145, 1/2

There were no nightmares.

Ezekiel woke up an hour before the sun rose. He relieved Paul from his watch, sending the man back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep. Ezekiel became the only one on guard duty for a little while, and this was fine. Maybe in a few days, or after no one was worried about treachery, they’d all get to sleep at the same time. As it was, Ezekiel needed a lot less sleep than other people, so he took the lion’s share of the watch.

He went about getting ready for the rest of the day.

When Tiffany got up, Paul wasn’t far behind. After Julia checked in and Ezekiel could finally relax again, it was time to head to the Void Temple. He checked his Status, and saw that he could bring up the screen. Everything worked. He wasn’t in a dream.

– – – –

Once again inside the large stone amphitheater, Ezekiel sat beside Kaffi, as she unrolled yet another scroll. No books today. Just scrolls. Some of them were assorted, but the majority of them were bound in red leather with gold-leaf caps.

Kaffi left the red leather ones to the side, for now, and picked up a green leather scroll, saying, “We’ll do a few more assorted aura awakening techniques and then we’ll move on to the red scrolls, which are all based upon what you told me yesterday. I need to ensure that we haven’t missed something obvious, though.” She unfurled the green scroll, and started reading, “For this one, you must gather your aura spell into a shell around yourself, but keep it away from yourself. Imagine your aura spell as a thick-walled sphere that is not touching your body. But, since aura must connect to the body, trace where the connections remain the strongest. You must push away your spherical aura with all your might, for only in the smallest connections are you able to find out where your true aura originates.” She turned the scroll to him, and showed the pictures.

It seemed easy enough.

Ezekiel did as he was instructed, gathering his [Normalize Aura] into a shell against his skin, which he then pushed away, like a bubble expanding. Ten thousand tendrils of power connected him to the bubble. The large bubble. This was not going to work, was it?

Ezekiel pushed the spell hard, away from himself, minimizing—

Nope. He would need to use a smaller spell. His [Normalize Aura] was already threatening to go far beyond the walls of the amphitheater.

Kaffi noticed, her eyes wandering upward, then back to Ezekiel. “A smaller aura?”

Ezekiel turned off [Normalize Aura], and turned on [Lodestar], and did the same.

He became the center of one of those plasma ball toys that Julia absolutely needed when she was a kid, and then discarded a year later, except done in bright white instead of purple and blue. This spell seemed to work. His Domain flared wide, away from his skin, trailing tendrils from the bubble of radiance back to him, sitting in the center. He pushed.

The Domain swept across Kaffi, then out into the room, soaking into the air and the stone and turning both brilliant. And then a darkness crept into the center, near Ezekiel’s skin; the absence of the Domain. That absence became more pronounced as moments passed, and lingering light faded.

Soon, the only tendrils that connected him to his expanded aura came from the center of his chest directly over his heart, from the top of his head, and from his hands.

He could have pushed his aura further away, but he was beginning to feel a tension. A spring pulled tight. A muscle getting ready to snap. Ezekiel relaxed himself, and his aura, then turned his Domain off.

“Head, heart, hands,” Ezekiel said.

Kaffi quickly unrolled a second scroll and read a few lines before quickly discarding that one in favor of a different scroll. This one, she read more, then she smiled a little and lifted her head. “This is good. Now we know where your aura will originate from; your heart, your mind, and your hands. Most people don’t have a set starting point for their aura, but you do!” She set that scroll aside and picked up a red leather scroll. She unfurled it, and, finding her place, she read aloud, “With your mana sense active, concentrate on the beat of your heart, and the flow of your soul. Attempt to see where your soul moves while your extended spell aura is active. Flick your spell aura on and off as needed to begin to understand how to move your natural aura.” She said to him, “Try it with your light Domain.”

Ezekiel did so, flexing his [Lodestar] active and inactive, attempting to see how his control existed when the Script wasn’t assisting him. Mostly, all he saw was his Shroud directly below his skin moving like a thick fog, while his actual soul, existing in the same space as his Shroud, was as solid as ever.

After a while of this, Kaffi called it, saying, “Time.”

Ezekiel relaxed. He flicked his [Cleanse Aura] through the space, erasing the sweat from his body. He said, “That one seemed promising.”

“Hard to tell with your [Personal Ward] active. But yes; I agree.” Kaffi picked up one of two red scrolls she had sitting in front of her, saying, “I have higher hopes now for these two, than I do for the rest, but we will go through them as needed.”

Ezekiel was fine to keep going, but he had questions. “Before we do that: What is the link between the Shroud, the Soul, and the Aura?”

Kaffi paused, thinking. And then she said, “We call them the Outer Soul, the Inner Soul, and the Aura, around here. Functionally, both Outer and Inner souls are the same, and they exist in the same space, but one is the skin of the soul and the other is the meat. To damage the meat, one needs to get through the skin. Some theorize that the Outer Soul is false, and that all we really have is the Inner Soul. The Outer Soul might be like Health is to the body; a shielding force, and a resource, but as to what you could spend that resource on, I have no idea.” Kaffi said, “As for the link to the Aura, the Soul is the expression of our true self in the mana, and through our true self, we can influence the mana around us.

“The Script automates this functionality with every Aurified spell, but if we awaken our auras on our own, we are able to control some of what is out there, without needing to fully rely on the Script. Still can’t do much more than Basic Tier spellwork. But with a working Aura, you can do anything that you could do with a Greater Elemental Body. This was how they cast spells in the Old Cosmology.

“But mostly, Soul work is far, far outside of my expertise.” Kaffi said, “I fear telling you anything beyond the basics, for it is likely wrong, and you shouldn’t believe me about any of that. In particular, my theory that the Outer Soul is a resource is rather odd, and likely wrong. It’s likely more like Health that you cannot spend.

“I only truly know three things about the soul.

“One of them is that I am not able to control my soul; to move it to do anything.

“But I can control my aura, and my body, and my mind, and when my soul has been damaged, these three expressions of myself have suffered. Gaps in the aura. Sores on the skin. Blank spots in the memory.

“And I also know that there is no need to control the soul, or to work from that deep a resource, in order to control and expand the aura.” Kaffi waved a hand, saying, “I don’t do soulwork. You’d have to talk to necromancers to understand more of that.”

Ezekiel nodded, then said, “Thank you.”

Kaffi nodded in return, and unfurled a red leather scroll, saying, “Now for this one, you must…”

They spent two more hours on aura work. There were no breakthroughs.

When it was over, Kaffi invited Ezekiel to lunch again, but Lingxing was not available today. Ezekiel smiled at that, for if he had been invited to another meeting luncheon, he would have said no. But free food? Sure!

Lunch in the VIP space of the fifth floor cafeteria was great, though they were the only ones there in that room and it felt kinda empty. Sitting at his table, with Tiffany and Paul on the other side, Ezekiel had a lot of time to consider the problems he currently faced. None of them were truly pressing any more, which was nice. Even the Converter Angel seemed to be taking her sweet time on the moon, Celes, and the Shades seemed similarly silent.

Things seemed to be calming down, but circumstances could turn horrible at a moment’s notice. With that in mind, and thinking of the thousands of terrible things that he had already seen, what would Hangzi’s ‘true terror’ look like?

– – – –

Hangzi declared, “I have decided not to subject you to the horrors of the Devouring Nightmare. I’ve got too much work to do and not enough time to do it! Rejoice, Scion Phoenix.”

And then the Scion of Devouring Nightmare shut the door in Ezekiel’s face.

… Ezekiel knocked on the door again.

Hangzi whipped it open. “What!”

“You can do it right here, can’t you? Your aunt suggested that you could. I’m curious what form your terror actually takes.”

Was it some sound that triggered the amygdala? That would be rather terrifying, and there was no real way to defend against that. Or maybe it was a [Soul Burn] attack; soul attacks were supposed to make the recipient feel terrified.

Hangzi narrowed his eyes, then said, “Subjecting a warrior to the Nightmare is an easy variable to account for. You? No one knows what any given mage would do inside the Nightmare. Therefore, I will not be held responsible for the collateral damage that always comes about from subjecting a mage to our High Clan’s namesake. It is one of the first things my Clan teaches our disciples, and I will not flout that law.” He added, “Now let me work in peace. Don’t you have some wounds to inflict upon yourself? Learn some healing spells?”

Hangzi shut the door again.

Ezekiel stared at the door for a moment longer, then walked away.

– – – –

Ezekiel knocked on the door.

It opened inward.

Xue stood on the other side, saying, “Greetings, Scion Ezekiel.” He stepped aside, and into his room, saying, “Please come in.”

Ezekiel nodded, walking in, saying, “Thank you for the time and education, Loremaster Xue.”

The room was divided into unequal portions, with the larger section being empty. The smaller part held an office space, bookshelves, and other assorted living space objects, including a lounge, a large mirror, a table, and a tea set. While Paul and Tiffany took their places beside the door, Ezekiel watched Xue walk to the lounge area. Ezekiel followed him.

Xue sat down and gestured to the tea, asking, “Care for a cup while we discuss the lesson plan?”

Ezekiel sat, saying, “I would like some tea. Thank you for the hospitality.”

Xue deftly prepared the tea, and set it to heating in a [Ward], as he asked, “Have you had much experience with healing, yet?”

“I have not.” Ezekiel said, “I am finding it mentally difficult to purposely injure myself.”

Xue smirked. “Would you prefer someone else to injure you?”

“Probably not.”

The tea started bubbling, so Xue poured, and slid a cup to Ezekiel. Then he took his own cup and sipped.

Ezekiel sipped his tea, then set down the cup.

Xue asked, “Would you prefer to injure someone else?”

“Absolutely not.” Ezekiel said, “When I chose this path, I knew it would require injuries to heal, and I assumed I would be able to do it, but I did not think it would be this difficult to do. Difficult mentally, I mean.”

“You could injure me, if you wish.” Xue said, “It’s not an imposition to suffer minor wounds. I offer myself for this. The pain is not intolerable.”

Ezekiel frowned.

“Maybe not, then.” Xue said, “I never suffered from this problem you are facing, but I know that I will never affect as much as you have, or will. I humbly suggest you resign yourself to causing harm now, for there is no way to learn how to heal the injured without having injured subjects in the first place, and you will need this magic more than most going forward.”

Ezekiel was not comfortable with that fact of life. Xue was correct, of course. If Ezekiel had his own healing magics, Ezekiel could not only heal himself the next time he needed to, he could also heal others. He knew this, logically.

Logic and emotion rarely mixed well.

But at the same time, Ezekiel just needed to ‘get over it’, didn’t he?

Xue shrugged, adding, “Or we can move on to injuring and healing rats.”

“Let’s do that.”

“Then follow me.”

Xue stood, and Ezekiel followed.

– – – –

The Rat Room was located near the outside of the clan mountain, facing north. Sun shone through large windows, lighting up a room of solid stone that held comfortable carpets everywhere and walls that were honeycomb cubby holes. Little highways arced across the whole room, suspended in the air, linking space to space, but leaving plenty of room for attendants to see to the needs of the residents of this small paradise.

Happy rats, squeaking out of shredded-paper homes. Playful rats, tussling with each other, playing in the sunlight. Racing rats, chasing each other across the highways of their miniature city. They seemed full of joy, and that was good.

Ezekiel watched the rats from behind a one-way mirror, as initiates saw to the needs of the animals. Feeding them, playing with them, [Cleanse]ing up after them. Adding new shredded paper to a large pile for the rats to take what they needed, when the [Cleanse]s took out half of the rat homes, and the rats needed more building material. Ezekiel was surprised.

He was surprised in a happy way. They were taking care of the rats. Most of them were even neutered. This was a maintained resource, and seeing the rats run to the caretakers inside the space, looking for treats and to play, did more for Ezekiel’s estimation of Star Song than anything else he had seen in the last few days. This was especially true after hearing the warnings of the Rat Master.

The Rat Master was a stern older man with a big white beard and long hair, named Toix, who said, “You will be given a rat that is already sedated, along with enough potion to keep him or her under for an hour, as well as an emergency healing potion. I will be monitoring your first experiment to ensure that you know what you’re doing, but past that, Loremaster Xue has already vouched for you, so next time you can come on your own and get what you need. We know that occasionally the rats die due to student failure, but if you don’t do everything you can to ensure that doesn’t happen, then I will do what is necessary to ban you from this resource.” Toix said, “Happy, healthy rats are easier to work with than caged, stressed animals, and you will ensure that they stay happy and as healthy as you can make them.” He glanced at Xue, and a darkness passed over his face, then he looked to Ezekiel, and said, “We’re losing a lot more rats than usual. Do ensure that you are not abusive to our Healing Magic helpers.”

“I would never want to harm for the purpose of harming, Master Toix,” Ezekiel said.

Toix narrowed his eyes at Ezekiel, but said nothing. He led them to a smaller room on the side. In moments, a door opened between the main rat room and this side room. A young woman brought out a sleeping rat on a tray with the rat in the main box and two small potions in two slots of the tray. She set the specimen down on a table in front of Toix.

He was a beautiful specimen of white and gold fur, at twenty centimeters long, with the tail twice again that length. He was on his back, belly up, with the back half of his body sitting in a layer of blue potion. The tray was designed to hold the rat’s head out of the potion, but to keep him partially submerged in it at the same time.

Toix said, “Blue is for sleep and numbing. Keep the rat in a layer of potion that deep, and he won’t wake up, or feel a thing. Red is for healing, in case you make a mistake. If you make a horrific mistake, grab one of the rat keepers on duty, and they’ll be able to heal your mistake.” He asked, “Do you need tools?”

“No,” Ezekiel said, psyching himself up for what he was about to do.

“Fine.” Toix said, “Don’t harm too deeply. Go ahead. I’m watching.”

With his lightform active, Ezekiel…

Got to it.

A little slice against the abdomen….

… Nothing? Okay. A little deeper. Hmm. Hard skin. Slice a little strong—

Toix said, “I appreciate the restraint, but a sharper knife causes less pain than a dull one, and these rats all have a great deal more Health and Vitality than normal rats.”

… Ezekiel honed his lightform to a sunbeam edge.

Red spilled out from a shallow, half-centimeter deep wound. Ezekiel gasped as he breathed in, and then he focused. He applied [Healing Word] to the wound. Nothing. Ah. He forgot to shape the spell first.

… And he forgot to hold the wound together.

Right.

White light held skin and the barest bit of muscle together, while keeping hair out of the wound. Magenta [Healing Word] sunk into the sleeping, numbed rat, directly shaped to the sliver of flesh that had been parted.

Something shifted inside the wound as magenta light soaked in. Cells regrew. The rat healed. A tiny scar appeared, and Ezekiel let go of the holding light, releasing the wound. Then he went back in with his light and checked. Yes? The wound was gone? Okay? Was it actually gone, though? It was.

Ezekiel stepped back. “Is that… It?”

Toix bent down, inspecting. Xue held back; a small smile on his face. Toix cast a [Cleanse] upon the wound, only, and half of the scar came undone. Ah. Cancers.

Ezekiel paled.

Toix said, “Small cancers are hard to see. Keep going until that doesn’t happen. Don’t [Cleanse] the whole rat, either; just the wound you cause. The potion we use to keep them asleep and numbed is technically a poison, and every time you [Cleanse], some of the potion vanishes from the rat and more soaks into his skin, keeping the rat under and dropping the level of potion in the tray.” He pointed at the blue liquid at the bottom of the tray, that the rat rested in. “Observe how the level has dropped, slightly.” He picked up the blue bottle, and poured a little into the tray. “Keep it at about that level. There’s a mark. Keep it there.”

Ezekiel had already seen all of that, but he said, “I see. Thank you for your instruction.”

Toix stepped back.

Ezekiel stepped and looked down at the rat.

With magenta [Healing Word]s in his lightform, he got to work.

Thirty minutes later, there were still mistakes. Cancers still bloomed. He caused a dozen different small stomach wounds, but each one held the same problem; they wouldn’t heal correctly. Ezekiel added blue potion to the rat’s bath, keeping it under, but he could tell the rat was having problems. It breathed harder, for one. Its little chest went up and down hard whenever Ezekiel inflicted a wound, or tried to heal it.

Ezekiel was pretty sure his problem was his magenta mana altering.

Ezekiel stepped away from the rat, saying, “Please assist in the final healing, Master Toix. I cannot seem to get it right. I need to study more before I come back here.”

Toix had been silently staring and brooding as he watched Ezekiel injure his rat, but at Ezekiel’s declaration, he raised his head, and then nodded, approvingly. He said, “I doubt you need to study, for I’ve seen disciples with much less skill enter these halls and come out as master Healers. You only need more practice. Come back some other time and we’ll get you a new rat.” He reached over and tapped the rat twice; the first spell healed all of the rat’s wounds, and the second returned a brilliant shine to the rat’s coat and body. He picked up the tray and said, “This one can get some pampering and rest before he’s released back in the main room.”

Ezekiel bowed, saying, “Thank you, Rat Master Toix.”

Toix waved him off, and took the tray with the rat into another room.

– – – –

As they walked through the hallway, side by side, back to Xue’s office, Ezekiel said, “That was enlightening. Is that how you learned your specialty?”

Xue wore heavy black and red robes, while Ezekiel wore a similar style in magenta and white. The disciples around them all wore greys, while professors and Elders wore other styles. It was rather easy to tell who was higher class than everyone else.

Xue said, “Somewhat. I was a similar special case as yourself. I awoke my aura at a young age, and thus the normal Healing Quests were unnecessary. But let us continue this conversation back in my office.”

There were a few people in the hallway eyeing them, openly, and a few trying not to eye them, so Ezekiel went along with Xue’s request. Xue was acting a little squirrelly, though. It was an odd look on the man.

A minute later, they were back in Xue’s office, and sitting on the couch where they had taken tea.

“You were doing well with the rat. You simply need to do more, to get a proper feel for it.” Xue asked, “But you talked of needing to study more?”

“A lie.” Ezekiel said, “I know the problem. If I am allowed access to the rats on my own, I will likely overcome that problem.”

Xue said, “Your current value to Star Song is inestimable and there is little chance that you are going to abuse the rats, therefore you will have access to the Rat Room whenever you wish. Rat Master Toix is not happy with our current rate of rat consumption for the chelation experimentation, but the lives of people are worth more than a million rats, and this truth includes whatever gains you will reap on your own.” He added, “Give me a time, and I can make it happen.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Thank you. Then… I would like some time in the Rat Room, after our session is over.”

Xue nodded. “It will be done.”

Ezekiel asked, “As for injuring and healing myself… I think I am ready for that, but I am loathe to drop my defenses. Do you have any insight into solving this problem?”

“Yes.” Xue said, “An antirhine-core knife. It won’t break your [Personal Ward], but it will weaken it and also open a hole in your defense, allowing you to cut yourself without dropping your defenses. I have extra, if you wish.”

Ezekiel smiled, saying, “I would like that. I accept. Thank you.”

Xue lifted a hand toward the set of drawers under the large mirror on the wall. A small one near the bottom opened, revealing a thick-walled glass jar filled with clear liquid and a dozen stiletto knives, each of them black and weighty. Ezekiel had noticed them before now, due to their partial absence in his mana sense, but he did not think they would actually be used for cutting oneself without breaking a [Personal Ward]. Upon thinking about it for more than the barest second, though, of course such knives would be useful for someone who needed to break their skin all the time to work with Blood Magic.

But from what they looked like to his mana sense, Ezekiel had considered that the knives were actually weapons, and not tools. They looked rather specifically breakable; as though they could be stabbed into a person and then broken off, leaving behind an antimagical wound.

They probably could do that, too.

The whole jar of knives came floating out, and onto the table between them.

Xue reached forward, uncapping the jar, releasing the scent of alcohol into the air. He plucked out a knife with his hands and set it in front of Ezekiel, saying, “A small gift. I haven’t needed to use one in a long while, but they have all sorts of uses.”

Sure they did.

The center of the knife blade was anti-magic, but the grip was not. Ezekiel picked the knife up by the grip and tested its weight. They were heavy, but it would be child’s play to pick them up the non-lead end with [Telekinesis] and swing them around, or to use them in combat. He set the knife down in front of him.

Ezekiel said, “Thank you.”

“I have more if you lose that one.” Xue said, “They’re not overly expensive or difficult to make, but they are rather cumbersome.” He picked up one of the other blades out of the jar, sending scatters of alcohol onto the table. He exposed his opposing forearm, saying, “They’re sharp, though.”

He sliced through his forearm. Ezekiel’s eyes went wide as vibrant red blood gushed out of the laceration like Xue had opened up the neck of a suspended cow, and not his own comparatively puny arm. In a pair of beating seconds, a red orb the size of a basketball hung above the table and Xue’s arm stopped bleeding. He had healed the wound shut with the barest bit of magic.

The red orb hung there for a moment.

Xue gave Ezekiel a questioning look.

Ezekiel returned his own questioning look.

A tension passed, unremarked by Ezekiel.

Xue turned the orb to broken black dust that swirled away into the mana. A quick [Cleanse] from the Blood Mage cleaned up the blackened blood that was real.