Mana mirror the first ga.., p.46
Mana Mirror: The First Gate, page 46
This was skill and forethought, which was infinitely worse.
“If I wanted, with you powerless and trapped within my cauldron as you are now, I could seek out your phylactery and destroy it,” Meadow pointed out. “Luckily for you, I don’t relish hurting people. I want to talk to you.”
“Fine, let’s do this your way, then,” Orykson said, tucking his hands into his pockets and facing her down. He ran through the contingencies he had that might let him escape. There weren’t many, but he had a few.
All of them ended with him taking losses that he’d prefer not to take, but if that was the cost of his survival, so be it. There was no way she’d actually be content to simply talk. He had no doubt that she had simulacra scouring his castle even now.
But the spells he’d used to connect his body and mind to his castle told him otherwise. Her simulacrum was still simply in the entrance hall, waiting placidly. Had she tricked the wards?
Or did she really just… want to talk?
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I want to still be involved. While you try to guide him down your… new way… I’ll show him just how good the true path of magic can be.”
“The boy still needs a teacher for spatial and death magic,” Meadow said. “I’ll guide him as best I can, and when he mends his relationship with the libraries, that will help. But a teacher will also help. You can take on that role, but you’ll be under restrictions. Hmm… What sort of restrictions was I under? Let’s go with some of those…”
The old woman was taunting him, Orykson knew that. Lashing out would just prove her point, and he knew that, too, but his fingers still twitched, begging to release a spell to kill her, but unable to.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ve already set a handful of obstacles in his path. You can’t stop those.”
He expected Meadow to object. After all, some of his plans would push Malachi to confront the worst parts of the world. Those weren’t in motion yet, but the first steps were.
Instead, Meadow simply smiled and nodded.
“Fine. You can’t set any more plans against him, but the ones you have already started as of now can remain. I have confidence that he’ll be able to confront and overcome them without sacrificing himself.”
“You’re a fool then,” he said.
“Perhaps,” Meadow said.
Orykson let out a long, slow, deliberate breath.
They spent the better part of an hour discussing the exact details, while having both of their simulacra deal with the boy in question.
In the end, neither was satisfied with how their agreement worked out, which was perhaps a good sign that the agreement was fair.
Orykson returned to his castle to brood. He’d never admit that he was brooding, of course, but that was what he did.
Ultimately, it might have been for the best. The boy was too soft hearted, too kind, and too enamored by the modern world. He could never have become an heir anyways.
Besides, the entire experiment had been rotten from the beginning. The boy’s resolve was alright, but his legacy had always meant that he’d wind up without the same perfect blend of deep mana as Orykson had. His temporal mana was another thing dragging him down, corrupting him.
He reviewed his plans for the future and smiled. The heir project could wait. He would not die until he’d crafted his perfect heir, and he’d already waited hundreds of years. Malachi had not been a perfect match anyways, so perhaps he was to blame for assuming that he could make it work.
Meadow returned to tending her garden, sighing. That had taken more out of her than she’d like to admit. Until the Amethyst Mask or the Dreamer finished working out the flaws in his ascensions, she’d have to hold out, though. The world needed more Magi who wouldn’t abuse their power.
Or maybe Kijani’s success could start forming new nations. That would be nice. A world where power was more evenly distributed, rather than consolidated around a few powerful people.
Her mind turned to Malachi and Edward.
Neither were amazing mages, naturally. Malachi had some true talent with working mana, and he put time and effort into his mana-garden, certainly, but he was no prodigy.
Edward was… interesting. He burned with the desire to help people, and he didn’t like to hurt people.
If only Edward had been blessed with natural talent like Tom or Vivian had been. The world would be a better place.
But life rarely worked out the way one expected it would.
She hoped that Malachi and Edward could find a path that would lead them somewhere happy in life, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t also hope that same path would lead them to the top.
If it didn’t… Then she would simply soldier on as she had for two centuries now. There were worse things, that was certain.
Though… if Ikki moved… that may upset the balance just as much as it would if they got someone new to ascend to Magi on their own.
She shook her head. Ikki was too scared of his father to do anything.
She began to sing to the plants as she watered them. The plants enjoyed singing.
Inside their office in Lledrith, the Knowledge King smiled. Their plans were slowly but surely turning into motion. Even if Malachi turned out to be pointless in the grand scheme of things, preventing the rise of another Vivian or powerful person who followed the creed of the old guard had been worth them spending their attention for so long.
Deep in unclaimed territory, territory that had not seen hide nor tail of a so-called civilized Magi for centuries, the leader of the Cult of the Primes laughed as she spoke to two others through a secured communication spell. Laughed at the fools all around her, who thought they had caught the world on a leash. Laughed at them playing their little games.
She laughed, because they all thought they knew what was coming. They thought their plans mattered. That they were safe in their tower cities, in their universities, in their gardens, and in their nations of law and order.
She could not wait to prove them all wrong.
A part of me expected the sky to split open, for Orykson to descend upon me like a comet.
Instead, when he appeared, he just looked annoyed. He sent out a wave of mana, but Meadow glared at him, and the power retracted.
“It will be as we agreed upon, you old witch,” Orykson said to Meadow, then looked at me. “You have made a grave mistake, Malachi. I hope that one day, you will see that. Your debts have been marked at one million, one hundred and ninety thousand silver.”
I nearly choked, my eyes going wide. I’d known it would be a lot, but over a million silver? I’d never held anything approaching that amount in my life. I was pretty sure even Liz’s family didn’t have that much in cash.
He made a contemplative sound as he looked over Dusk.
“I’ll buy her for the total of your debt.”
Instinctively, I put my hand over Dusk, and she cuddled closer to me.
“No,” I said. “Dusk is her own person. She can’t be bought or sold.”
That actually seemed to get to Orykson. Something flickered in his eyes, too fast for me to recognize.
“Understandable,” he said. “Well. While you have made a grave mistake, you should know that I still have plans for you. If you ever want to return to the path of power, you should let me know. Until such a time, I will be taking one tenth of all the money you make.”
“If I decide to, then I will,” I said.
He looked at Meadow, and something seemed to pass between them, and he vanished.
“As we agreed upon, witch? What was that about?” I asked once he was gone. Meadow smiled mischievously.
“I may have made my way into his castle to speak with him one day. It took a bit of convincing, but we worked out a deal.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“Indeed. I had to trade more than I’d liked for it, but alas. He will continue to tutor you in death and space magic, at least as he sees fit. It will not add to the cost of your debts. The way he sees it, it gives him a chance to re-recruit you.”
“So, like with my spatial magic, he’s just going to show up some days to teach me, then leave me alone for ages?” I asked wryly.
“Indeed,” Meadow agreed. “The old man may actually be motivated to teach you better, now, though.”
I let out a long slow breath. It felt… almost anti-climactic. I’d known for a long while that I’d preferred Meadow’s tutelage, but finalizing it… I didn’t know. I felt like there should have been more.
“Let’s work out a contract, okay?”
Ed, Dusk, Meadow and I all did, writing out terms for her to teach me. It was strange how little it resembled the contract that Orykson had given me. It was far simpler, with the cost of the apprenticeship being that I would do what I genuinely believed to be right, and use what I learned to help people, rather than hurt them.
I was pretty sure that those terms were vague enough that they wouldn’t really be able to hold up in court, but Meadow seemed to care far more about the spirit of the contract than its legal aspect.
“Do you want to continue our lesson today?” Meadow asked once we finished, taking my hand gently. “I did my best to shield you from the worst of it, but this was not an easy choice for you to make.”
“I’m okay,” I said. “I really am. I promise. You’d mentioned potentially ascending to second gate?”
“Indeed,” Meadow said with a nod. “At least with life mana. The way I see it, there are a few issues with you ascending right now.”
She rested her hand atop her staff and smiled.
“But for that, let’s go speak to Edward. I have an offer to make him as well.”
We headed upstairs and woke Ed up, and after a cup of coffee and some cereal of his own, he was looking far more refreshed.
“What’s this about?” he asked curiously.
“I’d like to take you on as an apprentice,” Meadow said. “Formally. You can say no. In fact, if you do, I’ll think nothing less of you, and I’ll continue to try and train you to the best of my abilities.”
“Why?” Ed asked. “You’re… what, sixth gate? That’s even stronger than Liz’s grandpa, he’s a fifth gate. I’m not that good at magic. Better than some. Worse than others.”
“Because you have something far more important than strength,” Meadow said. She reached out and tapped his chest. “You have heart. You enjoy helping people. I’d take a single person with heart over a thousand world-shaking prodigies.”
Dusk burbled, and Meadow nodded.
“I would be honored to have you as an apprentice as well, Dusk, though you may find most consider you to be a sub-aspect of Malachi.”
“Will it mess with my work?” Ed asked. “I mean, Liz and I are saving up to try and get our own place. I can’t really reduce my hours just to chase after power.”
“Not at all. The way I view it, I am there to guide, not to micromanage.”
“Then sure,” Ed said, shaking her hand. Dusk shook one of Meadow’s fingers with both of her hands.
The two of them wrote out their own contracts as well, which heavily resembled mine, though Dusk’s included a clause to treat those within her astral plane fairly.
“Well then,” Meadow said, dusting her hands off and wiping a bit of ink off her fingers. “Shall we return to ascension?”
“Oh, are you planning to break through to second gate, Malachi?” Ed asked.
“For life magic,” I said, and he nodded.
“We did get a touch derailed, but part of why I wanted you here, Edward, was to prove a point. Please release all of your first gate mana into the air. You can pull it back in after. Malachi, do the same with your life mana.”
I sent all of my life mana out into the air around me, and Ed released his as well. His power matched mine in a moment…
Then kept going.
And going.
And going.
By the time he finished, he had released two times and half again as much power into the air as I had.
“Now, this is slightly unfair,” Meadow admitted. “Edward has yet to ingrain his spells for his magic. However… the point stands. You have constructed your life mana very well, but there’s one aspect of mana that you have sorely neglected. The walls in your mana-garden are still quite low, in large part because you rushed your skill in spellcraft, as per Orykson’s request.”
“Ed warned me about that,” I said. “He said that typically people let spells be mastered and ingrained as they grow, rather than focusing on it, so it doesn’t eat into their mana as much as it did with me.”
“Right,” Ed said. “I did think it was weird you were rushing so much. It would get you to second gate fast, but leave you behind in terms of power.”
“It’s a valid strategy,” Meadow said.
“Wait, but how does this relate to breaking through to my second gate?” I asked.
“You have to hold at least twice your normal mana-garden amount inside of you to begin to do it,” Ed said. “And… Oh, I get it. You don’t have a lot of free mana, so with your plants, you’ll be able to hit double that pretty quickly.”
“And then, as I grow, I can go back and fix the power problem,” I said, nodding. “That makes sense.”
“Indeed,” Meadow said. “I won’t make you ascend now, if you would rather fix your power problems now.”
I thought about it for a second, then shook my head.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll break through now.”
Meadow inclined her head, and Dusk opened a portal to her plane. We headed inside, and I took a seat next to the emperor’s tree.
Idly I noted that the river seemed to have gotten deeper, its waters seeming more abundant and the movement of the river quicker. Probably Liz’s grandpa’s mana, then. I was glad it had just reinforced the river.
Meadow took a seat across from me and nodded.
“Alright, Malachi. Enter your mana-garden. This will rely on pure mana manipulation, since your second gate life mana won’t be large enough to support a full-gate spell yet.”
I closed my eyes and let myself slip into my mana-garden, as if I was going to be working out some imperfections in the spell.
“Now,” Meadow said. “Head to the second gate.”
I walked past the cultivated plants and piles of inefficiencies, and to the second gate, noting for the first time that several of the trees did stand taller than the walls. It wasn’t that I hadn’t known that, but it hadn’t really been the focus of my thoughts.
“Fill your life mana with power from the rest of your garden.”
I pulled power into my life gate, draining my space, time, and death gates to do so.
“Now, draw from your plants.”
I did as she said, and the power filled me until it was almost painful, and then until it became actually painful, like someone was stomping on my neck.
“Push the power through your second gate,” Meadow said, though I barely heard her.
I pushed at the gate.
It was hard. Harder than breaking through to first had been, and far more painful.
I felt like I stood there for hours, directing a flow of power too strong for me, trying to open a gate that felt more like a solid wall.
Finally, there was a tiny crack. I felt a miniscule amount of power slip into my second gate and touch something else.
“Seize the power,” Meadow said. “Pull it through into your first gate.”
I did as she said, yanking on the second gate mana, and the gate split in two, swinging wide open.
Power rushed through my mana-garden, soaking into the earth and sky, filling the walls and crashing back down again. It seemed to mingle with my Depths of Starry Night technique well, soaking deeper and deeper with each cycle.
I felt the humming of the power that my Harvest Plant Life spell drew in from the world intensify, my mana senses and life sense sharpening again.
I cracked my eyes open, rising to my feet, and feeling the new source of power inside me.
I could now feel six distinct sources of mana inside of me: my ungated mana, my four first gates, and my second gate life mana.
My first gate life mana felt different than my other first gate mana. It wasn’t as solid or strong as the second gate mana, but… it was substantially denser and more potent than the first gate mana inside the other parts of my garden.
Experimentally, I sent power into Briarthreads.
It burst out around me, solid, dense, and powerful, as if I had artificially increased the density like during my fight with Mallory. I flicked my fingers out, casting Fungal Lock.
It felt… strange. Unbalanced. It was stronger, but not as solid as Briarthreads was. Probably because I hadn’t opened my death mana to second gate yet.
That lack of balance…
I traced it through my spirit. My entire mana-garden was unbalanced, leaning towards life mana, like a spinning wheel with a weight on one section. It wasn’t too bad, but I could definitely feel the spiritual pressure.
Dusk let out a triumphant cheer and hugged my ankle. Ed grinned and wrapped me in a hug. Meadow smiled and patted my shoulder.
“Congratulations, dear. Welcome to your second gate.”
Afterword / Author’s Note:
Thank you all so much for listening! This is my first dive into a new world and a new series! Rest assured that more will be coming soon, and the conclusion to Evan’s story will be as well.
If you enjoyed, please leave a review or a rating. Ratings take only a few seconds of your time, but can make a world of difference to me.
If you’re interested in getting a peek at what comes next, some of book two is currently up on royal road. All of book two and the start of book three can be found on my patreon.
Tobias Begley, Mana Mirror: The First Gate
