Just Add Mana

Chapter 37 — Leviathan's Blessing

Flia was going to Cale when she woke up.Not literally. She was far too grateful to the man to try to do something like that. But to just throw her into a conversation with the Leviathan? She wasn't ready! She hadn't even studied the Leviathan! Which wasn't for lack of trying, either. The Leviathan was the source of her curse, after all. She'd spent years trying to find out more about it.

There just... wasn't much out there. Not even here in the Brightscale Academy, whose headmaster belonged to one of the few species capable of traversing the Great Realms. It was one of the reasons she'd attended this academy in the first place, instead of any of the others. Her family had figured that this was where she had the best chance of learning more about the Leviathan.

And yet there had been almost nothing.

She'd learned more about the Great Realms, certainly. Her classes had included lectures on the dangers of cross-realm magic, the properties of the Outer Planes, and a brief explanation of the Abyss

Even with all that, she felt woefully unprepared. None of those classes had included any information about the Leviathan other than rumors, and most of those rumors were terrifying. They spoke of a creature large enough to encompass entire worlds and durable enough to withstand the pressures of the Abyss. What would possess something like that to give her of all people a—what had Cale called it? A ?

It sure didn't feel like a blessing.

Flia had been so nervous about this upcoming dream that she thought she might not be able to sleep at all. Fortunately, it turned out that she hadn't needed to worry: it took her seconds to drift off the moment she let herself drift off in the small pool that served as her bed, and then...

Well, and then she found herself in the Abyss thinking about how she'd get back at Cale once she woke up.

Mostly because that was a lot easier than acknowledging the enormity of what surrounded her.

The Abyss was nothing like she imagined. She'd peeked in once or twice before, in her younger days, back when she hadn't even known that there was something wrong with her magic. Her problems hadn't manifested immediately. She'd just... fallen into her own puddle one day, and then nothing had been the same.

Her memories of that moment were scattered still. She'd been too young to really remember the details. Flia thought she remembered the sensation of —the feeling of the Abyss pressing down around her, an immense, impossible domain of endless water. The enormity of it all had scared her to tears. She'd floundered in nothing for what felt like forever.

The next thing she knew, she was back in her mother's arms, sobbing while her mother stroked her back and whispered to her in comforting murmurs.

She'd refused to use her magic for weeks after that.

Flia's magic hadn't fully matured back then, either, so the actual process of figuring out what was wrong had taken even longer. Not all her spells at the time created water that led to the Abyss, so it took months for her family to figure out what it was that scared her so deeply, and even longer for them to identify the problem.

She'd hated her own magic for the longest time, after that, and for an elemental that was very close to simply hating herself. She couldn't do any of the things she'd grown up dreaming of. Couldn't follow in the footsteps of her family.

Even now, her fondest memory was that of her mother singing a [Song of Rain] in her gentle, lilting voice. Second to that was the memory of her aunt dancing in her medicinal pool, lulling away the aches and pains of a dozen of the sick and injured. She'd dreamed of joining her sisters in the traditional Tidecalling ceremony when she came of age...

All of that was closed off from her. Stolen from her, even. And that was the other reason she was worried about this meeting.

A part of her was angry.

Flia didn't know if she'd be calm enough for a conversation, let alone the mentorship Cale had implied. The rational part of her knew that offending a creature with this magnitude of power was a terrible, terrible idea, but the emotional part of her? That part wanted to .

Which meant there was a good chance she'd pull a Cale and stick her foot in her mouth. She snorted at the thought, then tried to force herself to calm. There was nothing to it, now. She'd have to face whatever came.

As if in response to her thoughts, far in the distance, a glimmer of light lit up the dark of the Abyss. It flickered into being slowly, first as a single point of light, then ten, then a hundred and a thousand; the pinpricks stretched out an impossible distance, like a spiral of stars disappearing into the deep. It took a few moments for Flia to even comprehend what she was looking at.

.

Those were the Leviathan's eyes, opening up all along the length of a dizzyingly colossal serpentine body. With every blink, the first set of eyes shut, then the next and the next, creating an almost hypnotic effect, and when the first set of blinks was over—

—Flia found herself floating in front of the Leviathan, just a few feet away from one of those massive, glowing eyes. The slit of a pupil regarded her like she was less than an ant, and she felt a presence of magic so strong it made her own solidity of form waver.

That alone stopped her in her tracks. She hadn't lost control of her form this badly since she was a toddler. Even the containment cube Imrys had exposed them to hadn't affected her this much, and this was—this was a . Not even the real thing! Even across realms, even inside a dream, the sheer magic pouring off this being was enough to destabilize her.

Cale had to this? He'd talked about it like they were friends! He almost sounded like he'd the Leviathan! Living thousands of lives couldn't possibly account for that. Maybe the Leviathan was just... humoring him, for some reason? She couldn't imagine—

A long sigh echoed through the water, and the Leviathan spoke.

"," she said. ""

Nevermind. Cale had apparently not only spoken to the Leviathan but had also convinced it—her?—that she needed to apologize.

Flia didn't even know where to .

"...How's the little one doing?" she found herself asking. She felt almost immediately foolish, but she wanted to know. "The Abyssal One, I mean."

"" The Leviathan dipped her head in acknowledgement, and then abruptly shrank. Flia blinked, startled, as the colossal shape before her suddenly became something closer to the size of a griffin. Small enough that she could probably ride on the Leviathan's back, if she wanted.

She definitely did not want that. Even if her mind was very suddenly and insistently categorizing the Leviathan as one of the magical creatures she was so very fond of.

.

Thankfully, before she said something stupid, the Leviathan carefully nudged a small, glowing butterfly toward her. "."

Flia's eyes widened. She held out both her hands, cupping them and waiting patiently while the Abyssal fluttered into her waiting palms. Her breath caught—the wings shimmered with a prismatic sheen that accompanied every slight movement, and more importantly, it seemed like it was... at peace, for lack of a better word. Not joyful, exactly, but curious and cautiously trusting.

"" the Leviathan explained softly. She was watching the Abyssal with the same soft tenderness Flia herself felt. ""

The Leviathan paused, then swam forward, nudging her snout against Flia's hands. A gentle current prompted it to flutter up and perch on the snout, making a small, chittering noise.

"you" the Leviathan said.""

"I..." Flia swallowed, then nodded fiercely, squeezing her eyes shut as though it would stop the tears. And the tears weren't only because of the Abyssal's innocent curiosity, or the purity with which it fluttered around the Abyss.

It was because that gentle current had prompted a memory.

That first time she'd fallen into her own magic and had been lost in the Abyss, she'd started crying. It was dark and scary, and she was too young to know where she was, only that everything around her was immense and awful and she had no idea how to leave.

And then an ocean current had grabbed her, warm and gentle, nudging her back toward the opening that had brought her there to begin with. A voice had followed:

"You didn't mean any of it, did you?" Flia whispered quietly. She reached up, hesitant, and the Leviathan lowered her head and bumped her snout against her palm. "You didn't know."

""

Flia didn't know how she'd ever been scared of the Leviathan. "Would I have been able to save the Abyssal?" she asked. "Without your blessing?"

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"" The Leviathan's answer was soft but certain.

Flia took a deep breath and nodded. She remembered that first sight of the Abyssal, lost and alone and afraid. She remembered the moment it —the moment it knew she was there to help, that she was there to give it freedom. She'd caught only a brief glimpse of its emotions, then, but even in that briefest of glimpses she had seen the utter relief it felt. The joy when it knew it was at least heading home.

"Then it's fine," she said, resolute. "If that was the only way, then I'd do it all again if I had to."

The Leviathan smiled at her. "" she said. ""

Flia laughed, as absurd as it felt to do so. It was more a release of tension than anything else. "I spent most of my life avoiding you by accident, I guess," she said. "Then Cale comes along and he sticks his head right in and figures it out."

The Leviathan seemed to smirk, suddenly amused. " she said, her tone almost... fond. ""

"Is that what Cale is?" Flia asked, straightening suddenly. She still had so many questions, and she'd heard those words before, hadn't she? Back when that assassin from the Red Hunters had attacked. "A Monolith... what even is a Monolith?"

The Leviathan tilted her head, regarding Flia for a long moment. "," she said, "."

The amusement hadn't left her tone, though. Instead, the Leviathan coiled slyly, like she was preparing to tell her a secret. ""

Flia was much less amused. She stared blankly at the Leviathan, opened her mouth, closed it again, then sighed. "You... you know what you just said is terrifying, right?" she asked. "I don't even need to know what Monoliths are to know that's terrifying."

"," the Leviathan told her, laughing softly. Flia tried to ignore the fact that the sea serpent's laughter seemed to shake the very realms around her. Was that even possible? Did the people in the realms notice?

The laughter settled, though, and Flia didn't quite know what to make of the look the Leviathan gave her after. "," she said. ""

Flia winced slightly at that request. "Easier said than done," she muttered. "But yes, we'll... try."

It wasn't like she hadn't noticed it herself. All of them had. They caught glimpses of it every time the human got angry and something dark and terrifying flashed in his eyes, like he was holding himself back by the flimsiest of chains.

It might have been harder to spot, perhaps, if they hadn't already seen Akkau do the same. . Flia wondered if that was just a part of immortality, or if there was something about those two in particular. The Leviathan seemed like she'd been through her fair share of pain, but she didn't seem to hide it.

Then again, maybe she didn't need to.

"," the Leviathan said, smiling at her. ""

"Right," Flia agreed hastily, if only because she wasn't sure it was a good idea to let her thoughts keep wandering. "Cale said you'd tell me more about the blessing you gave me."

The Leviathan hummed. "," she said, looking down briefly; Flia had the brief, absurd impression of a sad puppy. ""

She swam in a slow, lazy circle, as if to gesture to all the realms around her. ""

The Leviathan must have caught Flia's look of alarm, because she laughed softly once more. ""

Even as she said this, she was pushing her snout insistently against Flia's hand. Flia glanced down helplessly, feeling a bit absurd. "Are you... asking for scritches?" she asked hesitantly.

On the one hand, giving scritches to something at this level of power felt like she was committing some kind of blasphemy. Possibly multiple kinds of blasphemy. It was nearly as bad as those paintings Damien kept. On the other, giving the Leviathan scritches if she was asking for them felt equally dangerous.

And the Leviathan was cute, damn it. She wanted to.

"," the Leviathan said, looking at her like the question she'd asked was ridiculous. Flia just sighed and began scratching the Leviathan's scales gently, feeling absurd. Were all incredibly powerful mages like this? Did ask for scritches sometimes?

Flia abruptly envisioned Cale giving the Headmaster scritches, then banished the thought as quickly as she could.

"," the Leviathan continued. ""

A small pause, and then the Leviathan swished her tail awkwardly. "" she said thoughtfully. "" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ ????????????????????·????????????????·????????????

Flia blinked. "I mean, if I'm going to be your herald, I'd have to know, right?" she offered.

"" The Leviathan nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied by that line of reasoning. Or communicating with someone across a great distance, perhaps? ""

"The Law of What Lies Between," Flia muttered. There was a lot she could infer from that name alone. "But why me? What do you need from me?"

The Leviathan was silent for a long moment. She swung her tail again, this time in agitation more than anything else, and then eventually spoke. "," she said. "."

Flia stiffened. "It isn't?"

"" The Leviathan's tone was restless, severe. "

"

"" The Leviathan's tone gentled slightly. "

"

The Leviathan looked up at her. ""

"I do." That sounded , in fact, but Flia found to her own surprise that she was more incensed than she was scared. "You're saying someone's been abducting these Abyssals, and I'm the only one that can send them back. And whoever's doing this is hiding somewhere in Utelia?"

""

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Flia burst out without thinking. "I could have tried to find them! I could have—"

""

The simple, matter-of-fact way the Leviathan had said those words stopped Flia dead in her tracks. She froze, feeling almost like she'd been doused in ice magic.

"" the Leviathan said, not without a tinge of guilt in her voice. "

"" There was regret in the Leviathan's voice now. "

"" The Leviathan spoke the words authoritatively, like it was imparting some deep secret unto her. ""

The Leviathan swam forward, booping her gently with her snout.

"" she said. ""

Flia woke up gasping, the currents of water in the pool she slept in swirling and splashing rapidly as if in turmoil. She swallowed, struggling to understand everything she'd seen. What the Leviathan had .

A part of her had almost worried that Damien and Leo would leave her behind, with everything they'd gained, but this?

She could do something with this. If she understood this correctly, then was connected. The Great Realms by the Abyss, yes, but also people to one another. One event to the next.

The Red Hunters to their school, and their school to her .

Besides, if anyone else on Utelia was capturing and using Abyssal Ones, it would be them. What else could explain the powers they exhibited? That archmage had managed to sneak past Syphus's sight, of all things.

Flia sat in her pool, staring at the glowing water as it swirled with a gentle current. Her expression hardened, and she took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and dove into her core.

No classes today. Not until she understood what this was and how she could use it.