Published at 24th of February 2024 10:31 am

Chapter 13

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The tension was palpable. My parents had retreated to one side of the hut and were whispering back and forth rapidly while Senica sat at the table and angry-cried. It wasn’t hard to guess what was causing that. Cherok had been himself, but our parents were unintentionally making it worse.

I dragged a chair around the table and sat down next to her. “It’s okay,” I said.

“No it’s not,” Senica told me through sniffles. “We’re going to fail because of me and then bad things will happen to us.”

“What bad things?” I asked.

“I don’t know!”

“I do. Mother and Father will have to wear draw stone necklaces for a few months until the next Testing.”

Senica rubbed at her face and looked over at me. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” I confirmed.

“That’s… not so bad.”

“Nope.”

“Are you lying to me?” Senica asked as she eyed me with sudden suspicion.

“No,” I said.

The conversation got our parents’ attention and drew them out of their own panic spiral. They understood exactly what those necklaces meant, how much more difficult life would be with their mana being constantly drained. It would be exhausting, almost torturous. Once I thought about it, I suspected I must not have understood what was going to happen correctly. They couldn’t wear those necklaces all the time.

Then again, torture was the original purpose of the draw stone. Or rather, it was to keep dangerous people in confinement and unable to fight back, which quite often led to torture. I’d never seen what was happening in this village before, and other than the fact that draw stones automatically stole mana from anyone who touched it, it really wasn’t a good material to use in this way. Massive storage crystals would have been much more efficient, but that would require every single person in the village to learn how to interact with them.

Getting mana back out of draw stones was a delicate process, and the amount that would be used up in the process meant that Noctra was only getting a small fraction of the total mana he was harvesting. Even I wouldn’t get more than a third of the mana back without some specialized equipment, and I doubted someone at Noctra’s level of skill was getting more than a tenth.

“Gravin is right,” Mother said. “We’re not going to be driven out into the wastelands just because we aren’t producing enough mana. Things will just be a little bit harder on us for a few months if we fail the Testing. We would prefer not to have to deal with that, but the world won’t end if we do, sweetie.”

“I’m sorry I ruined everything,” Senica said.

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Father said. “And rest assured I’ll be having words with your teacher about this tomorrow. The only reason I’m not going there right now is that the Collector will be here soon.”

“Speaking of which,” came a voice from just outside the doorway curtain. “May I come in?”

“Of course,” Mother replied.

The Collector slid the curtain to the side and ducked into the hut. She was the same woman who’d come by a few days ago to tell us that the date for the Testing had been pushed back, Ayaka. Her clothes were similar to last time, but now she had a bag shaped to hold its shape with some clever stitching held by a strap in one hand.

“What’s this about Cherok?” she asked.

“He made Senica use all her mana on control exercises,” Mother explained. “She’s worried we’re going to fail our Testing because of it.”

“Ah, I see.” Ayaka frowned. “I suppose nobody informed the school that the date was changed. I apologize for that oversight.”

“Will you be able to take it into consideration?” Mother asked.

“Well,” Ayaka said, drawing the syllable out as she thought. “Not as such, no. I will still have to perform the Testing. However, a child’s contribution is hardly ever the deciding factor. It’s likely that were you going to pass, you’d do so regardless of Senica. If it’s that close that a little bit more would be what it takes to push you over the line, then I will see about letting her redo her Testing later this week so that her score can be added in.”

The whole atmosphere changed with those words. My parents relaxed immediately, and even though I was pretty sure Senica didn’t understand everything that was going on, she latched onto the part about getting a do-over. I was sure Mother would make sure Cherok understood that if he screwed our family over again, she’d make him regret it.

“Thank you,” Father said. “I can’t tell you how much of a relief that is, Ayaka.”

“Collector Ayaka,” she told him. It was a gentle reprimand, followed by a soft smile. “I am on duty right now.”

“Of course, of course. Sorry about that,” he said.

“Very well, let’s get started.”

My understanding of what a Testing actually consisted of was somewhat hazy. I knew it was a method of measuring our mana output, but it was only rarely done, and Gravin had been much too young to have proper memories of it the last time our family had been called upon to complete it. I could think of a few different ways I would have measured someone’s mana, but I was interested in seeing how someone from the village would do it. Hopefully, it wouldn’t involve draw stones.

Ayaka put the bag on the table and began untying the laces that held it closed. I wasn’t at a good angle to see what was inside, but it didn’t matter. As soon as she opened it, I knew. There was some sort of enchantment on the bag, probably because they didn’t want monsters like mana sniffers coming in to investigate the contents.

They were emitters, plain and simple. Each one was eight inches long, shaped as a metal cylinder with a handle on one end. Primarily, they acted to power devices that needed a constant and steady input of mana. More importantly, they were dead simple to use. Anyone with even basic mana control could activate the intake enchantment on an emitter. A sophisticated enough emitter would also have an option to toggle its mana radiation on or off, but these weren’t that good. That wasn’t surprising; it was an expensive modification that didn’t have a lot of practical applications. Most things powered by emitters were done so specifically because the owner didn’t want it turned off, ever.

“Sellis, would you like to go first?” Ayaka asked.

“Sure,” he said. He took his place across from Ayaka at the table and waited for her signal. Mana snaked out of her in a thin line to connect to the intake enchantment, and she nodded. Father reached out a finger to touch the bottom end of the cylinder, not that it made a difference, and started channeling his mana.

That was the other difference from a draw stone. An emitter wouldn’t steal mana from someone just because the intake was turned on. The donor still had to actively pour mana into the device, but anyone who could do even the most basic of invocations on purpose could manage that. It was harder to not give mana to the emitter while it was activated than it was to fill it up.

Even with the reserves I’d donated to Father, he still ran dry over the course of about seven seconds. Ayaka seemed to be able to tell as soon as he was done—perhaps she had developed a sense of mana similar to Father’s—and quickly deactivated the intake enchantment while stowing the emitter away inside a cloth sleeve enchanted to seal the mana inside it. That went back into the bag, ensuring that once its own enchantment was reactivated, there’d be no casual sensing of its contents.

That accomplished, she noted down a few numbers on a slip of paper. The process was repeated with Mother, who only managed five seconds before she was finished. Ayaka frowned at that, and both my parents flinched.

“Lord Noctra will have to measure the Testing implement later before I can give you your official scores,” the Collector said.

“But you know the unofficial ones already,” Father said.

Tight lipped, Ayaka nodded. “It… For a family of four, it usually takes fourteen to seventeen seconds to collect the minimum amount of mana.”

“We didn’t make it,” Mother said. “That seems like a lot. What did it used to be before the kids?”

“Nine to ten, I think?” Father said.

“Those are not official,” Ayaka said. “No Collector can accurately measure the amount of mana stored here, but, well… We’ve all done this enough to get a rough idea. Some people are able to channel their mana faster, though. That can throw us off. It’s why only Lord Noctra or Iskara can truly measure the results.”

“Come on,” Father said. “How many years have you been doing our Testing? You know how fast we are.”

Ayaka sighed and looked distinctly uncomfortable. “It doesn’t look good, Sellis. I’m sorry.”

“Senica took a full second to do her Test last time,” Mother said. “If she and Gravin could both contribute that much, we could hit the minimum time.”

“Perhaps,” the Collector allowed, “but don’t get your hopes up. Children always take longer than adults. Her full second is more like half of one of your seconds. And I’m not expecting even that much, considering the circumstances. Your youngest is too young to make up the gap as well.”

That was true. I’d given a large chunk of mana to Father, and there hadn’t been nearly enough time to regenerate any true amount of mana thanks to how early the Collector had arrived. Besides, even if I had it, it would be too suspicious if I gave it all to the emitter. I’d just touched a draw stone last night. I should have at best a bare twentieth of the mana the average adult had.

Senica went next and, as expected, ran dry almost immediately. Nobody said anything about it, but she still started crying again and mumbled apologies. Mother pulled her into a hug and made gentle shushing sounds.

Finally, it was my turn. I’d already determined how much mana to give to the emitter, which was trickier than it sounded. It was rather like clenching a muscle to stop mid-stream, except it would cut off the mana flowing out of my core instead of… well. Anyway. The hardest part was determining how much mana had already gone out prior to the clench, but I liked to think all those centuries of practice had given me plenty of insight into measuring my own mana.

I touched the emitter after Ayaka activated it and let it slowly take a chunk of my mana over the next second before cutting off the connection despite maintaining physical contact. Ayaka nodded, unsurprised by the results, and packaged up the emitter.

“Good job,” she told me. “I was a bit worried about getting a result since you haven’t started school yet, but I guess your parents have already been showing you how to use mana.”

I smiled and nodded, but didn’t say anything. I had a reputation to maintain as a creepy, mute kid who stared at everything, after all. Besides, her words were strained. She might not have the official number, but it was obvious that she thought we’d failed. Even if they retested Senica later, she wasn’t going to have enough mana to make up the difference.

We’d just see about that. Ayaka’s pessimistic predictions hadn’t calculated one thing. I’d noticed something about the emitters that I was betting she didn’t know: they hadn’t been properly maintained. It might be cheating, but I didn’t care if it meant not having to deal with the headache, so I’d cheated just a bit.

I’d wait for the Collector to leave before I told my parents that.

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