Fantasy Early Bloomer's Guide to a Healthy Mana Garden

[Elffri3nd]

”That arch leads to my earth gate,” Dylan answered. “The boulder is there because I haven’t opened that gate yet, so it is blocked.” He placed his hand against it. He could feel his earth mana on the other side of the gate. It churned wanting to be used. Dylan could possibly open his earth gate while they were in his mana garden but it would take a lot of his concentration and it was possible that it would kid Rai out.

He walked away from the boulder and knelt down next to one of the plants in his mana garden. “These plants are the representation of all of the spells that I have learned. I have four that I have mastered; Dry Clothes, Mend cloth, Relieve Pain and Heat.” Dylan briefly looked away from the plants and looked at Rai. “Mastering a spell means that you can cast them instantly without having to sketch them.” Then he looked back at the plant that he was kneeling next to. “This one is my mend cloth spell.” Like the other three spells that Dylan had mastered, it was larger than any of the other plants that might be in his mana garden.

“Through this arch is my life gate,” Dylan said as he began moving again. His life gate looked small. It was maybe a quarter of the size of his ungated section. At the edges of his life gate was a fog that obscured the next gate. It was also a lot more empty than his ungated section. There was a grassy field but there were no plants that indicated a spell of any kind. It would take some time before his analyze life spell would take root. “As you can see, it isn’t as developed as my ungated section. I haven’t really learned any spells yet, or at least none have started to take root in my soul. There is also fog all around us. As I cast spells and get stronger, the fog will get pushed back until I eventually find the next gate.”

 

[CeruleanStars]

Rai followed along with the other's explanation, listening intently. Surprisingly, this subject was a little easier for him to digest when he was looking at what the other was explaining; it all seemed to make a lot more sense to him compared to when he was trying to keep up with the other as they walked earlier. He stared at both of the gates as they were explained, taking in all their detail. He sort of wondered what his own gate looked like. Dylan's gates looked rather harmless and peaceful, nonthreatening in any way, but then again, his alignment was life and earth, practically the polar opposite of Rai's.

He hesitated a bit before he asked his next question. "...Is...Is it possible for a gate to be broken?" he asked as he continued looking at the structure of the other's life gate. Maybe that was why Rai couldn't control his mana or whatever? Because his gate was broken? If they could break, how did his own break? ...Of course, if that were the case. Really, from what he's learned so far, it seems like it was the only logical reason why he was like this, but what did he know? He's just learning about all of this today; for all he knew, a broken gate was totally impossible.

In the back of his mind, the other mana type the person had said haunted him a bit. Desolation. What did that even mean? If Dylan could learn helpful spells that repair and help others...did that mean Rai could only learn spells that hurt people? Destroy things? An intrusive thought of his father's farm pushed itself into his mind, the lands completely barren, cracked, dried, missing of anything even remotely called "life," and him at the epicenter, being the reason for all those acres of failure.

The boy shook the thought out of his head as he looked down to the plant Dylan identified as his mend cloth spell. It was so delicate and soft. He allowed the cotton to rub up against his exposed calf, finding it almost soothing and reassuring. He hoped he might be able to have something as remotely gentle in his own gardens...if it was even a good idea for him to open his gate like the other had...

 

[Elffri3nd]

Dylan hesitated to answer Rai’s question, looking thoughtful as he considered it. He hadn’t heard of it being possible before. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t, it just wasn’t something that he had ever heard of. “I honestly don’t know if a gate can be broken. I can’t even imagine the consequences someone would have to live with if it was. It is a part of your soul. At best, maybe someone wouldn’t be able to use magic. At worst… Well death would be preferable. I don’t even know if such a thing is possible but maybe your soul would be shattered?” He felt a shiver go down his spine as he considered. Souls were a sacred thing. He hated to think that they could be damaged in such a way.

“Let’s not think about that. Did you want to check out your mana garden or did you want to see someone about sealing your magic?” Dylan swiftly tried to change the subject, wanting to help Rai. As he did, he leaned against the wooden arch looking at his life gate. He felt a tinge of excitement as he thought about what spells he was going to learn. At most, he planned to ingrain five spells for his first gate. ‘Analyze life’ ‘harvest plant life’ and ‘enhance plant life,’ were a given. Those were the most basic spells that a good plant mage needed. The last two spells were up for debate. He didn’t know if he wanted a healing spell or control spell more. He also considered whether or not he wanted to get a combined life and earth summon spell. He didn’t know if there were any but a summon could fill in a bunch of different roles.

 

[CeruleanStars]

His soul would be shattered? Yet another topic he knew very little about other than myths and fairytales he's heard growing up; he wasn't even sure how much of that was real. Rai let his mind wander on the topic, wondering to himself if he actually did have a soul. Would he know if his soul was shattered? Would he just be a zombie?

But before he could ponder much more on the topic, Dylan's voice shook him out of his own head, changing the topic. The ultimate question felt like a spear going through Rai's chest as he was suddenly burdened with the idea of either path. There was no going back on his choice once he decided, which scared him more than the result of either option. What if he picked wrong? What if what he wants doesn't work out and he ends up hurting more people instead? Would one be more expensive than the other over time? As the questions circled his head, he pressed his lips together tightly. Dylan knew more about all of this than Rai could ever hope to with his own education. A part of him just hoped that, if anything happened, Dylan's family would be strong enough to keep him from hurting his new friend on accident...

"...I think...I want to see my mana garden..." he replied hesitantly, still looking at the cotton plant by his feet. "...I like how your garden looks."

 

[Elffri3nd]

Dylan gave Rai a quick nod, then with a short exertion of will, both of them were back in the real world. “I’ll be right back, I need to go grab another potion.” He was as quick as he could as he went back to the same place that he had gotten the first potion from. Once it was in hand, he ran back to his room. “Here you go,” he said as he offered it to the other boy. “ Just drink the first half and then hand it to me like I did for you. Also, take a few breaths to steady yourself. We have no idea what we will see there. Don’t be afraid if it doesn’t look like mine.”

He hoped that Rai wouldn’t regret doing this. There really wasn’t anything wrong with entering the other boy’s mana garden but he seemed like the kind that would be afraid of what they saw. Dylan was slightly happy that the other boy hadn’t learned any magic yet. If it turned out that the spells that Rai eventually learned looked like dead things, then it was better that the other boy didn’t see that the first time that he entered his mana garden. Really, there were only a few things that they would really find out when they entered Rai’s mana garden. They would find out how big it was, the state of Rai’s mana gates, whether they were opened or closed, or if there was something wrong with them. He highly doubted that last thing.

 

[CeruleanStars]

As soon as they came back to the real world, it was evident that their small stint in Dylan's mana garden had practically stopped Rai's death mana from leaking; the cold grasp of the decaying aura was nearly absent from the room once they were both back, but as soon as Rai was back in his own headspace, the mana started to spill from him again, polluting the floors in his immediate area. The energy pooled at first, like a dam having been released, but as soon as it was back to its same strength, it started to stretch and move like a child just waking up from a deep sleep.

Just as before, Rai made sure he didn't touch Dylan when he handed off the familiar vial, nodding as he listened to the instructions. The boy looked at the liquid within the vial hesitantly for a moment. He had to dive head first into this. His father spent nearly an entire season's worth of earnings to get him a train ticket to the city to fix whatever was going on with him, he couldn't chicken out now. After a deep, steadying breath, he drank half the vial, then handed it off to Dylan.

Once Rai was tuned into his own mana garden, he kept his eyes closed. Maybe this was a bad idea, he was so terrified to see what his garden looked like... Dive head first, dive head first, dive head first... He opened his eyes.

Before him stood a large, empty dirt terrain with not as much color as Dylan's. The sky was dark, the ground rich and scattered with fallen, decaying petals of pale and dark flowers that no longer existed, the skeletal shapes of twisted and gnarled trees haunted the outcropping around them, swaying ever so gently like they would come to life, and the only sign of anything growing was the small hint of a tiny mushroom in various corners or the remains of dried brushes, too far gone to even be considered a bush anymore. The air was cold and uninviting, most of it seeming to leak from behind a gate.

The gate was formidable for sure, but seemed sturdy; no sign of cracks or breaks or fractures other than the usual one would expect in petrified wood. The gate was covered in lichen and moss with apparitions lingering nearby, or...so it seemed. It was odd, every time there was an attempt to look at one, nothing was there, like the apparitions only lived in the corners of vision. From under one of the gnarled roots covered in creeping vines, there was the lingering of the death magic leaking through as the wood of the closed gate creaked and moaned, like there was weight pressing on it, threatening to break it open.

But...there was also another gate. This gate was farther than the other. Its dark obsidian archways were jagged and towering over whoever dared come close to them, the rough and eroded surfaces absorbing all light disallowed much detail to be gleaned from this distance, but there almost seemed to be a warm, barely perceptible hue glowing off of somewhere, like the unfinished stone was catching the faintest hint of a far off torch. Around its ground was ash and blackened, gnarled roots, almost looking like they were in the shape of hands, reaching out and up, trying to escape an unseen foe. It was rather eerie to see from such a distance and nearly totally shrouded, but it was at least much quieter than the death gate that stood closer.

Once Dylan was in the garden, Rai looked to him, then back to his empty garden and mostly closed gates. The boy hugged his arms as the cool air from the death gate danced over their feet and the rest of the area, as if it was fertilizing the ground they stood on. "Are...Are gates supposed to leak like that?" he hesitantly asked, then looked to Dylan for guidance. Surely, he would know what that other gate was and why his death gate sounded like it was holding back an ocean...right?

 

[Elffri3nd]

Dylan gingerly took the last half of the potion, happy and excited that Rai had gone through with it. He felt extremely honored that the other boy had trusted him enough to let him into the other boy’s mana garden.

As soon as he was in Rai’s mana garden, Dylan took a moment to look at the surroundings. It was a lot different than any of the mana gardens that he had ever seen before. Everyone’s mana garden that he had been allowed into had been influenced at least a little by life mana since he had only seen the mana gardens of his relatives. It was fascinating seeing how the other boy’s desires seemed to have helped shape what his mana garden was. Dylan couldn’t be sure but it felt like Rai’s desires to cultivate things had played a role in what it looked like.

The death gate was unusual with how it looked like it was struggling to keep the death mana from leaking out. It was a relief however that it was broken or open. He figured that it would have been more of a headache trying to figure out what that meant if it had been. The other gate off in the distance was an entirely new dilemma that he didn’t know how to make heads or tails of. He couldn’t remember if Rai had told him if he had another gate or not.

He squinted at it trying to see if the gate was really broken or if it was just the appearance that that gate took on. Mana gardens were strange with how they manifested and the distance between Dylan and the gate only made it that much harder to decipher what was going on. “Gates don’t normally leak like that,” Dylan answered with a shake of his head. “Do you remember if they told you if you had a second mana type? And can you feel a connection to the gate over there? If you need to, close your eyes and focus on the mana over there.”

Dylan leaned closer to the strange distant gate. The fog would prevent him from getting close enough to it to see what was really going on but it made him think. Rai really did have a lot of death mana. The other gate was unusual. It probably wasn’t the case but he wondered if it was possible if Rai was meant to have a second gate but something had happened to it causing all of the mana from that gate to be transferred to his death gate and that is why the second gate looked like it did.

 

[CeruleanStars]

Rai tried to read anything off of Dylan's face as he waited for an answer, but despite having no immediate read on him, he was somewhat relieved that terror or concern never seemed to pass through the other's face, even if he was hiding it well. That only told him that maybe how his mana garden looked wasn't so abnormal or strange after all. That was good...right?

At the question, Rai began to rub circled into his bicep absentmindedly with his thumb as he looked off to the forlorn gate in the distance. "They told me I had another type, one of the other crystals flickered a bit, but they said the read might not be right because...I nearly broke the crystal...when I put my whole hand on it...so they just read it off of a finger," he replied, his voice growing quieter as he explained what happened. Desolation in the person's voice who told him that continued to run through his mind as he took in what he could decipher of the other gate. What was a gate of that type supposed to look like?

He tried to do as Dylan said and focus on a connection to the gate, anything that gave him any kind of feeling. "How do I..." he started to question, but he trailed off as he felt his mind move into a lull, like a hand gently and carefully taking his own. For a moment, he didn't feel the mounting pressure of his death mana that continued to leak from the gate and allowed his mind to empty at the new presence that called for his attention. It felt arid...whatever it was, like there was nothing remaining, the result of an explosion, the settling of a fallen building. It wasn't as oppressive as the death mana energy for sure, but...it felt nearly as unwelcoming.

"I think I feel a connection," he responded after a while of looking at it. "Um...I mean, it feels different from that one-" he pointed to the death gate, "-but...I don't know. How do I tell what it is?" He finally broke eye contact with the gate and looked to Dylan for guidance once again.

 

[Elffri3nd]

Dylan thought for a while and gave a little shrug. "I don't really know. If the crystals picked up desolation mana, there's a good chance that it is a desolation gate. I don't really know anyone with desolation mana so I can't tell you too much about it." The life mage did another sweep of Kai's mana garden with his eyes while thinking. "If you still get a feeling from that gate, you should still be able to open it. You'll just have to practice with ungated spells and expand your ungated portion of your mana garden before you can."

He thought a bit more. Dylan would have to go through his families library to see if they had any desolation spells laying around. Their library mostly consisted of spells that used life mana but there were other things mixed in. They often collected different spells from different places but nothing as exotic as desolation. "If you want to learn any desolation spells... I think we will have to go to the public library. I don't think that my family has any in our collection. I can check but no one in my family has that mana type."

Having seen all he could Dylan was ready to leave. There wasn't much more that he could do while in Kai's mana garden. "Are you ready to go?"

 

[CeruleanStars]

Rai looked around his own garden as well when the other did. He was really hoping the faint glow of that one crystal had been lying, he really did, but if Dylan thought it was also a desolation gate, then it must be a desolation gate. What a fucked up kind of combination of magic he had... He was at least glad nothing was leaking from his desolation gate.

As leaving was mentioned, Rai nodded his head as he crossed his arms. What he saw here was no less motivating to learn magic, but if learning magic meant he could stop his death gate from leaking all the time, maybe he could learn something that could stop it. Maybe the desolation gate could allow him to find a spell that would destroy his gates, then he wouldn't have to worry about magic again, right? Losing a gate wouldn't kill him...right?

It took Rai a couple of minutes to figure out how to leave his mana garden, but once he figured it out, he left soon after Dylan did. Coming back to the real world, the icey grip of his death mana spilling from him greeted not only himself, but the area around them in full force. From their short excursion to Rai's mana garden, the air of death escaped from him exponentially, reaching the far corners of Dylan's bedroom and encroaching on his plants he so meticulously moved further from Rai for this exact reason. Of course, the boy noticed this, but what could he do? He had no control over any of this. Even so, he still stood from his chair and moved closer to the door of Dylan's bedroom to try and keep his life-stealing mana away from the things Dylan took such care to keep. After a couple minutes or so, Rai's death mana eventually retracted back to its original area, not totally gone, but much smaller than the room now, back to how it was. This was starting to get exhausting...

 

[Elffri3nd]

Panic surged through Dylan as he felt the death mana increase. He eyed his precious plants. He wanted to run to them, to protect them. Instead, he walked as though nothing was wrong at all. He didn't want to panic Rai more than he already was. When he was next his plants, Dylan pushed his life mana out, shielding both them and himself from the dangerous mana in the air. He might not know any spells to counter the death mana at the moment but 1st game mana was enough to shield them from it. Dylan just wished that he had more.

Before any really damage could happen, the death mana thankfully receded. Dylan carefully did not let out a sigh of relief. He would have to inspect his plants later to make sure they didn't suffer too much. Before Dylan could say anything else to Rai, he felt something else that made his heart sink. "Shit," he muttered. He was looking in another direction in the house. He could feel mana flaring from different relatives. They had felt that wave of mana. "Uh.... don't make any sudden movements. Just smile and wave. I.. uh.. I hope you don't mind meetings some of my relatives." Dylan felt tongue tied as he ran to his door. He stubbed his toe in the process nearly falling over before he grabbed the door knob.

He forced the door open, stumbling outside. No one had made it to his room yet but he could feel the 5th gate life, earth and knowledge mana of his grandmother approaching. It was so strong that he was sure that even Rai could feel it as well as the difference in the different manas. "Shit! Grandma! Everything is alright! I am not in danger," Dylan called to the aging woman.

 

[CeruleanStars]

"Sorry..." Rai mumbled out as he watched Dylan walk to his plants and kept his distance throughout. He pressed his lips together as he looked over the plants from the distance he was at; if he didn't have this issue with his mana, he would go over to the plants and start inspecting them as well to make sure he didn't cause any permanent damage, but alas, that was something he could never hope to do...at least anytime soon.

At the sudden curse and stumbling to the door, the boy tensed up and moved as far out of the way as possible to allow Dylan the space he needed to get passed him. His relatives? A small zap of panic made itself known in the bottom of his chest at the thought of more people around. Of course, he knew Dylan didn't live here alone, but to meet multiple people at once when his mana was still out of control? The last people he wanted to hurt was someone in Dylan's family.

As his anxiety surged, so did his mana, starting to writhe and jump like a feral caged animal once again. Rai backed up again, trying to find a corner farthest from Dylan and his plants as possible, hoping to not be seen by any of the other's relatives. If they were all skilled magic people, surely they'd look at him with disgust like everyone else, surely he'd hurt one of them like he did that boy earlier in the day. He bit the inside of his cheek as he watched Dylan lean out his bedroom door, calling to some unseen aura he felt surrounding him like summer winds. Part of it felt threatening, the other part of it felt nearly welcoming, but as quickly as he felt it, it soon was absorbed into the cold death mana he was so awfully familiar with as it grew restless and uneasy.

Tired...tired...this was too much for one day...

 

[Elffri3nd]

Dylan didn't have time to comfort Rai. He could feel the increasing death mana and bit his lips. He kept his back to the other boy so that Rai couldn't see the pain on Dylan's face. Dylan didn't have enough life mana life in him to shield himself from the wave of death mana. It wouldn't cause any permanent damage with how far he was from Rai but it was still painful. He didn't have to worry about it for long however. With his grandmother's approach came an even more powerful wave of life mana that completely suppressed the death mana in the air.

Arcanist Lily Afton looked surprisingly young for her age. Despite being 74, she looked no older than 45. Her curly brown hair was tied up in a tight bun and she wore a green dress with half moon glasses hanging around her neck. She was a few inches taller than Dylan with a frown plastered on her face. Following behind the woman was a painter with intelligent bright eyes. It gave off a powerful aura similar to Lily. Being Lily's familiar, it was just as powerful as the woman.

With barely an effort, she pushed past Dylan into his room. "Explain," Lily demanded. "What's going on?" Her eyes fell on Rai and her frown deepened. "Wait. You boy, what's your name?" She lifted her glasses to her eyes for a moment as she took a closer look at Rai. Dylan could feel knowledge mana as his grandmother examined Rai.

As she was examining Rai, the panther rubbed itself against Dylan before it started sending mana into him. Dylan could feel his wounds quickly healing as the pain faded from them. As soon as the panther was done treating Dylan, it went to the plants, sending mana into them as well.