Life on the road was full of hardships, one was at the mercy of nature when traveling from place to place, the prospect of obtaining a meal wasn't always certain but for Cyrus and the others those hardships weren't an issue. The mechanical carriage that carried the four of them shielded them from the elements and the rations given by Laura kept the worry of food far away from them.As they traveled further from Lexin they rode through the less worn forest paths that led out of the town the carriage trampled and bumbled over the rougher terrain of branches and roots. It was a bumpy and shaky ride but the landscape and scenery gradually began to change, the tree line opened and slowly faded, the lush forest floors cleared and a plain stretched out in front of their path. The days on the road came and went, Sarah had since woken up and stayed in the back of the carriage with Celene. The two of them leaving Cyrus and Henry to drive and pilot the carriage.
"So now that it's been a few days and you're all rested up, you wanna tell me what you did back then." Celene questioned. Her arms were folded under her bust as she leaned her back against the door of the carriage as she laid down on one half of the carriage's seats.
Sarah perked up once she heard her question, a small sigh escaped her lips. "I'm not completely sure. That was definitely my true form but I don't know why I'm not able to maintain it."
"Well it for sure made your claim to be an angel more believable, and since angels are divine I'll be waiting for all that gold you promised." Celene smirked a bit.
"Yeah, yeah you'll get it once you become a hero." Sarah laughed a bit.
"I'm holding you to that." Celene chuckled out, "But what was all that black stuff that was coming out of you? A failed mana conversion?" She inquired.
"No I don't think that's what it was, I never went to the second stage. But it felt similar, like something was attacking my core and restraining it." Sarah explained as she rubbed her own chin in thought.
As the two spoke the front window of the carriage that opened up to the driver's box would open and in swung Cyrus. He gripped at the edge of it and snaked himself in making him fall right onto Celene's lap. Celene's eyes went wide as the wind got knocked out of her as Cyrus suddenly landed on top of her.
" Mana conversion? Second stage what are you two talking about?" Cyrus asked, he looked down at Celene who he was now sat on top of only to be met with a star crashing into his chest. The star punched into his chest bouncing him off of Celene and pressing him against the door of the carriage.
"Don't casually sit on me you idiot!" She reprimanded as her star slowly fizzled out after getting Cyrus off of her.
Cyrus panted, "Is this how you treat an injured man?"
"Oh I don't wanna hear it. You practically slept it off, Sarah repaired your clothes more than she did your actual body." Celene huffed folding her arms as Cyrus got comfortable in his seat. "But how stupid are you really? You use vivification but don't know about stages. Do you just yell out things because you think it sounds cool?"
"Yeah..... is that not why other people do it?" He asked a genuine look of confusion on his face.
As she heard that Sarah let out a heavy sigh and Celene stared at him dumbfounded. "How did I lose to you."
"Because I'm just better."A small star appeared and crashed into Cyrus's face planting him against the carriage's window. "Shut up! By Celestia you're stupid." She let out a heavy sigh. "People aren't just blurting out words there's a reason."
Cyrus rubbed his face as he pried himself off of the door of the carriage.
"The essence of magic is imagination and visualization. Your Ground Zero, that's what you call it right? It does something specific doesn't it?"
"Yeah it places a mark on-" Cyrus was interrupted as a small star bound off of his head.
"That was rhetorical, but essentially by applying a name to a certain action or series of actions you create a spell. It connects your imagination to a specific result and it enhances your visualization and thus increasing the strength of the spell." Celene explained.
Cyrus nodded his head. "I guess things did feel stronger when I yelled things but most names never stuck and I stopped doing them. But if naming things inherently strengths things why would anyone never not do that."
"Named spells consume more mana and the inverse is true." Sarah chimed in. "If you want to diminish the effects of something give it a name and then don't use it, it's a balancing game every mage plays and you seem to just do it instinctively."
Cyrus smirked "So I'm just that great."
Sarah's eyes gazed upon him, they scanned him up and down. "In a sense maybe, but mana isn't just some cooperative thing you can use without understanding it, this instinctiveness can cost you. Even with this carriage you're just driving purely off instinct aren't you?"As the words left her mouth Sarah looked at Cyrus then towards the front of the Carriage at the driver's box and then back as her eyes slowly widened. " Wait a second, Cyrus you're supposed to be driving!"
He chuckled. "Calm down, I'm not an idiot. I let Henry drive." He confidently smirked and pointed to the front.Celene started to clamor towards the front window of the carriage.
"Henry is a duck! He doesn't have enough mana to drive this-" She popped her head out of the front window in a frantic haste.
As she looked towards the driver's box she saw Henry sat upon the seat the metal reigns of the carriage in his mouth and the carriage steadily moving along as the duck seemingly glanced at the map at his side before he turned to Celene
"Quack"
Celene stared in utter bewilderment before she slowly retreated back into the carriage and closed the window, she sat back down without a word next to a Cyrus who had a shit-eating grin on his face.