There is a specific feeling when you stand before a person whom is levels stronger than you.
The way your hair stands along every inch of your body.
The cold sweat that covers every corner of your body.
your instincts alert beyond what should be controllable.
"Relax."
The voice rebound in the room.
The density of mana felt in the room would be enough to kill a animal - Vernon had thought.
< Kugh.. how did i get into this situation? >
A few minutes previous to this situation Vernon had been approached by 3 instructors and was taken to the very top of the tower where he was met with this incredible force of a woman.
With white hair and wrinkles that seemed to show age wrongly, clothing that seems too high of a suture to be in an academy. An presence that made Vernon doubt if Derek could win against this person.
It had been a long time since Vernon felt fear.
Vernon mustered up some courage to ask, "....Am i in trouble?"
The silence followed right after.
Vernon thought he was really going to suffocate with the increasing pressure.
He couldn't tell whether the pressure increased or whether the pressure increased because of his own stress.
"What you feel right now.." The tone in the voice had dispersed, "Is not real."
The pressure disappeared.
< Huh? ..Not real? >
The tone was soft suddenly, an older croaky voice that carried warmth instead of pressure.
"You are wondering why you felt my mana."
Vernon blinked.
He hadn't asked that out loud.
The woman smiled faintly.
"It is written all over your face."
Vernon hesitated before nodding slowly.
"Yes..."
She raised a hand slightly and the air stirred - not violently, but like water settling after a stone had been dropped.
"What you felt a moment ago was not my mana crushing you."
She tapped a finger lightly against the arm of her chair.
"It was your mind reacting to something it could not yet understand."
Vernon frowned.
"My... mind?"
"Mm."
She leaned forward slightly.
"Tell me, Vernon. When you stand near a raging fire, do you need someone to tell you it is hot?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because... you can feel it."
"Exactly."
Her finger lifted again.
"Mana is the same. When a person's mana becomes refined enough, it gains what we call presence."
She paused long enough to make sure he was following.
"Presence is not force. It is simply... density. Clarity. A lifetime of refinement."
Vernon swallowed.
"So the pressure I felt-"
"-Was your instincts."
She nodded approvingly.
"Your mind recognized something far beyond your current understanding and reacted to protect you."
She gestured lightly around the room.
"A small animal would have fainted."
Vernon stiffened slightly.
"A normal mage would feel uncomfortable."
Her eyes met his.
"You felt fear."
Vernon looked away.
"...Yes."
The grandmaster chuckled softly.
"That is not an insult."
She raised a finger again.
"It actually tells me quite a lot about you."
Vernon looked back.
"How?"
"Because most students would not feel anything at all."
His brows knit together.
"They wouldn't?"
"No."
She shook her head slowly.
"They lack the mental sensitivity to perceive it."
She continued calmly.
"Mana is shaped by many things - origin, compatibility, familiarity."
Her finger lowered slightly.
"But the one most students forget..."
She tapped lightly against her temple.
"...is the mind."
Vernon's eyes widened slightly.
"The mind determines how clearly a person can perceive mana."
She leaned back.
"A stable mind senses mana more easily."
"A disciplined mind controls it more efficiently."
"And an imaginative mind..."
A faint smile appeared.
"...can reshape it entirely."
Vernon blinked.
"So what I felt..."
"Was your mind reacting to mine."
She nodded.
"My mana has been refined for over a century."
Vernon froze slightly.
< A century...? >
She noticed the reaction and smiled.
"Do not look so surprised. Time does strange things to people who study mana long enough."
Then her gaze sharpened slightly.
"But what interests me is not that you felt it."
She leaned forward again.
"It is how quickly you understood something was wrong."
Vernon stayed quiet.
The grandmaster rested her chin lightly against her hand.
"You did not mistake it for hostility."
"You questioned it."
"You endured it."
Her eyes narrowed with interest.
"Most students panic long before that point."
Vernon rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"...I thought I might die."
The grandmaster laughed.
"A reasonable assumption."
Then her voice softened again.
"Tell me something, Vernon."
His shoulders straightened.
"Yes?"
"When you felt that pressure..."
Her eyes studied him carefully.
"...did it feel like something was attacking you?"
Vernon thought for a moment.
"...No."
"Then what did it feel like?"
He hesitated before answering.
"...Like standing in deep water."
The grandmaster's smile widened slightly.
"Ah."
She leaned back comfortably.
"That explains it."
"Explains what?"
Her eyes glimmered with quiet interest.
"Your compatibility."
The word hung in the air.
Vernon's mind immediately began pulling apart everything she had said.
< Compatibility... not origin... not familiarity. >
< Is she talking about the way my mana interacts with others... >
He slowly exhaled.
"You mean I reacted strongly because... my mana can sense yours?"
"Close."
The grandmaster raised a single finger.
"You reacted strongly because your mind processed it correctly."
Vernon froze.
< Processed... correctly? >
She continued.
"Most students feel a presence like mine and assume they are under attack."
She tilted her head slightly.
"They panic."
Her finger lowered.
"You didn't."
Vernon replayed the moment in his head.
The suffocating pressure.
The instinct screaming at him to move.
To run.
To defend.
But he hadn't.
He had questioned it.
< Because it didn't feel hostile... >
His eyes widened slightly.
"You realized something was wrong with the situation instead of assuming you were in danger," she said.
Vernon felt strangely exposed.
It was like she had watched every thought pass through his head.
The grandmaster hummed softly.
"That level of awareness is rare."
Her gaze sharpened slightly.
"Especially for someone your age."
Vernon didn't know how to respond to that.
So he stayed quiet.
Silence filled the room again.
But this time it didn't feel oppressive.
It felt... measured.
Like she was weighing something.
Finally she spoke again.
"Tell me, Vernon."
"Yes, Grandmaster."
"Why did you come to this academy?"
The question caught him off guard.
"...To learn."
"Learn what?"
Vernon paused.
Mana.
Magic.
Control.
Knowledge.
The answer seemed obvious.
But something about the way she asked the question made the obvious answer feel wrong.
"...To understand mana," he said slowly.
The grandmaster's smile returned.
"Good."
She nodded once.
"Then I will be honest with you."
Vernon straightened instinctively.
"You should not be studying here."
For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
< ...What? >
He blinked.
"...Grandmaster?"
"This academy exists to teach foundations," she said calmly.
"Structure. Discipline. Control."
Her eyes met his.
"But you already possess the most difficult component."
She tapped her temple lightly.
"The mind."
Vernon's thoughts spun.
< That can't be right... >
< I barely understand half of what she's saying... >
She seemed to read that doubt immediately.
"Do not mistake potential for mastery."
Her tone remained gentle.
"You still have much to learn."
She gestured around the tower.
"But not here."
Vernon frowned.
"...Then where?"
The grandmaster leaned back in her chair.
For the first time since the conversation began, she looked slightly amused.
"There is someone I would like you to meet."
Something in her tone made Vernon's instincts stir again.
Not fear this time.
Curiosity.
"My brother."
Vernon's brain stalled for a second.
< Her... brother? >
"If my mana felt overwhelming to you," she continued casually, "his will feel like standing beneath the ocean."
Vernon's stomach dropped slightly.
< Beneath... the ocean? >
"That sounds..." he hesitated.
"Dangerous?"
The grandmaster laughed softly.
"Only if you resist it."
Vernon's mind immediately began processing.
< If her mana felt like pressure... >
< And she says his is greater... >
< Then he must have surpassed her refinement... >
His eyes widened slightly.
"You mean he's stronger than you."
"Considerably."
The answer came without hesitation.
That alone shocked Vernon more than the statement itself.
Someone like her admitting that so casually...
The grandmaster's eyes gleamed.
"My brother has spent his life studying something most mages ignore."
Vernon leaned forward slightly.
"...What?"
She smiled faintly.
"Imagination."
The word hit Vernon harder than expected.
< Imagination? >
"He stopped learning new elements decades ago," she continued.
"Instead he began asking a different question."
Her finger traced a slow circle in the air.
"What happens when you stop expanding your mana..."
"...and start understanding it?"
Vernon's mind raced.
< The rule of three... >
< Sub-elements... >
< Combination... >
It all clicked together.
The grandmaster watched the realization form on his face.
"Yes," she said softly.
"You see it."
Vernon swallowed.
"You're saying... the limit of three elements..."
"...isn't a real limit."
"Correct."
"It's a limit of imagination."
The room fell silent again.
Vernon looked down at his hands.
His mind felt like it had just been kicked open.
< If what she's saying is true... >
< Then magic isn't about collecting elements... >
< It's about understanding how they interact... >
He slowly looked back up.
"...And you want me to learn from him?"
The grandmaster nodded.
"I believe he will find you interesting."
Vernon wasn't sure if that was comforting.
Or terrifying.
Then she smiled again.
"And besides."
Her voice carried a hint of amusement.
"If I allowed you to stay here..."
"...you would grow bored within half a year."
Vernon opened his mouth to argue.
Then paused.
< ...She might be right. >
The grandmaster stood.
The movement alone made the air feel heavier again.
"Come."
She gestured toward the tower stairs.
"I will introduce you."
Vernon hesitated before standing.
< If she feels like a mountain... >
< What does someone stronger than her feel like? >
His mind produced only one answer.
< ...A world. >
The academy walls slowly disappeared behind them as they walked through the city.
Stone towers gave way to smaller buildings.
Then houses, workshops, stores.
Then open land.
Vernon kept glancing toward the grandmaster walking beside him.
She hadn't spoken much since they left.
< Her brother... >
The thought still felt unreal.
Someone stronger than her.
Someone who had gone beyond the academy itself.
Eventually they reached the edge of the city.
The air felt different here.
Quieter.
Stranger.
Ahead of them stood a large circular stone building surrounded by scattered metal structures and strange rods pointing toward the sky.
Some of the ground nearby looked warped - like stone had melted and hardened again.
A few small rocks hovered an inch above the dirt before slowly drifting back down.
Vernon slowed slightly.
< Experiments... >
Aurelia continued forward without hesitation.
"Do not touch anything unless he tells you to."
"...That sounds concerning."
"It should."
They approached the entrance.
There were no guards.
No barriers.
Just a wide open doorway.
Vernon frowned.
< Anyone could walk in here... >
Then something happened.
He stopped.
His instincts screamed.
Not danger.
Not pressure.
Something else.
His eyes shifted slightly toward the building.
< What... >
The air felt wrong.
Not heavy like the grandmaster's mana.
Not empty either.
It felt like standing near something he could not fully perceive.
Like a sound just outside the range of hearing.
Aurelia noticed he had stopped.
"...You feel it."
Vernon slowly nodded.
"I think so."
She watched him carefully but said nothing more.
Vernon focused.
< There's something here... >
His mana perception stretched outward.
At first he felt nothing.
Just empty air.
Then-
A flicker.
For a single instant it felt like his mind had struck something invisible.
A wall.
Not a physical wall.
Something deeper.
Like his thoughts themselves had hit a boundary.
Pain shot through his head.
"-!"
Vernon staggered slightly.
His vision split.
For a brief, terrifying moment it felt like his mind was being pulled in two different directions.
One part of him tried to understand what he was sensing.
The other part couldn't comprehend it at all.
And then-
Everything disappeared.
The world went silent.
Vernon blinked.
The air felt empty.
Completely empty.
But at the same time-
It felt full.
Not with mana.
With possibility.
His senses expanded for the smallest fraction of a moment.
The wind brushing past his skin.
The faint vibration of the ground.
The tiny movement of mana drifting through the air.
Everything.
And nothing.
At the same time.
Then the sensation collapsed instantly.
The world snapped back into place.
Vernon sucked in a breath.
"What... was that?"
His heart was racing.
Aurelia watched him carefully.
"You touched it."
"...Touched what?"
She looked toward the laboratory.
"The wall."
Vernon held his head.
"That felt like my brain was splitting apart."
"That is a common reaction."
He stared at her.
"That's common?!"
"For people who are close to understanding it."
Vernon blinked.
"...Understanding what?"
Aurelia spoke calmly.
"The difference between perceiving mana..."
"...and perceiving the absence of it."
Vernon slowly turned his head toward the building again.
< Absence... >
The realization crawled into his thoughts.
< If powerful mages radiate presence... >
< And her brother hides his completely... >
< Then the thing I felt... >
His eyes widened slightly.
"...That wall..."
"...is him."
Aurelia nodded once.
"My brother's control is absolute."
She folded her arms.
"What you felt was the boundary where your perception begins to fail."
Vernon swallowed.
< That was just... the edge? >
His mind replayed the moment again.
The instant where everything felt like nothing.
And nothing felt like everything.
A strange excitement formed in his chest.
"...I want to try again."
Aurelia raised an eyebrow.
"You will fail."
"Probably."
"But I want to understand it."
For a moment she said nothing.
Then she smiled faintly.
"Yes."
She turned toward the doorway.
"That is exactly why I brought you here."
Inside the building, a voice suddenly called out.
"You two going to stand outside all day?"
Vernon froze slightly.
The voice sounded relaxed.
Almost amused.
Aurelia sighed quietly.
"He noticed us."
Vernon took a slow breath.
< So that... >
< Is the man who built that wall. >
Vernon felt like he had just stepped onto the edge of something far larger than magic.
Something he could barely begin to understand.
Then Aurelia stepped inside.
And Vernon followed.