When the old woman walked back in the room, she was being trailed by an even older man. "So, I hear you have something interesting to sell." The man said with a surprisingly clear voice. "I'm helper Denerk, the master of goods." He continued. Only then did Evelyn realize that the man hadn't moved his lips at all while speaking.
"Uh... Yeah. I can sell you the powers of a cleric, that work anywhere, not just a god's domain." Evelyn replied.
"That does sound interesting. How does it work?" Denrek said, again not moving his lips. It was making Evelyn nervous. She was fairly certain the man was somehow speaking using his mana manipulation. If that was the case, then Evelyn was standing in front of a man with immense power.
"Well, you see this tattoo in my right hand." Evelyn said, raising her arm. "It allows me to sacrifice a bit of my mana to my god, so that they can use it to do what I asked. Like create this water from thin air." Evelyn pushed her mana through the tattoo in the teardrop shape, and had a fistful of water condensed in her palm. Then she took the vial with the powder in her left hand. "I can sell you the powder used for the tattoo, and teach you how to make different things, like fire and water. Then if you're happy, I can get you more powder."
Denrek intensified his gaze, making Evelyn more nervous than she already was. "More powder, and where do you get more powder?"
"There's this... Tall spire built by the god, I get it from there. It's near Valessa. You might even be able to see it from here."
Denrek relaxed. "Alright. I'm going to offer you two gold wholes for that powder, after you prove your claims of the dust. After that, maybe come in a week if you have more goods to sell." Evelyn nodded, not able to make a sound. The local money was composed of wholes, two inch long rectangular rods, with one end bent to a loop so that they could be hung on a wallet string. The wholes were made from a few different materials, like iron, copper, silver and gold, and each had eleven grooves in them, so they could be twisted to multiple pieces by hand. That way, a single whole could be seperated into halves, quaters, thirds and so on. In her life, Evelyn had only ever seen copper wholes, and caught glimpses of iron. Two gold wholes was more than even Michelle made in ten years.
Evelyn quickly proved that the dust was the real thing by pouring some of it on Denrek's palm, in the ice shape, before explaining the meaning of the different shapes, and asking Denrek to push a tiny bit of his mana through it. The whole room fell well bellow zero almost instantly, and Evelyn became richer than she had ever imagined. Never before had such a long walk felt so short.
----------------------------------------
The question kept burning in my mind. So much so that if I still were human, my brain would be a crisp by now.
The whole point of the question wasn't just that I couldn't create functional magic wielding life for my tower trials. That was just the annoying side effects of the question. Why? Every single molecule, atom, and even subatomic particles I could sense were in the exact correct places, with exactly the same bonds. I even went so far as to painstakingly copy the flow of magic the real crows had, and yet, nothing.
Everything about my copies was perfect, but they still didn't act as expected. Perhaps the cells didn't gather magic because I made them with purpose, causing them to work in a similar manner to my carbon spheres. The larger animals could be explained in the same way, with the assumption that magic was what made something conscious. The magic being mine instead of the crows, the crow would effectively be braindead.
There was just one gaping hole in that. It didn't explain my own existence. Humans couldn't do magic on earth, so there probably wasn't any magic there. That of course was just an assumption, but one I was fairly certain was right.
Logically, the only way my crow problem was possible, was if I was missing something. If there was something in my domain that I couldn't sense, which happened to be necessary for conscious life. And that's where the real problem came in. It was annoying that I couldn't create proper life to wield my magic. But if there was one thing I couldn't sense, there just as well might be more that I couldn't sense, and that thought scared me.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
There could be so much that I could have done, still could do if only I figured out how my senses worked. I could only dream of being able to manipulate space, gravity, or maybe even time itself. Would there even be limits to me if I could sense and manipulate everything? I was already godlike in my domain, what would happen if I became more of a god than god. What if there was already a being like me controlling the universe.
The thought both thrilled me, and scared me. I already had unlimited potential, and had plans to become the benevolent magic granting deity of this planet. If I could sense reality itself, I theoretically could have the potential to become even more. I just needed to figure out how I could make a blind tower see what it couldn't.
The obvious place to start was to compare what I already could sense, with what I knew to exist and couldn't sense. That way I might be able to figure out some logic on why I couldn't sense some things and could others, if I was right about magic not causing consciousness. Only problem was, I couldn't know what I couldn't sense.
With that realization, I decided it might be smart to start with properly proving magic didn't cause consciousness. I focused my attention on one of the crows I'd made multiple copies of, thinking up plans and ideas on new experiments.
----------------------------------------
Michelle was giddy with glee. She had given the kids a few different exercises in precise manipulation of mana, and to her surprise, they were good, really good. Like Evelyn, the kids didn't have much previous experience with manipulating massive amounts of mana. Thanks to that, and because they had a relatively tiny amount of mana, it's precise manipulation came easily to the children.
In only a day, Michelle had taught all of them to create ice, by simultaneously freezing and creating water, which Michelle herself hadn't yet managed. Sure, her students might have had the advantage of inexperience, but that didn't make Michelle any less proud of their achievements.
Michelle's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the school door.
"Come in!" She shouted. The school day had already ended, so either one of them had forgotten something in the classroom, or an angry parent covered in cold water wanted an explanation as to why their child had thrown freezing water at them. Michelle was filled with dread as the door opened, and a familiar face dressed in priest's clothing stepped in.
"Good afternoon, It's good to see you." Priest Thomas said.
"...What do you want." Michelle groaned.
"What makes you think I want anything. Can't I come to see you without any specific reason?" Michelle only stared flatly. "...Well, you see. There is a spirit very near this small village of yours, as I'm sure you've been informed. Unfortunately, we have reason to suspect it to be evil, if not a demon. It has already killed two people, and we hear it took the right arm from a small boy. Even Valeria refuses those marked by it into Valessa. I seek to kill the spirit, in hopes that it won't reach this village, or gods forbid, Valessa."
"What does this have to do with me?" Michelle asked.
"Unfortunately, the helpers guild is reluctant to send more people for such a dangerous task, so I'm gathering the best mana manipulators from around the area in hopes of removing the threat. I seem to remember you did something similar before you decided to become a teacher."
"I'm sorry, but I won't join this group of yours." Michelle replied.
"Why not? From what I heard, you are plenty skilled enough."
"You're talking about the spirit in the tall spire, right?" Michelle asked, to which Thomas nodded in reply. "That spirit isn't evil, it's a God." Michelle said simply.
Thomas narrowed his eyes. "And what has this spirit with a taste for death done for you to imagine it is worthy of that title?"
"It gave me power, I'm technically their cleric." Michelle said, before lifting her hand, and bringing a small flame to existence through her tattoo. "The god came up with a way to give people power outside of its domain, the tower is full of trials to see who deserves how much power. Anyone can enter it, no need for a hiearchy of priest and clerics."
"And how dangerous are these 'trials'. How can you be sure that the given power isn't just to bait people to their deaths."
"I don't... But the benefits outweigh the danger."
"You do know that's exactly what our ancestors once said of the Western Tyrant. And look where that left us, escaping to a different continent, with only young local gods to help us. You have no idea if the spirit is good or not, you shouldn't bet your, and everyone else's future for that."
"As you said, we survived a demon once already, if this spirit turns out to be one too, we'll survive. But if it's a God, it'll have so much more potential than Valeria. You shouldn't throw away a potential future because of fear of the past."
"The longer you talk, the more you sound like a heretic. I don't care if you join the group or not, my mission remains. I just hoped you could have made it less dangerous." Thomas said, before calmly walking out of the classroom. Though Michelle could almost never see eye to eye with her uncle, they never shouted at each other. Thomas was a priest, and as such he was trained to be calm no matter what. And Michelle didn't want to make Thomas's life any more miserable than it was under the rule of his goddess. She was determined to show Thomas that there are better ways to help the masses than giving up his body to the blood sucking Valeria.