Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 95 – Putting it into Practice

“Good. Now come over here,” Cattleya said without any hesitation whatsoever.

…

Is that it?

She didn’t react?

I know she has seen me before, but… nothing?

…

I guess she didn’t say anything when she saw Ava’s wings either…

…

In an attempt to distract myself from my own thoughts, I just did as Cattleya asked, sitting down in front of her on the grass while waiting for whatever she was going to do next.

“Alright, what we are going to do right now is something that I have not done before… But, if I am going to teach you any further, then I need to identify exactly what type of mana imbalance you have,” She said, “Based on the colour of your hair and your general demeanour, I already have an idea of what to expect, but I still need to confirm it, many different types of mana can lead to similar traits after all.”

“… You haven’t done this before?” I asked cautiously.

“No? Why would I?” She responded immediately, “My mana imbalance was already known long before I was born. It was passed down through the Astrantia bloodline, so there was no need to test it.”

I thought she said that it was only rarely inherited from your parents. Is it different for vampires? Or is her bloodline just special?

…

Do I ask her?

“Now, as I said before, each type of mana can behave drastically differently, so when it comes to applied mana, otherwise known as magic, it is largely down to a combination of personal experience and intuition. However, when considering magic in its most primitive form, most are fairly similar,” She then stuck her hand out towards me with her palm facing upwards, “Inside of you is all this excess mana; all you need to do is let it out. In doing so, if, for example, you had fire mana, as you let it out, it would become a flame. But in my case…”

Soft green wisps seemed to come out of her fingers for a brief moment before a flower began to sprout from the ground beneath it. It was fairly small, but that didn’t take away from just how incredible it was to see. I had seen magic being used a few times before, mainly from Ovia and Ava… but this was different. Whenever Ovia used magic, I didn’t question it; she’s a Goddess, so it only made sense for her to be able to do things like that. When Ava used her healing magic, it always made me feel better, but I never really saw it working. I only felt it… It was just… seeing something physical like that, despite how small it was, was eye-opening in an entirely different way.

“As you can see, I can use the plant magic that has been passed down to me. In this case, just releasing a little of my mana into the air encourages nearby plants to grow. However, in reality, it is not a very practical usage of magic, as while it can encourage plants to grow, that is all it does. It does not only make a particular plant grow, or even decide how it should grow, but that is where a person’s imagination and understanding of their own mana imbalance will become important,” She said as she moved her hand closer to the flower that had just sprouted, “As an example, if instead of just haphazardly releasing my mana I controlled it, used it to draw a path, perhaps something simple like a circle-”

As she said that, I once again saw the pale green wisps come from her fingers, but this time, they looked just a little different, more defined, although that might have been nothing more than my imagination. After only a short moment, the flower started to grow once again. However, instead of simply growing upwards like before, it began to curve, gently wrapping around Cattleya’s wrist before abruptly detaching itself from the ground.

“-It is possible to achieve something like this instead,” She said, holding up the flower, now turned bracelet, with a smug look on her face. “Now, what I need you to do right now is what I first showed you. Just let out a small amount of your mana so I can identify it. It should be easy enough for you, considering-” She abruptly stopped herself before continuing, “Mana reacts strongly to your thoughts and feelings, so if you just will it to happen, it will happen… but please make sure it is small. I do not want to be surprised with a bolt of lightning or a flame that sets this forest ablaze, not that it is what I am expecting to happen.”

I held my own hand out much like Cattleya did and looked down at my palm. She made it all sound so easy; all I needed to do was think about it, and it would happen. It was an absurd idea… but so was the idea of using magic itself. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have an idea of what she meant; I was already able to move my shadow with my thoughts, could turn into a fox and back on a whim… if anything, I was probably better versed with magic than I had originally thought when I agreed to this lesson.

Just think about it…

That’s it.

…

I tried to do as she said, imagining this nebulous mana that was supposed to be inside of me travelling down to my hand and somehow seeping out… yet nothing happened. I couldn’t even feel anything different. All the while, Cattleya was sitting there, staring intently at my hand as I continued to try over and over again for what felt like a small eternity.

Why doesn’t it work?

…

When Ava uses her magic, her hands glow a little… and Cattleya has those wisps coming from her fingers…

Is that what I’m missing?

Do I need to think about what it’s supposed to look like?

She did mention using imagination…

I tried again, thinking about the mana coalescing in my hand, making it glow softly as it slowly seeped out from my fingertips just as I had seen before and… there was still nothing happening.

Why is it so difficult?

Cattleya made it sound so easy…

…

Why am I able to move my shadow around as I please, but I can’t do this? Is my shadow not magic?

But Aria once told me that my white hair was from my affinity for light magic. So I must at least have that…

If I don’t…

…

I closed my eyes as my thoughts kept lingering on my shadow, in particular, the first day I discovered it. The way it seemed to have a mind of its own as it writhed around, the way it somehow started to listen to my thoughts, the way it helped me to hide what I didn’t want to be seen.

As those thoughts circled around in my mind, I felt something slowly start to change. The sensation I recalled why my shadow first crawled across my body came back to me, the chill that crept along my arm, reaching out desperately for my palm. The image in my mind started to change; as my shadow kept struggling, it was somehow able to break free from my hand and crawl up into the air. It was strange and unnatural, but it just seemed right to me. It even reminded me of those tendrils that I had seen Ovia make use of before.

“Oh my…”

Those two words from Cattleya immediately pulled me out of my trance, and my eyelids shot open. As my eyes quickly refocused, I noticed that there was a small dark grey blob floating just above my palm, almost exactly as it had appeared in my mind. Yet, after looking up just a bit, I could see that that wasn’t where Cattleya’s eyes were looking. Instead, they were firmly affixed on my face.

“What-” I jerked back a little as I spoke, and that’s when I saw it.

A strand of pure white hair that passed in front of my eyes.

Immediately, I realised what had happened. Somehow, in trying to concentrate my mana on my hand, I accidentally let my shadow fall from my hair, exposing it right in front of her.

“I-!” I immediately tried to speak up.

“That’s… an interesting combination…” She said as she inched closer, “You were hiding your hair colour with your magic… but why?”

“What?” I said as my mind was scrambling for some kind of explanation I could give her.

“White hair… that makes me think of ice mana… although that’s not normally this pure of colour, more blue or grey… I think those who dabble in the realm of death magic often have white hair, but that might just be because all of the ones I have found out about in records were elderly… There is also light mana, which would explain the colour… but that couldn’t be it… If you had light mana, how were you able to dye your hair like that?”

Is that… it?

My shoulders gradually started to relax despite what Cattleya was saying. I had expected much more of a reaction, just like before… but she was just… curious? That was it. It was like when I showed my hair to Elenia all over again.

Nothing bad happened.

“What am I even saying?” Cattleya said as her focus moved down to my hand instead, “Looking at this, you must have… um… dark? No, it is not quite dark enough… It is also holding itself together far too well… Almost like water mana, but that cannot be right either… maybe something to do with metal? No, it is too dark for that…”

She picked up a stick and tried to poke at the blob, yet it just passed through as if it wasn’t even there.

“I… I do not know what this is…” She said, as she set the stick down beside her, “It does not match anything I can think of… that just… does not make any sense… Who are you? And I mean… Who are you really?”

What does she mean she doesn’t know?

I thought she knew about magic, that’s why she offered the lesson.

I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to her now. I don’t know what answer she wants.

“… Kierra,” I struggled to speak, but I knew that I had to say something even if I knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, “I’m just… Kierra.”

She just stared intently at my face, then back down to the mana in my hands. It was clear that the gears inside her mind were turning, trying to assess what was going on.

“You… really don’t know…” She muttered under her breath before suddenly exploding back to life, “Then this must be something entirely new! Something that even I have never heard of, something that no one has ever heard of… But what can it do? If this really is the reason you can-”

She abruptly stopped herself, but I couldn’t figure out why, at least until Ava called out from behind me.

“Hey, you two, it’s time for lunch!” She shouted, “I’m sure you can continue your lesson after a short break.”

“But-” Cattleya tried to speak up but didn’t get very far.

“Lunch.” Ava interrupted with a sternness in her voice that made Cattleya flinch a little.

…

“Okay…” She said as she eventually gave in.