It had been a few days since my breakthrough; I stood under the tree of the same park, trying to replicate the dance the veiled woman had taught me.

“If I remember correctly, you take one step, then a half rotation clockwise, then switch to the right foot and do a full rotation.” 

During my time going over this dance, I noticed it involved a lot of twisting of the body and pivoting on the soles of your feet. It’s not very related, but it reminded me of ballet. And also a martial art? I hoped it was as I had read from a few books that there existed dances that were either taken from or turned into a martial art. 

It didn’t seem like I was doing it wrong. As if every move set was burned into my retina, I could visualize and recall everything. It was just that my body felt like a statue. I wasn’t as flexible as I thought, and the frequent jolts of pain in certain areas namely my back or groin while performing the dance were a testament to that. 

I also had no clue how to get my mana to react the way it did during my time in that dream. It simply remained dormant behind the seal. That place was also rather strange. She implied it was her domain, so maybe that strange mana could only exist within that place. 

“Maybe I just need to practice some more.” I thought.

After that night, there had been a few changes in my mana sense. The range was much wider and I could tell with more detail than usual what was happening to ambient mana. I always thought all elemental mana and its respective physical element were the same thing, mostly because of how intertwined they were, but as my senses have heightened, I could now recognize the slight differences between the two. You can say mana is a conduit to control the element, like a bridge between your own internal mana and the element itself. This also explains why magical dead zones or tomb worlds exist. The element causes that mana type to gather, but it can exist without it. 

I didn’t quite know for sure why some rocks attract more ambient earth mana than others, or why some don’t attract any at all. I guess that’s just how ambient mana works. Maybe it has a preference?

The same cannot be said the other way around. If there is no earth present, then no earth attuned mana will gather, unless forced by an external variable, for example, a natural disaster or us.

My water magic had improved as well, just a little though. For one, the only water spell I had learned called “Water sphere” was unalterable by me. I could cast it but I could make no adjustments to its quantity, speed or even try to touch it with my hand. If I did any of the sort, the spell would simply collapse. Lightning and wind always came naturally to me, but with water, there was simply no progress. It was a surprise when I found out I could adjust the size and density of the water sphere. Not much of an improvement, but I had long accepted that my innate talent with water magic wasn’t as good as the other two.

I yawned as I looked away from the city. It was still early; the sun had probably risen a few moments ago, but I didn’t know for sure as towering, dark clouds were building on the horizon. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to get caught out in the rain, so I ended my morning session and hastily made my way back to my dorm.

Once I arrived, I sneaked into the quiet living room, not wanting to wake anyone. The weather was looking even more dire by the time I arrived, so the room was very dim. I made sure not to bump into anything and tried to make it to my room. 

A pop and a yelp pulled my attention to one room, breaking the morning stillness.

I walked towards the door with what seemed to be a hair scrunchy on the handle. Not a moment later, Allana exited the room, clutching her left arm. Under her eyes were darker than usual, as if she hadn’t slept in days. 

“Are you alright?” I asked.

She simply nodded, which slightly irritated me. Although we had been living in the dorm for at least a month and a half now, she rarely interacted with us, leaving early and arriving late from the academy and the few times I caught her she simply responded with a nod or one word notes before running away. Looking into her room, I could see piles of vials and glass bottles scattered all over the floor, some of which had liquids of varying colors. There were also a few piles of mana crystal dust and other reagents. There was a faint smell of what I could only imagine was crushed plant matter from a mortar and pestle. A small torch artifact was boiling away with some unknown substance.

“Let me see your hands.” I said sternly. Which she then pulled further away from me before shaking her head. She tried to turn back and return to her room.

I sighed and followed closely behind. “Fine, but you know the nurse is gunna ask how you go that burn and last time I checked, we aren’t allowed to light fires inside this room.”

I turned around to leave the dorm in which she quickly ran to block the front door.

“Honestly.”

“I help you or I get the nurse. Choice is yours.”

She glanced back to her room before reluctantly giving me her left arm.

Although it was a surface burn, it was pretty large reaching from the base of her thumb, wrapping around her wrist and extending halfway up her forearm. It didn’t take too long to treat it, washing it under some tap water and then wrapping it with some cloth from the medical kit.

“Are you making potions in your room?” I asked.              

She froze for a moment, glanced around and then nervously nodded.

“Can I see? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

She guided me to her room and left to grab her notepad, almost expecting that a conversation was imminent.

You could say her room was nothing short of a mess, but it was still intriguing to look at. An entire stack of what I assumed were potions occupied the entire left corner of her room. Some were as large as jugs, some as small as cylindrical vials. I couldn’t help but gawk at the immense stockpile of potions she had in her room.

“Did you really make all these?” I asked.

Looking somewhat embarrassed, she simply nodded. I looked around once again towards the direction of the steam, the torch artifact in the middle of brewing a new concoction. She checked the artifact for a moment before leaving for something to clean up the broken glass. It seemed that one of the glass vials containing a potion popped and splashed the boiling liquid on her arm.

“What do you make these for? To sell?” I asked.

Once again, she replied with a nod. 

I helped her clean the last remains of the broken glass before sitting in front of the torch artifact.

“How well do they sell?”

Her lack of response was more than enough to answer that question. Especially since she already had her notepad out by that point.

“Ting!"

A metallic noise once again drew my attention to the torch artifact. It was no longer burning.

Allana sighed before tending to the artifact. She gently removed the jug from the metallic surface and inspected it. Satisfied, she took several vials from the nearby cabinet and poured it in each one. Once she was done, she returned to the artifact and, after turning a few knobs and bolts, opened a compartment. Inside was a single mana crystal, unlike most mana crystals that glowed with a luster, this one was dim and devoid of any mana.

I inspected the inside of the chamber where the crystal occupied. Several runes were present, the most noticeable being an automatic activation and deactivation rune. The runes that encircled it almost reminded me of a clock. 

The crystal was most likely a battery, and the runes activated it without the manual input of the owner. 

I was so enamored by the circuit of runes, I almost grabbed the damn thing.

 

Allana then looked at me, still somewhat unsure of something, before writing in her notebook once again. “You can go now. I should be fine from now on.”

Was she kicking me out?

“Ehh, can’t I watch?” I replied.

I had already become quite interested in her potion making process. Most potion makers actually use massive cauldrons to brew potions or perform alchemy. And she made it work with a tiny torch artifact.

She sighed, then gripped the crystal in one hand. Soon fire attuned mana gathered at her balled fist. Before I knew it, she released the crystal, and it was now glowing a bright orange. She didn’t use a chant to do that, at least one I didn’t hear.

“Is fire your innate mana type?” I asked.

She nodded, confirming my question, then exhaled, seeming a bit out of breath, and returned the crystal to the artifact. Most crystals disintegrate after all the mana is depleted. I assumed then that she had a special type that could be reinfused with mana.

She then unwrapped the bandages and pulled out a potion from the same cabinet. It was red and was in a small vial. She then poured it over the burn, soon all the dead skin peeled off and new skin took its place healing the burn completely.

“Oh, I guess you didn’t need me to treat the burn.” I said, realizing what just happened.

She gave me a slight smirk before returning the rest of the empty vials to another cabinet, a long, drawn out yawn escaping her lips. I took that as my queue to leave. Although there were a few more things I wanted to ask her.

“If I may ask, where do you sell these potions?”

She set at the edge of her bed, before yawning again. 

“The eastern Bazar at the edge of the academic district. I sometimes give some to the orphanage to keep or sell on my behalf.”

“If it’s ok with you, can I come by to help? Maybe a few times a week.”

She perked up at the sound of this. I guess she didn’t expect me to offer my help.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“I don’t mind. By the looks of it, you really look like you need the help.”

“Ok, you can come anytime you like. I won’t be able to pay you anything, though.”

“That’s fine. See you then.”

She dropped her head onto the pillow as I made my way out. I thought maybe I was a little too forceful, but she seemed lonely, again maybe I was wrong and she just preferred to be on her own. I’m not someone who can judge a person just by the way they act. It was just a feeling, and I acted mostly out of interest. Either way, it excited me to talk with her, another human, and she was probably my age as well.

“I wonder where she’s from. Most Humans are from the Nation of Castel Right? That’s on the western continent of Norma. I wonder what it’s like over there.”