For three days we practice tactics. Through different games with different rules, each scoring points or losing them as the teacher sees fit. To be honest, the gamification of it all holds little interest to me. There’s too much for me to learn from paying attention to care about a scoreboard that influences nothing for my future plans.

Eshya on the other hand has been quite aggressive at this newfound competitive sport. She tries to squeeze every victory for what score she can, trouncing those who have the misfortune of facing her. Her tactics are rather consistently simple and aggressive, but difficult to counter because of it.

Vii meanwhile is more happy to mess about with experimental formations. Her air supremacy tactic was repeated a few times, and never beaten, but sometimes led to a draw. Rather than abusing the one tactic over and again, sometimes she’d employ traps with a stealth based team hiding in the forests.

Sometimes it would be all mages, casting spells and magic all over the place. One time she even air dropped some troops behind the enemy student’s formations. It didn’t end well, but it was certainly an interesting fight to watch.

The more that I learn, the more I become familiar with my weaknesses and failures. I quickly address them, but I feel less and less confident by the day as I discover those weaknesses by showing them to the rest of the class.

I still win more often than I lose, but that doesn’t say much considering some of the nervous wrecks that I have to go up against. At least all this does give me some good experience with my grappling Skill, I’ve managed to further develop it to the point that I can use it confidently on most humanoid people.

Eshya, excluded. She’s rather consistently put up a strong resistance, both by keeping outside of my reach, and by resisting rather effectively when I do have her in my grasp.

Every night I stare up at the roof, strengthening my mana form with increasing drive, and recalling everything that’s happened over the day. Every mistake I’ve seen from myself and others. I analyse every victory, to steal for myself the tactics that were successful, and to learn from those that weren’t.

For all my uncertainties, my confidence returns as I look at Eshya and Vii. They are strong. Truly strong, and they’re on my side.

They are on my side.

I can’t doubt it.

I shouldn’t doubt it.

I rustle out of the thin blanket that we sleep under and open my sleepy eyes. I’m still tired, but it’s not the kind of weariness that washes away with another few hours of attempted sleep.

I remove myself from Eshya’s grasp and sit by the bed to focus on developing my mana form. It comes naturally and the flow feels as a part of me as my own blood, but apparently that’s still not enough.

I need for my body to get used to it, while I’d prefer not to be fully dependant on it, I will accept that result if I must. There is too much strength in mana to turn it away for fear of the possible consequences.

The shifting, rotating mana vortex that I try to maintain in my mind has become more controlled and less frayed. The flow is almost, but not quite steady and stable. Considering how it was when I first formed mana shields, which are fundamentally just a different application of these vortexes, this is extraordinary, but that still isn’t enough.

I can feel more acutely the nature of the mana filling each part of me now, where it’s gaseous and light, and where the heavy liquid runs through me. It doesn’t respect the physical boundaries between organs, flowing through the walls that divide them.

Focusing on those flows, I direct them through the organs I most want to become attuned to mana. Though it flows through the walls of my organs, I can still mimic the shape with the mana flow inside me and try to have the mana sink in rather than flow overtop and through.

Today, as with most days up until now, my mind is the focus. I need mana sense, and I can only develop it through better flow in my mind. This has been the focus for weeks now, and though I can vaguely sense when something is powerful and dangerous, it’s too unclear to be of any real use.

By the time I feel the sun’s rays shining through the window, there’s a subtle difference in the shape of the mana flowing through my mind. As if the flow is sinking into my brain just a little. It’s not much. Chip only indicates a single percent of difference, but that difference feels like trying to see with your eyes closed compared to simply having them unfocused.

Immediately the general sense of power that I’d noticed before forms into actual shapes in my mind. An image separate to the that born from my eyes. The more I sense, the more that I metaphorically squint at the shapes that are nearly something recognisable.

Seeing a fraction of this new layer of the world around me, I look around to try and bring it a little more into focus.

The breeze that flows through the cracks in the bricks carries a certain magical power of its own, perhaps inspired more directly by mana than tides and moons as you’d find on Earth. The flow is unsteady and as it drifts into the room it fades, dissipating in the stagnant air that eats the loose energy that’s lost its momentum.

My attentions turn to the next most magical object.

The small metal figure of Vii glows with a power that I cannot quite place from the sight of it, but which is surely the enchantment that Ria placed upon it. The energy feels tightly packed, and I don’t see any of it leaking out or escaping. A large, fuzzy dot of powerful mana. It’s actually a little disappointing the more I look at it.

The girls are all faintly glowing, not as much as the figure, which, small as it is, has mana noticeably more dense. It does leave me to further wonder about the mana economy of these worlds. How much mana is consumed, how much used in enchantments and tools, how much can be afforded for use in learned magics.

It feels more and more that learned magics are terribly expensive, but then, I’ve only used magic that burns through hundreds of points at a time for comparably little effect. I have to guess that proper mages must be far more efficient with their mana usage. Maybe there are even tricks to it that I’ve not yet learned. There was something that came up in my infusion techniques class that I was wanting to further investigate.

Vii yawns widely as she looks around the room. Freezing momentarily and closing her eyes. A spark of power ignites the little figure attached to her, and I know that she’s looking through it.

“Good morning.” I say to the little metal figure.

“Morning.” Vii whispers, from over the other side of the room. Eshya has wrapped her in a tight grasp since I’ve crawled out from the covers and she’s having trouble escaping without bothering the deep sleeping elf.

“We’re finally moving on to wilderness survival today.” Vii whispers as she finally escapes from the bed and crawls up beside me, wrapping herself in her wings to hide from the slight chill.

“It might be nice to have some proper privacy again.” I say, looking out of the cracks where a few Foxen children are staring at us in wonderous curiosity.

“They seem pretty cute though.” Vii says, “Their little furry ears and the way they bolt away when they realize that you’ve seen them.” She gives the eyes a wave and I hear the hushed cries of children running away.

“I guess...” I say, restraining my own tiredness. “Vii, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What is it?” she asks cuddling into my shoulder.

“What is it that you’ve been keeping secret?” I ask her, closing my eyes and pulling her close. She freezes up, but I gently embrace her from the side. “I trust you. It’s just… We have to be paranoid, and I hate having my suspicions about you.”

She slowly relaxes again but doesn’t immediately speak. After a few minutes of silence between us, she finally finds her words.

“I can’t say.” She pulls me closer, tighter, “It’s not anything dangerous, or I hope it’s not, and if it is, then there’s nothing to do about it. It should be fine… probably.”

“Is there nothing you can tell me? What’s the danger? Is it something to do with the welfare officers?” I ask.

“It’s a magic.” She says, “I used a dangerous magic, and if something about how I’ve used it goes wrong it could mess everything up. It’s probably fine, but I really don’t think I can talk about it without it blowing up and… yeah.”

Magic. Dangerous, powerful magic. Something that I’m still too clueless about to understand from those clues alone. What sort of magic could she be talking about? Why would it be so dangerous to talk about it?

I stare down into her eyes, as she looks up into mine.

“Do you still trust me?” She asks, looking fragile and weak in my arms. Her eyes flicker about, as she looks over my face. I don’t know what she reads from my expression.

“I do.” I brush her hair aside and lean in close to kiss her. The warmth of her lips, and the way she nervously reaches up and touches my cheek is comforting.

Feeling her here in my arms, a warm and nervous bundle of feathers, I find that I do trust her. It doesn’t rid me of my paranoia, even now my mind is running wild with theories of what sort of mess she’s gotten herself into, but my suspicions of her have faded.

“Thank you.” She says, “I’m glad I got the chance to be here with you, and Eshya, and Nel. Alder too, though she is a lot of trouble.”

“Me too,” I say.

“There’s been a lot of bad things happen.” She says, “Like, so many bad things, and I know that there is so much more to come, both good and bad, but I’m happy. Happy for all of this.”

“While what you’re saying sounds sweet, it’s starting to worry me.” I say, “In movies, this always means that you’re going to end up dying in the next few scenes.” I brush her hair through my fingers, feeling how similar it feels to the softer down feathers of her wings.

As much as I try to bury it, her words have inspired a mote of worry in my heart.

“It’s okay.” Vii says, continuing quietly, almost sadly, “We still have many more years ahead.”

We remain in embrace until it’s time for breakfast. It’s something of an effort to get Eshya up and moving, and even when she does wake, she stumbles about tiredly.

Over breakfast I share my mana with the others. We’ve discussed this topic between us a few times before, but with my own mana growing and disappearing so easily, it’s a worthwhile investment for all of us if I dope them up with mana whenever I have the excess. I even share some with Adler, who’s a little more hesitant to partake.

“You really are unusual.” Adler says, slowly digesting the mana that I’ve granted her, “Being able to draw mana out of things at a touch and being able to consume mana as quickly as you do… it’s not natural. I’ve looked further into it, but even beasts aren’t like you. I have to suspect that there’s something wrong with your soul.”

“Could it be from when she was developing her first mana form? She built it up, then broke it down to nothing, over and over again.” Vii says, “Could it be like a muscle that got stronger because she used it, and the rest of us can’t because emptying ourselves of mana kills us?”

“I suppose, but I couldn’t find anything to support the idea, or to refute it,” Adler sighs, frustrated. So much for the Unified States knowing everything.

“I’m unique and special, would you expect anything less?” I ask, throwing down the last of the broth before using the hard brown bread to clean out the bowl.

“From you? I suppose not.” Adler sighs, she’s been doing that a lot. I guess slowly breaking her almost religious faith in her state has left her a little stressed.

“What can you say about our wilderness survival class?” I ask her, trying to stoke up the conversation.

“It’s about learning to survive in the wilderness with your own Skills and abilities.” She answers, “Finding food, shelter, water, and defences against wild beasts. There’s usually a goal or objective that you have to work towards, or compete over, but this being your first practical lesson it shouldn’t be too serious.”

“What sort of goal? A beast to hunt?” Eshya asks, growing a little more keen for the topic.

“Sometimes.” She replies, “Other times it can be reaching a location, or tracking something down.”

“Huh,” I think, “Maybe tracking down that missing kid. It would make us useful at least.”

Adler’s attention returns to me, as she nods, growing happy.

“Yes, that would make sense. I think that would be good.”

When breakfast has been orderly shoved down gullets or whatever the other species have that pass for a gullet, we gather before Freid expecting another of his speeches. I do make fun of them, and I have little interest in them when he goes over the same information for the fifth time, but they are comparatively better than I recall from the principal of my old high school.

“Today is your wilderness survival class.” He says, “We’ve covered the basics in a theory class last week, let’s see how well each of you were listening. There is equipment laid out here for you to choose from. I want you to gather what you see as necessary, and head out into the wilderness. Try to survive with what you’ve learned.”

It doesn’t sound so bad so far, but I can feel that he’s intentionally building up a tension to hit us hard with some twist that’s about to come. It’s predictable but remains effective.

“One more thing, Vin and I will be directing teams of collared beasts to hunt you. Your goal is to remain free for three days, beyond that, do as you see fit.” After explaining as much he walks away, joining a grumpy seeming Vin who’s already got a few of the birds with her.

“Fun.” I say, heading over to the piles of equipment with the other girls. We don’t have to talk for the most part, gathering backpacks, waterskins, and blankets to protect from the cold. There is no food on offer, but I sneak out a few loaves of hard bread that are left over from breakfast.

“I can’t use these packs.” Vii says, trying to fit it over her wings. It clearly doesn’t fit her, and it’s not the sort that can easily be refit.

We take a quick look through the equipment but there’s nothing that would suit to replace it.

“We’ll carry your load.” I say, “We’ll separate the work a little, you can act as scout for us, so that we know if we’re about to get into a fight.”

“I can do that.” She says eagerly, showing some measure of awkwardness for her inability to carry things.

“This tent should do.” Eshya says, lifting up a large canvas sheet, “We’re all sleeping together, yes?”

“It should be alright.” I say, picking out a knife that looks like it might be useful. The others already have knives of their own. “What else do you think we need?”

“Something to cook with.” Eshya says, pulling out a small pan, and shrugging as she adds it to her pack.

“Extra water, it seems there’s enough waterskins for it.” Vii suggests giving us all extra water skins, who knows if we’ll find good water. In a real pinch we might be able to rely on Adlers magic, but mooching off of her wouldn’t help us to learn much.

“I can’t think of anything else.” I say, looking through the otherwise sparse collection of tools.

“Weapons.” Eshya says, finding nothing but a few wooden practice swords, she still accepts one. I consider taking one, but with everything else I doubt a spear will help me much. My pipe gun, and grappling Skills will have to do.

Nothing else here looks particularly useful.

“If we missed something, we’ll find a way to live without it.” I say, looking over towards where Freid was headed when he left, “I think we should leave soon, get some distance quickly.”

“Good idea.” Eshya nods, following my gaze and finishing closing her own pack. “Which way, though? He didn’t give us a direction.”

“Do you think he’d get grumpy if we hid in town?” Vii asks, giggling at the thought.

“It might be amusing, but we’d learn nothing. Let’s head out into the forest, that way.” I say, pointing into the forest, “Even if he said nothing about it, I would like to look around for that missing kid we heard about.”

In a fast walk we head out into the autumn forest, some of the other students are quick to follow, others are still sorting themselves into groups and figuring out what equipment to bring.

If I’m going to guess, Freid isn’t going to capture them yet, it would make the three-day exercise pointless. If I’m right, he should be coming charging out of that tree line any minute now with a horde of collared beasts to scare the students into the wilderness underprepared.

A few minutes into our journey I can hear panicked screams rising from the forest at our back.

“Wonder if I was right?” I say stepping into a steady jog.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 559 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 24%

Muscle: 12%

Mind: 20%

Cardiovascular: 11%

Misc.: 10%

Efficiency: 77%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Grapple

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger