Julia sat in the Lotus position in front of a ritual circle she’d drawn with sapphire dust. She would rather have been sitting with her legs in front of her, but Braden always insisted on the Lotus position. She wasn’t sure why, but it wasn’t the worst thing ever, so she decided to pick her battles and not question it.

  After completing the dungeon by herself, Braden had insisted on her checking in with Ratia back at the Guild. Ravina had come with them, knowing that Julia had just completed her first solo run. There had been some back-and-forth when she got there.

  “I can see that you did what you could with this wound, but next time you decide to heal on your own, try pulling the skin around the wound closed first. You forced your body to heal as-is, which means the part of your skin that was cleft by the dagger became scar tissue.

  “Had you used mana to force the edges of the wound together and then healed it, there would likely only be a small line across your back rather than…this. Actually, you’re pretty lucky that dagger was blunted from use and age. If it were sharper, it would’ve done more—and potentially serious—damage. Although the blunted edge made this horrible, jagged scar, it didn’t do much more than damage your skin.

  “That said, I could fix this scar. It would not be pleasant, but it’s possible. I’d have to remove the scar tissue, which would be painful, and then seal the wound properly to heal it,” Ratia lectured.

  “Fuck that. What ya got there is a trophy, girly. Ya fucked up, paid the price, and learned from it. Let it be a reminder to ya in the future. Wear it proud, girl, cus it means ya survived,” Ravina said resolutely. She seemed to have strong feelings on the subject.

  Julia looked over to Braden, but he just shrugged. “Your call, Jules. It’s your body. I only want you to do what makes you happy. I don’t particularly care whether that means having scars or not.”

  “Well, I’m going to handle that fractured rib regardless,” Ratia said. “I’ll leave the horrendous bruising—since your instructor seems keen on you keeping your wounds, but there’s no reason to leave a hairline fracture. That’s just going to keep you from exercising for a few weeks, so there’s no benefit to keeping it.

  “I would advise you to think about whether you’ll want the scar in the future, though—not just how you feel about it now. There may come a time when you’re picking out a wedding dress, and you wish you’d have—”

  “Fuck that, too. Who gives a fuck whether some man likes your scars or not? Ya live for yourself, not others, girl. If some man or woman or whatever you’re into don’t like the scars you’re proud of, fuck ‘em. That means they don’t like you. They can fuck off and find some doll to fawn over instead,” Ravina spat.

  Julia was unsure whether Ravina was speaking from experience, but she clearly felt strongly about it. Truthfully, Julia was neutral on the subject. She didn’t particularly care about romance or anything of that sort, but she also didn’t care much about Ravina’s trophy symbology. She decided that since she didn’t feel strongly one way or the other, she’d just leave it as-is for now.

  After the conflict in Ratia’s office and getting her rib healed, she, Braden, and Ravina retreated back to the house to discuss her run in detail. They dissected every move she made from start to finish and discussed what she could have done better. The most obvious mistake was her failure to scout effectively and becoming too comfortable with her expectations for the dungeon.

  Something that kept coming up that she couldn’t quite get away from was her lack of options due to low mana. She was decent with a sword and always getting better, but she never dedicated her full attention to it. Magic was always what she was most interested in, so she couldn’t expect to solo dungeons based on her sword skills alone.

  That meant that when her mana was running low, so were her options. The most obvious fix was what Ravina proposed, which was just improving her swordsmanship. Julia maintained that she didn’t want to fully commit to the sword and let her magic studies fall behind, so that was a no-go for her.

  Braden suggested taking up a secondary ranged weapon, like a shortbow. However, Julia felt this was essentially the same answer as improving her swordsmanship. She didn’t want to have to curb her magic studies to learn a new weapon completely from scratch. This left the only real solution to be either being more efficient with her current magic repertoire, or increasing her total mana pool.

  Once they had reviewed her dungeon run, Ravina had left their home for the night so that Julia could go through her notifications. She had ended up gaining four Levels for her solo run, which was many considering the final boss in a Level 10 dungeon would likely be Level 10 as well—seven Levels below her.

  She once again distributed her free APs evenly and promptly passed out from the most intense migraine she’d ever experienced. Acquiring the “Enhanced Mind” Skill put her first mana exhaustion migraine to shame. The few seconds she managed to feel before her consciousness was scoured away was what she imagined it must feel like to have a fire ignited inside your skull.

  Once she awoke the next morning, she felt a level of clear-headedness she hadn’t ever experienced. It was akin to being drunk her entire life and only just sobering up. Well, she assumed that’s what it was like. She hadn’t actually been drunk before, but she’d seen drunk people. She knew how sound thinking evaded one in that state.

  It was then that Braden had said he would help her out with her mana problem for her sixteenth birthday—today. After the usual affair of a morning cake and presents, this time with the addition of both Ratia and Ravina (Ravina ate almost half the cake by herself), Braden had sat her down to explain his plan.

  “My intention was always to slowly introduce you to Summoning, so I guess this fits along those lines. The thing is, Summoning is incredibly dangerous. It deals with forces that…well, not to be too dramatic, but the forces in the Ether could literally destroy all of reality. Which is not to say that I think you could manage that accidentally, but I do think you could destroy yourself accidentally, and that’s worse, in my opinion,” he explained.

  Julia’s first instinct was to chide him for being dramatic and comparing her destroying herself to all of reality disappearing, but she decided now was a time for information. “The Ether? What is that? Is it a place?”

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  “Yes…and no. Sorry, it’s complicated. It’s a…uh…a record. Sort of like a library, except completely disorganized and volatile. Imagine there was a library containing records of everything that has ever existed, but these records aren’t books. They’re…hmm…they’re memories of the things that existed.

  “Maybe a dream is a better comparison. You can think of the Ether as a large dream that contains memories of everything that ever was, but not just in this reality. It contains memories of all realities before this current one.

  “What’s more, you are not in control of that dream. Imagine how hostile your own dreams can be, and then imagine if you were in someone else’s dream. You can see how it could be dangerous, right?

  “When you perform a Summoning, you’re grabbing a piece of the Ether, a memory, and instantiating it here in this reality. That memory might be from a time when things…worked differently than they do now. Drawing things from the Ether can be corrosive to the current reality. Not everything will be, but the possibility is high.

  “This is why I wanted to guide you through the process. I don’t want to keep it from you only for you to discover it on your own and hurt yourself. I also don’t want to tell you how powerful it is and then try to convince you to never touch it. I want to teach you how to approach it responsibly. ‘All things in moderation,’ as they say,” he concluded.

  “Are you saying…is Trixy not from this reality?” Julia was a little disturbed. She loved Trixy no matter what, but finding out she might have yanked her from a completely different reality was…hard to process.

  “I honestly don’t know. All things exist in the Ether, Jules. That means things that exist right now are also in there. It could be that Trixy's species is present somewhere in the world, but it’s equally possible her species has been extinct for millennia. I don’t know.

  “I don’t think it’s a big issue, though. She’s a ferret. Yes, she’s a magic beast as well, but ferrets definitely exist in this reality. I’ve not seen her specific species before, but I’ve seen ferrets. I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” he said while shrugging.

  “Ok…I do have other questions, but we started this conversation because you were going to help me with my mana pool, right? How does this help?” Julia questioned.

  “Right, well as I said, the Ether contains all things, but it’s not just living things. Anything that has ever existed is in there. There’s almost certainly something that can help increase your mana pool—an artifact someone created, a rare ingredient, whatever.

  “Remember when we performed Trixy’s ritual? I had you focus your intent and will on what you wanted—what you needed. That was to filter the memories in the Ether until something that matched your need was found. You can do the same thing with objects. Just focus on needing more mana, or whatever you need.”

  After the explanation, they had quickly proceeded with the ritual. The process was functionally the same as with Trixy. Braden insisted on putting the same safeguards in place. You never know what could come through, so assuming it would be an inanimate object just because you wanted it to be was folly.

  Julia wasn’t going to do any chanting or recitations this time. She knew the theory well enough, and she had enough magic practice under her belt at this point to have a stable intent. She placed her finger on the dust and began channeling her mana.

  Surprisingly, even this was easier with her new mind enhancements. She found manipulating mana easier in every way.

  As her mana left her, she focused on her current need. She needed more mana. She needed to be able to cast her spells without worry. She couldn’t afford to be caught out without any mana. It was not an exaggeration to say that her life would likely depend on her mana capacity once she became a full-fledged adventurer.

  She looked towards the center of the circle when a bright light flashed. The dust she had been channeling her mana into had disappeared in a puff. There was now just a slightly-sizzling circle where the dust had been. In the center of the circle was a stone about the size of her thumbnail made of a completely clear material that refracted a rainbow when light passed through it.

  Julia looked over to Braden for guidance and was surprised to see him walk into the circle and pick the stone up. She began to worry when she saw his face turn sullen as he inspected it.

  “What is it? Why do you look so disappointed?” she asked with trepidation.

  “Hmm? Oh, I’m not disappointed. This is just…not what I was expecting. This is a Fey Heart. Here,” he said as he held it out to her. However, when he released it, it just…stayed there. It remained stationary in the air as though he were still holding it. It didn’t give the impression of floating—more that it was just…locked into place.

  She tried to grab it, but her hand passed right through it. “Run mana through your hand when you try to hold it,” Braden instructed. She did and found that she could grab the stone. It felt otherwise unremarkable now that she had it—just like a large gem. As soon as she stopped the mana in her hand, though, it would phase right through and remain in the air.

  “What exactly is this? A Fey Heart, you say? The Heart of a Fey? What are Fey?” Julia asked.

  “You’re aware of elves, yes?” Braden asked. Julia nodded. She’d read about them in some of the books Braden had. “They’re distant relatives of elves. There are basically two broad categories of beings: mortals and spirits.

  “Mortals—like humans—are physical beings that can sometimes manipulate mana, while spirits are beings made purely of mana that can sometimes interact with the physical world. There’s a spectrum of beings with those two being the opposite extremes.

  “On the less-extreme end of the mortal end are elves, who are physical beings that are naturally gifted with mana and magic. On the other side are Fey, who are spirits that are very close to being physical beings. They were still made entirely of mana, but they had a physicality that many pure spirits lack.

  “This ‘heart’ is the core of a Fey. It’s what tethered the spirit to the physical realm. The only way for a Fey Heart to exist is if the Fey it belonged to is dead. That’s why I’m a little sad. This represents a sapient being that died. It’s not too different from holding a human’s heart in your hand,” Braden finished soberly.

  Julia was a little disgusted with both herself and the ritual she’d just performed. How could it do something like this? She just wanted more mana! She didn’t want to harm anyone!

  Noticing her distress, Braden gave her a small smile. “It’s not your fault, Jules. And don’t worry. It’s not like this was ripped from a living being’s chest by the ritual. Hell, this isn’t even the real thing. This is just a duplicate of a memory of the real Fey Heart that exists in the Ether. It’s just a copy.

  “I do think it needs to be handled respectfully, though. Just because it’s a copy doesn’t change the fact that it’s a memento mori—it was once part of a living, sapient being.

  “It can definitely help you, though, so definitely use it. Don’t let the past weigh you down too much—especially when you aren’t even responsible for its circumstances.”

  Julia nodded. “How do I use it? What does it even do? It looks like a beautiful gemstone, so…could it be a magical focus?” Julia wondered.

  “Good deduction. It could be that, but that would be a tremendous waste,” Braden said as he picked up the heart. He walked over and sat in front of Julia, who was still on the ground in front of the ritual circle.

  “This doesn’t interact with normal matter, as you’ve seen. It only interacts with mana. What you should do is push it into your chest, between your heart and stomach, and integrate it into your mana circulation.”

  Julia stared at him in horror. What the fuck did he just say!?