Jack stepped back to make room for Austra as he moved in and knelt next to the device.

  “Where?” he asked.

  Jack assumed he meant the spot he talked about earlier and pointed immediately. He had stared at the etchings for hours, so he knew exactly where it was by now. He watched Austra reach into a pouch at his side and pull out a small circular piece of metal.

  He watched closely while Austra ran his fingers across the surface of the device and spun an exterior ring. Segments expanded outward from the centre of the device until it resembled a tiny telescope. He held it to his eye and leant down to where Jack had pointed. He moved the lens back and forward over the etchings in the metal, stopping occasionally and tsking.

  “Jump too big,” Austra said as he handed the telescope to Jack and motioned him over.

  Jack was excited every time he got to put his hands on a piece of magitech, and after seeing how it expanded, he assumed this would be another one. Trying to be polite, he asked if he could inspect it. Austra gave him a strange look and nodded. Jack turned it over in his hands and looked for etchings or some other indicator of what it might do. He couldn't see anything. That, mixed with the lack of connection, made him frown a little as he tilted it.

  “Not magic. Just tool. Simple job. Simple tool. Look,” Austra said, motioning for him to hold it to his eye.

  Jack felt a slight flush of embarrassment, but he did as instructed. He knew it shouldn't matter, but he really wanted to impress Austra for some reason, it was very important to him. He quickly tried to look through the lens and saw that it worked exactly how he had expected it to.

  The magnification, however, was much better than he had expected. Holding it to his eye, he could see so much more detail in the etching, he could see the detail inside the channels that had been cut into the metal. All of the tiny details were easily visible to him now. The deliberate angled cuts in the walls of the channels as well as the almost machined steps up and down throughout the base of the etching as well.

  He followed the path back and forwards a few times and noticed there was a kind of pattern happening. He didn't know what it was, but it seemed almost uniform in its repetition, all except one spot where there was a slightly different step. As the etching moved away from the cylinder, it looked almost like the bottom and walls of the path were stepped, with a gradual rise as it approached the fire crystal.

  The spot he indicated earlier looked like it was a third higher than it should be, which was only a tiny deviation, sure, but in this case it stood out like a sore thumb. Jack leaned back and moved the device away from his eye. He saw Austra holding another small device.

  It looked like a flashlight with a giant ballpoint pen at the end of it. He held it out towards Jack.

  “Is Magic. Still tool. Size issue. Simple tool, too big, hard to use. Magic tool, small easy to use,” Austra said.

  Jack felt he was getting a lot of words out of the man. Like most introverts, he probably liked to talk about his obsessions. Jack tentatively reached out and touched the device. He immediately noticed the difference. This had that familiarity about it, the slight resonance that told him he could inspect it if he wanted, and he did want to.

  [Mana Pathway Reader]

  [Expert Craft]

  This item has been forged by an expert craftsman.

  This item must be provided mana by the user, it can function with any mana frequency. While charged, it can be activated while placed over a suitable external mana pathway. It will then identify the frequency and quality of the harmonic components of the target mana pathway.

  This item can only display information about frequencies that the user has knowledge and experience of. If a detected frequency is not within a known range the returned information will be to the closest known band.

  The pathway reader amazed him, not necessarily because of anything it did, it was just the fact it existed. Even just the description was valuable information to Jack. Mixed in with what he had just seen and by making some assumptions based on what Austra had said, things were starting to connect.

  Austra motioned for Jack to hold the reader over the etching, which he guessed was actually called a mana pathway. Jack tentatively reached out and held the tool with the circular tip pointing down. Austra nodded, and Jack channelled a little bit of mana from his prismatic skin into the device.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  It vibrated in his hand as the end of it shone like a flashlight, shooting light into the pathway below. When it left the device, it was a plain white light. As it was reflected, however, he saw the colour shift closer to what he had seen when the device was activated.

  In his hand, the reader continued to vibrate, and as he slowly moved it along, the vibration changed slightly. Jack frowned. He had been tracing the pathway and had covered most of the distance it crossed, but the light and vibration had barely changed.

  “That’s wrong. It's the same hue the whole way, but that's not right. It moves through yellow-orange to red, but this is just … orange,” Jack said out loud as he moved the device back over the path again.

  Austra reached out and moved the device away from the pathway and tilted it horizontally. Jack stopped channelling mana when he noticed the light kept shining. As he did so, a small projection shot out of the middle of the device.

  It looked like some sort of line chart. It looked like a set of stairs that reached a peak and travelled back down. Jack assumed that was when he had reached the end and moved the device back. It very much showed changes in the path, unlike the light that had shone. Maybe he had misunderstood.

  He did notice at one single point in the middle of the first rise there was a symbol that looked like an asterisk. He felt a slight pull from it and reached out with his finger to touch it.

  Frequency : Heat

  Band : Secondary

  Band center offput : 0

  Jack stared at the line as he clicked the pieces together. This must have been what the second part of the reader's description meant, this was the ‘info’ on the frequency that he knew. In his brief discussions with Turrel, he knew that there were primary, secondary, and border frequencies. Life, water, and fire were primary. Heat, electricity, and gravity were secondary, and things like Earth, Air, and other obscurities were border frequencies as they crossed multiple bands.

  He honestly still didn't fully understand it, and he couldn't remember ever experiencing the orange or heat frequency other than in discussion. Maybe simply knowing it existed and staring at it while feeling the sensations as it was activated was enough?

  Obviously, there was a big gap between him being able to see or sense it and him having enough knowledge about it to identify it. He could see there were at least six other steps in that orange range. He turned to look at Austra and the man was squinting at him.

  He looked between Jack and Turrel a few times and inquisitively tilted his head before speaking.

  “Study more. Prism need to know. Need to understand.” He said this looking at Turrel and not Jack.

  “Yes, Jack’s education has been… constantly interrupted. He is a quick study, however, and we will have time to study while travelling,” Turrel replied.

  Austra turned back to Jack and stared at his eyes and then glanced at the open containers that Jack had counted the gems in before.

  “Learn more. When make camp. I teach little bit. You look at pathways. Tell what see. Deal?” Austra asked.

  Jack was nodding as soon as he heard the word teach. He agreed immediately.

  “Yes, of course. All of this is super interesting to me. I really want to learn how this works. How to make mana do all of these amazing things,” Jack gushed.

  Austra smiled briefly but he held up his hand as Jack spoke.

  “No, no. Mana is. Mana not do. Mana is.” He waved his hands around as he spoke, very animated.

  “Structure, material, shape. Do. We.” He pointed at himself and Jack. “Make function. Make pathway. Pathway guide mana. Mana is.” He paused, and pursed his lips as he saw the confusion on Jack's face. He shook his head and continued by pointing at Turrel and then making a big circular motion with his hand.

  “Them, the Origin. Make mana do. Give pathway to body. Mind give function. Mind give shape. Origin make mana do. Not same.” Austra waved his hand, seeming a little frustrated.

  “Study more. Explain later, when know more. Go camp hungry, grow Kalo.” He turned and walked out of the room without saying another thing.

  Jack sat there processing what he had just heard while looking at Turrel and waiting for him to say something. He got the feeling Austra was trying to say that mana was a power source and also separate from the Origin? Way out of his wheelhouse and while still interesting, all he wanted to focus on for now was that he would be getting some training.

  “Austra is a very passionate man when it comes to his craft. The things he crafts mostly function without Origin essence, at least most of them do. I think it is a cultural thing, so don’t think too much on it,” Turrel said as he stood up.

  “He was right about the food though. They should have the camp all set up now and, well, you are responsible for producing our kalo supplies. Monty may starve without you. Do you still have that pouch with you?” Turrel asked.

  Jack remembered being told he would have some duties but honestly there was so much happening it had slipped his mind. He reached inside the coat and pulled out the pouch that was tied to a loop inside.

  “Yep, got it here. Wait a second though. Do I just like throw a seed in the snow and use my growth skill on it? How many do we need?” Jack asked. Turrel was opening a cabinet behind him and wasn't even looking at Jack.

  He turned back around and handed Jack a fist-sized piece of wood.

  “We also need you to make some extra wood fuel. For the crew, I have been told, but it will be good practice for you. Now come, let's go. I have no idea about quantities or supplies, that's what we have experts for,” Turrel said, and then he turned and walked out of their little room.

  Jack took one final look around, clutching the pouch of seeds and hunk of wood. He shook his head and followed after Turrel.