Kai had his medallion gripped in his hand ready to defend his new family even if he had to use Seth to do it. “Yes I can kill all of you foes. All you have to do is let me in.” Kai’s grip tightened ready to use Seth. “You will not ki-” Kai was interrupted by a blast of wind as Sarah moved forward towards the mage. Kai readied to fight, ready to protect, Sarah hugged the mage.
“Oh it's so good to see you Nixie.”
“What's going on Sarah? We felt some powerful magic a couple days ago and then felt it again just now but weaker. So we came to check it out”
Bear set his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “It's ok kid, they’re our friends.” Bear glanced at the medallion in Kai’s hand before going over with Thane and Sarah to greet the new people.
“You guys are hurt here, let me heal you.” The mage, Nixie? Began to cast spells helping to heal wounds. Soon everyone was healed and she walked over to Kai.
“Oh you're covered in blood where are you hurt? I can heal you.” Nixie’s hand glowed with blue light Kai could feel the magic swirling around them.
“It's not mine.” Kai said look at her unsure what to think. He had been ready to kill her but she wasn’t an enemy.
“We can still kill her.” Kai felt mental chains wrap around the piece of Seth’s consciousness and get dragged back down.
“Who are you?” Kai asked her but was ignored by Nixie’s concern for him.
“Hmm if it’s not yours then how did you get covered in blood? “
“Nixie give the kid a break. We can explain things later but for now we should take what we want from the gorillas and leave.” Sarah told her.
“I'm not leaving a 10 year old covered in blood. He shouldn’t have to deal with that. How did he even get covered in blood in the first place?”
“It’s just blood.” Kai said before stopping some of it from dripping into his mouth and then cocked his head to the side. “What’s wrong with being covered in it?”
Everyone looked at him for a moment before Bear let out an amused huff. “Yeah, that's Kai. I'm not surprised that he doesn’t care. Nixie you can give him a quick clean, we don't need anything tracking the blood to find us. Tom you come with me we're going to deal with the bodies.”
“Why are you treating him like this? He's a 10 year old kid and he shouldn't be covered in blood.”
“Nixie there's clearly something that we don’t understand right now let's wait until they have explained. Also the kid doesn’t seem to mind so just give him a quick clean and they can explain everything later. Also if it will make you happy I know there’s a river a couple hours from here where we can rest and get cleaned up.” Tom said before following Bear, to help him with the corpses.
Nixie let out a sigh before addressing Kai. “Come on, let's get that blood off of you.” As Nixie helped wash the blood off of Kai she talked to him. “My name’s Nixie and that's my husband Tom. We’re also part of Thane's team. We had gone off to work on a separate quest when we felt that magical presence. We figured we should go check it out and see if we could find the others. We were on our way when we felt a similar magic presence and came to check it out. We figured it was some kind of beast.” Sarah walked over to them.
“What was that magic Sarah? It gave me the feeling of a cold and permanent end.” Nixie asked.
“It's a long story and something we should probably talk about later.” Sarah told her “also everyone is ready to leave if you're done here.” So with that they left Nixie offered for someone to carry Kau but he declined. Throughout their walk Nixie was never far from Kai and was always ready to help him if she thought he needed it. A couple of times he noticed Tom watching him but it never seemed to be hostile. His looks always seemed to contain curiosity and concern.
Eventually Bear went back to telling stories of their adventures. This time Nixie and Tom were also in them over time everyone started taking turns telling their own stories. Kai decided that he liked Tom and Nixie. They seemed like good people and seemed worried about Kai and why he was out here this far into the woods.
Kai could hear the river slightly off from the direction they were going and turned heading towards it. Thane and Nixie tried to ask where he was going but still followed behind him. After a couple minutes of walking they were at the river.
“Ok Tom and Bear you get the food started, Nixie start setting up tents, Sarah you make sure there's nothing around and then help Nixie when you're done. I'm going to help Kai with his mana.” Thane told everyone.
That blood should be washed before anything else. A 10 year old shouldn’t be covered in blood any longer than necessary even if he doesn’t care.“
“Please Nixie relax and trust me things can be explained after everything is done but for now I need to help Kai with his mana so he doesn’t lose control again.”
Nixie walked off grumbling about how Thane should be treating Kai better. Despite the fact that it was a bit annoying Kai couldn’t help but smile to himself. It felt good having people around that were worried about him. When all of this was done maybe Kai should tell them everything that had happened. Hadn’t they proved themselves. His thoughts were interrupted by Thane speaking.
“Kai when you were in pain I could sense that there was an abnormal amount of mana entering your eye but I don’t know what it was doing could you explain what was happening to me. “
Hesitantly Kai started to explain what had happened as far as he knew to Thane. “I could feel something inside of me draining into my eyes. The draining caused my eyes to slightly burn but I think that was a side effect. The real effect was my senses. They were massively increased, it was like every sense had been cranked up past what they should have been able to do.”
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“What do you mean that they were cranked up past what they should have been able to do?” Thane asked Kai.
“It felt like they were increased past what should have been possible. The reason I knew that Tom and Nixie were coming was because I could hear their hearts beating. It's also how I knew this river was here. I could hear them.”
There was a crash and muttered curse as Sarah fell out of a tree from surprise at hearing that. Thane ignored her and just continued on.
“Ok that was what I thought you meant and I had guessed something like that was what was happening.” Thane hesitated a second, clearly unsure if he should continue. “These enhanced senses, is it something from them?” Thane asked, referring to when Kai had been experimented but not wanting to upset Kai. There was a pause before Kai eventually answered.
“No it isn't, I think I did something similar a couple of times before.” Thane let out a relieved breath.
“Ok good that means I know what’s going on and it should be fairly easy to help you. I believe that you have a runic body part. This is something that you would have been born with since artificially creating runic body parts isn’t possible. A runic body part is a portion of your body that has somehow mutated to direct the flow of mana in a way that causes it to produce an unusual effect. In your case your eyes enhance your senses. Now since this is the case it should be fairly easy for you to get this under control. All you have to do is stop or limit the mana entering your eyes. After you have done that you can train your body to handle more and more input.”
“As for how you will go about doing all of this, that is simple. You will learn mana control. Mana control is the control of mana inside your body. Based on how you used a spell when fighting the gorillas and the lynxes before that, we can tell that you are a traditional mage and not a runic mage. The difference between these I can explain later since it won’t be necessary for now. Any questions?”
Kai hesitated, a look of sorrow crossing his face before he answered his voice quietly. “I remember my mom being told that I had no magic.” he paused, unpleasant memories flashing through his mind before he continued. “Do I have magic because of something that they did?” Kai asked in an attempt to avoid talking about what happened under the mountain.
Thane sighed. “I don’t know. It's very possible that that’s the case. Before we found you and after we realized what was happening down there we burned everything so that no one could use that research. Something that we now realize we might have done prematurely.”
Kai thought about this his voice hard when he answered. “No, I would rather all of that knowledge be lost and I don't know than the alternative. So how do I learn mana control?” Kai asked.
“Ok so the first thing you will need to do is enter your mana scape. To do this you need to envision your mana pool. For you it should be a pool or small lake it depends on and how much mana you have. To do this I want you to get into a position where you can relax. After you have done this I want you to close your eyes. Feel the mana running through your body. Imagine your hand grabbing onto it and then envision what you feel like your mana pool should look like. Allow the mana you have grabbed to guide you the rest of the way”
Kai laid his back onto the ground, closed his eyes and did as he had been told. He could feel the raging storm of mana that had only slightly calmed down moving throughout his body. Mentally he formed that not quite real hand that he had previously used to affect his mana. He attempted to grab onto one of the calmer pieces of the storm but found it just slipping through his hand. So he tried again but he found the mana slipping through again.
Kai felt frustration start to boil up as he tried again and again but only found failure. Kai paused as he attempted to think and observe to try and understand what was going on. Kai remembered the feelings and thoughts that had flashed through his mind earlier that day. Kai breathed out, calming himself and then his will moved. Like a massive wave the will that Kai had forged over 5 years of hell slammed down onto the storm raging inside of himself. Over and over his will moved unstoppable and never ending. Just like the boy who had resisted the whispers of the devils that now resided in his mind.
Kai beared down on his mana his will grabbing at it over and over and slowly it began to clear. Slowly it began to submit to him as it should for it was his and what was his would bend. Slowly the storm cleared and Kai was able to see his mana pool.Or not a mana pool in his case. Below the sky was a ravage desert with pools of discolored disgusting liquid. Yet in the center of the desert was an oasis of pristine clear liquid that shimmered.
Yet as the storm cleared and Kai started to slowly descend he noticed something. This was no small oasis in the middle of the desert but a massive lake. Kai found a body that while being his it felt slightly. It slammed down into the sand next to the lake. Looking up Kai saw the roiling clouds above him. Kai couldn’t help but feel a majestic aw at their beauty and fear of their power. This was not a mere storm, this was not mere clouds and electricity but something far more. This was a powerful and primal force that would strike down any that dared to defy it. As if reading his thoughts the storm rumbled and a bolt of lightning flecked with black the size of a tree shot down at Kai.
Kai watched the bolt of lighting flash down towards him. Kai felt that aw and fear transform into fury and indignation. This was his mana, this was his mana pool and this was his storm. Kai jumped up and beneath him there was an explosion of sand. Kai met the bolt head on, it struck him suspending Kai mid air. Kai grabbed onto the bolt and it started to ravage his body. Though not in the way that normal lightning would. Kai’s body was cut in random places ranging from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head.
Kai did not feel this pain. There was only a scowl on his face. He met the bolt and spoke one word, a single word that seemed to crush everything around him, forcing the storm down towards the lake. “Submit.” The lightning was taken into Kai’s body and the shot back out scorching one of the foul pools of water to the side. Kai stayed suspended mid air glaring at the storm which was slowly starting to calm down and move towards the lake. “Submit.” And it did because Kai would not stand for any to defy him. And if they did they would soon learn the consequences of doing so. Even if it was a storm made out of his own mana that wouldn’t submit to him.
With a mental hand Kai grabbed onto the storm forcing it down. Again and again he was struck by bolts of lightning that cut into his body. Yet Kai did not yield. It was the storm that yielded. “Submit.” With a final push the storm was forced down and back into the lake. Yet as he did Kai found the lake surging and frothing inside of its shores.
Kai floated down glaring at the lake of mana. He could feel the mana surging throughout his body. It was only slightly more contained than before. Kai reached out to the lake and felt at it and as he did he could feel his eyes burning mana.
From the lake Kai could feel echoes of emotion from it. It felt like a beast. No a dog whose master had been hurt surging and trying to protect its master. The echoes of emotion spoke of fear, panic, pain and rage. Kai felt his anger soften slightly. This was not some raging beast but a panicking one.
Kai’s mind reached out further and in a way similar to how one would try to calm a dog Kai communicated with it. Kai told it that he was safe and that there was no danger. Kai spoke to it and told it how it needed to stop since it was hurting him. And like a dog who had accidentally bitten its master the waves calmed and then moved towards him. Kai smiled knowing better than to beat a downed dog reassuring it.
As Kai did this he realized that there was something not quite right about this. His mana felt off and he felt like it was responding more than it should have though he was unsure of why he felt this.