A Twist of Fate

Evaine

I am soooo not doing okay right now. As soon as I forged my mana core when I turned three, my parents were convinced that I was a prodigy and gave me rigorous training. I know I said I wanted to be stronger in this life but gods, who knew it required soooo much training, from opening my mana channels to light sparring with dad and herbal medicine with mom. But these aren't the worst things, nope, the worst part is waking up really early in the morning at the crack of dawn to develop my 'discipline' as dad had phrased it. I was never a morning person in my past life, I'd rather sit back at the corner of our library and read at midnight until 3:00 AM, but dad was adamant and relentless with my progress.

To be honest, I didn't even know what I was doing. I had read up on mana and found out that it was uncannily similar to ki. Though I never tapped too much into my ki back then, I did meditate and do yoga a lot to strengthen my reserves. I tried to go back to this old habit of mine and somehow, in my meditations and concentration, I was eventually able to forge a mana core earlier than what was normally expected. It was like collecting all of the little lights floating around in my body and collecting them all in one place.

Although my training with dad didn't require meditation, I tried to do it in my spare time (when I wasn't reading or writing that is) since it's probably one of the things that kept my sanity and grounded my mind to the present reality I'm continuously trying to get used to. Apart from trying to learn the flow of mana around me, my parents took turns testing me if I was a conjurer or an augmenter, or perhaps a deviant even. It took me a month to finally figure out I had affinities with both wind and water.

*****

Breathe in. Breathe out. I felt the mana particles floating around me – greens and blues and silvers that looked too vibrant outside in the little clearing of the forest. Mana always felt different when I used it, I don't know if I have a name for it, but somehow it just naturally flowed through me – I can conjure it but I can also use it to strengthen my body, in a way. I focused on the silver and blue particles that were somehow connected to the wind. And I let go.

A wall of torrential wind pushed my dad to the ground, taken aback, he fell on his butt from my surprise attack.

"Dad! I'm sorry!" I rushed to his side.

"It's okay Evy," then he warmly smiled at me and said, "Look at you, being able to throw me off with that little trick of yours. Wasn't it only last week when you were trying to conjure a slight breeze?"

I nodded and dad beamed at me, fondly ruffling my hair he remarked, "I'm proud of you, Evy."

I glowed at the comment. Without a father figure in my past life, receiving compliments from dad like this meant a lot to me. I wanted to continue to make him and mom proud of me.

"Keep that up and soon you'll be making your own personal tornado."

"Yes Sir!" I saluted him as he chuckled and stood up, brushing off the dirt on his pants.

"Well, I'm all hungry after that training. Let's go see what your mom has cooked for us, sounds good? And afterward, maybe you can also show her that little trick of yours too."

I gave dad a determined nod but before he could walk back inside our house, I stopped in my tracks and held his hand, "Dad...?"

"Yes, Evy? What is it?"