So, I guess I didn’t expect an afternoon chat to involve someone driving a drill bit into my brain, but that was exactly how I felt right now. I must have been out of it for a little while since as my vision returned I saw a worried looking Emily close to my face with her hands on my shoulders. 

 

“Lilly, can you hear me!” she shouted, gently shaking me back and forth. “Are you okay? Please say something!” 

 

“Ughhh…,” I groaned while getting my vision back and placing my good hand on my head. “What happened and why are you so close?”

 

“Oh thank the goddess,” Emily cried and wrapped her arms around me. “I thought I lost you. There was a big flash when you held the crystal and then you just fell onto the table. Are you feeling okay? Do we need to go to a healer?”

 

“I think I’m okay,” I said, still gathering myself. “Just a bit of a headache but I think I’m fine now.”

 

“Okay...if you say so,” Emily said warily and let go of me. “I’ve never seen a crystal flare up like that. Usually it just makes a dim light or at best a candle light. I’ve also never heard of a light crystal hurting someone either.”

 

Now that I could gather my thoughts, I was pretty certain that touching the crystal triggered something, given the fact that I was still seeing a notification blinking in front of me for new tools. I reached my hand in front of me like I was stretching and flicked the notification to the side, planning to look more into it when I was alone. I was a bit curious about the feeling I got when I touched the crystal. It didn’t feel painful, just warm and then there was the weird tugging sensation. My curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know more.

 

“Do you mind if I try again?” I asked shyly. “I want to make sure this isn’t something I should have to worry about in the future and at least if you are here you can help me if something happens.” 

 

“I guess…,” Emily replied. “...But if something bad happens again I’m taking you to a healer whether you like it or not.” 

 

I nodded and picked up the small crystal laying on the table where I dropped it earlier. It still had the same warm feeling, maybe a bit warmer than before. I could feel the tugging sensation on my aether, but instead of just nudging my aether into it like I did before, I let the flowing feelings sink in a bit more. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on my own aether in my hands. It was stronger, but less chaotic than the crystals aether. I could feel the flow as it ran down my arm and stopped at the back of my neck. From there, I could feel many smaller connections and empty channels that were closed off with the one for my hand opened and freely flowing. Curious about the open connection, I thought about closing it like the other connections and it forced close, sending a small ripple from my neck to my chest which settled out quickly. Focusing on the connection again, I tried to open it and the flow started back up to my hand from my chest to my neck and back down my arm.

 

“Umm, are you doing okay?”, Emily asked nervously.

 

I opened my eyes realizing that I had must have been sitting there for a few minutes quiet with my eyes closed. “Sorry,” I said. “I felt this weird tugging sensation from the crystal like last time and then kinda lost myself in the sensation and flows of my aether. I did figure out I can turn off the aether in my hand which was kinda neat. I’m going to try something real quick with the crystal, but I think I need to close my eyes while I focus on my aether. Can you tell me what you see?”

 

“Umm sure, but please don’t hurt yourself,” Emily said worriedly.

 

“Okay, I’m going to get started,” I affirmed closing my eyes holding onto the crystal. Focusing again on the crystal, I could feel its warmth and the aether flowing in my hand. Once again I traced the flow back up my arm to the connection and tried to close it again shutting off the flow in my hand. ‘Ok,’ I thought. ‘Let me see if I can nudge it open just a bit.’ With that thought process I tried to gently open the connection letting only a little aether flow out. I could feel a tiny warm trickle down into my hand and the pull from the crystal. Focusing on the pulling sensation from the crystal, I nudged my aether into it again like last time.

 

“Oooh!” Emily exclaimed. “It’s glowing faintly like when I made it glow earlier.”

 

Now that I had confirmation that I had a connection to the crystal, I traced the flow back up my arm to the opening and tried to open it up a bit more. 

 

“Now it’s brighter like a candle light,” Emily said. 

 

For my final test, I opened my connection all the way.

 

“Ahh!” Emily shouted. “Turn it off! Turn it off! It’s too bright.”

 

I shut the flow down in my head and opened my eyes looking at the crystal which felt much warmer in my hand now. 

 

Lifting my head to Emily who was still rubbing her eyes I asked, “So how was it?”

 

“Okay, I’m going to level with you,” Emily said, blinking her eyes rapidly to get the spots in her vision away. “I have never seen a light crystal get that bright before and the only person who I have ever seen adjust the brightness on a crystal was my grandfather. How did you do that?”

 

“I’m honestly not sure about how it works,” I answered. “But I felt the aether flowing my hand traced it up my neck to what I guessed was a connection port of some kind. I learned I could open and close it when I was holding the crystal earlier so I tried adjusting the flow and the rest is what you saw.”

 

“Hmm, I wonder if you have the aptitude to be an aether worker.” Emily mused to herself quietly. 

 

“I know!” Emily said, jumping out of her chair with her eyes lit up starting at me. “I know I saw some books on aether working that my grandfather had in his personal collection upstairs. While I can’t let you take them home with you since they are kinda personal items to me, I can let you take a look at them if you want.”

 

“I just have to ask a small favor of you if you are interested in them,” Emily said smiling at me expectantly.

 

Thinking to myself I was pretty interested in the sensations I was feeling earlier. This was also probably the first time in the last few months I felt happy and motivated about something I did and I’m sure it lined up with the goddess plans as I remembered the notification flashing to the side of me…

 

Gathering myself I told Emily my feelings, “After everything that happened earlier, I do want to learn more about this since this is, but what kind of favor did you want to ask of me?”

 

She stood there smiling victorious. “My favor isn’t an easy one” she said grinning. “I need you to spend time with me!”