I went to the garden, to the same old place I have been sitting in for the last week and opened the book.
Deciding on the simplest circle I could find, a circle that would glow a little when mana is supplied, I started following the steps.
I took out some salt from the bag, poured it in the pipe bag like thing made of metal and started drawing the circle.
A circle here, a circle there, a line there and a tangent in between, another line, a line with bumps at depth? And done.
And it barely took me 5 minutes.
I read the last step, to pour mana in the middle of the circle, and sat down.
I obviously tried to get mana to come out of my body and succeeded last night, though after it leaves my body controlling it is like trying to climb a rampaging horse.
I put my hands above the circle and started willing my mana to leave my body through my hands, which was still quite hard as the mana just seemed to want to leave through every point on my body.
In fact, Edward had mentioned in the class that it usually takes anywhere from 10 days to a month to control mana enough to direct it out of specific body parts.
Though it seems that having lived for more than 80 years helped a lot.
As the mana gradually began to leave my hands, it was white in color and glowing a little, the mana spread everywhere instead of in the circle, so I brought my hand closer to the circle until my mana was going in the circle.
And it began to glow the color of the sunset.
I continued to supply the circle with mana for another 15 minutes, after which I began to feel a bit empty.
I entered my soul space and saw that the mana sphere had shrunk by a lot, I meditated until the sphere stopped absorbing any more mana, and after feeding the mana circle on the wall its daily dose of mana, I hope it could function faster, a year for the whatever talent while being reasonable left a bitter feeling in mind.
“A magic circle eh eric? You managed to use it?” Eleven asked as I opened my eyes. He had at some point sat on the ground directly next to me.
Instead of answering I once again used the magic circle.
“You use mana really ineffectively you know, any mange worth their salt should be able to do this much” He waved his wing and green mana surged out of it.
But instead of spreading or going ahead it stopped in place.
I saw eleven’s eyes glow green and then the mana started to spin in a ring shape, then it became a arrow and lastly it turned into a crescent which he shot at a tree, cutting it in half.
“You mana will do zero to no damage as it is not elementalized yet, nor will it be for another year, but you have to have enough control to use the mana in any way after you do attune it to a element.”
“And how should I get this control?”
“I don’t know, use it more or something, I could do this from birth.” I couldn’t help but wonder why he seemed to be getting more and more like a bragger the more I got to know him.
“You know any magic circles?” I asked him.
“I guess I do know a couple”
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“Why don’t you show me”
The owl stared at me for a few seconds, then waved his wing and a thin line of green mana condensed in front of him. It started to bend into a magic circle and within a few seconds a magic circle that was much more complex than the one I drew appeared in front of me.
As soon as the circle was complete Eleven started to pour more mana which was absorbed in the circle and soon the a bunch of birds flew out of the circle.
Ohh, so that’s what he used to summon the birds.
Wait a second…
“Hey Eleven, if we combine these 2 circles can we make glowing birds?”
“I guess so? I don’t know too many circles because they are hard to remember if you don’t want to study the theory of their working. I am not at all interested in magic circles, theoretical physics is much more to my liking”
Miss Belinda, my 12th grade physics teacher, would have been so happy being here, knowing that their were infact peop- I mean spirits that liked physics.
Its not like I hated physics, but it couldn’t answer my questions, how could a man float? What is consciousness, religion could answer those but couldn’t prove anything. But still, my utmost respect is with the people who study phenomena they can’t observe, just in a vain hope of understanding the universe.
I played a few games of chess with eleven, after which I started reading the theory behind the light spell.
After all to truly do crazy stuff with anything you should be familiar with the roots.
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The more she looked at him the more she couldn’t understand him.
Eric was respectfully half crazy about magic, She herself wanted to understand the world a little better before death, but why does Adiel study so hard?
Atleast Eric took breaks, maybe in his craziness he understood that with breaks he would do better overall, but Adiel was always either exercising or studying other then the half hour he played chess with Eleven and Eric.
“Why?” Delsa spoke.
“Huh?” Adiel lifted his eyes from the book he was holding, it was titled Higher dimesional application of vectors.
Perhaps confused about what delsa just said..
“Why do you work so hard?”
“What do you mean?”
“Anytime I see you you are studying like your life depends on it.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong, Its just that I wanted to know what drives you.”
“Well, Eric studies just as much as me, if not mor- nevermind he’s just crazy about magic.”
Both of them chuckled remembering the way Eric looked at magic theory books as if they were his precious lover.
“Just like the way Eric’s motivation is his obsession with anything fantastical, what is your motivation?”
“What is yours?”
The 2 stared at each other for a moment.
“I guess I want to know, know what mana is, know what is outside the world, I want to see the phenomena I could only prove the existence of in equations. You could say that curiosity is what drives me forward, and curiosity ain’t killing this cat!”
She stuck a victory pose, which Adiel found hilarious enough that he laughed for a solid 3 minutes.
“Do I look that funny to you” Delsa said while pretending to be angry.
Adiel, trying not to die of laughter, just started laughing harder.
“HA HA! *cough* Just stop! *Cough**cough*”
He gradually calmed down.
“So what is your motivation?”
His smile slowly expressed the melancholy he felt at the question.
“I am not sure, magic is cool but not something that motivates me, I don’t want power or money either, perhaps I just seek knowledge like you, Not for the sake of curiosity but for the sake of safety?
When I was younger, I didn’t want to accept the fact that I was a slave. I sneaked out even after being beaten quite a lot for it, and learned to read and write, to do math, to think like a human from the school that was nearby.
One day the owner’s son, some officer in the military, retired and decided to continue and expand his father’s business.
He came to know of my adventures from the owner, and decided to test my knowledge.
Me, who was 17 at that time, sat in front of him and we started talking. I had learned much more than him by that point.
He made me the manager of the business, allowed me to be given salary and to visit his personal library at any time. All this from the knowledge I sought to have some purpose in life.
Perhaps the fact knowledge begets power and safety is why I pursue it, perhaps it is some trauma, I think I will figure it out someday.”
A deep silence spread throughout the room, neither party willing to disturb the other’s thoughts.
Finally, Delsa broke the quiet.
“Thank you, for sharing this”
Adiel smiled
“And thank you for listening”
The 2 smiled at each other for a while and then resumed their studies.
Something a little more than friendship blossomed in between
Meanwhile Eric managed to make the light circle explode by adding a few lines meant to convert mana to heat in the light spell.
Needless to say he thought of the explosion as a feature instead of an error.
