P.S. 1 – Chapter 41.5

I felt the mana stone crack inside my hand. To be more precise, I felt something inside it give way and now I could feel it was off. Still, if it was ruined, might as well make use of it.

"Taran, please stay behind the barriers. I damaged this one, so I'm going to force it into destruction."

As to be expected from experienced smiths, everyone in the forge immediately verified they were in safe locations. Taran took the other stones and pits with him, making sure my experiment couldn't harm the supply. Only after that did he speak. "So no elemental mana stones then? I'm not surprised, but still good to know."

I nodded, keeping my main focus on the stone in my hand. I had tried to weave the mana into the stone the same way I held my flames together without losing control, but clearly that wasn't the way to go. Time to try some other things and then overcharge the thing to understand how it breaks. But carefully, as I couldn't protect my hand too early or it would interfere, yet if it broke inside my hand, I could heavily injure myself and be forced to deal with a grumpy Bethan and even grumpier Eirwen.

Over the next few moments, I kept drawing in the mana, examining the exact way the stress kept compounding in the stone. Once satisfied, I grinned at the smiths. "Alright, let's see how this goes." The stone went into a lidded bucket, which I enforced while holding a large shield in front of myself. Crouched behind the shield, I sent more mana into the stone, noticing how it leaked mana from the widening cracks until suddenly the entire stone gave way, its remaining mana exploding alongside the fragments.

As I studied the remnants, I felt the senses around me focus and couldn't help but smile. Eirwen verifying I was alright. Her senses lingered on me a bit longer than needed, then her focus dissipated as she went back to work.

The smiths were all looking at me, playful grins on their faces. "Ah, to be young again... Flirting with your lover even while at work. Alright, our future Duke, time to get back to work! Less breaking the products though, please."

A while later, I absently noted some mana rushing elsewhere. Aoife hard at work herself, no doubt. Nothing I couldn't handle, though, just needed to slightly tweak how I drew in mana to compensate for her flow.

It was good to see her hard at work, teaching all the knights. She deserved the chance to show her own skills, make clear to everyone that she was wonderful as well. I had plenty of blame in how she had felt for years on end, so it was good for her to understand she was a proper equal partner.

That trail of thought made me realise that both of us were currently manipulating a lot of flame mana. The consequences for that were obvious, but would be a problem to deal with after dinner. Work first, pleasure later.