Chapter 40: Both the River & the Channel [Part 2/2]

Just as quickly as the pain had come, it left, though it had done its best to take the meager amount of stability she was still somehow holding on to.

What had just happened?

She stared at the bucket, trying to understand just what that pressure had been about. Then she realized it wasn’t the bucket bothering her.

Frowning, she stepped closer and watched the surface of the bath where gentle ripples had crossed the water. Something about the water itself felt familiar, and yet, foreign. She looked at the basin, then at the bucket near her foot.

Wait.

Her foot.

The one the bucket had smashed to bits. Because she’d already begun compensating for the pain and decreased mobility it took her a while to notice. Her foot was fine. How was her foot fine?

Her eyes traced back to the ripples in the basin. Felt their energy as they cascaded and bounced off each other creating patterns. It was beautiful, though the ‘discovery’ was not particularly groundbreaking. What fascinated her more than the patterns in the water, was the energy she could sense from it.

The water continued being water. Innocuous to most, however there was something there that wasn’t before. Or maybe it was and she’d just never been able to perceive it?

She studied her foot again, and found lingering traces of that same energy, much more familiar now. In fact, that was her energy, wasn’t it? And that blast of energy, that had been her power too. She hadn’t been actively paying attention to the form the energy had taken when it had blasted out of her. She’d been a little distracted, what with the blood and dry heaving.

Even so, the last time she’d checked ‘insta-heal’ had never been one of her abilities, nor was it something she’d witnessed. and considering she’d not been offered a new Skill, it meant that while whatever happened originated from her, it wasn’t consciously caused by her.

How, though? It wasn’t like this was one of her childhood talents, or something she’d seen post System. How could she even begin to replicate what she’d never experienced. Or had she? She thought back to the strange sensation she’d had when she woke up in the grey training room.

Staring at the smooth stone bathing basin, still slightly soapy but more determined than anything else, Scarlet dipped a finger to test the water temperature. The moment her fingertip touched the surface she felt like someone else had reached into her mind, implanted a memory, then jogged it for her. She was both intimately familiar with what was going on, and utterly confused.

Context. Scarlet had somehow gained a modicum of context for the energy she’d felt all her life. Psionic energy was something else, she thought as she slipped into the tub.

In a bid to help make sense of the information Scarlet created a crude, if not entirely inaccurate, analogy. The closest comparison she could think of was that if mana was water in a river, someone manipulating mana might dig out a channel and divert a section of that river. Psionics would be the river; also, the channel, along with the ability to guide the water.

For example, Scarlet now knew exactly what had been disturbed by her energetic outburst. The room, and the water in particular still carried traces of it. If she wanted to, Scarlet knew she could find out where the water was pouring into the room from within moments. She could even delve deeper just based on the residue left behind by the unique psionic imprint.

The implications were staggering.

What was more, that knowledge had come to her whole and complete. More complete even than a pre-System remembered fact. She bit her bottom lip to stop the smile from forming. She knew what a psionic imprint was and she could read it. Well, ‘read’ wasn’t the perfect word, but it was the closest she description she had for a phenomena that was more instinct than anything at this point.

In fairness to herself, the everyday person didn’t know everything about the biological mechanics of something like walking. Very few who didn’t study the subject could give you a detailed explanation. The fact most people knew basic anatomy was only a result of mass education initiatives in the recent past.

However, not knowing the mechanics of how you naturally do something doesn’t mean you can’t do it, and do it well.

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For the first time in decades, Scarlet allowed herself to lean into the energy. She wanted to see if she could manipulate it at all like the Historian. She had no delusions about matching his feats from the go. It was her first attempt. She’d never tried to do more with her energy, her psionics, than read the room; apparently quite literally.

She didn’t need to reach for the energy, it was just there, bared to her, waiting. So, she went for it, trying to coax a reaction just like when she used Mana Manipulation, or Empathy.

She prodded and poked, but apart from being able to dig more into the information about the water, nothing else happened. The water remained stubbornly, unremarkably, still. If anything, the connection she had with it felt weaker.