The old lady's eyes burned inside her head as her hands touched the mass of energy in front of her. The world fell away from her perception as the two glowing shapes of energy warred inside the poor soul in front of her. She knew with all her heart that he was in serious trouble. It took her almost an hour before she started to come back to her senses and her own mind started to comprehend the sheer scale of the man's energy potential.
It took her another hour to successfully divide the two energies in her mind and assigned one a green color and the other a blue color. That had taken a significant amount of her concentration, so she had to take a break. She couldn't let the man's face go, or all her work would be undone and she would have to start over. She entered a mental trance and took a 'vacation' from what she was doing and let her mind drift as if it was dreaming. She returned after only ten minutes and her mental faculties were completely recharged, so she got back to work.
She was astonished an hour later when she found another energy signature. It was well hidden, buried within the green mana as a slightly different shade of mana. She thought about using her talents to combine them together, when she felt another energy signature. This one was just like the blue energy she had parsed earlier, and it was a slightly different shade of blue.
No wonder the man has had such a hard time trying to integrate! He doesn't have just two energies within him! He has four! Four distinct and very powerful energies! The old lady thought in surprise. I need another break!
The old lady took a twenty minute vacation this time and came back both calm and collected. She still couldn't let him go to tell him the major problem she had discovered, because she would still have to start all over if she stopped. She wasn't going to throw away almost four hours of her gruelling work, just to satisfy his temporary curiosity.
He'll find out when I'm done. The old lady thought and continued to work. She focused on the mana energy, since that energy was more alike than it was different, and it took her almost six hours to meld and mold the energies together. She had taken her time, because she knew that if even a little bit of the energy was not integrated, his poor body would continue to suffer when it was damaged magically.
After she finished that and checked his mana to make sure that it was all one signature again, she had to take an hour 'vacation' in her mind to prepare herself for the much harder task of dealing with the blue energy. She knew she could do it and it wasn't difficult in a general sense. What was difficult was how long it was going to take and the mental strain she would suffer. If she compared the time to the amount of energy that she had to work with, then they were both going to be close to starving by the time she was done.
Well, there's nothing to do but to do it. We can worry about the consequences when we have to. The old lady thought and got to work.
*
Three days later, the old lady took her hands away from my face. I opened my eyes and gasped.
Wait, how did I know it's been three days? I asked myself, then memories from those three days came rushing back to me. I had thought I was unconscious the entire time and instead I was having an out-of-body experience and I had watched the old lady work her magic. Her skills were beyond anything that I could imagine. For all the years I had meditated and practised using and manipulating energy, they paled in comparison to someone who had been doing it for over six hundred years.
“Y-you... m-mast-” I started to whisper and the old lady slapped me hard across the face. “OW!”
“Don't call me master unless you mean it.” The old lady said. “I can't accept new students anyway. I'm retired.”
I rubbed my face where she had hit me. That felt like I hit a brick wall. I thought in surprise and felt my face swell. “Thab wassnd nebbebbary.”
The old lady cackled a laugh and put her hand on my face. I felt a flood of healing energy and my face was put back to normal. “What did you say?”
“I said 'that wasn't necessary'.” I repeated and poked my face to make sure it was fine and that she hadn't changed it into a caricature or something. “Why can't I revere a master of energy manipulation?”
“I told you that you would have to mean it.” The old lady said. “Don't give me platitudes. You know the proper way to treat a master. If you are not going to do that, you will ridicule me and insult yourself.”
I thought about growing up in that system and my mind rebelled a little at the thought. “Yes, you're right.” I said with a sigh. “My apologies.”
The old lady nodded. “Come. We are starving and you need to make us something to eat!”
“Can't I just...” I started to reach for my bag of holding.
“No, because I can't get any of those foodstuffs here.” The old lady said. “Show me some of what Unodae taught you.”
I regarded her with a critical eye for a moment and then I let a crooked smile show on my face. “All right. You asked for it.”
The old lady cackled at me and I followed her into the kitchen. “Don't get any crazy ideas. It's just a kitchen.”
“Ma'am, there is more than one way to cook in a kitchen.” I said and took out my hair tie. The old lady turned around as she started to laugh, then her face froze as I shook out my hair. “First, we need a few of those tasty mushrooms...”
I reached around her as I pressed my body into hers. She tried to back up to give me space, so I put an arm around her and hugged her close as I retrieved the small container of mushrooms, then I turned us around and reached for a curved knife. I treated it like a dance and her wrinkled eyes were worried for several minutes as we moved around the kitchen, until she realized that I wasn't going to do anything past random touching. Her eyes changed from worry to ambivalence, then they almost sparkled as I gave her a lesson on what could be called 'couples cooking'.
By the time we finished making our meal and sat down at the small kitchen table, the old lady's seemingly forced cackle had become a demure older woman's laugh, and her face and skin had a slight glow to it. Some of her many wrinkles had either faded or were hidden inside her happy and smiling face. We ate the food at a leisurely pace, even though we hadn't eaten in almost four days. If we ate too fast, all we would manage would be to make ourselves sick, so we let our bodies absorb the food at its own pace and we talked and enjoyed each other's company.
The old lady sat back in her chair and regarded me with her glowing green eyes when all the food was gone. “Hunter, you haven't asked me about your class.”
“I was going to ask right away, then I remembered that I've gone a year without knowing. What's a few more hours, especially if I got to spend them like this?” I asked and waved at the kitchen. “We really made a mess of it.”
The old lady laughed and looked around. “It's going to take longer to clean up than it did to make the meal!”
“Then we should get started.” I said and stood up as I held a hand out to her.
“Excuse me?” She asked as she reluctantly took my hand.
I helped her stand and led her over to the counter with all of the things on it. “You can tell me about my class while we clean.”
The old lady blinked her eyes at me for a moment. “You... are really...”
“I assume you saw what happened with Unodae.” I said and she nodded. “I would have helped her clean up then, except we were interrupted.” I started to sort through all of the still open ingredients and packed away what was still viable and put the containers back on the shelf. “If you want to start washing the dishes, I'll start drying when everything is back in order.”
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The old lady stared at me as I quickly and efficiently salvaged what I could and packed it away. After a few minutes, she started to help and we cleared up what needed to be saved and left just the dirty utensils and dishes we had used. When she started washing the dishes, I saw her just haphazardly scrubbing the things and shook my head.
“No, you need to do it like this.” I said and stood behind her. Since she was only about five feet tall, I was a foot taller than her and could easily reach around her and added my hands to her poor attempt at washing. “If you don't get it all, the grime can fester or get mouldy, then everything you make with it will be tainted.”
The old lady moved her soapy hands and rested them on mine, then she tilted her head back and looked up at me. I wasn't sure if it was because she was the same height or had similar hair; but, she reminded me of Afyne at that moment and all I could think about was how cute she looked. I couldn't help myself and smiled, then I gave her forehead a kiss and started to hum as I properly washed the dishes.
*
Is this really happening? The old lady asked herself as the feeling of Hunter's lips burned into her skin and made her whole body reverberate with restrained energy. Men are supposed to be aloof and a bit careless when it came to... well, everything. Not just male elves, either. She thought and became acutely aware of his very muscular body pressed to the back of hers.
The old lady didn't move her eyes from Hunter's face as he happily hummed something that she had never heard before. It was a pleasant sound, so it didn't lessen the impact of the moment on her well-worn psyche. So far, she had amassed just over half a millennium of experiences during her long life, and this was the very first time that a man had acted this way towards her. She had three children, and this was the first time that she felt a pang of regret that they were all female. Almost as if he sensed her thoughts, he smiled.
“You can't hold me as an example for how your men should behave.” Hunter said. “I think I'm kind of an odd duck, as the saying goes.”
The old lady blinked her eyes in confusion for a moment, then she smiled. “Yes, you are quite odd.”
Hunter chuckled and the old lady felt his laugh reverberate through her back, and she liked that.
“Why don't you tell me about my class while you stand there and watch.” Hunter said.
The old lady smiled and started to help wash the dishes. “You were right in your assumption that you can't cast spells.” She said. “Your mental fortitude and the structure of your mind precludes any casting or expelling the mana from your enormous reserve by chanting.”
“Yeah, I've tried to do even the basic spells that all guards apparently know for survival, like starting a fire and creating arrows. Each time I failed horribly.”
“However, some of the things you do are actually spells that can be cast by others.”
“Wow, really?” Hunter asked, and she nodded.
“Jump, Mage Hand, Body Reinforcement, Lightning Bolt, and a few others... are all spells that can be learned.” The old lady said. “Of course, not everyone would survive casting them.”
Hunter tried to create a Mana Presence Hand and a sharp pain sliced through his head. “ARGH!”
“STOP!” The old lady turned around and her hands were instantly dried as she reached up to touch the sides of his face. Her healing mana flowed over his head and he relaxed as the pain faded. “You need to meditate and attune your body, you idiot!” She said in a huff. “I did not work for four days straight to watch you lobotomize yourself by trying to use your new energy!”
Hunter took a deep breath and let it out. “I'm sorry, I didn't realize...” He stopped talking and closed his eyes. “Yes, I see what you mean.” He said. “How did I not die before now?”
“You've practically died a few times so far.” The old lady said and let his face go. “Please wait until I tell you everything you need to know before you try anything else.”
Hunter raised his eyebrows and then a grin appeared on his face as he wiggled his fingers at her.
“Not that!” The old lady slapped his face again, waited for a moment and healed it, then she turned back to the sink. “I meant your abilities.”
“I know what you meant.” Hunter said and put his arms around her to hug her from behind. “I was only teasing you.”
“You do realize that I could be your great-ten-generations-removed-grandmother at my age.” The old lady said and started to wash the dishes again.
“If you've been watching me as closely as I suspect you have since I contacted you, then you should know that I honestly don't care how old you are.” Hunter said. “Mind you, I also know that nothing is going to happen between us.”
“Oh?” The old lady chuckled. “What makes you think that I won't take your flirting as intention?”
“Your reactions.” Hunter said, confident in his answer. “When I hinted at flirting like this with one of the princesses, they told me that all of the eligible women around were insulted that I would flirt openly with someone who wasn't of child-bearing age.”
“That's not what she said.” The old lady responded and finished washing the dishes.
“No, but it's what she meant.” Hunter said. “I promised myself that I would remain professional and wouldn't tease or flirt with anyone that could take it personally. I even gave my word.”
The old lady tried not to sigh as she dried her hands. “You are a perpetually vexing phenomenon.”
Hunter laughed. “I guess that means you are even more affected by my attention than I thought.”
The old lady laughed as well and slapped his hands around her waist. “Stop holding me so tenderly.”
“That was a lie.” Hunter said and eased his hold and she turned around to look up at him. “You like that I can cuddle you and that I don't expect you to do anything, except maybe cuddle me back.”
“I told you not to use any abilities.” The old lady said and her face flushed a little red.
It was just an accurate guess. Hunter thought with a smile. “I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me so far.” He said. “I know I need to meditate on my own; but, knowing you're going to be right here to help me if I mess up, makes me feel so much better about the whole thing.”
“You seem to develop attachments fairly quickly.” The old lady said as her hands slid around his waist.
Hunter smiled. “Only if I think someone needs it as much as I do.”
“What makes you think that I need a man to hang all over me?”
Hunter leaned his body from side to side to pointedly look at their arms that were wrapped around each other. He looked at the old lady's face and raised his eyebrows at her, which made her laugh and she shook her head.
“Start drying the dishes.” The old lady said.
“Yes, ma'am.” Hunter said and let her out of their embrace, stepped to the side and picked up a dish towel, then he dried all of the dishes. The old lady watched him as he worked and he put everything back where it was supposed to go and tossed the towel onto the counter when he was done.
“You need to meditate.” The old lady said. “You can use my private space.”
Hunter gave her a huge grin and opened his mouth to respond.
“Shut up.” The old lady said, her face bright red from a blush, and she motioned for him to follow. He followed her out of the kitchen and into another room that was bare of everything. “Sit.”
Hunter sat in the lotus position and slowed his breathing.
“Don't jump right in, all right?” The old lady said. “Ease into your deep meditation like you are stepping into a warm bath.”
Hunter nodded and closed his eyes. The old lady watched him and she felt the layers of consciousness in him peel away as he went deeper and deeper into his subconscious. When he reached the point where he would be at his peak mental capacity, she felt both his mind and his body resonate. She nodded at his efficiency and was tempted to lean in and give his forehead a kiss, just like he had kissed hers earlier. However, she didn't want to distract him in this state, so she decided that it could wait until he was done. She stepped out of the small room and closed the door.
*
My mind was assaulted by the sheer amount of energy that my body contained. No wonder I was hurt every time something magical attacked me. I thought as I contemplated what used to be my separate Presence and mana reserves. The old lady, whose name I knew and was restricted from speaking out loud, mainly because she didn't want to breed familiarity between us, had shown me that I had four separate energies within me.
I traced the origins of those energies through my memories and found my original Presence. That energy was as familiar to me as my own hand, and with that pattern in my head, I found the second Presence that had been there. After spending so much time with god and with him using my body like a puppet, I knew that it was a portion of his Presence. I hadn't even noticed that I had gained this second signature energy at about the same time that I had gained my mana energy. Since I knew that god was the one who had given me the ability to use mana, this wasn't much of a surprise.
However, what I thought of as a separate body that housed my mana, was actually the second energy signature hidden within the mana itself. I found that when god converted me to use mana, my body had already absorbed a significant amount of it from somewhere. It didn't take me long to remember that I had been brought to this world by a teleportation spell, and it had been infused with mana.
Chaiya's mana.
With that thought and pattern to follow, I compared it to the mana and energy I had felt when the goddess had taken over Josh's wife and used her as an avatar. It was the same energy, so I knew that while I was in my near death state and my Presence had been almost completely drained, the goddess in her stupidity... or apparently her primary plan as I now understood it... had infused an inherent weakness into my body while it tried to recover from the damage Kara had given me. My body had sucked in any energy it could to try and heal itself, which included both Chaiya's mana and god's Presence as he healed my broken body.
I didn't have one divine being's energy inside of me. I had two. The thought was shocking at first, and then I replayed the last four days of the old lady's work to integrate the energies into their proper places. One complete Presence source and one complete mana source was constructed from the two individual signatures of each. That could have been enough to settle my body's problems; however, the old lady had a different idea. She integrated the two distinct energy reserves together and formed it into one cohesive energy source.
I wasn't sure what to call this 'new' energy, since my feeble attempts at integrating them into my mental and physical techniques had been sorely lacking in comparison to the old lady's efforts. She had taken what was my greatest weakness and made it into something that I felt was going to be my greatest strength. All I had to do was stop my body from destroying itself when I tried to use it. I no longer had two divine being's energies mixed into my body that seemed to corrupt it. The energy was all in one and it was all mine now.
I laughed at that thought and got to work.