Going towards the clearing someone suddenly bumps into him, jolting him from his thoughts. Looking down, he finds a girl with short brown hair that fades into a light silver at the tips. Her eyes widen in surprise, and she stumbles back a step and falls to the floor.
"Ouch!" The girl exclaims, rubbing her back.
Time slows as Cipher's gaze locks on the girl in front of him. Her small, firm frame is hunched slightly as she rubs her sore backside from the fall, but when she turns to meet his eyes, something unusual happens. For the briefest moment, the lines of mana around her ripple, fluctuating in a way he's never seen before. It only lasts a second, but it's unmistakable.
He's never been able to see the mana around anyone—not even his own. Yet here, with this girl, the energy ripples outward from her in soft waves, not drawing into her body as it usually does, but radiating as if she's generating her mana, or... something else. The sight leaves him puzzled.
