SFC Book III – Chapter Seventeen – Mana Lessons
Of course there were whispers at the canteen the next morning. Not only had Gray been arrested and put on trial, but now Squad 23 had a new recruit, another angel head, which didn’t go unnoticed by Froggy and her squad.
At one point, when Gray had gone for more charbrew, Froggy had called out to him. “You do like the angels, don’t you? Probably makes you wish you had a little devil to play around with. I could lick places those nice girls wouldn’t.”
Gray only laughed and shook his head. “Oh, Froggy, don’t you know? It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”
After breakfast, Settie took them out to the training field. Clouds covered the sky and the temperatures had plummeted—what wasn’t snow was ice except for the running track, which had been cleared of snow, probably with a great deal of magic.
Gray was not looking forward to meditating in their normal spot, on the wooden platform underneath the tree. Settie had bought them matching gloves, scarfs, and neck gaiters they could wear under the hoods of their coats. The gaiters were a miracle of soft cloth that could pulled up to be used as a mask or worn over the head. They provided a lot of warmth.
Cradleport had a stormy season, but it had never gotten very cold there. The Belly of the World was a completely foreign place, desert in the summer, a frozen wasteland in the winter, when it wasn’t raining. It was a land of extremes.
Lilian had a uniform of her own now, and it was strange to see her out of an expensive gown. Or naked. That was how he’d seen her in all the time they’d known each other.
In the cold, Lilian shivered, but she didn’t complain. She was only smiles and laughter, so happy to be in a place where she could practice her magic. Gray didn’t know how her father felt about his daughter leaving. Maybe he was relieved. In the end, her eldest brother—she had five—would take over as the next sea king.
Instead of taking them to their meditation platform, she led them to one of the sparring pavilions that had been turned into a kind of warming hut. Lust rock burned in a centra brazier. A wooden floor covered the sand, and wooden panels on the northern and western sides blocked the wind.
Settie cleared her throat. “Take to your cushions. We shall start with meditation on your breath and your core. Breathing means you are alive. You can’t live without breath. Focus on your breathing. There is nothing more important than your breath and the moment. You mind will try and trick you into believing there is a past and future, but there isn’t. There is only the moment you are in forever. Until your breath is taken from you.”
“Inspiring,” Tomi whispered before laughing a little.
Settie ignored her. “As you breath, focus on your core. Notice the mana there, your life force, which we as manamancers can use to power our muscles and to summon the various kinds of magic. We will sit for an hour. Do not move. When you feel like you want to move, control yourself. In the end, the goal of the manamancer—from neophyte to divine core lord--is self-mastery.”
“Is Gray giving the lecture?” Tomi whispered again.
“One hour,” Settie said firmly. Then she rang a little bell, signaling that the meditation had started.
It was rare she had them sit that long. He wondered if it was to spare Lilian a hard workout on her first official day as a recruit in Squad 23.
For him, it was a chance to practice letting his thoughts go. After his imprisonment and trial, he was tired of thinking and planning. He simply wanted to sit, feel the cold air on his face, as well as the warmth of the fire in front of them, and simply exist in the strange world he now found himself. He’d been practicing meditation for a while now, and he had to wonder how Lilian would do.
She was a silly palace princess. He doubted she’d done any meditation or training in her life. How would she cope?
It wasn’t his problem. If she didn’t perform well, she wouldn’t pass the Redemption Midnight testing, and then she’d find herself on a ship back to the Nursery Islands and Cradleport. He wouldn’t miss her. However, if they didn’t win the Redemption Midnight, Ames wouldn’t be allowed back on their squad either. They could probably win the Reckoning with five, especially now that Rynn had a healing ability and Pinch was on their team, but he didn’t want to leave Ames behind. He wanted her by his side. She’d come such a long way.
He realized his thoughts had gotten out of control, and so he took a deep breath, let it out, and let them all go.
After a while, time seemed to have no meaning. His mind became quiet. And he simply sat there, legs crossed, hands on his knees, in perfect stillness.
Blind John would’ve been proud.
Gray was starting to bet a little stiff when Settie rang the bell. The one hour was over.
“Finally,” Tomi groused. “That was the longest week of my life.”
Midj looked at her. “It was only an hour.”
“In goblin time, maybe.” Tomi snorted. “You all should be very impressed with me. I spent an hour, sitting, and I didn’t fall asleep. That’s self-mastery. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Grayson Fade.”
“Maybe later,” he said with a smile.
He glanced at Lilian, who sat stone-faced, not laughing. For the first time, she looked miserable. But she was getting blood-red mana. From what?
When she noticed him looking, she smiled at him.
He glanced away.
Settie nodded at them. “Very good. I am very impressed with you, Tomika. I had my doubts, about you and about Lilian, but you both performed well.”
Tomi snorted. “Because sitting and doing nothing is so hard.”
“It can be,” Settie said in a quiet voice. “Sometimes it can be impossible. Now, I’m pleased that you have welcome Lilian Everheart into our squad. I have high hopes that she will catch up quickly. She’s not even a neophyte yet—not marked at all—but as we’ve seen with Gray, those coming out of the Null Breaks and given mana for the first time can do remarkable things.”
She paused for a long time and then sighed. “Lilian has plagued me with questions, about the nature of mana, cores, and the various abilities manamancers are gifted as they progress. I’m sure Gray has those same questions because the boy loves questions.”
“It’s true,” he said.
That got him a frown from the captain. “I will give a brief lecture. You will listen. And if you have any further questions, there are resources here at First Field you can use, including but not limited to Bloodhome’s archive as well as Mama Cinders’s tutelage, though I would be careful of that old dragon. She’s a wily one.”
Gray was surprised by that, but he couldn’t ask her to elaborate. Besides, he was very curious as to what she had to say.
“For most neophytes, their first ability is to channel their mana into their meridians. That is enough for most. It gives them enhanced agility, speed, endurance, strength, and speed, or, as you’ll hear at First Field—better, faster, stronger. For some, they have an additional ability—abilities are sometimes called spells, especially for the older generation. You have to remember that everyone is different based on their resonance or their race. Racial abilities—like the fact I can become a dragon and breathe fire, the fae’s ability to generate mana wings, or goblinkind’s mana hands, or the beastkin’s ability to shift—are closely tied to race, but not always. They manifest in the early ranks, especially for the lesser magi—neophytes, acolytes, and adepts. Most of the time, starting with adepts, a manamancer can focus on the ability they want, and that might be a racial ability or it might be a resonance ability. Humans, while older than the so-called blood races, do not have racial abilities. They will get skills based on their resonances.”
Every word she said gave Gray a million more questions, but he kept quiet.
Settie gave him a knowing grin and kept talking. “We are discussing the mysteries of cores and magic, and so, I don’t want anyone thinking that they are limited by anything except for their own will to power. However, over the millennia, we have seen various spells that do well with resonances. For example, with the fight instinct comes fire-based magic, but then, we also know that wrath and patience can also bring the bitterest cold.” She nodded at Rynn. “Being bonded, Rynnanatha, I think you’ll realize that soon enough if you haven’t already.”
Rynn blushed.
Settie continued. “With the sex instinct comes the ability to seduce, charm, and control. A mere suggestion, powered by mana and will, can be a powerful tool into manipulating people, animals, demons, and even events. Legend has it that those with the sex instinct resonance can even use words to kill.”
That explained how Settie had forced Kabe to hit himself, over and over. Flaraminda, on Blythe’s squad, had tried to use her ability on him but he’d been able to resist it.
“The food instinct—gluttony and temperance—is all about utilizing various aspects of mana from stealing it away to healing one’s self to stacking abilities, one on top of another, building and building on existing power. With strictly a temperance resonance, which is rare, you have self-control, so you have a natural resistance to any kind of magic that might control your mind. For the greater magi, there are stories of temperance resonant manamancers that couldn’t be moved—were completely invulnerable—because they had such self-control.”
“Self-mastery times ten,” Tomi said with a chuckle.
“You are not wrong,” Settie replied. “But let’s keep the chatter to a minimum, so we can get through this.”
“For the security instinct—greed and generosity—the manamancer can steal power away from others and then store it. There is that greed aspect to it, but then, with generosity comes the ability to share not just mana but also skills. Transferring skills to your friends can be powerful indeed.”
That made sense to Gray, but then he thought of the envy steeds they’d fought. They had stolen mana from them. All he would do was listen and hope Settie covered that particular topic.
“Moving on,” Settie said. “The work instinct—sloth and diligence—is powerful indeed. Some manamancers can affect time, slowing it down or speeding it up. Others can adjust the density of objects, either making them heavier or lighter. For the diligence resonance, you have a clear vision of how things work and what you need to succeed. You are given a special insight into things. For some, that is prophecy. For others, it’s the ability to see through illusions.
“Which brings us to the ambition instinct—envy and kindness. The kindness resonance gives the magi the ability to heal. As for envy, it shares something with the greed resonance—that is the ability to steal. But with envy, you can steal, but you can’t store the magic. However, there is the ability to mimic the abilities of the manamancer that you steal from. As you’ll soon discover, several resonances share different abilities. For example, there have been some manamancers with the generosity resonance that were able to heal. And look at our own Amaranthis, her pain touch ability was unexpected, and yet, it manifested itself in her magic. As I have said, there are no hard and fast rules to this. Only themes.”
The captain paused and let out a breath. “Lastly, we have the status instinct, which some think is the most powerful. Not only can those with a pride resonance create illusions, altering the perceptions of others with their confidence and power, but they can give themselves additional abilities. Confidence breeds confidence. Remember that. And for the magi who have a humility resonance? They know their strengths and they know their weaknesses. Like the diligence resonance, that gives them a clarity of purpose—a prophetic knowledge of the future and the abilities of their opponents. If you want to know your enemy, learn to know yourself. Not only that, they can multiply their own power, generating large amounts of mana that far exceed what their core can hold. Combined with pride, this can make them the ultimate manamancer.”
Settie then reached and drank some water from a metal cup she must’ve brought from the canteen. “Now, we spar. I’ve provided our newest recruit, Lilian Everheart, a bit of training. I expect you to provide all the rest.”
Lilian didn’t say a word. She sat, blinking, and clearly overwhelmed.
For a second, Gray felt sorry for her. Then he remembered her letter and how flippant she’d been about Blind John’s fate.
He thought he would enjoy watching her try and fight. She was coming into a squad who had been to hell and back. He was confident she’d fail and make herself look ridiculous in the process.
In the end, he couldn’t have been more wrong.