Inari’s Gift

When Cera awoke the following morning, she dressed and then sat in contemplation for a time, considering how foolish she’d been.  While her former magic was denied to her, she had ignored several of her most powerful tools, putting zero effort into regaining them in this world.

Once, she had spells and constructs that her subconscious maintained at all times; precursors to her spiritual and energetic modifications, her amplifiers, and her greatest creations.  Yet in this realm, she had not tried to replicate them.

While her initial attempt at an amplifier was unfortunately not to her liking, as well as requiring constant focus to maintain, it was still a potent tool, and one that would be quite valuable if it were permanent.  Though it lacked the power she preferred, and couldn’t change mana to act other than as a vapor, it still compressed it and increased its density.

With these things in mind, Cera ended up skipping breakfast, simply remaining sitting upon her bed, tail in her lap, focusing internally.  She’d already proven that spells could be maintained with the chaotic external mana, if set up properly.  The key now was to get her subconscious to hold things together without her active participation.

As such, Cera began practicing once again with simple light spells, watching dozens of them flicker out and die one after another.  She was not discouraged, however.  In her prior life, far more complex things had been controlled by her subconscious, though she had, admittedly, augmented it significantly.

Once a few hours had passed, Falron quietly knocked on her door and inquired, “Are you okay?  It’s well past time for breakfast, and you haven’t come out yet.”

Finally getting up, Cera opened the door and explained, “I realized that I’d forgotten something very important about my magic, and have been focused on that.  I probably should eat, though, shouldn’t I?”

Falron quickly moved to the kitchen and brought out a plate of cold food, which Cera promptly began to heat up with her foxfire before eating, thankful that she could control how and what it affected.  Once finished, she took care of cleaning her dishes before returning to the living room.

“I used to have my subconscious maintaining spells at all times, and never bothered to work on that in this new life, where things work differently.  It wouldn’t have made a big difference in the fight yesterday, but that did remind me of it,” she explained, shaking her head at her own forgetfulness.

Falron remained silent for a moment before stating, “That sounds similar to how some of the more skilled mages manage to train themselves to activate magic before consciously thinking of it, so I can see the idea as being reasonable, though I’m sure it is difficult to manage with how few actually do it.”

Cera simply nodded before leaning back and focusing once again as she stroked her tail.  Yet more light magic failed as she continued her efforts.  By noon, however, she had succeeded in maintaining a single unchanging orb of light without any conscious effort, and almost no drain in her own mana.

Keeping in mind that she’d said she would visit the village daily to see if anyone was injured, she paused her work and grabbed her staff before beginning to travel there.  Upon arrival, she learned that several people were injured in the fighting yesterday, but had hidden indoors and thus had not been healed previously.

While she could have charged them for healing, Cera found it to be distasteful to make them pay when none of the others who were healed the prior day had been.  And besides, they were injured while protecting the village from attack; they shouldn’t be punished for it.

As such, she passed through the village, stopping at each person’s home and healing them for free, using up all the mana she’d stored while experimenting earlier in the day, though she was unable to heal everyone.  As she worked, she explained that she was healing them for free due to the cause of the injuries, but was still given a dozen iron coins as thanks.

Once she finished her trip around the village, she found it had gotten dark outside, and took the opportunity to practice what she’d managed earlier on her walk back, keeping a light spell going over her head without actively focusing on it.

Upon making it back home, she spoke with Falron about the attack and lingering injuries.  Apparently, he had left those who weren’t present on purpose for her to heal, thinking she’d charge for it.  Once she explained her viewpoint, however, he agreed with her.

After having dinner and heading into her room, Cera took some time to try to improve her new skill with moving spells to her subconscious, and ended up with four light spells going at the same time before the fifth ended up being too much for now.  While it was good progress, it meant her goal was still far from being met, as her amplifiers were far more complex than the light spells were.

Having finished her test, she then went to bed, hugging her tail as she drifted off to sleep.

The following day, Cera quickly had breakfast before immediately heading back to the village, wanting to finish healing everyone she hadn’t been able to get to yesterday.  This time, no one gave her anything in return, but she didn’t mind, having already chosen to heal them for free.

Eventually, she finished with everyone and started to return home, deciding to take a walk along the edge of the forest instead of following the trail.  After spending some time enjoying nature, she arrived and set her staff aside by the door before making a small lunch to share with Falron.

Cera then spent a while meditating, examining herself, and finding that what she thought was in fact true: her mana capacity had grown a fair amount.  Perhaps from using it so much, or perhaps a side-effect of her storing it within her flesh as well as her energetic system.

In time, she shook her head and rose, heading to her room for a short nap.  A while later, she got up again and spent a while brushing her tail before heading back to the living room.  Falron mentioned it was getting late, so she decided to make dinner before anything else.

After cleaning up, she decided to take a break and simply sat by the fire and relaxed for a few hours before going back to bed.

Waking up the next morning, Cera decided to resume her practice at maintaining spells, and spun up a few light spells before hitting her limit.  As she grabbed her staff and began walking back to the village, she continually attempted a fifth orb of light, eventually managing it as she arrived.

Today, it didn’t appear anyone had any new injuries, so she simply spent a while walking around and becoming more familiar with the layout of the village.  Some time later, she started back home, managing a sixth light shortly after leaving.

Once she made it home, Cera decided to go through her coins and see how much she had currently, ending up with thirteen iron and seven steel, still a ways away from what she needed.  Counting the eight copper that Falron was going to give her, she still needed another twelve steel at minimum, and preferably thirty-two to give herself some room for food and shelter.

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