I walked up to those glowing particles and tried to touch them but they just slid around my hand, almost dancing around it.
"You can't touch it" Lucy said as she walked behind me.
"Mana is intangible in the normal way, it can be seen and felt but it can't be touched" she held out her hand and unlike mine, the mana started to move rhythmically around her and eventually got absorbed into her hand. The very next moment, the mana came out again. Moving in an orderly fashion, like a choreographed dance, unlike the disorderly and random one like mine.
"How can I see all this?" I asked in surprise.
"Well most of it was a risk, I imbued you with some of the mana in me and directed it to your eyes. If my hypothesis of you not having a mana limit was true, you would be dead since you have never used magic before so your mana already was at a limit" she said in a half-hearted apologetic tone with a smile that forced you to forgive.
"So if normal humans absorb too much mana then they die...also why couldn't you do the same thing you just did with your healing factor" I asked, many questions popping into my mind.
"Well, humans just can't absorb any more mana than their limits, the only way they can is for someone to forcefully imbue them with it, something that humans themselves are incapable of. If someone were to do it, the receiver would literally die from the inside out as the pure energy would be too much for them to handle. As for your second question, the mana I just gave you is the type I can control, my healing factor is something I was born with... it's a passive ability that I have no control over, that is why I literally I had to give you a part of me for it to transfer, maybe you didn't like it, I thought I was a good kisser" she said as she winked.
Blood rushed to my face as I blushed hard.
"Guess you didn't hate it after all...that makes me glad" she continued.
I got even redder as she smiled mischievously.
"Can I do all this too then? controlling mana?" I asked once the embarrassment wore off.
"Well the fact that you can see mana in the first place probably means you can" she said as she grabbed my hand.
"Close your eyes and relax and listen to what I say" she continued.
I did as she told me and closed my eyes.
"Now open your mind to all that is around you and imagine the sight you were seeing just before, where all the mana was, the colour, what they were doing"
I imagined the scenery that was in front of me, the green mana around the leaves, the blue ones around the water, moving disorderly.
"Now this will sound weird, but you need to call the mana towards you, but you cannot force it to do so, you have to request it like a friend. Some of the colours will not budge no matter how much you ask them to, while others will freely enter" she continued.
With my eyes still closed I beckoned the mana to come to me, thinking what I would say to it if it was my friend, like companions catching up. My fingertips tingled slightly but to no avail, neither the green nor the blue moved from their place. I waited for a few minutes but still, nothing happened.
"umm nothing is happening, the blue mana nor the green mana were moving" I said eventually.
"Hmm, concentrate completely on this. The colours of the mana are essentially the elements associated with it, blue for water, green for earth and nature...but there are other elements too, keep concentration and feel around you. Mana of all elements exist everywhere" she said, still holding my hand, albeit a bit tighter.
I did as she said and moved my concentration elsewhere, eventually, I felt a hot red-coloured mana near the fire from the torches lining the arena and a light bluish mana from the sky above me, floating freely like the air.
I tried calling out to it again, my eyes closed shut with force as I concentrated but even this was to no avail. After trying for a few minutes I was about to give up but I sensed something else in the vicinity. A shiny pure white mana that was unlike any other intermingling with all the other types flowing freely everywhere. I called out to it and suddenly its movement froze, but it still stood still. I called it closer to me like I would a child. For a few seconds, nothing happened but eventually, the white mana crawled its way towards my hand. As I moved my fingertips so did the mana, like a woven string but still disorderly.
I beckoned it to move into my hand just like Lucy did, it was a bit apprehensive at first but as it got absorbed in my body I was enveloped with a warm feeling in my hand, I could feel it dancing and humming inside me. I told it to come out once again and this time. probably from being fully accustomed to me, it readily agreed.
"I did it, I can feel it now!!" I said ecstatically.
I felt a grip on my hand get tighter as I looked at Lucy, she was smiling widely. Happiness emanating from her. I had never felt someone so genuinely happy for someone else.
"I know, I could see....congratulations, you have taken the first step towards learning magic. But to be be honest I am so happy for another reason" she said.
"What?" I asked.
"There is a element of mana that in only a few have been able to use. They appear only once in generations, I have that ability and thought that I would never meet someone the same as me but her you are, almost as if fate itself willed it into existence. Using this element as if you have been doing so for your entire life" she said as tears welled in the corner of her eyes.
"The mana you and I use is called light mana, the purest form there is"