Introspection and Information

          Meditation has been something I had always done. At first, it merely assisted in letting the pain flow past me, an escape from the only world I could feel. Eventually, it became something I had honed in my youth that could further my capabilities as an adult, both in a game and my chosen profession. Now, it quite literally was a way for me to gain power. When I sat myself down on the floor of the study, I had intended to ruminate on all that I had been through and to ensure that a few memories would remain crisp and clear no matter how much time would pass. This practice became necessary in a life as long as mine, sorting through the day and sifting away the unimportant. To my surprise though, when the physical world faded to the background another rushed to the fore - breaking my concentration completely.

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself and tried again - turning my awareness inward - to try and puzzle out what this cascading power was. When I felt that energy enter through my pores, it felt like a wave of ice-cold spring water had been dumped over me, the cold piercing through my body. Though far from being uncomfortable, I felt this 'water' quickly warm - as if adapting to my body - and wrap around me comfortably. This sensation repeated itself a few times until, less than an hour later, it suddenly stopped and something in my chest felt like it was about to burst. The discomfort warned me of my limit, but something was telling me it was a false-warning. That, if only I could puzzle it out, I could take in yet more of this strange energy.

Driven by curiosity and intuition, I turned my mind's eye outward. For a moment, I was stunned, barely maintaining my state of clarity. Even though my eyes were completely closed and the room should have been steeped in shadow this deep into the night, my surroundings were dyed in alien colors that I had never seen before. It felt like I was seeing everything from Ultraviolet to Infrared again. However, it felt less like color in a spectrum and more like pigments mixing and splitting constantly; this caused a kaleidoscope of strange and abstract colors that I didn't think could exist. Pulling my attention away from the pretty colors, I focused on the source of the streams of energy.

Spread all around me, conforming to the physical matter present, was what seemed like a blanket covering everything. This blanket was porous and through those holes, the strange energy seeped out and seemed to gravitate towards me. When I compared the energy within me to the ambient energy, I almost couldn't distinguish between the two. It seems I've achieved an 'equilibrium' of sorts. 'Hmmm... I need to test this...' Focusing on the energy I felt pulling at the seams in my chest, I willed a small stream of it out and, to my surprise, it worked. Further surprising me was the fact that the feeling of that energy moving through me felt very familiar. 'Ah! Like balancing a needle! This is the energy that fuels magic!' 

Excited, I cut off that small stream and took a deep breath, finding equilibrium again. Once I achieved it, I decided to test my hypothesis. Just to make sure. So, without trying to interact with that energy at all, I called up a small gust of wind to travel around me and tousle my white hair continuously. Sure enough, the energy was spent and quickly replenished in my meditative state. 'Hmm, Noelle had said that magic was fueled by the soul... Did she mean that the soul is composed of the same energy? Or am I literally expending lifeforce to cause this phenomena? Or maybe this power goes through the soul somehow?'

My questions led me to following the small flow of power coming into me through the environment. It travelled through my veins and arteries until eventually reaching my heart and flowing behind it, sucked into a void in my awareness that I could not see through or describe no matter how hard I tried. "Huh. It almost looks like... a hole... in space?" This thought struck me, and I quickly turned my focus to the porous blanket draped over my surroundings. 'Yeah, It's just as I thought. That hole inside me looks identical to these... How strange..." With a flash of inspiration, my Will returned to the void behind my heart and I trickled just a small amount of this 'mana' into it, while thinking hard about manifesting that bolt of cloth I had embarrassed myself with earlier.

This time, I succeeded - and this answered some of the questions I had about how everything works. Though I still had to figure out how exactly I could cultivate this power. Holding my breath and leaving my meditative state, I checked my status; I was hoping that I had gained that last point to tip me over to level 2, but no luck. Nothing had changed save for a new skill registered under Order. It was my Soul-Pocket of course, and I was ecstatic to have access to my multitude of materials and artifacts, as useless as the latter would be without the ambient nanites needed for most to function. Oh well, I can just take the nanites for myself and use the base materials for other crafting projects. Now though, I am going to make myself some proper undergarments with this cloth I've finally gotten.

Standing up and casting a small light above me - it was getting easier and easier - I summoned my manual tailoring supplies in front of me. I had left the larger, automated equipment in my tower sadly, but I had the basic tools for just about any crafting that could be done - even a portable furnace for smelting on the fly.

I was completely absorbed in my crafting for several hours. I made the first sets of underwear easily but continued to experiment on how to make clothing I could alter and stretch for my incoming growth period, until the creak of a door and a small yawn broke my concentration. Startled, my concentration on my light broke and my little alcove was colored with the light of dawn, no longer drowned out by the industrial white of my magic. I stood, stretching and popping every bone from my neck to my toes, and turned around to see Alyx grimacing. Whether that was towards the satisfying pops echoing throughout the room or the scraps of cloth spread throughout her little reading corner, I couldn't tell.

"Good morning Alyx, sorry for the mess." I waved my hand in a greeting and simultaneously all the scraps gathered on my table before I focused my will on it and the whole assortment of tools and scraps vanished. I turned to look at her and she was dumbfounded, rubbing her eyes as if my crafter's table would suddenly reappear if she did so. I was pretty smug at this moment, recalling her look of pity from the night before, "Huehue, I told you I had materials on hand. I only just figured out how to get back into my soul-pocket, but check this out!" I held up the sets of underwear I had created, all from different types of cloth and in different styles. All of them were made to be resized rather easily as well, as I was expecting to grow quite a bit in the near future. Of course, I didn't show her the set I was already wearing.

"Haaaaah," I couldnt tell if that was a yawn or a sigh, "I don't even know what to say... at least you cleaned up, I guess. To think you could use magic so naturally in such a short amount of time... I feel like my 12 years of study are worthless." Well, I did have experience in a different system of 'magic' that worked in a very similar way. The main difference being the medium that caused the phenomena, but both were based on the will and imagination of the caster. I told her as much and her eyes gained a bit more light in them. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to talk further on your own system of magic? As a matter of fact where did you come from? Are you really over 500 years old?"

Ugh, I'm so not in the mood to answer her right now. I got distracted and spent my restful meditation time on making panties, so now I've got fog-brain. Great. Not to mention that the constant light magic and that last display had utterly drained me of energy. "No. It's complicated, and yes... Actually maybe not? How long is a year here? How long is your day, hour, and minute for that matter?"  She looked pretty confused at my questions, "Hm? Does that mean where you're from had different values for measuring time? How does that work?" I guess she thought that I came from somewhere else on the planet? Like another continent or something? Wait, does she even know she's on a planet in the first place? Uuurgh, never mind, do. not. care.

She cleared her throat and answered quickly, all the while moving towards the kitchen with me following. "There are 13 months to a year, 30 days each - so, a year is 390 days. Days are 28 hours. Hours are 60 minutes and minutes are 60 seconds. Oh, a second is about this long-" She conjured a ball of light for near exactly one of my seconds¹the time that elapses during 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation produced by the transition between two levels of the cesium-133 atom.. Neat, that makes a few things easier, "Okay gimme a second to do the math… …Right, I think that puts me in the 400 ballpark? Plus or minus maybe ten years?" She stopped short when I finished my mental math, just past the door to the kitchen with a question in her eyes. "How are you that old at your level of power, yet still so young?"

I just answered with a noncommittal shrug, "I told you it was complicated, I'd rather not talk about it. Besides, if anyone asks, I'll tell them I've just turned 20." That got her to choke on whatever her brain was working through, and she turned around to face me with an incredulous look. "What? Not like anyone's gonna believe that someone who looks like this is older than one of your 'venerable masters', right?" She rolled her eyes and stepped fully into the room, moving to prepare a simple breakfast. "You're better off saying you're around 40 or so. A Mage at your level will always look younger than they actually are, and if you're too young, you'll just draw the wrong kind of attention."

She finished her prep work and turned to face me as I replied. "Huh. Makes sense I guess. How does this all work anyway? I tried to gather energy overnight and hit a wall of sorts. Couldn't draw any more in no matter how hard I tried." This time, her face was truly incredulous and the boiling water behind her went completely unnoticed as she stared at me. She seemed to realize something and heaved a deep sigh, before grabbing her face in both hands.

"Right, sorry. Of course you don't know. You have to compress it. It's a very long and very taxing process but drawing the energy towards you is already a fairly large step that most can't do. Just that much is enough to get you to the level of a Postulant eventually, as your body does compress the stored energy over time - if it's stagnant enough. The fact that you're an Adept without this knowledge is frankly alarming. And more than a little disheartening." She shook her head, defeated, and turned around to find her pot of water much lower than before. With a grunt of frustration she held her hand above it and a stream of steaming water fell into the pot, filling it to it's previous point.

"If you could just fill the pot with boiling water, why not do that in the first place?" I was still digesting the info she had just told me, and was rather curious about the very mundane appliances I had seen, especially when an individual could just magic something up - making most tools and mechanical solutions useless. "It's a matter of practicality, mainly. A Mage must fill their cores with the power of the World and compress it within themselves. If one was constantly expending energy to perform each mundane of tasks, no one would make it past the Natural Realms. Though some would have you believe this power is that of the Arbiter and using it frivolously is akin to the deepest of heresies." She shook her head at the last statement, amused rather than annoyed.

With my questions answered, I decided to thank the woman and sit quietly while she prepared the food and I thought over my next actions. Though, Alyx apparently found the silence uncomfortable, as she asked another question. "I assume you don't want others to hear of your... circumstances?" I gave a nod, before looking up to see that she couldn't even see me, stirring the pot as she was. "Y-yes." I'm not embarrassed, you're embarrassed. "If possible, I'd like to maintain a low profile for now. Though I'll likely leave sooner, rather than later."

This got her to turn around, levelling a blank stare and a slow blink at me . "Right. Good luck with that. Anyway, I'll be going to the Church after breakfast. Since you've gotten something figured out with your undergarments, I can give you some coin and get you situated with the rest of what you need afterwards, okay?" I shook my head, thankful for her generosity but not wanting to owe any debts, if I could. "That's fine, I assume there's somewhere I can sell goods here? I've a few beasts in my soul-pocket from my home that I can sell."

Hmm, this girl really likes to stare... She mouthed the words 'soul-pocket' before I pointed at the dish on the stove and she jerked around to snatch it off the heat. "That's... No, never mind. If that's what you wish, then so be it. I'll tell no one of your situation. If they ask I'll just say you're a friend from Yl'Tarel." This time it was my turn to give her a blank look as she placed the dish on the table between us. She rolled her eyes and continued. "The capital of this province. I told you last night..." She stiffened, then looked at me with a hint of fear in her eyes before relaxing, not seeing any offense on my face.

"A-Anyway, there are several places you can take a beast. If it's just a Natural Beast, then a butcher is the best place to go. You'll get less if it's unprocessed, as you'll be giving them more labor, but it's easier than dismantling the thing yourself. If it's anything stronger than that, you'll have to take it to the Guild." At her mention of a Guild, I perked up. 'This is it! The quintessential Guild!' Seeing my exuberance, she continued with a slight smile. "I can give you the directions to go straight there or you can accompany me to the Church and we can both go after, if you prefer." I had to go to the Church to thank Noelle again anyway, so I decided to accompany her - after we have our fill of the delicious smelling breakfast she's preparing.