《The Vanishing City》Chapter Three: The Genesis of Mana
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Once Cillas had reached the trance of his normal meditation, something altogether unexpected occurred. Right as he settled in, the trance somehow became deeper. He found himself falling inside of his own body, and his entire consciousness whirled down and down in a whirlpool, and he found himself suddenly somewhere else. In this space, there was a wellspring bubbling up from the floor. To Cillas' surprise, the wellspring seemed to react to his thoughts, as his surprise caused the wellspring to froth much more violently. Cillas did his best to regain composure, and scolded himself for being so caught off guard at every turn, and to quell expectation, since they rarely turn out well. Stepping forward, or rather, floating - he noticed he was some kind of disembodied spirit with no visible form- he examined the wellspring more closely. The wellspring itself was flat, and floated about 3 feet from the surface he would be standing on if he was standing. Some kind of water that was both transparent and an easily visible vibrancy was flowing outward in a flat circle shape. What it flowed from was not something he could see, and where it went was not immediately obvious. After a few moments of careful observation at the very outer edges of the circle, he saw that the tiniest portions of this wellspring were separation and falling downwards before becoming invisible, but still noticeable, like the humid air of a rainy day. Now that he noticed the sensation, he could feel that this 'humidity' had been slowly building for quite some time; longer than he had been in the Plane, at least. Perhaps this was the cause of the strange weakening? Only time would tell. The scholar had mentioned that the process was extremely personal, so he did what felt right without taking time to second guess himself. First, all the humidity was gathered to a small sphere in front of him, with the wellspring behind. Then, he stretched the newly condensed potential in a ring around the wellspring, and encouraged the tiny portions to float into the ring instead of simply dispersing into the air. The ring rapidly gained color as it swirled, going from invisible to translucent like water, to a pale blue like the sky on a midsummer day. Some equilibrium was reached, and he could feel that, at the same rate the wellspring generated potential, mana was entering his body from the same whirlpool that he had come into this place. Deciding this was as much progress as he would make for now, he left his meditation. Upon waking in his new training room, he knew his conjecture was right. The slow weakening he had felt for months was completely gone, like his body no longer had to carry the burden of itself. He could even clearly feel small motes of mana entering his body from... not his body. The wellspring had no physical location, and he suspected that any physical injury, no matter how grave, would not damage this flow in the slightest. Malevolent mana, however, would likely pose a risk. Cillas made a snap decision to allow the mana free reign inside his body, rather than pressing it into some form with his will. He figured no amount of will would be able to replicate the natural ability of the world. With his weakness dealt with, and his mana situation stabilized for the short term, it was time to deal with the challenges this realm would undoubtedly bring.
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