“The Game is its own thing,” I said solemnly. “It takes from many things and makes them its own. Not one thing nor another, not flesh nor fowl nor good red herring. Yet it is all of them together. Everything, and nothing. It fulfills wishes and crushes them." I gave that bit of pseudo-wisdom quote from a book I loved in childhood the pause it maybe deserved before continuing. “It makes fools of all of us who believe we understand it…and especially those who believe they can control it. We can’t. It forces us into shapes and patterns of its own choosing. Go too far outside that pattern, and it hits back…hard. Harder than you’d believe unless you’ve seen a World Boss. We saw a weak one.”

  Picking up my coffee, I took a slow sip. The mug was still warm against my fingers. Rain whispered against the windows, steady and cold, blurring the streetlights, which had come on early due to the darkness of the storm clouds, into soft halos.

  It looked like late evening outside, not the early evening it was.

  Blaze stared at me for a moment, eyes wide before her usual calm expression returned.

  “Li-chen,” I said, turning my gaze on him, “explain to me…in Game terms, as you understand them…why cultivation of MANA should exist when there’s no mention of it, no mechanism for it. Explain how it fits within the Rules of the Game.”

  He blinked, surprised at the question.

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Do you know where you’re going with this?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Maybe. Let me know when you need to change position. Easy Lotus if you know it. Sit upright, cross your ankles, don’t put them on your thighs. Hands on your knees.]

  “I…” He hesitated, eyes flicking down toward the floor before meeting mine again. “The Game is mostly based on Western motifs and fantasy…computer games and books for most of it.”

  Nodding to him, I agreed.

  “Why does it omit the Eastern traditions and stories?” he asked. “Those are older than most Western ones. Why are they mostly left out? It includes Eastern martial arts and weapons. MANA is used like Chi. Why doesn’t it work in Japan or China the same way?”

  He looked frustrated. “I gain MANA and skills like every other Warrior class. I use MANA to enhance and do Game attacks and defenses. But I know so many more techniques it doesn’t change or modify. I’m faster and stronger than before. I recover slightly quicker too…but not faster than some others.”

  I sat silently, unmoving, letting him speak. “He wants to be special based on what he knows and has done,” I realized. “I’m no different from him.”

  Pondering that in silence, I waited for him to continue.

  When he stayed quiet, I finally answered. “You’re going about this backwards. You want what doesn’t exist. Not because it should exist, but because you want it.”

  I reached down, picked up my coffee, and took two slow sips before setting it back on the table. The mug clicked softly against the wood of the coaster. Then I messaged Blaze.

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Take a drink, set it down like I did.]

  She followed my lead. Li-chen, still watching both of us, did the same…following her, puzzled but compliant.

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  I smiled under my hood. I was certain they could see it. “Li-chen. If you want to follow my path, it’s a simple one. Take what you know, add what you learn from the Game, and take it where the Game isn’t pointing you. How can you do it differently? How can you overcome something you can’t defeat? How can you laugh when everyone else is crying…or cry when they’re laughing?”

  He tried to keep a straight face, but his eyes betrayed him. He was following the words but hadn’t yet tied them together.

  “What is the purpose of the arts you’ve learned and teach?” I asked. “Think before you answer. Don’t give me the answer you’d tell your students. What answer do you give me?”

  His face went still, unfocused…not the Game’s glazed state, but the deeper, inward, personal kind.

  “Mr. Wierzbicki, my high school English teacher, taught me that question,” I told him. “I’d stayed after class once to ask about something. He made me think it through, solve it myself, then told me what he’d done. I never forgot that…or those dark green pants he wore every single day."

  Blaze shifted slightly on her pillow, rubbing her thighs and knees. Even with the pillow, she hadn’t been changing position like she usually did.

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [How much longer is this going to take? That was a good question. Mind if I use it with some of my agents?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Thank you. Go right ahead.]

  “I have an answer,” Li-chen said suddenly, startling both of us. “The purpose is to focus and forge both body and mind…to make them one.”

  He paused, then continued, voice gaining confidence. “To embrace the dichotomy of doing and not doing. Thinking and not thinking. Attacking and defending. Moving and standing still. Learning to fight so you don’t have to fight. My father stressed that one. Everything is the Yin and Yang. Equal and the same, but each different.”

  He fell silent again, eyes locked on me.

  “Are you saying that to learn to cultivate MANA…you do not cultivate it?” I asked.

  That made Blaze twist around, startled.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Close your mouth.]

  She snapped it shut, still darting her gaze between us.

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [That’s sounding like you sometimes.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Wax on. Wax off.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Huh?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [First Karate Kid movie.]

  [Blaze:] [William of Brinsford] [Heard of it. Don’t think I saw it.]

  “The eternal opposites,” I said. “The System wants our bodies to do things and makes them change to do them. Being very adaptable primates, we adapt. Mostly, we do what works. I have more control over MANA because I keep using it…focusing on it. Learning it.

  “You would say it flows through and around my body. I do things with it others don’t because they haven’t needed to. The System has forced me to do that…or, if not forced, it set things up so I’d have to.”

  I looked at him steadily. “You’ve been looking for the shortcut…to develop before doing. Cultivation stories talk about that too. But they also show growth through doing, through forcing yourself beyond your reach and grasp. Taking the hit so you can get close enough to strike back.”

  A sudden crack split the air. Lightning flashed outside the window, so bright it turned the room white for a heartbeat. All of us flinched.

  “Thank you, Thor,” I muttered.

  "Raw energy like that," I said, "nothing stops it. My shields won’t. No movement dodges it. It burns hotter than Blaze’s hottest fire.

  Both Li-chen and Blaze stared at me like I’d just caused the lightning strike.

  “If we level up far enough, maybe that’ll change,” I said quietly. “According to a sign in the System Store, the Game allows levels over 100. That’ll be a long time, years from now…if we live that long.”

  Leaning back, I watched rain streak the glass while thunder rolled again. Another flash hit nearby…closer. This time I saw it: lightning struck the Speedy Pizza sign post across the street. There was a momentary glow across the frame of the sign that used to be there. Except for the afterimage, the sign looked the same as if had for years since the place closed.

  It was just the red painted metal frame. They took the panels down when it closed.

  Draining the last of my coffee, and savoring the warmth, I looked at Blaze and Li-chen in turn before smiling.

  “That ended what I had to say with a bang,” I said. “Blaze, more coffee.” I lifted my empty cup.

  “Li-chen, we’ve got plenty of pizza left. Want some?” I said with my normal voice.

  FIRST MANA MAGE, is he right, wrong, partially right and partially wrong?ther. Or did the pizza he ate make all his blood go to his stomach and didn't leave enough in his brain to come up with what may be happening? Let me know in comments. I'd really like to know your thoughts on it.

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