Chapitre 3: Self Defense
When he was twelve, Kir got stabbed.
He never went into town, preferring instead to sit on the swing Darlae made for him. He could watch the town from the top of the hill, under the branches of the rilion tree and its big, fleshy leaves.
How Darlae managed to find fifty meters of rope for the swing, he didn't know, but he remembered being scared for her as she climbed high enough to secure the swing.
The spot was perfect for Kir, who had grown into a rather quiet boy, to sort out and try to process his thoughts and memories. He had a routine of clearing his mind, then circulating his mana, then thinking.
On that fateful day, Kir had been minding his own business when a group of boys from the town came up to him. Their leader, who Kir would later learn was named Lugh, actually seemed alright until he opened his mouth, interrogating Kir as the other boys made a circle.
Kir said it didn't seem fair that an older boy like Lugh thought beating up a twelve-year-old would be a fair fight, even if he was a bit big for his age.
He tried to warn them off with magic, creating a few intimidating lights, but then they merely switched tactics. Lugh knew who Kir's parents were. He promised to make trouble for them if Kir didn't stay quiet and accept what was coming to him.
Kir spat in his eye. Lugh stabbed him.
When the knife went into his ribs, Kir discovered that he could not cast. As Lugh beat the living daylights out of him, the other boys grew fearful that Kir would die, inviting the wrath of his mother, the witch. After only a couple of minutes, during which Lugh also broke Kir's tail by stomping on it, they pulled Lugh off of him and left. Kir was left alone to make his way back home, clutching the wound in his chest the entire time. If not for the binder he wore that day, he would have died.
As he recovered, he learned that metal in particular could block or interfere with the meridians of the body - the internal mana network that enabled magic to be powered - if someone was stabbed.
Brigit didn't wear any metal; even her wedding necklace was made of polished amber crowned with a tiny, preserved flower instead of some precious metal.
Lugh's parents came by the next day, along with half the village it seemed, spinning a tale of how Kir attacked Lugh, making Kir sound like a wild animal. He listened from his window as the village demanded that he be gotten rid of.
Somehow, the rumor had spread that when Kir's wings came in, he would grow in power and wreak havoc. While they didn't outright say it, they clearly believed Kir should be put to death for existing.
Brigit listened calmly. She had Kir's entire side of the story already, and Kir knew she was on his side. Perhaps it helped that Darlae was standing next to her wife, being a very intimidating woman at two meters tall, especially with a shovel. In any case, once Brigit had the boys brought before her, she interrogated them one by one, saving Lugh for last.
By the third boy, their stories were no longer aligned. Kir knew not to underestimate Brigit's intimidating glare. By the fifth, Lugh's lies were obvious. Before he could even be interrogated, Lugh admitted to what happened, but he argued "So what? He's a demonkin! If you let him into your house, maybe it's because he's bewitched you! Killing him would be doing you a favor!"
That day, Kir found out what Brigit was like when she was mad. Rising up on a pillar of wind, calling clouds into the skies above her and lightning into her hands she shouted, "You dare to lecture me on witchcraft, child? I who have fought armies and struck down true demons. I who helped found the village you owe your pathetic, hateful life to?"
Watching Lugh wet himself was the best justice Kir could hope for. But on top of that, once Darlae calmed her wife down enough to stop intimidating the village, Brigit made the ultimatum that either Lugh be brought to apologize and see the error of his ways, or she would no longer provide her services to the village.
Considering she was, in Kir's estimate, the village doctor, midwife, magical handywoman, and their greatest defender, it came as no surprise when Lugh was made to kneel at the side of Kir's bed and apologize.
It was pretty pathetic as far as apologies go. Lugh even pretended to cry a little.
Kir would say later that he knew the point of the apology wasn't to make him feel better but to break Lugh of his pride. He confessed to Darlae that he didn't think it would work, and very calmly chose that moment to ask her, "Please teach me how to fight."
Their lessons started the next week.
A couple of rounds of healing magic and one potion was what it took to get Kir on his feet so fast. By then Kir had to admit he was excited to learn some self-defense.
"First off," Darlae announced boisterously as Kir "reported in" to her at the field outside the house, "before I teach you to fight, I'm going to teach you the most important skill a warrior can have! Are you ready?"
"Heck yeah!" Kir was pumped. He was ready after a week in bed reading.
"Alright then! Sit!" Darlae sat, crossing her legs in front of her.
"Umm..." Kir quirked an eyebrow, his tail flicking with annoyance. Was this a joke?
"Sit, Kir. I'm going to teach you the basic bodily awareness needed to perform enhancement magic. That means closing your mouth and emptying your mind, before letting your awareness rove throughout yourself."
"But I already do that stuff for mana circulation," he said.
"This is different!" she insisted, "Way different."
Kir sighed and did as he was told. It didn't feel any different when he slid into his normal rhythm of focused breathing.
Almost as soon as he found his flow, Darlae started to speak. "Now, normal mana circulation teaches you to feel the in and out of mana, circulating new mana and releasing old mana. Both are good for casting spells, but body magic is different.
You need to be able to feel the mana coming in while stopping the outflow, and directing that mana to where you need it."
"And where do I need it? Ow!" Darlae had reached over to flick Kir between his horns.
"You need to keep it inside you. We're not moving on until you cut your mana outflow in at least half."
Kir stopped running his head and got back to work.
The problem was, after a week in bed, he had too much mana. Trying to let more in without letting some out caused him to feel agitated. There just wasn't any place for him to put it... but wait. Wasn't the point of this exercise bodily enhancement? What if he just put it into his body?
Pushing his discomfort aside, Kir drew on the knowledge from his past life. Here, his information was very vague. He knew enough about the workings of the body in general, but nothing specific enough to focus on. Clearly, his past self hadn't been a medicinal practitioner.
He tried to think of ways he could use up the mana without releasing it. He vaguely understood the functions of neuroreceptors, albeit through the analogy of electricity. So he wondered: What if he circulated his mana with that understanding in mind?
The answer, as it turned out, was nothing. He just didn't have the right kind of visual analogs for his non-human body like he did with physics. At least... not in any way that mana would respond to. Did bodies in this world operate on a different set of physics?
It seemed unlikely. For that matter, he wondered, what even was mana? It seemed to exist alongside physics, but as to what it did, he had yet to make an outright determination.
What it seemed to do was conduct some combination of willpower, imagination, and knowledge... And much of his past life seemed to cover just one subject. Physics.
So what did he know that could let him use mana to actualize it? And how could he fit it into Darlae's lesson?
He needed to cut down on his mana emissions, basically, but he couldn't just let it out. So what was a good solution?
He tried to think of mana again, coming up with an image that was something like a gas, albeit one that could permeate even solid matter. What if he compressed it? Pressurized it.
He tried to imagine the mana inside him like this. Tried to "narrow" the aperture of his body and soul, forcing it to change states. He could imagine the particles, the changes in motion, momentum, the moment of super-critical metamorphosis as he made more and more of it fit into a shrinking space... Then, he wondered: Could he make it go solid?
Smack!
Darlae's hand between his horns brought Kir out of his trance. "Ow! What was that for? I had something!" Her other hand was on his shoulder, as if she'd just been shaking him.
"I don't know what you did, kid, but your mana practically disappeared! What were you doing?" Her voice was full of concern.
"I don't know, you said 'Don't emit so much' so I just tried... compressing it I guess," Kir rubbed at the sore spot through his hair.
"That is... Gods, how the hell... A technique like that isn't something you'll need until you've got some of the more dangerous enhancements under your belt!" she said. "You don't wanna see what happens if you get mana corruption."
"So did I pass?" Kir said. "Are you going to teach me enhancement magic now?"
"You pass... just don't do that again until you're ready and don't tell your mother," she looked around and swore in a language Kir recognized as one of the elvish ones.
"What's next?" he asked.
"Next?" Darlae said, relief in her voice now that she knew the coast was clear. "I didn't think we'd get that far today... but I guess I can teach you the second most important lesson a warrior needs."
"How to fight?" Kir asked.
"How to dodge," Darlae said, flicking him between the horns again.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone