*Im thinking of changing the title of the series because the course of the story isnt going anywhere toward
magic markets -_-.

NORTHERN MARKETS
Episode 90: Restoration

After the clerics approval, Owl was sent from Petaigon Base to the Waskatina Magic Academy, one of New Saskatchewan’s well reputed training centers for practitioners of magic. Waskatina campus was the size of a university, and the many buildings housed acedemic, and physical programs the students went though.

When she arrived here, Owl was retrained, starting with long intense hours of rigorus activity and meditation and the like. In the mornings, she was on the treadmills, or in the gym doing exercises such as push ups, pull ups, sit ups, etc. This building where she was held was a giant underground tree that sucks up magic at incredibly high rates. For beginners, the ‘Tree’ as it was called, was an excellent place to start. Sasko magicians were taught that in order to safely and effectivly conduct and handle magic, one must be in touch with their physical bodies and be in good shape.
The tree sucked out any magic their bodies produced, and allowed students to work with their own physical energy and strength without using magic or being distracted with it.

Owl was considered a special case. Not only was she unable to operate without magic, she was also a hacker, and the energy flowed freely through her body. For security reasons, she was isolated from the rest of the beginners and had to wear hack-absorbing bracers, and a hacker mage had to be with Owl to keep her on track. It was suggested that she be ‘magicated’ (blasted with enough magic energy to destroy hackium), but members of Mistawasis’ family feared Owl would be killed, due to her ill health.

Owl began her days running through the trails, then on the treadmill. Next she was taken to the gym where she was forced to do push ups, sit-ups, bench press, chin ups, all of which she could barely do in the beginning.
Two arch mages watched over, sapping every milliwatt of magic or hack energy her body generated.

In the start, Owl was fed high fiber/protein food such as beans, certain grains, airRice, (rice grown high in the sky. a typical grain of airRice is 7 inches long). She was denied energy food (ex. pasta, granolas, even fruit) because they found out her body used the nutrients and minerals to develop magic. The rigorous exercise was to program Owl’s body to use the nutrition from the food she ate for energy and repairs (proteins used to fix/replace organs, etc), instead of producing magic.
Owl was allowed outside for an hour during the night because with no hack power or magic, Owl would be irradiated and burned severely by the Solar rays. During the night outside, Owl swam in the lake.

Four weeks in, Owl swam in a nearby lake for a test. The archmages training her wanted to see how her body would operate when she holds her breath. When a magician is about to drown, the body will generate magic to compensate for lack of oxygen. Seems like a good thing, but the magician would pay for it later.
Owl didnt drown, but was pissed off at the Saskwa-speaking archmages for holding her under with their tractor beam powers.

Caprico 31 (February 16)
4:50 SEA Time (7:30AM Orbis Time, 4:30 AM Victoria Time)

Next day, Owl was on the treadmill. She huffed raspy chants as she struggled to keep up with the spinning belt. The speed slowly went up, and she nearly sprinted to keep from being thrown back against the wall. Her soaked purple hair was tied back, the ends of each strand flinging drips of sweat as Owl ran.
Suddenly, an alarm went off and the belt stopped, throwing her forward, and she slammed into the panel in front of her. “Agh!~” she croaked.
Owl slumped forward over the panel panting like crazy as the door opened. The alarm on the panel kept beeping.

That corn colored hair woman who Owl saw back at Pentaigon stepped in. She wore her night robe covering her woven gown.
“You need to focus on not doing that,” she said.
“Doing….doing wat?” Owl panted, struggling to push herself off of the metal panel of the treadmill. As she pulled back, the sweat from her shirt and body left a thick greasy film on the screens and buttons of the panel.
“You began producing magic again. You must divert from producing magic!” Corn Hair replied. “That’s why I stopped the exercise. Now stretch and catch your breath,” she said as Owl sat on the treadmill beltway and started stretching her legs. She squinted in pain as she stretched her muscles.
“Aren’t people supposed to make magic?” Owl asked.
“Voluntarily,when they need to. You do it involuntarily. You are not conscious of when you produce magic, so you can’t stop it unless we stop you,” Corn Hair said.
Owl nodded, taking a pill from the woman. It was a red salt pill that absorbed magic.
As she chugged a bottle of water, the woman said, “Today is a big day for you; You’re going into surgery to get new arm,”
Owl looked up at her, then at the black skin stump of her right arm, then back at her again. “Serious?”
The woman nodded. “But first, you must be magicated,”

Owl was already on a full diet of all the food groups and had physically recovered for the most part. She restored significant muscles to survive the magication process. Muscles store magic as well as energy, along with fat, however f there is too much to store, and the magician isn’t using magic, ‘loose’ magic will burn the body from the inside.
Owl was being magicated because they wanted to destroy the hack contamination in her body and arm stump.

Owl was strapped onto a mithril platform, which was suspended by cables over giant metal plates. During the process, Owl was put to sleep with some herbs to spare her the pain. She was swallowed by a bright blue beam of raw magic flowing from the upper plates downward to the lower plates. Sparks went off around her body as the magic being pumped through her reacted with the hackium inside. After what seemed like an hour, her arm stump exploded as the hackium burst into a bright searing flame. Soon there were no more sparks, and it was all over. Like a cancer patient after chemo, Owl was sent to the infirmary to recover.

After a week of eating and exercises, Owl was taken in or surgery. Bio arch mages who specialized in cell regeneration worked for hours on Owl’s arm, using thei powers to eliminate the scar-tissue development on the girl’s arm stump, and made everything grow outward. Next they applied blank stem cells again and again at intervals of 15 minutes. To aid the healing, ‘Air food’ was pumped into the room via pipes, (Air food is oxygen mixed with nutrients/vitamins/minerals already extracted and ready for use). To add to that, Owl was stuck with a feeding tube with pumped HP fuel into her stomach. The surgery was tedious, and if her body started up with making magic, the whole thing would have to be stopped. However, it was the bio mage’s lucky day, and nothing went wrong. utilizing Owl’s blueprint (ex. construction map of the body) the stem cells, aided by filtered magic and electricity, piled up and turned into bone, skin, muscle, tendons, and blood. After 7 hours, Owl’s new arm was fully attached, and the mages ‘released’ it to her; they cut off the magic barriers and let Owl’s bloodstream flow into the new arm.

When she woke up with a new right arm, Owl looked at it, moved it around, wiggled her fingers, etc. She went through more tests to confirm her new arm was working and wasn’t going to die on her or be destroyed by her own immune system. After she passed all the medical tests, Owl resumed her exercises, and the muscles in her new arm became strong fast.
Through meditation, Owl was finally learning to reach her inner consciousness and managed to stop her body from producing magic.

in the month of Aquarii, (Feb 16- March 11)
Owl began her combat training. Because the academy knew she was a bowman, she began with archery and was tested in what she learned when she was growing up in Henesys. Next, she was given a sword to train with, but got good at sword fighting fast. being magic free for weeks now, Owl’s skills in hand-to-hand, sword, and bow combat became exceptionally well.

To allow for more time, Owl was taken under command by a time mage, who could slow time down to an hour to the second. She battled swordmen, fighters, bowmen, bandits, sins. At first she got her ass kicked, but quickly adapted to actual battle, and gained the upper hand in most of her fights. She was an instant expert on dodging punches, kicks, stars and blades. Once a spearman came at her, his Serpent Tongue winging, Owl grapped it just under the tip, jammed into the ground, pole-vaulting her opponent high into the air. He landed on his face, breaking his neck.
When put against a mage, Owl was forced to dodge the magic attacks, and had to dodge, dash, and duck her way close to the mage. owl got close but was about to be fried as the mage had his Kage ready with a fire attack.
Like a gymnast on crack, Owl sprang up into the air, about 8 feet up, swung upside down and landed right behind him. The bewildered mage looked about, trying to find her, when Owl took him out with a roundhouse kick, slamming her heel right into the side of his face.

All this time, either training with the time mage or at the Lake of Time, Owl had gone through over a thousand hours of intense combat practice. She was just as amazed by her own physical powers as her coaches and opponents were. She had never before been so strong, or fast. in a recent test, Owl was fired on by 5000 Sasko bowmen, and to he biggest surprise, her super reflexes made her dodge every single arrow!

As the month of Aquarii gave way to Piscii, and the alien-like spring started for New Saskatchewan, Owl finally asked to start doing magic again. She was dying to become the wind mage she used to be.
“No,” said Corn Hair Lady.
“Why not? i can handle it,”
“We need you to pass one more test, that will determine your ability to handle magic,”
“What’s that?”
“Defeat a powerful archmage. She is a monster on the battlefield and is known for slayying her opponents. Half the time, our healers can’t even bring back the students she’s slain in sparring matches,”

“Look, lady, I can kick a lot of ass, but if i cant do magic, I’ve got nothing against an arch mage!”
“That’s not the point of this test, daughter of Mistawasis.”
Owl stared at her in confusion. She didn’t get it. How the hell can she defeat an archmage? She’s only a pureblood now!
“Then what the hell is the point?!” Owl demanded.
Corn Hair Lady looked at her in the eye. “In your next match, you must defeat Azure!”

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Today i made potato salad. Anybody want some?