Jason lay there unable to move for some time before finally forcing himself up. His calf still burned, but he had done everything that he could do. He limped towards where he was pretty sure Vanya and Nora had been left, he didn't go far before he hit his foot against a small box on the ground.
Wincing in pain, he leaned over to take a look at what he had stumbled upon. He was alarmed to find that it had the same chrome finish as the tiger he had just fought. This box wouldn't call the tiger back would it? He was certain that he wouldn't be able to replicate what he had done last time.
He had probably been much luckier than he cared to admit, landing on the tiger like he had on the first try, and he had no delusions that he could replicate the feat easily. Fortunately, the box didn't change shape or light up or even move for that matter. Surely if it was dangerous it would have been set off when he kicked it, right?
He bent down to get a better look at it, and was amazed at what he found. What had looked like a simple metal box, was actually covered in incredibly intricate, delicate looking markings and engravings. Just like the tiger, it looked far more advanced than anything this world should have been able to create.
He picked it up, and nearly dropped it when he felt it vibrating ever so slightly. Was there something inside of it? He lifted the lid, curiosity trumping his survival instincts which hadn't been particularly strong lately anyway.
Inside, was what could only be described as some kind of control panel. It was rudimentary to be sure, but it couldn't be anything else. There was one lever in the middle with two smaller dials flanking it on either side. There were no markings to be seen.
The box was small enough that he probably would just barely be able to fit his fingers inside to turn the dials. He reached out to do just that, but stopped himself. That was probably too risky, even for him. He hadn't yet recovered even a fraction of the mana that he now knew he could hold, and he was injured besides.
He placed the box carefully into a large pocket on the front of his vest and kept looking for his companions. It didn't take him long to find Vanya's massive form still sprawled against a tree. Her red and purple skin made it easy to make her out through the overgrown bushes. Nora was just a few feet to her right. Neither of them was moving, but he noticed that their eyes had closed.
He felt their pulses again just to make certain, but what then? He didn't know what to do next and the sparrow's disappearance was growing more disturbing.
Jason had made quite a bit of noise in the fight, but they were quite far from any farms or villages, so they would be fine right? He left Vanya and Nora lying where they were and hid the box he had found in the brush beside them, walking back to where they had entered the trees.
He looked out carefully, trying to stay hidden just in case, but he didn't see anyone else. That didn't necessarily mean that there was nobody there, but he was slightly more confident knowing that he could at least use some magic if he needed to.
He stepped out of the trees and was almost immediately struck by the same thing that he had felt when Vanya had collapsed. He felt like he had been hit in the gut, though it wasn't nearly as powerful this time.
Still, he reeled at the blow, causing him to trip on his bad leg and fall to the ground. Lying right in front of him on the ground, barely moving, was the sparrow.
Jason scooped up the bird in his hands. "What the hell happened to you, are you ok?"
He was so alarmed that it wasn't until the sparrow spoke that he noticed that his mana had disappeared. He was left with the same amount he had had before any of this happened. What he now realized was the tiniest fraction of his actual mana capacity.
"You must have triggered a mana mine," the sparrow said in his head. Her voice sounded faint, like she was struggling to even get the words out.
"What is a mana mine, and why would it affect you? I thought you were some version of a god!" The sparrow was barely breathing in his hand. It was strange that her physical condition was affecting her apparent cognitive abilities so much.
"I may have underestimated my own existence," she said slowly. "I knew that we were tied together, but I did not realize…"
"Didn't realize what? Are you dying? What can I do to help you?"
"Jason I am sorry," she said.
She was sorry? "What's going on?"
"Mana mine's are magical objects that are used to incapacitate anyone that walks into them. Their mana is sucked away in an instant and more is slowly drained over time leaving them in a catatonic state."
"So why wasn't I affected?" Jason asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"The mine must have gotten confused and sent the mana sustaining me back to you."
Jason didn't know how to react. "The mana sustaining you back to me…"
He only had a tiny fraction of that overwhelming strength he had tasted because the sparrow was using ALL of that mana? "How is that even possible? You're just a tiny bird, there's no way that you could need that much mana. Besides," he said, "I thought that you used your own mana."
"We are connected so…"
"If that was something you were implying then don't you think you could have made it a little bit more clear?" Jason had put so much effort into trying to get along with her, and now this? "You knew why I couldn't use my mana this whole time and you never said anything?"
"I did not know for sure, so…"
"So you didn't even mention that it might be a possibility?" Every time he felt like he was getting close to some kind of understanding with her, something else would come up. "I don't know how you could just not think that that was worth mentioning. I mean it worked out this time somehow, but what if it hadn't?"
The sparrow didn't respond, but Jason didn't really care. At first, he had thought that maybe the sparrow was some kind of AI. She had been so focused on him going to the capital and fighting the hero. Even given that the only information that he had really had on this world came from the sparrow, it had still seemed like a monumentally stupid idea, and everything he had learned since then had only reinforced that.
But then she had seemingly admitted as much to him, and he had been forced to change his judgment. She had shown obvious hesitation and deliberation, and had even followed it up by agreeing with him.
If she had been a headstrong computer program before, then she was a chastened child now and…He paused, an idea forming. "What did you say about the mine again?"
"It is a magical object…"
"Not that," Jason interrupted. "The next part. You said the mine got confused."
"Yes, it likely did not know what to do with an existence like mine."
He thought back to the tiger he had fought earlier. It had fought him like he would expect a video game boss to fight. It used the same basic attacks without much variation, and even though it had reacted fairly well to most of what Jason had done, it had completely given up when Jason did something it hadn't been expecting. "The automaton and mine are both programmed," he realized.
"Programmed?" the sparrow asked.
"Well, I mean, it's probably something slightly different done with magic here, but basically they just work using the instructions that they already have."
The sparrow blinked its eyes at him. "How else would it work?" she asked hesitantly.
"Nevermind," Jason said, not wanting to go to the work of explaining something that he'd never be able to describe properly. "It just helps me understand it. So you're saying that the mine hadn't been told what to do if it encountered something like you, so it got confused and just left the mana you were using out there for me to reabsorb?"
"I think so," she said. It was difficult to tell if she was confused or just too weak to put any strength in her voice. That or she still felt ashamed from before.
"That would explain why you're so weak now too," he realized. "I used up so much mana fighting that tiger thing that…"
"Tiger thing?" the sparrow asked suddenly.
"Yeah there was a weird metal robot that I fought and…"
"You fought a guardian?!" she said in utter disbelief. "Guardians are supposed to be all but impossible to destroy, especially since you can't use energy magic."
"I didn't actually destroy it," Jason said, feeling better about himself than he had in a while. "I outsmarted it's programming."
The sparrow didn't have an answer to that. She shakily struggled to her feet, and looked up at him. "I do not know much about the guardians, but if you did manage to survive one then you should consider yourself lucky."
Jason considered asking how she knew so much about these mana mines and guardians, but decided against it. She probably wouldn't have a good answer anyway. He had to move past all of that despite how frustrated he was feeling.
"We'll talk about this more later," he warned. "But for now we need to find a way to help Vanya and Nora. How do I turn this mana mine thing off?"
"You will have to find the physical mine itself, and deactivate it."
"And you wouldn't happen to know how I could do that would you?"
"There will be a central lever that will deactivate it. The dial on the right will adjust the area of effect and the one on the left will…" She trailed off as Jason's gaze drifted off into the distance.
There was a rider coming from upriver straight towards him.