Developing Abilities

I closed my door as I retreated into my room, locking it just to be safe. I walked over to my desk and placed the purple book down on the wooden surface. I was somewhat curious to know what Anoir would have thought may be useful to me as I sat in the chair and began to read.

There was plenty of light streaming into my room from the moon, full in the night sky and unobscured by clouds. I also lit a candle, placing it into a stand on the side of my desk, being careful not to knock it over. The chair was a little uncomfortable and I shuffled around in my efforts to find a spot that suited me, in the end I took the pillow from my bed and seated myself on that.

My eyes scanned the words, handwritten in black ink. It seemed that the book detailed the magical abilities that had been observed in adventurers over the years, many of them included explanations of how the user channelled their mana in order to perform the magic. It also explained that most of the rarer abilities are not included in the book as those that possessed them wanted as little known of them as possible in order to preserve the advantage that they provided.

I understood that, I supposed that if anyone could know what your abilities did then it would be easier for them to counter. I continued reading the book, intrigued by the abilities that I discovered, there were over a hundred of them. A few were variations of my lightning bolt, some were of other elements such as earth and fire, others affected the user, strengthening their mana wells or giving them greater strength.

After about an hour of reading, amazed by how many abilities there were. The book didn’t even include all of them. I found one that intrigued me, it allowed the user to develop his skills and abilities passively whilst asleep. According to the book the skills and abilities would develop as though they were being continuously practiced for that period of time. The user would not feel any exhaustion when they awoke and the skills that they chose to develop would be improved. It could be used for things such as swordcraft, stamina training, spell development, or any number of skills that could be trained.

The ability seemed to be very useful, it would allow me to quickly become a more powerful adventurer. It seemed that the ability was not very common but had been possessed by the writer of the book who had decided to include it. It could be enacted by sensing the pool of mana within a person and directing upwards towards the mind where it would be channelled into the training pathway. Once it had reached the end the user would focus on what they would like to improve and then feel the mana disperse. The ability could be improved by continually using it, where it would allow the user to develop more skills and abilities at once.

I decided to make an attempt to use the ability, if I did possess it then it would be good to begin using it early on. I followed the instructions in the book, directing my mana into my mind where I felt hundreds of pathways, far more than in my arm. I was overwhelmed for a moment but the one that I wanted seemed to stand out, I channelled the mana into it and somehow, I knew that I could train two abilities. I decided to practice my swordcraft and my lightning bolt, imagining them in my mind. I felt my hold on the mana release and the energy quickly spread throughout my body,

I opened my eyes and saw that my room had flooded in a dark purple light, slowly fading as I felt the energy within me spread. Eventually the light disappeared, and my room was once more lit by the glow of the candle and the moon.

I didn’t feel any different than I had before, but the light had lit my room so something must have happened. I supposed that I wouldn’t know until I woke up if it had worked. In any case, there was nothing more that I could do for the night, my candle had shrunk to all but a stub and the light of the moon was not enough to read by.

I chose to go to bed, closing the book and leaving it on my desk. I restored my pillow to it’s position on the bed and once more placed my chair beneath my door handle, if someone did enter my room then they would wake me up.

I undressed and went over to the bed; it seemed that a servant had changed my bed sheets. The dark stain of blood on the mattress was no longer visible and was instead covered by a white sheet of linen. I didn’t want to check to see if the mattress had been changed in case it hadn’t, for now I could forget about the blood.

I climbed into bed and closed my eyes; it took a while to fall asleep as the events of the day filled my mind. The training with Orion and Astrid, the class with Anoir, my meeting with the prince, and everything that Kira had told me. It was all too much for one day, I tossed and turned as new implications came to my mind. At last my exhaustion got the best of me and I fell into a deep sleep, with no dreams of Lilith.

When I awoke, I looked out of the window, and it seemed to be earlier than the previous day with the sun still beginning to rise. I thought now would be a good time to test if the ability from last night had worked. I opened the glass pane of the window and stretched out my arm. I channelled my mana as I had learned and sent out a bolt of purple lightning into the open air.

Yesterday it had begun as a small shot of lightning, about as thick as a thread and burning the air around it. Now, it was much thicker and stretched out for longer. It was still nowhere near as powerful as Astrid’s had been, but it was still a clear improvement, and I could feel how much more powerful it was.

I was happy with the improvement. On that first day in the citadel, I had been worried that it would take me a long time to discover my abilities but in one day I had discovered two of them. I didn’t know how many more I had but at this rate I would know them all in no time.

I dressed myself, taking out a shirt that hadn’t been torn by Orion’s sword. I exited the room, seeing a plate of food on one of the tables as Sara and Cleo ate together. I gave them a smile as I closed my door and joined them at the table.

“Morning” Sara said in a cheerful tone, “Anyone else try to kill you in the night?” she asked as she popped a grape into her mouth.

I smiled at that, “No, I guess I’m just not that interesting” I said, getting a grin from the girl. I picked up a slice of bread and loaded some cheese onto it, sating my hunger as I chewed on it.

“Do you think we’ll have to do more fighting again today?” Cleo asked apparently a little uncomfortable with using a sword. “I preferred practicing my healing more”

I shrug, “Probably, Orion didn’t seem like the kind to let anyone off easily” I say

Sara gives her a nudge, “Relax, I’m sure you’ll know your way around a sword or two by the end of your training” by the look on her face I could tell that she wasn’t talking about a blade.

It seemed to fly over Cleo’s head who just shrugged at the comment, “Maybe, I just don’t like fighting” she said.

Sara laughed at her obliviousness, and we continued eating. The others leaving their rooms to join us as the hour grew later. We talked some more and ate our breakfast before rising from the table and leaving for the training hall.