Manifest War: The Weapons Within

Late morning came and Carmen awoke to see Elise sound asleep next to her, facing the opposite direction. She was confused at first, but then quickly remembered the emotional night they had. Carmen quietly got up and looked over at the clock on the wall.

Her eyes went wide as she noticed that it was almost noon. She rushed out of the bed and swiftly got dressed before sprinting out of the dorm towards Laracia town.

“Oh no, I’m going to be late on my first day! Varric is going to kill me!” She exclaimed, scared of what he might do.

After a few minutes past noon, Carmen arrived at the town gate. She saw Varric standing there in all his unkempt glory, crossing his arms and clearly in a bad mood.

“You’re late…” He said with a grumble, not even slightly happy about her tardiness.

“Sorry, I overslept! It won’t happen again.”

Carmen rested her hands on her knees as she panted heavily, struggling to catch her breath. Varric didn’t say a word, he simply began walking towards the snow covered forest. Carmen followed closely and they disappeared into the tree line.

The two walked for quite a while until they eventually found themselves at a clearing in the woods. The area was flat, wide, and empty, perfect for a training location. They stopped in the middle of the snow covered clearing and Varric turned around, looking directly at Carmen.

“So, show me your abilities. I need to see what I’m working with here.” He demanded with a serious tone, crossing his arms as he waited.

“Oh, right. I can do that!”

Carmen removed her winter cloak and set it to the side. She prepared to summon her Manifest until Varric immediately stopped her.

“No Manifest. Put it away…”

“Huh? But… Alright.”

Carmen sent her weapon away and aimed her hand at a nearby boulder. She forced out her Core Energy and the boulder was sent backwards a few meters, leaving a long trail in the snow behind it. Carmen exerted her power again, but this time the rock began to crumble and crush. It was as though a heavy weight had been placed on top of it.

After a few short moments, the rock split in half and fell apart from the increased gravitational force applied to it. She then proceeded to open her other palm, causing a black ink blob to form. Carmen tossed it up above her and the ink hardened as it separated into little needles.

She aimed her palm at another tree and commanded the needles to quickly attack it with great precision. The force exploded the tree, sending wood fragments and snow in all directions in impressive fashion.

“That’s pretty much the gist of it. I can manipulate the gravity around objects, making them heavier or lighter. I can push things away or bring things closer, and I can even crush things under gravitational weight. As for my Dark affinity, I can manipulate this black ink and it can attack others for me. Though, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure if it can do more than that.” Carmen said, feeling slightly proud of her abilities.

Varric stood there with no expression before letting out a bored sigh.

“Is that all? My expectations were low, but damn, I at least expected more than this…”

“What? I’ve been practicing my gravity manipulation and learning how to use it in combat since I was eight. I’ve pretty much mastered my technique at this point. For someone my age, I thought that was pretty impressive.”

“Impressive? Pfft, hardly. If I had to rate your use of skills, I would give you a three out of ten.”

Varric’s tone was colder than the winter air around them. Carmen was shocked to hear his assessment and began to feel disappointed.

“Don’t start crying about it. If you want to learn from me and actually improve, you need to get over that weak mindset of yours right now. I’m not wasting my time here to kiss your ass and tell you how cool you are. Got it?”

After hearing Varric’s statement, Carmen composed herself and nodded with determination.

“Good… Now, there are plenty of reasons why I think your skill use is poor. The biggest reason being that you’re limiting yourself greatly. I don’t know who taught you in that castle of yours, but they need to be hit with a brick.” He replied with an annoyed expression.

“What? I’ll have you know that Graymoor Penult helped with a lot of my training. He’s one of the greatest Vestas in Alaira!”

Carmen was insulted that Varric would say something like that about a Vesta of Graymoor’s caliber.

“Last time I checked, he’s a swordsman. No matter how great he is, he has no business teaching combat to a caster type like you. Only teaching hand to hand combat to someone with your abilities has been an incredible waste of your development.”

“A caster type like me? And why do you think I’ve been limiting myself? Because I fight in close quarters?” Carmen asked, eager to figure out what he meant.

“Yes. All of your abilities are tailor made for medium to long range combat, why the hell are you only fighting in the short range? You should be playing keep away and zoning out your opponents, not fighting them on their terms.”

“But, my Manifest is a rapier. How else am I supposed to fight??”

Carmen wasn’t following his logic at all, feeling that he wasn’t making any sense.

“And? Just because your Manifest turned into a sword doesn’t mean you need to only use it as such. I guarantee you that Manifest of yours doesn’t even have any close quarters abilities outside of the fact that it’s a rapier. You’d be better off using it as a wand or something.” He said nonchalantly.

Carmen stopped and pondered his words for a moment, now realizing something about Graviton’s Eclipse. She remembered the many battles she had with it and couldn’t think of a single time she used any close quarter abilities.

She would always aim her rapier at people and attack from range or use it to manipulate gravity from a distance. This realization hit her like a rock and she had no response to his statement.

“And why do you need to use your hands to manipulate gravity? The ability doesn’t come from your hands, so why go through the effort? Also, you mean to tell me you can only push, freeze, and crush stuff? You can fuckin’ manipulate gravity, how the hell are those the only things you can do?” He added with an irritated cadence.

Carmen stood there silently and looked down at her hands.

“How do I use my abilities without my hands?” She asked, her expression growing more confused by the second.

Varric let out another annoyed sigh as he reached down, quickly packing together a small snowball. He held it up and showed it to Carmen.

“See this snowball? Focus on it and send it flying. The same way you focus with your hands is the same way you cast without them.”

He lightly tossed it up a few times, catching it in the same hand. Carmen nodded and stepped back, focusing her red eyes on the snowball. Seconds later, Varric threw it right at her face, causing it to explode on impact. Snow raced across her head as she stumbled back with great surprise.

“Hey!! Why did you throw it!?” She yelled with an annoyed glare.

“I told you to send it back flying… It’s not my fault you’re so slow.” He responded as he balled together another snowball. Carmen wiped her face and prepared herself. Varric quickly tossed the snowball, blasting her in the face again.

They did this exercise for an hour and after hundreds of snowballs, Carmen’s face was cold and beet red from all of her failed attempts. Frustrated, she focused up again and just before the snowball reached her, it stopped and dropped to the ground.

“I did it!” She exclaimed with glee.

However, this celebration was short-lived as three more snowballs flew at her with great speed. Carmen noticed them approaching and focused up, causing two of the snowballs to fall to the ground. The third ball unfortunately struck her leg, exploding into a powdery white dust.

“Never lose your focus… In an ideal situation, your gravity manipulation should be running around you at all times. Not even stopping when you sleep.” Varric said as he walked over.

“At all times!? But how would that be possible? Wouldn’t I burn through all of my Core Energy?” She curiously asked, eager to learn even more.

“No, using it defensively instead of offensively will slow the amount of Core Energy used. Think of it like this… One man has a water hose and is spraying it at a horde of ants to keep them away. Another man stands in one spot and puts a moat of water around him to fend off the ants. Who is expending the most resources in this situation?” He casually asked. Carmen took a second to think.

“Hmm, the man with the water hose?” She wondered, not sure if she had the right answer.

“Correct. Meanwhile, the other man had put up a barrier around him that stayed intact regardless of what he did. He never has to expend any energy to maintain it unless it’s compromised somehow. You get it now?”

Varric looked at Carmen as the wheels were spinning in her head. Her eyes eventually went wide as she finally realized what he was saying.

“Ok, that makes sense! I pretty much just have to apply gravity manipulation to myself!” She said with some newfound confidence. Varric was confused by her response.

“Apply to yourself? I mean, I guess, but that’s not wh-”

Varric was cut off by Carmen quickly trying out this new method on herself. The snow around her was swiftly pushed away with great force as she stood there, exerting her Core Energy outwards. Carmen had effortlessly figured out the idea of how to use her gravity manipulation as a barrier.

‘What the hell? Why couldn’t she do this before? Was it really because of that stupid analogy I made up?’

Varric shook his head and felt annoyed that he wasted an hour of his life throwing snowballs at a student’s face.

“Varric! Throw some stuff my way!” Carmen yelled out with a confident smile.

He sighed and reluctantly did so, tossing multiple snowballs in rapid succession. Almost immediately, the balls stopped in the air around her. They hadn’t even remotely gotten close to her, becoming stuck and suspended in her invisible barrier.

Carmen began to walk forward as snowball after snowball was caught in her field. Then with a quick thought, she exerted her Core Energy again, sending all of the snowballs flying back towards Varric. As they made impact, the balls exploded against a thin, yellow barrier around him. Varric retaliated by quickly throwing a few more snowballs, tossing them with significantly more speed this time around.

'This is way easier than I thought it would be. I think I finally got the hang of th-'

Before Carmen could even finish her thought, all of the snowballs made impact, blasting her across the face and chest. She fell backwards into the snow, gripping her face as the cold powder stung her cheek. Carmen was dumbfounded that her newly created skill had failed.

"Like I said before, don't lose your focus. You've got a bad tendency to relax whenever things ease up and it's interfering with your ability to sustain Core Energy. That kind of shit will get you killed if you're not careful..." Varric said as he walked over, crossing his arms with slight disappointment.

"I see. I'll try again."

Carmen slowly sat up and sighed as she smacked the ground in frustration. It was clear that she was feeling a bit upset by yet another failure. Varric noticed her blank expression and immediately rolled his eyes.

"Holy fuck, kid. Can you please get a grip!? Stop pouting whenever something doesn't go your way, it's annoying. Now get off your ass and let's go again, we don't have all day." He said with an irritated cadence as he reached down and balled up a snowball.

Carmen let out one more sigh before looking up with a serious expression. Varric's words had lit a fire under her and she was determined to prove him wrong. She got to her feet and focused up again, her red eyes fully locked in. Varric reared his arm back and tossed multiple snowballs her way, not holding back his strength at all with each throw.

Once they reached her vicinity, the snowballs were caught inside of her gravity barrier. Carmen exerted her Core Energy and forced the balls away, sending them back towards Varric. The two continued this exercise for multiple hours, going back and forth until Carmen ran out of Core Energy.

When they finished up, Carmen leaned over and panted heavily. The amount of exhaustion she felt was unlike anything she'd experienced before. Carmen could barely stay on her feet thanks to this exercise.

Varric simply walked over and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a silver flask. He untwisted the cap and took a swig before telling Carmen his thoughts.

“That was better. You see how freely you can fight when you don’t need to stop, aim your hands, and exert? When you get fully used to casting this way, you won’t even need to think about it. Your abilities will just trigger on their own. In the Vesta world, we call this auto-casting.” Varric said, taking another swig from his silver flask.

“Is that what you were doing?” She asked, noticing the yellow barriers that kept appearing around him.

“Yes. The abilities I have associated with my Light affinity are always active. The prisms I create act as barriers without me even needing to think about it. There’s not a soul in Alaira that’s going to catch me off guard…”

“Woah, that’s wild. It’s crazy that my sister was able to beat someone like you.” Carmen callously replied.

“Tsk.”

Varric’s face contorted as his irritation hit new levels, feeling disgusted to even think about Azhane Belouis at this time. He gave Carmen no reply and simply walked past her towards their belongings. He grabbed his bag and looked over his shoulder.

"Get some rest and meet back here tomorrow after your classes." He said rather coldly.

"Oh, okay. What are you going to teach me tomor-"

Before Carmen could ask her question, Varric walked away and disappeared into the thick treeline.

'Geez, what's his problem?'

After grabbing her things, Carmen put on her winter cloak and limped her way back to campus. Despite the fatigue and soreness she felt, Carmen couldn't help but smirk. She finally felt like she had made some progress after being stuck for so long.