62 – Working Too Hard Can Give You A Heart Attack-ack-ack-ack-ack

Jonny woke up back in the mana well in his fur bed. Igrette was leaning against the stone table, scratching Charles under the chin. She did not seem particularly surprised or concerned when she saw Jonny moving, and Jonny wasn’t in any pain, so he slowly sat up and stood up from the pile of furs.

“How are you feeling?” asked Igrette.

Jonny looked down at his body, trying to sense if anything was wrong, but he felt perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually. He felt like he had just gotten a very good night’s sleep after a moderately intense workout.

“Good?” he said, confused.

He remembered what had happened before he passed out. At the time, he almost felt like he was dying. It was not the type of thing he felt he should have recovered from so quickly.

Unless it wasn’t quick at all…

“How long was I asleep?”

“Six hours or so,” said Igrette. “Your body recovered quickly once it calmed down. I’m no healer, but I don’t think there will be any lasting damage. As long as you take it easy for the next few days, that is.”

“What…? What even happened?”

“Your heart got overworked trying to keep up with your body,” said Igrette, as if that wasn’t something to be worried about. “I suspected something like that might happen.”

“You did?”

“The heart is one of the body’s more delicate organs, when it comes to mana capacity. It does not respond to mana as quickly, and is usually one of the main limiters on growth of internal mana practitioners. Yours in particular is under even further strain because your second layer mana courses through your entire body, instead of being concentrated near your core. It has been struggling to keep pace with the rest of your body for over a year now, and has been the main limiter on you reaching second layer.”

“Yeah, I guess… So it’s normal, then?”

“I have no idea,” she said. “I’ve never really seen a body like yours. I’m no Helen, but I took a look inside while you were unconscious to make sure there was no damage. Your heart seemed ordinary—very strong, actually—but out of curiosity, I also took a look at your lungs, and they are… not ordinary. I wouldn’t call them inhuman… but they’re certainly not the same as mine.”

Jonny frowned. “But my heart isn’t?”

“I am not sure if your heart is. You said that it was a mana surge in your lungs that changed them, right?”

“So you’re saying that I should do the same to my heart?”

“Absolutely not! And I doubt you should have done it with your lungs either. Who knows what you actually did there? What I’m saying is that my understanding of what is happening in your body is incomplete. It’s clear at this point that Nulls are fundamentally different from ordinary people, and I cannot say anything about your heart with any kind of certainty. Perhaps it’s normal. Perhaps you are missing something. I have no way of knowing.”

“Hmmmm…”

He used his mana sense to feel around his heart. It didn’t feel weird to him. It didn’t feel injured either, which was good, but now that Igrette had brought it up, she had a very good point. His lungs had been normal, but then they later changed, allowing him to breathe mana. What if his heart was the same?

“I think you might be right,” he said.

Igrette nodded, and Charles leaned in, tilting his head so that she would scratch the side instead of the chin. Igrette obliged, paying more attention to him than Jonny.

“For now, you should take things slow,” she said without looking up. “Rest for today and tomorrow, then start slowly ramping up your activity. Keep an eye on your heart, and don’t let things get out of hand. See if you can glean some kind of insight. Because right now, it is very strong for your age, and is growing stronger at a rate that would have allowed you to progress extremely quickly. But if even that pace isn’t enough to keep up with your mana, then we should strongly consider other options.”

“Right,” said Jonny. “That sounds good.”

“Do you recall that first time I took you to the stone circle, and you tried breathing in the mana, but it didn’t work?”

“Yeah?”

“You had some kind of intuitive understanding that something was supposed to be happening, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, the breathing felt good, even if my lungs couldn’t absorb the mana yet.”

“Pay attention to your heart and see if you ever feel anything similar. Your instincts are our strongest tool here, since we have no precedent to fall back on. Well…”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author’s consent. Report any sightings.

Jonny waited for her to continue her thought, but she never did.

“What is it?” he prompted.

“It’s nothing.”