Chapter 8: 8: Orientation IV
"Okay, what are we supposed to do?" I asked now very worried about our chances.
"In a nutshell cast a spell." Iris examined. "These cards have spell sigils recorded on them, all we have to do is memorize it, copy it and try to cast it."
"That doesn't sound too hard." I said.
"For us maybe. You don't even know what a spell sigil is do you?" Iris asked.
"Yeah, still a little fuzzy on that." I replied. Iris groaned and laid her head on the table.
"Fucked!" She whispered. Jane shook her head then looked at me.
"Spell sigils are written commands for our mana. They tell it how to act and what properties to take on." Jane pointed to the tattoo on her arm. "The two glowing runes that came together and make this were both spell sigils."
"I see. So what exactly makes this difficult for me?" I asked.
"You need to use mana to create spell sigils. You've only used mana to control evos up to this point. And as amazing as it is that you can control so many at once you need a lot of control over your mana in order to give it shape."
"Lady Jane and I have been practicing this since we could walk and depending on what spell is on our cards this could be difficult for us." Iris chimed in. I held my card and frowned.
"When I drew this card the librarian looked sorry for me." I said.
"And she had every right to be. Spell have types: offensive, defensive, enhancement, utility, and axiom. This yellow card shows I pulled a enhancement spell, Iris pulled a defensive spell. You pulled a axiom spell." Jane explained.
"What the hell is an axiom spell?" I asked.
"Axiom spells are spells with affects that don't fall into one of the other four categories or fall into multiple categories at once. Axiom cards are always dual colored, black to let you know it's axiom and another color to tell you the difficulty."
"And before you asked gold means it's the most difficult type." Iris grumbled.
'Of course! Why did the hell did I grab that card?!' I cursed myself.
"Well there's nothing we can do about it now. The longer we sit here feeling sorry about our luck Iris the more people will start to arrive. The group that came in after us had already sat down and started studying." Jane said.
"I know!" Iris slapped the table before she sat up and looked at her card. "In order to read these close your eyes and pour mana into it. It's no different from using mana to control a evo."
Iris closed her eyes and the crystal on her cheek started to glow the card did also. I looked to Jane and she'd already closed her eyes as well, a faint glow emanated from the back of her neck. They sat perfectly still, their breathing slowing till I could barely tell they were alive.
I did as they did and closed my eyes, card in hand. I tried to gather the mana inside me and feed it into the card like I would a evo but nothing happened. I couldn't get my mana to flow like it did when I was around a evo. I tried over and over again, getting more and more frustrated with each failed attempt until finally I snapped.
"Oh come on!" I yelled throwing my card down on the table.
"shhhhhhh!" multiple people hissed at me from around the study area.
"Sorry." I whispered sheepishly. Taking a glance around the table both Jane and Iris hadn't moved, they were still as statues. I looked around the rest of the area, I saw nine other groups of three sitting at various tables in the study area. All of them had the same meditative stillness that Jane and Iris had.
"Problems?"
The sound of Nigel's voice spooked me. I quickly found him sitting in a chair one table over watching the three of us. It should have been creepy that he'd been sitting there for who knows how long watching us but it didn't for some reason.
"I can't get my Mana to do anything!" I hissed. "I've been sitting here trying to get it to flow into the card but I can't even feel it."
"That's all you've been doing for the last two hours?" Nigel asked.
"Two hours?!" I gasped.
'It only felt like a few minutes…' I thought.
"Yep, two hours. I'm kinda surprised though, given all the mana that was flowing out your hand I thought you were doing something." Nigel said pointing to my right hand.
"It was what?" I didn't feel anything.
"Yeah, your crystal was glowing so much I could almost make out its shape through that leather glove of yours."
My left hand immediately moved to cover my gloved right. The action surprised Nigel, he had confused look about him for a second that quickly softened into understanding.
"You know you're not in America anymore. You don't have to hide the fact you're a splicer here." He said softly. "Taking it off may help you, it's a common trick for a splicer to hold a sigil card to their crystals if they had a hard time directing mana to it."
I sat quiet for a several moments staring at my gloved hand, and the crystal underneath it. It should have been easy to take off the glove, Nigel was right I wasn't back home anymore. I wasn't surrounded by people who hated me for simply being born a splicer. And yet the thought of removing it in front of someone was terrifying. It made all the memories come flooding back, the beatings and the humiliation.
"I need to take a piss." I said standing up and heading toward the bathroom. I snagged the sigil card as I walked away, sliding it into my pocket. Inside the bathroom I walked to the last stall and locked myself inside. At first I only paced in a circle, glancing down at my hand.
"Fuck it!" I said finally and sat down on the toilet seat then yanked my glove off. I shoved it in my pocket before I could change my mind.
My crystal was star shaped, it's five points stretched to the edge of the back of my hand. When I was young and naïve I thought my crystal was special because of it's shape. I mean what was more American than a star.
I let out a loud sigh then held the my sigil card in my right hand. Before I even closed my eyes my crystal started to glow and so did the card but something felt off. I wasn't directing my mana into the card, in fact it felt like it was being sucked put of me like soda through a straw. I tried to let go of the card only to find my hand frozen stiff.
"Hey no! Bad card!" I exclaimed and tried to pry my fingers open but they didn't budge.
I unlocked my stall and tried to run out of the bathroom to get help but my legs felt like lead, my whole body feeling heavier the more mana is taken. I only made it two steps before I fell to my knees. I opened my mouth to scream for help but no words came out as I fell face first onto the floor.
As I felt myself blacking out the mana drain slowed to a halt and the card let out a pinging chime. Then the world went black as a feeling of warmth washed over me.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn Splicer Fact: Sigil cards are made with a special metal that can only be made by splicers. During the forging process mana is poured into the metal while it is being heated. This allows magic sigils to be recorded on them once the metal cools. The technique to create this metal is thousands of years old and originated in Greece.
[HUTEXA_THE_DJINN here! Hope you aren't getting tired of the orientation saga cause there are still more to come. Leave a comment or add to library!]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone