Beau deftly took the box from the top shelf where it had resided since his arrival in Bath. Tepi was eyeing it curiously, Beau was eager to show him the wonders of magic circles so he hurried the process along.

“What you see here consists of so many magic circles it would take one magician a lifetime to replicate it.”

“So, how was it made?”

“Three magicians, in three generations. When one passed away, they also passed the responsibility of completing the box.”

“And, it’s purpose?”

“Well, that, I’m not entirely sure. I enjoy thinking it was made to show the beauty and wonder of magic.”

“That’s pretty naive thinking.” Beau looked angry at Tepi’s remark, however, had to concede that it was slightly ridiculous. To have three generations slave away at something that ended up being nothing more than a party trick.

“Anyhow, let’s crack it open, shall we?”

Tepi appeared hesitant, something about the box felt like it should stay closed. But if Beau said it was fine, who was he to disagree?

Beau cracked the lid ever so slightly, activating his magic barrier so that the magic inside did not affect him. All he saw coming out the box was a shimmering blue colour that he had identified to be mana, he was always surprised as it seemed as if the box never ran out. He smiled as he saw Tepi instantly caught up in it, his eyes closing and his body barely staying up straight.

Tepi was taken by surprise, he had not activated his mana eyes and was currently somehow in a desert. A beautiful oasis with palm and mango trees was a little to his right, on his left a road that led to a city where he could see only the tops of the buildings in the distance. He went to take a drink of water from the crystal clear water but was swallowed whole instead. He found that he was kneeling down, proposing to a beautiful lady, hidden by the shade being cast by her hat. His hands shaking as he slid the ring over her finger. As it reached the base he was transported again.

The transition was less subtle this time and jerked Tepi out of his trance. Suddenly he became aware of a distressing feeling. He instinctively triggered his mana eyes, which confirmed the uneasiness he had felt. Instead of moving to the next scene he had returned to the shop.

He turned to the box to find mana streaming out. He found himself unable to look directly at it, a darkness like which he had never felt guarded the box against his intrusion. The mana that escaped was all corrupt, jagged like the piece he’d seen earlier that day. He approached the box with his own mana which resulted in a feeling that made his skin crawl. It threatened to suck his soul right out of his body. Tepi gasped, the darkness was strangling him, as if trying to kill the witness. His own mana went to his aid, forming a wall in front of him and for a second he was able to breathe again, then the darkness adjusted and attacked for the second time. This time directed the freed mana towards Tepi, moving around the shield to get to him. He attempted to stop the mana with his own, but was never able to absorb any, only fend them off. Tepi’s vision started to cloud, his breathing felt forced and raspy, eventually, he could no longer breathe at all.

Beau noticed nothing unusual about Tepi’s experience, that being until he suddenly passed out, collapsing onto the ground like a bundle of freshly washed clothes. Beau instantly extended a mana tendril to close the box, unsure of what had happened but knowing it had something to do with it.

Tepi’s eyes slowly parted, the room was hardly lit so his eyes adjusted quickly. His breathing was still shallow but the pressure on his neck and the overwhelming darkness were gone. Beau was sitting on his right, in a very similar position to when they’d first met.

“Maybe don’t open that box in the future.”

“Probably a good idea. That’s what I get for using something I don’t understand as a novelty item. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I’ve put you a danger. Here, I’ll walk you home, it’s late and I don’t want anything else happening to you.”

“Sure, that’s fine. However…”

“What?”

“Well, how do I start?”

“Usually at the beginning, but it’s up to you.” Tepi scowled at Beau who was clearly not taking this seriously enough.

“Right, yesterday when I was walking back from school I was thinking about stuff and suddenly my whole body filled with mana. After that when I reached into my pool I felt a lot more than before.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“That’s perfectly natural, maybe a little early but that’s to be expected, your body is trying to catch up with the immense amounts of mana you are capable of storing. We just call it a breakthrough.”

“Okay, so I had one of those and suddenly I felt parts of my body had become more accessible, so I pushed mana towards my eyes and suddenly I could see mana.”

“You could see mana? As in you figured out how to manipulate pure mana?”

“No, that’s just it. I can see mana energy, like, oh it’s hard to explain. It seems like a primary form of mana, it’s purer than anything I’ve ever experienced.”

“You’re telling me you can see mana in it’s purest form, fresh out the oven, as it were.”

“Well, it’s only a guess but that seems like the most plausible explanation.”

“And you see these by empowering your eyes with mana? You realise how crazy what you’re telling me sounds.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Of course you don’t. What you’re telling me is that you’ve managed to manipulate mana without bringing it out of the body. No one has ever done that. I hadn’t even considered it. Show me.” Tepi closed his eyes and reopened them, clearly showing the purple shine that conquered his usual colour.

“That’s incredible.”

“Well, that’s not it.”

“What do you mean, that’s a lifetime's research right there.”

“After being able to see mana, I found most of it to be drifting around aimlessly, without anyone to manipulate it, it just flows with the wind. However, I found some odd looking mana that zipped around like it was, well, I dunno, like it had a mind of its own.”

Beau slumped back in his chair. He thought Tepi was going to be a handful but for completely different reasons.

“And when you opened that box, well, that was the worst I’ve ever seen. The mana actually attacked me when it realised I could see it.”

“It attacked you?”

“Yeah, why do you think I passed out, I was being choked.”

“Right…” It was Beau’s turn to be gobsmacked. After training Tepi for a week he had abilities Beau had never even imagined being possible, the danger was if he did not know how to use them.

“Have you considered the reason why Pandora’s Box exists is to keep something sealed inside. I mean, the name comes from Greek mythology and the box in that contained all the world's evils.”

“I thought it was just a clever name.” Beau sighed.

Tepi scratched his head.

“Um, I could be completely wrong.”

“This is terrifying enough even if you are. So you’ve told me 3 things. Your personal abilities have become enhanced to a level where I am no longer familiar with it. You have discovered sentient mana that may or may not be carrying out its own agenda. And you think there is something evil inside my box.”

“For a summary, I think you’ve nailed it.”

Beau adopted a solemn silence for 20 minutes or so. By this time Ella-Mae returned home.

“Good evening you two, did you go overtime again?” They would often stretch magic training out for as long as possible, Tepi was a fast learner and Beau was much too excited to have his own apprentice.

“Yes, but, I was actually waiting for you. I’ll explain why later after Tepi’s gone why, but it looks like I’ll need to be White Demon again.”

“Who’s White Demon?” Tepi inquired, wide-eyed at the fanciful name.

Watson met Beau’s eyes, she knew he would not say this lightly so she was eager to find out why.

“Alright Tepi, I’ll walk you home, do you have classes tomorrow?”

“Yeah, in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll pick you up afterwards, we have things to do, and I’ve just realised I haven’t bought you any new clothes or anything. You’re still wearing the ones I gave you 2 days ago.”

“I hardly think it matters.”

“Well, it matters to me. I’ll see you in a minute Ella-Mae, I won’t be long.”

Tepi’s thinking kept him up for much too long. By the time he got to sleep there were only 3 hours left until breakfast which Fila would wake him up for no doubt.

She did just that, and despite the gravitational pull of his bed being almighty, Tepi left it behind to help cook some eggs. Determined to fulfil his role in his new home.

His day was stunted by the anxiety of Pandora's Box and the putrid mana hiding behind the pretty illusions. He has come safely to the conclusion that his mana was slightly different to the others. He knew he had more mana and that it was purer than most because Beau had told him, but when he’d asked about mana vision Beau told him he’d never heard of it.

He blinked green and brown eyes and suddenly they gained a purple hue that was unmissable if you took any time to look.

His classroom had quite a large amount of mana flowing through the room which was understandable considering it was filled with magicians. There were different amounts of mana seeping from different individuals. The teacher was not leaking any, which meant she had impeccable control of her mana, Perhaps the worst at controlling their mana was one of the students next to Marianne, Tepi had forgotten his name.

They split for a 10-minute break before resuming the lecture. Tepi suddenly found himself surrounded by 4 people.

Marianne was 1 of the 4, she was standing in front of his desk smiling. “Hey Tepi, how’s it going?”

“Alright, thanks.” He said, looking at only her. Only because he was too nervous to look at the rest of the unfamiliar faces.

“My friends and I were wondering if you wanted to practice magic with us after class. The University lets us use some of the rooms.”

Tepi had plans.

“I’m alright, thank you for the offer.” They looked at him with confused expressions, unused to being turned down. Marianne took it on the chin and let it drop. “Alright, well, have fun! You’ll be missing out.”

Tepi smiled but felt slight disappointment in not being able to join in. From the brief conversations he’d had with Marianne and a couple of her friends, they seemed like nice folk. But Beau would be waiting for him and Tepi was undoubtedly more interested in potentially intelligent mana than whatever shenanigans would be happening after class.