Chapter 11 — Breakthrough

Ria decided to read up on controlling magical energy before trying anything else.

With a groan she hopped over and retrieved the book before collapsing back onto the bed. She felt so weak. If she really did use up her inner energy, how long would it be until her energy recovered?

What she got out of the overview was that controlling magical energy was an exercise in willpower and that affinity and practice made it easier.

She felt a bit of worry when she read that using up too much inner energy could be dangerous. According to the author, usually the mage would pass out before the situation became serious, but dying was possible if the mage’s energy was completely drained or if the difficulty of the magic put too much strain on the mage’s brain.

Well… she didn’t pass out, and her head didn’t hurt, so she was… fine? Hmm, best not to get so excited and overdo it.

The differences between inner energy and external energy were interesting. Naturally, the mage’s own energy was easier to control, but external energy had the advantage that it could be used at a distance. External energy also tended to have an element type which gave it certain properties and limited its usability.

The most interesting part was that some mages innately had a strong enough affinity for a certain element that their inner energy also had an element type. The letter from Jeni's grandmother described the robe in the secret room as increasing the wearer’s air affinity—would her inner energy become air-type if she wore it? Did her energy already have a type?

Ria wasn’t sure if having a type was better or not, since mages without a type were more flexible and could potentially use any magic.

The advantages and disadvantages of mages with affinities became clearer when she read about the difficulty and inefficiency of changing magical energy into different elements and effects.

The last section before the practical exercises was a blurb of theory about absorbing ambient energy and internalizing it to restore inner energy. She was then directed to the chapter on advanced meditation exercises for more specifics. Sigh. Something for another day.

Time for a break. She had been reading for a while, and it was getting dark outside. Ria stretched her arms and legs and ate a bit before moving the food tray over to her desk, where it would be safer.

Overall, Ria was quite pleased with the progress of her studies. From the way the book was written, she was expecting months of effort before seeing any practical success. That she didn’t have to look up words in the dictionary as often now was another sign of progress, but the chapters were definitely getting longer and more difficult to understand the further she progressed through the book.

Ugh. Understanding magic was way harder than studying history and literature. But, it did have the benefit of being able to do cool stuff! Ria grinned again as she reminded herself with a whisper, “I can do magic!” and giggled into her pillow.

Rolling to a sitting position, Ria decided to change out of her festival dress and get ready for bed. She was eager to see if anything had changed with her inner energy.

Back in her nightgown, she assumed the Inwardly Focused pose and easily slipped into the meditative state.

The first thing she noticed was that her body seemed less… something… than usual. The realization filled her with glee. She really could sense her own energy!

Another change was that the disruption around her sunburns was weaker. Ria tried pulling at the heat in her skin using her willpower and willing the warm feeling from her inner energy to replace it. As she concentrated, something seemed to shift. The change was subtle enough that she could just be imagining it, but her burns felt less hot.

A victorious chuckle slipped out, and she became curious about whether she could use the meditative state to speed up the healing of her ankle.

Ria focused on her ankle and tried to feel where it hurt. Unlike the sunburns, there wasn’t any strangeness interfering with focusing on her ankle. Rather the way the pulsing of her blood felt more pronounced was similar to her sore muscles.

Concentrating as hard as she could, Ria willed the ‘warmth’ to gather around the painful places in her ankle. The feeling was faint at first, almost as though she were imagining it, but as she continued to concentrate, the ‘warmth’ really did seem to gather. The more ‘warmth’ gathered, the less of that ‘something’ seemed to be in the rest of her body, and she could feel herself becoming weak and tired again.

Ria switched her mental image from ‘gather’ to ‘maintain’ and the drain on her body eased. Continuing to concentrate was still tiring in a different way, but the meditation seemed to help with that. Whether the extra energy gathered in the damaged areas of her ankle was doing any good, she couldn’t tell. Practicing her energy control was useful anyway, so she kept doing it until her head started to hurt.

Giving up, she flopped onto her back, thoroughly exhausted, but couldn’t help grinning. Ria was certain this time. Not only could she sense the energy in her body, but she could control it.

Likely, the main reason for her earlier failures was because her sensing ability was tied to her sense of touch. Using her sense of touch to feel things she wasn’t directly touching was hard to wrap her head around. Even so, there was nothing to do but give it a try and see if anything was different now. Maybe tomorrow, though.

Tomorrow would probably be a busy day. Ranger would need food, the salted deer meat needed to be cut into strips for drying, and she needed to wash her laundry. Her nightshirt was getting kinda yucky, and most of her clothes had already been worn twice. Besides, washing clothes made her arms sore, and she wanted to give them a day to rest before Jarrel came back.

Ah, the fox soup needed to be finished, as well. Would she be able to get any magic practice done at all?!

Listening to the usual nighttime sounds outside her window and planning her day, Ria drifted off to sleep without bothering to get under her bed covers.

When she awoke in the morning, her ankle was feeling much better. She couldn’t really say whether trying to help the healing along with inner energy had made any difference, but it was certainly plausible.

Regardless, being able to hobble around with the aid of her staff meant she was no longer confined to her room and could get work done.

The day passed just as she planned it. The ham and cheese were getting a little iffy, so she gave the rest to Ranger. The laundry was washed and hung on the clotheslines to dry. Ria was kinda happy that no one was around to see her underwear drying on the line. The rest of the day was spent cutting vegetables for the soon to be fox stew and cutting and re-salting the salt-cured venison.

The evening went a bit less than planned as she was only able to get half the venison jerky dried and stored in jars before giving up and going to bed.

Ria did manage to find time to read about the basic energy control exercises, so overall, she had to admit she had a very productive day, and her respect for her mother’s ability to keep up with all the housework greatly increased.