Mana was like a river.
That's how Ares saw it now. Something you couldn't control by grabbing at it. You had to follow the current, shape the edges, deepen the bed, and if you tried to build a dam too early?
You'd drown.
---
He was getting better at it, though.
Each night, he sat in his crib with wobbly legs and careful breaths, listening.
Not with his ears.
With his whole being.
With purpose.
The warmth in his chest, that glowing core nestled right beside his heart, no longer just sat there doing nothing. It actually responded now. It moved when he asked it to.
One ripple became two.
Two became three.
He could guide it slowly to his shoulders, down his back, even up to the base of his neck. The energy felt like warm honey flowing through his tiny body.
'Almost a full loop. Not bad for a one-year-old.'
He grinned to himself, feeling pretty proud.
And that's when he made his biggest mistake yet.
---
He reached too far.
Way too far.
Like a kid trying to grab cookies from the top shelf, he pushed the mana all the way down through both arms at once, before pulling it back up.
Big mistake.
His breath caught in his throat.
The warmth stumbled and crashed like a drunk person falling down stairs.
A sharp spike of pressure stabbed his ribs from the inside, cold and mean.
His chest seized up tight.
The whole flow just... collapsed.
For one terrifying moment, he felt like he was floating and sinking at the same time, stretched out like taffy but crushed like a bug.
He flopped backward against the crib wall, gasping like a fish out of water.
'Idiot. Total idiot.'
'Too fast. Too greedy. I'm nowhere near ready for that.'
His arms and legs felt all tingly and empty, like when your foot falls asleep but worse.
He just lay there for a while, watching moonlight crawl across the ceiling like pale fingers, waiting for his body to remember how to work properly.
---
When the room finally stopped spinning, he sat up again.
Much slower this time. Much smarter.
He didn't push at all.
He just let the mana hum gently where it felt comfortable, chest, shoulders, upper back.
Baby steps.
'First lesson learned the hard way: being greedy gets you smacked down.'
'Got it. No more showing off to myself.'
---
Later that week, something even weirder happened.
Junia walked into the room one afternoon, humming some tune under her breath as she changed the bedsheets. Her voice was soft and pretty, like birds chirping.
Ares wasn't even looking at her. His eyes were turned inward, following his breath and mana like always.
But when she walked past his crib...
He felt something strange.
It wasn't her footsteps on the floor. Or the rustle of clean sheets.
It was like the air itself bent a little bit.
A flutter of something nervous and scattered, mana, but not his own. It felt like spilled sugar in the wind, all over the place.
He blinked hard.
Without thinking, he turned his head toward her.
Junia stopped what she was doing.
Looked right at him with those kind eyes.
He stared back, probably looking like a confused puppy.
Then she smiled and went back to her work, still humming.
---
'That was hers. Her mana, not mine.'
'So it's not just about me anymore. I can feel other people now.'
Not clearly, though.
Not like looking at something up close.
More like sensing the heat from a campfire before you actually see the flames dancing.
---
He didn't tell anyone, of course.
Not that he could even if he wanted to, being a baby and all.
But he filed it away in his growing list of mental notes:
Don't bite off more than you can chew with your mana.
Breathing is way more important than trying to look cool.
And other people leave invisible trails behind them.
'I'm not the only one swimming in this river anymore.'
'Time to learn how to listen to what's happening outside my own little bubble.'
The thought was both exciting and a little scary. Like realizing you're not alone in a dark room, could be good, could be trouble.
But definitely interesting.