“Hmmm. Why can’t I do this right?” Embla’s shoulders dropped as she lowered her hand. “No progress even after two weeks. The only magical skill I can use is Sparks.” She held up her hand and summoned a small ball of electricity. “Ugh… it looks so flimsy. ARGGHH! SHITTY OLD MAN! WHY DIDN’T YOU TEACH ME MAGIC PROPERLY!” Embla grabbed her hair in frustration.

“Whatcha doin?”

“Hyaaa!” Embla jumped and turned around to see Pandora standing behind her. The half-Elf priestess had a small smile on her face. Her yellow eyes looked down and saw the books in front of Embla.

“Whatcha reading?” she asked. She squatted and grabbed a book. “Magic? You’re learning magic?”

“Y- Yeah.” Embla looked down flustered.

“I thought you knew magic,” Pandora said, closing the book.

“I only know two magical skills, Sparks and Flash. That’s about the extent of it,” she admitted.

“Those are pretty basic. Sparks is more like a glorified taser and Flash is just a flashlight,” Pandora said. “Fireball?”

“Yeah. I tried learning Ice Spear and Icicle Raid too but I can’t even cast a single spell,” she said.

“Hmmm, can you call up your mana?” Pandora asked.

“I can,” Embla said. She closed her eyes and cupped her hands together. A small blue light appeared between her hands. “I’ve been doing this for two weeks and I can finally willingly call on my mana.”

“Huh? Wait, you couldn’t before?” she asked.

“Ehe, no not really. That’s why my Sparks aren’t as effective as yours,” Embla said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “I didn’t have time to learn proper mana control. I don’t even know what my mana affinity is.”

“HUH!? AND YOU’RE TRYING TO LEARN MAGIC WITHOUT KNOWING!?” Pandora yelled.

“Hey, I’m right here,” Embla said, covering her ears.

“Sorry. No wonder your Sparks skill looked so puny,” Pandora said. She held out her hand and summoned a large ball of lightning.

“Yeah, yeah. Shove it in my face. I’m good at controlling my Prana though,” Embla said.

“Prana is different from mana. Come on, I’ll help you,” Pandora said.

“Help me?”

“Learn magic, of course. I’m a pretty skilled at Magic. I am a Priestess after all,” Pandora said, puffing out her chest.

Embla smiled. “Fine, fine, I’ll be relying on you from now on, Teacher. So where do we start?”

“Let’s start with practicing mana control. Since you can already do it a little, let’s have you form a bigger mana ball,” Pandora said.

“Right,” Embla said. She closed her eyes and cupped her hands.

“Remember, Mana Control is the base of all magical skills. Any adventurer with any magical skill worth a damn has good magical skill. Even the Knights of Midgard, the Einherjar, and the Valkyria who use magic have their base in how good their mana control is,” Pandora said, walking around Embla.

“Is it the same as prana control?” Embla asked, opening her eyes. She had remembered her master mentioning something about it when she learned under him.

“Ah, somewhat. The two have overlapping concepts like learning to control the flow of your prana to not waste excess. However, prana control is easier because you’re drawing energy produced by chemical processes inside your body. In a sense, you are passively using Prana in order to sustain bodily functions. Mana is different. As you know, mana originates from the energy produced by the soul of a living being,” Pandora explained. “With learning prana control, you were told to visualize your body as a lake or a body of water right?”

Embla nodded.

“Now, for mana control, do the same thing except don’t look at yourself as a lake. Look for the lake inside yourself. That lake should be your mana. Look for something that feels like you. When looking for your prana, you’re told to imagine something warm but mana is different. The feeling of mana is different from person to person. Stop looking for a sec,” she said.

Embla opened her eyes.

“Grab my hand.” Pandora held her hand out.

Embla nodded and grabbed Pandora’s hand.

“Do you feel it?” Pandora’s hand began to glow a soft yellow color.

“Yeah, I feel comfy… like lying in the middle of a field under the moon with a breeze?” Embla opened her eyes.

“What a nice way to describe how my mana feels,” Pandora said, smiling. “Alright, now that you get the feel of it. Try finding yours. Generally, mana fonts inside the body are located near the heart, unlike Prana, which you can find just about anywhere.”

“Right, right.” Embla closed her eyes. Right right. Look for a pool with a familiar feeling. My mana should feel like me… my mana should feel like me… She searched and looked deeper into herself. Moments stretched into eternity as Embla concentrated harder and harder. It should be easy… I can summon a trickle of mana. Finding the rest of it should be- bingo!

And then she felt it. The sweet comforting embrace of her mana, only it wasn’t what she expected it to feel like. The embrace was that of a shadowy chill rather than a warm light. She felt it wrap around her like a cloak of shadows. Embla tugged on it and began pooling it to her hands like her previous training told her to.

“I… did it,” Embla said, huffing. In her hands was a small swirling violet ball of mana about half the size of a volleyball.

“Oho?” Pandora inspected the ball closely. “You’re better at this than I thought.”

“Thanks. I already knew one magic skill and spent two weeks summoning that small ball. Your tips helped me push through,” Embla replied, dispersing the ball. “Let’s keep practicing!”

“Wait.”

“Huh?”

“Before we continue, let’s head to the magic shop and get some stuff. We’ll need them later on,” Pandora said.

“E- Eh? Magic shop?” Embla followed after her as she began to walk.

“Well, while we’re there, we can do some stuff and buy the appropriate training materials for you. The shop has a chromatic orb. We can use that to detect your mana affinity,” Pandora said.

“Affinity?” Embla asked.

“The element you’re most attuned to. Most magic users start out with the element their mana is most attuned with,” she answered.

Embla found herself at a familiar store on their side of the city.

Mary’s Magic Emporium.

But rather than browsing randomly, Embla just stood there as her friend became a living cyclone through the entire store.

“Okay, take this, this, and this!”

Embla moved as she tried to catch a stack of books that Pandora was tossing into the air. Book on Magical Theory? Casting: A Guide to Magical Mastery? So You Want To Be A Murderer? Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets upon seeing the title of the last one.

“Here’s a few more.”

Embla nearly felt her body drop to the ground as Pandora stacked more books on top.

“Hey! Where’s the Affinity Orb?” she heard Pandora ask.

“Pandora? Do we really need all of this? Some of this looks really expensive,” Embla called.

“It’s fine! I’ll just put it on the temple’s tab,” she answered.

She’s exploiting the temple’s funds? I forget that Pandora can be scary sometimes, she thought as the blonde tornado ran through the entire store.

“Embla, Embla come on!” Pandora beckoned over her to the counter. She sighed and walked over, carrying a massive stack of books and tools with her. Her red eyes fell upon Pandora holding a large clear crystal ball.

“Are we going to pay for this?” she asked.

“Put it down first. Once we find out what your natural affinity is, we can get rid of some of the books,” Pandora answered. She took some of the books off Embla’s arms and placed them on the counter.

Embla placed the rest of it down.

“So, come on! Come on!” she urged, grabbing Embla’s wrist.

“Ummm…” Embla gingerly placed her hand on the orb.

“Okay, before we get started, I need to explain what’s going to happen. If the orb turns red, your natural affinity is fire, if it turns blue, it’s water. Green for wind. Brown for Earth. Yellow for lightning. There are others too like light blue for ice, whitish-gold for light, and black and violet for shadow,” Pandora explained.

“Right. Got it,” she said. Embla closed her eyes. “Wait, how do I use this?” she cracked one eye open.

“Ah. You just channel your mana into it. Think of casting a spell. The orb will absorb the mana and draw out the latent affinity,” Pandora answered. She had a wide smile on her face.

She nodded and did as Pandora instructed, guiding her mana as if she was casting a spell.

“Ohhhhhhhhh!” Pandora’s eyes gleamed like stars as she watched the orb light up. The once clear glass orb took on a dark foggy color with violet hues scattered inside of it.

“What? What is it?” Embla opened her eyes and saw the orb in front of her. “So I have a Shadow affinity?” she looked at Pandora for answers.

“That means that we can get rid of this, this, and this.” The half-elf priestess ignored her as she tossed several books away. “But I guess we can keep this…” she held up a book on Lightning magic. “You’re already familiar with lightning magic so training that too would help you more. Expand your repertoire beyond hacking and slashing and turning invisible and what not.”

“That’s not the only thing I can do. I can also-”

“Reflect magic.” Pandora tossed away ten more books about light magic. “I think we’re good with what we have.”

“T- This is good for you?” Embla asked, staring at the mountain of books that did not seem to decrease in size despite the amount Pandora had thrown away.

“Yeah! These books will help us move your magic training along. Be careful though, I’m a pretty strict teacher,” she said, grinning.

“Right, let’s just pay for these books,” Embla said. She pressed the bell on the counter.

The two waited there for a few minutes until they heard a yawn coming from under the counter. A sleepy woman with violet hair snaked her way up from under the register. She wore a light violet frilly robe with a moon sign on her left breast. The woman spilled over the counter like water from a tipped over glass, her hands slowly fumbling for the books. “Welcome to Mary’s…” her head rose but slowly nodded off as her eyes closed. As she leaned forward, head about to hit the register, she opened her eyes, “Magic Emporium, how can I help you?”

“For Odin’s sake Mary, you look like shit,” Pandora said.

“I’m just really sleepy,” Mary said, yawning.

“Yeah, what else is new,” Pandora said. “Just these books.”

“That’s a lot of books. Do you need a bag of holding?” she asked, running over the scanning crystal.

“Um, no I have one with me,” Pandora said, pulling it out of her pocket.

“Right.” Mary yawned once more.

“Jeez, get some sleep.” Embla looked at her with some worry.

“I will. It’s just that the Ataraxia Tournament is in a few weeks so people keep coming in here to buy potions, spell books, new staves, etcetera. It’s just so…” she yawned. “Busy…”

“Didn’t you guys mention something about parties getting rank-ups if they make it to the finals?” Embla glanced at her friend.

“Yeah, but I don’t know if Yuki wants to participate this year. We’ve always participated and we have to out of necessity,” she answered.

“It's because of the money issue, isn't it?" Embla said.

Pandora nodded.

“So how will you pay for this?” Mary’s voice snapped the two out of their reverie. They turned to look at her as she punched the numbers into the register. “That’ll be 3500 bullions.”

“Just forward the payment to the temple,” Pandora said.

“Like always,” Mary said in a tired tone. “Okay, okay. Here you…” she pushed books back. “Go.”

“Thanks,” Pandora said, opening the leather pouch in her hand. She pushed all the books inside and closed it.

“Have a nice…” Mary yawned. “Day.”

“Y-You too. Go take a nap,” Pandora said as she and Embla left the store.

“She was an experience,” Embla said, walking down the street with Pandora.

“Yeah, Mary’s normally like that but she’s a good person. She helps out anyone who wants to learn or improve their magic.” Pandora placed her hands behind her head. Her eyes roamed around her surroundings, catching the signs on the stores. All of them noted a sale or an event of sorts. “Looks like stores are getting ready for an influx of tourists because of the Ataraxia Guild Tournament.”

“Yeah. A few years back, I came here to get a lead on my sister from Kojiro during the tournament. It was during the semi-finals and the place was packed. I had to sleep in the park because all the inns were booked,” Embla said.

“Looks like it’s going to be even more packed this year.” Pandora stopped outside of an inn. Her eyes widened when she saw the promotional poster.

“What? What is it?” Embla stopped and walked back over to her. She followed the line of her gaze and saw the poster.

The poster was a simple promotional add. It had the inn’s logo which was a shield with two swords crossed over in front of it. There were a set of prices and available discounts for its luxury suites. However, she noticed a picture of a woman.

The woman looked eerily familiar but she could never place where she had seen her. The woman had hair as white as snow, styled in a hime-cut. Her hair being long, reaching down to what appeared to be her back and her bangs covered her forehead. She had a pair of two fluffy fox ears and nine bushy tails coming up from where her waist had been cut off by the poster. The woman wore white kosode with a haori that was white with blue snowflakes embroidered into it. The woman also wore a blue obi around her kosode and the top half of her hakama could be seen.

“Huh, looks like this year's going to be a big tournament," Pandora commented.

"Yeah, it's almost unbelievable. Eschamali of the Twelve Sages," Embla said.