“Mana and magic exist on a spectrum. Typically, they can appear as entirely different shapes and colors to someone’s perception, but it’s technically possible to do anything  with any form of mana. Although maybe that’s a feat even dragons can’t do.”

“That’s a theory,” I told Moonwash, “Hell, it’s a mere hypothesis.”

“Yes. You’re right. However, every source of mana already differs just by a minuscule amount, and yet the same focuses are able to take control of them. Maybe the focuses too are different, but that is unconfirmed.”

“Wait, wait. Back up.” I took a deep breath of dust, as we were currently in Moonwash’s forge. “How would you even know about literally every source of mana having a different flavor?”

“Your mom told me.”

I snorted out a laugh.

“I’m not joking. I don’t understand what is supposed to be funny.”

I waved her off. “Nothing, nothing. I just wasn’t expecting a ‘your mom’ joke.”

“But it’s not a joke. She really did tell me.”

“Yes, yes. I’m sure. Can you tell me exactly what she told you?”

Moonwash thought about it… for a long couple of minutes. I didn’t need her to be that exact!

“Every mana has a flavor.” Moonwash did a piss poor impression of my mother. I loved it. “They are very similar, near identical, but never the exact same. At least I think so. I’m not sure actually. But I just feel that it’s true, whenever I sense mana to a fine degree. You know?”

“Oh yes. I’m not sure actually. The height, the epitome , of science.”

“I wouldn't say so,” she said blandly, “but there is credence to it. Most importantly is that there are different flavors that could appear sometimes in Mutations, like say the ‘ominous wind’ element of the omenbirds. And that element can be controlled by a typical wind focus, if at vastly reduced efficiency. It can also be stored in wind mana repositories.”

“And so you think that literally every source of mana is actually a different flavor. Like the ‘slightly-brighter-fire’ element, or something?”

“Yes.”

“...Well, maybe? Okay?”

I turned to leave, but that was when Moonwash shoved a goblin seed towards me. “These things are full of wicked mana. They need it to begin their work. But maybe you can take control of it.”

“Oh! I get it now, what you’re trying to say. They’re both curse-aligned energies, so maybe I can control it like my menace magic?”

She nodded.

“Well, sorry to say, but it won’t work. My horns control things that I have marked, and that’s basically only the mana inside me, the menace element in my blood. But I don’t actually own a focus that can specifically interact with curse mana and its derivatives. It’s also incomprehensibly difficult to control mana without a proper structure, like a proper wand.”

“You did mention that. I forgot.” She shoved the seed further into my face. “Eat it then.”

“What?”

“I said eat it.”

“No, no. I mean, why?”

“Because if your skin marks the mana that passes through it, then maybe it can mark any mana as long as you put it inside yourself and then test it out.”

I blinked. “That actually... Huh. That makes sense.”

I held the seed of the goblin. It looked like a shivered piece of bark, easily mistaken for something natural and mundane. I had my reservations, lots and lots of it, but with a deep breath, I popped the seed into my mouth, being very careful to keep it only on the periphery of my tongue.

I felt the mana within once it was in my tongue, but I could not pull it out at all. I tried for half an hour, until I began to feel a tingling in my tongue and spat it out.

“Fuck, fuck!” I hurried outside and looked for a mirror. There was a tiny green dot on my tongue. “Shit, this better be healable!” I ran outside and tried with nature magic. I felt a slight soothing prickle on where the seed did its damage, and the green spot was gone the next time I looked into my hand mirror.

I heaved a sigh of relief.

“Haell. What happened?” Moonwash followed me outside.

I explained the green spot and everything else.

“Why did you get rid of it? I want to see.”

“What the fuck do you mean why did I get rid of it!? Of course I did! And no, I’m not doing it again.”

“That is sad.”

“Be sad then.” I harrumphed.

“I’ll do it myself if you won’t.” Moonwash popped a seed into her mouth. “I can somewhat feel a connection to the wicked element now. Although I still don’t have a way to actually control it. It didn’t work for you either?”

I shook my head.

She waited for a while for the seed to metaphorically take root, but nothing had happened even an hour later. Seeing her failure, Moonwash ordered me to obtain for her a corpse of something. Anything.

“ Anything ?” I asked darkly, staring right at her.

“Yes,” she replied, staring right back, unwavering.

I wasn’t sure if she got the joke or not.

I did as Moonwash asked, happy to help my friend with her experiments. It was a nice change of pace from the usual violence.

I savaged a pack of wolves, and then killed the last one by kicking it in the guts and then strangling it on the ground. My good friend needed a more intact corpse,  I thought, so a more intact corpse she would get . The final wolf had not a single cut on its body when it died.

“Thank you Haell,” Moonwash unhesitatingly took the wolven carcass off my hands, and then planted the goblin seed within.

We watched the process for hours, and I had to grab a book at some point because the changes were happening so slowly. Moonwash did not have the same problem.

The corpse writhed ever so slowly, wicked mana saturated the carcass overtime.

“It’s making more of itself, multiplying, perpetuating,” Moonwash explained. “That is not how mana usually behaves. Mana should be something that is only made by specialized organs, although there is the mana of the world itself that suffuses everything…”

I agreed, truly understanding what was happening in front of me even as I continued to consume my illegal trashy fiction about angel-on-dragon love. Wicked magic was adjacent to my menace magic, and I was very interested in finding new spells to use for myself.

“I think the seed is able to act as a focus, or is commanding the wicked mana somehow.” I touched the gross mass before me, pieces of flesh and most of the fur sloughing off. “Maybe it’s like infused pieces, or Mutations that have an effect even if the host dies. Like the horns of a goeath, or the feathers of a cloudbird. Except instead of making all fire around it stronger, this one is more sophisticated, creating entirely new lifeforms somehow.”

“I agree. The mana is the fuel, I felt a lot more inside it compared to any other infused piece, and the seed itself is a focus that directs the process. But this is far more complex than anything else. It’s basically pocket biomancy… Does this mean that wicked magic has biomancy potential? Curse-aligned magics as a whole?”

“Well… my menace magic at least can be used for physical-enhancement during combat, if in a very limited way. And have you forgotten about the cursetaceans? They were made by the curse dragon upon his death, presumably through curse magic…”

“Yes. Yes, you’re right,” Moonwash spat the words out rapidly. “It is a fact that curse magic can do biomancy. Somehow. We have a very obvious example pointing to that. It just seems so antithetical to life , the element that is most famously used for biomancy, but we have a very obvious example against what our common sense might tell us.”

The corpse jolted, bones cracked and shifted. Long minutes passed as the shape of a goblin was finally made. An hour later the creature stood, sparse pieces of unused biomass dropping to the floor or clinging to its skin.

She looked at me. I looked at her. The goblin’s eyes were calm for a precious few moments, but it seemed to struggle, growing more insane with every passing second. Only a few minutes later, it lunged after us, and I splattered the contents of its skull with ease.

“She was like me, like you,” I said. “In those first few moments she was sane. But then the wicked mana took over, and all that was left was a drooling and unthinking monster, content only to spread pain and suffering.”

What a fucking fate, for an entire species.

“I really need that ritual for identifying things,” Moonwash stated, immediately rummaging through the corpse of the person that we made. For that was what she was, even if for only a few long seconds. “What is taking Luine so long? I needed it yesteryear.”

~~~

“ I have an idea!” I crashed into the base, blood and guts still clinging to my form after my most recent hunt.

“Oh no. She has an idea.” Luine dropped down after me, mock horror on her face.

“Clean! Clean up!” Baston yelled from across the space, cultivating some venomous plants.

I did as he asked, wiping myself down and rinsing with water in the washing area we made just next to the entrance.

I rushed towards our storage crates afterwards, looking for what I needed.

“Moonwash! Where are the repositories!”

She didn’t come soon enough, and I found it myself. I then popped one into my mouth, the element of fire. Immediately I felt a connection, not very strong but I could actually move it around without a dedicated focus. I slowly coaxed the mana out and then brought it out of my body, passing through skin. The connection held because of my mark, and I could now move the mana around as if it were my own using my horns.

“Yes! It worked!” I pumped my fist… and accidentally swallowed the thing. “Uhh… Oops? Is that bad?”

There was an immediate burning sensation in my stomach, but I recognized it for the fake that it was, an illusion of the mind. My connection to the mana was far stronger with the repository in my guts, and it flowed smoothly through my body the moment I called for it. Some of it clung to my blood, and an excruciating sensation immediately filled my mind. It felt like my veins were bloated, like sludge filled with rocks traveled through my body, gumming everything up. I could not reconcile having two elements within my blood at once, and I hurriedly pulled the fire mana back out again. It made a swift exit out of my body, and I sighed with relief. The mana was still within my grasp and I could indeed still manipulate it through my horns, if not as efficiently as with menace magic.

I took a moment to collect myself, and then manifested a spell.

Fireball.

I summoned the flames, and found that it was a little bit better than what I could manage with my wand.

“Fuck yeah!”

My stomach growled.

“Oh right. I swallowed a, uh, fire mana repository.”

I ran towards Moonwash’s forge, to find her meticulously carving through a sickening clump of goblin seed. She noticed my presence a few minutes later.

“Hello, Haell. Do you need something?”

I explained to her what I just discovered, adding how yesterday’s experiments with eating a goblin seed helped.

“Mana can be used without a focus if it’s inside you! I’ve been doing it since my evolution, and it works! It really works!”

“That’s great, Haell. Although what do you mean by this being a new discovery?”

“Uh, because I invented a new method for magic?”

“No you didn’t.”

“What?”

“People know about this, presumably from the beginning. It’s in the angelic scriptures.”

“Oh. Shit, really?”

“Yes.”

“But… but if that’s the case then how come I’ve never seen like molars as a wand.”

“For the same reason that swords and necklaces and other things are not as good as a magical apparatus. Wands and staves are just better at it, there’s some magical significance. Additionally, even if you can control the mana inside you that way, that control is lost once it exits your body. So what will you even do with it? Not everyone is a demon.”

“Hehe. I’m amazing.” I flexed.

“Lastly. It’s actually bloody uncomfortable to have to have mana inside of you.”

“Ah. Yeah, it definitely is. But wait! Objection! Plenty of animals, monsters, and even people do have repositories inside them.”

“Yes. And it is indeed uncomfortable for them. At least when they’re using magic. The repository isolates the mana otherwise, that’s the point of it, although even then some sensation remains if it’s literally inside your guts. Another theory that I have though, is that their flesh and mind are adapted to the mana they naturally possess, at least to an extent, even if it doesn’t say so in their Mutations. That isn’t the case if you just swallow a repository filled with mana.”

“Shit, that’s what I did!”

“Yes, it is.”

“What do I do? Oh save me, forgemaster.”

“Forgemaster…?” Moonwash thought about it for a few seconds. “I like it. Call me Forgemaster Moonwash from now on.”

“Okay sure. Now, about my ailment?”

“Shit it out.”

“Wouldn’t that be painful?”

“Maybe? How big is the repository?”

I recalled the object’s size, and found it wanting. “I should be fine.” It was smaller than my biggest shits.

“I can also do a surgery if you want.”

I looked at Moonwash. “Have you ever  done one before?”

“Does dismantling a corpse count?”

“Absolutely not! That’s dead! I’m…I’m living!” Although maybe the process is kinda similar… but no! Nope! Nuh-uh!

“Oh. Have fun shitting it out then.”

“I will!”

I slammed the door to the forgemaster’s lair.