Mana Mirror: Chapter Nine (Patreon)

I studied the trail for a few moments as the carriage left behind me. I didn’t know the trails that well – it was rare for us to visit them growing up – but I checked the map for the trails that went by the most bodies of water.

I could have ignored the trails once I hit a river and headed downstream to search, but I didn’t fancy my odds there. I wasn’t an experienced rock climber, and I didn’t want to risk slipping and falling.

Instead, I selected a five-mile loop that would cross a stream as well as go over a large river twice, and set off.

Going for a hike was rather nice. Even though my suit was hot and slightly uncomfortable, it had clearly been designed to move around in. I wondered if Orykson had somehow ordered a combat suit. It seemed like the sort of over-the-top thing that he’d consider to be absolutely necessary.

The suit did also definitely get a few odd looks from the other hikers, but nobody stopped to question me – on a Friday afternoon like this, a lot of the people were with their significant others, and most of those that weren’t were trail joggers, here for the health aspect.

As I hiked, I cracked open a can of Mana Shock and began drinking. By the time I’d gotten to the first stream, my mana was more or less restored, so I sketched out the Analyze Life and Analyze Death spells. I was getting faster at that – casting them so many times per day had me down to only about a four-minute sketching time.

The spells were still ridiculously complicated. I doubted that I’d ever be able to cast them within a few seconds until I mastered the spells.

Was that part of why he’d selected them? Maybe, but I wasn’t sure. Meadow had made Ed cast the Analyze Earth spell, so maybe masters of magic just valued the breadth of the Analyze spells. I didn’t know what tier of mage Meadow was, but she was good enough for Orykson to send her to me, so she had to be talented.

I realized that I was getting distracted and finished drawing the spells, then pumped mana into them.

Abruptly my world exploded in green and purple light.

The forest, even the parts that were well traveled by human hikers, were absolutely filled with life and death energy.

I could see the roots of life that shot through the earth, the ancient and powerful lines of energy making up the old rowan and alder trees. The worms that traced life through the ground, infusing everything with a bit of their vitality. The mushrooms that seemed to take death energy and slowly feed on it, harvesting it and turning it into life mana. The skeletons of ten thousand creatures, all a part of the cycle of life and death.

For the first time in my life, I understood why life and death were paired inverse mana types.

I knew about the cycle of life, of course; I’d learned about it in school. But there was a difference between knowing something and understanding it.

And in that instant, my mind was overwhelmed, but I understood. Life and death were distinct. Separate. They only overlapped once in a while.

But…

They were also twins, holding hands. All life energy eventually became death energy, and death energy was slowly filtered and converted back into life energy.

Abruptly, the spells cut off.

I was out of mana. I’d spent the entire time I was maintaining the spells just staring at the forest.

I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, thinking over what I’d seen. Understanding a spell, how it worked—and, more importantly, what it did—was good for advancing how fast you could master it. Even I knew that much.

It had been a little overwhelming, but… it had been good to see. Like staring into a thunderstorm.

After a few moments, I took a sip of the Mana Shock and opened my eyes. I stretched, wiggling my toes and fingers, then shaking out my limbs one at a time.

Once I was feeling more in control of myself, I glanced around, looking for any moonwater lilies in the small creek. I didn’t see any, but then an idea struck me. I stepped a little bit off the trail and grabbed some of the cross bracing.

I didn’t trust myself not to fall over if I was unsupported, but since I was able to stabilize myself, I figured I’d be fine.

I ducked down. For once, I was glad that I was short, as it let me slip underneath the bridge.

There!

There weren’t many, but four moonwater lilies had gone unnoticed underneath the bridge. That was twelve silver, at least. Not enough to pay for the trip here, let alone a round trip, but it was a start.

I gathered up the flowers and tucked them into the bag that I’d brought, then set off again.

Sure enough, under each of the other bridges, I was able to find a few more lilies that had gone unpicked by the public, and by the time I finished the loop, I’d collected eighteen lilies total, each of the other bridges being larger and holding more. More than that, I’d gotten to experience the shock of using the Analyze spells in the forest three more times.

All things considered? I wasn’t sure how to feel. I’d made enough to pay for my fare one way and part of the way back, so I was taking a monetary loss.

But on the other hand, I felt like I’d advanced my understanding of Analyze Death and Analyze Life by a rather significant amount – more than I had at any other point in the week.

I could try for another loop, but none of them went over as much water as the first one, and I’d already hiked five miles. I didn’t feel super up for another three, which was what the shortest other loop was. But if I made myself go the extra mile – or extra three, in this case – I may be able to recoup the costs.

I stood there for a few moments, unsure of what to do. I glanced up at the sun. It wasn’t quite noon yet.

I gritted my teeth, let out a sigh, and plunged into the thicket of the three-mile trail. This route only passed over one bridge, and when I found it, there were only two flowers left underneath it.

Presumably, the shorter trail had attracted more junior Wyldwatch members and freelancers, which was something I really should have seen coming.

As I picked the lilies and put them into my bag, I briefly considered following the brook downstream. It was shallow enough that I didn’t think it would be too much of an issue, even without experience in climbing. Then again, if I thought I could do it, a Wyldwatch member would probably have thought so, too.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a slimy voice and an arm patting my shoulder.

“Hey baby, what are you doing down there?”

I froze for a second as panic ran through my brain. I slipped my hand in my bag and wrapped my fingers around the vial of pepper-fire extract.

What should I do?

Liz would probably already have called up a storm of shadows around her, ready to attack if somebody tried anything untoward.

But Liz came from a family of battlemages, had fighting experience, and had both her family and their guild to bail her out if she got in trouble.

Orykson had made it pretty clear that I would sink or swim under my own merit, so the only person I’d have to bail me out was Ed, if it came to a fight.

I doubted that Ed had ever had to face anything like this, but I could only imagine him telling the person that acting that way wasn’t cool, and he needed to back off.

That might work, if only I wasn’t a five-foot-five shrimp of a man, without any skill in combat – physical or magical.

My dad would probably just serve the person what they wanted from the bakery and hope they left, but taking an entirely passive stance felt gross to me. It may be the smart choice, however – just ignore him and hope he got bored and moved on.

But it could also be the wrong one. He might take that as permission to harass me further.

What would Orykson do?

I didn’t have much time, so I went with it.

I stood up sharply and tucked my hands in the pockets of my suit, then turned to face the speaker.

The man who’d touched my arm was a few hairs shy of six feet tall, with greasy hair that was a dirty blonde color, and he reeked faintly of alcohol despite it being far too early for someone to start drinking.

I hardened my eyes to a point and scowled at the man, then I poured my death mana out into the air around me in a rush.

My mana-garden was only about halfway recovered, but I poured every last drop of it that I could out into the air, until it was thrumming with first gate power. I needed to give the impression that I was willing to throw away all of this mana on a single attack.

“What do youwant?” I asked, deepening my voice and trying to fill it with as much derisive scorn, annoyance, and confidence as I could.

It seemed to throw the man off for just a moment and he took a half a step back, so I stepped forward, seizing the momentum.

A moment later, I could see him starting to regain his composure, so I pushed forward again.

“Well?” I demanded, making my voice as impatient as possible. “I asked you a question.”

“Nothing,” he said a moment later, turning back to the trail. “Just wanted to make sure you hadn’t fallen.”

“Clearly I didn’t,” I sneered and stepped forward again, not turning, but instead heading down the opposite end of the trail.

My heart was hammering as I walked past him, trying to maintain the air of confidence and composure. Even as I was walking away, I didn’t let my composure slip, nor did I let go of my pepper-fire extract.

I kept an ear out as I walked down the trail, trying to make sure that he wasn’t following me, but I didn’t want to turn around. If he was, then showing any degree of nerves was just going to egg him on.

It wasn’t until I’d gone at least a quarter of a mile that I finally let my composure slip and turned to look behind me. I didn’t see anything, and I hadn’t heard anything other than forest sounds, so I wasn’t being followed – probably.

I let out a long, shaky breath and tried to stop my hands from trembling. I rubbed at my eyes and blinked them several times.

There was a twisted sort of irony in the situation.

I’d always been able to walk the streets of the city without too much fear, but that was because the Lightwatch were always around and on patrol.

I’d heard that in other countries, the constables weren’t as trustworthy, but Mossford kept strict rules on who was able to work as a Lightwatch member, and the people had a strong trust in the Watches.

Out here, my only hope would have been a wandering Wyldwatch member or a stranger.

But the ironic part?

I’d wanted to be a Wyldwatch member. I thought that the isolation would be useful for me.

I took a deep breath and centered myself. I wasn’t being entirely fair. There was a Wyldwatch station at the head of the trails; I’d let them know. Even if there wasn’t anything they could legally do against him for what he had done, they’d make sure to keep an eye out for him and police the trails a little bit more heavily.

Hopefully, this was just an isolated incident. Everyone I’d passed on the longer loop had been perfectly fine.

Even still, I made good time back to the station. I turned in the moonwater lilies and warned them, just as I’d planned, and I was pleased to hear that they’d send someone to talk to him. They couldn’t do more – just as I’d suspected – but having him confronted at all was more than I’d hoped for.

Once that was done, I flagged down a carriage.

“Where to?” asked the driver as I pushed the silver towards her.

“Uptown,” I said. It was decided, at least in my mind. I needed a spell to help defend myself, and Orykson wasn’t going to provide one until I had mastered the Analyze spells.

Which meant it was time to visit the public library.