Mana Mirror: Chapter Sixteen (Patreon)

I was a bit nervous to let Kene take the Acidbubble-Toad into their lab without me, but at this point, I figured it was a sunk cost – if they really wanted to steal the toad, they wouldn’t have needed to heal me.

Which was still strange to me. I glanced down at my hand. The regeneration spell had done its work well, but there were faint white lines surrounded by bright pink, freshly healed skin running along my palm in circular shapes where the bubbles had impacted.

I spent a few minutes staring at the scars before I shook my head and looked around. Kene still wasn’t back yet, so just like they’d suggested, I browsed the shelves of the apothecary shop. There were plenty of things that I expected, like healing salves intended for livestock, potions to scare off predators, headache medicine, and more.

The interesting thing, however, was that the store didn’t just have the basics that a pharmacy would have. It was a proper apothecary shop, and it was stocked with several pills, powders, elixirs, and other magical supplements. Almost everything I saw was suited for either life mana or telluric mana.

After a second of consideration, that made sense. Even if a farmer would only need a handful of spells – which was something I wasn’t sure was true – getting extra mana would always be helpful. If they could tend an extra half an acre of land, that would be more profit for them, or more food for them to eat.

In retrospect, it was probably a bit foolish of me to dismiss the idea that farmers wouldn’t have plenty of mana. Even if they didn’t have fine-tuned combat spells, they’d still have plenty of skill and mana.

As I scanned the shelves, something caught my eye. It was a small glass jar, filled with a bright green powder, but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention. No, what grabbed my attention was the name: Verdant Pasture Powder.

I’d considered buying a Verdant Pasture Pill a while ago, but they had such a high price tag that it made the prospect not really worthwhile. This container of the powder was even more expensive than the pill was, at almost four hundred silver.

I bent down to examine the powder. The container was small, but it still looked like it would hold more than one powdered pill. It looked like it was about a quarter of a cup of material – I’d gotten the knack for volumetric measurements from years of working at the bakery.

“Considering buying something?” came the gentle rasp of Kene’s voice from behind me.

I took in a sharp breath, not having heard them sneak up behind me, then let it out slowly as I rose and turned around.

They were holding the Acidbubble-Toad’s case out to me, and they arched an eyebrow.

“Did I scare you?” they asked, a light teasing tone entering their voice.

“Never,” I said, putting on a smirk. He let out a light chuckle and pushed the cage forwards for me to take. I took it and nodded in thanks.

“I was considering buying something, though. I know that a Verdant Pasture pill costs about three hundred silver, but I’ve never heard of the powder. What’s the difference? Other than the fact that one is a pill and the other is a powder, of course”

“Powders absorb faster in the body,” they said, “so it’s a lot faster working and stronger.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? There has to be way more than a single pill’s worth of material in there.”

“I wasn’t done,” they said wryly. “It means that everything in the process is faster and stronger. Including the mana toxicity and the rest of the negative impacts it has on the body.”

“Oh,” I said, unsure of what else to say.

“Exactly. Have you got a decent resistance to the negative effects of elixirs?”

“Not really,” I said. I’d had the cheap, simple stuff that schools handed out to kickstart kids Mana Gardens, but that was it.

“Then there’s no way I’d recommend you take this. Your body has no experience absorbing foreign mana, so most of the power would go to waste.”

“I do drink Lithetic Tea before bed, to expand my Mana Garden,” I said. “It’s been pretty effective.”

“That’s not a bad idea to start off with,” they said, “but I still wouldn’t advise you get the Verdant Pasture powder though. It’s still going to go to waste.”

“Well, what would you advise, oh all-knowing alchemist?” I asked. They smirked at that, but it had more amusement than teasing in it.

“I’d advise you take this,” they said, walking a few shelves over and picking up a small brown bottle with the sort of top that could be squeezed to suck liquid into a tube and dropped out.

“What is it?”

“It’s a mana enhancer. Taking a few drops on its own would have a similar effect to an energy drink – they actually share the same general active ingredient, though there are a few extra things in this. But mix it into the Lithetic Tea that you’re drinking, and those extra things will help the enhancer cling to the mana, and will boost the effect of your tea. You shouldn’t drink anything else mana related for at least four hours after that, but if you’re sleeping, then it won’t be a problem.”

“You overestimate how much sleep I get,” I said wryly. “How much is the bottle?”

“Hundred and fifty silver,” they said. “But it should last you about two months.”

I bit my lip before I pulled out my chequebook and wrote out a cheque for a hundred and eighty silver, then pushed it at them.

“Here,” I said. “The rest is for fixing my hand.”

They took the cheque and looked over it. One of their eyebrows quirked up and then they rolled their eyes at me, but they didn’t fight the extra money, and instead pocketed the cash and handed over the bottle.

“If you’re ever in the area again, you should stop by,” Kene said. “It’s a small town, but Delford Forest gets deep, and has some unexplored sections. That’s why I’m here – I cut costs by foraging my ingredients. I’m not a combat mage though, so I can’t go too deep. ‘Course, neither are you – yet.”

They gave me another teasing smirk, but I just smiled at them and shrugged.

“Maybe, it sounds interesting. I’m pretty busy with my apprenticeship, but if I got a chance, I might.”

Of course, that’d preclude me from working to become a friend of the library, whatever that meant, or at the very least would delay it.

“Well… See you then,” Kene said, and for the first time, they sounded awkward.

“Yeah,” I said.

I returned to the inn then, and packed up my stuff, and changed out of my sports bra and back into my binder. When I entered the lobby to return the room key, I found Alice chatting to the owner – Dorothy, I thought? Alice turned around when I entered and smiled.

“Ah, Malachi! I guess you found the little beastie?”

I lifted the cage I held in my now scarred palm.

“Good, good! I saw you went out with Kene.”

“I needed some acid to act as a lure,” I explained, before she could draw any conclusions.

“Of course,” she said. “You know, it’s good. They don’t socialize much. I think their… condition makes them self-conscious, and it does spook a couple of the people here.”

“Their condition?” I asked curiously. That would explain the dark, sharp fingers, and sharp teeth.

“They haven’t seen fit to tell me what it is,” she said, “and it isn’t my business to tell even if they had, unless they’d said it was fine to share.”

“True enough,” I said, bobbing my head in agreement. “Thank you all for your hospitality. It’s been a nice visit.”

“Of course!” she said, waving and conjuring the floating hand again. “Let me help you with your bag again, especially since you need to carry the cage too.”

“You really don’t need to do that,” I said, shaking my head.

“I know, hon, but I’m not forcing myself to,” she said as she gave the inn’s owner a quick hug.

“Alright,” I said, exiting the hotel and starting the walk to where the carriage driver was waiting.

“I have to ask,” Alice said as we walked. “What’s a young man of such means as yourself doing on a smalltime job like this?”

“I’m… not really of much means,” I said, flushing with embarrassment. “My dad’s a baker, and my brother and I chip in with groceries and rent and stuff. My brother more than me, to be honest.”

“Really?” she asked. “I assumed, with your suit…”

“That’s just the uniform that my mentor has me wearing. He says that every man should conduct their business in a suit, or something along those lines. He got me some suits as a uniform, and expects me to wear them when I’m doing missions.”

She let out a cackle at that and shook her head.

“I’m not sure I’d agree, but I suppose I’ve heard before that a suit makes a man. As long as you’re okay with it, that’s the most important part. Though, why did you take a carriage here?”

“It’s way too far to walk,” I said.

“It isn’t too far to take a broom, though,” she said.

I paused to consider that. I’d technically used a broomstick in Highschool, as part of my mana courses, but it had been a long time since I’d used it. They were expensive, and since everything in the city was either in walking distance, or close enough to take a carriage.

For longer trips like this, though? Sure, a broom would cost a lot more, but as I took on more and more complex missions, I’d need to be able to quickly travel further and further afield.

If I used my unattuned gate to gain tempest or physical mana, I’d be able to learn a flight spell someday, and of course I could teleport if I got spatial mana, but all of those were third gate spells.

I wasn’t even at second gate yet. According to Orykson I’d be a third gate by the end of the year, but even then, that was in life and death mana.

“That’s a really good idea,” I said, “thank you for bringing it up.”

I was definitely going to a broom store when I got back to the city. There was no way I’d be able to afford one right now, but I wanted to get a handle on what sort of prices I’d be dealing with.

“Of course,” she said. “We use a broom if we’ve really got to head into the city, though we don’t have many.”

What was with this village and people giving oddly excellent advice? There couldn’t be more than two thousand people here.

As we arrived at the carriage, Alice shook my free hand again.

“Lovely to meet you Malachi. You’re welcome back in the village again whenever you want.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile, shaking her hand back.

The ride back to the city was slow and uneventful, and I practiced my spells as we passed through hamlets, villages, and gently sloping plains. My attention did occasionally drift back to the new scars on my hand, however. I wondered how long it would take before they became normal to me.

Worse, what would my dad and Ed say? My dad was pretty passive, so I didn’t expect too much out of him, but Ed had always been protective of me.

I shook my head and continued practicing my spells. I needed to master these as fast as I could, and worrying about what they may or may not say wasn’t going to help anyone, and would make everything worse for me.

After a few hours, though, we finally arrived back at the city. The Wyldwatch was all but shut down this late, but the Lightwatch attendant took the cage from me and told me that I’d be able to swing by once the Wyldwatch opened the following day and pick up my rewards.

With that out of the way, I headed home.

I stepped inside and was immediately met by the sounds of Liz, Ed, and my dad all playing a cards game. I knew it was a card game by the way Ed was insisting that Liz must be cheating – her luck at cards was the best I’d ever seen. Or maybe she really was cheating, but if that was the case, I’d never been able to tell.

I walked into the kitchen and all three of them looked up.

“Glad you’re back,” my dad said, “how was your trip?”

“You’re home!” Ed exclaimed.

“Hey Malachi,” Liz commented.

Since all three of them were talking at the same time, it took me a moment to sort out everything they said.

“Hey everyone,” I responded, waving my scarred hand, slow enough that they’d be able to see the scars.

“Woah, what happened?” Liz asked.

“I was tracking down an Acidbubble-Toad, and it got me a little bit. Luckily, I had a healer with me, and they were able to treat it fast.”

I braced myself for them to be mad at me for taking the risk, but Liz shook her head and rolled up her left sleeve. There was a thin, round scar there, almost perfectly in the center of her bicep.

“On my first mission for my guild, I was hunting down a guy who’d been holding up bodegas. I found the guy, but he attacked me. His stone arrow went right through my arm.”

Ed tapped his collarbone, where I could see a scar poking out from under his tank top.

“I got this when I was in training, not even in a fight,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t dodge a ball that had been thrown at me, tripped on my own feet in the attempt, fell, and broke my collarbone. Scars are a part of life.”

“I can’t say that I love that you were doing something dangerous,” my dad said, “but I’ve burnt, cut, or tripped myself in the kitchen plenty of times. You’re a grown man now. It was smart to bring a healer with you, but I’m not going to chastise you for doing your job.”

I let out a slow breath and smiled.

“Alright, thanks… So. Can I get in on the next hand you all deal?”