I had just finished putting together our new bed frame when Lia called a stop to their practice, and Marin immediately collapsed onto the grass with a whimper. There was a gentle tug at the edge of my consciousness as Lia sat down cross legged and instructed Marin to do the same. You can come outside now, if you want. Please.
I found both girls side by side when I stepped down onto the ground, each with their eyes closed. “...And just focus on your breathing. Nothing else for now.” Without opening her eyes, Lia pointed to the spot on the opposite side of Marin, and I took my appointed seat quietly and joined in the meditation circle.
“After all of that work, this is—”
“No, Marin, no talking,” Lia chided. “Just breathing.”
Marin harrumphed loudly, but I heard her breathing level out into an equal, measured rhythm. After a few minutes had passed in silence, Lia nodded. “Good. Now we can talk about magic.”
“Oh, magic!” Marin exclaimed, then clamped her hand over her mouth. She scrunched her eyes shut again and retook her meditative position, then nodded.
“I know that you’ve learned that magic is done by channeling the power of the Major Primevals, but that isn’t exactly true. The energy you need to cast magic, called mana, is already inside of you,” Lia explained. “It’s deep in your core, and right now, it’s all blocked off. Unless it’s activated unconsciously in a life-or-death situation, it is perfectly content to sit undisturbed for your entire life. What we want to do is open up those channels and let the energy out so it can be used.”
Marin shifted uncomfortably in place, biting at her lip as she processed the information. “Does that mean Unity is a lie?” she asked quietly.
“No,” I answered quickly, “it just means that Unity’s specific ideas about how magic works are wrong. The Major Primevals very well could have created the world, just like you’ve been taught, but they aren’t granting you their power when you do magic. That power comes from you. Saying a prayer to a Prime is just a good way of specifying what you want that power to do.”
She mulled over the information for a moment, then looked down at her hands. “I don’t feel any energy in me like that.” She prodded a finger into her stomach. “Are you sure I have it?”
Lia laughed. “You do, I promise. I can see it right now.”
Marin’s eyes widened. “You can? You’re sure?” She tapped her hands excitedly against her legs in anticipation. “How do I use it?”
“You’ll start by meditating again,” Lia instructed as she stood up and circled around behind Marin. Kneeling down, she placed a hand gently on the small of Marin’s back; Marin let out a surprised squeak at the unexpected contact, then did her best to regain her composure and return to her meditation. “Picture your mana like a deep pool of water, right here. When you let it out, it flows like a river up and out to all of your extremities,” Lia explained, tracing a line up Marin’s spine and down the outside of her shoulder.
Marin’s eyelids fluttered as her body shuddered involuntarily. “Okay, what do I, uhm...what do I do next?”
“Normally, you would meditate and practice until you found the mana and released it yourself, but there’s an easier way,” Lia explained, nodding to me.
Taking my cue, I spun to face Marin and took her hand, squeezing it tightly. The pale skin of her palm was remarkably clammy, further betraying her unease. Her eyes snapped open and stared into mine, and she gave me an awkward smile as her eyebrows danced back and forth between emotions. “Close your eyes and clear your mind,” I said in a calming voice. “Focus on the rhythm of your breath: deep, slow, and even.” Mana ran down into my fingertips and hovered at the shared boundary of our skin. “I’m going to break the barriers holding your mana back. When I do, you’re going to feel an intense rush of energy throughout your body, as well as some very strange sensations that are...sort of hard to explain. No matter what happens, I promise you’ll be okay.”
Her eyes bounced back and forth as she processed the information, and she eventually gave me a timid nod. “I’m ready,” she said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.
I broached the surface of her skin cautiously and found the reactive barrier of energy as expected. As opposed to the constant golden glow of Lia’s mana that surrounded us with an intense focus, Marin’s seemed to flicker like a small pink flame, rippling in a razor-thin sheet along her hand where my energy attempted to pass through. I punctured the defensive line with a single, sharp spike of mana and felt the satisfying pop as the energy raced away to her core. Her hand began to tremble between mine, and I gave it a reassuring squeeze.
My mana chased after hers, rushing up her arm and into her spine before making the final plunge down to her core. The blue lightning struck against her final barriers and shattered through them, sending a bright pink light burning outwards in all directions. I gasped as her physical sensations melded with mine, and I became intimately attuned to the rapid beating of her heart and the tingling new sensations of channeled mana through her arms and legs. Our eyes opened in sync and, for a brief moment, I forgot which of our
