Chapter 27: Chapter 25 – Magic 101

“So, how much do you know about magic?” Anortha asked.

“The only thing I know about it is pretty much it is used when you healed me, make water, or light up the fire magic stones. Absolutely nothing about how to actually use it,” I wrote.

“Hand,” the elf said out of the blue.

I looked at her in confusion, and when she held out her hand expectantly, I wrote, “Aren’t we passed doing dumb tricks to like ‘hand’ and ‘sit’ by now?”

“No, no. It was close to twelve years ago, give or take, but I think that when my parents taught me how to do magic initially, they took my hand and had me get the feel of mana first. Hence the hand.”

Ah, that makes more sense, I thought, as I offered my hand to her, on top of the table between us.

She grabbed my hand with hers, then just sat there, looking at me.

Since I wasn’t sure what she wanted to do afterward, I just sat there too, waiting. However, I couldn’t help but notice how soft and warm her hand was as she was holding mine.

A few minutes passed, with her just holding my hands and looking at me. During the entire time, I couldn’t but help be conscious of her warm hands, and I could feel my heart beating faster, and my face began to flush. Good thing I had fur so she couldn’t tell. But I had to wonder, was I actually embarrassed or something? The problem was I didn’t see what was embarrassing. Or was it feelings of attraction? But while Anortha was objectively good looking, she’s still a child. Or at least looks like one. But not only that, she’s a girl. Wait, does that mean I swing that way? And I guess she is around the same age as I was before I died, plus a few extra, but —

“Do you really not feel anything?” Anortha asked.

“What?” I reflexively said.

“Are you alright? I’ve been slowly pumping more and more mana into you, and it still seems like you still haven’t felt anything.”

I grabbed a chalk with my free hand and wrote, “You have? I didn’t notice at all. Nothing really changed.” Didn’t need for her to know I might have developed feelings.

“Really? I’m starting to feel quite a bit of resistance and even some backflow, which should mean that you have gone over your mana capacity. Even if you can’t feel mana, you sure you don’t feel the mana overdose effects?”

“What are they?”

“It varies, but common ones are increased heart rate, headaches, and fever.”

Ah, so that was it. So that must have been the magical suspension bridge effect. Good to know.

“I felt the heart rate one for sure,” I wrote

“Why didn’t you mention it earlier?” she said, as she tilted her head to one side.

“I mean you were just staring at me, and I thought the increased heart rate was due to nervousness.”

“I can look the other way if you want.”

“That’s not it. I meant that you might want to tell me what you are doing, so I don’t get worried about what’s going to happen.”

“Oh sure. Then I’m going to remove the mana I pumped into you now. Let me know if you feel something.”

My heart rate did go down and my face went back to normal, but I couldn’t really feel this mana transfer.

“Still nothing?” Anortha asked.

“Nothing,” I wrote.

“That’s odd. I remember feeling a completely uncomfortable sensation when my parents did it. Let me finish removing all the mana I added first, and then now I know your capacity, I’ll inject it all in one go.”

“Sure thing, let me know when you begin.”

After around a minute, the elf remarked, “Are you ready?”

I nodded. Her warm hands suddenly became hot. Not scalding hot, but enough that I involuntarily jerked my hand away. Even after that, my own hand still felt uncomfortably warm.

“Oh, did you feel it?”

“No, but your hand suddenly got hot, so I reflexively retracted my hand. Sorry about that.”

Anortha clasped her hands together, then said, “Hm? My hands feel normal.”

“Does my hand feel oddly warm to you?” I wrote, while putting my hand back on the table.

“No, feels the same to me.”

“So the feeling of heat is actual mana then?”

“M-maybe?”

“How does mana feel for you then?”

She thought for a bit and said, “Uh, the feeling of mana is so innate for us that it’s hard to describe. Like if I asked you how does being cold feel, would you be able to describe it?”

“Absence of warmth?” I wrote.

“Okay, then mana feels like the absence of not having mana. Which isn’t very helpful.”

Point taken.

I wrote, “Alright, let us assume that this heat I feel is mana. Now what’s the next step?”

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“Try pushing the mana back out of you.”

How do I do that? My hand feels unnaturally warm, and I would like to get rid of that feeling, but it’s not like I could just constrict my muscles or something to push the excess mana. Although even with me not doing anything, that mass of warmth was slowly leaving my hand, diffusing up my arm. Unfortunately, minutes passed and not much happened besides the mana spread through the rest of my body.

“Can’t do it?” She asked.

“Nope,” I wrote. “How do you even do it anyways?”

“You just… move it? It’s like if I asked how do you move your fingers. You just do.”

“That’s not very helpful,” I wrote.

She thought for a moment, and said, “Let me try this then. Give me both of your hands.”

I did as she asked, and the only thing I could tell was that one of my hands were getting warmer and the other one cooler.

I moved one of my hands away, so I could write, “Would you like to explain your plan?”

“Oh,” she said. “Uh, I was trying to push mana from one of your hands and pull mana from the other so you can get used to the flow, and maybe you can copy it.”

I let go of the chalk, and she resumed the mana flow.

It went on for a few minutes, until she said, “I’ll stop pulling mana, so try pushing it yourself instead.”

As soon as she stopped, I tried to maintain the flow of mana, but failed miserably. I began to feel the signs of mana overflow, and she still continued to push mana into me.

I had to yank my hand away to write, “I’m feeling the symptoms of mana overdose.”

“Good,” she said.

I just looked at her, pretty sure I didn’t hear her correctly.

“Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you said good when I told you pumped in too much mana?”

“It is. Hopefully, you’ll subconsciously move the excess mana out yourself. Don’t worry, I’ll stop before it gets dangerous.”

I just sat there, with my heart pounding in my chest, and felt uncomfortably warm everywhere, willing myself to push the mana out of my other hand.

Nothing happened.

A few minutes later, Anortha said, “Well, uh, looks like that failed.”

I quickly wrote, “You want to drain the excess mana now?”

“Ah, right, right.”

She drained it, real fast. It felt relieving to have that excess heat removed, but she kept going, to the point where it felt like my life was being sucked away.

“See, you can do it!” she suddenly exclaimed.

“Do what?” I wrote.

“Mana flow manipulation.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. In the middle of the mana pulling, you suddenly pulled the mana back.”

“I don’t remember doing that though,” I wrote.

“Okay, well let’s do it again then. Pay attention to what you’re doing.”

Anortha pumped in a whole bunch of mana, and then rapidly drained it, yet again.

The sudden loss of warmth was uncomfortable, so I resisted the rapid mana flow outward by pulling back. Wait, so that’s how you do it.

“You did it again!”

I wrote, “This time I noticed, yes. Although I’m not feeling too great right now.”

“That’s normal. Now that you’re gotten so far, it’d be a shame to stop. Let’s keep going.”

She only stopped when I could finally push and pull mana on my own which took hours of sweat and tears. Since when was Anortha so Spartan of a teacher?

 

That night, I just collapsed on the bed and immediately fell asleep.

 

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