Elevation of Mana Chapter 12

I didn't have much in the way of clothing or possessions, but mother still fussed something awful when morning came. She wrapped food up for me and checked it again and again, before sitting down and giving me words of wisdom.

"Elian, if you want to come home, I want you to let me know when Elaya brings you to visit. I don't care what she says you're still young, and you should be with your family."

"I'll be fine mom," I replied.

"I know, I know you want to learn, but it won't be fun, it'll be hard, and if it's too hard, you don't have to try right now."

"I know, I'll be okay."

"Elian, promise me that you'll take care of yourself, and if Elaya tries to push you too hard, you tell me. Tell her she has to deal with me if she tries." She didn't seem to consider that I might actually think I'd be fine.

"I will. If she goes too far I'll tell her no."  It was getting a bit out of proportion, sure the town elder wasn't the nicest of people, but she wasn't that bad.

Before long the woman in question showed up.  She had a pack much like the one mom was making for me, but significantly larger.  It was rolled up hides, my guess was that there were things in them that would help us for whatever training we were going for.

She and mother looked at each other for a long moment, before my mother spoke once again.  "If my son comes back anything other than healthy and whole I will be inconsolably angry."  Her eyes were hard at the older woman.

"Good grief child, this isn't my first time training a youngling," Elaya replied.  "I'll keep him safe."

"Like you did Jolin?"  Mother asked, a slight acid tone on her voice.

Elaya didn't have the face or body of someone aged, but in that moment, to that statement, she looked ancient.  Her eyes darkened as she looked at my mother with sadness and regret.  For a moment it looked like all the years fell down on her like a hammer.

"I will take care of the boy, you have my word."  This time mother nodded.

Mother put my little pack on me and gave me a kiss on the head before I left.  It was sort of like the first day of school or something, and before long I was walking off with the village elder.  There was a small, slightly disused path that worked its way through the forest to the north.

"Elian," she finally said.  "There are a few things to say.  The first, no matter what it seems like you're not in any trouble.  What you did the other day was very good, very good, and this isn't a punishment."

"I know," I said, nodding.

"I know that you've been told, but no matter what I want you to remember that nobody is mad at you.  In fact, most of us are pretty happy that you can use your light."  I nodded and she continued, speaking kindly like a caring teacher.  "But, what you did is very dangerous, and we need to make sure that everyone is safe.  That's why we're going to go out into the woods for awhile and learn some, so we can keep you from hurting yourself or anyone else."

While isolation seemed like a good idea I really wondered why mom wasn't coming along.  From what I'd seen she could heal even really bad wounds pretty quickly, so if someone did get hurt, she'd be the person to go to.

"Why isn't mom coming?  If someone gets hurt she can help them right?"  I asked, since it was so often easier to ask than to guess.

"She could, but she also cares about you a lot, and would always be fussing, which would make things harder.  Your mother does like to fuss."

I laughed at that.  "Okay, where are we going?"

"A cave to the north.  We'll stay there for awhile and I'll teach you, about how to use your light, and about how to handle it.  Also we'll talk about what you need to do for the village."  I raised my eyebrow at the last bit.  "All of us who are strong have to help a little more, like I do when I pull down the high fruits, things like that."

"Okay, who is Jolin?"  I saw her wince as I asked, but I still wanted to know.

She sighed, "Jolin was a very smart little boy, like you, and he had a very bright light, like you.  He was your mother's little brother, and was very cute.  It... sometimes things happen that aren't good, and no matter how hard we try they don't go well."

I could tell that whatever it was, something terrible had happened.  I may not be very good with names, but that was a name I'd never heard before.  My guess was that whatever had happened had ended either with the death or disappearance of the child, and for some reason mom blamed Elaya.  I could also see that the elder had taken it very hard, so I let the subject drop for the time being.

The path wound through the woods like a snake, going for a long time.  Elaya was careful to go slow, and took frequent breaks throughout our trek.  Always making sure I drank a bit and wasn't hungry or anything.  She would have fit right in at any elementary school, at least by attitude.

"So why are we going to the cave?"  I finally asked.

"To teach you to control your light,"

"No, why can't we do that at home, in the village?"  I clarified.

"Oh, because it can be a little dangerous.  We wouldn't want someone to get hurt by accident."

"What is the light?  Where does it come from?"

She thought on that for awhile.  "I don't know for sure.  Everyone has a little light Elian, normally enough for them to do one thing a time or two before taking a break.  Some of us though have a lot more, nobody really knows why.  Families normally have about the same amount.  In some people like you it's bright from when they're little, but in others it grows as they age, a lot if something big happens."

"But what is it?"  I pressed

"Nobody knows, some people call it their power, or their fire, or mana, or magic, but it's all the same.  It lets us do things that we normally couldn't.  Like how I can move things and make fire, or your mother can heal."

"Or how dad can shape rock?  What about Larus?"  I asked.

"Yes, wait, you can see Larus' light?  Can you see them already?"  She asked.

"I always have," I nodded.

"Normally that doesn't come until you're a bit older...  But yes, Larus' light lets him be strong and fast, far stronger and faster than he should be."

We walked in relative silence for a good time.  I was personally enjoying the forest, somewhere where I didn't often get to go.  Everyone in the village knew that it was dangerous to go alone, and the children were watched, particularly the younger ones, like hawks.  That wasn't to say nobody went off alone, just that at my age I'd have been descended upon by adults had I tried.  Teenagers did seem to scamper off from time to time, as teens were wont to do, though that was generally in pairs.

As for us, with one of the more powerful magic users in town, I was about as safe as I could reasonably be, even if I didn't have my own magic to protect myself.  I'd played with one or two more ideas for spells, plasma, electricity, and flight were all desirable, but I hadn't worked them out quite yet.

It took a lot of time, but eventually I realized that we were traveling down.  The effect was subtle, but the few places the trees cleared a bit I could see it.  I knew we lived in a valley, but the walls were getting ever so slightly higher.

At last we came to the place.  There was a bare rock and a small divot, a small pool, no larger than a Olympic swimming pool from Earth, and looking of similar depth was fed by a trickle of water from the opposite direction.  Behind it, from our orientation, was an unnatural looking hillock of rock, pushed like something had tried to come up from the ground.  A large boulder blocked what looked to be an entrance, sealing it.

"Been awhile since I've been here, but it's a lovely spot, isn't it?"  My caretaker asked.

"Pretty, are there a lot of caves?  Why don't we use those like huts?"

"Just the one, and when I first came here we did.  It's deep that cave, let's go see."  Elaya began trotting towards the rock, and I hustled along behind her.

We stopped before the rock and waited.

"How do you move it?"  I asked.

"With your light, can you?"  She responded.

I reached out, wrapping my magic around the big stone.  It was huge, and heavy, and no matter how I pushed and pulled it didn't seem to want to move with the amount of magic I could feed into the spell.  Elaya waited off to the side, watching.  She didn't offer to help, apparently seeing this as some form of test.

If it was a test, then there had to be rules, rules and a result she wanted.  Was I supposed to figure out how to move it?  Or perhaps I should ask for aid, since it was clearly beyond what a small child should be able to do.  How would she respond if I just broke it?  The last thought seemed like a bad idea, her stated goal was to make sure I was safe, and she was probably looking for that kind of reaction.

I put down my pack and looked at it intensely, thinking bout the options.  Pure force would require more energy then I could manage at the moment, at least applied directly.  I began to look around for what I had, and what information I had.

The rock was roundish, seeming to have been fit into the opening near perfectly.  That said, it was only a portion that was serving as the barrier, most was outside.  There were some other large rocks, and a few fallen trees nearby, along with the water.

I locked back at Elaya, who'd taken a seat on a rock to watch me.

"We need to put the rock back when we leave," I said, a statement, not a question.

"Yes," she answered.

"Okay, I have an idea."

The elven woman with the face of a twenty-five year-old, and the eyes of an elderly grandmother watched as I moved another rock over.  This one was large, but not nearly as big, and was placed a bit to the side of the entrance.  I had to take several breaks along this process, as well as a few while positioning the tree.  My magic was pretty amazingly strong, able to pull things around what I'd associate with a horse or draft animal, but it was also tiring.

"Do not put anything heavy on that.  I think I see what you're doing, but you need to be careful," She finally said, looking at the giant lever I'd pulled into place.

"No, nothing heavy, just a push."  I moved well back before using my magic to slowly put a force on the far end of the ad hoc see-saw.

The boulder began to move, slowly at first, then lifting.  It went bit by bit until it was about halfway through the motion to push it out of the way; that was when the log broke.  The crunching sound was horrible and I was fit to curse.

"That was the best idea I had," I said after a moment, a bit dejected.  "Will you help?"

"I will."  With a flick of her hand magic poured out, wrapping around and pulling away the stone.

"Was I supposed to do it alone or ask for help?"  I finally asked.

"There isn't a wrong answer, just an answer that teaches us.  Some try to move it themselves, and fail, and get mad, or try to break it, and that's not really good, breaking things should only happen when we need to.  Others don't even try before asking for help.  Why didn't you after your first try?"

"I thought you wanted me to do it on my own."  I answered.  "So I tried what I thought best.  Then it was time to ask for help.  Has anyone ever moved it on their own?"

"I've only trained about ten, but none have," she said, with a shrug.

"How many times have you had to replace the rock?"

That got me a laugh, "More than once, but that's okay too.  It just meant that I needed to teach them to be calmer about using their light."

"Well, at least we have wood for a fire," I said, pointing to the bits of broken wood.  I could see now that it was dry as a bone, and perhaps rotting just a bit.  I even lit a little flame over my finger just to show I could.

"We do, and now's a good time to talk about it.  We DO NOT play with magic, particularly fire magic, understand?"  She frowned until I put the little flame away.

"Yes," I answered.

I was totally going to play with magic though.  It was too cool for me not to do some experimentation on my own, and games were a good way to do just that.  I just needed to be careful, and not make a mess.

She led me through scouring the cave with water to clean it, but did most of it herself.  I could, if I tried, make some water, but it was slow and failing.  On the other hand she could produce something like a pressure washer, which made short work of the cleaning.  So after a bit I was put to practice, while she finished up.

By the time that was done, and we'd pulled in a few ferns for a makeshift bed, I was tired.  We sat around for a bit, her telling a few stories while I looked into the fire.

She did eventually get up to step outside, for reasons I could easily guess.  While she was doing that I idly picked up a stick and moved it around a bit inside the fire, something I did regularly back home.

There was a sudden flash of pain from my right ear as something latched on and twisted.  I nearly lashed out with my magic as I turned to find the clearly angry face of Elaya, her hand just out of my view.

"Let go!"  I protested loudly.

"What did I tell you about playing with magic Elian?"  She asked, the hand not moving an inch.

"No playing with magic?"

"And what were you doing?"

"Playing with magic," I answered.

"Do you understand why I have your ear now little man?"  She asked.

"Yes, please let go,"  It hurt more than I'd have ever expected, like there were extra nerves there for just this purpose.

She did finally, and pointed at the makeshift bed.  "Time to go to sleep."

I went and laid down while rubbing my sore ear, now having received the first equivalent of an elven spanking.  She on the other hand stayed up a bit longer, eating some sweeter berries that she had brought along in her pack, and occasionally giving me a light glare that made it clear that I was being denied dessert for not listening to her.

Eventually I was joined by my still cross teacher.  Most elves seemed to sleep kind of closely in our village.  It still really awkward to me though, since I didn't even really know her, several times great-grandmother or not.