Elevation of Mana Chapter 5 First Spells

I had been waiting, watching. I hadn't had a particular need to engage in magic before so I'd let my experiments fall on the back-burner while I figured out language and tried to milk those around me for information. The actions of my aunt and her little clay filled basket though now gave me a goal.

My backburnering of magic hadn't been some whim, but what I felt was a logical conclusion. I didn't know the dangers, or how to control it. I didn't know what it would do if I ever did. Most of all, I wasn't in a hurry. I now had a second chance at life and really wanted to get this one right, ending it by some magical mishap while playing seemed stupid.

This was a goal though, and one I would wager I'd need magic for. I planned to pull this stone age society as far forward as I reasonably could, and that mission could start now. Who knew f my auntie would ever repeat her little basket trick, or how long I might have to wait for her to try again. No, now was my chance, and I could make it look like someone else was making the new tech too, a sincere bonus.

There were several days of berry gathering where my aunt used her clay lined basket where I just couldn't get a good chance to practice quietly.  I had to wait these out, as there was no way around the fact that I, as a baby, was almost always being observed.  I needed to do my work here quietly if I was to remain unnoticed.  That was the goal, as it would achieve my aim, while giving my auntie a big boost.

So as I was sat down in the grass for the afternoon break I began my attempts yet again. I'd been watching everyone around me and divided them up into a number of groups, broad categories. Mom could effect living, and only living things, dad, on the other hand was a wider power gap, but always sang, and the white-streaked Elaya did neither, but couldn't make things grow, then there was dad's friend, who did something physical.

I'd also been looking at the minor powers the villagers displayed and trying to put those into boxes too. I was happy to find that a number of them seemed to fall well into the boxes I'd already made. Some had to sing, some could work on living things, and some never could work on living things. There were also a few who could do small superhuman feats, just not too drastic or very often.

During my brief attempts at learning magic myself I'd found that noise did nothing for me. I was also fairly sure that I wasn't some kind of super-baby, so that left me with two options. Either I was like mom, and doing something very wrong, or I was like Elaya, and was still figuring things out.

There was a rock nearby and I began to work.  I was working on the assumption and hope that I was like Elaya; and so began to move my magic, my light as the locals called it, around the bit of stone.  First I tried to soak it in magic, which worked well enough, but didn't seem to do anything.  Frowning I tried some other things, starting with a spectral hand.  I tried to imagine a hand grabbing the rock and picking it up.  This made the rock shift and move a bit, but felt... unnatural.

I sat there looking, thinking about my issue.  There had to be something I was missing here, some fact...  Okay, what could make things move, forces, right.  There was kinetic force, and gravitational force, those seemed the most likely candidates, but how to make the magic do it?  That was the issue I faced.

On a whim I tried to focus instead on the idea that the rock was in an area where all the gravity equaled zero.  Trying to move the forces around it instead of it itself.  At first nothing seemed to happen and I sighed, letting the magic keep running as I started to think again.  Moments later I saw the strangest thing as the rock began to slowly float.  Bit by bit it lifted off until I released the spell.

I worked for several more minutes, trying to work out the best way to move a rock like that.  Imparting direction seemed to be easy enough, though I worked very carefully so as not to alert any of the adults who were always nearby.  It was clunky though, and I had to constantly try to work out the forces in my head, imparting either a gravitational or kinetic vector with care.

Several times as I was working one or more of the women came by to check on me and make sure I was alright.  Surely mother was nearby watching as well, but right now I was being a quiet baby, running my fingers over the little leather blanket I was sat on and looking off into the distance silently.  Since I wasn't up to anything visible they seemed to not want to disturb me.  Let sleeping dragons, or potentially screaming children lie, or something like that.

All things must come to an end though, and soon enough auntie Atie came to sit down beside me.  I was getting rather tired quickly anyway, so it wasn't an issue.

"Hi little Elian, what are you doing?"  She asked in an almost baby voice.

"Uuh!" I tried while stretching my arms up at her.  Forming words with my current mouth was still proving near impossible, and my attempt at 'up' didn't really work as planned.

"Well come here then," she said, picking me up and setting me on her lap.

I wanted the higher viewpoint, particularly as she'd sat her basket down beside me.  It was drying nicely.  At the same time I was fading fast, tiredness taking me even as I fought against it.  My aunt hummed some tune as she rocked me gently on her knee and I soon found that I was drifting off to a deep sleep.

Adia (Justin/Elian's mother)

My sister Atie had the smuggest look as my child got her to pick him up and rock him to sleep.  He seldom sought things like that, just another way the boy was a bit odd.  I'd been standing back with Elaya, watching closely for the oncoming disaster.

I'd seen it first, the small movements in his light that indicated he was using it somehow, and immediately gotten one of the girls to go and grab Elaya.  There was no way to be sure what he was doing, not without some great skill and lots of potential for harm.

The elder quickly came when the situation was explained and made her way over to where I sat a bit back watching.

"He's doing something?"  She asked, looking at the little bubbles moving around him much as I was, both a question and confirmation.

"Yes, but I can't tell what.  Any thoughts?"

Her eyes scanned him and the ground around,  "Nothing obvious, not to my eye.  Normally those like me start with throwing things around, fire, or light.  Something that should be really visible.  Children don't have the control for small movements."

"Nor mine, nothing growing, nothing dying.  We still don't know how he'll manifest, but he wasn't singing, so I doubt he's like his father."

Elaya tapped her chin.  "Children are often like their parents, but not always.  Can you check on things in the area, make sure he's not effecting them?  If he's like you... we'll need to be careful, a baby with that power could do some terrible things by accident."

I pushed my own light out to cover the area, looking for the influence of another on the plants and people around.  There was nothing obvious, nothing like the mess I'd made when I was little.  Elaya still told tales sometimes, I'd been a right little disaster for a bit, having to go off with her until I learned control and good morals.  I spread it particularly over little Elian, his power pushing back, but not enough at his age to stop my own.

"Nothing, and it doesn't even look like he's enhancing himself.  That can be hard to detect at smaller levels though..."  I furrowed my brow, still worried.

"We'll keep an eye out for now then.  Don't worry too much dear, children learn fast, and if anything happens you'll be able to fix him up no problem."  Elaya patted my shoulder comfortingly.  We were all family here, by marriage or birth, and my great-great-grandmother had plenty of experience.

As my child's eyes slipped closed on his aunt's lap and he drifted off to sleep I wondered at him.  He was strange, a good boy, but deeply strange.  What would he do?  Where would he end up?  Perhaps he would stay in the village like so many, perhaps he would take to traveling.  I'd dreamed of that once, before I'd found that I had all I needed here.

Elian slept most of the rest of the day, stirring only a few times as he was passed around.  Whatever magic he'd been working had worn him out quite thoroughly.  That was concerning, as it could mean he'd be awake, keeping us all awake, all night.  A good boy he might be, but constantly getting into things he also had a habit of, and leaving him alone for hours would be foolish.

We made our way home and began processing all that we'd gathered for the day, in this case that meant crushing the berries in a large rock hollow my dear Eduan had made for us.  It'd taken him a long time to make it right, but the huge bowl off to the side was good for pounding things like the dark berries out.  The juice would pool at the bottom and could be soaked into roots or anything for sweetness, while the berries ended up as a nice paste that could be dried in the sun and kept for a long time.

Atie's little mud trick was sort of dumb, and her berried did need washing, but it worked.  She ended up with significantly more of the annoying little fruits than anyone else.  If it was dumb but worked was it really dumb though?

"Mind if I take a look at that?"  One of the cousins asked, pointing to it.

"Go ahead, it worked perfectly," my sister responded.

The other girl poked at the dry river mud for a few moments.  Then she nodded and passed it back.  "Interesting, but heavy," was her conclusion.

Justin/Elian

I woke up as the sun set, still a bit groggy.  Everyone had returned to the village and was sitting around the fire for stories and dinner.  People got with their cliques, only interrupted when something big was announced.

Mom fed me a bit of the fruit paste she and the others had made at some point.  It was delicious, something like blueberry.  I wasn't given much of this, but the variation in diet was as welcome as anything and I voraciously munched the dark colored goop.

"You like berries huh Elian?"  Mom asked, taking a bit more from a basket where it had been lain after being formed into patties.

"Guu!"  I said in response, about as positively as I could reaching for more.

There were laughs from her and several others in our little sub-group.  Everyone shared about what they'd done, be it hunting, gathering, or whatever.  Then the little bits of gossip and chatter about other goings on happened.  Someone not from our village had come by while the gathering was going on and traded a bit with some of those who'd remained behind.  He'd had dried fish that came from far away and had a better flavor than what we got here, and had left with a number of beads and dried fruit.

Dad had gotten some of this fish in trade and shared it around.  Sadly no matter how hard I reached up and made angry noises I was denied by the adults.  They worried that it would be too much for my little stomach, and were probably right, but I still wanted the taste of meat again.

As we all went to turn to our hut and head in for the night I had one last thing to do.  Once I was sure all eyes were turned I looked up and over mother's shoulder and began my working.  As quickly and silently as I could I turned auntie Atie's basket over into the low fire, then pushed sticks from the nearby pile atop it.  Leaving a fire was a bit wasteful, but there was nothing near the fire pits that would burn, so it wasn't exactly that frowned upon either.  As I was taken inside I saw the flames creeping up the side of the clay lined basket.  I sincerely hoped this worked, because if it didn't I'd have wasted all the effort my aunt put into her project, and I'd feel really bad about that.

I nearly passed out from the effort though, and the headache creeping up on me told me I'd pushed a little too hard.  Soon as I was put into the basket that served as my bed I passed out.

I wondered how things had went the next morning as I was awoken by auntie Atie's enraged yell.