I don’t understand Cattleya…
Does she need both food and blood? Is there a difference?
…
The questions circled around inside my mind as I tried to figure out why exactly Cattleya seed so desperate to get to the vial that was inside her coat pocket. I knew that when she drank from it, her fangs went away, but that was all. However, all of that was fairly short-lived, as while I was distracted, Cattleya sprung up and imdiately declared that she was returning to our lesson.
As soon as I realised what was happening, I got up and followed behind her, sitting back down on the grass where we had been only a few minutes earlier. Cattleya took a deep breath before speaking.
“Alright, the first thing you need to do for is exactly what you did before,” She said with expectant eyes, “You simply need to concentrate your mana for to finish examining. Since you have managed to do so before, doing so again should be no issue for you.”
Is it really that easy?
It took so long the last ti…
I looked down at my palm as those thoughts passed through my mind, trying to recall exactly what it felt like the last ti I had done it. However, it was difficult for ; it was pretty much an accident that I was able to do it before. All I did was think back to when I first moved my shadow and the faint mory I had of those sensations; at so point, they just combined with my mories of Ovia’s tendrils, the way I saw them move around her domain, bringing things to her… I wasn’t even thinking about doing it myself… It just happened for so reason.
…
A part of had honestly hoped that by just recalling those things again, my mana would begin to move as it had before, yet I had no such luck, instead being left pointlessly staring down at my open palm.
…
Both Ava and Cattleya are able to use magic without having to go through any of this… am I just different?
I did it with my eyes closed last ti… Is that the difference?
It all feels so… random?
…
Why is there not an easy answer? Sohow, I’m able to move my shadow however I want, yet doing sothing that's supposed to be simple seems so difficult.
In an attempt to prove the words swirling around my head right, I let my shadow crawl up my arm and into my hand as I had done many tis before. It was effortless, leaving just to watch as it squird and writhed, almost as if it had a mind of its own, desperately clawing its way up my arm against all odds.
It got to the point where it wasn’t much of a stretch for to expect it to simply lift off my arm and keep climbing, and once it got up to my wrist, sohow, that’s exactly what happened. Instead of the shadow coating my palm as it should’ve, it simply continued up into the air, coalescing into the orb that I had seen before.
…
My mind was a little lost as I was left srised by what I had just seen. It didn’t seem to matter how many tis I saw magic; there was just an underlying elent of wonder to it that made it difficult to think of anything else. And this ti, in particular… watching the impossible happen with my own hands took my breath away.
“Hmm…” Cattleya’s voice was what finally pulled out of my own head and back down to reality, “It really is quite strange. It looks nothing like anything I have seen or read about before, yet… at the sa ti, it does not seem to do much.”
This ti, she picked up a leaf and held it out towards the dark grey mass in front of . As the leaf collided with it, just as she said, nothing seed to happen, well, aside from making the leaf look a little darker as a shadow was cast over it. It was as if the mana wasn’t even there in the first place, nothing more than a joint fignt of our imagination.
“There must be sothing to it. Mana simply does not exist without a purpose…” Cattleya said as she pulled the leaf back towards her and examined it, “… If it does not interact with anything physical, then perhaps…”
As she spoke, I saw green wisps co from her fingers again, although they were much fainter and a little smaller than before. She then held the leaf close just before a new stem sprouted from it, slowly growing up into the dark orb above it. Once it touched the edge of the mana, it seed to stop for a brief mont before continuing as it did before, although it might have been nothing more than a trick of the light on my part… or the lack of it.
Cattleya, however, seed to have a much greater reaction, imdiately pulling the plant back with wide eyes locked on the orb in front of .
“That could not…” Before saying another word, she shoved her free hand directly into the orb.
Imdiately, I felt sothing co over … at least, that was the only way I could explain it. It wasn’t sothing I could feel inside my body; rather, it was like I could feel… sothing happening within the ball of mana as Cattleya held her hand inside.
It didn’t take long before I realised that whatever I thought I was feeling was, in fact, very real, as the orb of mana bloated slightly. It didn’t look quite like it did before; it was as if it was being stretched taut from the inside.
A mont later, Cattleya removed her hand, looking it over just as she had done with the leaf monts before.
“It is just… unusual? Hungry?” She said, “I do not know how I would explain it… It is such an odd sensation.”
“… What?” I couldn’t hide my confusion at her comnt.
“It is a very subtle effect, so much so that I had doubted whether my assumption was even correct in the first place,” She kept looking over her arm as she spoke, even though nothing appeared to have changed, “It… drained my mana sohow, that is probably the right way to put it. Not much, might I add, but I could definitely feel it wanting to leave my body as my hand was imrsed.”
What does that an?
I don’t really understand all of this.
“This might help to explain what was happening with the ship!” She shouted, “If your mana inherently wants to take in other mana, then if so kind of magic were being used to distort your perception, it would be able to disrupt it!… maybe… I am not sure how that would work in practice…”
She was starting to inch closer as she continued talking about what she was hypothesising.
“The biggest problem with this idea is that even when your mana is concentrated like that, the effect was so minor that I doubt it would have any significant impact on any competently constructed magic… I was still able to grow a plant despite its effects, after all… But at least it is a start!”
At that point, she was hardly any more than a hand’s width away from . The look in her eyes was one of both amazent and a hint of desperation. I was instinctually tempted to try and push her away, but thankfully, I didn’t have to.
“Co on now,” Ava said as she walked over to us before firmly placing a hand on Cattleya’s shoulder, “Why don’t you back up a little? I’m sure both of you’d appreciate a little more space.”
“O-oh my,” Cattleya stamred as she suddenly pulled away, “I must apologise. It was just such an intriguing idea, and I got a little ahead of myself.”
“That’s much better. Let’s just stay at least this far back from now on, alright?”
“Okay…” Cattleya quietly responded before imdiately refocusing on , “B-But now I want you to do sothing else! Can you try taking your mana back into yourself? I want to know what happens. If you are able to take in other types of mana like that…”
Her words trailed off as she seed to beco absorbed in her own thoughts, but I must admit that I was also a little curious as to what would happen. When we were interrupted last ti, I just let my mana dissipate into the air… but if I was able to make it do this… surely I could do it the other way around as well.
So that’s what I thought about: the way the orb would slowly descend until it t my arm, cooling down the skin it collided with before slowly sinking back down into my shadow. Then, without any extra effort on my part, that is exactly what started to happen: the orb slowly descending until it t with my palm. Once it did, it felt a little unusual; I could feel it collide with my skin as if it were a physical ball, although that sensation was only temporary, as it quickly began to lt. However, it seed that not all of the mana wanted to go quite so willingly.
There was this small amount that just didn’t want to move like the rest, and I could feel it resisting as it was being forcefully driven into my palm with no success. It didn’t take long before the pressure got to be too much, and whatever was being held down burst out. It released what looked to be a fine mist from my hand directly into my face.
“What was-?” I tried to question what had happened, but my unspoken question was answered almost imdiately as I felt sothing prick at my nose uncomfortably.
It was nothing other than a small cloud of pollen, and it didn’t take long before I sneezed, blowing so of the pollen over to Cattleya and Ava, neither of whom seed particularly bothered by it.
“So… I assu that ans your body did not accept my mana,” Cattleya said, clearly trying to move closer again, even if Ava was now holding onto her, “But… if you cannot do that… what about that mana deficit that follows you… It all has to be going sowhere… All this did was give more questions. I just-”
Those last two words were interrupted by Cattleya’s fangs once again growing, although this ti, she didn’t accidentally bite her lip as she had back at the restaurant; instead, she fortunately stopped herself.
“Why now? I just-” It seed like a realisation dawned on her as she abruptly stopped mid-sentence, “Of course, I did not think about how the drain would- Oh, never mind, I… I need to go. Our next lesson will be… It doesn’t matter right now. When I am ready, I’ll co find you again.”
She then easily shook herself out of Ava’s grip, as if her being held back was nothing more than an act, before quickly darting deeper into the forest, leaving and Ava sitting there, stunned at… whatever had just taken place.
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