Power Awakens

Jaac and Tem were taken to the first testing park six leagues from the southern gate of Mank. Nuthay and as usual Osakee, were riding alongside as Nuthay gave Jaac and Tem some final instructions. “Usually it is not until the fifth year that the first real pull on your powers are tested. You are only two years in and at eighteen years old you are more than ready. Remember what I’ve taught you about the prime power and the elemental power. Just recite them one final time, just for good measure.”

Nuthay was a little excited and a little apprehensive. The latent talent of Jaac’s was off the scale, and he just didn’t know how this first test was going to pan out. Tem was not far behind in talent either, so just in case he was going to be cautious and make them take it slow. He was going to let Jaac use his talent to create Logain’s Fire and attempt to heat up a pot of water, but he was going to stand well back, rather than at the students shoulder as he usually did. Never in his time as first Majee had Nuthay heard of anyone being able to get the water hot on their first attempt, maybe, just maybe, this time it would be different.

“The prime power uses a focused electromagnetic aura, which changes rapidly to excite molecules by pushing and pulling against the natural occurring forces, which keep matter together.” Jaac and Tem recited. “This energy is emitted through the highly developed Conduii Gland or CG as the students like to call it, which vibrates these forces at about a thousand times a heartbeat, this allows a Majee to cause heat, cold, objects to be pushed or pulled and to communicate over short distances. This prime power also allows those with the talent, to tap into the LifeMatrix. The elemental is used to manipulate the magnetic forces inherent in all matter, allowing a Majee to manipulate gravitational and magnetic forces, the elemental force is the hardest to master.”

“Ok, good, and what do you need to use to create Logain’s Fire?” asked Nuthay

“Nuthay, this is the basic that any first year knows.”

Nuthay looked at Jaac with one of his thousand pace stares, when Jaac realized Nuthay was not going to give up he continued, “Ok, the prime power comes from the life-force all around you, you draw a small amount from each source of life-force, the amount and intensity of the energy manipulated depends on the volume your aura can extend to and the amount and intensity of the field of energy that can be emitted by your CG. This obviously needs to be paired with a strong mind and will. There is a direct relationship to the amount of energy you can manipulate and the volume that you can draw power and energy from, the greater the volume the greater the energy and the greater the power that is available to the user of Majee. This power increases volumetrically by the cubic rule, if you double the volume you multiply the power by eight, if you triple the volume you multiply the power by twenty seven, if the volume is increased by ten you increase the power by a thousand. Hence it is important to reach out as far as possible. If you draw too much from each life form you can potentially damage that life form or even kill it, however, nature has a built in mechanism which naturally resists any attempt to drain the life-essence from any living entity, it is extremely difficult to draw more than the life form can afford to give and naturally replenish.”

Nuthay was nodding his head along to Jaac’s explanation. He turned to Tem, “Can you continue?” he asked.

“To allow the manipulation of auras and life-essence, you need to achieve a different mind state. You need to be at one with all living things. This mind state is called Koan, which allows a basic Majee manipulation, however a mind state of Satori is required to allow the full use of a Sorcerers power. Satori is a level of enlightenment that allows you to truly feel the essence of all matter around you.” Tem was concentrating to make sure he didn’t miss any of the points “Some practitioners never achieve this mind state, a rare few find it natural and easy to achieve. When drawing power and then projecting this energy, the Majee must be careful not to include too much of their own life-essence or to draw more power and energy than they can safety manipulate. This can and often does kill or seriously injure the in-experienced users of Majee. A portion of the Majee’s life force is always used in manipulating Majee and major acts of Majee leave the user extremely tired. Is this ok Nuthay, do you want more details, we have been practicing all these basics for two years now.”

“It’s important you both remember the basics”, responded Nuthay, “although I will ensure we are shielded, you could accidentally damage life forms around you. Always remember the basics.”

They arrived at a clearing two hundred paces across and relatively flat. This dark green grassy clearing was surrounded by a thick coarse of evergreen pine trees, towering up to fifty paces high. They entered the clearing from a small unobtrusive opening in the otherwise unbroken coarse of trees. At the opposite side of the opening there was a large mottled grey and green rocky protrusion full of grass and moss, which had lots of little holes, nooks and crannies, which were obviously favoured by the local wildlife. The grass in the clearing was almost knee high and the whole area had a light and airy feeling, with an obvious abundance of life.

Just before the rock started to climb out of the ground at the back of the clearing a small single boulder stood proud of the ground about three foot high and four foot in diameter. The top of the rock looked artificially flat and appeared to have what could only be described as scorch marks on the rocky face.

Nuthay walked across to the rock and placed an empty tin pan in the centre. He then poured some water into it from a brown leather water bottle carried at his waist.

“The scorch marks are from some over enthusiastic fifth year students who managed to spend most of the day up here without permission.” Nuthay commented smiling “Now, Jaac position yourself twenty paces back, and remember when you have reached a state of Koan, try and reach out as far as you can encompassing all the living beings as far as you can go. You do not need to reach Satori for Logain’s fire. If you take a tiny portion of the life-energy as instructed, you should be able to produce a fairly good intense fire, as you did back in class when you limited your pull but still managed to light a tallow candle.”

“Tem and Osakee will stand right behind me,” Nuthay continued “ this way I can shield them from your pull. Don’t be over concerned if you don’t manage to heat the water, it is very rare that a fourth year student can do so, it has never happened for a second year, but then again you are exceptional. If you don’t manage it the first time, at least try to maintain the flow for a few seconds, in your own time you can begin.”

Jaac, slowing his breathing to deep rhythmic breaths, quickly he managed to relax, he almost immediately achieved Koan, if Jaac had known what the state of enlightenment felt like, he would have realized that he was only just short of achieving a state of Satori. In his extremely deep Koan state, as had happened many times in the past, Jaac began to feel his senses enhanced, he could feel each individual hair on his arm as it brushed against his jacket. He could feel the individual strands of material of the socks under his feet, he could even feel the irregularities in the ground underneath his boots. He was totally at one with his environment; he could sense the intense aura of Osakee and the dampened aura of Nuthay and Tem, although Tem’s dampened aura outshone Osakee and Nuthay both. He made a mental note to tell Tem to dampen it further.

As he relaxed further, he began to sense the aura’s of other creatures and life-forms, he could feel the rapid heartbeat of a hummingbird as it strove to maintain a steady height to reach the yellow flower on the rocky promontory, he could feel the aura of the grass and the trees, he was at one with the slow pulsating of their aura as they fed from the water deep underground. As he tried to his move senses further a field he expanded his minds eye to take in as much of the area as he could. Jaac was surprised at how far he could sense life. He could feel the intense aura of the red fox over a league away as it darted for a mole that had popped it’s head above ground in the wrong place at the wrong time. The mole managed to avoid the snapping teeth of the fox and its aura was even more intense as it scurried underground to get away.

Jaac stretched himself further and further until he was finally at his limits. He could faintly sense the intense life force of Mank in the distance, but he couldn’t quite reach it. Jaac slowly and meticulously started to pull on tiny bits of life force from everything he could sense; each appropriate to what it could give without damage or resistance. He slowly built up the life-energy in his body, centred on the highly developed gland area where the cortex connects to the upper spine. As he built it up he began to feel slightly dizzy and amazingly energized and powerful, as if he could rip up a hundred trees with his bare hands. The back of his head began to feel hot and Jaac knew that was a sign that it was now time to release the energy, before he pulled too much and he burned himself up.