What I Brought

When Asa stumbled into the bakery where Eva, Alexandros, Sigrid, Orion (with Sirius of course) and I were all having pie for dinner, we didn't ask questions as he beckoned for us to follow; he looked too out of breath to answer anyway. He tried to stay at a leisurely jog as he led us down the street, giving polite nods to concerned looks any passerby gave him, but we could see he wanted to run full-tilt. Once we entered the forest, he did.

As I lengthened my stride to match his, I found myself outpacing him with ease that surprised me. I had to awkwardly stumble to a near-stop to let him take the lead again. Everyone merely glanced at me in acknowledgement of this. Maybe it was normal for spirits to be so fast? I didn't know. It didn't matter right now.

Asa led us straight to the ruins, stopping only when he got inside. He stood next to my water-filled crater, panting. I looked to Alexandros and Sigrid, hoping they had some clue of what was going on. All they did was wait patiently for Asa to catch his breath, so I tried to do the same. Eva and Orion, on the other hand, looked as impatient as I felt. Sirius whined.

Finally, Asa pointed to the crater and wheezed, "That's what drew the phoenix here."

Of course, everyone besides me seemed to understand what he meant. Asa, as attuned to my confusion as ever, focused on me.

"Wish, your mana is in this crater. I should've noticed sooner, but I didn't use my mana sight here after you came. It's like a beacon. We don't get spirits here because there are no large mana deposits in the area. Until now."

I blinked. The mad spirit had come here because of me? But that wasn't the only question whirling through my mind.

"What do you mean, mana sight? Sigrid told me that only works on living beings."

Asa shook his head. "That's different. I mean, we do call what she sees 'mana pools' or reservoirs, and this-" gesturing to the crater again, "-is literally a pool of mana, but it's still mana, as in holding still. Not flowing."

Eva crouched by the edge and frowned at her reflection. "Asa, will this draw other mad spirits here?"

That's the question I should have asked first. Alexandros and Sigrid exchanged a look, brows furrowed in identical concern. Asa hesitated before replying.

"Probably. We should teach Wish to extract the mana, that will help."

He hesitated again and looked at me, but his gaze immediately shifted away.

"But?" I prompted him. He sighed.

"You're kind of a beacon yourself. Your aura is so massive, it's making it hard for Master Finnigan and I to examine magic items in our shop. We didn't mention it because we didn't want you to feel bad, and we were going to teach you to condense your aura anyway."

Great, so I had been causing problems this whole time. The phoenix had probably found Eva and I because of my aura. The memory of her frightened face flashed through my mind. I tensed.

"Alright, then...teach me now. First how to extract the mana, then condense it."

I stepped forward and placed my hand in the pool, remembering how Asa said it was easiest to channel mana through touch. Asa crouched beside me.

"It's unusual that you learned Sigrid's Heartsight so easily. Mana sight might be easy too. But let's start with Heartsight. It's easier to use mana senses, and spells for that matter, if you have a trigger word. The word itself doesn't matter so long as it means something to you."

I stifled a laugh at the thought of potentially yelling spell names in the future. No need to be loud here though.

"Mana Sense: Heartsight." I murmured, thinking back to Sigrid's lesson. Without turning my head, I could feel everyone's mana pools blossom into existence around me. "Now what?"

It was a little unnerving how silent everyone was as Asa instructed me.

"Think of being inside a well-lit room at night, standing next to a window. You can either look through it, or you can refocus and look at your faint reflection on the glass. Right now you're looking through it. So, refocus."

It really did feel like refocusing my eyes, even though I had closed them to concentrate. 

"Mana Sense: Um...Stillsight?"

Asa chuckled beside me. "Stillsight, I like that. I always called it mana sight, but that's too general. I might start using that myself."

I shivered as I slowly became aware of a strange sensation in the fingertips of my hand that was in the pool. I opened my eyes and gasped.

It was like looking into an icy white sun.

I looked at Asa beside me. He nodded. "Well done."

He seemed to struggle to look at me, and finally turned away from the pool entirely. I realized it must be too bright for him.

"Now you need to extract it. You've manipulated your own mana before, when you summoned your fire. Try to send out your mana to touch-oh!"

Before he had finished speaking, I made the connection. It was a glorious feeling, cool and warm at the same time. Familiar. Mine. Bringing that icy whiteness-no, it was a luminous pale blue-into myself was the most natural thing in the world. Without waiting for instruction, I folded it deeper and deeper into myself, tucking it away like a favorite blanket. Hopefully that would make my aura less of a beacon. Once I had taken every glimmer of mana from the crater, I looked at Asa. His mouth was hanging slightly open as he stared at me.

Sigrid cleared her throat behind us. "So, did she do it?"

Asa nodded and stood up, looking slightly dazed. "Yeah. She did it. Aura condensing too."

Eva exhaled dramatically. "Phew! I'm glad that was so easy to fix! The sun's going down, do we want to watch the sunset since we're here?"

We settled ourselves onto the stair-like rubble at the far end of the courtyard ruins. Enthroned on ancient stones, surrounded by new friends, filled with exhilarating magic, I felt...restless. I frowned at how familiar the feeling was. Hadn't I left that behind in my old world? So why, right after taking steps to protect my new home, did I feel so very not at home?

I swallowed a sigh that I didn't understand, and hoped that Sigrid wasn't using her Heartsight right then.