Jack slowly backed away from Turrel, wondering where the magic crystal was while he stared at the frankly terrifying machine in front of him.
The device slightly resembled an MRI machine from Earth. But instead of looking clinical and fresh with smooth clean lines, well, this looked like it was put together in the backyard of a post-apocalyptic bush mechanics scrap yard.
Antennas covered the large circular machine, extending from the outside to the interior of the device, all pointing directly at a distinctly uncomfortable-looking plank of wood. There were no visible wires, but the metal had an almost rusty look about it, lacking the sheen or metallic appearance he expected. Worst of all, a giant funnel sat above the machine. It tapered towards the bottom, looking like whatever it did would be focused directly at the antennas and channeled into whatever lay on that wooden slat.
“Yeah, nah. Look, I don't think this is for me anymore… I appreciate all the effort you guys are putting in, but this doesn't look safe at all so maybe you can just like… wave your arms and send me on back now?” Jack mumbled, continuing his retreat.
He had a slight fear of medical devices after a close call in which he may or may not have forgotten about a paperclip that found its way into an MRI room with him, leaving a scar down his inner thigh.
A strong hand gripped his shoulder, halting his escape.
“Now, now, Jacko. Your good friend Turtie would never ask you to do anything that is outside of your comfort zone. But there is no way home that doesn't involve this machine. Also, as the first person from your planet here, you are pretty much setting the example for everyone that will follow. Is this what we can expect from the rest of Earth?” Turrel asked, with a little more glee in his voice than the moment seemed to call for.
He stared at the man, trying to come up with a comment about his strange blue beard without mentioning the song Blue. The moment passed, and he failed to push aside his fear long enough to avoid the conversation through awkward humour. He looked back at the funnel on top of the device and the sharp objects pointing down before opening his mouth again.
“Look, it’s just I was never a fan of those big bucket things at water parks. I don't even really like showers that much; something about the feeling of things falling on my head. That big funnel thing is just a bit off-putting, that's all.” Jack took a deep breath. He totally did not fall for the bait as he squared his shoulders and straightened his back.
“No stress, mate, I got it sorted now… under control. But I know how much you like to explain all the little details and stuff, so I mean, if you wanted to you know…”
“Jack, this is all pretty simple. As you said, you have stories about this, right? But sure, if it will ease your mind.” Turrel smiled, having had his fun already.
“The part on top of the device here will store the mana that will be used for your test from this crystal.” He pulled a jagged blue crystal from his coat pocket. The crystal resembled a piece of quartz but seemed to be cut, looking almost manufactured with edges so smooth. Under the surface, an opal-like glow moved on its own.
“This will go into the top of the device. That funnel takes the mana from this crystal and, using some very complicated circuitry, will filter it to almost every known mana frequency possible. That tiny bit of mana will then be channelled into one of the antennas here and focused on your body. The paired antenna on the opposite side will then check the resonance of the mana in your body and pull it out of your system. Information is then sent to the processing unit on the side. Simple, right?”
“Right, right, right, okay. So I'm gonna get zapped by a bunch of magic laser needles and then what… like see which ones make me glow?” Jack asked, unsure if the explanation made him feel better about the whole thing or not.
If he was being honest with himself, as unsettling as the machine was, this was very exciting. There wouldn't be many people that hadn't at one point in their life stared at something really hard and hoped that just maybe they might have magic powers. Here Jack was, potentially minutes away from knowing if he was going to be able to summon flame from his hands, shape the earth beneath his feet, or shoot water at people when they aren't looking.
Admittedly he wasn’t 100 percent listening when the whole using mana thing was explained. They said mana, he thought magic. They had translators so it's gotta be the same thing, right? Letting the childish glee win out over the anxiousness, he stepped towards the machine and turned back to Turrel. “So, how long will this take? Like five to ten minutes getting zapped and then we know?”
Turrel smiled. It was the smile that Jack had started to associate with bad news, and a feeling of dread started to creep down his spine.
“Oh, no, no, Jack... I am not sure how versed you are with your world's colour theory, but the colour spectrum is likely the closest thing to compare to. If we assume red is ‘Fire’ mana, then a lighter shade of red might be an orange flame, a darker shade might be a blue flame, a light red or pink might be hot air. There are almost infinite mana frequencies, and what people resonate with can vary between an entire spectrum of Red or a very specific singular thing. We need to test all of them or at least as many as possible.” Turrel continued, a monologue shine entering his eyes.
“Wait a second, so there's a chance I might get a mana frequency to make grass and someone else might be able to summon fire?” Jack paused. Immediately realising his mistake, he shut his mouth and motioned for Turrel to continue, not wanting to jinx the outcome any more than he already had.
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“Sure, that’s possible. But there is a lot of difficult training before you can do anything with mana. First, we need to run this test, so let's get you strapped in so we can start. While we do have the whole day, we don't want to fall too far behind.”
Jack nodded and began walking forward, but his face dropped as the words clicked.
All day… surely he couldn’t mean the test would take all day. No way he was about to be strapped into a static table and exposed to potentially harmful mana lasers for multiple hours in a row, right? Right?
Well, it turned out that is exactly what Turrel meant. With three hours of being lit up like a Christmas tree, Jack felt like he had just undergone whole-body acupuncture. His skin tingled all over, but he felt somehow energised despite it all. He would have to say the experience so far had been interesting and not at all what he expected.
The first time he was exposed, he started to understand why they kept calling them frequencies. As the mana touched his skin, there was a sense of vibration that shot through his body.
The sensation flowed through him, like another sense in his body was awoken. It felt intuitively as if a second layer of skin had formed around his body and he could sense something moving across it. As he focused, he could almost feel the vibration as waves moved across his skin, like the surface of a pool when something was thrown into it.
Then, as quickly as the sensation began, it changed. Over his left arm, a similar but almost opposite vibration started, feeling as if whatever was around his body was being sucked away through a straw; as quick as that, the sensation was gone.
Before he had the chance to process the feeling properly, another wave hit. Almost exactly the same as the last one, but this one originated from a different antenna sitting over his right shoulder. A second or two passed and then the feeling of being drained happened again, starting from his left shoulder.
What followed was a constant barrage. The vibrations slowly changed as time went on; some felt sharper, others blunter. Some buzzed angrily, some hummed pleasantly. Some were fast and some were slow. But as time went on he felt like he was becoming more aware of their differences, although after hours it was hard to keep track.
“Good work, Jack.” The sensations stopped, and a hand landed on his shoulder.
“It’s time for a short lunch break and then we can continue with the rest of the test,” Turrel continued. Even with eyes closed, Jack could practically hear the smirk coming from the tall blue-haired Viking mage.
Feeling a level of control he had never experienced before, he actually managed to avoid the obvious trap and did not respond to the comment about more testing. Turrel was obviously joking. How many different frequencies could they possibly test? One every two seconds for three hours had to have completed all of them.
Jack climbed out of the machine and stretched his back, taking a glance over at the screen to his right. He hoped to get a peek at some sort of score or result before he headed off to lunch. The screen, however, was covered with symbols that he couldn't understand. While Turrel was able to translate his language, Jack did not have the same luxury in being able to understand in reverse.
“Ahh, don’t worry, you are doing pretty well so far. Your body, as we could likely have guessed, is very sensitive to mana in general.” Turrel shook his head slightly and laughed.
“Honestly, at this rate I wouldn't be surprised if you were able to resonate with all of the mana frequencies we are able to test for. We have a name for people with that ability, you know?” Turrel looked at Jack expectantly.
“Wow, that’s gotta be pretty impressive, right? Is that common? They don’t call it something silly like a prism or something like that, right?” Jack caught the brief moment of disappointment as it flashed across Turrel’s face.
“Wait, really? A Prism? Haha, I read a book back home where the main all-powerful hero guy was called a prism. I was joking, but with the whole frequency thing I guess it makes sense.” Jack tilted his head slightly as they walked. “Soooo… is it rare?”
Turrel sighed. “Well, yes and no. Having a prismatic resonance is a pretty rare thing, but alone it isn't that special. It mainly means you will be more sensitive to mana and may find manipulating it a little easier. Most of the time, however, that doesn't have much effect on the frequencies they can actually manipulate.”
“Okay, wait, so does this test only check for what my body resonates with or will I know what I can manipulate as well? You know, basically, when can I start throwing lightning bolts and fireballs around? That is what I want to know.” Jack made motions with his hand imitating doing just that.
“We will know when the test is completed; that is all I will say for now. We all love a little suspense, don’t we?” Turrel opened the lunchroom door. “Come, let’s eat, you are going to need your energy for the second part of the test.”
He didn’t have a lot he knew about his new world and life, but he had a very short list of things he wanted to accomplish. In fact, it had only one item right now, but it was, to him, the most important.
Jack’s New World Goals
- Summon a Fireball
Stomach grumbling, Jack walked into the room, thoughts of fireballs and lightning racing through his mind and chasing away the frustration of having to sit through more of the test.
The shine had come off the thrill of potential magic slinging as the second hour of the second test rolled by. Jack's mind was still active, and he still enjoyed what felt like an enhanced level of focus while trying to understand more about the new sensations he was feeling. At this point it had been five hours of sitting still and that was not something Jack was good at.
The current frequency was drained, being pulled away by an antenna sitting over his left knee. He took a breath in anticipation for the next mana beam to hit him. The last few had felt almost calming, like a breath of fresh air as it flowed across his skin.
What hit him next reminded him of the feeling of the early morning sun hitting his skin, a slow warmth radiated across his body but mainly concentrated over his right hand. Unlike the other frequencies, over 9,000 of which had already flashed across his skin, this one didn’t seem to be ending.
No, this one seemed to be increasing. It felt as if the mana had hit something just right, and rather than losing or dispersing the energy, it was bouncing back, bigger, faster and stronger.
The spot over his hand where the mana was being pushed into his body started to grow hot. It changed from a gentle kiss to a warm midday sun and continued on to a scorching summer afternoon at the beach, burning his skin.
All of a sudden, a feeling over his left hand emerged. Unlike the gentle pull from the other frequencies, this one felt like a straw had been placed directly into his veins as a giant took a big sip, forcefully pulling the mana from his body and leaving him in shock with its absence.
“Oh, wow... Now that is interesting,” Turrel said, glancing up at the screen.
Thanks for reading guys, I appreciate it.
This story was originally a writeathon project and so the start is a little rough at times, I have prioritised progressing the story over larger rewrites but have done a few editing passes over some of the earlier chapters and am continuing to do so when time permits.
Thanks again for giving me your time and I hope you enjoy the story!