Grayson woke up, rolled out of bed, and threw up. He felt wrong in every possible way. Energy coursed through him, not pleasantly like after a double espresso, but like he was currently grounding for a main power line. It didn't burn him or spasm his muscles the way electricity would, but instead made his bones feel like the way cheese smells. He didn't realize it was possible to feel smells, but he could taste it and it tasted loud.

  Fera was beside him shortly after, shouting for someone to come and help even as Grayson continued to wretch onto the floor. Instead of food, his body was expelling pure mana in all it's variation. Steam and hot wet dirt came out of his mouth, forming a small pile below him. Lightning arced between the pile and his mouth, mixed with rays of light and darkness. The door slammed open as more people burst into the room before stopping.

  "Oh, he's just purging mana. He must have eaten a powdered crystal that was too much for him. Weird that he's purging everything though. What's his attunement?" someone asked Fera from by the door.

  "He hasn't told me. I've never seen him use magic except as a conduit." Fera said. She was calming down a little, but still speaking fast. "I didn't think he could."

  "Hey, Crusader, what's your attunement? Come on, man, bite it off for a second and let us know so we can help." The same voice said from the door. Grayson forced his mouth closed, trying to keep the torrent of magic from flowing out of his mouth. He worked to channel it away from his head, but that lead to more problems as his hands started glowing. The floor under them began to melt.

  "Don't. Know." Grayson forced the words out through clenched teeth. "No. Control."

  Grayson was trying to use his neural network and secondary computing to get some control of the magic surging through him. Unfortunately, whatever manifested from his mouth was almost instantly absorbed back into him. His body was like a lightning rod being struck from all directions, becoming so charged that it was starting to melt.

  "What? What do you mean you have no control? What kind of crystal did you eat?" The person asked, starting to sound exasperated.

  "Didn't. Eat... Just. Started... Woke. Up. To..." Grayson's control slipped and a beam of pure light carved a groove in the floor in front of his face.

  Grayson tried controlling his nanomachines, getting them to channel the energy, but any of his normal nanomachines that he tried to touch the energy with burnt out instantly. He started replacing them with nanomachines that weren't conductive. Ones that at least survived the mana storm in his body.

  "What does he..." The person at the door started, before having a realization. "Oh holy Perimis! GET THE MAGE TRAINER! GET HIM NOW!"

  Fera sounded almost frantic as she shouted up at the person by the door. "What? What do you mean?"

  "He doesn't have mana right? You've never seen him use any magic? His body is full of it right now and it's only getting worse. If he can't do something to get himself under control and back to some kind of equilibrium, the best case is he dies." The person by the door said sternly.

  "How is that the best case?" Shouted Fera.

  "Because he doesn't take the rest of us and the temple with him." The person said.

  There was a rustling and someone started muttering. Grayson was surrounded by a sphere of golden light. The sound of the world became dull. He tried to radiate the energy like heat, which started manifesting random effects around his body. Mud covered him, cracked from where it was baked on by fire and lightning. Liquid metal pooled under his right foot and wind began blowing in the golden sphere around him. Grayson had no idea how long he stayed like that before another voice shouted to him.

  "Good, you're learning!" The man seemed to expend little effort making himself heard over the roar in Grayson's little bubble. "You've started to expel almost as much as you're taking in, but that's not a solution! Tell me boy, how does one stop a leaking ship? Is it by bailing?"

  Grayson didn't dare look at the man in case he vomited another laser into the person's face. He considered the man who was presumably the mage trainer's question. He didn't want to try and answer questions at this point, just get told how not to die. Instead he forced the magic away from his face again so he could grunt out an answer.

  "Plug. Leak." The man clapped his hands together.

  "Indeed, boy. Now consider, you are willing this energy into your various parts. You channel the magic into your hands and feet to get it away from your face. Did you consider it was doing what it was told?"

  Grayson tried to focus on the question, letting the magic radiate from him while he thought. It came to him in a flash. He tried to channel the magic away from his face again, but this time focusing on expelling the magic through his hands and feet instead of channeling it into them.

  "Good, boy, good. A quick one he is. You have stopped sucking more mana into yourself when you try to talk. Now the next step is to fix your leak, though I would say you are more leak than boat, hm? You are drinking mana in like a man dying of thirst, yet you are drowning. Consider yourself, boy. The mana enters you through your very skin, but you can stop it. Picture your skin and make it steel."

  Grayson did as he was told, imagining his entire body as encased in steel. All the manifestations surrounding him instantly stopped, but his body began to feel hot. He knew the answer to this and opened his mouth, forcing the power out through it. A great spurt of steam flew out of his mouth, crackling with lightning. It expelled itself for a solid thirty seconds before stopping, leaving Grayson in his own little rain storm in his bubble.

  The bubble vanished and Fera rushed to Grayson, holding him. He relaxed himself, ready to pass out from the mental exertion before the person who was presumably the mage trainer walked up and kicked him in the ribs.

  "Don't go to sleep yet, boy! Do you want to repeat this in ten minutes? Get up and come with me. Girl, see to yourself. This room should be presentable when he returns. He will need to rest." The man dismissed Fera and gestured impatiently for Grayson to follow him. Grayson did, jogging to catch up to the man's brief pace. His head felt like it was splitting, but at least it felt like a head.

  "Your history of magic, boy? Previous instruction? Previous incidents?" the man asked as they walked swiftly through the temple.

  Grayson got a good look at the man as they walked. He had a long blue robe in the same cut as Fera's priestly robes. He was old, looking over eighty, but with an upright bearing that spoke of excellent physical fitness for his age. He was shorter than Grayson, with long white hair. As he caught up, he saw the man's face with his grey eyes and a long nose.

  He answered the man in the negative as they walked. He explained that he had no magic experience, and had no previous incidents of magical mishaps. The man raised an eyebrow at him but merely said "indeed. You'd likely be dead if you had." Grayson's brief lesson in his magical inadequacy began as they left the temple of Perimis and marched down the street. It was still well before dawn and the street was lit by glowing stones on poles that served as dim lamps. It was far from bright, but gave enough light for them to see where they were going.

  Every now and then, the man would snap at Grayson when his focus slipped and he started absorbing mana again.

  "It must become reflex. It must be the normal state of your body. You must maintain it in your sleep, else this will only happen again, and you will be a danger to yourself and everyone around you. Do you want to be a danger?" He didn't speak unkindly, but he was intense as he scolded Grayson.

  "No, sir," Grayson responded meekly. The mage trainer nodded.

  "Good. Normally, you'd be training for days to maintain your construct. You don't have days. You have until your already tired mind loses it's grip. Normally, that would be minutes after what you went through, but I am assured we have more time. Oris seems very impressed with you. With the rate you suck in magic, that's hardly surprising, but you will need to be a prodigious student to survive until noon. Are you a prodigious student, boy?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "I hope to be, sir," Grayson said. The trainer chuckled.

  "A fine answer. I am Herefor, trainer of the Perimis Crusaders and priest of Oris, God of Mages. You may continue to call me sir for our lesson today, at the end of which you will either no longer be a danger to those around you, or you will be dead. Should the happy former be our result, you will continue to call me sir as long as I remain your teacher. Is that understood?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Good. Now..." Herefor continued his lecture for Grayson as they walked for a further twenty minutes, passing two temples and reaching one that was next to a different gate into the knight's compound. The duration of the the walk as well as their brisk pace brought home exactly how large this part of the city was. They had easily walked over two kilometers. Herefor stepped up to a temple with the symbol of a great, eight pointed star on the door, each point a different color. He opened the door and brought Grayson in, striding past the Crusaders standing guard in blue tabards with the same star icon on their chests.

  Grayson was brought swiftly through the temple and into a training courtyard. A series of crystal dummies were arrayed at the far side of the courtyard and Herefor indicated them.

  "Split your focus. Maintain your construct while focusing on the dummy at the end of the line. When you are ready, strike at it with your magic. Extend your hand and will the magic from you."

  Grayson did as he was instructed. He focused on the dummy, then raised his hand and willed the magic to leave him. It passed through his construct without issue, which surprised him. The magic jumped and he had to refocus on his image of his steel skin, abandoning the beam which wavered like a runaway hose and disappeared. The magic stabilized after a moment and a beam of light extended from his hand and hit the construct which glowed.

  "Light magic it seems." Herefor said, then studied the beam that Grayson was maintaining. "Decent output and your flow is constant. You don't seem to be wanting for reserves either. Truly a shame that you've grown up without instruction. Attempt to strike a second target while maintaining both your construct and first attack. If you feel your control start to slip, focus only on your construct."

  Grayson tried offloading the first attack into his secondary computing. It immediately stopped and Herefor began to shake his head. Before he could say anything, Grayson restored the beam, then raised his other hand and added a second. Herefor's eyes narrowed and he looked at Grayson.

  "You just tried something, didn't you? Something that I didn't ask you to do?"

  "Yes, sir. I tried to divide my focus into an extension of my mind, sir. It didn't work, sir." Grayson said.

  "I can see that. We have little time, boy. Do not take dangerous shortcuts. This will only stress your brain further. Now, add another attack," Herefor scolded.

  Grayson tried to do as he was told, but the beam he tried to extend from his eyes failed and both the others sputtered. His magic wavered and his construct flickered, magic briefly flooding Grayson's body before he returned to focusing entirely on his skin being steel.

  "Three areas of focus as the limit. You were able to cast naturally, though you were surprised when it worked. This is impressive, but hardly unheard of. "Herefor was pensive at first, then decisive as he continued." Very well, we will begin the exercise of making your construct natural. With luck, you will master this before you pass out. Sit in the middle of the yard, boy."

  Grayson walked to the middle of the yard and sat as instructed. Herefor instructed him in the construction of a dome of light around himself. The simple shape formed and solidified. Herefor inspected it briefly, then stepped back and nodded.

  "Maintain this dome and your construct. I will attack your dome. Trust that no strike of mine will harm you keep your focus. Understand?" Herefor asked.

  "Yes, sir," Grayson said nervously. He understood that the objective of this exercise was to force him to focus entirely on his dome instead of his construct. Without being able to have his secondary computing or neural network maintain the dome for him, he'd have to do it the hard way. Worse, rewiring his brain to maintain the construct automatically might cause the construct to fail and he had no idea how long it would take him to re-establish it. It was far too risky.

  "Then I will begin," Herefor stated. He raised his arm, pointing a single finger at a space beside Grayson. A jet of water shot from Herefor's finger and struck the dome with the force of an industrial water cutter. Herefor slowly increased the power of his water cutter until Grayson's focus broke and the dome fell. His construct fell too. Herefor waited for him to raise them again and they continued.

  It took three hours and over one hundred attempts before Grayson's construct survived the breaking of his dome. Herefor had instantly known it was working of course. He'd started smiling when Grayson's dome outlasted all the previous attempts by a wide margin. Grayson noticed the man's smile and lost his concentration. The dome shattered immediately, but Grayson's construct stayed intact until he probed at it like a loose tooth. It broke down after Grayson began working at it, but that was still noticeably past where his concentration broke.

  They continued the exercise for another hour, Herefor's eyes starting to glow after the first thirty minutes. The only words after each dome breaking was the doubled "Again" of the priest and his God speaking in unison. By the end of the hour, maintaining both the dome and his construct was effortless. To demonstrate, Herefor had him stand again, then fire beams at three of the dummies simultaneously. Grayson was able to maintain the focus on all three beams as easily as he'd maintained two at the start of the lesson.

  Grayson's construct held as he poked at it mentally. Much earlier, Herefor had shown him how to take in and expel additional magic through his construct without dismissing it. It now functioned as naturally as breathing, letting him take in mana from the world around him and expel it without over filling his body. Grayson was incredibly grateful to both Herefor and Oris for the lesson. It seemed over but just as Grayson sensed Herefor moving to dismiss him back to the temple of Perimis to rest, Oris took over his body.

  "Grayson. Herefor got one thing wrong in his assessment. You do not use light magic. You are currently expressing mana as pure energy. There is a chance that this will settle and you will gain a natural attunement. It is also possible that this is permanent, which will let you use all eight forms of mana. What you did to yourself is the cause of this. While I and all the gods want to know what it was and how it was done, we sense that it is not possible for others. Perimis will discuss this with you. Rest well, Grayson. We watch you with interest."

  Grayson listened to Oris in pure shock. He was staring at Herefor as the grey glow in the man's eyes dimmed and he regained control of his body. Herefor's own eyes widened and he stared at Grayson. He looked up, his eyes briefly going distant, then he nodded and looked at Grayson again.

  "Go back and rest, Grayson. Don't tell anyone what my Lord told you. That information is valuable. Valuable enough that I will be cut off if I dare tell another soul. You are a good student. I hope to teach you again."

  Grayson left the temple of Oris, jogging to return faster. The sun had risen during the second hour of his training session and it was full morning. There were the sounds of a city starting to get to work around him. The sky was a clear blue with few clouds, but still contained the immense forms of the flying castle and ships. It would have been a beautiful day, but Grayson was far too mentally fatigued to enjoy it.

  He arrived at the temple of Perimis and the doors were already open, allowing regular people to walk in and out. The Crusaders guarding the door ignored Grayson as he entered, but a shout from the side told him Fera had been waiting. She ran up to him, dodging through the people entering and exiting, and drawing more than a few dirty looks. She had bags under her eyes from her lack of sleep, and it was plain that she hadn't rested while waiting for him. She had spent some time to at least bathe and change her clothes. Grayson hoped she had eaten as well.

  "Are you..." Fera started before trailing off. Grayson nodded and smiled wearily at her. Fera slumped as she relaxed and the pair made their way out of the main areas of the temple and into the dormitory wing. Instead of going directly to their room, Fera took Grayson to the baths to clean the dried mud off of him. Grayson just sponged himself down, soaped himself, and rinsed without bothering to step into the main bath. He rejoined Fera quickly, noticing that she had simply waited outside for him. As they walked, Grayson told Fera of his lesson, but she was still too exhausted to be her normal energetic self.

  The pair returned to their room and when Grayson entered, he was surprised at the lack of destruction. The tiles that he remembered melting had all been replaced and the dirt that had manifested from the magic had been swept away. The floor had also been mopped. There was no indication that anything had happened earlier that morning. As they returned to the bed, this time in sleeping clothes, Fera turned to Grayson.

  "I got dispensation for us to sleep as long as we need. The head Crusader wants to talk to you as soon as you wake up, and I'll need to speak to the high priest about you. And after whatever happened yesterday, you'll still need to go and talk to Jarid." Fera sighed. "Will you tell me what happened earlier? After we sleep?"

  "I promise, Fera." Grayson said, sliding into the bed and holding the covers for her. She got in beside him and snuggled up to him.

  "I was afraid again," Fera admitted as she pressed her head into Grayson's chest. "Afraid you wouldn't come back."

  "I promised didn't I?" Asked Grayson. Fera chuckled.

  "Yeah, but still. The head Crusader told me how close it was. You seriously almost died, Grayson." She held him tightly, almost sobbing. Grayson felt the tears on his shirt.

  "I don't know what I would have done. You saved me. You've been with me ever since..." Fera sniffed then continued, "I thought I could never repay you for what you did. And then when you were in trouble, there was nothing I could do."

  Grayson held her close, whispering comforting words until they fell asleep once again. Finally, the pair actually got their rest.