Bab 619: Is mana alive?

Eldrian paused on the question, thinking of what he knew from science, of how bacteria was defined as alive and viruses were not. 'I don't really know the reasoning behind all that, but...' Trying to recall what he had once read, Eldrian paused. 

'Isn't a virus kind of similar to mana?' His thoughts were flawed and he knew this, however, he felt there was a connection and that this connection was important. 

Mana was energy given form, yet formless, able to interact with the world and people, yet not physical in nature. Its true state is unstable, and thus it changed according to its environment. It can't replicate, but it can adapt and respond to its environment. 

'But that is so clunky of a definition then. While it might be scientific, does it really define life?' Eldrian wondered. 'No, that isn't the problem. I connected being sentient with being alive.'