Power Outage

Since our train was too damaged to take us the rest of the way, we needed to find a new way to finish the trip to Little Conberg city. Fortunately, Marek had a plan.

“I’ve talked with the Royal Guard. They’re willing to drive us there safely.”

“What about Tori and the lady?” I asked him.

“Not to worry. They’ll be taking those two straight to the Cathedral of Life. They’ll be safe.”

That was good to hear. Hopefully once they get to the church, they won’t have to worry about people hunting them down anymore.

“The Cathedral of Life…” Yamin uttered to herself, sounding a little melancholy. “Mom, last time we were there…”

Miss Lauri put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. “That’s been on my mind too. It’s been a few years.”

They both seemed sad.

“Is everything okay?” Marek asked, sensing their sorrow too.

“Y-yeah,” Yamin nodded. “I’m fine, I guess…” she said quietly, glancing at me, but quickly turning away.

Something was really bothering her, but it didn’t seem like she wanted to go into it right now.

Miss Lauri offered a perky smile to the group to get us back on track. “With that mafia business over and done, how about we get to Conberg, eh? I know a great little place where we can stop and get something to eat.”

I was super hungry from all that fighting. Breakfast never sounded so good!

~☆☆☆~

We arrived in Little Conberg city at a very early hour in the morning. The Royal Guard dropped us off in front of the city train station, since that was where we were originally going to get off anyways.

Miss Luari’s niece had someone on standby to pick us up when we were ready, but the group wanted to do some sightseeing before that. We had a little time since the meeting was delayed. Plus, I wanted to see this café that Miss Lauri promised to take us to.

Speaking of which, that lovely destination of baked goods and caffeinated beverages wasn't too far away. We had two options of getting there: a city street flooding with businessmen, or a leisure walk along a park trail. The trail was longer, but it was the less stressful path.

My goodness, the café was as nice as Miss Lauri claimed it would be. So simple in design, but that was nice in a way. The real treat here was the view. They let us sit outside on a balcony since it was nice out.

I was closest to the edge, so I kept kneeling backwards in my chair to peek over the railing. It was such a pretty view of a park just before the ocean. So many people were taking morning walks, some even bicycling around, it looked so lively.

“Hey, mom.” Yamin stood up. “I’m going to get another ice tea. Do you want one?”

“Oh, yes!” she nodded.

I wanted something from inside too. They had these really big cookies with glowing blue chocolate chips. I had to have one. Yamin told me she’d get me one if I was a good girl, which I was.

I followed her back inside. She pulled out her coin purse and got enough money for everything. I made sure to pick the cookie with the most chocolate chips on it. I even counted them all! These things looked pretty cool, like magic cookies or something.

“Okay…now we wait in line.”

The line wasn’t long, but the baristas were making drinks on the go. It was going to take a few minutes for some things to be ready.

GRRRGGRR!

WVOOOOW!

BING!

With all the noises from the machines, you’d think they’d be annoying, but something about listening to them was a bit soothing. The simplicity of early morning culture.

Hey, I could be a poet if I kept thinking like that!

As if mocking my sudden clarity with pure contrast, all the noise suddenly stopped and the lights turned off. The only things illuminating the café was the big front window and a bunch of the radiant magical treats they had stocked.

“What the heck?” a guy behind the counter grunted. “Come on…not again.”

“I’ll go mess with the fuse box,” a woman said.

“No, don’t bother. It’s not us.”

This must have been a power outage. Were these common?

“Hey! Brice!” A young guy in a greasy looking apron came in through the front door. “You guys lost power?”

“What do you think?” The guy named Brice said. “Damn mana’s drying up everywhere, I swear.”

Huh…? Mana drying up?

I walked up to the counter and rang the little bell to get his attention.

BRING!

“Excuse me, Mister Brice.” I waved.

“Huh? Oh, hey, kid. What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean that the mana’s drying up?”

He chuckled, then leaned over the counter.

“Don’t your parents talk to you about this stuff? The mana wells in the country are running dry.” He flipped a switch on one of the spinning displays to show it wasn’t turning on. “Everything runs on mana power here. Without mana, nothing works.”

Time out…something didn’t add up there. What is a mana well, and why was it running dry? I’m not surprised that humans use mana to produce energy. It’s clean, it’s abundant, and it probably isn’t hard to collect for them. But I’ve never heard of a thing called a ‘mana well.’

“What’s a mana well?”

“Ahh, you must be in preschool.” How old did he think I looked?! “A mana well is a reservoir of mana energy that is mined out of the ground. The planet only has so many of them before it runs out. Once it’s gone, we need to find a new source of energy.

What? Everything he just said was wrong.

“No, you don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Mana isn’t just stuck in the surface, it’s made in Elysium where it…”

Yamin put her hands over me and pulled me back.

“I’m sorry, we’ll be going now. Good luck getting the power back on.”

She dragged me outside and then turned me around.

“Hey!?” I announced. “I was trying to tell him that mana is infinitely made in Elysium. And I didn’t pay for my cookie!” I waved the cookie in the air.

“He won’t listen.” Yamin shook her head. “None of them will.”

She tried to take my hand and walk us back up the stairs to the balcony.

“But, he was wrong. The mana around here can’t dry up. That’s impossible.”

“Yalda, just let it go. It’s another one of those political things. Plus, even though you’re right, nobody can prove it.”

So, first of all, she was saying that these people believed that mana was just a finite resource in the planet's crust, which I can FACTUALLY prove is wrong. I grew up in Elysium, I knew that’s where all the mana comes from. I have loads of data in my memory that proves it.

mana goes through caves and then transports to the surface. What’s likely happening is that people are pulling mana out of the caves for power, but might not be efficiently doing it.

“I’m gonna go ask Uncle what’s going on.”

“No, wait!” Yamin panicked. “Don’t get my mom involved in this! Please. She'll get freaky...”

Yamin was holding me back from going up the stairs, so I spawned my wings to startle her, then flew up the rest of the way. No way she’d be able to hold onto me after that!

“Yalda, nooooo!”

“Na na naa na na!” I taunted her.

“Oh crud…here we go.” Yamin face palmed.