Chương 28: Stoke the Flames

By the time Jonny and Tommy finished scraping dried cheese off all the night's dishes, Jonny was so exhausted he almost forgot to do his nightly workout to burn off his excess mana. He had already used quite a bit of it in the game earlier, but he had enough that falling asleep without releasing it would have been painful. When he finally lay down in bed, he wanted to test out his new mana breathing ability, but his body rejected him, and he fell asleep in seconds.

The next morning, it took until near the end of breakfast to shake off the drowsiness, but after that, he was able to get right to work. Igrette was not there that morning—probably busy with whatever punishment she had gotten for letting the game go on for so long—and Jonny was not allowed outside either, which actually worked out perfectly. He would not have been able to properly get to work if they had another lesson. Interestingly enough, Tommy was there too.

In the past, when kids got adopted outside adoption day, the nuns usually spent the morning getting them all dressed up, and brushing up on their manners, but Tommy was in the classroom, surrounded by other children peppering him with questions. He was dressed up a little nicer than usual, and someone had done his hair in what was probably supposed to be a sophisticated way, but it was nothing compared to what Jonny had seen with some of the other children.

Tommy made no effort to talk to Jonny, and Jonny felt a bit awkward about the previous day, so the two stayed on opposite sides of the classroom, only occasionally glancing over at each other. It was distracting at first, but Jonny quickly got used to it, and was able to focus inward. His breathing seemed to be passive. He breathed, and his lungs absorbed the mana. He didn't have to do anything consciously to make it happen. He could, however, speed it up.

Using the same rhythmic breathing he had been working with before, he was able to pull it out of the air faster. It was nothing extreme, but it turned the mana trickle into a slightly bigger mana trickle, which would probably cut a few hours off the time it took to fully charge up. More importantly, combining the breathing with his enhanced lungs felt right. Like this was how it was always supposed to be. And when he tried going back to ordinary breathing afterward, it felt suffocating.

Additionally, it seemed to be somewhat self-regulating. Only now did he realize that going to sleep the previous night had actually been quite dangerous. Since his body was absorbing mana, but couldn't release it, his natural breathing could have pushed him over the edge from comfortable to danger zone, but that had not happened. It had slowed down on its own, only taking in what his sleeping body naturally consumed, which was almost nothing.

When he was awake and could consciously condense his mana further, it started back up, but sleeping was safe. As he went through his morning stretching and exercise, he took things much more slowly than usual, focusing on incorporating his breathing into his movements. Breathing had been important back on earth as well, but this was different. Back then he barely had to work on it. It was instinctive. Coach gave him pointers here and there, but he mostly had it down from the start. It was one of his talents.

Here, it was different. It wasn't that he couldn't rely on his instincts, but more that his instincts were too new. He felt like an infant all over again, where his body was not fully developed, and his brain was still trying to figure out how to move his limbs properly. Basic breathing was natural, but tying that into his movements was foreign. One thing he discovered during his testing was that the way that he had been breathing, while functional, was perhaps not optimal.

Not for anything other than everyday activity. When working out back on earth it was best to exhale during the hardest part of the workout, but when he did that here, his mana decompressed, making him weaker. Maybe that was good if he was trying to purely train his muscles, but to apply that to fighting, exhaling with each punch or kick would be the opposite of what he wanted. So, while he held onto the edge of the table with one arm doing pullups, he tried reversing the way he breathed.

Compressing while inhaling and decompressing while exhaling was his imitation of what Tommy was doing when he formed his first layer. It was a good visualization, because by compressing his mana like that, he was also pulling atmospheric mana inward, just like he was inhaling. And although that did work for Jonny, he didn't need to visualize it that way. It helped when he wanted to pull mana in, but when he wanted to exert maximum force, it was opposite.

He struggled at first, but after half an hour, he managed to come up with an alternate visualization that worked. Rather than inhaling causing a whirlpool effect, spinning the mana faster, he thought of it like pumping air into the fire. Inhaling was the downtime when the big airbag thing inflated, and the fire started to die down, and exhaling was when the air was pushed into the fire, and the fire blazed up and got hotter. That visualization not only worked, but it worked so well that Jonny himself was surprised.

It was very different from the other breathing technique, and took some getting used to, but the boost he got when exhaling was greater than what he could ever have done previously. He reveled in what it did for just his ordinary exercise, but soon found himself wishing he was outside. He really wanted to punch something, and the trees would make a good target. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sadly, the nuns did not let him go outside to punch trees, so he was forced to remain indoors. He practiced his new breathing more, wondering if he would even need the old kind anymore, since this seemed superior in every way until he realized how quickly his mana reserves were depleting. The new style was extremely effective for when he was exercising or fighting, but he burned through mana faster, and his absorption rate was slower. First version for charging, second for fighting, he thought, nodding.

The rest of the morning passed quickly as he continued practicing, but he made no further breakthroughs before lunchtime came, and the children were all summoned to the dining room again. Tommy was still there, for some reason, but he was getting visibly anxious, constantly glancing at the door. Lunch was tense, at least for Jonny and Tommy. They sat at the same table, but on opposite sides, and Tommy was uncharacteristically silent. Jonny found himself getting nervous as well.

Why hadn't the new family arrived yet? Why wasn't Tommy more dressed up? Had something happened? But his worries were put to rest halfway through the meal when he heard the unmistakable sound of the front door closing, followed shortly by Sister Lucy entering to collect Tommy. The entire dining room fell silent when he entered, and exploded into whispers and murmurs as soon as they were gone.

Jonny did his best to tune them out, but it was difficult, especially when so many of the children seemed to think he had insider information. He said "I don't know" at least three dozen times before lunchtime finally ended, and the children were guided back outside. He immediately escaped by starting his run around the yard, and while a few of the children—notably Anna—tried to chase him, none of them could catch up, and many ended up faceplanting into the snow.

Jonny ran for fifteen minutes or so, testing his new breathing with his running. He found that his first breathing method was best for running, because he did not need any explosive movements, and it let him recover the mana he burned at almost the same rate that he burned it. At the end of the fifteen minutes, though, the back door of the orphanage opened, and to his surprise, Tommy emerged. And he was not alone.

Jonny was at the opposite end of the yard when it happened, so he could not see it clearly, but it looked like he was accompanied by Helen, Igrette, an adult couple, and another child that Jonny didn't recognize. He tried getting a closer look, but Tommy and the new child were completely shrouded from his view when all the other children swarmed the newcomers. When Jonny reached the orphanage again, he was conflicted on whether to continue his run or check out the commotion.

On one hand, he was curious, but on the other, he didn't want to join the swarm. Luckily, he didn't have to make the decision himself, because Sister Lucy ushered him over as soon as she saw him, pushing him to the back of the crowd. The man in the adult couple was almost completely hidden from sight, as he was crouching down and talking to some of the children, and the woman was watching it all with a smile that mirrored Helen's beside her.

He could see enough of the other child to know that it was a girl, with curly blond hair tied up in twintails by sparkly pink ribbons, but that was about it. He craned his neck to get a better look, but couldn't get much.

"That's Baron Harrison Ellis," said Lucy, crouching down to speak in his ear.

"And believe it or not, he lived here once too. I was friends with him once, actually. He was a year older than me, and we used to play together all the time. He was a very smart boy, and recently became a fifth layer mage, which is how he earned his title."

"Mages earn titles?"

"Yes, every fifth layer mage becomes a Baron and is granted a manor and land by the kingdom." Jonny frowned. That seemed too low of a bar to earn a title.

"It's not as easy as it might sound," said Lucy with a chuckle.

"Each layer is much harder to form than the last. It's common for children to form their first layer before age ten, but forming your second layer before fifteen means you have talent, and forming your third layer before twenty five qualifies you for some of the kingdom's specialized training program to try to push you to fourth or higher and turn you into a national asset. The fact that Baron Ellis is already fifth layer at his age is truly impressive. He's one of the most talented mages since Duke Meyer himself."

Jonny flinched at the mention of his father, but Lucy didn't seem to notice. Instead, her gaze was fixed on the baron with a wistful expression on her face. Jonny turned to look as well, and listened as the baron told some kind of story about when he was an orphan here. Something about getting in trouble for setting the fence on fire, and the way he told it was entertaining enough that he had most of the children laughing. He seems like a nice guy …

Jonny was in a weird mood, listening to the man talk, knowing the man was Tommy's soon-to-be father. He tried telling himself that he didn't care that much, and that things would be quieter now that Tommy would be gone, but he knew that wasn't true. The thought of doing his outside exercise without Tommy talking his ear off did not fill him with joy and anticipation. Fuck. I'm actually gonna miss that brat… He sighed as he realized it was true.

Tommy might have been annoying, but he was a good kid, and he at least wasn't boring. Jonny had definitely gotten attached. And now he was almost a little annoyed that he couldn't go too. He knew that Tommy's adoption was a little bit special, and hearing that the baron was a talented mage made it obvious why, but Jonny found himself wondering if he could somehow convince them to take him too. Then, the baron finished his story and stood up, and Jonny saw his face. Wait… I know that guy!