual high-definition story-telling of Chronicle entries.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Amelia looked down, experimentally kicking the ground -- which did nothing -- noting that it was no longer wooden planks but some sort of soft purple grass. A small pond, perhaps the size of her apartment in the real world, gave the gentle tinkle of water jostling against a reeded shore. Grass, an entire field of it, stretched out on either side. The border of the scene was blurred trees that had also been struck from a purple palette. Taking another look down, Amelia smiled. The grass was thicker than normal grass, reminding her immediately of the drunken noodles that Forsythe made by hand sometimes. Amelia’s mind started to derail toward how delicious those noodles had been when a breathless Ellie exploding onto the scene.

“Mimi! I thought you were going to wait for me?” Ellie was trying to sound angry even though she was out of breath and it wasn’t really working.

Out of the corner of her eye Amelia saw Perfidelia struggle to rise from near the edge of the pond. It was a bit dark and she had been sitting very still so Amelia hadn’t immediately picked her out when she had been surveiling the park before.

“I left a note,” Perfidelia said with a perfectly amiable tone. “You were taking a very long time and I thought I should get some air to perk me up before I fell asleep.”

“Yes, well, it is somewhat late and I had to rouse--”

“I was asleep. It’s my fault for sleeping. Sleeping at an hour when many sleep if they wish to get up in the morning.” A new voice replied dryly.

“Mimi, this is Peter…” Ellie said, waving quickly. “Peter, this is my-- this is Perfidelia, an Order of the Black wizard who is going to help us with the test.”

Peter was bald in the way that some men could pull off. It looked like a bonus feature rather than an unfortunate turn of genetics. He had broad shoulders and narrow hips, the way his vest hung across a formal button-up shirt and his slick boots didn’t hurt. Amelia looked at Ellie and gave a small smattering of applause.

Oblivious to Amelia’s approval, Perfidelia’s eyes scanned him from top to bottom in a critical manner and a small non-committal grunt came out of her mouth, startling Peter and making Ellie scowl furiously. Seeing the look, Perfidelia quickly half-curtseyed. An attempt was made.

“Hello then young man, let’s be about ourselves then. Go ahead and cast your spell whenever you’re ready.” Despite her words, Perfidelia’s tone suggested that he should just hurry the hell up she was a busy old lady and had things to do.

“You’ll be countering the Mountainslide spell?” Peter said hesitantly. He eyed the scant distance between them and his expression softened when he did his own appraisal of Perfidelia. His face said ‘old lady be nice’. “Give me a moment, I’ll give a little more distance so you have ample time.”

Perfidelia blinked owlishly and then laughed. “How sweet! That’d be most kind. You know how it is, you get older and the knees go and then the mind!”

Peter winced realizing he’d ticked her off. Amelia thought that was a point in his favor. He lost the point immediately when he walked passed Ellie and Perfidelia to open up some distance, obviously not convinced that she could counter his spell before she took the brunt of it.

“Mountainslide?” Perfidelia whispered out the corner of her mouth.

“Not NOW, mimi.” Ellie whispered back in a singsong voice, smiling once and waving when Peter looked back to make sure they weren’t speaking to him.

“Just seems awfully…” Perfidelia kept her voice low, which made it all the more funny really. “Big sounding. Is it big Ellie?”

“Mimi.” Ellie took a long breath, in and out, eyes closed and then opened again. “I’m ignoring you. You’re alright to do this?”

“Mmm.” Perfidelia rolled her eyes. “I’ll try not to sprain my wrist. It’s like this,” she made a soft rolling motion with her hand, “when I counter, right? Or was it more of a sawing motion?”

“We’re ready Peter!” Ellie called out.

“Alright!” Peter was standing practically across the clearing, an easy seventy paces.

“That does seem a bit much,” Amelia winced.

“[Bounty of Heaven, Sand and Stone--” He began, holding his staff out in front of him steadily.

“Good heavens…” Perfidelia muttered, her eyes starting to glaze over.

Ellie kept her lips pressed together, not feeding Perfidelia’s delight at the horrible activation words and long unnecessary incantations with any kind of dismayed face.

“...Beseech, Mountainslide!] Peter finished.

It was only a second but the pause made both Perfidelia and Amelia snort at the same time. Then the ground erupted in front of Peter, a mound rose stretching four, five, six meters high before crashing down. Rather than falling into a large pile or lying on top of the ground where it landed, it surged forward quickly toward the two women.

Perfidelia’s eyes were still slightly glazed over as if she were at a momentary loss.

“Mimi? Mimi!” Ellie looked over after nothing immediately happened, starting to hiss insistently. “Oh for --” Her hand came up and she looked like she was about to counter the spell herself.

Almost like a gunslinger Perfidelia’s staff whipped around after Ellie’s hand motion started, and still beat her, swishing around in a neat half-moon.

The silent and invisible shockwave flattened the grass. The shockwave met the earth spell, and for a moment there was a colossal groan as if the spell were physically struggling with something unseen. Then the earth spell surged straight back toward Peter, very slightly faster than before. It kind of looked like it was picking up dirt as it journeyed, starting to loom taller.

Peter, already somewhat surprised that the women hadn’t countered the spell or even attempted it for as long as they did was absolutely gobsmacked when his spell started to surge back toward him. His face turned real ugly as he realized that Perfidelia had reflected the spell rather than countered it.

Ellie hissed and raised her hand again.

Once again Perfidelia slashed her staff around in a half-moon faster than Ellie could, now looking for all the world like a samurai quickdrawing. The resulting shockwave caused both women’s hair to blow back and away from the force like someone had decided to turn on an industrial grade fan. Ellie covered her face while Perfidelia just kept watching impassively.

The shockwave hit the rumbling dirt, or ‘mountainslide’, mere moments before it would return to Peter. The effect was immediate. Losing steam it fell haplessly forward and down, refilling the hole that Peter had originally made save for a bit of excess that continued to fly onward, finally ending as it slammed into Peter’s shoes and lower legs, dusting both.

“Can’t just leave holes unfilled,” Perfidelia pointed out a moment afterward when Ellie finally had enough collected thought to turn an infuriated scowl her way. “I hadn’t thought about it before. Now everything is filled in and the ministry of landscaping for the city won’t blame this on me.”

“You are who I want to be when I grow up.” Amelia said slowly.

“I’ll go talk to Peter, and apologize -- for you.” Ellie said. The words sounded like they were being squeezed out of her from her toes.

“Oh that’s nice dear, thank you. Send him back to bed after a good pat on the back. His dirt was really, uhh, something.” Perfidelia turned and started leaning on her staff, making her trek back, presumably, to her cottage.

Amelia’s eyes gleamed. Now she had seen it. Magic without mana.

What did it mean?

She had no idea.