Rush

I was still lost in my own thoughts when I felt Rowan stir in my arms. She had fallen asleep almost immediately after I set her on the bed, but it seems the collapse of the barrier had woken her up. Either that or our talking.

"Damnit, even sleeping doesn't help... I shouldn't have used so much energy..." She grumbled.

She opened up her eyes, squinting from the light of the sun. She took a quick look around, and then her eyes settled on something straight in front of her. She seemed to be staring at something, and I had a strong suspicion of what it was.

"Serric, the fuck is that thing?" She asked calmly.

He looked over to the right, at the massive crimson eye protruding out of the crater.

"To be perfectly honest, I have no clue. Whatever it is, though, I strongly suggest we don't get any closer to it. It wasn't there when I last came out of the barrier, which can't be a good sign."

While I marveled at their ability to stay calm looking at that thing, something happened.

The eye, which until that point had never even blinked, looked right at us.

The iris, which until that point had been fixed towards the sky, pointed directly at us.

For a few seconds we were frozen. 

And then we started running.

"Serric, please tell me that's not something bad!" Rowan yelled.

"You think that could be a good thing?!" I retorted.

"I don't know what the hell that thing is, but it's obviously demonic in nature. Just run!" Serric yelled back. 

Gloria looked like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't.

We were running Northwest, towards the left side of the lake.

Trying to run while carrying Rowan was tough, and I was falling behind Serric and Gloria, who were moving far faster than I would've believed possible for them. They were a even faster than I would be at a full sprint on a good day.

"Run faster, idiot! Use mana!" Rowan shouted.

"I've been here for one day! How the hell do I do that?!" I cried.

"I don't know, I can't do it either!" She yelled back.

Ah.

Well, I might as well try. 

I tried to feel around for any sort of magical feeling in me, but I wasn't really finding anything. It was hard to focus while running for my life.

And then Serric was right next to me. He had fallen back from the lead he had on us.

"Asher, envision your favorite place in the world."

I thought about that. It only took a second.

My bed. Under my covers. Maybe that's where I was right now, now that I thought about it.

"Do you feel anything?"

I could. There was something there. Something more tangible than the memory itself.

"Draw the mana out from that place."

Oh my god.

"Coat your body in it. Fill it. Augment it. And run."

And then, I was running like I never had before.

I was bounding over the sand. I must have been striding thirty feet at a time. In a single second, I had caught up to Gloria. Then I burst past her.

I had never felt so alive.

"Wow..." Rowan whispered quietly.

I kept running. And unbelievably enough, I kept getting faster. In just a few seconds, I was at the shore of the lake. 

I kept running. The surroundings were a blur. I was still accelerating.

"Holy shit, this is your first time? How the hell..." Rowan said. "Wait Asher, Serric and Gloria are miles behind. You can stop now."

I kept running. I wanted to keep going. I hardly even processed what she was saying.

"Asher, you can stop. Asher? Asher!" She yelled.

Oh shit, what am I doing? I snapped out of my trance and slowed down, and then came to a stop. The eye was just a speck in the distance, and I couldn't even see Serric or Gloria anymore.

"Sorry, my bad. I've never felt anything like that. I just wanted to keep going. It felt so good."

Rowan snickered.

"You might want to rephrase that. Anyways, run back until you can see Serric and Gloria."

I envisioned my favorite place in the world, and drew back upon the mana I could feel there. I imagined it coating and reinforcing my body. It felt so natural.

And then I started running again.

In just a few seconds, Serric and Gloria were in view. I could see that they were running faster than before, maybe since they didn't have to worry about me falling behind. Neither one was even close to as fast as I was though.

When they finally caught up, we all sat down on the sandy beach next to the lake.

"Is that far enough?" Rowan asked, lying down on the sand on her back.

"I don't know. I just wanted to put some distance between us and whatever that thing was. I suspect if this isn't far enough, nothing is. Thankfully, nothing seems to be chasing us." Serric said, out of breath. Gloria was similarly out of breath, but in just a few moments she was fine again. I thought she looked a little angry. It didn't seem directed towards me though, thankfully.

"I'm certain it did something though. I doubt it was just looking at us. Perhaps it was marking us in some way, or cursing us. Who knows." Serric grumbled.

"Now we have a giant demon eye AND the Radicals on our case." Rowan sighed.

"I don't think the Radicals are a problem at this moment. Anyways, Asher. How did you run like that? Absolutely unbelievable. Was that your mana reinforcement?" Serric asked. He seemed stunned by what I did. I guess I was too.

"I guess so. Once you showed me how to find my mana, it just came naturally."

Serric stared at me the same way he did when we first met. As if he was looking into me.

"Asher. Imagine turning your mana into water. Change its form. And create a sphere of water in your hand."

I thought about it. I pulled the mana out of my reserve. I could feel a small area around myself where I could direct it to. I tried putting it in my hand. I could feel it there, although I couldn't see it. I formed it into a ball shape. Serric was staring intently. I tried changing it to water. And then there was a ball of water in my hand.

For a split second, that is. As soon as it turned to water, the ball collapsed and the water splashed onto my hand and the sand.

I frowned. I didn't want that to happen.

Serric seemed flabberghasted.

"We may have a genius on our hands."

"But it fell apart."

"Asher, even talented magic users could take months, even years, learning to do what you just did. Water magic is notoriously difficult to learn. And yet, on your first try, you successfully pulled mana from your conduit, put it in your hand, shaped it into a sphere, and turned the mana into water. Try fire now. Just make a flame above your hand."

I tried. I pulled mana into my hand, and tried turning into fire. But not much happened. Just a couple tiny sparks.

"No fire, eh? Try making simple matter. Just a rock is fine."

This one didn't work at all.

Serric was about to ask for something else when Rowan interupted.

"Hey Asher, try using your body reinforcement on me."

I grinned.

"You might want to rephrase that."

I went over to her and tried, instead of boosting my own body with mana, boosting hers. Pulling the mana through my conduit, and directing it to her. Not the same degree I did when I was running, but just enough to allow her to move.

Serric looked skeptical.

Rowan stood up shakily.

"This might work. How long can you keep this going?"

She started doing some jumping jacks. 

It was difficult trying to supply mana to her body evenly; if I got more than a couple feet away, I could hardly control it at all, and her jumping jacks became uneven. She almost fell over several times. Even when I was right next to her, it was clear she didn't have full control over the power of her limbs. But I could tell she was ecstatic about being able to move again.

Serric and Gloria were now both watching curiously.

"Rowan, if you can move now, I'd like to get to the other side of the Cancesian before nightfall. If you two can sustain this, lets try running. It'll be a good test of Asher's mana capacity, and it'll help train his precision as well. If you can't run, I'll just have Asher keep carrying you." Serric said.

Rowan grinned.

"Last sentence was all I needed to hear. I'm running. Let's get going!" She said, and she took off, immediately falling over after she got more than three feet away from me.

Serric held in a laugh with immense effort. 

With that, we set off across the sands. Me and Rowan ran next to each other, frequently criticising the other's running form. Not that we meant it. I had a feeling she was a skilled runner, just like me. Eventually we started talking about other stuff. Like our lives.

This was when I learned the truth behind my situation. And what Serric didn't tell me.