NINA
The rain finally stopped. In the distance, I could see blackened trees. That rain was a nightmare. Ren was firing ice crystals now and then to burning trees to prevent a forest fire from happening.
I looked back at our team. Almost of us are exhausted, pushing our magic to prevent anything bad happening.
Cellon was knocked out from the siphoning process earlier. Sylvia was yet to wake up after her magic went out of control. Ling was dead tired from transferring Ren's ice magic to burning trees. Apollo was the one tending Sylvia and Cellon and I was left standing with nothing else to do.
If these were human, I could have offered them something to eat. But they are mages, and I have recently learned that they don't eat. I sighed, nothing wrong with asking. So I approached Apollo.
"Uhm, Apollo, should I offer you guys something to eat or drink? I know you don't need to but I guess I have nothing to do."
Apollo chuckled, "You can. Those dead-tired mages," he said while pointing to Ling and Ren slumped on the sofa of the drawing room. "They need something to replenish their lost mana. Yes, we can get mana from the surroundings, thereby making us full. But the mana around us is still charged hence, we can't absorb it in our systems."
My mouth probably formed a huge black hole from that information but I don't care. I need to learn more so that I can help them. "So, what food should I give to replenish their mana?"
"Anything that contains it."
My brows furrowed in confusion, "How do I know that?"
"Let's go to the kitchen. I'll show you."
We went to kitchen and took out some vegetables and meat.
"This could be easier if I teach you how to absorb mana from the surroundings but seeing our predicament right now, this would suffice. Have you tried absorbing mana from the surrounding?"
I shook my head. This was a first for me really. Ren and Cellon failed to talk about this to me.
"Just reach out to your magical spirit and ask if it can help you with it. Close your eyes. When you do this frequently, it would be like second nature to you."
I followed his instructions and sought out my sword. The sword circled me and then I opened my eyes. Now I can see the air, I observed it was all in purple.
"What do you see?" Apollo asked.
"Everything is purple," I said breathlessly. I was mesmerized. "But there are small orbs of other colors, blue, red, something."
"Yes, that purple one is the lightning magic. Those other colors are for others. Do you see a white one?"
I squinted my eyes and looked around. "Nothing."
"That white one is the one we are looking for, mana," Apollo said which snapped me to look back at him.
He was enveloped in white and red. But what he said confused me. "Mana? What is the difference of mana and magic really?"
"Magic, is the physical manifestation of nature - lightning, fire, water, ice, wind, etc. Mana, on the other hand, is the energy we and all living things need to harness the magic present in the air. If you are capable of absorbing mana, you can harness the magic you have an affinity with present in the air.
"That's why, only a handful of individuals can use magic because not all people can absorb mana. It's in their genes and probably luck or fate."
"So where did the mana go?"
"Charged and transformed into lightning magic. Because Sylvia failed to control her magical spirit in absorbing mana due to the wild lightning magic, the mana present in the air reacted to Sylvia's need of mana to harness the magic. The magic affected the tame mana making it charged. This is a phenomenon only applicable to lightning mages."
A price for harnessing the most powerful magic. "Okay, another question. Why do mages experience mana depletion if mana is present in the air?"
"Because mana is limited in a certain area. The more mages use their magic, the more mana is used in the area. Those who have very shallow mana pools tend to get depleted faster than those with deep wells since they can absorb more. The depth of your mana pool determines the amount of mana you can absorb.
"Agrissi and all other magical cities are gigantic, physical mana pools. But even if it can provide so much mana, the amount of production cannot compensate the amount used during the attack yesterday."
"How is mana produced?"
Apollo smiled, "That is a mystery we are trying to solve, also. Many mages studied about it but came empty-handed. You see, although mana can be depleted, it would still come back in a certain time. Do you see our surroundings? There are small white orbs floating around. We don't know how, when and where the mana comes but it is there, slowly slipping inside the magical orbs. Though plants and some types of rocks are found to produce mana, it is still very little."
I'm suddenly feeling nauseated of this overload of information but I got the gist of it. I looked at Apollo and asked one last question before my brain would explode, "How do you find your mana pool?"
"Oh? You didn't see it?"
My curiosity perked, "Where? I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention."
Apollo chuckled, "When you called your magical spirit, didn't you see it rise up from a white pool or something? That is your mana pool."
"I'm sorry," I asked apprehensively, fearing that I do not have one. "I didn't see it rise up from some pool or well or lake or something. Everything around the sword was pure white."
Apollo's jaw dropped. My fear now rising, I urged him to answer, "What?"
He recovered and smiled with a shake of his head, "Now that is what you called blessed by mana. Someone who has an endless supply of mana, a bottomless well. No wonder your hair is pure white."
It was my turn to get shocked. It was connected to my hair? "So you're saying is that I am rich with mana and that is the reason why my hair turned white? But there are brown streaks in it."
"The brown is your magic while the white is your mana absorption ability. Now that I see you, you are enveloped in a bright white aura with some brown in it."
"Oh! So that's why I can see yours with red and white. Red is for fire magic!" I laughed, somehow understanding of the magical world was clearing things up for me.
I looked down at the vegetables I was holding and noticed that the cabbage was enveloped with mana. A recipe forming now in mind.
"Thank you Apollo, for teaching me about it."
"My pleasure, Nina. Now come, let's prepare them food."