I lay in bed, circulating mana smoothly. Keeping my breathing even, I twitched my pinky. That tiny movement was enough to send my mana careening into my muscles and veins. I groaned in pain as I managed to wrestle the stray mana under my control. I did it again, only for the same thing to happen. The damage was small, but from the soreness in my arm I could tell that it would keep building up until my arm was destroyed. I repeated the exercise a few more times, each repetition made it a little easier to wrangle my mana. But, by the time I stopped, my arm was covered in large, splotchy, black bruises. I got out of bed with a hiss, I definitely had overdone it. I couldn’t even move my poor arm without almost crumpling from the pain. As I gingerly walked over to the bathroom, being very careful not to move my sore arm, a voice whispered in my ear,

“The Master asked me to give you this if anything of this kind happened.” I felt a glass bottle slip into my good hand, I looked down in mild shock. Although, to be entirely fair, not much could surprise me concerning the wizened wizard. I pulled the cork off of the bottle and downed the contents. I felt immediately my mana react. I tried to follow it and observe it as it rapidly changed nature in my core before suffusing my arm. It felt different than the mana used during cycling. It was soft and gentle, warm and comforting. I felt my blood vessels inflating from their crushed state, the walls rebuilding. I felt my muscles knit back together.

I didn’t manage to catch how exactly the potion had managed to change the nature of my own mana. It almost made me want to do it again. If I could learn to make this type of mana, probably called healing mana or life mana, then I could circulate mana more often and take greater risks. My growth would absolutely explode exponentially. Putting the idea out of my mind for the moment, I hopped in the shower. As the hot water beat my shoulders into submission, it flowed onto my arms. The feeling was familiar, and very similar to how the healing mana had felt. I focused on the warmth of the water, the fluidity, and the diffusion of the steam in the air. I tried to remember the feeling in my stomach of the potion changing my mana. Tentatively, I grabbed a chunk of my mana and impressed upon it what I wanted it to be. I felt it resist before gradually changing. It wasn’t the same mana, it was different in a very fundamental way. I couldn’t tell exactly how. It was warm, and felt as though it would diffuse into my body. Feeling more cautious than ever, I gently moved it through my body. Wherever I dragged it, the mana tried to burrow into my body.

Once or twice I couldn’t stop it completely, and that portion of my body felt unbearably hot until I pulled the majority of the mana away. I gently spread the mana over my forearm, then I let it go. It burned, I gritted my teeth and collapsed to my knees as the skin on my forearm became bright red. My veins, glowing white like marble, stood in stark contrast to the red. As water flowed down my body and met my forearm it immediately turned into a puff of steam; making it feel as though I was breathing water. I switched the water to cold, and with a start realized that the same still happened. The freezing cold water turned to steam instantly. I thrust my arm in the cold stream of water and focused intently on the mana suffused in the muscle, bone, and sinew. I dragged it out, nearly crying out from the pain. I ejected it out of my hand as soon as I got the majority of the mana. The heat of the mana was so intense, the air immediately combusted. A wave of incredible heat slapped my naked body, drying me instantly. My skin felt tight and taut. Moving was intensely painful. Wordlessly, an artificial spirit pressed a healing potion into my hand.

Swiftly, as to not let the pain overtake me, I ripped the cork off and chugged the brew. This time I was more ready and managed to catch something I missed the first time while observing the mana. It was a difficult to describe aspect of the mana, the closest I could come would be to say it was homely. But that felt like a shallow way to describe it. The mana felt peaceful and tranquil. There was also an aspect of coolness, like mint. It combined with the warmth for that soothing feeling that was pervasive when the mana was doing its work. I observed in rapt attention as the mana seeped into my body and began fixing it. The tightness of skin was completely gone.

I was ready to try again as I toweled off. My experimentation however had used up the majority of my mana. I left the bathroom to see Sylvie was already gone. I sat on the bed and began cycling my mana. My mana reserves began filling rapidly, until I felt they were full. Again I gathered mana in my core, I brought forth the memory of the second healing as it had healed more of my body, allowing me to see more of it at work. I tried to focus on the cool warmth of the healing mana and gradually impressed my will on the formless mana. I checked the mana constantly to make sure it was doing what I wanted it to. Until I felt the vast majority had been converted into a different mana. Tentatively I moved the mana around my body. It felt distinctly different from before. Gently, I bit my finger enough to break skin. Then I pushed the mana to my hand. I let it settle on the limb, and sighed in relief as the small wound closed, although I could tell it was wildly inefficient. It used the entirety of the mana I had converted, with most of it dissipating into the air around me. Clearly I’d need to get better at applying it. The sunlight warmed my face as I let my mind stop fixating on my mana. When I had woken up, it was still dark out. However it was already midday.

I felt my stomach rumble and I got up on unsteady feet. I rubbed my legs, the pins and needles fading after a few seconds. I made my way to the dining hall to see my plate covered by a silver dish. I took it off and dug into a cold breakfast of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, potato chunks, and some sort of lentils. I demolished it in record time, then headed out. As I stepped out, I saw Ghiraldi shooting at Sylvie with stone projectiles. He formed then fired them quickly. My wife used the ball of condensed water to deflect one to the left, then fired it at the old man mid step.

“Good!” he said “Let's see you deal with more.” Sylvie rolled her eyes as the projectiles came thick and fast. To give her credit, she was able to dodge some of them to begin with, using a thin layer of water to deflect or block the majority of them. She reformed the water into a ball in order to fire it at Ghiraldi. But in that one moment where she reformed the water was enough for the Archmage to send a stone slamming into her shoulder. I winced as a crack sound split the air.

A familiar glass bottle materialized in her hand and she drank it down quickly before grumbling to herself. She slowly began circulating mana, rebuilding her reserves. I was shocked that she had gone from walking with the spell active to dodging in such a short time. Ghiraldi’s gaze slipped and settled on me.

“Liam, how good of you to join us. Dodge.” That was the only heads up I got before a stone the size of my fist was sent hurtling towards me. I ducked at the last second and it sailed past. I was far from being out of the clear. Five more were swiftly following. I tried to turn the mana in my arm into flowing water mana and actually managed it. Until I had to move my arm for balance as I dodged a particularly nastily aimed rock. Sprinting to the left, I tried to loop around Ghiraldi. Then, I cheated a little. Using my grimoire, I called up the spell. I felt the water mana flow through my arm and form a perfect sphere. I aimed and fired with the same step. The ball of water sped towards the older man. About ten feet from him, one of the stones hovering around him turned into a flat plane. The ball smacked into it and was deflected high into the sky.

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His eyes narrowed at me

“Use your grimoire again and I'll beat you into the ground,” he stated. I felt Khaos laughing at me in the back of my head and ignored him. Before I could reply, a flurry of stone was flying towards me. Keeping my right arm as still as possible, I formed water mana in it. Then I pushed it out into the shape of a small sphere. That was all I could manage as I avoided being pelted by stones. With a flick of the wrist I fired the tiny orb at Ghiraldi. It didn’t have nearly enough force to even get close to him. He followed its trajectory as it popped on the grass a full twenty feet from him. He looked up at me, disappointed.

“At least you can dodge well,” he grunted. And again, before I could say anything, dozens of fist sized stones were whizzing past my ears. I dodged desperately, but there was no way I could dodge them all. I tsked, it was time to take a calculated risk. I stood still just long enough to form a decently sized water ball. Using my left hand as a shield I took multiple hits, each one crunched against my bones, surely causing at least fractures. I fired the waterball with as much force I could muster, it rocked me back as it raced across the grass towards the Archmage. He casually batted it away with a stone. Destroying its integrity and leaving it to splatter on the grass.

“Better, but that was an unnecessary risk,” he chastised me. I grinned as I formed the remainder of my mana into healing mana and let it infuse my body.

The dull throbbing pain in my arms faded away as I felt the bones adjust and fix themselves. Thankfully there wasn’t any actual break or else I wouldn’t have been able to fix it with what mana I had left. Ghiraldi didn’t seem to notice the healing and waved me off.

“Circulate your mana until you have enough to continue,” he ordered. I sat beside Sylvie and focused on circulating that mana. After a little bit I slowly tried opening my eyes. Instantly the pressure in my mind increased as I fought to keep the visualization and the control going. I could tell it was less efficient, but also that the efficiency was increasing with every passing moment. By the time my reserves were half full, Sylvie was already done and threw herself back into the training. She dodged masterfully, using her orb as a whip of water. She slapped stones aside and fired off three orbs while keeping up her evasive maneuvers.

Almost as soon as my reserves hit their max, Sylvie got cracked in the chest by a stone, sending her sprawling messily to the ground. She groaned even as she drank a potion. Sylvie staggered away and sat down with a heavy thump, immediately resorting to mana circulation. I stood and approached Ghiraldi warily, I spread my legs a little and stood on the balls of my feet. Without any preamble the old man began pelting me with stones. I focused on explosive and sudden movements that would zig and zag me closer to him. Holding my right arm as still as could be I formed an apple sized, and shaped, orb of water. Dodging low, I fired it at the man. As soon as I began raising my arm a stone smashed into my elbow with a snap causing the projectile to go wide. I howled in pain as my elbow shattered. I dropped to the ground, immediately trying to heal the damage. The healing mana forced the arm straight and gradually moved the fragments back into place before fusing them together. The crushed and torn ligaments were stitched together as the joint fluid replenished itself to proper levels. The sensation had me whimpering on the ground, tears and drool flowing freely as the pain overwhelmed my mind. I had spent too much mana healing the elbow, that much was obvious from how my vision was fading. I was going to pass out. I layed spread eagle and let the darkness take me.

I woke up in my bed, sore and aching all over. I slipped out of the bed and saw it was completely dark out. As I made my way downstairs, I heard distant conversation coming from the dining room. As I entered Sylvie and her master were discussing whether or not we were ready to leave.

“What do you think, Liam?” Sylvie said, turning to me. I pulled out my chair and sat down, uncovering my food. I remembered Khaos’ tip. If we didn’t go after that girl as soon as physically possible, I knew he would send someone who would actually kill her.

“I think we should leave as soon as possible, we may not be completely prepared but we know how to train ourselves,” I said, taking a bite of the fish in front of me. Ghiraldi huffed,

“If you fought anyone with a decent amount of skill you’d die as you are. Even with your healing,” he retorted. I paused in surprise, fork halfway to my mouth. Of course he’d noticed that the elbow he shattered was seemingly fine despite me not drinking any potions. I shrugged and kept eating.

“We have our reasons for needing to get moving quickly,” Sylvie pointed out. I nodded in agreement. Ghiraldi glared at the two of us before deflating slightly.

“Fine, you can leave tomorrow. I will have some wind spirits prepare provisions,” he grumbled Sylvie smiled at him,

“At least I learned how to make acid!” she pointed out. Ghiraldi simply shook his head and ate his food. Just like that the conversation petered out and we ate together in silence.

That night I trained mana circulation with my eyes open, until it was as easy as it was with my eyes closed when I had first started out. Then I decided to finally sleep, tomorrow was going to be a very long day and I wanted to be properly rested for it. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. It felt like I had only just fallen asleep when I was shaken awake by my wife. I got up and out of bed, took a quick shower, then inspected the bags Ghiraldi had had packed for us. Dried meat and nuts were the main provisions. Two water skins each and a set of clothing. Some kindling, a ferro rod and knife, a single pot and a two person tent. Sighing inwardly I posed the question

“Where is this girl,”

“So you’ve decided to take the job! I always knew you were a dependable fellow,” Khaos prattled on “Jörundarholt is where you can find her.” I remembered hearing about the city, it was definitely not ‘just across the border’, it was practically halfway into hostile territory. Not to mention it was a city similar in size and scope to Nidariel. I informed Sylvie, causing her to frown slightly before she surmised there was nothing we could do about it. I was surprised when Ghiraldi offered me a simple suit of steel armour. A breastplate, greaves, and gloves. He claimed it was enchanted, as was the bastard sword he pressed into my hand. It was true, I could feel mana moving faintly through all of the items, but it was easy to tell that the effects weren't anything powerful. My suspicions were confirmed when Ghiraldi told me the metal was enchanted to never rust and the sword was enchanted to stay sharp.

Useful, but not game changing enchantments. He gifted Sylvie a staff, likely a focus to make her a more potent caster. Finally he bade us farewell as we made our way to the smaller gate behind the city. None of the men currently on shift recognized either of us under the cloaks lent to us by the Archmage and we passed on without any fuss.A little ways from the city I pulled out the map and Sylvie and I began to plan our route. We’d go southwest, aiming for the bit of the river that was just south of Borg Faxaoss. After that we’d go straight west and we’d be able to get to Jörundarholt. With our plan made, we began our journey.