Magical Engineering

I was having trouble answering any of the brothers’ questions, between the fight, the mana loss, and the thing that had dug into my mind, the concept of focusing on the world around me didn’t work. I was grateful that they had saved me, and hopefully, soon, I’d be able to communicate as much, but at that moment, language didn’t process very well. I felt something being shoved in my mouth, and forced myself to chew. As the slightly sour taste of what I was now pretty sure was a leaf hit my tongue, a small bolt of electricity shot through me.

A sliver of mana returned to my core. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get me to sit up and let my soul-core reaction flare back to life. “Thank you,” I said, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my head.

“It’s a good thing Gamma was back here with us, or we wouldn’t have realized what you were doing,” Cecile replied.

“Please do not try something like that again, especially with your mana so low, Dave. I do not know what Corey would have done to me had I let you die. Plus, we have so many experiments to run when we get back,” Gamma replied, as their manifested form walked up the aisle.

“I’ll try not to. Any idea how much longer ‘til we are back?” I asked, wanting to be free of these highways.

“I doubt it’s much longer. You were out of it for about twenty minutes as I got the mana-sprig ready for you. Luckily, I had a few in my storage, kind of forgot they were there, not very powerful yet," Cecile replied.

“Glad you did either way. Probably something we should actually discuss in the future. A standard first aid kit could be very useful.” The idea had somehow just hit me, which, considering what my life had been the last few months, was surprising, to say the least.

“Looks like we are almost there. The transports in front of us are slowing, and I think some at the front are vanishing. At least I hope it’s because we are there,” Glunderlin said. As I started to pull a chat window to check, I realized I had a few missing messages.

---