19 Loop 0, Part 19

I climbed back up through the iron door with 13 mana and a spell I couldn’t cast.

The main library was dark and quiet. Reading lamps had dimmed to their overnight setting, throwing amber shadows across the stacks. Grimm was off teleporting somewhere. And despite his warnings about the library closing, there was still one nook with somebody reading.

I limped past the front desk, past Grimm’s empty chair, and hustled on over to my nook in the east. For a moment, I thought somebody had taken my notes. They’d been sitting here since last night. But Grimm must have stored them away for me. I found them filed neatly behind the desk in the gap where I usually wedged them. I pulled them out and spread them flat. Four sources over years of research, and a spell called [Soul Tether].

[Soul Tether — Soul]

Cost: 280 mana.

Creates a direct mana conduit between the caster’s soul and a target’s soul. Transfers mana from caster to target, stabilized by the caster’s soul. Failure to maintain the conduit results in catastrophic discharge through both parties. Duration: Until transfer is complete.

280 mana. I could cast it, but barely. My pool was 320, which left me 40 mana of breathing room. But the notes were clear about what happened when a conduit was underpowered. The mana would try to cross, the structure would fragment under the load, and the energy that should have run from my soul into his would discharge back through both of us. Catastrophic for him. Fatal for me. 40 mana wasn’t much of a margin. I’d need to be full, or close to it, and I’d need to not cast anything else between now and then.

So the math was simple. I couldn’t cast this spell. Not safely. Not without burning through more mana than my body could hold, which meant I’d be casting it while running on fumes, hoping my soul could bridge the gap that my mana pool couldn’t. The same kind of reckless, self-destructive, channel-burning stupidity that had put my uncle on that stretcher in the first place.

I was going to do it anyway. But I needed every drop of mana I could get first, and currently, I had 13. There was only one way to close a gap that size: meditate. Sleep regenerated mana at 20% of my pool per hour, and meditation did 40%. The advantage of meditation was that it also progressed your tier unlocks. The disadvantage was everything else about it.

Everybody assumed I’d love meditation. You sit still for hours and do nothing and grow stronger. My kind of deal, right? Wrong. The problem was it was a boring kind of nothing. I couldn’t recline. Couldn’t read. Couldn’t sleep. Just sitting perfectly still on a hard surface while my brain screamed at me to do literally anything else.

I grunted in frustration and closed my eyes. And I began the worst part of my night—which was saying something, given the competition.

The first hour was the worst. My ankle throbbed in time with my heartbeat, and my ribs still ached from Holt’s mana bolt. Every time I started to settle, my mind shoved an image at me. Finn on the marble with his eyes open. My uncle falling to the ground with a terrible thud. Vex’s headless corpse.

I pushed it all down because I had to. If I sat with it, I stopped meditating, and if I stopped meditating, I would lose my uncle. And then Finn would have died for nothing. I couldn’t allow it.

So I breathed. I pulled the ambient mana of the air back into myself, one slow trickle at a time. I thought about Manifestation, and Alteration, and Enchantment, and Soul Magic. The four forces of the universe comprised the fragile makeup of existence.

A system notification arrived. Like a door in my mind opening to a room I hadn’t known was there.

Level Up! Manifestation, 25

[Manifestation — Journeyman Tier Unlocked]

Prestige Unlocked: [Mana Pool 2]

[Mana Pool 2— Passive]. +50 maximum mana. Your pool expands to accommodate your growth.

Must have been the dragon fight. I’d cast more spells in twenty minutes than I usually cast in a week.

My maximum mana ticked up from 320 to 370. There was a small widening in my mana pool. Like I had drawn a breath deeper than my lungs could manage. Sadly, the pool didn’t fill any faster.

The second notification came ten minutes later.

Level Up! Soul Magic, 25

[Soul Magic — Journeyman Tier Unlocked]

Prestige Unlocked: [Mana Flow]

[Mana Flow — Passive]. +5% mana regeneration during rest or meditation.

The current strengthened. The small trickle became a very, very tiny stream. 25% an hour now instead of 20%. Which wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked, but sitting on an uncomfortable chair in a library, with my best friend dead and my uncle dying, I’d take every fraction the universe was willing to hand me.

I kept going. The mana came, time slid past, and I lost track of both.

A tinkling chime took me out of my meditation, but this time, the third notification was different.

[Enchantment — Level 50: Adept Tier Unlocked]

Prestige Unlocked: Choose Your Path

The level-up had come this morning, in my sleep. But, as always, in order to proceed beyond tier caps, you had to meditate.

Two options materialized in front of me.

[Dual Weaving — Passive] Cast any two spells from the same class simultaneously.

[Spell Merge — Passive] Combine two spells from different trees into a single maintained effect.

At first glance, they were the same thing. Two spells at the same time. But after a moment of thinking, I realized what the difference was. [Dual Weaving] would allow me to cast [Wideview] and [Subtitle] at the same time. But [Spell Merge] had possibilities. I could cast [Light] and [Enlarge] it for free. I could cast [Marble] and enchant it with [Illuminate], or [Magiball], or any other effect. And not only save potential time, but save mana. And part of me really liked being able to get my morning spells cast immediately.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

But I picked [Dual Weaving]. As good as [Spell Merge] could’ve been, nothing would beat being able to cast [Wideview] and [Subtitle] at the same time whenever I needed them.

A fourth and final notification arrived just after I selected.

[Alteration — Level 50: Adept Tier Unlocked] Choose Your Path

[Spell Stretch — Passive] Extend the duration of all active spells by 25%.

[Feedback Loop — Passive] When you alter an active spell, recover 10% of the original spell’s mana cost.

I sat pondering. [Spell Stretch] was my kind of passive. I’d get to cast my spells fewer times to get their full benefit. But [Feedback Loop] would prevent mana exhaustion. Once the thought crossed my mind, I didn’t hesitate.

I picked [Feedback Loop]. There was no way I was going to let myself die of mana exhaustion.

The notifications faded. I had claimed four prestiges. My pool had grown, and my regeneration was quicker. And I could finally stack casts, something Finn had been able to do since the end of last year. It added up to a real jump in power. None of it changed the fact that I was sitting on a library desk with my eyes shut, trying not to see Finn’s face.

My mana kept climbing. 200, 250, 300. The Archives were in that deep quiet that only old buildings got to after dark. The kind with random creaks and moans that made no sense because you knew, knew you were alone.

Except I wasn’t. Through [Wideview], I could see Popo, two alcoves over, curled into her chair, with Into the Deep Wood open in her lap. She was snoring.