Mana Mirror: Chapter Fourteen (Patreon)

After a few moments of hesitation, I used a pulse of mana to mark the Wyldwatch mission and tucked it into my pocket. While its rewards weren’t quite as hefty as the Spiritwatch had offered, it was still considerable, and I thought the plant clipping could be a useful thing for the garden that Meadow was helping me to construct.

Besides, I still wasn’t sure if my Fungal Lock spell would be able to lock down the Asomatous – assuming I could even find it.

I notified the attendant, who gave me an acid resistant collapsible cage, and then headed out.

As soon as I got home, I went about sorting everything that I’d need for the trip. It was still early enough that I should be able to make it to the village. I was working, so I’d need to pack another suit. I wasn’t going to be bringing the summer suit – no matter what Orykson said about everyone needing one, I was not going to be caught dead wearing that in a village. It was by far the least concealing of my suits, and small towns could often harbor strange views. Sure, they were generally fine, but I didn’t want to risk it.

I put on my navy single breast suit for now, and packed the charcoal single breast for tomorrow. It would be hot and sweaty, and since I was going to be running around in fields, I’d need to wear my sports bra again tomorrow. At least I could wear a binder there and on the way back. That was something.

Should I bring my Mana Restoration Elixir? If the toad was especially slippery, I might need it.

I bit my lip, then tucked it into my pocket. It was so valuable that I didn’t want to leave it in my bags.

With that, I tossed my duffel bag over my shoulder and headed down into the kitchen. Ed was out somewhere, maybe at work, so I left a note for him and popped into the bakery to let my dad know that I was going on a trip, making sure to grab a couple of the meat buns from the bakery while I was there, then headed towards a long-distance carriage station. Not many of the carriages in the city would be willing to take me all the way out to the village.

“Good day! What can I do to serve you today?” came the voice of a far too chipper woman behind the counter. I was immediately suspicious – I’d worked customer service for years. Nobody was really that happy.

“I need a ride to South Valley Village,” I said.

“Of course! Will you be needing a return trip?”

“Tomorrow,” I said with a nod.

“Of course! Would you like to book a stay at the Heart Lizard Inn as well?” the attendant asked. She sure did say ‘of course’ a lot…

“Yes,” I said. It might not be the cheapest one in the village, but the village probably didn’t have a lot of inns to choose from to begin with. Plus, often places like this would be a bit cheaper than if you went there yourself.

“Of course!” she said. Again.

The attendant took a few moments to scribble something on a sheet of paper, then cast a set of basic first gate knowledge spells on it before she looked up again.

“That’s going to come out to two hundred and five silver,” she said, her smile still firmly affixed on her face.

That wasn’t too bad, actually. It was still quite pricey, of course, but between the five hundred that the job offered, and the fact that I should be getting my first payment from Orykson soon, alongside what I’d managed to squirrel away over the years working at the bakery, I’d have almost fifteen hundred silver in my bank account.

It wasn’t much compared to the price of the suit that I was wearing, but it was still more than I’d had before.

Of course, if I was on my own, that’d cover rent and not much else, but that was why people had roommates. Besides, this was only one job.

I quickly wrote a cheque for her, which she confirmed with another quick first gate spell.

“Excellent! Darren will be out to escort you shortly.”

Darren, as it turned out, was an absolute bear of a man. He stood at least six and a half feet tall, and his shoulders were the size of a pair of boulders.

I was struck for a moment that, while I wanted larger shoulders, maybe I didn’t want them to be quite so… impressive.

The entire eight-and-a-half-hour ride there I spent working on mastering the Analyze Life and Analyze Death spells. Alvaro’s tip was really paying off – I had to drink less Mana Shock, since sketching out the spell didn’t take nearly as much mana as powering it.

I still had more mana in my first gate for life than I did for death. It wasn’t a problem just yet, but it was obvious that it could become one if I let it fester long enough. I was already able to sketch the Analyze Life spell almost a dozen extra times before I needed to let my mana refill.

Maybe I’d find something to help with that in this village. It wasn’t likely, but stranger things had happened before.

I did also practice the Fungal Lock spell a few times, but since it wasn’t nearly as complex, I was less worried about how long it would take to sketch it in a fight.

Besides, a small, greedy part of my brain was looking forwards to whatever reward I’d get if I managed to master the spells. Even if it was just another Mana Restoration Elixir, that would still be valuable.

By the time the carriage finally arrived in South Valley Village, it was already dark. Lanterns and floating orbs of light illuminated the village just fine, but the plains to the north of the village, where I’d come from, and the woods further south were eerily dark.

The door of my carriage slid open as soon as we came to a stop. To my surprise, rather than the living mountain of Darren, there was a short older woman with short, spikey white hair next to the carriage. A golf club was slung over one shoulder, and a floating hand made of force was floating over the other.

The hand swooped into the carriage to pick up my bag, and the lady held out her hand to help me down. I took it gratefully and stepped out.

“Ah, thank you,” I said, a bit uncertainly. She was helpful, but I had no idea who this woman was.

“Sure thing, dear,” she said, holding out her hand for a shake, which I took. “My name is Alice.”

“Malachi,” I said. “Are you with the inn?”

“Oh, no, no, nothing like that,” she said, laughing and shaking her head. “I’m the middle school mana theory and language arts teacher.”

For a moment, I was surprised that she taught three years of students in two subjects, but it did make a certain amount of sense when I thought about it. With a small village like this, they probably never had more than twenty or thirty students at a time. Of course it wouldn’t be like the schools in the city, with a dozen teachers for each age and each subject. I

“Pleasure to meet you,” I said. She was very kind, but I still had no idea why she was here.

“I’m also on the village council,” she said, shifting her golf club to the other shoulder and beginning to walk. “I’ll lead you to the inn. You’re here to deal with the toad problem, I’m guessing?”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, nodding as I hastened to follow her.

“Good, good!” she said. “I thought you may be here for that. We’ve got plenty of mages, but most of us don’t know any combat magic. I know a little bit, but it’s no good for capturing a beastie like that. We can scare ‘em off just fine, but the little bugger just keeps coming back.”

The floating hand carrying my bag gently nudged me.

“But that’s what the Watches are for, eh?” she asked with a grin.

“I suppose so,” I said with a nod. “Do you know where the Acidbubble-toad was seen last?”

“Old Edmund chased it off of his farm the day before today,” she said. “His farm is to the south, it borders right on the Delford Forest.”

Great. I’d have to go around the spooky forest.

I just hoped it was a little bit less spooky in the daylight.

“Anything else I should know?” I asked.

“Don’t let its bubbles touch your skin,” she advised, nodding her head sagely. “It won’t kill you, but the acid that it’s laced with leaves a pretty nasty burn. Kene, the village doctor, is a fair hand with their healing magic, but even they acknowledge that acid burns are hard to heal up.”

That was interesting – she’d called Kene they. Once could have been brushed off as coincidence, but twice in one sentence was rather strange.

“Where does Kene operate from?” I asked, curiously. “I should probably know, just in case.”

“They own a clinic over yonder,” she said, waving her hand to indicate direction. “They put up a big ol’ sign, can’t miss it. It’s our apothecary and doctors office rolled into one.”

“Thank you,” I said. A moment later, we pulled to a stop in front of the Heart Lizard Inn. Or at least, I pulled to a stop. Alice waltzed through the doors and began to chat with the receptionist.

I was too busy being transfixed by the Heart Lizard that was sitting on the roof.

I’d seen a few magical animals before, of course. Elysian Shrews were all over the place, and I’d seen the odd Choruk rooting around in our garbage for scraps of meat.

This was a bit different. It wasn’t a drake, since it lacked the downwards facing legs, instead resembling an overgrown lizard. Really overgrown. The thing would have been longer than me, tip to tail, and its body was the size of a larger dog.

Its body was patterned with heart shaped scales, and there was a large splotch of red on its chest, like the diagram of a heart. It cracked its eye open at me as I stared, and then closed it, apparently dismissing me as not a threat.

To be fair, I probably wasn’t. I might be able to pin it down with my Fungal Lock spell, but that was about it.

The most overtly magical part of the lizard, however, was the red aura that emitted from it perpetually.

It was faint, barely there at all, like the thin whisps of cloud on a bright summer day, or the mist just after the dawn. But it was there, soaking into the world around it.

Out of curiosity, I sketched out my Analyze Life spell and poured some mana into it.

The lizard lit up brightly. I was able to see the lines of life energy running through its body, more vibrant than most humans. I could see its heart, it’s brain, its bones, and more besides.

And, interestingly, I could see the power it was using much more clearly. It wasn’t a spell, not as I understood a spell at least. There was definitely aspects of life in it, but there were other aspects too. I couldn’t see them, but I could see the absence of them, the blank areas where they would go.

The aura rushed through the body, travelling through the blood. It seemed to strengthen the lizard some, as well as anyone within its Aura. More than that, it seemed to do something to the blood. I couldn’t see it with my naked eye, but I got the sense of cleanliness. Purifying the blood, maybe? I wasn’t sure.

“You alright hun?”

I practically leapt out of my skin at the sudden sound of Alice’s voice.

“Sorry if I scared you,” she said, smiling.

“It’s fine,” I said.

“Never seen a Heart Lizard before?” she asked curiously.

“No, never,” I said honestly. “They’re… Really cool. A little freaky. But cool.”

“They’re all over the woods to the south,” Alice informed me. “Docile enough. Patricia raised this one from an egg that had been abandoned. She’s a sweet soul. Named her inn after her.”

“Ah,” I said, nodding.

Alice held out her hand. In it was a room key.

“There you go, hon,” she said. “Good luck with your toad search tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” I said as I took the key from her.

The next morning, I awoke refreshed and ready for anything. After a quick breakfast of porridge in the inn, and having to stop the heart lizard from taking a bite, I headed down further south to the farm I’d been told about by Alice.

The farm was in surprisingly good shape for having suffered the attacks of an Acidbubble-toad. A few of its crops had withered away, but it couldn’t have been more than a hundred square feet.

The forest, to my disappointment, was not made any less spooky by the sunlight. It was, in fact, even creepier. The light that slipped through the thick canopy was barely enough to see by, and made every sound and shadow into a threat. It was far worse than Trollstone, which had plenty of trails, and a Wyldwatch station right near it.

“Primes,” I said under my breath. I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to go in there.

But there was nothing else to do, unless I wanted to wait around, just hoping that the frog would show up. Toad. Whatever. There wasn’t a difference to me, no matter what science may say.

I stepped into the forest, holding my breath.

No toad leapt out to attack me.

I took another step into the forest.

There was a gentle rustling, and something burst forth from the underbrush at me!

I lifted my hand to sketch a spell, then let out a breath.

It was just a Choruk. The small, racoon like creatures would eat just about anything. Some people found them gross, but I thought they were rather cute.

As if to prove my point, the Choruk lifted a decaying leaf from the ground and stuffed it into its mouth, then wandered away.

I let out a shaky laugh and pushed deeper into the forest.

By the time that a quarter of an hour had passed without me being attacked, I was starting to relax a bit. I stuck to the edge of the forest, since I wanted to be on hand in case the Acidbubble-Toad appeared to try and eat more crops or destroy more stuff.

Still nothing.

By the time two hours had gone by, I knew I was going to have to try something different. I had no idea what would bait the creature out, but it had attacked the wheat crops.

That didn’t track with what I knew about toads, but maybe it’s magic included some sort of enhanced stomach?

Or maybe…

I strode back to the farm to examine the remnants of where the toad had been making a meal of the farmer’s crops, then ran my finger through the ground.

I wasn’t an expert on melting wheat with acid – that would be a very strange thing to be an expert at – but it didn’t look like there was much left. I’d have expected some sludge, or something.

I set the cage down, with its trapdoor open. Maybe the toad would wander in and sleep. It wasn’t the kind of cage that could snap shut, but who knew. I’d already been really lucky. Maybe the luck would hold out!

But I needed to visit Kene first.