Without any form of manabody or core, the mana pressure is insufficient to activate any but the most aggressive of constructs. The fact that such constructs do exist should serve as a sufficient warning to anyone considering sourcing from unverified creators. Excessive mana drain can cause long-term health repercussions and utilizing drain powered items is strongly discouraged.

----------------------------------------

"I think we might have a problem with your plan."

"Oh? Which problem is that?"

She gestured to the other end of the ship, where Lilin stood staring out at the desert.

At no point did Lilin come right out and agree to come with them, but by the time they had the ship repaired and ready to be underway she had somehow ended up with her most essential possessions packed and stowed.

"You and I have spent the past three years learning how to be magical combatants. Your plan involves going to the most dangerous place in any of the moons just to shortcut your way to archmage status, and I'm making a list of the most valuable creatures we could be hunting in order to steal their pieces for Tempest's advancement."

Jair contemplated this with a solemn nod. "Yes, I see. Lilin will need to decide if she wants to be a civilian or combatant." He jumped up with a grin. "I'll go ask her now."

Raina sighed. "Really? Just like that--"

He was already halfway across the ship. "Oh Lilll!~"

She spun, eyes wide. “What’s wrong?”

"Nothing. Just have a question for you. You want to fight monsters or watch us fight monsters?"

"Uh...?"

"It's a simple question, but it changes the kind of equipment I get for you. If you want to be a fighter, that'll be a more aggressive kit. Civilian bystander just requires lots of protection constructs and a few alarms to bring me running with Maelstrom if there's ever a need to actually get you out of the line of danger."

"Jair... what...?"

"Maybe give her a minute to think before assaulting her with one of the biggest decisions of her life," Raina commented, joining them by the railing.

"Nah, she's a Welburne. Making dramatic decisions on a whim is how we are."

Lilin shook her head. "Liar. I remember how much you agonized before sending in your application. You are the last person to talk about being decisive."

Jair waved dismissively. "That was a long time ago. I'm a different person now. So, you want to fight, or not-fight?"

“What’s brought this on?”

“He wants me to do some crazy Archmage training regimen. I need to know what you want to do before I agree or not.”

Lilin tilted her head at them. "I've noticed you throwing around that 'Archmage' title a lot, but I don’t know what it really means. I thought you were a mageblade. Is archmage an upgrade? Second tier? But Raina sounds impressed by it. Third?"

Jair laughed. "I'm currently at tier four, Integrated Mageblade, which is higher than anyone else in recorded history. Most third tier classes are obtained between fifty and two hundred years into life. Being fourth tier at my age is unheard-of, even if it weren’t a mixed-discipline class.”

“Okay…”

“Archmage is tier five pure mage. To attain it as a non-magic class is almost impossible, and it is generally considered to take a few hundred years to attain as a pure mage. Closer to a thousand for a mage-adjacent combination class, such as mageblade."

Lilin's eyes went glassy, then squinty. "Huh? But you just said—"

"That I'd do it in three months, and help Raina reach it in five years. Yes. Because the vast bulk of the time spent is in doing it safely. The people who rush the process almost always end up destroying themselves in the process. Lucky for us, I have a way around that particular holdup."

"So... I could become an archmage?"

"Anyone can, technically, since it's a non-exclusive title. It's not uncommon for a mageblade to attain mastery titles in both blade-mastery and magic, though anyone going as far as archmage is practically unheard-of. People wanting to become an archmage wouldn't dilute their potential for advancement by taking a combined class."

"So I'd need to have a mage-type class?"

"Having a non-mage class will severely limit the sort of spells you have access to. Some are universal, but a lot of them rely on class translation. It's why there are no viable gravity constructs, yet any mage can lift anything with relative ease."

"What kind of spells are universal?"

Jair eyed her suspiciously. "Is that disappointment? Have you already chosen your class?"

Lilin shifted uncomfortably. "I... maybe."

"Sandfisher?"

"No..." but she didn't sound happy as she said it, more resigned if anything.

"What did you do?"

She winced. "Caretaker?"

Jair leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "Right. I forgot. You always did choose that one."

"I never told you because I thought you'd consider it... you know, a waste."

"It is, but that's not the end of the world. A sub-optimal class is just that—suboptimal, not disastrous. Caretaker is, what, a production and advocacy class? The fastest way would be if you could branch it out into healing routes and take a secondary mage-type. It'll take a few months of dedicated effort to qualify for a class upgrade, but I can walk you through it if it's what you want."

"Really? You think I could become a Healer? I thought that was only possible for really rich people."

Jair chuckled and patted his chest. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"C'mon, Jai, you know you're not actually rich."

"Right now, he's in debt to the crown," Raina put in with a grin. "So he's technically even worse off than you."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"See!" Lilin pointed to Raina, then Jair. "Told you."

"Money comes and goes. Knowledge is ...not quite eternal, but lasts a lot longer than money." he knew that better than most. "That said, I'm not sure if I'd suggest pursuing archmage."

"Why not? If Raina can do it and you can…"

"Remember when I said most people die when they try to rush it?"

Lilin hesitantly nodded.

"I can reverse that, but even in the best case the process is excruciating. Most apprentice mages undergo an advancement exactly once. They go to mage, and having experienced the division once, never try again."

"Most?"

"Almost all. Mage towers and academies are all built around the assumption that you'll reach two layers and stop there. The few for High Mage and above are small and exclusive for a reason. The further you go, the harder it becomes."

"But it'll give me more power?"

"Yes."

Lilin nibbled at her lip, thinking. "It's the same for healers?"

"If you're seeking higher mage titles, yes. If you're just looking to advance as a healer, no, no torturous manabody surgery necessary."

"I think I'd like to be a healer, then." She said it very timidly, as though she thought Jair would deride her for it. “But not fight with monsters.”

"Good. I'll run you through the basics. After that, it’s up to you to practice as much as you can to get yourself up to the necessary skill levels. You’ll also need to be responsible for the survival of something weaker than yourself. I normally suggest getting a pet, but in our case…” He glanced at Raina, then chuckled as she noticed and narrowed her eyes at him. “So you should think about what kind of pet you’d like to drag around with us everywhere.”

“Do I need to smack you?” Raina demanded.

“Only if you want to.”

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"You really thought she'd say 'yes, let's throw me straight into life-and-death confrontations with monsters?'"

"I guess I've been around the ambitious too long." Jair shrugged. "You can't deny that every single one of our classmates would jump at the chance to do what we're about to be doing."

"If they had any idea how valuable your experience was. Most of them would think it's a vanity project."

Jair gave Maelstrom a fond pat. "Nothing vain about it. Purely practical."

"So, you'll be ordering her a set of protective gear?"

"Already did. Just need to specify what the constructs will be." Jair frowned. “I haven’t ever outfitted a healer before. Huh. You’d think I would have, but they tend to come already equipped or dead.”

Raina narrowed her eyes at him. “Not everyone has to be a direct combattant, you know.”

“I never said they did.”

“You didn’t have to say it. You embody disdain for support roles so perfectly it screams from your very soul.”

Jair squinted at her. “Now you’re definitely exaggerating.”

“Says the man with a soul literally built around doing everything himself.”

“Just wait, as soon as I’m no longer powerless, you’ll see just what you’ve been missing out on. Then you can start your defence of support classes.”

“I look forward to it.”

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“Why do we have to stop at every little place?” Lilin grumbled under her breath. She stood staring out into the desert as they waited at the sandskimmer for Raina to return from a quick shopping trip at one of the smaller stops along their way.

“You never know where we’ll find something exciting.” He couldn’t help but notice that the direction she was staring was back the way they’d come.

"These little outposts are so inconvenient. Why do they even exist? Wouldn’t it be better just to go from town to town? Why have trading posts without a proper mana grid?"

"Because running cables this far would be ripe for exploitation by nomads, bandits, or just anyone nefarious."

"It's a rhetorical question,” Lilin grumbled. “I already know the reasonable explanations."

"You should announce your rhetoric in advance."

Lilin sighed and glanced back toward the town. "Where is Raina, anyway? I thought she was supposed to be here by now."

"She left five minutes ago. It'll take longer to get to town and back."

She scowled.

“Do you want to talk, or just stand there being grumpy?”

“I don’t know.”

Jair shrugged. "In that case, I'm going to go to the oasis and work on my manabody. Let me know if Raina shows up."

"What? But how do you expect me to—"

Jair summoned Maelstrom and darkflamed himself to the rooftop he'd started to think of as his in Veshin Oasis.

He didn't stay long, just enough to snag a few drifting motes of loose mana and shove them into his fluffy diffuse core. No more than an hour.

By the time he returned, Raina was still gone, and Lilin was looking rebellious.

"Hello, sister dear. What has you in this mood today?"

"My brother is being frustrating."

"That's just his standard state of being."

"Well, maybe I don't like it."

Jair hummed noncommittally. "What's actually bothering you?"

"Nothing. You. Raina. All of this."

Jair shook his head. "You love me, and Raina's done nothing to you. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, apparently."

"Is this about our parents?"

"What do they have to do with anything?"

"You feel responsible for their welfare, and being out here means that you're not in a position to control the situation back home. You're not only incapable of influencing it, you're fully ignorant. So it's ripe to imagine the worst case scenarios you can think of."

Lilin didn't answer for a long moment. "Maybe."

"Maybe?"

She sighed. "Okay, yes. I shouldn't have left. I knew I shouldn't have, but I really shouldn't have left."

"Don't worry, we'll fix that too."

"I don't want you fixing my relationship with our parents!"

"No?"

"Well. I don't think anything you do will help."

Jair chuckled. "You could be right. I do tend to be a bit provocative."

"A bit?"

"Yes. If I wanted to be more provocative, you wouldn't be able to mistake it for anything else."

"I don't mistake your current behavior as anything else."

"Then your standards are very low."

"Or yours are too high."

Jair considered this. "Very possible. I've done some pretty extreme things these past few... years."

"How extreme? You've been at school."

"Oh, I should probably tell you something about that, at some point."

"You're being incredibly suspicious."

"Remember how the king of Veor was asking for my immediate presence, and my headmaster wanted me to return half the royal treasury that I'd appropriated?"

Lilin reluctantly nodded. "I assumed it was exaggerated."

"Not in the least. The king needed help with this plague, and wanted me to do the fire thing for him again."

"Plague?"

"You haven't heard? I suppose news hasn't reached this far out yet. It's starting small, but in another few months it should be system-wide news. Anyone in Veor who comes in contact with the carriers will pretty quickly become a new vector. It has a long delay on it, probably intentionally since it's artificially made, but as long as we're far from Veor it'll be more annoying than dangerous."

“Is that why you kidnapped me?”

“I can send you back any time.” Jair lifted Maelstrom, green fire flickering along its length.

“No need for that.” Lilin backed away. “We can take a few days to think about things before deciding.”

“You have until Terlunia. Once we’re off-world, sending you home is going to get much more complicated.”

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It was early morning on the 25th when their sandskimmer arrived at the depot from which they’d departed. There was a mild argument about Jair’s decision to send the driver back without the vehicle, and additional fees to be paid for the damages, but it was all ultimately trivial.

Once all that was dealt with, they headed to the local transit platform to return to Astralla City. Raina and Lilin threatened to take him shopping with them, but everyone mutually agreed to sleeping first. Staying up all night steering their sandskimmer had left them all weary and hungry.

Within a half hour of their return to the Serin townhouse, Carn somehow got a breakfast together for the household, after which the girls headed off to nap.

Jair detoured to the oasis for a couple hours of work on rebuilding his manabody—mana core currently, and a barely perceptible one at that, but it was progress.

Only once he judged he couldn’t make any more progress without a break to consolidate did he return to the city and allow himself to succumb to sleep.

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