Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 11 - Foreigners - II

  As soon as they'd gotten far enough away, Rika burst out laughing.

  "Huh?"

  "He thought someone was stealing his food and stalking him. Badass mercenary with a killer sidekick, and he's scared to death of a twelve year old's pet cat!" Rika choked back her laughter.

  Alden laughed too, more nervously than of any actual mirth. "So what do we do now?"

  "Well, we've got a whole day ahead of us with not much to do. What's on your mind?"

  Alden looked down at his hands. In the last day, they had become a conduit to so much more than he had ever imagined. He was excited simply thinking of the possibilities that had opened up for him. Visions danced through his mind of fire swirling around his fingertips, electricity crackling through his hands like Rika's, or sending everyday objects twirling around in space at will.

  Rika saw where he was looking and grinned. "More magic, eh?"

  Without too much difficulty, they found a wide enough space in the thick forest where they had room to move around more freely. Rika immediately set to reminding him of the basics. How to find that new part of his mind and take hold of it, and how to send it out into the flow of energy. She made it sound so simple, but for Alden it was a mind-twisting exercise that gave him a headache just to consider. Only when he was actually relaxed and connected, so to speak, did he find himself able to enact any sort of spell.

  "Does it get easier?" he asked with stars dancing in his vision. Alden was sitting against a tree with a pounding headache after trying to set a single leaf on fire. He'd managed a tiny puff of smoke, but the leaf stubbornly refused to catch.

  Rika shrugged. "For some people, yeah. But maybe you just aren't meant to do Elemental magic. It happens."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean you might be deficient." Alden winced. "What?" Rika didn't look like she understood what she'd just said.

  "That word means something else... err, nevermind. Anyway. Is this like you and Creation magic?"

  Rika paused. "How did you know?"

  "I saw you react when Rachel announced it, and how you haven't been interested in the Scrap since then. You can't do that kind of magic, can you?"

  "No," Rika sighed. "I mean, most people can't do much in it anyway. Creation takes a hell of a lot of energy to maintain. When I've seen someone else try though, they usually get some kind of result. Nothing useful, but it's still a result. For me it's like running my face into a brick wall. I could try as many times as I like, it's never going down, and the harder I try the more it fucks me up."

  "So you think that might be me and Elemental magic?" Alden asked.

  "Nah. You can at least get some results. You probably won't ever do as much as I can, but if you practice hard enough you should get something workable out of it." Rika gestured at him to stand. "Come on, keep at it."

  Alden pulled himself to his feet and on they went. They continued for hours, stopping only to eat from a full meal Rika had packed away inside her bag. Alden found that if he switched between multiple types of magic, falling back to his own affinity every so often, he was more relaxed. Pushing and grabbing things mentally was comfortable to him. Trying to manipulate and create elements, or trying to strengthen his limbs, or even just attempting to change the color of a strand of hair—every other branch of magic left him winded and weak. Rika assured him it would eventually pass, but Alden didn't feel like he was making progress.