Opening meridians improved mana flow throughout the body. Once they have been opened, the meridians could double as a second mana reservior. Not much of a benefit early on, the mana cost to open meridians exceeded than the space gained. Even opening the first ring of meridians costed a significant amount of mana. Attuning destruction was simply out of the question – too easy to maim themselves and too costly to complete.

The first time around, Louis did open the meridians in his limbs by regrowing them, but that was a secondary goal - his limbs had been amputated after the accident. The idea waas worth considering, as least theoretically, not practicality. Learning ‘Cal Movita’ should not be too hard - the Divine Magic would make the process painless. Add in a few soul crystals and ‘Zet Imaru’ would make the process quick and easy.

Louis stopped clearing his left arm’s meridians. He must be getting tired if his thoughts were becoming so callous. Meditation alone would not replace sleep, but should still alleviate a bit of the exhaustion, even for weaker mages.

But first, nature called. Louis got out of bed and entered Amelia’s and Hefra’s room, as he lived in their closet. The sun peaked over the horizon, but its light failed to enter the room. The two girls, already awake, meditated in the middle of the ground. The auras their meditation brought – turquoise for Amelia; orange for Hefra – illuminated them.

Louis tapped their shoulders. Their auras began to dissipate as the two opened their eyes.

Amelia immediately frowned. “That took so long to set up, Louis.”

Hefra simply closed her eyes and began meditating once more. Louis stopped her.

“I just wanted to stop some malpractice I have been seeing.” Louis said, sitting down. “Why do you two attune mana before you absorb them?”

“Attuning them allows us to use our main Divine Magics faster and easier.” Amelia said.

“At the cost of being able to use the other Divine Magics.” Louis said, nodding. “I remember hearing that you two could cast each of the other four anyways. Does that mean you are not purely absorbing your two elements?”

The two scowled as they looked away.

“I just want a clearer understanding of the situation.” Louis said, but the two kept looking away and refused to answer. “Can I trust you two with a little secret?”

Their two little heads snapped towards Louis in record speed. “Yep, yep.” “Absolutely.”

Louis clapped his hands. “Don’t tell anyone else that I can do this, or magic at all.” As he slowly separated his hands, a ball of fire appeared, then water…and soon a banner of the six elements – fire, water, earth, wind, light and darkness – appeared. “I can do all of this without attuning my mana to any particular element. But if I attune my mana to light…” Louis dispersed the orbs then clapped his hands together once more. As he slowly separated his hands, six balls of light appeared. “I am unable to use the mana for other elements.”

“Since when could you do that?” Hefra asked, poking the balls of light. Amelia soon joined in, which cause the mana to disperse.

“Yesterday. So keep it a secret to the three of us, alright?” Louis asked, holding his pinky out on each hand. “Promise?”

Reluctantly, the two interlocked their pinkies. “Fine. But you have to tell us what’s up.” Amelia said.

“Not quite sure myself really. Got dizzy yesterday, then I was able to use magic afterwards.” Louis said. “Still sorting out what this even means.”

“We should ask mom.” Amelia said.

“Or Nana.” Hefra said.

“No. Keep it a secret between the three of us, alright?” Louis said, shaking his pinkies. “Until I figure things out or things get bad, no one else needs to know.” Releasing their hands. “That’s all a tangent however. What I was trying to say earlier is attuning mana beforehand limits what you can do. Specialization is possible – but generally not done before the fourth circle because you must first build a solid foundation before you specialize.”

“Too long.” Hefra said.

Louis chuckled. “Let’s meditate. Let’s start by putting our palms together into a circle.” He held one palm to Hefra and Amelia each, they each gave him a palm then put their remaining palms together. “No need to do anything fancy – Amelia can attune wind and water, like normal; Hefra attunes earth and fire. I’ll attune light and darkness.”

The two soon closed their eyes and began. Soon the turquoise aura appeared around Amelia, and the orange aura around Hefra. However, when the two auras intermingled where their hands touched, instead of becoming transparent, it turned brown. At the same time, their mana in their other hands flowed into Louis. The mana coming from Hefra felt like a hot spring while the mana coming from Amelia felt like an ice bath. Being caught in the middle felt abysmal.

Thankfully, the amount of mana was not particularly much, so Louis began opening his meridians with the mana. As the mana within the circuit began to dwindle, the brown blob of mana began to shrink – Amelia’s and Hefra’s mana gradually flowed towards Louis to address the unbalance, until their auras all but disappeared. Louis squeezed their palms and they opened their eyes.

“What happened?” Amelia asked.

“That was uncomfortable.” Hefra said.

“That was my bad.” Louis said. “I thought since your affinities were the same and the two of you collectively had the four basic elements, we could jump right in.” Louis released their hands. “Instead of one giant circle, let’s make two small circles. Each person grabs one of my hands.”

Once Amelia and Hefra grabbed Louis with both of their hands, they began meditating once more. Their auras manifested once more, in a concentrated amount now that all of their mana flowed into him. It took Louis an uncomfortable minute as he calculated the elemental attunement of the mana flowing into him and created a counterbalance. A brown aura materialized around Louis, protecting him, as the three auras began to mingle and turned to a uniform brown.

The color stabilized for a few minutes until Louis no longer had to counterbalance four elements, just the reset the equilibrium the four elements, something much easier. The auras gradually became transparent but the amount of mana within only began to increase. And so quickly Louis figured that the two girls either chose or could not absorb it.

Louis siphoned some of the mana to open the meridians in his left arm. Not as much as before, which negated the exercise, but enough to prevent too much mana collecting and going rampant. What was important for the two girls was not absorbing the mana but regaining a sense of familiarity with mana within its nature state. This was an important intermediary step.

Alas, all good things came to an end. Mother eventually opened the door and Louis quickly absorbed all the mana before waking the two up. That way, she would not notice the auras return to their normal state.

“Louis, it’s time for the academy.” Mother said.

Louis turned to Amelia and Hefra. “Don’t you have mage school right about now as well?”

Hefra shook her head. Amelia said, “No. We only have to show up to testing day this week.”

Louis turned to mother. “Everything I want is here. Why would I go to the academy?”

Mother frowned as she leaned against the threshold of the room, scrutinizing Louis for a good, long minute before speaking once more. “If you are no longer going to academy, what will you do?”

“I can be Hefra’s and Amelia’s butler, as you wanted.” Louis said.

Mother paused once again, longer enough as if she was looking at some sort of impostor. Yes, Louis had hesitated in his previous life, because of some fleeting emotion. Pride or jealousy, perhaps? But never to the extent that Louis would ever wish them harm.

“Just a bit odd given your initial opposition.” Mother said, returning to her normal, neutral demeanor.

That last statement stung Louis more than he was willing to admit. “I had a change of heart.”

“What about testing day?” Mother said. “It’s your legal obligation.”

“That law targets children who have yet to be tested or are still young – not adults who have already failed the exam nine times in a row. Only desperate or optimistic adults even attend the tests.”

“That’s fine, I suppose.” Mother said, as Amelia ran up to her. “Amelia and I are going to be gone for most of the day, so stay safe at home.”

Once the door closed behind them, Louis turned to Hefra. “Want to continue practicing?” Louis asked.

Hefra merely flinched, staring at him while she cuddled her legs. She flinched once more when Louis stood up. “You’re not comfortable being alone with me, are you?” Louis asked. No answer, so Louis opened the door, while saying, “We can practice in the living room after breakfast, if you want.” Then he left.

҉҉҉

Their house had no indoor bathroom. Just an outhouse in the backyard, which was shared with three other houses in the quadrant. Ideally, only four families would share it, but soaring rent prices could only be afforded by two, usually three, families. So despite the fact that mages came by once a week to purify the waste into fertilizer, the outhouse stunk something fierce, even despite the fact that this was merely the third day in the new week.

Louis briefly considered using a simple ‘Zet Uta’ to purify the outhouse, but he had yet to use any second tier Divine Magic, let alone a third tier, since his rebirth. His mana reserves were near depleted as well and better used opening his meridians. So Louis held his breath while he used the bathroom before dipping.

Everyone else in the household was already sitting at the dining table, eating a porridge with a few vegetables for taste. It was silent this time, but not because of some rule for silence from Nana. Nana had tried to spark some conversation, which quickly devolved into gripes about their working conditions. From the ungrateful people that Dave, Hefra’s father, did the laundry for daily; to the dwindling customers buying Nana’s desserts, despite how delectable they were; and the four-hour round trip that Mecie, Hefra’s mother, had to walk daily to her work. Mother refused to comment, probably because she was devotedly religious and worked in a nearby Faith of Six temple – not the one attached to the academy because that one was abysmal and no amount of glamorous exterior could save it.

Louis welcomed the serenity that came after breakfast, helping Nana do the dishes. To make the day even better, Hefra did acquiesce to Divine Magic practice in the living room when he was done.

҉҉҉

Practice with Hefra went well, in Louis’ opinion. Though Hefra probably had a very different interpretation of the session after she ran out of fire and earth attuned mana. Louis assigned her to trying to attune her mana to other elements, such as light, darkness, water and even wind. Light was somehow the hardest element for her, but she preserved. Even after when he told her to use that mana to cast their respective Divine Magic, which thrilled her, if her sighs were any indication. When things seemed hopeless, Louis at least helped out by offering her some properly attuned mana.

Once Amelia arrived home from her meeting shenanigans, the three of them retreated to their room. Amelia changed into something more comfy before plopping onto Hefra’s bed and releasing a groan that filled the heavens.

“Rough day?” Louis asked. “You know what can fix that?”

“More magic training?” Hefra said, exasperated.

“More magic training.” Louis said. “See, you’re getting it.”

Hefra buried her face within her arms. “I just spent half a day training. And you sat there still for just as long. How are you not bored yet?”

“I was coaching you?” Louis said. “Plus, I was opening the meridians within my left arm, which is halfway done.”

“Aren’t those notoriously hard to open?” Amelia asked, rolling to them from the bed.

“As long as you know how and have the mana control, they get progressively easier to open the more you do so.” Louis said. “They are just costly in mana and require a bit of mana control.”

“How do you even have the mana?” Hefra asked.

“Meditating.” Louis said. “A weaker form compared to when I focus upon it, but it is faster than my passive mana regeneration.”

“Right, right.” Hefra said, nodding. “And you could do this while teaching me? How about now?”

“When were you under the impression that I wasn’t?” Louis asked. “How else did I get the mana to refill your mana core during the training?”

“Why didn’t you teach me that then or help me open my meridians?” Hefra cried.

“The only way I know how to other meridians is through mutilation. Not the best strategy given I doubt I can use ‘Zet Imaru’ effectively at the moment.” Louis said. “Until I figure out another method, let’s do try what we did earlier this morning, before we got interrupted. Once you accomplish that, performing the other Divine Magics should be easier as a whole.”

Amelia cheered while Hefra begrudgingly continued.