The Day After - I

Morning the next day

Adonai: 

*Yawn*

Morning routine, the usual, or so I would like to say, but everything is canceled today, everywhere on the planet. In fact, yesterday after Stella passed out we had to rush to a hospital, thankfully nothing too serious, it was just the already existing panic rushing us, we should've realized then. And by the time we got there things calmed down quite a bit. 

A council was formed, hours later the same day, with the most important people in all the continents, but not the presidents, the presidents were not the ones to make decisions, they were the ones to appear in public and be first we will send in front of the enemy either to greet them or to have their heads blown up, nothing of value will be lost either way. 

But until then there's one year of preparations and right now we wait. We wait for the news of how things will change and how we will move forward, what choices we have, if we have any at all, what's coming is without a doubt affecting every living person here so thanks to the recent dragon reveal almost every country and their extremists agreed to cease any kind of on going silent or out right war. Either way, until then I'm gonna head to the library.

The library is a part of my house but it's a bit more secluded from the main home, and I'm gonna brush through some fictional books to expand my imagination and my understanding of what not so long ago I considered only fiction and nothing more.

*Creak*

"I really need to oil this door, it sounds pretty terrible."

"Yea, you really should do it, in fact I can help you clean this place, all of it looks terrible." A voice said from the shadows.

"Thank you, that would be really helpful ... wait a goddamn minute!" I said with a tone not so surprised by her presence here, and a face imitating a shocked expression.

"You don't sound surprised at all to see me here, or look that way either, did I become that predictable?" She said in a rather joyful manner

"If I would have a nickel for every time you snuck in this house, I would be able to afford another one, you're the reason why I also stopped locking my door." I said with a sigh and a shrug.

"That's really concerning, what if you get robbed?"

"They don't have a lot to steal from me anyway."

"You're really honest, aren't you? Anyway I came here to hang out until we get the news. Waiting at home, without having the maids around as well, was absolutely killing me."

Even when everyone is free I guess her parents still don't care to come home, or maybe they can't but either way I don't mind keeping her company.

"Well I'm planning to read some fictional books to expand my knowledge or I hope that will do, I would recommend doing the same, we don't know if we're gonna get a choice to take part in this or to stay in the sidelines, truth to be told I would prefer to stay and keep living my peaceful life if possible." I said in a dead serious tone.

"Hmm, you got a point well then let's get started, shall we? I'll look some books up for myself, after all your father was really generous with this place, it's so filled, bookshelves over bookshelves dusty with spider webs and mold and ... I'll beat you up if you don't clean this place especially when you claim to care so much about it." She said also dead serious and exasperated.

"Alright alright ma'am I shall be obedient and do that later, but for now go look for something and stay down, if the principles in fiction apply to our universe as well, more or less we will learn something and if not at least we spend our time doing something."

"Alright!"

And so the hours passed, hours after hours, I am reading a book with a dark cover and a pentagram on it with the title "The Incoming Apocalypse", while it doesn't seem to have a lot to do with magic itself, it describes some entities which at this point wouldn't surprise me if they exist in reality, and their respective roles in bringing an end to everything. 

There are three characters present, all without names, but all with descriptions for their appearance, from which one stands out the most and is more prevalent in the whole story, almost like the rest were not known or not so many people have seen or heard about them to write more. But this one that stands out, a tall gentleman with dark hair, part of it being white at the center of his head, red eyes with the intensity of the depths of hell itself, a hat with a black suit and an appearance that looks human? What the hell is this, while I wouldn't put it past the recent revelations for a person like this to exist I doubt they would have a human look, after all they can't be a human and be this strong.

And this book doesn't have an author, I wonder who wrote it, and I wonder if this was really a good use of our time but it doesn't matter because now our phones are ringing. The sound of an alarm, and a message with a link to a video made its appearance on our screens, simultaneously the same message was playing on the radio, tv, everywhere.

"Dear citizen of Earth, we understand that the recent news shocked you, and sent fear through your hearts, but we, the council, are here today to announce that we will move forward in these trying times, and we will not give up our earth to anyone. If it's war that awaits us, or a good alliance that's for the future to decide, but now, in the present, we have decided that every school and workplace, every kid, teenager, adult will shift its and their focus to training into the arts called magic. Truth to be told we don't know much right now but we all started to feel the change in our bodies, feeling more sensitive to everything around us and many more. This is just another beginning for us but we will stand proud, it is not the first nor the last time something life changing hit us and just like in the past we will survive. We will learn and in a year we will be prepared!" The message until now was narrated with an inspiring tone, somewhat apologetic as well and then a pause followed.

"... One month before what we call the "doomsday" there will be new recruitments for the military, the most promising candidates will be drafted in the main lines and if a war awaits us, I wish you the best, if it's peace then the privilege to travel the cosmos and not be someone that can be made fun of it's yours ... Now from tomorrow please do your best in figuring it out, because we will do the same, please help each other. In these times we need information, we need guidance but more than anything we need cooperation, and it will be this cooperation between everyone that leads us to the protection of our home."

After the video message finished playing I looked in the direction of my very best friend with the most serious expression I made in my whole life and I asked her: "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna learn as much as possible, create as much as possible, take control of magic itself if I have to." She returned my gaze with one as equally serious as mine, and a tone with no hint of doubt, or fear in her voice, she was serious and determined.

"I didn't know you were so keen on defending this planet." I said keeping my face straight, it was not meant to be a joke, but a serious remark and she took it as such before responding.

"I wonder if it is for this planet, or for myself, but I feel this determination, I feel like trying to change the destiny itself, I want to challenge it ... if you want to stay on the sidelines, maybe you should try reading this, I found it while looking for books explaining more about mana."

"Mana Concealing" was the title of the book, author name: Melek, our family name which could only mean one thing ... It's a book written by my father. It's true that even I and most likely Kath as well started noticing the change in our bodies, we became more aware of our surrounding, more sensible probably would be the perfect word, while our body center became slightly heavier, and our veins have more pressure, something coursing through them, something other than blood. The only fair assumption being that the 'mana veins' are just our usual veins, a deduction we should've made already when the dragon said they are connected to our hearts.

"Thank you, I didn't know my father wrote a book like this, and it's so thoughtful of you to give it to me ... in the hopes that it will do something and make me stay on the sidelines like I wanted." I said with a smirk.

"This is ... the least I can do for you." She said with a smile that didn't quite reach her ears.

Not being able to quite grasp the feeling I panicked and looked outside only to see that it was almost dark, so out of consideration I said: "You should perhaps head home, it's getting darker outside." Those words left my mouth without realizing that there's no one waiting for her right now anyway.

"Yea, I should, well see you tomorrow!" And she left.

I couldn't really get a look at her face when she left, she rushed outside, and I feel bad, but the time for apologizing is tomorrow. I returned my attention to the book my father wrote, which described a process that in his fantasy world would conceal an individual mana.

'Normal people take ambient mana in their body to infuse it with their understanding of a principle to give it shape and create a spell' that much was written in the book and it is the same with the dragon description, to conceal an individual mana they have to take it into their body, and keep it there, removing the impurities from it. 

Ambient mana works on the principle of impurity, coming from outside it's impure due to the nature of the universe and the constant in and out from casting spells, while mana should be infinite there's also constant in and out mana from the castings of the users, well according to his fictional universe at least. 

Purifying mana and keeping it in the center of the body will shrink the particles and make it less detectable, giving the impression that the user has very little of it, or that they have almost no understanding or training. Unfortunately it has no description on how you 'purify' it but it is worth trying to figure it out, even if it's just fiction in a way or another I'm training something and whatever happens happens. I thought, taking the book with me in the main house and closing the door to the library.