Chapter 17 The Mana Doctor #2
A pink healing glow surrounded the doctor’s hands as he charged up the metal disc with his mana. Then, shocking her, he placed the amulet directly into her palm.
“Hold this for a few minutes,” he said.
Celise felt gentle tingles of power massage her skin, like a hundred blunt needles softly tickling her flesh.
On the sensitive nerves of her palm, it was almost pleasant.
The strange tickle of power moved up her wrist to her elbow, then to her shoulder, where it shot across to her other arm.
Her scalp prickled as the sensation grew, and with a small gasp, Celise felt herself boosted upward—for lack of a better term.
She suddenly experienced a brightening sensation within her own body, as though becoming buoyant and full of light.
Shivers of skydust-enhanced mana ran over her skin, flowing down her limbs, felt strongest in her injured arm.
She almost started to laugh but caught the sound in her throat.
“It tickles,” she admitted.
Dr. Forrest noticed her reaction and nodded twice.
“Right. Good. Seems like your mana channels aren’t completely dead.
I’m going to give you a little extra something.
It might do nothing, but a bit of stimulation might help with your .
. . ah, well, we’ll see. Stay here for a moment; I’ll be right back. ”
His strange grumbling carried an ominous undertone.
Then the doctor straightened up and stepped around the curtain, returning to the front of the room.
Although no longer in view, she heard a rustling, clinking sound as Dr. Forrest sorted through his instruments.
The amulet in Celise’s hand continued to glow with a soft hum.
The warm power of the doctor's mana was very soothing and relaxing. Celise felt herself sinking into a sleepy, trancelike state, but her little bubble of relaxation was interrupted by the murmur of voices. She perked up a bit, focusing on the conversation taking place beyond the burlap curtain.
It sounded like the doctor was discussing her condition with Elias. She leaned forward a bit, trying to catch his words.
“Damaged?” she overheard Elias’s voice.
“Clipped. We use the same process to neuter S-rank prisoners.”
“S-ranks? But those are murderers and cutthroats, dangers to society who use their mana to harm others—”
“I know. As I said, it’s a barbaric process and very risky.
It looks like it happened while she was young .
. . possibly too young to remember. ‘Clipping’ is meant to permanently remove a Luminary’s ability to channel, but I’ve never seen it done like this.
I pity the girl. It seems her gifts were stolen from her. I’m surprised she doesn’t know.”
“I see. This is . . . an unfortunate discovery.”
Celise caught bits and pieces of Drandem’s murmured conversation, her ears straining to hear every word.
Her gifts were stolen from her?
The news hit her like a slap across the face. She felt stunned. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
Was she born Luminous after all?
She glanced down at the humming, mana-filled coin in her hand. Could it be true? Despite her desires and daydreams, not a tendril of mana had ever stirred in her body. Yet she had always felt like she should be able to channel—like some power should be there.
If the doctor was right, then it seemed her urges weren’t just wishful thinking.
Celise gulped down another breath.
She wasn’t just a dunslug—no, her fate was much worse.
She was a . . . castrated Luminary.
“Clipped?” she muttered under her breath. Feeling self-conscious, she held the amulet until the glow faded and the vibration died out. She almost wished she hadn’t overheard their conversation; she couldn’t hide the horror from her face.
Then Dr. Forrest appeared again.
“Sorry for the delay,” he said, noticing her raised eyebrows and hollow cheeks. He scratched the back of his neck, a bit awkward. “Well,” he cleared his throat, “I suppose you overheard some of that. It’s a small room. Do you have any questions about your condition?”
“M-my condition?” she stuttered. After a brief pause, she pushed on. “Is it true, then? I have mana channels? I’m . . . Skytouched?”
“You were born Luminous, but . . . your channels are not active, and to be honest, I don’t know if they’ll ever be usable. It must be a terrible shock to you to receive this news so late in life.”
Celise nodded. A beat of silence passed between them. Dr. Forrest looked strained, like he wanted to say something helpful.
“Did you ever receive a skills assessment?” he asked.
“Skills? No. Not for mana.”
“Nobles are typically tested at birth. Almost every person in the kingdom receives some sort of assessment by the age of five, just to rule out mana capability.”
“I don’t really remember, but . . .” Celise felt her eyes tearing up a bit, though she wasn’t sure why.
“My mother passed away in childbirth. The midwife told my father I was a dunslug. He never questioned it. I’ve always been this way.
I didn’t realize it was possible to have your mana channels . . . ‘clipped.’ How could this happen?”
The doctor gazed at her solemnly. “I don’t know, my dear.
I’ve never encountered a case like yours, not in twenty years of practice.
I’ve performed clippings before, but only on the kingdom’s very worst undesirables.
” Dr. Forrest adjusted his glasses. “It’s not an easy procedure to perform.
It requires precision not to kill the host, especially an infant.
Whoever performed it on you was a master.
They must have had a purpose, some reason to take such a risk. ”
Celise stared at the doctor with a blank expression.
“A reason?” she echoed. Who could possibly want to steal her mana ability? A wave of numbness washed over her. “I really don’t know why anyone would do that to me. I . . . I’m no one important.”
“Give the lady a moment to absorb all this, Forrest,” Elias suggested from the front of the room, beyond the burlap curtain. “Why don’t you show the girl how it works?”
The duke’s dark, rich voice startled Celise. She felt a shiver of apprehension. Then the burlap curtain shifted as Elias pushed it aside, coming to stand next to her on the examining table.
Celise kept her eyes downcast, trying not to think of Elias’s disappointment. She couldn’t bear to look into his eyes. The newly spoken promise of their engagement was now broken by this discovery. She might not be a dunslug by birth, but she certainly wasn’t fit to stand next to him as a duchess.
He’s probably thinking of how to eloquently back out of this arrangement, she thought. Well, he won’t have to say much. I never wanted to be married to a duke! We are little more than strangers to each other.
Celise did her best to look stiff and cold.
Drandem Forrest nodded to the commander and adjusted his white jacket before crossing the room to the back wall. Hanging there, tucked inconspicuously close to the ceiling, Celise noticed a long silk poster rolled up on hinges.
“This is a tool you’ll find in every Luminous medic’s office,” the doctor explained, amused by her curious expression.
Dr. Forrest reached up and snagged a drawstring, then unraveled the silk poster to its full length, a perfect square almost six feet tall and wide. Then he adjusted the knob on an overhead lamp, increasing its brightness so that Celise could see the picture clearly.
The masterfully drawn diagram on the silk sheet revealed the silhouette of an ungendered human.
An intricate network of lines mapped the human’s body from head to toe.
Celise was fascinated. She had seen a few drawings of vascular systems and musculature before, in books on horses a veterinarian had loaned her some time ago.
She wasn’t a strong reader, so she couldn’t understand some of the text, but she knew what a medical drawing looked like.
Every line was precisely defined. Scrawled notations indicated entry points and exit points, almost like a complicated water runoff system.
“We don’t know everything about the mana body, but we know a few things,” Dr. Forrest said helpfully.
“I’ll do my best to explain how this all works.
First, the basics: those who are born Luminous contain mana bodies inside their physical bodies.
Mana bodies are only detectable on an energy level—as a force or essence, a bit like electricity.
Yet, mysteriously, they are somewhat intertwined with our physical body, as the use of drugs or malnutrition can impact how they develop. ”
“I understand,” Celise nodded, following along.
“The mana body contains centers of energy called terminals. Special pathways move your mana energy throughout your body, called channels. If you think of your mana body like a plant, a channel is like the branches, while each terminal would be like the root ball feeding the branches, while the mana itself would be like water feeding the roots. Mana resides throughout the body but is centered or pooled at each terminal. Each terminal must remain balanced within the mana body’s system; otherwise, diseases can develop. ”
“Diseases? Like what?” Celise asked, never having heard of such things before.
Dr. Forrest tapped on his head. “Mostly psychological,” he said. Then he touched his stomach. “Sometimes digestive issues or back pain.”
“Oh.”
“What we call the axis terminal is here—” he pointed to a large mass of blue at the heart of the human figure.
Then he pointed down below the drawing’s navel to the base of the spine.
“This is the root terminal, sometimes called the terminal bud. Proceeding up the spine, this is the earth terminal, the wood terminal, and then the water, wind and fire terminals. And here in each hand you have the star terminals.”