Chapter 43 - Tumblr Posts
Burnout.
Sunny woke up sprawled out in her bed with an assortment of blankets weighing her down.
“Don’t try getting up.”
Harmony? What was she doing here? The last thing Sunny remembered was seeing red. The kind of vision one acquired when rage managed to sink its talons into them. Then she remembered the memory crystal, and the horrible truths it revealed. Sunny squeezed a handful of the bedding in her fist. Red started spotting her vision, fueling her spout of rage that hadn’t simmered in the slightest. Instead, the pot was ready to boil over.
Sunny tried sitting up.
“Mage! What did I just—”
Sunny screamed.
“Told you, idiot.”
Sunny plopped back on the bed. It felt like a million needles were jabbing into every section of her flesh. Moving her body, even a little, caused a domino effect of pain. “W-What happened?”
"Great, she can still move her mouth.” Harmony rolled her eyes.
A tall figure appeared on Sunny’s left. She shifted her gaze. “Mr E?”
Ervin looked down at her with a concerned frown. “What happened to you? Harmony ran to my office and told me that she found you passed out on the floor. I thought it was something I could help with, but I had to call Goodley to give you a proper work up. She had to leave to deal with other patients but she got your vitals under control before she left. There's a potion from her with your name on it." He pushed his hair out of his face, "You should’ve seen the look on her face when she saw you—she was whiter than a ghost."
"W-Why does it hurt when I move?"
"Goodley told me that your magic flared.” Ervin said.
Sunny frowned. Flared?
“It’s when a mage over does it with their magic.” Ervin rubbed at the bags under his eyes. It made Sunny wonder how long he and Harmony were waiting up for her. “We talked about this a little bit before, about how a mage’s core has a certain amount of magic, and how they can continue to increase that load with the proper training. But we’ve never talked about this. I didn’t think I would have to, it’s not something that’s meant to happen this early in your career.”
“Why not?”
“Because, solar flaring isn’t something you want to make a habit.” Ervin tried to explain, “It goes back to the basic tenets of magic. Our bodies are meant to hold our core—which holds our magical essence in its purest form. But when our bodies become weak, they don’t have the ability to keep holding in all that magic.”
“Oh, so my magic sorta leaked out?”
Harmony snorted. “More like, busted out.”
“Basically.” Ervin said, “That’s why you were glowing, your magic seeped into your bloodstream. But Goodley managed to get here in time, thank the Sages. She collected every trace of your magic and put it back in your core. All you need to do is give it time to heal back up.”
“Wait, can't she take it back out?” Sunny asked. “I felt—”
“No.”
“But—”
“No. I mean it. This isn't something to play with.”
“I don’t get what the big deal is, all you’ve been trying to teach me is transferring magic from one object to another. Didn’t my magic jump from my core to my blood? How is this any different than what you taught me? I’m living your lesson plan, you should be happy.”
“Your core cracked, Sunny.” Ervin’s voice sounded colder than the harshest winters in the North. Even his stare kept Sunny frozen. “You’re right, the most skilled mages shed their cores and have their magic leak into their blood. That’s called sage level. You’re nowhere near ready for that scenario.”
But it worked. The words threatened to spill from Sunny's mouth, but she bit her tongue.
Sunny wanted to tell him how exhilarating it felt to have all that power racing through her veins. Wanted to tell him how she casted a time-jump spell on herself. And how she moved at a speed that felt faster than lightning, while the world lagged behind her. But she knew he was right. Reaching her flare point shouldn’t make her feel like crap in the aftermath.
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Sneak peek at the short comic I’ve been working on lately