On Cosmic Tides

Before Laurel could return to the construction site to check in, General Skycrest called her back where he was standing with the young Captain Sidetrip, who was desperately trying to avoid eye contact.

“Laurel, Trip here has some familiarity with magic, and has agreed to train with you to learn how to use it.” A quick scan with her spiritual senses revealed more orderly mana than the average mortal. Respectable from someone entirely self-taught. “We’ll have a couple more officers for you once we get them transferred to Fort Sarken.”

“The general tells me you have some interest in enchanting,” Laurel said leadingly to the as yet quiet captain.

“Er, well, I have an engineering degree, which makes it easier to work on the planes. I like building things, and I’ve tried tinkering a little with the stones that power the planes, hooking them into gears and things. I can’t do anything like what you did with the elks, but I’m from out in the country, where there’s usually a local hedge witch so I’ve seen some things.” He paused for a moment before deciding to continue. “My gran was one of those hedge witches, always said she thought I might have the gift if I was willing to work at it.”

“Enchanting is the process of imbuing objects with mana towards a specific purpose and it is always highly prized. I look forward to seeing what you can do with it.” They determined a schedule when he would begin coming by for training. Brief morning lessons to start with while Laurel was still focused on constructing the sect compound, and they would re-evaluate going forward.

******

Just over a month after first breaking ground, Laurel was once more enjoying tea at dawn with her friends. This time, instead of a dirt-covered empty lot they were sitting next to the skeleton of their new sect house. It was rising faster than even Laurel’s optimistic predictions. The glut of ambient mana being channeled into the building during Laurel’s sessions with the Core, along with the true expertise of those working on it was having extraordinary results. A scaffolding of stone and iron hinted at the ambitious network of rooms and pipework inside. Annette cheerfully informed the other two that rumors about the building, and their military visitors, were being printed in the major papers.

“And that’s a good thing?” Adam asked. Their resident scholar was more aware of how to handle maneuvering of street gangs than high society.

“It's an excellent thing!” Annette informed them. “So many of our plans rely on people trusting us to defend the city. For that we need people paying attention outside of the Flats.”

Laurel leaned back and closed her eyes, feeling the sun warm her skin as she listened to Adam and Annette banter good-naturedly. The others were bundled up against the chilly autumn air, but Laurel had always relished this kind of weather. Today would be the first formal lesson for some of the Meristans. Beyond her talks with Theresa Skycrest, this would be the first time she had truly taught others the path of cultivation since Borin. And even then, she’d been too informal with his lessons. A few lectures in the past on some of the large-scale workings that were her expertise didn’t compare to being the sole teacher for a group of relative children that had never intentionally cultivated before. Being the hands that molded the first steps of their path was a responsibility she had left to others. But there was no one else left. Instead she’d be leaning on her sect manuals, memories of her own lessons, and a healthy dollop of luck.

She opened her eyes and allowed herself to be drawn back into the conversation, shaking off the melancholy. It was good to remember, but lingering too long in the past would be the surest way to fail in her path forward. The friends continued to discuss all they had been up to and their plans for what was coming.

As it got closer to the time for the lessons to begin, Adam and Annette were acting more and more nervous. In what Laurel recognized as an embarrassingly rare event, she had a flash of insight. “Are you two going to try cultivating?”

Adam looked vaguely nauseous and Annette determined as they both indicated they would. Months ago her reaction would have been a flat refusal. Weeks ago it would have been extreme caution. Now, she was able to respond with enthusiasm instead. “That’s great! It's a long road, and dangerous, but I’ve never regretted becoming a cultivator.”

“What about when you got locked in a box for centuries-” anything else Adam might have said was cut off when Annette elbowed him hard in the ribs.

“Even then. All roads have their own challenges and detours, and if I had not been imprisoned, I would most likely have perished with the rest of the sect. Then the world would have felt the tragedy of you languishing as a curmudgeonly shop clerk, and we can call it a great victory that we were spared.”

They passed the time in the comfortable nonsense of good friends. Laurel set out some cushions and puttered around until her prospective students showed up. Theresa arrived first, with her youngest child strapped to her chest. She gracefully sank onto a pillow and accepted the tea while they waited for the rest. The soldiers arrived together. Captain Trip was joined by a tall, well-muscled woman wearing glasses and, to Laurel’s surprise, the special forces soldier that had seemed disturbed by the idea of eating the aurora elk, who introduced himself as Reynard.

“Welcome everyone. I think we all know why we’re here so we can dive right in. There are as many ways of cultivating as there are cultivators, but certain basic exercises work for most people and we’ll start there. We can get into more specialized options as you all advance.

“Now, I know that some of you have already begun to touch on your own mana and some haven’t, so this is where we’ll start. Cultivation is the process of connecting your internal mana flows to the mana of the world around you, and leveraging your control, willpower, and understanding into some sort of effect. The first stage of intentional cultivation is gaining control of your internal mana flows.”

The squeamish special forces soldier raised his hand. “What is a mana flow?” Laurel paused for a moment at the question. It was so basic she hadn’t thought to start there, but seeing most of the others also looked lost, she changed tack.

“Mana is the pervasive energy of the universe. It is in every person, plant, animal, rock, and even the space between worlds. Especially the space between worlds. It is also constantly moving. From ponderously slow deep within the earth, to a chaotic storm around cities. We refer to the general movement as flow, and specific currents as mana flows or tides. There will be a never-ending stream of water-related metaphors as part of your training.”

“Was that a pun?” the glasses-wearing soldier who had introduced herself as Reina whispered to her fellow students.

Laurel pretended she hadn’t heard and plowed on “With practice we can exert supreme control over the mana in our bodies. Conventional wisdom says the amount of mana in our bodies and the speed it moves roughly indicates power level, while the intricacy of the network we establish indicates control and subtlety we can bring to bear. Of course both of these can be trained.”

“However, the first thing we will focus on is sensing the mana within your bodies. Since you are not yet novices, I will assist in this first step by using a tendril of mana to prod your spirit and wake it up to its surroundings. You will feel a small jolt when this happens, try to focus internally when you do. If you feel yourself slipping towards a meditative state, let it happen, this will open your spiritual senses more to feeling the mana around you.”

Concluding the lecture part of the lesson, Laurel approached Theresa. “Madam Skycrest, if you do not mind, you will go first.”

With a waved hand to show assent, Laurel approached and placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder. She grabbed control of a tiny amount of the ambient mana, slowed it down, and sent it flowing through Theresa’s body. Since Theresa had already been cultivating, there were established paths to take but the rest of the students still saw the small shudder pass through the experienced woman. “Continue meditating on your internal flows” Laurel instructed before turning to the rest of her small class.

“Now who’s next”. They spent the next hour repeating this process. The new students meditated, or tried to, while Laurel periodically came around to send more ambient mana to connect with their internal flows. By the end of the lesson Theresa was still the only one able to touch on mana with any intentionality. The soldiers bundled off, somewhat disappointed that their first magic lesson had consisted of sitting around and trying to ‘feel’ something.

Laurel walked up and stood next to Adam, who was staring out at the horizon, and waited. “I dedicated my life to learning, and I pride myself on being able to pick up anything I set my mind to faster than anyone else. I had to if I wanted to succeed with all the rich kids having access to tutors and everything else. No one likes the feeling of being humbled” he finished, glancing to the side away from Laurel.

“There is no timeline for this.” Laurel replied. “We can’t schedule it, we can only continue trying. There will be other meditations that might resonate more.”

“I would have thought you’d be in more of a hurry after all the work we’ve done,” he countered.

“I am. But not so much that I think you should rush. You’re my friend. An unstable foundation will only cause problems later, and stunt the growth of anything you put on top of it. And I’d like you around for centuries to come.” The last was said as she clapped him on the shoulder and strolled back to start the rest of the day’s tasks.

******

The cultivation lectures and meditation sessions were scheduled for four days a week. Laurel covered fields of cultivation that had been used in the past, including enchanting and alchemy, basic mana theory, and some examples of famous cultivators from history and their feats. The meditations also varied. Sometimes she would lead them through a slow martial arts form that was intended to help guide the movement of mana throughout their bodies with regular practice. Other times they were set to do small, repetitive tasks in an attempt to trigger a trance. All reported progress but none of them had yet been able to connect to their mana flows at will.

During one of her stories of past cultivators, Laurel began noticing that the crowd of children that usually loitered nearby was paying particular attention. The group had become a regular fixture of the sect compound since she started offering a few coins to run messages or perform other odd jobs. Laurel directed a stream of mana to make sure the breeze carried her words over to where they were standing. She had some half-formed ideas to build up the sect and give these kids some options for their future, and it was never too early to hear the histories of one’s seniors.