Mark's full attention was on Donny now. The man seemed to rapidly blink as he took in everything around him. That had been the first word Mark had heard him speak since they’d found the guy. With Grace’s influence fully gone, he seemed to be waking up.
Donny spoke once more.
“Woah, where am I, how’d I get here?”
“Hey Man, we rescued you, good to see you are finally awake,” Mark said, genuinely happy Donny seemed to become more animated by the second.
Clutching his temples Donny turned his head to look at Mark and smiled.
“Yeah thank you for that, but what happened, the last thing I remember was escaping a meteor shower with my girl. That reminds me was there a woman with me when you guys found me? Her name’s Grace, bout yay tall, eyes like the ocean.”
He said this while using one hand to show Grace’s height.
Mark narrowed his eyes, gently shaking his head. What was Donny talking about? The effects of the spell should be completely out of his system by now.
Donny shook his head and his normal genuine relaxed grin appeared as he extended his hand out to Mark.
“The names Donovan, but my friends call me Donny, thanks again for saving my ass”
Mark might have stared at his hand a little too long because Donny tilted his head in confusion.
Slowly Mark took his hand and tried to work through this revelation. His mind then went right to the gaps in Donny's memory.
When he searched his face, Mark couldn’t see even a hint of recollection in Donny’s eyes. What had Grace actually done?
This was more than just petty or controlling, it was insanity. She had actively destroyed Donny’s memories. Did she erase all the ones pertaining to them? What else had she removed?
Mark had seen what his memory looked like, this could get bad. His mind was in a fragile state and Mark would have to take a better look now that her influence was gone. But therein lay the problem, this was a delicate balance. He could do irreversible damage simply by introducing too many contrasting facts to the guy. If this was the reality Donny was living in then he needed time to stabilize. Rushin things would only make it worse.
Gathering himself he said.
“The names Mark, I’m the healer that patched you back up. I’m sorry, you were the only one we recovered. You’ll need to take it easy for a while. I still need to work on your head, you were pretty banged up when we found you”
Mark felt like shit but the alternative was to tell him his girlfriend was a brain-sucking monster that Mark had personally killed. That didn’t really build the best trust. If he was going to fix what Grace had done then he needed Donny's cooperation.
Donny didn’t seem to doubt what Mark had said.
“Yeah it feels like I’ve been hit by a truck, do you know anyone I could speak to about searching for lost persons?”
Mark nodded, but first, he asked Donny a couple of questions to see where the guy stood and if there were any blanks in any important areas.
Overall he seemed fairly stable and after talking for a while Mark determined that the guy was emoting normally, there was just a gap in his knowledge when it came to who Mark was. As far as he could tell there was nothing else missing. Giving him something to do might actually help the guy adjust.
“Well, the admin tent would be your best bet for finding people. We’re in Prospect Park at the moment”
Donny’s reaction was immediate.
“Really!? Prospect Park was where we were heading! Thanks, Mark. I can take it from here” Donny said as he got up.
Mark wanted to keep an eye on the guy but he insisted on going alone. Deciding to give the guys space Mark agreed. If he wanted to go alone then fine, he was safe in the camp anyway. Mark was out of Prana now so he could only attempt to treat him this evening.
“When you are done there make sure you find the Knights, I work closely with them and I will need to keep an eye on your head injury. Make your way there when you get the chance, they will house you”
Donny nodded and headed in the direction Mark had pointed out as the admin tent. Mark was still watching his receding back when Oliver cleared his throat.
“Everything okay, you look a little shaken. Who was that?”
Looking back up with a dry smile, Mark said.
“An old friend, and long story, how about we talk about something easier, like the complexities of magic or something”
Though Olive looked like he wanted to pry he seemed more than happy to continue chatting about their intended topic.
So when they refocused on his magic, Mark learned some interesting things.
“This is Pancakes, she’s been with me since this all started, found her being chased by her previous owner. The guy had turned and was trying to rip her to pieces. I saved her and she stuck around, now I can do some pretty neat things with her help”
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Mark was not unfamiliar with the connection that Oliver spoke of. Ethel and Boe used it all the time.
When he put this forward Oliver nodded but made a distinction.
“So from what I’ve found there are two ways to use [Familiar bond]. One is to use your Mana to enhance them and use them to fight directly but another way is to use their Mana yourself”
Mark was intrigued and it seemed that Oliver was way ahead of him because suddenly the tabby cat named Pancakes jumped down from the bench she had been resting on and into the grass.
The moment she landed the grass, it seemed to gain a mind of its own, lengthening and moving as if doing a little dance for them.
“I can cast magic through ol’Pancakes there and she can assist me with the Mana needed to cast the magic, but not all of it. See from what I can tell Nature magic is slightly different from normal magic”
Mark could see that Oliver and Pancakes were doing was not all that different from what he and Sam had managed with [Joint casting]. However, the connection was a little different, less purposeful, and more a result.
“In what way?” Mark asked.
“Well, the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that with only Mana, we can really only enhance or manipulate plant matter that's already existing. That's why I had to use that seed as a baseline”
Mark cocked his head, so one had to carry a whole lot of seeds into combat?
“Meaning one could not Manifest plant matter?”
Oliver smiled.
“Yes and no. On its own Mana allows us to grow things, however, if we mix Prana into the equation then Manifestation is possible too”
Mark sunk into thought. It kind of made sense. Mana was the domain of creation, but Prana was the domain of Life. Plant life was both, wasn’t it? It stood to reason that one needed both energies to use this type of magic fully. Mana could guide the Prana.
Mark felt like he was on the path to a breakthrough in understanding the energies.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the know-how to make the connection, he was missing pieces.
He decided it would be best to learn to crawl before he sprinted, he figured he’d better start somewhere.
Mark asked Oliver to teach him a spell similar to [growth], and in exchange, he would teach him [Corruption recovery]. Promising him it was worth his time. Though Mark fully intended to put it online after this he felt it was a fair trade.
As it turned out learning from someone that had the skill was vastly superior to learning from an online source.
Oliver tried to teach him [Acceletate nature] which was one step above [Growth] itself and easier to grasp. But as Mark followed his instruction he mixed in what he had understood from staring at Nature magic and incorporated it into the spell. The key was using both sources of energy. Mark actually thought it might be possible to learn the spell with just Mana, however, it would always then be half as effective. Meaning that until someone could manipulate Prana, they were trapped using just manipulation. Mark's familiarity with Prana made the magic so much smother than when he had created any of his other control spells, it consolidated and the intents set properly, letting the magic settle in.
A blinking from the system stirred Mark from his work and when he checked, he had gotten what he had been hoping for.
Spell acquired: Nature control
Through delicate Mana and Prana control, the user has learned to stimulate the forces of nature and direct its growth.
Direction and organism growth correlates to the Mana expended and the strength of the Mana attribute.
Movement and shaping nature costs Mana. Connections to organisms can be initiated to maintain stability.
Prana requirements may vary depending on the complexity of the organism created.
Changes made to existing organisms are permanent.
The speed and strength of this spell are based on the Mana attribute and to a lesser extent Prana.
Warning: This spell disregards the environmental stability required for altered organisms.
Mark was excited, the spell had the potential to be as powerful as any one of his other Control spells. The only difference was that this one was slightly less substance-based. It was like [Earth control] in that he could manipulate a raw material, but then there was all that talk about Connections and organism altering. Which was more on the metaphysical side. This could be the perfect thing to bridge the gap in his knowledge. Chloe definitely knew what she was doing when she had brought Oliver here, but why was helping him understand this important to her? Was it just so she had a stronger ally? Was it to help him, or was it something else?
As it turned out Manifestation of plant life -while possible- was very difficult. Oliver had been impressed that he was able to get [Nature control] outright however he had given Mark a small pack of seeds and said that he may want to practice manipulation first before Manifestion. Unlike inanimate objects, living plants were much more complex. Mark couldn’t just create any plant he wanted. He had to become familiar with the feel of a plant to imitate it.
For example, the seeds Oliver gave him were Japanese wisteria, which were a strong creeper. The organism could eventually become a tree with light purple leaves but as Mark sent Mana into the seed a small vine began to grow in his hand. As it grew Mark could almost feel a delicate pattern within the plant beginning to take shape. It was huge, and taking a step back to view it as a whole Mark could see a magnificent tapestry, making up everything that this little vine was. If one wanted to replicate the organism without its seed, one would first have to learn the pattern or weave perfectly, and looking at the sheer complexity of it that would take time.
The plus side of this was that apparently Manifestation and Manipulation both cost around the same amount of Mana, Manifestation only costing a little more in Prana.
However, the Manifested root still offered a good deal more control and lasted much longer than created rock.
After that Mark held up his end of the deal and helped to teach Oliver [Corruption recovery]. Oliver turned out to be incredibly adept at spell creation, so much so that only a few people came to his mind that could compare. Unfortunately, he could also only manage a maximum of four intents before the spell fell apart. The fact that he couldn’t do it right now was not really a problem, he was so close and honestly probably only needed a little more time before he worked it out. In the meantime, Mark offered to teach him something else. Seeing as Oliver was also compatible with force magic, Mark happily taught him old reliable [Force bolt]. Olive felt bad about accepting the spell but it was such a simple one Mark didn’t see any problem in giving it as a consolation prize in the meantime.
“So make sure when you figure out [Corruption Recovery] you pass it on to any healers you think will be able to master it,” Mark said as they finished up.
He had really enjoyed working through their magic together and hoped they had another chance to do it again. It had been the perfect distraction from this whole ‘Donny’ mess.
Just as he was getting ready to move toward the mess hall for lunch he saw Sam and Henry finishing up a meeting. Cara was standing behind Sam like a happy little shadow. When the two of them broke away Cara spotted him and pointed him out to Sam. Who in turn changed their course to intersect with his.
In her usual bubbly voice, Sam called out to him
“Yo Mark! Cara and I were just going to head over to the training field to test out her abilities, wanna join as another set of eyes?”