An hour and a half later, but to be honest, it was closer to two hours was when I finally dragged myself home.

“Oh? Did the meeting go well?” Renee asked, looking up; her silver hair was in a braid this time, maybe because she was at her drawing table at didn’t want it in her face.

“Mm,” I mumbled, exhausted. I slumped into the nearest chair. I wanted to take off my shoes, but it’s so far away.

“Complete sentences, Kera.” Renee scolded. “And did you walk here?”

“Mm, it was stressful, so I decided to walk home.” Kera groaned. “And yes, I got the job, with the usual rate.”

“Oh, good. If nothing else, Raven sure is reliable” Renee turned to her computer. “I’ll book it in. What’s it about?”

“Trailing Royal Elvenn,” I replied in a monotone voice. In the same breath. “Do you have anything to drink?”

“You live here. Get it yourself.” Renee glanced sideways at me. “Royal Elven, hmm? Would that be a problem?”

“Not really.” I tried to get up but nixed the idea.

 I felt Renee’s stare for a long time, making me sink into the chair. “You’re smoking.”

Whipping my head around. “It’s not like you to make those kinds of jokes.” I felt something hit me in the head, and a pen fell into my lap. “Ouch, that hurt.”

“You, dumbass, where did your brain go. I meant that you’re smoking, smoking. Is one of your talisman fried?” Renee asked.

It took me a second to process before I ran out the door, hurrying to my workroom as soon as the door closed. I threw off my shirt and frantically looked in the mirror.

My skin was covered in parchment paper, each marked with a glyph. Protection talismans painstakingly made by my hand. They were the only thing stopping me from losing control of my Mana.

Ah, there it is! Between my shoulder blades, one of my talismans was turning into charcoal. I peeled the burning piece of parchment paper off my skin. I rushed to the bathroom. As soon as water poured from the taps, I dropped the talisman and watched as the water boil and turned into steam.

A knock at the door startled me, but I relaxed as Renee’s voice called out, “Kera, do you need any help?”

“No, no, it’s too dangerous!’ I insisted. Me dealing with any kind of magic was dangerous.

“Fine, but I warmed up that sandwich you had and made some tea.” Renee conceded.

“My sandwich! Completely forgot.” Without thinking, I opened the door.

Renee instantly covered her eyes. “Please, put on some clothes.

I looked down; they were slightly small but didn’t see anything, especially wrong with them. I looked up and shrugged. “I don’t see the problem.”

Renee sighed. “Of course you don’t.” she shoved the tray of food into my hands. “Here, now get back in there.”

I stopped the door from closing. “Can you... know now…”

“Make the door disappear? Sure?” Renee nodded her head. “What time do you want to get out?”

“Around 8, I want to go visit Val,” I asked. “It’s for work.”

“No, problem, I’ll mark it in the schedule,” Renee stated. She gave me a stern look. “Remember to eat before you do anything. You’ll need the energy.”

“Thank you.” Just as the door shut, and it disappeared altogether.

Impressive as always. Renee had placed layers upon layers of illusion to the point where she’s able to shift and twist the whole building’s reality with just a wave of her hand. It was extensive enough that if you stand outside, you wouldn’t recognize the building.

I had to admire the detail, not to mention the Mana it had to take to make something so complex. Renee said that her teacher helped her a great deal but still, it was impressive.

The room had no windows, and the only doors lead to a small bathroom and a closet where I keep my sleeping mat. Leaving a lot of space for protective talismans on the walls’ surface.

It was designed that way on purpose. So if I happen to lose control of my Mana, it would be contained. Nothing would be destroyed except for the contents inside my room.

None of this was possible without Renee and her illusion Magic.

Besides, who would want to leave. This room was great. I have magic books all alphabetically organized just waiting to study, or in my case, reread over and over again, and practice magic to my heart content. There’s even a mini-fridge in the corner if I want a snack. I have everything I need here.

Although there were no guarantees and without a Mentor to help with control, a person had to resort to shortcuts. Mine were Glyphs, runes and talismans. And I need money to buy more books and supplies to continue further with my studies.

I spied the tray of food, and my stomach growled. Slumping into my chair as I took a mouthful of my tasty sandwich. As soon as I was finished, I stretched up my arm.“Now, let’s get to work..”

Moving back to the mirror, checking to see if the damage affected the others. There was some damage, but I couldn’t help but wince when seeing the red mess that the burnt talisman had left behind.

Cursing aloud, I hadn’t noticed before because I got distracted, but why wasn’t I feeling anything? This should hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

Okay, let’s deal with that later. First thing, first. Let’s see what went wrong.

Speaking the Elven language, I placed my fingertips on my eyes and chanted out. “Release.”

My vision changed, and suddenly lines with various colours swirled around me. I call it Mana Tracing. Like energy, Mana runs through everything. My eyes picked up the residue left behind, and every tracing was unique, like fingerprints.

Someone partially sealed my eyes when I was a child. Furrowing my brow, I couldn’t remember who, but the person gave off a feminine feel. My mother, maybe? No, it couldn’t be my mother. Ever since I was born, I hadn’t seen the woman even once. Why would she come along and help me like that?

Running my hand through the colours, there wasn’t any friction; even so, they moved with my hands. They were a lot of silver-pink lines. “Renee,” I mumbled. There was some golden-brown mixed in. “Her mentor.” Sighing, their illusion magic clogging up everything again. Sweeping them away, it’s best to work with a clean surface.

Standing still for two seconds. I took a breath and stepped back. Leaving an outline, my silhouette, behind.  At the centre of my body was a huge pull of threads of multiple colours laced out throughout my body, except for a dark spot on my lower right leg. I winced; it was a reminder never to tattoo glyphs of any type directly on my body unless you want a burn bad enough to eat through the other side.

 Thank the Goddess that I hadn’t tattooed my chest or anything else vital. Even with healing spells, it would be a long time to be back to the way it was.

That and I couldn’t really afford the hospital fee. Renee almost slapped me silly over that stunt; she had to call in some of her contacts to get a hold of an underground healer that I was still paying off.

There were the glyphs on my body’s outline and placed the same as my original body. The drawings had a purpose, so the Mana Tracing stood out more than the random traces left behind.

“Okay, let’s see what went wrong.” I hummed out, going to the sink and taking out the dripping talisman. It looked too damaged, but I could at least use the Man residue left behind. “Come on, let’s put you with the rest.”

Drawing out the Mana from the ruined talisman, I placed it on my double, right between the shoulder blades. Watching as the Glyph naturally fit itself like it was before I ripped it off.“Good.” Nodding my head.

The talisman’s purpose was to contain my Mana and absorb the access. To prevent Mana Overload and killing myself in the process. The tricky part was that it needed to be calibrated to absorb my Mana and not everyone else’s.

Needless to say, these fragile pieces of parchment paper were prone to burn out; it shouldn’t have burnt out that quickly.  Even with that time at the café, when I almost lost control. And it shouldn’t have anything to do with my pain receptors.

And if I managed to find how I did that. It might be good for future reference. Not so good now though, feeling no pain wasn’t helpful at all. It would have burnt my skin off without me even knowing.

“I see one problem,” I mumbled, moving closer to get a better look. “The glyphs are misaligned with my mana lines.” It was a common issue. Mana lines, especially in a moving body, tended to shift and needs constant calibration. However, I would be so lucky if it just that. “Let’s start from the burnt talisman and see where it goes from there.” A grin played on my lips. “This is going to be fun.”

***

A loud knock startled me awake. “What?”

“Kera, it’s 8. May I come in?” Renee asked.

I turned to the wall as a door slowly formed. “Yes.”

Renee opened the door and stopped. “Ouch, that must have hurt.”

I touched the bandaged burn. “Yes, it hurts now.”

Renee gave me a funny look but sighed instead. “Are you ready to go? Did you get your talismans to work?”

I nodded my head. “but because of the burn, I still have to bypass and adjust the output to complicate…”

She held up her hand. “I don’t need the details.”

I looked up at her, a little confused. “Then why you asked?’

Renee rolled her eyes and turned to the door. “I don’t have time for this. I have a deadline to meet, and Val’s waiting for you. So please put on some clothes before you leave? Okay”

 I looked down to see I was still half-naked. “I don’t think Val would mind.”

“Everyone else would.”

“Fine.” Renee’s hand was on the door. I called out. “Can I take Nee with me?”

Renee gave me a hard look before sighing. “Okey.” Shutting the door behind her.

I jumped up excitedly. “Yes!”