Unlike external energy, which is drawn from phenomena already manifest in reality—whatever they may be—internal energy lacks embodiment when projected into the world. This makes it highly malleable, easily shaped by will, ideal for witchcraft fueled by raw intent and imagination. However, the type of such witchcraft is tightly bound to the energy’s nature—fire yields fire, water yields water. Yet, when channeled through seals, runes, or other constructs, it gains versatility. The advantage of an endless energy source like a dimension, limited only by will and creativity, hardly needs explaining. Still, there are downsides.

  Internal energy’s sensitivity to volitional impulses and its ease of manifesting reality’s aspects based on desire and reason bring challenges. Lose mental stability—boom, an energy burst. Fly into an emotional rage—burst. Use substances that overexcite the nervous system—burst again. Why’s that dangerous?

  Internal energy demands embodiment. Like any energy, it follows the path of least resistance, which, in a magical outburst, is the conscious or subconscious desire of the wielder. Countless times, young wizards with access to internal energy have torched or flooded homes—or entire streets—out of spite. Fire, water, wind, and earth are the most common energies, their effects the easiest for conscious and subconscious minds to grasp. But there’ve been outbursts of life, light, darkness, and death energy too—terrifying ones. Life isn’t just healing; it can twist organic matter into grotesque chimeras, blending the living with the lifeless, sprouting nightmarish growths from people and surroundings alike, devouring and mutating the wizard in the process. Such zones can only be razed, the young talent often unsalvageable. Light can disintegrate everything into quarks and photons, leaving voids of empty space; order turns landscapes into sterile quartz deserts. Darkness is unpredictable yet mirrors the wielder’s thoughts with eerie precision, while death can spawn hordes of half-dead, pain-racked husks around the wizard.

  A grim picture, but such outbursts typically afflict only small children—fragile psyches, vivid imaginations, and vast potential. Triggering this in an adult is near-impossible, though not entirely out of the question. Similar chaos erupts when affinity or projection ability is ignored during initiation.

  So, what’s the takeaway? I need to run a self-diagnosis with universal constructs to map my body’s traits. With that data, I can plan my next steps. I just need to reconstruct those constructs from associative chains. The elf used them often—they’re buried deep in my memory, waiting.

  “Hector,” my father said, stepping into the room. “Mom and I are heading into the city. Coming along?”

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  Right—we live in the suburbs.

  “To be honest, I wanted to finish some notes,” I said, gesturing to the notebook where I’d jotted down recalled magical theories. “In a few days, maybe. There’s still so much to adjust to here…”

  “Okay, as you wish,” he said with a smile. “We’ll grab something tasty then. Really… what do you like?”

  “Anything but oatmeal,” I replied.

  “Ha-ha-ha,” he laughed heartily. “Got it. You’re just like me—I can’t stand oatmeal. I’ll pick up something meaty.”

  Only fools think elves, living in forests and revering nature, are rabid vegetarians. They eat meat—plenty of it! Their hunting, harvesting, and processing are just… less ruthless. The dwarf shards perk up at “meat,” and add “ale” to that? Done—a grand feast, a brawl, and come morning, a tab for tavern damages plus the bitter taste of an anti-hangover brew made from weird underground mushrooms.

  I shuddered at those memories as my father left the room. Time to stitch these scraps of fragmented knowledge into something coherent. The diagnostic method’s practically etched into my instincts now.

  In silence and solitude, I focused on the energy within and around me. With a familiar mental tug from my memories, I drew it forth—and it flowed. As suspected, my body’s been tied to a dimension since birth, with an innate predisposition. My mundane parents couldn’t have orchestrated this, so it’s likely a quirk of this world. Fine—onward.

  I projected an elven diagnostic seal onto my chest and channeled energy into it. It filled effortlessly, glowing a faint green. After about a minute, detailed insights about my body flooded my mind from nowhere. The physical rundown was familiar—no surprises there. Magic was the real prize. As expected, I’m a wizard with internal energy—roads wide open.

  Identifying the energy type stumped me. I only know a dozen or so from an infinite array, and my fragmented memories lack depth on them—nothing shocking there. The key is deducing its properties to avoid linking to incompatible dimensions. My energy felt highly flexible, fluid—almost neutral-universal. I’ve encountered something like it; elves called it “Creation.” Neither fish nor fowl, nor bird nor mushroom—a jack-of-all-trades energy. It can do anything, just not as well as specialized types. Versatility’s its game. Mindset and thinking patterns might skew it, but that’s unrelated to the energy itself.

  Neutral energy’s a win—no predispositional bias. But it also caps my potential as an archmage in familiar disciplines; affinity boosts how much dimensional energy you can draw. I can pull as much neutral energy as my will allows—odd as that sounds. In this world’s rules, though, initiation might prove redundant; neutral energy works fine for decent magic anyway. Still, one direction stands out as undeniably useful.

  Life. Elven knowledge and memories are potent and practical—life energy lets me influence bodies without complex constructs, enhancing or healing myself and others. Or maiming with chilling precision. Bonus: better rapport with plants and animals not aligned to opposing energies. Crystalline or inorganic life forms skewed toward order are rare here—unlikely to cross paths. Even if they did, they wouldn’t kill me just for my energy vibe. Plus, life energy’s handy for carbon- and nitrogen-phosphorus-based organics regardless.

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