"Mercy came to me this morning and made me drink this while you were talking with the children down below. Mercy came with this blood, he drank it raw and unprocessed in front of me and nothing happened to him." River explained.
"How does that relate to you making me a test subject for this experiment?" Ana could sense the voice in Arya's words and Reva'x expression was angry too.
"Well, if you don't know, blood also has different types. One type of blood cannot consume the other unless it has the right digestive system or the consumer dies or suffers from problems in most cases, but Mercy showed no problem like that."
River took his seat beside Ana, he was looking quite enthusiastic to explain everything. Ana was a bit surprised too.
"I refined the blood a bit and it did result in some unnatural effects from normal animal or human blood. The one thing was the blood was getting solid instead of becoming liquid as it should be."
"A lot has been put to the test, Mercy drank this and nothing happened to him. I drank it and got the taste of berries and some needles on my back, still we needed to know what were the consequences of drinking this without having much affinity with mana."
"What's where I come in? Using me like a human subject to test your most dangerous experiments." Arya was looking at River with angry eyes.
"Also, We were sure you wouldn't die. If anyone would have died, Mercy would have been the only victim of his blood experiments, but he is sitting well and alive." River added his apart,
"Okay, to summarise everything, Mercy somehow got his hands on some vampire lord's blood and realises that the vampire uses a whole other system of power than anything else in the world and a lethal experiment on himself to test it." Mercy nodded at Reva's summary.
"Books of the past have great power, just try to sit and decode them. You will learn a lot more than you think. I found out one of the grandest secrets of this world using a book anyone can read" Mercy concluded.
"Enough of that already. I think we need to talk about what you have planned for each of us." Arya pushed the topic to the other point. Cleaning the last bit of blood with a napkin on his face.
Mercy took the ball full of blood vials from River and placed them on the table.
"There are different things the three of you will need to pull in the next two weeks. You will need to make mana your second nature and refine something so that we will be able to face the warlord of Uro. The first step is the same for the three of you, drink this potion of blood every day."
Gulp
Arya visibly shook thinking he had to drink that again, everybody in the room knew that too.
"Don't worry, Arya. It is going to be far worse than you think. Each dose you take will be more potent in mana than the day before. I've made River refine that for you."
Arya took a scared look at River and he replied with a smile. Creeping Arya further, "I am going to die in agony." He thought to himself.
"Now, come to your goals and how you will achieve them. Who wants their part first?" Mercy glanced at the table.
"Wait, is River only going to refine blood and nothing else?" Reva asked.
"He will drink it too, and increasing blood refinement is far harder than running up three miles up and down a mountain, or pressing triggers. Take my word for it." Mercy shut up Reva for good.
"Since nobody is raising their hands. I think we will go for Anastasia first." Ana readied herself to listen while River was also paying attention.
"Your goal is to derive what magic can come from mana. I want to know what you can do and what you cannot use. And your biggest target is to create a healing spell."
The atmosphere on the table changed to something else when Mercy announced her goal.
"Can you say that again?" Ana asked in perplexity.
"I am sure you heard me, your main goal is to create a wound-healing spell. Salazar has mentioned in his book that blue can heal the essence of the wound, while aura can't. You need to read a lot of texts and figure out how it can be done." Mercy placed it ahead of her smoothly.
"Mercy, do you think I am Salazar Avis? Don't demand absurdity from me. It's like you're going into the kingdom and killing all the warlords right now. No matter if you are skilled, some things require time." Ana tried explaining.
"River also needs time to complete his blood refinement, but he will give you a new vial of blood each morning for the next two weeks. I think you need to measure up to him in that respect." Mercy continued.
"You people don't understand how close you are to mana in your lives if you can figure out what is all around you and control it one bit. Each step after that will be a cool summer breeze, the first achievement is the hardest."
"Refining blood and magic manipulation are different…. Leave it." Ana had to take it, making the spell never achieved by any mages before in two weeks. Things weren't going to be easy for her, the stress was already piling up.
"Why isn't there a healing spell yet? People always use elemental transformation, why are healing spells impossible to make?" Arya asked.
"Because wind and water are simple things. They are made of unfathomable small things, but in the bigger picture, they are just one thing over in large amounts. Aura is focused on changing it from one thing to another, but human skin is far more complex." Ana took a glass of water.
"A 'All healing' spell isn't possible, because the thing which can heal skin cannot remove poison from your veins and heal wounds which are internal like cramps, how to fix them? It is better to create something that helps the body heal like cold water for a poisoned wound and sand for burning bodies." Ana finished explaining and Arya nodded his head.
"Now, I think we can jump to our second candidate, Arya. You need to drink this the most, if you have courage and willpower maybe drink 2 a day, since you are so away from it."Mercy looked at Arya's lousy yet sturdy face trying to push a tough front.
"Your training will be simple, run 15 miles, then 25 minutes of meditation in the forest and finally, you need a bath in the river water and practice spells with Anastasia. Become more one in nature." Mercy finished his words.
Arya could only nod the prospect, tomorrow was going to get worse. Also, in all the pain he hadn't noticed the mana was invisible to him once more. He looked at his eyes in the glass mirror and his pupils were black once again.
"Now, for Reva. I think I want to keep this private."
"..." The group started at Reva and Mercy with suspicious eyes. Arya looked a little desperate.
"What are you people looking at? I said it needs to be private. Mana deals with a lot of things, one of them is vision and body-"
Arya saw Reva tense the moment Mercy uttered the word 'vision', it was about the silver eyes Mercy was sure.
"I hope you understand that not all things can be said in public, only if Reva consents." Mercy raised his hand to Reva.
"No, I would like to keep this private between me and Mercy. If he doesn't want to say it out loud that it means something." Reva answered immediately.
"Well, I and Reva need to go outside and discuss our plans. There is a lot that will happen today. So, any more questions from anyone who isn't Reva?"
"Yes." Arya spoke up, "Where is all this blood coming from? Like vials for 21 days like you have a barrel full of vampire lord blood lying around."
"Well, that is not me to explain. I believe you haven't properly seen our couple's special room." Mercy turned to River, "I hope you can forgive the old fight and give him a bit of room tour?"
River nodded in response.
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