(59): Find out.
Nestra pulled mana from her brand new, fully human, fully functional and ‘definitely here and not a figment of her imagination’ core. It was… difficult. Her experience pulling void mana helped, of course, but the human thing was different. This core was nebulous and immaterial like her true one used to be, a potential more than a real generator. It made the process slow and deliberate.
First, she had to select one type out of two, which was already a headache because she’d awoken both at once. Her core pulsed, ready to fulfill its function but unfamiliar yet — like having a new limb. It was all functional but she just had to manually think about every step. Focusing, she went for it.
Electricity was wild and fast — almost as fast as void. It was the thunderous path of least resistance, a tension released, a balance restored, and the destruction of everything in its path. It was also, on a more abstract level, speed and energy. She could understand it because the fake core imitated it well. By comparison, ice was slower though not that slow. It was weirdly mixed with something liquid — somehow, and pretty quiet otherwise. Like it had to act on something whereas electricity existed by itself. On an abstract level, it was still and very insidious. Her mom had mentioned something like that…
Nestra grabbed for ice this time. Slowly, she coaxed the power out of the core and into her circuit, first through her chest and along her arm, and then to her palm. The mana dispersed harmlessly outward from her open hand.
She opened her eyes. The bowl of water in front of her froze over, white tendrils visibly expanding from the center. She rubbed her fingers. Nothing. It wasn’t even cold. Another quirk of using one’s own mana.
“Remarkable.”
Nestra turned to Doctor Fehr, who tapped on a datapad with insane dexterity and speed. The datapad had to be a custom job to accept that kind of input.
“Hmm?” Nestra asked.
Aunt Claire was nearby, looking at the bowl with a smile that hadn’t left her lips for the past half an hour.