The next day has arrived. This time Ana and Astra were sleeping on their own beds. They didn't accidentally sleep in mine. I got up and went to prepare a simple breakfast. However when I got to the kitchen Ana and Astra were already there. In fact they were already cooking something. I couldn't tell what they were cooking, but they were so focused on it that they didn't notice my entry. I am glad they trust me this much, but they should still keep some form of vigilance in case something unexpected happens.
"What are you cooking? It smells good." I say when they finally notice me.
"Oh we were just preparing a simple breakfast. It isn't anything to fancy right Ana."
"Yeah. Sylvi has always been cooking for us so we decided we should cook for once."
"Thanks for that. I am fine preparing the meals, but it is nice to get a break once in a while."
"Yep so just wait for our stew to be done. You'll love it when you try it Sylvain."
"I'll guess we'll see about that." I say as I head back to the dining room. I then sit down in the dining room while I wait for them to finish the cooking. I am feeling restless though with nothing to do. As such I set the table with bowls since they were making stew. Even though I say bowls they are mismatched and lopsided. Even though all this time has passed, I still suck at making clay articles. The good thing though is that they work. If they didn't work, creating them would be worthless.
Ana and Astra have also tried making clay articles, but they are just as bad, or even worse than me. In the end we kept the better of the creations, but they are still pretty horrible. The one thing that I still have trouble understanding is how I can be so precise when creating magic circles, but so horrible when sculpting clay. It should be the same core principles, but I just suck at clay sculpting.
Well that doesn't really matter though. As long as it works it works. After setting the table I wait for the stew to be done. It is soon done and they bring the stew over to the table. Of course they are in their human forms. They had to be otherwise they wouldn't have been able to cook. Once the stew is brought over and they are finished serving themselves they turn back into their fox forms. We then begin eating the stew, and it is honestly good. It isn't the best thing I have ever eaten, but it is up there.
While we are eating Ana asks, "so when are we going to be testing our mana links."
"I guess we can test them today. I have finished both dismantling the bodies and creating the spell. I guess it is better to do it now than put it off any later."
"Yeah let's do it sylvi. So how are we testing and who's going first."
"Like I said earlier I will try to use simple spells through your mana. I guess Ana would go first since water isn't that destructive. Make sure to tell me if anything hurts while we are doing this."
"Okay then sylvi."
With that said I then close my eyes. I find that closing my eyes helps me feel the link between us. It is like their are three lines connecting each of us. Maybe we can even use this to track each other, but those tests can come later. I try my best to ignore the link connecting me and Astra and only focus on the one connecting me and Ana. Once that is down I try to move her mana through the link. It comes smoothly to me and begins to circulate within me. Once that is done I chant the simple water ball spell.
"O spell of water come forth as a ball to douse my opponent."
Once the chant is done with a ball of water appears. It flies in a straight line and hits the wall of the cave. There isn't much power to it so it just breaks against the wall and makes the wall wet. With this we have proved that the link works and it doesn't cause many problems when using another's mana.
"Do you feel okay Ana? Anything feel different?" I still ask these questions just to be sure.
"I'm fine sylvi. The only difference is I have a little less mana when you used the spell. However, that got immediately replenished."
"This is good then. It seems like there is no problem sharing mana through the link. We still have to check with Astra though."
"Go ahead, but I think the same thing will happen."
"Okay." I say as I once again close my eyes. This time I focus on the link between me and Astra. I then move Astra's mana through the link into my body. I circulate the mana within me for a little bit as I chant the fireball spell.
"O spell of fire come forth as a ball to burn my opponents."
With this a fireball is formed and goes in a straight line. It follows the same trajectory as the water ball and hits the wall of the cave. However when it does it creates a loud sound. Fire starts spreading all over the place. The force of the blast even shakes the cave causing some rocks to fall. I am closest to the epicenter of the blast so I suffer from burns. Above me a big rock gets dislodged from the ceiling and falls. It hits me in the head while I am still recovering from the loud sound and knocks me out. I wake up in my bed. Ana and Astra are by my side taking care of me.
"What happened?"
"Sylvain, you're awake. Lie down since you're still recovering."
"Again what happened? And why do I have a splitting headache."
"You were testing our mana link. Remember that sylvi?"
"Yeah, but what happened that caused me to be injured."
"When you tried using a fireball it shook the entire cave. This caused a large rock to get dislodged from the ceiling and hit you on the head. You're lucky it just knocked you out."
"Oh I guess I am. Thanks for dragging me back into bed."
"Your welcome sylvi, but what caused that explosion."
"My only guess would be the elements. My wind mana combined with Astra fire mana. They complemented each other and allowed the fireball to have a bigger effect. A regular fireball wouldn't be that damaging so that has to be it."
"If that's the case then why didn't our mana also combine?"
"No, I think that our mana did combine. The only difference though is the opposite happened. instead of complementing each other they interfered with each other. This caused the water spell to be weaker than typical. I just thought it was weaker due to me using your mana."
"So that's cool and all, but what would happen if I used Ana's mana. We are linked so their is that possibility."
"I would have to guess that your elements would completely interfere with each other canceling out the spell. In other words you will only be able to borrow my mana."
"So we would be able to use your spells?"
"Probably not Ana since the mana would be mixed. You might be able to, but the effects would surely be different."
"What would change then Sylvain?"
"I honestly have no idea. The only thing we can do is test it out ourselves and see."
"But won't we cause another explosion if I borrow your mana."
"I think we would be fine if we limited the mana used. With your control that should be easy."
"Okay then, but Ana should go first since she won't be able to damage anything."
"Okay then here I go. I'll try to use sylvi's hiding spell then. O spell of wind flow around my body to hide myself."
While she said the spell I could feel my mana being used even though I wasn't using it. It was like I was moving, but not controlling myself. It felt really weird, but that feeling didn't last for long. The spell had definitely been invoked, yet the amount of mana used was half of what it would be normally. I guess that confirms that the mana is being mixed. It seems like the exact ratio is half and half. I might be able to change this ratio with more practice. It might also be possible to share from Ana and Astra simultaneously, but that remains to be seen.
Anyways even though the spell has been invoked, Ana is still visible, however it is harder to see her. She also seems to be covered in a thin fog. It seems like when using the spell the wind mana composes most of it while the water mana helps. I guess this effect is due to the fact that the spell is a wind spell. Maybe using dual elements will help balance out the spell composition, or make the spell easier to use. However many people have tried using dual elements before, but haven't been able to do it. The best they have done was used to separate spells and combine them after they have formed. I guess this method could also work, but that would defeat the whole purpose of this connection.
"So am I doing it right. Am I invisible to you."
"No Ana, I can still see you. I think Sylvain can as well. You are harder to see and surrounded by fog, but you can still be seen."
"Ah and I thought that I would be able to go invisible and have some fun."
"Well it seems like you can use my mana. I also figured out that the mana mixed is half and half. Half of it is mine and half of it is yours. Also it seems like the spell composition is more highly skewed to wind mana meaning the water mana is an added effect. I can guess the same thing will happen to Astra if you use a wind spell."
"I guess I'll try the same thing then so we can be sure. O spell of wind flow around my body to hide myself."
Once again that weird sensation assaulted me. I was prepared for it this time though so I wasn't as affected. Even though I was prepared for it, it still was strange to have my mana moving without my control. The mana used was once again half of what that spell would normally use.
A similar thing happens to when Ana used the spell. Astra became harder to see, but was visible. Since there was no water being used there was no fog. However there were heat waves being emitted. They distorted the air having basically the same effect as the fog.
"Interesting. It seems like we will have similar results when using different mana, expect that the secondary effect would correspond to the other mana mixed in."
"Why didn't we have a similar effect when we used the water ball and fireball."
"Good question Astra. I would have to guess that it's because the spells are different from each other. The water ball spell gave me a water ball with the secondary effect of wind. The fireball spell gave me a fireball with a secondary effect of wind as well. Their primary effects were different since they used different mana, while their secondary effects were the same. It's just that the fireball was more compatible with the secondary effect."
"I don't really understand that, sylvi."
"Well I don't know how to explain it any better. We still have other spells to test so let's get on with it."
As such we continued to test the remainder of the wind spells that I had created and found some interesting things. The reinforcement spell created a secondary effect of fire or water coating the body. The spell sword had the secondary effect of the guard of the sword being composed of water or fire. The mana drain spell didn't seem to really change that much. Maybe the speed increased or decreased, but other than that there were no noticeable effects. The detection spell sent out a pulse of water or fire that would attack after the detection was done. The wind blade and breeze were actually similar to the water and fire ball fired earlier. It was interesting to find all of this out.
"So now that we are done testing are you finally going to create a new spell using our mana."
"Yeah I'm gonna try, but I'm not gonna make it today. There have already been too many explosions. Even with the barrier, I don't want to take any chances. As such I will spend a couple of days making a spell so that I can guess all of its effects. I'm also planning on trying out dual elements to see if it can be done. If I can use dual elements in one spell then that will open up more options and make new spells more predictable."
"Okay then Sylvain. We'll just be working on the extra room again. Thankfully all these explosions have helped me expand the room. We just need to expand it some more and polish it up."
"Alright good luck with that."
As such I then left the room. They went back to digging out the new room while I went back into my room. There I immediately began to think of a new spell. I wanted a healing spell so I would focus on the water. Let me first start with a basic spell before trying to integrate dual elements. To make the healing efficient I would want the spell to cover or envelop. Since it will be covering me the shape would be my body. The spell is going to be healing so that is the action and myself would be the ending. All in all the spell would be "o spell of water cover my body to heal myself."
If I was using this spell with only water mana then I would be sure that it would work properly. However I am not only using water mana so I have to try and guess what the secondary effect would be. There is no clear connection between the spells and their secondary effects. The only thing worthy of note is that the secondary effect seems to focus more on direction with the spell sword and mana drain spell being the only outliers. So following that logic the secondary effect should have something to do with covering.
Wait why am I even trying to guess its secondary effect? Didn't I say u was going to try to use dual elements? I was giving up before I had even started. Rethinking my efforts I begin to focus on how to use dual elements. I would love it to be as simple as, O spell of wind and water, but if it was that easy then many people would be able to figure that out. Maybe I can try something similar to the spell sword and use two commands. The difference is that one of the commands would be to combine with the wind. Yeah this just might work. I have already created a spell that uses two commands so I can base it off that.
The spell sword goes "o spell of wind, form from my hands a mighty blade that follows my movements to destroy my enemies." So maybe something like "o spell of water, combine with the wind to cover my body and heal myself." Yes I really think that this will work. While we are at it let's make a fire spell too. I want it to be destructive and long lasting. The most destructive and long lasting thing I know of is a tornado. Mom and dad have told me many stories about them, but I have never actually seen one myself.
I wonder why I have never thought to replicate a tornado with magic. I guess I never wanted any real destructive spells. Well anyways a tornado mostly consisted of wind from what I've been told. In this case I would like the tornado to be made of fire with the wind assisting it. So something like "o spell of fire, combine with the wind as a tornado that comes forth to burn my enemies." This spell also seems like it will work as well. I can't wait to test them out and see.