Morning in Zeno's shack was unbearable. Gray mist seeped through the cracks in the rotting logs, settling on my face. My body ached. Every joint, every tiny ligament in this new body shrieked: "Why did you even bother waking up?"
I remembered being a hardcore geek in my past life. While other kids were out playing soccer, I spent my time holed up in my father's garage, buried in blueprints and old textbooks. I was eight back then. I burned a hole in the carpet trying to build a makeshift capacitor out of foil and tin cans. My father didn't scold me. He just adjusted his glasses and said, "Son, physics isn't magic. Understand how the charge flows, and you'll control the situation."
Yeah, a charge is a charge, whether here or there, I thought.
"Get up," Zeno rasped, without turning around. "Yesterday you survived because you were quick on your feet. But your legs won't always save you. Today, we see if you're capable of controlling mana."
I sat up, suppressing a wave of nausea. The word "mana" grated on my nerves. It immediately brought to mind stupid video games with blue energy bars and spells in Latin. Total nonsense. Energy doesn't just come from nowhere—that fact had been drummed into my head before I even properly learned how to write.
"Close your eyes," Zeno said, thumping his staff against the dirt floor. "Do not look to the external world. Look inside yourself. There is a light there. A warm, golden spark that comforts the heart. Listen to its whisper..."
I closed my eyes. But I had no intention of looking for a "golden light." And I certainly wasn't going to listen to any whispering.
I began constructing a model in my head. If mana—fine, let's call it mana—exists everywhere, then it must be something akin to static electricity. To gather it, you need to create a potential difference. I imagined my nerves as copper wires. My blood as an electrolyte. I needed an entry point.
I focused on my palm and recalled Brownian motion: billions of invisible particles chaotically tearing through space. Temperature is merely the velocity of molecular movement. Want to get warm? Make them move faster.
"I don't feel anything," I lied, even though my fingers had already begun to tremble.
The sensation was bizarre. It was nothing like the "warm golden light" Zeno rambled about. It was a sharp, searing vibration. It felt as though I had grabbed a bare, live wire. The air above my palm grew thick and tacky.
"Don't rush," Zeno's voice softened. "Fear is a poor insulator for the soul. Let it go. Allow the spark to ignite."
Insulator... I seized upon the word. Exactly. If mana was electricity, I needed resistance.
Gritting my teeth, I felt my skill—The Will to Live—respond with a low hum.
I began to "compress" the mana particles in the center of my palm, refusing to let them dissipate. The pressure built. If you sharply decrease the volume of a gas, its temperature inevitably spikes. If mana behaved like a gas, this was about to detonate.
"Aaargh!" I cried out as a sharp spike of pain pierced my hand.
I snapped my eyes open. Zeno recoiled, nearly dropping his staff.
There was no "glowing orb" on my palm. The air above my skin was simply warping and shimmering. A translucent a shimmering distortion hummed with energy. The skin on my palm instantly flushed red and broke into blisters.
"Where is the light?!" Zeno gasped, turning visibly pale. "Where is the form, boy?! Why... why is it humming like that?!"
I breathed heavily, sweat stinging my eyes. My hand burned unmercifully.
"Your method..." Zeno slowly lowered himself onto a stool. "No sane person acts like this. This is done entirely differently."
I looked down at my palm. The raw flesh throbbed with pain. But inside, I was triumphant.
"In my world, they used to say: if you can't explain a process, you don't truly master it." I clenched my fist, and the haze vanished, leaving behind the sharp scent of ozone.
The pot on the hearth bubbled; outside, some beast howled. The old man looked up at me.
"Tomorrow," he said softly. "Tomorrow we try two sparks. But if you unleash this hell again... I will cast you out into the woods. You must find a balance, or you will burn alive."
I nodded, feeling reality begin to blur.
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