Chapter 59 - Corroboration

Clovis hands the lens over to Taelun as I can no longer ignore the pain in my arm. 

It’s a grim metronome constantly ticking at the memory I try to keep clung to the back of my throat.

“Shikara, you should take a seat over there and keep your arm suspended.” Clovis finally remembers to take notice of my pain.

I abide by her advice, anything to try and quell the ache.

Taelun is viewing the phenomenon through the lens. I want to look up and share in his wonder and amusement but I can’t. 

Clovis comes over to check on me, leaving Taelun to fend for himself and revel in our discovery.

“We can’t rely on this.” she says, gesturing vaguely towards my arm. 

“The risk is too great. The feedback from the incantation, the way your scars react… We don’t know what kind of permanent damage we’re doing to ourselves. This can’t be allowed to go on any longer.”

“But it’s the only method we have.” I counter, my voice steadier than I feel. 

“There has to be another way.” she insists, her academic lust has not been satiated despite our continued revelations.

“We just haven’t found it yet. An incantation relies on your emotional state, and in a high-stress situation you could lose yourself to it completely. We need a method that disconnects the caster from the reaction completely.”

Taelun, who has been listening in on our debate, finally lowers the lens. “She’s right, you know. Relying on something that hurts you like that, sounds like a bad idea to me.”

“Ok  you’re right. We still have a little time.” I say, more to convince myself than them. 

The hope is thin but I have to cling to it.

“The mana stone in the lens is so much larger now. A bigger power source has to open up new possibilities, right?”

“We could try a written spell again.” she muses, trying to find any idea that we can launch from. “It would be stable, repeatable. It would draw power from the lens itself, not the caster. That’s probably our best chance of success.”

Before I can counter Clovis’s idea, Taelun picks up a cloth and runs it over the flawless surface of the lens. “I poured every ounce of my skill into not shattering this thing. One wrong move with a piece of chalk and you could ruin it.”

“Sorry Clovis but I agree with Taelun we also can’t risk the lens.” Our temporary resistance to the idea visibly annoys Clovis as she knows we’re right too.

We’re so close, yet the final step is a leap across a chasm we can’t cross. Maybe we’ve used up all of our luck with what we have so far. 

I stare at the lens in Taelun’s hands, the way the firelight plays across its surface is hypnotic. We know it’s a self-contained world of potential but our access to it is fleeting. 

“Clovis, I don’t think I’ve ever asked this before but can you channel mana into a mana stone without the need for a spell to be present?”

She looks at me, her contorted in confusion. “Yes you could but you’d be wasting the mana within the mana stone.”

“But it might not be a waste. Since there is no spell present, the mana we channel into it might in turn be channeled out into the air immediately. The concentration of mana released into the air could in turn react with the ambient red wisps.” 

Clovis doesn’t seem impressed with my idea. “The mana from the mana stone probably won’t react with the red mana. We already proved that it takes a significant amount of mana to cause a reaction and that was when we were specifically forcing the mana together.”

“I think we should try it anyway, what can go wrong?” A strange sense of conviction takes a hold of my lips.

Clovis looks from me to Taelun, who just shrugs as if to say, ‘Can’t hurt to try.’ 

With a sigh that carries the weight of her skepticism, she takes the lens from him. 

She grips one of the iron handles and touches the edge of the lens with one finger.

For a moment, she just stands there, her expression a mixture of doubt and professional curiosity. It’s the look of a scientist indulging a mad theory for the sake of thoroughness.

She does not speak as she closes her eyes, her shoulders relaxing as she seems to focus on channeling her mana. The lens begins to glow. 

It isn’t a brilliant light, but a soft, internal luminescence, a deep sapphire pulse that encircles the edge of the lens.

When she opens her eyes, she stays silent. 

She simply turns the lens towards me as I step to her side to have a look through with her. 

The faint red wisps are no longer present.

They are drowned out by a cascade of other colours.

We pass the lens back and forth, each of us taking a turn to witness the proof of my initial theory. Ambient mana.