Inara woke up, rising from her sleeping bag she looked at Alex who was still sleeping. Yesterday really was a roller coaster of emotions.
She was really anxious when the awakening started. Usually it takes a few seconds before they at least show some minor affinities with one of the elements. But Alex sat there for a few minutes without stirring any of the common affinities or aspects at all. In most cases that was a clear sign of a failure, a mundane person.
Yet when she started to feel her throat clog up and heart sink, they saw him having a minor affinity for life. She was so happy she could cry, it didn’t matter that it was only a tenuous connection.
In fact for a guy it was perfect. He didn’t have to become a healer, or do anything dangerous anyway.
This was the best for personal health and longevity. It also had an added bonus of more vigor she smiled to herself.
The biggest shock came when he actually showed an affinity for space. That was extremely rare, they were coveted by all factions. If they became skilled enough they could create bags of holding, or even in the legendary cases create real storage spaces and even teleport.
But that was highly unlikely, he started to late. The insane amount of talent and hard work required to become a space mage or artificers was prodigious.
Cassandra also said it was an average level of connection, not genius type of level that would be need for him to have any hope of becoming something really special. At best he might be able to create a simple space compressed bag of holding like the one they had now.
Good thing that didn’t matter at all, they would take care of him while he could stay safely at home.
Gently watching him sleep she chuckled to herself while remembering how Lyria sat in the room by his side until she chased her out late at night.
She had quickly brought him to her room after he was done and collapsed.
They both had it bad for him.
He started to stir in the bed before groaning and opening his eyes.
“How do you feel.”
Inara gently said.
“Huh, Where am I?”
“Our home in the city of Nara.”
“Inara?”
Understanding suffused his eyes before he whooped and threw his hands up in the air.
He looked at his hands before closing his eyes again.
His face went strained for a few seconds, before he disappointingly exhaled.
“Hahaha, you can’t use your mana without practice silly.”
His reaction was like any kid who just awakened. They instantly tried to summon their powers, thinking they suddenly became a powerhouse or sorcerer.
“Can you teach me?”
He was scratching his head while bashfully looking at her.
Inara could only shake her head.
“No, it's better to let Cassandra teach you. But for space you need to get a proper teacher or some books and a lot of hard work if you want to do anything with it.”
He nodded to her while stretching his hands.
Getting up from the bed he walked up to her and hugged her.
She stiffened for a second, before relaxing and hugging him back.
“Thank you, again.”
He let go after a few moments before asking.
“Why was Lyria so scared when awakened talked about.”
She sighed before answering him.
“We thought you were already awakened since we found you in the infinite forest. With your clothes, looks and location it was impossible for a mundane to be there. We were right, you just hadn’t actually done it yet. Which is surprising. Normally unawakened people at your age would mean that they don’t have the talent.”
“To fast, don’t understand.”
She forgot herself and talked to fast, having to go over everything again while slowly explaining it.
She was looking forward to the day he properly learned Valerian. It wasn’t that fun explaining the same thing three different ways so he could understand and learn every time.
After he understood.
“But why scared and looks?”
“Well, people who are awakened don’t make families with mundane people. It greatly reduces the chance for your children to have the talent. It’s the biggest shame a talented person can do. Nobles directly throw away and exile every child without talent. And usually people who are touched by mana are better looking...”
She explained properly this time, while looking sad at the last part.
After getting everything straight she shook her head while looking at him.
“I really want to know where you came from. You don’t know any of this, and act completely different from every other person I know.”
He looked seriously at her before saying.
“Tell you all later, too hard now. Not from here.”
She laughed at his answer.
“Of course your not from around here. We already got that part. Come on everyone is waiting.”
They promptly left for downstairs.
Lyria jumped out of the chair when she saw them come, but she quickly froze and started to hesitate.
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Alex smiled at her before opening his arms inviting her in.
She blushed before going for it.
“Congratulation.”
Lyria was beaming with happiness, smiling from ear to ear.
Nyla looked hesitant as well before awkwardly standing closer to them.
Alex promptly hugged her as well. It was becoming a habit of his, it seemed. Not that she would complain.
He looked inquisitively towards Cassandra who was still sitting at the table.
She raised an eyebrow while drinking her tea.
He smiled before bowing his head towards her.
“Thank you all again, for everything.”
If it was one thing he learned quickly that was how to thank them.
***
I was finally going to learn magic, I couldn’t help but get giddy with excitement.
After breakfast I went with Cassandra down to the basement. She was going to teach me the basics.
“What an awakening does is unlocking your connection to your soul. With this you can use your soul to manipulate and gather mana that you have an affinity for. Soul power can also be used as a universal mana that directly effects the world, that's why it’s also called personal mana by many. This is weaker than using gathered natural mana, but gives you a lot more flexibility. You will need to have perfect understanding and control of it and what you want to accomplish to have any real effect outside your body as it isn’t part of the natural world. Most people never use it for anything else except for gathering mana and strengthening their own bodies with an internal cycle. And as you can only generate soul power yourself it makes it so only the strongest and most knowledgeable mages can use it properly for spells. The only way to increase it is to strengthen your soul. Which is a slow and gradual processes of self discovery, personal growth and from constant usage.”
Taking her time she went over everything from the start.
“The first thing you need to learn is how to gather natural mana and control it in your body. Reason for that is it both supplements your natural mana and trains your soul at the same time. Gathering can be done in many different ways. The most important one, and the one we are going to focus on is becoming one with nature and drawing it’s power into your soul. The other methods are using potions, pills or natural treasure to faster accumulate your reserve. Those methods are either expensive or with drawbacks, often times both. So you need to know what your doing before getting outside resources”
She was talking clearly and concisely while I was scrawling notes as fast as I could while trying to digest the information. I still had to ask her to explain a few words and repeat herself for clarification.
“You can only gather mana that are of the same type as your affinity, the better connection you have the faster you can draw it, use it and integrate it into your soul. Since you have a minor life affinity, you wont be able to become a proper healer. But instead if you focus it on yourself It will increase your vitality and endurance. You will never get sick and will heal faster from all wounds and afflictions. Lyria has a holy affinity which is more versatile, but life affinity is better for longevity and passive benefits if you incorporate it in your bodily cycle.”
Making sure I understood everything before she continued.
“Now the big one, you got an average space affinity. Don’t misunderstand, the average part is how well you will be able to absorb and use it. Space is one of the rarest affinities out there, and are highly sought after. But at the same time it’s one of the most difficult to understand and master. Very few people can actually make something out of it without a mentor who can guide them through it’s mysteries.”
She was going over several concepts and methods that were the usual practice. How I should go about it and what I would feel and what to expect.
“The gist of it is that you should relax, clear your mind and try to feel, understand and connect with your affinities. Life affinity is simple enough since you will generate it personally, and it’s mostly supplemented from energy rich food and plants. There is very little of it in the air. While space is everywhere, it’s also very obtuse and will be what you have to focus on.”
Cassandra got up from her chair while walking towards the bookcase.
“Here, you can have this book on basics of mana. It contains the incantations for some spells and explain all the common knowledge that you can reference for help.”
I was curious about the incantation part since almost all the spells I saw them cast had it.
“How incantation come in all this?”
“Well, before Empress Valeria unified the races against the monster king there was almost no mages. There was no sharing of information and you need complete understanding of what your doing to cast a spell. The high elfs shared some of their secrets with all the races on behest of Valeria. They had managed to decipher the language of mana, that made it so people only needed to know the bare minimum while manipulating mana to a certain degree. The incantation speaks directly to the mana and will guide it to do a specific effect. In other words it’s a shortcut that made it easy to produce a lot of battle mages and healers who had the talent for it, while not having the actual skill and knowledge required.”
She went on explaining nuances about casting spells and other tidbits while making sure I understood everything correctly.
After a few hours I was ready to start. Going up to the garden, as It was easier for me to relax outside in the fresh air. After all this time I could finally take my first step.
Getting comfortable under the clear blue sky I closed my eyes and started meditating in earnest.
My first goal was to feel the space around me and when I could sense the mana I would absorb it into my soul. How it worked was usually very individualistic since everyone had a different concept who they were, and what worked for them. But there was still a lot of general guide lines.
The better you understood your affinity and the clearer the image you made with it was always the most effective.
Some people became friends with their mana inviting it in, while other subjugated it through force and some just naturally absorb it like sunlight.
They hadn’t come to a consensus about what worked best, since all of those different methods and more had produced several legends throughout time.
Clearing my mind of the lesson I was pondering about, I tried to just sense the space around me.
“Alex Dinner is ready”
Nyla called out to me.
Sitting up after a few hours with a sour look, it didn’t go as smoothly as I thought it would. I really didn’t know how to connect with space and absorb it properly. It was just a slight inconsistent trickle that came in and a faint sense that was only a shadow of my awakening. That was the only thing I could honestly feel.
I don’t really understand what space really is, except for it’s where everything resides…
Going inside to take a break and eat dinner with girls.
“What’s wrong?”
Lyria asked concernedly, she noticed my damp mood.
“I don’t know how connect space? Small progress.”
Smiling Cassandra answered.
“That’s normal, you just awakened and it’s like everything else in life. It needs a lot of practice. If people were expert from day one then we would have legends running around all over the place.”
Inara also jumped in trying to comfort me.
“Besides you don’t need to worry so much, we will take care of you. Since you started so late you shouldn’t put to much pressure on yourself.”
Accepting that it wasn’t realistic to just instantaneously become a wizard after a single day. I nodded my head in understanding while making a plan for the future. But I noticed something that Inara said, looking up at her with some consternation.
“Take care like what?”
I didn’t like the sound of how she said it.
“You can just stay at home, take it easy and enjoy life while we make sure everything is in order. You don’t have to worry about becoming someone great.”
Inara answered with a gentle smile on her face.
That was the last thing I wanted, was I supposed to become some useless stay at home dad?
It felt bad enough when I couldn’t do anything the entire trip. And the last thing I wanted is to become a nobody in this second chance I got, I lived a mundane existence back at home. There was no way in hell I would do it again, especially in a world of magic. How could I have pride in myself around strong beautiful women if I just accepted being taken care of for the rest of my life?
Lyria saw that I was brooding and tried to comfort me as well.
“You shouldn’t worry so much. Most people start of when they are really young, and most of them still don’t make it. You have one of the hardest affinities on top of that. It’s better if you don’t put to much pressure on yourself. We will take care of everything.”
That had the opposite effect from what she intended. There was no way I was going to take it easy after what they said. If regular hard work doesn't cut it than I just had to work both harder and smarter. Brimming with motivation I was determined to succeed.