With a bit of effort to send blood to his eyes, Prana Vision activated at its fullest. He turned his sight inward, trying to figure a way past his most recent dilemma. Talents that required anything to do with his legs were almost natural. He only wished Riyan had forewarned him about the backlash. His body did not appreciate being flung at high speed like that. Whenever he used his Talents, he ended up sore and aching for the rest of the day.
It turned out his proficiency didn’t translate to his upper body. Attempting to push the prana through his legs up into his arms failed—the supersaturated prana merely dissipated into his bloodstream as it traveled upward.
He’d soon learned that his blood had a level of saturation it liked to stay at. He could temporarily push more prana into his blood, supersaturating it, but it never wanted to stay at that level for long. And with the limited prana reserves in the ground, he had to be strategic about how much he practiced with it, and where.
Vir left the bath a full hour later, refreshed, but no closer to breaking through his issues regarding arm-based Talents. All he could think about now was his bed, fully ready for sleep to take him. After drying off and donning his nightgown, he snuck through the door of the bedroom he shared with Maiya, careful not to wake her at this late hour.
His concern was unwarranted. His friend sat in a lotus position on the floor, eyes closed, her face scrunched in intense concentration as a glowing orb sat in front of her.
Such dedication, he thought. He couldn’t recall a single time she’d shown this much effort for anything before. Scratch that… she stayed up all night baking me a cake.
It was after he’d taken a seat opposite her that he noticed her breathing pattern—irregular, and downright weird. She’d inhale sharply through her nose, sucking in her stomach, then inhale again in quick succession before exhaling and repeating the process.
It was especially interesting because whatever she was doing seemed to move the prana within her body in unusual ways. He couldn’t quite place what was different, only that her technique was affecting her prana.
He continued to stare at her, mesmerized by the flow of her prana, completely failing to notice her twitching eyebrows.
“Vir,” she said, keeping her eyes closed.
“Hi, Maiya.”
“What are you doing?”
“Watching you.”
She exhaled and opened her eyes. “And do you seriously think I can concentrate like that?”
“Consider it practice,” he replied, unwilling to move away. The closer he was, the more details Prana Vision picked up.
But his friend’s expression told him he wasn’t going to win this battle. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you a little space,” he said, moving exactly one pace back.
She was not amused.
“Look, if Riyan and Tanya refuse to teach me magic, I’ll have to learn it on my own. I have to take every edge I can get.”
“Fine,” she said, returning to her weird breathing exercises. Whatever it was she was doing, it didn’t seem to work out for her, and Vir couldn’t see what the point of it all was.
“Is that fun?” he asked, after a while.
“Does this look fun?” Maiya said, eyes fluttering open. “I hate this. I hate it so much! I’m supposed to be learning how to hurl fireballs, not sit here snorting!”
Vir chuckled. She really did sound like a pig doing that.
“Don’t laugh!”
“Sorry, sorry. Still hung up on fire magic, huh? Even after Tanya’s demonstration?” he said, expertly changing the topic.
“I mean, I gotta admit Ice magic’s pretty darn impressive. I may have been, uh… a bit premature, obsessing over fire like that. I dunno.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is immature. You’d be a fool to pass up power like that.”
Power he could only dream of, even with his newfound Talents.
If there aren’t any orbs made for black prana, how will I ever rival that kind of magic? he thought as his fingers brushed unconsciously against his chest tattoo.
She sighed. “You’re right. I oughta be happy with whatever affinities I end up with. But a girl can hope, can’t she?”
“Maiya, you have a Greater Ice Affinity and a Lesser Wind Affinity. I told you before, didn’t I?”
“You did. I know. I just… I believe you Vir, I guess I just didn’t want to accept it. Anyway, none of that matters until I can sense prana, and that’s been going hopelessly.”
“Is that what you were trying to do with your breathing exercise?”
“Yea, Tanya says it’s supposed to help me attune to prana more easily, whatever that means. Something to do with sucking in prana to get it to jingle.”
“Uh, jingle?” Vir asked.
“Don’t ask me! That’s what Tanya said!”
“So, you’re trying to bring the outside prana into your body?” Vir asked, thinking it might’ve been similar to how he sucked prana through the ground.
“No, that’s impossible. Prana just passes through your body as you breathe in, but it goes right back out when you exhale. You can’t control the prana inside you. But you can control the prana outside, in the air… if you’re good enough. This technique’s just supposed to make it easier to sense, but I can’t sense a thing.” This was basically the opposite of Vir’s own situation. He found he had a great deal of control over the prana within his own body, but was completely unable to affect the prana outside. Was it a quirk of the Black Affinity prana?
His fingers grazed the tattoo on his chest. Perhaps it was something to do with his body. Or… or maybe mejai were wrong about this, too.
“I’d… take whatever Tanya tells you with a grain of salt, Maiya.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? You think she’s lying to me?”
“No. Not lying, but… okay, hear me out. I can see eight affinities. Possibly nine, depending on whether black is actually an affinity or not.”
“There’s only supposed to be six.”
“I know! And that’s what I’m saying. Earth and Shadow Affinity prana exist. I can see it as clearly as I see all the others. And the craziest part is that Talents are just another application of magic! Earth magic.”
Maiya waited, hoping for a punchline. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I am. I wish I could prove it to you… It’s how I picked up my Talents so quickly. I watched what Riyan did and copied him. Apparently, the black prana in my body can do Talents too. You don’t believe me, do you?” he asked hesitantly.
Maiya held his gaze. “I believe you.” There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in her voice.
“You… do? You don’t think I’m making this up?”
“You wouldn’t lie to me about something like this. I know. I trust you.”
“T-thanks,” he murmured, looking away. “Wasn’t expecting you to say that.”
“You do realize this kind of thing could change the world, right? If you’re right… I don’t even know what it’d mean. But it’d mean the mejai are wrong. And I’m pretty sure they don’t like being wrong.”
“Right. I know. Which is why I haven’t told Riyan or Tanya. And I’d appreciate it if you did the same. I see nothing good coming out of this if people learn about this.”
“Your secret’s safe with me. I… I’ll need to give this more thought. But, well, I don’t think this revelation’s gonna help me learn magic any faster, sadly.”
“Doubt it,” Vir said. “There’s definitely more here than meets the eye, but I don’t know enough about all of this yet to say any more. I’ll let you know when I learn more. And speaking of, time for you to share what you’ve learned from Tanya.”
“Hmm. She’s been teaching me about affinities and compatibility stuff lately, and how all that affects orbs.”