Mana Mirror: Chapter Sixty-Five (Patreon)

No vote this week, I'm afraid, but it should be back next week!

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A part of me expected the sky to split open, for Orykson to descend upon me like a comet.

Instead, when he appeared, he just looked annoyed. He sent out a wave of mana, but Meadow glared at him, and the power retracted.

“It will be as we agreed upon, you old witch,” Orykson said to Meadow, then looked at me. “You have made a grave mistake, Malachi. I hope that one day, you will see that. Your debts have been marked at one million, one hundred and ninety thousand silver.”

I nearly choked, my eyes going wide. I’d known it would be a lot, but over a million silver? I’d never held anything approaching that amount in my life. I was pretty sure even Liz’s family didn’t have that much in cash.

He made a contemplative sound as he looked over Dusk.

“I’ll buy her for the total of your debt.”

Instinctively, I put my hand over Dusk, and she cuddled closer to me.

“No,” I said. “Dusk is her own person. She can’t be bought or sold.”

That actually seemed to get to Orykson. Something flickered in his eyes, too fast for me to recognize.

“Understandable,” he said. “Well. While you have made a grave mistake, you should know that I still have plans for you. If you ever want to return to the path of power, you should let me know. Until such a time, I will be taking one tenth of all the money you make.”

“If I decide to, then I will,” I said.

He looked at Meadow, and something seemed to pass between them, and he vanished.

“As we agreed upon, witch? What was that about?” I asked once he was gone. Meadow smiled mischievously.

“I may have made my way into his castle to speak with him one day. It took a bit of convincing, but we worked out a deal.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“Indeed. I had to trade more than I’d like for it, but alas. He will continue to tutor you in death and space magic, at least as he sees fit. It will not add to the cost of your debts. The way he sees it, it gives him a chance to re-recruit you.”

“So, like with my spatial magic, he’s just going to show up some days to teach me, then leave me alone for ages?” I asked wryly.

“Indeed,” Meadow agreed. “The old man may actually be motivated to teach you better, now, though.”

I let out a long slow breath. It felt… Almost anti-climactic. I’d known for a long while that I preferred Meadow’s tutelage, but finalizing it… I didn’t know. I felt like there should have been more.

“Let’s work out a contract, okay?”

All of us did, writing out terms for her to teach me. It was strange how little it resembled the contract that Orykson had given me. It was far simpler, with the cost of the apprenticeship being that I would do what I genuinely believed to be right, and use what I learned to help people, rather than hurt them.

I was pretty sure that those terms were vague enough that they wouldn’t really be able to hold up in court, but Meadow seemed to care far more about the spirit of the contract than it’s legal aspect.

“Do you want to continue our lesson today?” Meadow asked once we finished, taking my hand gently. “I did my best to shield you from the worst of it, but this was not an easy choice for you to make.”

“I’m okay,” I said. “I really am. I promise. You’d mentioned potentially ascending to second gate?”

“Indeed,” Meadow said with a nod. “At least with life mana. The way I see it, there are a few issues with you ascending right now.”

She rested her hand atop her staff and smiled.

“But for that, let’s go speak to Edward. I have an offer to make him.”

We headed upstairs and woke Ed up, and after a cup of coffee and some cereal of his own, he was looking far more refreshed.

“What’s this about?” he asked curiously.

“I’d like to take you on as an apprentice,” Meadow said. “Formally. You can say no. In fact, if you do, I’ll think nothing less of you, and I’ll continue to try and train you to the best of my abilities.”

“Why?” Ed asked. “You’re… what, sixth gate? That’s even stronger than Liz’s grandpa, he’s a fifth gate. I’m not that good at magic. Better than some. Worse than others.”

“Because you have something far more important than strength,” Meadow said. She reached out and tapped his chest. “You have heart. You enjoy helping people. I’d take a single person with heart over a thousand world-shaking prodigies.”

Dusk burbled, and Meadow nodded.

“I would be honored to have you as an apprentice as well, Dusk, though you may find most consider you to be a sub-aspect of Malachi.”

“Will it mess with my work?” Ed asked. “I mean, Liz and I are saving up to try and get our own place. I can’t really reduce my hours just to chase after power.”

“Not at all. The way I view it, I am there to guide. Not to micromanage.”

“Then sure,” Ed said, shaking her hand. Dusk shook one of Meadow’s fingers with both of her hands.

They both wrote out their own contracts as well, which heavily resembled mine, though Dusk’s included a clause to treat those within her astral plane fairly.

“Well then,” Meadow said, dusting her hands off and wiping a bit of ink off her fingers. “Shall we return to ascension?”

“Oh, are you planning to break through to second gate, Malachi?” Ed asked.

“For life magic,” I said, and he nodded.

“We did get a touch derailed, but part of why I wanted you here Edward, was to prove a point. Please release all of your first gate mana into the air. You can pull it back in after. Malachi, do the same with your life mana.”

I sent all of my life mana out into the air around me, and Ed released his as well. His power matched mine in a moment…

Then kept going.

And going.

And going.

By the time he finished, he had released two times and half again as much power into the air as I had.

“Now, this is slightly unfair,” Meadow admitted. “Edward has yet to ingrain his spells for his magic. However… The point stands. You have constructed your life mana very well, but there’s one aspect of mana that you have sorely neglected. The walls in your mana-garden are still quite low, in large part because you rushed your skill in spellcraft, as per Orykson’s request.”

“Ed warned me about that,” I said. “He said that typically people let spells be mastered and ingrained as they grow, rather than focusing on it, so it doesn’t eat into their mana as much as it did with me.”

“Right,” Ed said. “I did think it was weird you were rushing so much. It would get you to second gate fast, but leave you behind in terms of power.”

“It’s a valid strategy,” Meadow said.

“Wait, but how does this relate to breaking through to my second gate?” I asked.

“You have to hold at least twice your normal mana-garden amount inside you to begin to do it,” Ed said. “And… Oh, I get it. You don’t have a lot of free mana, so with your plants, you’ll be able to hit double that pretty quickly.”

“And then, as I grow, I can go back and fix the power problem,” I said, nodding. “That makes sense.”

“Indeed,” Meadow said. “I won’t make you ascend now, if you would rather fix your power problems now.”

I thought about it for a second, then shook my head.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll break through now.”

Meadow inclined her head, and Dusk opened a portal to her plane. We headed inside, and I took a seat next to the Emperor Tree.

Idly I noted that the river seemed to have gotten deeper, its waters seeming more abundant and the movement of the river quicker. Probably Liz’s grandpa’s mana, then. I was glad it had just reinforced the river.

Meadow took a seat across from me and nodded.

“Alright, Malachi. Enter your mana-garden. This will rely on pure mana manipulation, since your second gate life mana won’t be large enough to support a full-gate spell yet.”

I closed my eyes and let myself slip into my mana-garden, as if I was going to be working out some imperfections in the spell.

“Now,” Meadow said. “Head to the second gate.”

I walked past the cultivated plants and piles of inefficiencies, and to the second gate, noting for the first time that several of the trees did stand taller than the walls. It wasn’t that I hadn’t known that, but it hadn’t really been the focus of my thoughts.

“Fill your life mana with power from the rest of your garden.”

I pulled power into my life gate, draining my space, time, and death gates to do so.

“Now, draw from your plants.”

I did as she said, and the power filled me until it was almost painful, and then until it became actually painful, like someone was stomping on my neck.

“Push the power through your second gate,” Meadow said, though I barely heard her.

I pushed at the gate.

It was hard. Harder than breaking through to first had been, and far more painful.

I felt like I stood there for hours, directing a flow of power too strong for me, trying to open a gate that felt more like a solid wall.

Finally, there was a tiny crack. I felt a tiny amount of power slip into my second gate and touch something else.

“Seize the power,” Meadow said. “Pull it through into your first gate.”

I did as she said, yanking on the second gate mana, and the gate split in two, swinging wide open.

Power rushed through my mana-garden, soaking into the earth and sky, filling the walls and crashing back down again. It seemed to mingle with my Depths of Starry Night technique well, soaking deeper and deeper with each cycle.

I felt the humming of the power that my Harvest Plant Life spell drew in from the world intensify, my mana senses and life sense sharpen again.

I cracked my eyes open, rising to my feet, and feeling the new source of power inside me.

I could now feel six distinct sources of mana inside of me now: my ungated mana, my four first gates, and my second gate life mana.

My first gate life mana felt different than my other first gate mana. It wasn’t as solid or strong as the second gate mana, but… it was substantially denser and more potent than the first gate mana inside my other parts of the garden.

Experimentally, I sent power into Briarthreads.

It burst out around me, solid, dense, and powerful, as if I had artificially increased the density like during my fight with Mallory. I flicked my fingers out, casting Fungal Lock.

It felt… strange. Unbalanced. It was stronger, but not as solid as Briarthreads was. Probably because I hadn’t opened my death mana to second gate yet.

That lack of balance…

I traced it through my spirit. My entire mana-garden was unbalanced, leaning towards life mana, like a spinning wheel with a weight on one section. It wasn’t too bad, but I could definitely feel the spiritual pressure.

Dusk let out a triumphant cheer, and hugged my ankle. Ed grinned, and wrapped me in a hug. Meadow smiled and patted my shoulder.

“Congratulations, dear. Welcome to your second gate.”

END OF BOOK ONE