Bellamie kept her fingers closed around Gaelira's hand while an almost imperceptible current moved across her skin.
It did not feel like the warmth she had experienced when activating the crystal or the internal pressure that appeared when she tried to produce mana on her own.
Bellamie's energy moved at a steady rhythm, gathering near the palm before returning toward her wrist. Gaelira stopped trying to control it and focused all her attention on recognizing that path.
The transparent sphere placed on the table began to show two different currents.
One belonged to Bellamie and rotated evenly around the center. The second appeared as a faint golden line trembling near the surface without finding a stable direction.
Lenora adjusted the brass instrument and reduced the space between both currents without allowing them to mix.
"Don't try to produce more mana," the professor instructed. "Follow the rhythm already in front of you."
Gaelira closed her eyes. Bellamie's current moved again from her fingers, and she tried to imitate the sensation inside her own hand.
The golden line inside the sphere stretched at the same time, left the surface, and began rotating beside the other flow. For several seconds, both maintained the same speed without touching.
"It's working," Bellamie commented quietly.
The satisfaction caused Gaelira to lose some of her concentration. The golden thread trembled, but she managed to maintain it by focusing again on the pulse she felt against her palm.
Bellamie did not increase the amount of energy or try to guide her with words. She simply held her hand and allowed the same movement to repeat.
Lenora watched the sphere before telling them to separate. Bellamie opened her fingers and the contact disappeared.
The golden current immediately lost its shape, struck the edge of the crystal, and dissolved into small particles of light.
Gaelira looked at her empty hand. She still remembered the sensation, but could no longer find the rhythm that had produced it.
"So it does depend on my touch," Bellamie concluded, recovering her smile. "I'm starting to think your magic has good taste." New chapters come out on g.com first.
"It depends on your mana," Gaelira corrected. "Not necessarily on you."
"You can keep telling yourself that if it helps you concentrate."
Lenora tapped two glass fingers against the table and managed to bring both of their attention back to the experiment. "The first attempt shows that Gaelira's mana can recognize an external flow and reproduce part of its structure. We still don't know whether physical contact is necessary or if proximity is enough, so we will repeat the exercise while changing one condition at a time."
During the second attempt, Bellamie held only two of Gaelira's fingers. The current appeared more slowly, but the result was similar.
Gaelira managed to follow it until Lenora ordered them to separate and the thread disappeared again. In the third attempt, they kept their hands a few centimeters apart without touching.
Bellamie circulated her mana several times, but Gaelira only felt a distant pressure that she could not turn into anything recognizable.
"I can't tell where it begins," Gaelira admitted after several attempts. "Without contact, I can feel that it's close, but I can't follow it."
Lenora changed the position of the instrument and asked Bellamie to produce brief pulses instead of a continuous current. Each one passed through Gaelira's fingers like a small impact.
The first surprised her. During the second, she managed to anticipate it, and on the third she produced a golden flash that copied the same interval.
Bellamie tilted her head slightly. "Looks like she learns quickly when I stop treating her gently."
"The rhythm is easier to recognize because it has a beginning and an end," Lenora explained. "The continuous current required her to find a movement that was already happening. Now she can prepare herself to receive it."
They repeated the exercise until Gaelira managed to respond to five consecutive pulses. Each reaction produced a golden line between their hands that disappeared as soon as Bellamie moved away.
The closeness stopped feeling as uncomfortable after several attempts, although Bellamie seemed to enjoy every time their fingers met again.
Lenora allowed them to rest when the sphere began to warm. Gaelira moved her hand to recover the feeling in it and watched the residual currents inside the crystal.
Bellamie's energy had already disappeared, but small golden particles continued rotating near the place where both lines had matched. Get faster updates on g.com.
"Why is there still something left inside the instrument?" she asked.
"Because you were not using Bellamie's mana," Lenora replied. "You were teaching your own a movement it did not know. The structure disappears when you lose the reference, but the energy was always yours."
That difference was important. Gaelira did not need to absorb someone else's power or depend permanently on another person.
Her affinity seemed to use other flows as a guide, although she still needed to learn how to retain what she reproduced.
Lenora removed the sphere and placed a practice crystal between them. This time, she asked Bellamie to produce a single pulse and immediately move away.
Gaelira felt the movement, allowed it to travel through her hand, and tried to repeat it after losing contact.
The first attempt ended in a brief flash. The second produced a line that barely reached the crystal. During the third, the golden thread remained between her fingers for several seconds before breaking.
Bellamie let out a satisfied breath. "Looks like you don't need me anymore."
"I needed to feel it several times before I could do it," Gaelira replied while trying to recover the same sensation. "That doesn't mean I can do it whenever I want."
"Then I still have reasons to stay."
Gaelira focused again before Bellamie's smile could distract her. She remembered the initial pressure, the movement toward the palm, and the instant when the energy returned toward the wrist.
This time she did not wait for any external pulse. She produced one of her own and watched as the golden thread appeared between her fingers.
The line was more stable than the previous ones. Lenora brought the practice crystal closer, but the thread did not react to its presence.
Gaelira moved her hand slowly and discovered that the energy followed her fingers without dissolving. Even so, it seemed to be searching for a direction she did not know how to provide.
Near the wall was a rack holding several training weapons. Gaelira approached without losing concentration and chose a wooden sword.
The moment she closed her hand around the hilt, the golden thread left her fingers, traveled along her wrist, and began wrapping around the blade.