110: Mana

As I lay on the ground, my eyes closed, I reached out towards the fireplace, trying to feel anything there. The lack of anything had me worried, but as I concentrated I felt something. It was difficult to describe; unlike the wind, which seemed to have two states—one which was still, and then when it was turbulent, rushing in a direction while I was moving.

The fire was different. It wasn’t hot like I expected; there was no temperature at all, but it felt like there were mini explosions, over and over again, as it burst against me while I was probing. More than that, it felt like emotions.

As I felt the fire mana, there were curiosity and confusion before it seemed to shift to excitement and happiness. This was quickly followed by the feeling of some of the mana rushing towards me.

I panicked as I quickly withdrew my senses, fearing I had done something wrong, but I visibly saw a stream of orange-red come from the fire to where I was. It didn’t hurt; it just lingered. Then I reached out again, this time feeling my whole being surrounded by the fire mana.

And it conveyed happiness—this was Crisplet. Was this how he was communicating with Lily?

I spent a couple more hours branching out to other areas where I thought mana should be, but I had no luck. Anytime I tried to detect earth mana, either in the hut that Milo built or in the ground itself, I came up empty.

I tried to reach out to the barrels, which were still outside with the wagon, but either it was too far away or just was not strong enough for me to feel, because I couldn’t sense anything.

Overall, I was happy with my successes. At least today had not been a complete waste.

***

I woke up the next day, opened my eyes and realised I was still in the hut, so it was still early…

Trying to move my head, at first I had no success, but after a minute of trying, I felt my finger twitch. Was I finally getting some movement back?

In my excitement at thinking I was finally on the mend, I attempted to recall the buffs of the eel I ate…

I was met with immediate pain.

Letting out a groan, I caught Liane’s attention, which surprised me that she’d even be awake in the morning, but a moment after the pain sped through my body like rolling fire, Liane was sitting next to me.

“Morning, you tried to use an ability, didn’t you?” she said with a smirk.

I tried to nod, but nothing happened. I just blinked my eyes a couple of times.

“Well, good news and bad news. You can use abilities, but that pain will linger for a while yet, and you’ll need to use those mana channels to get them accustomed to the new size. I’m sure Milo will talk your ear off about all the details.” She chuckled.

I tried to move my finger again and felt it twitch. The movement did not escape Liane, whose eyes opened wide.

“You’ll be moving again soon! That’s great; it’s been boring without you.” She leant in conspiratorially. “Micca has been trying to cook for us. She’s much better than Milo, but you’re better.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Micca’s voice came from not too far away.

I took the moment to close my eyes and reach out again to the mana. I tried to reach Crisplet again, and once again, the moment I touched on the mana I got brief confusion, before excitement, and again a stream of orange and red came over to me, startling Liane.

“You’re getting mana from Crisplet?” She frowned.

I blinked once, but the single ember from Crisplet answered it better.

“He’s finally able to sense mana, and I believe he’s using his to reach out and communicate to Crisplet is my guess,” Milo’s voice came from somewhere I couldn’t see at the moment.

What I saw was the burst of embers from the fire, Crisplet confirming Milo’s theory.

“Well done for figuring that out by yourself. Usually people take a little while to get that down,” Milo said, now sitting on the opposite side to Liane.

“Can you just sense Crisplet? Or have you felt other mana types as well?” he asked.

I just stared at him—why was he asking me questions when I couldn’t answer?

It seemed Crisplet felt my displeasure, because a moment later Milo had a piece of coal thrown at him, causing Liane to burst into giggles.

Milo looked between me and Crisplet before it seemed to click.

“I’m sorry, I forgot you can’t talk yet,” he said, rubbing the dark mark from his cheek.

It wasn’t long before I was being carried out of the hut as I watched it fade to dust behind me. I also caught sight of George, who was riding on the back of Sable, and Darren, who was at the front of the wagon.

My finger twitch had become nearly full movement in that finger, so I was making rapid progress in regaining my movement. I know Liane said I would need to use abilities again, but I hadn’t tried since—the pain I felt was incredible, like fire running through every vein and nerve.

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Once I was inside the wagon, I tried to reach out with mana again. I knew where the barrels were, and I aimed for them. At first I felt nothing. I could sense the wind mana below me again—it felt still—but where the barrels were I felt nothing.

Could the water mana just be weak?

I kept at it for what felt like several hours. Twice I felt Crisplet reach out to me, and just express happiness and excitement, before the mana retreated.

I was close to giving up, and honestly, the only reason I had not given up yet was the alternative was to try using abilities, and this seemed better than pain.

But I felt something, slippery almost. Every time I brushed against it, it slipped away.

This must be the water mana?

I continued reaching out. I never got to properly feel the water mana; it always slipped away as soon as I felt close.

During this whole time I had been trying to move my fingers, with some relative success. I could now move my finger up and down, and felt like I was making progress on the rest, so that left me with only one thing to work on…

Use my abilities.

There were only a couple I could do without movement or cooking, and that was to use the memory, or activate Arcane Foraging. If I were being honest, I didn’t realise the memory used mana channels at all until I tried to recall what buffs the eel gave.

I knew the pain I’d experience trying to recall, so at least for experimental sake, I tried to activate Arcane Foraging.