Another Anomaly

"You must have worked so hard for this. I'm glad for you, Rachel."

Arthur is holding his arm rather tightly, but he thinks I don't notice. Perhaps he is beating himself up inside over the fact that he cannot compare to me, but I do not care. As far as I am concerned, there isn't anyone who wouldn't beat themselves up over the fact that they can't compare to me.

"What about you, Arthur? Aren't you something of an apprentice yourself?"

When he hears the word 'apprentice,' he looks away from me and squeezes tighter on his arm. He allows his face to be hidden behind his hair.

"Apprentice. Just that, an apprentice."

He mutters a bit, but I do not bother to listen in on what he is saying. I know it is just going to be some self-deprecating garbage. At some point, his voice raises a bit and I catch the words, 'can't compare,' and, 'worthless.'

Luckily for both him and my suffering tolerance, I have dealt with his like before.

"Tell me something, Arthur," I say in order to snap him out of his madness.

"What is it?"

"Have you ever heard of runecraft?"

Arthur sits up in his chair, clears his throat and begins to think. From what I have gathered, his education should have ended at the intermediate level, which is considered Grade 1 in today's world ...for some reason.

If he truly sees himself as the worthless apprentice he thinks he is, then he shouldn't have bothered to further his knowledge. If he knows what runecraft is, then I will have an idea of his motivation.

Arthur bites his thumb and says, "Is that the use of modified enhancements to create a permanent effect?"

I smile, "Just barely."

"Why do you ask?"

"I suddenly feel like drawing some." As I rise from my chair, I see Arthur's intrigue turn to both derision and interest. He goes along with it, and follows my movements. I wave my hand and a select number of paper sheets fly over to the table. Following them, some chalk and charcoal sticks come flying over as well.

"You're going to draw runes with these? Unenchanted paper? Carpenter's chalk? At least you have the charcoal."

Arthur is understandably skeptical, which I sneer at. His knowledge cannot be as deep as mine, so I do not reprimand him for his attitude. Instead, I lean forward and place a hand on the table, with the other I grab a stick of charcoal and pull a sheet of paper closer.

"Follow my every move, and listen close."

Arthur gulps, though he is more focused on me than on himself. I take it as a sign that he doesn't expect to be able to do anything, but to watch me work.

"Runecraft isn't about enchantment; they are separate things. If you use a modified enchantment to aid your runecrafting, then you are either a fool or a god- which is a less offensive way to say you're a fool."

Arthur looks away from my hand for a moment, and the verdant pupils almost vanish as he narrows his eyes. He adjusts his glasses and continues following my movements.

I draw a number of easy to copy symbols, and he copies them perfectly. Then I take a piece of chalk and outline all of those symbols with it. I see him scrutinizing the practicality of this, which I expected.

"You thought I would draw a magic circle, didn't you?"

Seeing my smirk, he lowers his head and nods.

"Magic circles, despite what you may have learnt, only have two uses. To focus mana, therefore prolonging the level of concentration within the circle, or to allow for an amalgamation of mana from different sources in order to fuel complicated spells or defensive wards."

As I say this, I finish outlining the symbols with the chalk and place it back on the table. Arthur has followed me up to this step, so he puts down his chalk as well.

"What about crystallization? Isn't that another use?"

"Think first. Focusing mana and amalgamating mana, to which there are countless possible results. What would be one possible result of focusing mana?"

"If you focus enough mana," Arthur bites down on his thumbnail yet again, trying hard. I find it hard to believe, since it is obvious to me what the answer is.

"If you focus enough mana, the concentration increases. Since it stays within the circle, it saturates and eventually takes a liquid form. That liquid form then saturates further, and leads to crystallization. Incredible... I never realized that, yet it's so obvious."

"Painfully so," I sigh and continue.

"Now, I want you to do exactly as I say. Draw out a tiny amount of mana from your magic well, and divide it into parts. Then, use each part for one of the symbols."

Now my focus shifts from my work onto Arthur. I have to get him to use his own consciousness to open a pathway to his magic well. As a human, that is the only way I can possibly invade his soul space without harming him.

Once Arthur is focused, I close my eyes and prepare to cast a spell in my head. First, I prepare a sensory spell that will trigger activation of the second spell, which is meant to propel my consciousness into his own.

He is quite inept at this part, and requires quite some time to connect with his magic well. Once he finally does, the spell activates and my consciousness enters into his astral space alongside his own. Of course, he instantly senses me.

"Rachel? How the hell are you here?"

"Don't mind me, I'm just invading your astral space, heh heh!"

When I see Arthur's soul space, my heart skips a beat. My mind empties itself of all useless thoughts in order to attempt to process the sight presented before it.

Arthur's soul space itself was his astral space, but that alone was not enough to make me speechless. If it was a mere soul space sized magic well, my reaction would not have been anything like this. Instead, I see that Arthur's soul space does not possess a desert world.

Instead, it consists of a world of ocean- as far as the eye can see. Crystalline waters are rocked by artificial winds that blow from the corners of his soul, the depth is similar to that of actual oceans, and a bottomless pit lies at the very bottom of that sea.

This cannot be possible.

For a magic well to exist, it needs to receive mana in a very specific type of way. Nothing can be off about that process. This is supposed to be a fact of life!

However, Arthur stands to challenge that fact. His magic well is completely and utterly drowned with mana, more than oversaturated, yet still functional. Even if it isn't entirely functional, it is not impacting his health or causing even the slightest discomfort.

Now it makes sense why he wasn't easily able to access his magic well; he has way too much fucking mana!

It's an insane amount, and I struggle to fathom just how much mental energy it would take to affect such a large amount. To even withdraw a tiny amount would still require enough mental energy to affect the sea of mana as a whole.

It would likely take almost half of my mental energy to do such a thing- and I have a lot of mental energy. I do not realize that Arthur's consciousness is calling out to mine until a while later, and I respond with a, "Huh?"

"What's up with you?"

"Arthur," I gulp, "how long has your soul space been like this?"

Arthur nonchalantly responds, "I dunno, all my life I guess."

"!!!"

I have no words, and am forced to leave Arthur's soul space in defeat. His consciousness arises and he opens his eyes as well, looking at with me with confusion in his eyes. "Rachel, what the hell was that?"

I take a breath and stare directly into his eyes. "Your soul space is unnatural."

Arthur frowns. "Unnatural good or unnatural bad?"

"What do you think? Didn't you see how much mana you have inside of you?"

"Mana?" Arthur scratches his head, "I just saw a lot of water, but no mana..."

This fucking kid!

"What the hell did you even learn in school? Don't you know that mana that remains on the outside of the well is shown to look like water? It's a simple fact that, due to the unique properties of the astral space or- in your case- the soul space, mana assumes a liquid form."

"Or did you not learn about that?"

He is hesitant to speak at first, but he eventually admits that he has no idea how magic wells, astral spaces or soul spaces work. For everything that he knows, this is the one thing that he doesn't. This!

Arguably the most simple and base form of knowledge any mage acquires!

With tested patience, I continue holding Arthur's gaze and explain.

"A normal soul space houses an astral space, which contains the magic well. The layers of protection between soul space and astral space typically mean better filtration and refinement of mana, but that is not an ironclad fact."

"Magic wells can only function properly if mana is absorbed directly into them. This is not usually a problem, as a regular, healthy body has an autonomic function to absorb and direct mana without much energy expenditure. If mana happens to veer off the path and land in the world outside of the magic well, it causes external saturation and a malfunction of the magic well. This can even lead to instabilities in the astral space, and can eventually damage your soul."

"However, you have something beyond oversaturation. You have the very pinnacle of overabundance in terms of mana, and I cannot understand how you do not explode at the slightest touch."

Now, Arthur's eyes are wide and he seems to be about to break out into panic.

"So, you're saying I'm some kind of bomb? I-"

"Shut up."

With a snap, a spell is cast and Arthur's voice is forcibly cut off. I climb onto the table and crawl over to him, "Listen close. Nod if you understand."

He nods.

"You are not a threat to anyone. You are an anomaly, unlike any other I have seen before. Therefore, I will personally see to it that your potential is excavated. For my own entertainment and, perhaps, for your benefit. Understand?"

Arthur's wide eyes shine with a light that I have never seen in them before. He nods, and I feel a shift in his aura.