Keiran

“Cherok came by to talk to Gravin today,” I heard Mother say when Father came home.

There was a silent beat, then, “How’d that go?”

“He implied there was something wrong with Gravin’s brain and told me that if we can’t afford the mana tax, that I should close my legs more often.”

My father’s expression darkened. “Did he now?” he said quietly. I would not want to be Cherok when Father caught up with him.

“What’s that mean?” Senica asked. I smothered a laugh and turned away from the rest of the family so they couldn’t see my face.

“Oh, it’s, er, it’s just a grown-up thing you won’t need to worry about for a long time,” Mother said.

“But what’s it mean?” Senica pressed.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

My sister let out a huff and flopped onto her pallet. “Fine!”

“What do we do now?" Father asked. “There’s only a few weeks left.”

“I don’t know. Even if we pushed the issue and got Gravin into training, this class is just starting too late for it to make a difference, and it’s not right to put that kind of pressure on Gravin. He’s only three.”

“I know, but that’s the rule. Everyone contributes mana. No exceptions. We’re a family of four, and Gravin is old enough to walk and talk. They’re going to start assessing us higher. If we can’t produce enough with a daily tithe, we’ll both be wearing draw stone pendants for the next six months.”

I wondered how many draw stones this village could possibly have. It wasn’t like it was rare or anything, but considering these people were out in the middle of nowhere with no obvious way to acquire it, it was strange that they’d have draw stones in abundance.

On a more personal level, if I was understanding this conversation correctly, we were looking at having draw stones literally hanging off our necks. Maybe it would just be my parents, but I still didn’t want the stuff in our home. The constant need to resist a draw stone’s pull would wear on me, and especially since I still had to sleep in the same bed as my parents, it would be practically touching me all night. It was just a matter of time until it started stealing away my precious mana while I slept. Worse, my storage crystal would have no such protections.

“Hey,” Senica said to me. “What’s wrong with your brain?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Nothing is wrong with his brain,” my mother said. “Cherok was just being an as- a jerk. He was saying mean things because he doesn’t get along with your father and wanted to take it out on us.”

“Cherok’s not the problem right now,” Father said. “He can be a jerk all he wants. It’s the Collector showing up in a few weeks that we need to think about.”

“What’s a Collector?” I asked.

“They’re the ones who administer the draw stones, sweetie. The man at our table is a Collector, and so is the person who will come do our Testing next month.”

Of course they were. That made perfect sense. The whole village government was obsessed with harvesting mana from its populace, though I’d yet to see any evidence of what it was all being used for. If I could get my hands on one of those draw stones, my mana problems would be over instantly. Come to think of it, maybe it was a good thing if both my parents ended up wearing one. I could drain the mana out of it, pump it into my storage crystal, and finish igniting my mana core.

It would be better if I was left alone to do it myself. There was less chance of drawing scrutiny that way. I wasn’t sure if I could do it in a month though. I could make an attempt right now, if I wanted, but depending on how bad the loss converting the mana from the storage crystal was, I might fall short. If I didn’t have enough, all of my work over the last eight months would be wasted.

“Maybe we’re worrying over nothing,” Father said. “They might show up, do the Testing, and determine we generate enough mana for a family of four. It’ll be Gravin’s first time. He could score really high.”

“Maybe,” Mother agreed, but I could hear the doubt in her voice. “He does spend a lot of time just sitting there. He’s probably not using too much passively.”

She wasn’t wrong. That was a deliberate choice on my part. I didn’t move around much because I didn’t have enough energy to last all day, and time spent napping was time not spent speeding up my mana generation. If I could just get a few weeks undisturbed, and maybe some better food, I could get this interminable weaning stage over with. I was tired of being a dull.

My parents spent the rest of the evening going in circles about things that were outside of their control and stressing themselves out over it. They only stopped once they realized Senica had picked up on it and was getting a wild look in her eyes. That led to Mother taking a break to soothe her while Father took me outside to sit in the garden together.

“You know, son, I don’t think that teacher knew what he was talking about. Plenty of wise men knew to keep their mouths shut when there was nothing important to say,” he told me.

I wisely stayed quiet in response, which caused my father to laugh after a moment.

“Yeah, just like that. You know more than you let on, don’t you? Well, either way, don’t worry about this whole Testing thing. It’s not that big a deal. It’ll just make for a rough few months, nothing your old man can’t survive.”

“Will we fail?” I asked.

Father shrugged. “Who knows? It would certainly help if you had some mana to tithe, but you’re too young for them to expect very much. A few years ago, we wouldn’t even be worrying about this, but right around the time you were born, Lord Noctra let us know the barrier was becoming unstable again, that we weren’t tithing enough mana to keep it active all the time. That’s when the Barrier Wardens became a thing, to keep a look out for monsters so we can activate the barrier whenever one gets close.

“Supposedly we’re building the reserves back up, and soon we’ll be able to run it full time instead of just at night when no one can see if there are any monsters out in the dark. Sure has made for a rough few years though.”

Interesting. That might explain why I hadn’t seen much of this supposed barrier since my awakening. If they only ran it at night to conserve power, well, it was a rare day indeed that I managed to keep my eyes open once the stars started coming out. I’d yet to spot all six of our moons despite months of looking. It might be worth it to spend a bit of mana just to stay up late and see if I could get a look at this barrier.

“Have you ever seen a monster?” I asked.

Father took a moment to answer. “The Wardens keep us safe when the sun’s up, and if they spot something they can’t handle, Lord Noctra comes out and fries it to a crisp. Then the barrier keeps everything away at night, like I said. All I have to do is grow food during the day and take care of you at night.”

A simple life. I wouldn’t say I was jealous, not considering the cost, but I could see the appeal. I did notice that Father hadn’t answered the question though. There was more to that story, but I wasn’t getting it out of him, not tonight at least.

* * *

That night, I clutched the toy holding my storage crystal tight to my chest and carefully examined it. At maximum capacity, it could hold twenty times as much mana as my own core. I lost about half of the mana I put in, and I’d lose half of it again pulling it out. It was currently three quarters full after six months of work. Like I said, it wasn’t a very good storage crystal, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

It took me six days for my mana core to fill to full naturally, or five if I was given enough uninterrupted time to stimulate my core so it would generate mana faster. I needed eight times my maximum mana to make my core ignite, so in theory, the storage crystal didn’t need to be completely full. There was a bit of leeway there in that I could fill my own mana core to the brim prior to starting the ritual, and of course skill counted for a great deal in these sorts of things. If I did it properly, I could get away with as little as seven times my maximum mana in the crystal.

The rest was a buffer, just in case something went wrong. I’d rather spend eight months and ensure I did it perfectly the first time than spend seven and risk wasting it all by failing. The draw stones were a complication, especially if my parents were going to be wearing them at all times. If I did the ignition right before the Testing in a month, I would theoretically still have more mana than I needed, but only a bit under eight mana cores worth instead of ten. The margins were tight, but I could do it.

If I ignited my core prior to the Testing, I could probably cheat in some way to make it seem like my family produced enough mana to satisfy whatever the requirement was. My ignited core would generate mana twenty times faster than it did in its dormant state. I’d have enough to spare, and it’d be worth the investment to keep draw stones out of our home. I supposed it might also relieve some of my parents’ stress as well.

That settled it then. I’d give the storage crystal a few more weeks, then look for a good opportunity to ignite my core. It’d probably be one of the days when Senica was home from school during the day and Mother was visiting with that nosy neighbor who’d thought I was possessed. Senica was supposed to keep an eye on me, but really, who trusted a six-year-old to babysit? Then again, nothing bad had happened, so maybe Mother was right to think Senica could do it.

* * *

As we got closer to the Testing, my parents got more and more agitated. From what I gathered, they were convinced they were going to fail, despite both of them doing their best to limit the amount of mana they used during the day. Seeing as to how they weren’t really trained at all, at least not that I could tell, almost all of Father’s mana usage went towards instinctive invocations to give himself more strength or stamina. Mother pushed most of her mana into our garden to try to help the scraggly plants grow.

There were three days left, and it was Senica’s last day off from school before the Testing. If I wanted to do this, it had to be today. We went through the morning routine, breakfast, garden work, play time, and then I was put down for a nap on the pallet I’d been sharing with my parents. Senica played with her two dolls at the table, and Mother went outside to chat with the neighbor, that way she wouldn’t keep me up.

Thanks to my own invocation, I was wide awake. I clutched the stuffed animal toy tightly, the better to pinch the storage crystal between two fingers, and with a glance at Senica to make sure she was still ignoring me, I accessed the crystal.

Immediately, I felt the mana inside. It was mostly full, not quite enough topped off. That was fine. I could do this without a safety net. It would mean months, possibly years considering what kind of setbacks I might see, of work to try again if I failed. But I hadn’t gotten to be an ancient archmage without taking a few risks.

I was so sick of being a toddler. It was time to take some control over my life.