Bidding farewell to his family members Leon or rather Tim boarded the luxurious coach prepared for his journey. Samuel was the coachman and Sophia accompanied him. Ruby and Violet boarded other carriages with other servants and the convoy rolled.
The day flew by like nothing and the only thing Tim did was a little chatting with Sophia and reading the books about this empire.
They reached the accommodation before the evening and the night was spent resting. The sleep was quick to come for Tim as he was tired from just sitting.
Next day the convoy rolled again and Tim opened a book he had been trying to read for the past few days, but had gotten no time for. He had a perfect understanding about this empire and how this world worked but this whole premise of magic was a little baffling.
Tim surely could do some outlandish stuff, but no matter how he tried, getting used to it was a bit problematic. He could do this or that but had no idea how all that happened.
His memories had a million gaps about this entire theory of magic. Tim’s brain just won’t give him the entire image. It would always come in fragments which he needed to rearrange. But this time, there was nothing. His mind refused to give him anything related to magic. It just went silent.
So, he picked up a book from the library, provided by the mage association. And it answered a couple of questions.
“Beginners Guide to The Magic”
“Mana is a form of Nature’s energy bestowed upon humanity by nature to do wonders. It exists anywhere and everywhere. It is estimated to be here before humanity was even born. It is used…”
Flip!
“While the power to control mana is largely genetic, there are many cases where children of Magi come out unable to sense the mana around them. A recent census showed that roughly one in a thousand children can sense mana, amongst whom, noble born children are the most.
Commoner children can also sense mana but their affinity towards it is always found to be moderate at best. They are always deemed to be incompatible with nature's gift, except some rare deviants.”
Flip! Flip! Flip!
Flipping through the pages Tim found something interesting.
"Mana can be used in a couple of ways. The two most common methods of utilizing mana are: enhancement of the body with mana (Augmenter), and emission of mana to the outside world (Conjurer)…" "… Augmenters are most commonly seen amongst warriors who utilize mana, channeling it through their body to strengthen themselves and their attacks. "
"The practice of conjuring is seen in Mages, who, after utilizing their mana, can cast spells to give off a certain effect on the surrounding area or directly at a target."
Weaknesses and Limitations
"While augmenters can possess incredible strength, defense and agility, their weakness lies in their limited range…"
"Conjurers possess unfathomable powers, being able to bend their surroundings to their will. However, such powers come with limits. Unlike augmenters, who utilize most of the mana in their own body, conjurers need to borrow mana from the outside world, in addition to their own, to exert mana into their surroundings in the form of a spell."
"While both types of Mages, or Mana Manipulators (for the more scientifically accurate term) depend on and are categorized by their mana uses. Augmenters and Conjurers also have different ways of measuring their aptitude."
Flip!
"An augmenter's prowess or talent is measured by the strength of the mana channels in their body, which measures the speed and efficiency in relocating their mana into various parts of their bodies . . . "
"…A conjurer's power and talent, comparatively, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates the speed and effectiveness of absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell. "
Flip!
"…Mages (Mana Manipulators) are typically categorized into one of these two divisions since attempting to be proficient in both from an early stage is incredibly time consuming and inefficient. Most are born with a skewed difference in their mana channels and mana veins…"
"…augmenters do not need very strong mana veins because they mostly utilize the mana from their cores, while conjurers do not need very powerful mana channels because they do not release their mana into their own bodies."
Fundamentals of Augmenting
"Unlike conjuring, much less time can be spent gathering the surrounding mana. Efficient use of augmentation requires speed and precision in the use of the mana from your body and less from the mana in the atmosphere."
"…augmenting requires proper distribution of mana into different parts of the body, depending on how the user sees fit. While it seems simple at a glance, augmenting requires much insight into the individual's own body. Being able to utilize the mana channels efficiently requires years of both mental and physical practice. "
"Because augmenting involves extracting mana in its purest form from the user's body, there are no highly notable distinctions in an elemental sense at an early stage. However, augmenters are able to control their mana more freely, resulting in vastly different forms of fighting through augmentation. "
Fundamentals of Conjuring
"The proper steps of utilizing mana for conjurers is to gather the surrounding mana in the area, drawing it into your body, then channel it into an appropriate conductor (a staff, wand, ring, of some sort) with the incantations as a mental controller for your will into shaping the mana into whatever spell you want…”
“The more powerful the spell, the longer it will take to draw in surrounding mana.”
“Because conjuring involves exerting focused mana into a particular spell, conjurers will notice that they have a special aptitude of certain elements (Air, Water, Fire, Earth), but with proper training, can become adequate in the basics of all elements.”
Backlash
"The phenomenon called 'Backlash' occurs in both types of practitioners. For augmenters, it occurs from depletion of mana inside the body, causing extreme bodily pain, depending on how low the mana level is. For conjurers, backlash occurs from overfilling the mana in their body. This is caused by overuse of spells beyond the practitioner's capacity, or using a spell too powerful for his or her body to handle. "
Closing the book, Tim shut his eyes, and massaged his forehead with a content expression on his face.
Now everything made sense about why he felt like dying after creating that tornado or that weird sensation in his hands and body. Everything was abundantly clear for him.
And honestly it was awesome. For Tim it felt like he had discovered something new. Something he could use to do literal miracles. He wanted to jump in joy but controlled his emotion, not to scare Sophia.
She was sitting beside him, staring outside the window with a melancholic smile on her face, but soon looked at him, feeling his gaze.
"Why do you look happy?" She asked with a toothy smirk. “Remember something about the princess, or imagining how her boobs feel.”
“What? No…” Tim’s face became flustered. “Why do you always bring those weird topics into conversations?”
“Well, you like to add those into every little talk.” She replied with the same sly smile on her face. “Like how you wanted to…”
“Nope!” Tim raised his tone. “We are not going there again. Those were all mistakes. It will never happen again.”
“Wha--, why? They are not mistakes.” She gently smiled, moving closer to Tim. “Those are called memories only you share. No one in this world will ever know about them. It is only for you to remember and laugh.”
“Well…” Tim chuckled, realizing her words. Memories were the only thing he had. No matter how bad or good they were. They were his, only and only his.
“So milord, never consider every little thing as a mistake.” She leaned on Tim’s shoulder. “As long as you learn from it, nothing called mistakes exists.”
Tim nodded, adding nothing. Her words were always true, carried deep meaning. It was as if she was saying everything from experience.
Soon silence descended upon the little room of the coach as the only heard was rustling of air through the windows and noises of horses making their way through the paved road.
And after a couple of minutes of silence, Tim opened his mouth asking a random question. "Can I ask you something?"
"You can ask me everything. And you know everything anyway." She giggled, raising her head.
"Yes…" Tim mumbled slowly with a faint smile on his face. "So, are you a mage?”
“Mage?” Sophia was puzzled. “I am not a mage. I just know some simple spells.”
“If you can use simple spells, then you become a conjurer. And the conjurer is a mage, right?”
“Yeah but, we are commoners, we can’t become mages unless we get some rare deviant ability. It is just not in our blood. We can do some basic ones but not on a level of mage. They are only for nobility. And magic is scarce anyway. No one cares about it.”
“Magic is scarce? Why? It is awesome. We can do many impossible things.” Tim voiced out his honest opinion. Mana could be the solution of every problem humanity ever had. It could change the world. But from her words, it seemed, these people had some other opinion.
“Warnings always come after the spells.” Sophia added with a soft smile and Tim frantically opened the book again. Mainly the last few pages.
“Magic is the gift of the Almighty God. It must be used for the greater good of humanity. Humans should always believe in God’s blessing to gain knowledge…”
‘Not this crap…’
Flip! Flip!
“In our lands magic holds the supreme power. It can both create and destroy lives within moments. If used in right hands, humanity can reach the heavens, but if used in wrong hands, it can summon Satan, from the very hell we fear the most.”
‘What the…?’
Flip!
“Due to a large-scale destruction caused by magic where an entire Kingdom was wiped out by mages, King Adalbert-II issued an extensive order to kill and capture all mana users. Each and every mage was mercilessly killed and if captured was sentenced to death. It is widely known as the Great expulsion of Magic.
Note that this event occurred seven hundred years ago and all the records containing information of that incident were thoroughly destroyed or lost. Hence the accuracy can not be confirmed.
But it is clear from the recent records that magic was banned for everyone until three hundred years ago, Emperor Philip who conquered the entire continent of Firestone, abolished the old order and created the new order of Antilion.
Antilion allowed only and only nobility to harvest the God’s gift and some sort of discrete ritual was performed between all the noble heads and Imperial family to summon the extinct magical powers back on to humanities hands.
From that day forward, only nobility had that strength until commoners developed the lost power to use mana.
Seeing the possibility of another catastrophe, the order of Antilion was reformed again, putting a tight leash around magic and its usage.”
Flip! Flip! Flip! Flip!
“That’s it.” After reaching the end Tim closed the book, with a shocked look on his face. “Where does it say about the scarcity of magic? There is no clear mention of anything here.”.
“I know.” Sophia responded.
“What? Why?”
“Because it can’t be written. The mage association is not allowed to disclose anything. It is an unspoken law, Leon. Don’t act like you don’t know.”
