The Ancient One rose from her cushion and motioned for Lynn to sit opposite her. The tea on the low table had already been cleared away, replaced by the parchment scroll bound with dark red silk thread. The Ancient One untied the thread and unrolled the scroll. Every line of the magic array shimmered a faint, dark gold in the reflected light from the snow outside. She raised her right hand, holding her fingertips above the scroll, and began chanting softly.
The light of the magic array slowly rose from the parchment. Its lines detached from their medium and floated in the air, rotating slowly. The array's outer ring stabilized first, followed by the miniature runes of the inner ring lighting up one after another.
The Ancient One extended her left hand and lightly touched Lynn's forehead. The magic array began to shrink, contracting to the size of a coin. It spun faster and faster, yet its light grew increasingly subdued, changing from dazzling dark gold to a soft white. Lynn felt an extremely faint tingle on his forehead.
It was right there. In some corner his consciousness could reach but would not notice in everyday life. The array flickered slightly, then settled into stillness.
The Ancient One withdrew her hand, her voice calm. "You should be able to sense how to trigger it. Actively touch it with magic, and the array will activate. Cut off the input, and it will stop. Remember this feeling."
Lynn opened his eyes.
"Let me try."
He tried to touch that switch with his magic membrane. But he had forgotten that he had no mana now.
After all that effort, he couldn't even squeeze out a fart.
"There's no rush," The Ancient One said, her tone gentle but brooking no argument. "Next, you will begin the second stage of your studies at Kamar-Taj."
"I thought I'd already graduated," Lynn said.
"What you previously studied at Kamar-Taj wasn't magic." The Ancient One looked at him. "You merely used your ability to replicate the effects of magic. You never truly understood how energy moved behind any rune. Now you have the array, but the array itself is only a tool. Activating it requires a continuous supply of magical energy, and maintaining precise deletion also requires a stable energy output.
"So I have to learn it all over again."
"You'll be learning it for the first time!" The Ancient One stood, walked to the study entrance, and pushed open the wooden door. From the corridor outside came the footsteps of apprentices heading to their classrooms one after another. "Before, you could copy something with a glance. At its core, that was copying. You never learned it. Now you must use your own will, rather than your ability, to truly master the essence of every rune and every spell. You must learn to circulate and channel your own mana, rather than relying every time on that brain-burning ability to do the work for you. This will be more tedious than anything you've experienced before. But it is the only way."
Lynn stood, folded his glasses and hung them on his breast pocket, then tucked his headphones inside his jacket. Tony had already moved to the corner, where he stood with his arms crossed, not having spoken the entire time.
"Then I'll learn," Lynn said casually, as though he had just been told he had to get up early for a fitness class tomorrow.
The Ancient One gave a slight nod and left the study. Lynn followed her, glancing back at Tony when he reached the doorway.
"You don't need to wait here. This'll probably take a while. Go back and fine-tune your new armor."
Tony straightened Lynn's slightly crooked collar as he replied, "We have a solution now. Don't keep me waiting too long. Sort this out soon so you can work for me and pay off your debt."
"Got it! You evil capitalist."
Tony did not answer, only giving Lynn a slight nod.
The classroom at Kamar-Taj was the same as ever. Portraits of successive Sorcerers Supreme hung on the stone walls, with an unbroken range of snowy mountains outside the windows and warm yellow light spilling through the carved wooden latticework. Mordo stood at the front, teaching a group of apprentices the basic principles of drawing on elemental energy. The apprentices ranged from seven or eight years old to their thirties. Some wore formal sorcerer's robes, while others still wore the plain, coarse short garments of their probationary period. A miniature energy sphere for practice floated before each of them.
When the Ancient One led Lynn into the classroom through the back door, Mordo's hand paused as he was explaining energy nodes. When his gaze passed over Lynn, a helpless look that practically screamed Why is this guy back to torment me again? nearly spilled from his eyes, but he quickly put on a stern face and pretended nothing had happened.
The Ancient One motioned for Lynn to take an empty seat in the back row. The apprentices turned to look at him, their gazes a mixture of curiosity and confusion. This man had learned portals and energy defenses after only three days at Kamar-Taj. What was he doing sitting in the most basic class now?
The Ancient One walked to the side of the teaching platform, gave Mordo a slight nod, then turned to all the apprentices.
"For today's lesson, we return to the starting point of energy circulation. Before condensing your first wisp of mana, first understand where it comes from."
She raised her hand, palm up, and a wisp of pale golden mana slowly rose from it, like a flame slowed down countless times. It had not been "summoned," but seemed to grow naturally out of her palm, every strand of light bearing a clear texture.
"Mana is not an external power. It comes from the resonance between your own soul's frequency and dimensional energy. Summoning magic is not demanding. It is resonating."
Lynn sat in the back row with his hands on his knees, staring at the wisp of pale golden light in the Ancient One's palm. In the past, when he watched basic demonstrations like this, a complete spell would automatically pop into his mind, and he could copy it with a lift of his finger. Now he tried touching that switch with his mind, then watched the energy in the Ancient One's hand intently, trying to understand it-not copy it, but understand it. The patterns of mana flowed steadily in her palm, every strand of light following a traceable course.
The Ancient One withdrew the light in her palm. Her gaze swept over all the apprentices before finally settling on the corner of the back row.
"Lynn." Her voice was as calm as ever. "You answer."
Lynn rose from his seat. Every apprentice in the classroom turned to look at him, and a few of the younger ones whispered among themselves. They had heard about how this man had driven Senior Brother Mordo mad on the training grounds. Lynn looked at the Ancient One, then at his own empty palm.
"Mana comes from the resonance between the soul's frequency and dimensional energy."
The Ancient One looked at him, then gave a slight nod after a moment.
"Sit down. Now, try to let it grow in your own palm."
Lynn sat back down and extended his right hand. He stared at his palm, in no hurry to begin. Before, he had only needed to "want a fireball," and the fireball would come. Now he had to actually learn how to resonate. It was slow and troublesome, but this was the first time he was not gaining power through an ability that exacted a price.
He lightly touched the switch in his mind with his thoughts, without actually activating it, merely confirming that it was still there. Then he brought his attention back to his palm and began practicing the most basic mana resonance.
Outside the window, Kamar-Taj's snowy mountains reflected a dazzling white in the afternoon sunlight.