The next morning, Florian was already hard at work by the time Theo woke up. He didn’t precisely know what he was feeling, but the similarities between “the Universe” and what he’d read about mana truly were remarkable. So, to make things easier on himself, Florian decided that he’d just give in and call the little flecks of power he felt mana, even though he had no actual idea what the hell those were.

While he wasn’t collecting power so much as letting it flow through him – unless he was doing it wrong, and there was a high likelihood he was doing it wrong – he certainly felt like he was feeling something that hadn’t been there before. Florian only noticed the mana when he was searching for it, and he could feel it move through his body when he focused on drawing it into himself.

If Florian hadn’t had an honest-to-God wizard living in the same house as him, he might have thought he was going crazy. Florian heard Theo sit down across the table from him, quietly opening a can of tuna.

“Have you tried to cast anything yet?” Theo asked when he had finished with his lackluster breakfast.

“I’m not sure how that works. Actually, I’m not sure how any of this works. Why do I need to resonate with the Universe again?” Florian asked, opening his eyes.

“Are you stupid?”

Florian fought a sudden desire to punch the man. “Indulge me.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “The exercises you perform to resonate with the Universe are a way for your soul to strengthen your existence. The stronger your existence, the more powerful magic you can theoretically cast before the Universe rejects your will.”

Now that, that was interesting. “Can you try to teach me something easy to cast?”

“There is nothing really to teach,” Theo said. “You just create an image in your mind, hold onto it, and simply will it to become reality. You will feel it if the Universe rejects you.”

Florian had to wonder if Theo was trying his hardest to be the absolute worst possible teacher he could be. A part of him was surprised that there weren’t any proper spells or incantations; this whole thing felt a lot more like trial-and-error than some kind of arcane science.

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But if it worked, it worked. Florian figured he’d start by levitating the empty can of tuna in front of Theo. Imagining the can of tuna floating gently up to eye level, Florian tried to will the Universe to move the apple.

Nothing happened.

When Florian voiced as much, Theo laughed. “It is not as easy as that. You will need to do your exercises for a few days longer before you will properly understand just how to use magic.”

Embarrassed, Florian turned to resume his breathing exercise again. Just as soon as he did so, he heard Theo leave the house. Florian throttled back his curiosity. For now, magic was more than enough of a curiosity for him.

The mana coursed through his veins, entering his body through his nose and leaving through his mouth. To a certain extent, Florian knew the blue flecks of power were as imagined as anything else Theo had him doing, but they felt so real.

He managed to maintain it for the entire afternoon, pausing for breaks just as a headache began to develop. During those precious moments, Florian climbed the stairs to take part in whatever game Jake had the other children playing. He had played make-believe, battleship, tic-tac-toe, and a variety of other silly games.

Genuinely surprised when Joe produced a chess board – another relic left behind by the house’s owner – Florian almost begged to be next. It had been a long, long time since he’d gotten to play the game, even if he was most definitely irredeemably bad at the game.

Joe, despite being only twelve, shut all of Florian’s strategies down. Every pawn he pushed turned out to cost him valuable positioning, and every trade he took slowly whittled down their pieces until there was almost nothing left at all. Florian counted the pieces and knew that he should be ahead based on the pieces he still had left on the board, but something felt… wrong.

It was Joe’s turn to move. He placed his queen in the middle of the board, creating an opportunity for Florian to trap the piece. With a new goal in mind, Florian started to play a game of cat and mouse. His bishop chased the queen around the board, leaping to a variety of safe positions.

That was, until Florian led the bishop to a trap of Joe’s own. Suddenly, Joe was the cat and Florian the mouse. The game was nearing checkmate when the sun began to dip below the horizon. Hand about to tip his king over and concede defeat, Florian heard Theo screaming outside.

Standing to see through the window, Florian saw Theo run towards the house while being pursued by two of the largest and ugliest Hellwolves he had ever seen. Florian rushed down the stairs, nearly stumbling on the last step, and found his mace. He was through the door before he could stop himself, opening it just in time to see one of the wolves rake Theo’s side with its large claws.

Theo fell to the ground, screaming now in pain rather than fear. The Hellwolves stood over the prone man, but Theo hadn’t fallen fall from the front door to the storage house. Florian was already three, swinging his mace with all his might, the heavy metal weapon slamming into the side of the nearest wolf. The mace bounced off the monster’s scales. Florian's eyes went wide.

Oh. That was new.