Mrs. Flitcroft had told me about how soldiers had seen mana flow from both my eyes when I was fighting Gale, but now for some reason, only my right eye pooled any mana at all and it wasn't flowing out of my eye either, it just changed the color of the iris and gave it an ethereal glow when enough mana had accumulated.
" I don't know", I shrugged at her.
"I have never seen mana flow from one's eyes before. I have seen mana pool off someone's body flowing out from the skin but this is the first time that I have seen any sort of mana spillage from one's eyes, "She said casually as she continued to stare.
"How can I learn to control this... anger, this "mana" as you say it is!" I asked the Mage.
"I can recommend you to the civilian academy at the capital and they can teach you to control your magic if you want a peaceful life, but in my opinion I want you to seriously consider joining the Mount Spire military academy! "She said with excitement in her eyes. "you have great potential and with our kingdom at war, we need every asset that we can get our hands on! so far it has only been small villages and towns burned by the surprise attacks all along the border with the Empire of Slate, but that's just the beginning."
"The beginning?" I asked hoping to get more information on what was happening with our kingdom and what they were doing to stop another tragedy from happening like what happened at my village!
"Yes, our army must gather and prepare for the campaign ahead as it will be a very long war, both countries are vast and have been preparing for war for a few years now, this is just the beginning." she re-iterated at me.
"Enough about war boy." she spoke with kindness in her eyes, "I know the cruel circumstances of your situation and I truly want to help and as a fellow mage I can tell you that you have great potential but, will you make use of it is my question?"
You are at a crossroads in your life and you must choose one or the other, will you only learn to control your mana, or will you learn to fully utilize it for your kingdom and participate in the war after you have been trained?
"Do not rush to a decision boy, if you choose to come with me back to Mount Spire we will turn you into a potent weapon that you can point at the hearts of those who took your mother away," she said
Clearly, she wanted me to join the military. As Mrs Flitcroft said, they are always looking for more strategic assets that can be committed to the defence of the kingdom.
Bringing up my mother was a bit of a low blow, I thought angrily as once again orange started to creep back down my hair. I quickly tried to reign in my anger when the commander raised a single imperious eyebrow at me, as I didn't want to get my ass kicked yet again I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing till the mana receded inside me once again.
"Please do not bring up my mother." she was all I had left in this world and I didn't want her memory to be used to get me to do what the commander truly wanted.
If I went to a civilian academy I would be wasting the not so inconsiderable potential inside me she thought, so she stooped low enough to try to force my answer when I was slightly unstable.
I wasn't mad, I could see from where she sat that she truly thought the military would be best for me.
she may have attacked me with no warning but in her eyes was only compassion and kindness. she knew it wasn't easy to lose the only thing in this world that brought joy to me and she wanted to channel my anger and my magic talent to a more constructive outlet then mear "control".
"let me think on it please, as you said, this is an important crossroads that will decide my life ahead of me, and rushing my decision is the worst thing I can do right now," I said to her as I got up and bowed from the waist slightly in her direction.
"You have all day to think on it Bruni, I leave back for Mount Spire in the morning she said as I started to straighten myself again.
Commander Harriot stood up and walked back into the manor to talk to the only other mage in this village that had seen what the boy had done and could describe it better than other mundanes could.
Once inside Commander Harriot met Mrs Flitcroft inside and they went to the offices next to the library to talk about how the assessment went with Bruni. Mrs Flitcroft had watched the test from a window overlooking the yard and though the women had been too harsh on the newly healed and unstable Mageling, it was not her place to question a military officer so she stayed quiet on the matter.
"Do you want to know why I pushed the boy as hard as I did Mrs Flitcroft?' Commander Harriot asked.
"Please, call me Anne, and yes I do want to know why you pushed the boy", she said with concern in her eyes as she didn't want to offend the mage.
"Fire mages are slightly different than light mages. you focus on control because one small step while healing an internal injury could be disastrous for the patient and for the other aspect of light magic you have to control the illusions you create as best you can to make them look as real as you can." she lectured
Fire mages do need control, but they also need more than that. They need to be able to use those emotions to channel even more power into magical applications." The commander explained as she sipped tea that Anne had placed in front of her during the explanation.
"A fire mage that has excellent control of their emotions will always be moderately weaker than those that are controlled by emotions, that is why I attacked him without warning. I needed his emotions to flow through him so I could gauge his potential mana sensitivity.