by Philip Read
*
We end up playing tag in an ever twisting foggy landscape with thin tall mountains that we use as barriers and stepping platforms to change flight direction at speed. She laughs and giggles as I struggle to keep up with her in what feels like an actual physical body to me yet I know nothing physical can enter this space.
I seem to be moving at slow motion in this place, not exactly at slow motion but as if everything is moving at slow motion or at least less urgently; like I have just a little moment longer to think about everything I’m taking in. My perception of everything happening has increased but its frustrating because I can feel that I’m slow.
Gravity is very fluid here as I jump a distance of miles from mountain to mountain chasing after my opponent who seems to be having the time of her life. Sometimes I’m on the ground but mostly I’m flying through the air using the cliff faces as launch pads.
*
I don’t know how long I stay in there but I find myself slowly coming out of that soul space as though waking from a vivid dream where the laws of nature didn’t apply but it all seemed normal. I breath in again as I come to myself and my perception sort of blinks open like an eyelid. Booting itself up and I slowly gain awareness of all around me again.
I’m still in that same room with the strange twisting void of a door with the table next to it. Everything is still the same yet some things are different, yes the frequencies of the vibrations of everything around me are dynamic not stationary. Moving in a range and osculating at varied vibrations.
I open my actual eyes slowly because I realise I haven’t actually opened my eyes yet. I’m almost surprised by the slight luminous glow coming from the wall not because it is anything special but because I hadn’t even realised I couldn’t see colour this whole time. My phantom sight has been so efficient that I didn’t realise I couldn’t see any colour at all.
And with the strange phantom awareness still primary within me I use my eyes to judge the light as colour coming into them. I see with them assisting in only a secondary role to the greater awareness of seeing. I already have 4 dimensional awareness of all around me, sight can never again take a primary role is my senses.
Dimensional awareness. That’s what the phantom sight is and I suddenly know this like I know my own name. I have gained dimensional awareness as an extra sense, but my dimensional awareness is unique in that it has soul sense in its mechanism. Something that has never before been achieved or gained on Gaia. I somehow know this…
I blink a few times taking everything in, even my eyes though have had an upgrade surely. Colour has never been this deep and this clear before, my eyes have never seen so clearly at such distances. Though I can see the rough texture of the walls actually seeing them with eyes adds another dimension to the awareness of my dimensional awareness.
I sigh out the breath of amazing air I’ve been holding and I place one of my palms on the floor and get up smoothly, I feel lighter but I’m still perceiving myself as moving slightly slower. I stand smoothly and am fully amazed at all this 360° 4 dimensional awareness I have without needing to turn my head. I marvel in it but there are other realizations happening even as this one does.
I feel… loose, like I’ve stretched and am suptle after a quick run. I feel good, full of energy and vitality that should be glowing off of me in a miasma of misty aura on my skin. Even as I visualize that thought an aura does clad itself around my naked body like ice evaporating in the wind. But this aura is more than that as it sparkles now and again changing form even as I try to study it.
I get into a practice stance and with a sheath nodachi in hand I move through the forms so as to feel my body and everything around me. I move through them smoothly and diligently, my movements precise as they cut through the air around me with an explosive power that I didn’t before have. A power amplified by my strange crackling white aura that seems to be getting stronger and stronger as more mana seems to be absorbed into it.
I’m still Awakening I suddenly realize with a start and finish the last stance with a flourish. Yes, I’m still Awakening to mana in a lot of ways or is this what is meant by consolidating? Whatever’s happened to me first was only the initial stage of the Awakening and I still have a ways to go before I exhaust this Awakening Mana.
Yet I was suppose to surrender, I was supposed to Awaken in the way of Master Zaraya, I was supposed to let the Mana lead as it pleased through me and Awaken without my direct hand on the reigns. Did I succeed, is this the result of that, what else has changed within me?
As I think that thought it slowly comes to me as knowledge who’s origins I can’t identity. Yes I have mostly succeeded in letting go and being led through the Awakening, I have become and am still becoming a tier 1 Awakened human being.
I’m faster, stronger, more resilient, more agile, more perceptive, just all round generally more badass and powerful than I’ve ever been in my life. I feel as light as a leaf in all honesty but I know that with a kick I could easily cave a mundane person’s head in.
The mana combined aura that is crackling around me is still condensing but even at its current level it’s almost 10 times stronger than any aura I have ever been able to produce to protect myself or attack with. It’s white because it has a lot of spirit energy mixed into it I suddenly realize and yes, the amount of spirit energy I have has become a deep deep well of power.
I am more than what I was, a lot more and I’m realizing its more than a little insane for a mundane to fight an Awakened of any kind and hope to win. The difference between me now and before I started Awakening is simply too stark and I don’t see how I could’ve been a challenge for my current self as a mundane.
I can feel I have lost my limit break ability as I have now transcended the limits I once had for whatever my current limits are. Something I will have to find out anew.
I walk around the space I’m in exploring it as diligently as I can even as I think my thoughts and try to remember what I went through those initial moments of Awakening. If it was moments, I have no sense of time at all but nothing seems urgent.
My feet tingle a moment and then stop, I unsheathe my nodachi and play through my personal kenjutsu style akurobatto. My movements are fluid and precise, my blade is harder than it ever was with a keener edge. It’s level of quality has gone from a grade A legendary weapon to a Grade D mythical weapon with my Awakening. Our Awakening I should say since looking at the weapon’s increased quality and coming from it’s soul space I know she has also grown with mana.
Her soul is fully healed and I feel I could unleash her true form now if I so chose but I don’t for some instinct. My soul is almost fully healed as well but that’s due to her soul energy stealing abilities and not the influx of mana. Besides being a badass physically and having unique epic senses I wonder what else has changed within and without.
I need to meditate on my chakra since I can’t seem to feel it at all right now. Then after that I will need to go into the Rage and see how different things are whilst still in this isolated chamber were I have less chances of hurting anyone.
I sigh, then I close my eyes whilst simultaneously sheathing my blade. Closing my eyes does absolutely nothing to dim, stop or even pause the dimensional awareness of my surroundings. I guess I have to learn to meditate with sight wide open then.
I sit back into the lotus and get to work, starting with seeking the quiet mind state.
Chapter 79
Sachihiro
I exit the chamber through the strange door as it closes with a hiss behind me. I’m as naked as my blade as I walk out surveying all my surroundings with my awareness ready for anything. As I suspected I’m greeted by the sight of the sidhe fae, 4 of them standing not far from the door watching me curiously. I study them in turn before sheathing my sword and walk closer towards Carmella.
“Would you happen to have any clothes?” I ask her coolly as they study my naked body. I’ve spent over a month inside that chamber Awakening and
the entire time I neither drank, ate nor clothed myself.
My Awakening mana is almost all but depleted now though and I still have a lot of time I need to spend with my children. I pay attention to one of the sidhe in particular, Vevina I think she is called. Her hair is always shades of pink, she stands at about 1.7m tall with delicate dusk skin and very small horns sticking out of her hair from her forehead.
A servent walks down the stairs with a kilt, and a jar of water. I put the kilt on and notice its very well made and fits me like it was tailored for me. I put the jar to my lips and have a good drink of the amazing life giving water. Water imported in from Hiltown I realize as it energizes me.
“We will negotiate now.” Carmella says looking at me, I nod and pay attention to every word.
* *
My heart is aflatter in my chest as I spend time with my children, how is it even possible to love living beings to the extent that the very rhythm of my heart has changed in their presence as I hang on their every word. Dishna is a chatter box of thoughts and new ideas as she asks question after question from her perch across my shoulders.
Saya running around us but coming back now and again to pass me small coloured pebbles and interesting flowers. I hang on their every word and presence as we walk through the hills and the little forested area only recently planted some 7 years back. I can’t believe the trees are already this big as Saya leads us to a little stream we follow to a pond.
“The water is coming up from a spring in the ground.” She explains to me pointing everything out, proud to be the one to point out such things to her lout of a male father.
“How do you know all these things?” I ask her with an encouraging smile and she beams back at me with that radiant smile of hers.
“We all go to school for 2 hours everyday of course, what do you think we learn there? I know a lot of things and all the teachers say I’m very clever for my age, mama even says so.” She says as we gaze upon the pond.
I reach out my hand towards hers and my heart practically melts as she takes it. I’m a warm radiance of joy and I’m grinning ear to ear as my girl holds my hand as another pulls my hair and beard from across my shoulders. We enjoy each other and get to know each other again as I spend the day with them.
I teach them both to skip stones across the pond, then we have a little picnic were we eat little sandwiches Mira has made for us. I didn’t even know she could make edible food in any form but she can and she does for her girls. Taught from stretch by Kuyoki and ma when she came to the Tundra from the Valleys.
We chase each other around the stream bed and slash each other with water across the now smooth rocks that line the banks. We exhaust ourselves with play or at least I exhaust the 9 year old and 5 year old, almost 6 if you let her remind you. Its a good day, and one who’s entirety I spend with my 2 children as I leave the women to sort themselves out.
The day turns to dusk and dusk to night and we don’t return to Paradisum but instead hike deeper into the Tundra as I tell them stories of the land and how the tribes used to live divided. We stalk grass hares with little makeshift spears I fashioned for them and even come close to catching one at some point.
Predictors that come our way we face down with spears held at the ready and attitudes of confidence, but we use our heads not our strength I emphasize to them. We in our family fight smart more than we fight hard and so we always have imaginary plans of how we will handle the predictors if they attack. They never do though.
We travel through the hills and bushes on my homeland in the depths of the night until they can take no more and we set up a camp for them to sleep. I keep watch and as I do I meditate on my meridians, something I’ve only since Awakening have been able to do.
I consolidate the still fluctuating mana within me through meditation and visualization training. The raw mana within me is very volatile and a lot of the time painful for me to even touch in any way but it is also a torrent of power the likes of which I have never before imagined within myself.
And so I meditate and visualize it’s path throughout my body, seeing it in my minds eye mixing with my invisible spirit energy and providing a lot more than it otherwise would have. I spent a long time in that time chamber Awakening and consolidating the mana that filled me but it was also about so much more than just mana.
A long time by my perspective at least, in reality I only spent 3 days away from home. Had I known I was in a time dilation chamber I would have stayed longer, but at least now I know how it feels being inside one and will never mistake it for anything else.
Awakening is more than I imagined it being, it’s as though the universe has a chance to know you as one of its children as I am getting to know my two girls. And after it has shaped you as it wishes it plays with you the games that you yourself invent so that the rest of the Awakening is influenced by your curiosity and personality. But this stage only after it has itself made sure you have what it considers the essentials for your growth.
This mana for instance I never would have even thought of Awakening to, I admire mages and their power but had I been leading my Awakening from the start I never would have done it. Had I had the reigns on the direction my full Awakening took I would probably have focused on the body, the mind, the spirit and aura.
But here I am a confusing mix of vecetility that not even the sidhe have ever come across before. My Awakening is such a unique thing that Carmella called in the other 8 sidhe to witness it and catalogue it apparently. I should have known that she had a way of viewing me whilest in her domain but at the time it never even occurred to me that I was being watched.
I should have known though, ma wouldn’t have allowed me in the creatures clutches had she no way of occasionally checking up on me to ensure my safety. But Awakening is about Awakening and almost everything else falls away. I breath as I patiently work on myself from within.
I still don’t have the slightest idea what type of mage I will end up being but I’ve noticed Zhen hanging around the house more I think in hopes I allow him to be my magic instructor. So far I’ve been taking advice and direction when confused from Mira and from books but I can also tell that Carmella is itching to get a chance to study me further. Why the sidhe find me so fascinating I cannot say but I also find one of their number truly captivating so I do enjoy the attention she gives me these days.
I sigh as I think of my women again and am thankful for all their understanding, at least Kuyoki’s understanding. Had I had a different mate Ingwe’s transition into the family may have been so much more turbulent and I wouldn’t be able to take this trip with my babies without worry or a constant need to referee between them.
But Aurora is healthy and Ingwe seems to be adjusting well enough that she is comfortable alone with the two women. The best way to get to know Mira is to spar with her and from the girl Asriel and I travelled to the Hidden Valleys with she is practically a different person. She is now a battle maniac of the highest order and I can’t wait to spar with her on equal footing now that she has fully recovered and Awakened.
Saya’s head shoots up as she looks around, its almost pitch dark tonight with cloud cover and no moons but her uncanny eyes zero in on me before she gets up and tells me she needs to poo. I wake the little one as well and I show them how to dig a temporary lentrine pit for them to do their business.
Even that turns into an adventure for spoilt children that defecate indoors and by the time they are done and covering up their pits all sleep has gone from their eyes. We light a small fire and I tell them stories of the tribes and what I know of their origin. I don’t neglect to tell them stories about what I know of their mom’s origins, stories I know Mira will not have shared about herself.
*
It’s a ten-day journey across the tundra with my girls and we eventually end up where my village used to be. I show them the crumbling ruins of what used to be my home just 10 years ago and that’s when it hits me, I’m actually 30 years of today. And so
we celebrate my birthday with a little hare that they eventually managed to kill with my help.
I’m so glad I now have access to the space in my spacial ring of storage and I use it shamelessly throughout the trip. I try to teach my girls some grappling and hand to hand and we all end up laughing as they climb all over me on the grass.
My worries about their future fighting prowess are allayed though as they tell me that school does include fighting classes and that they have extra classes with my Uncle Brian who took it upon himself to train all the family children after school and further lessons with Mira twice every ten-day. After they demonstrate some of their moves I’m satisfied and we continue our aimless journey across the tundra.
*
It’s eventually a month by the time we see Paradisum in the distance again and both my girls are happy to be back home but worried they won’t get to spend as much time with me anymore. I can particularly see that worry all over Saya’s body language but her growing pride won’t let her say anything.
I smile despite myself as I ruffle her red silk hair and point at the three figures I see standing in the distance. “There are your mothers.” I say to them and I see the excitement and eager anticipation in their eyes.
They look up at me expectantly and I give them the nod that it’s safe to run ahead and they are both of like cloud hares towards their two mothers and the third person I hope they one day consider a mother. We had a long talk about that and they understand the dynamic as well as I can hope to make it understood since I hardly know it myself.
Kuyoki is off almost as soon as they are and it’s not even 30 seconds before she enfolds both of them in her arms holding them tightly to her bosom before Mira is there to add her own arms to the huddle. All the girls laugh and cry and giggle and its only now that I’m seeing their reactions that I realize that they have never been apart more than a day before.
Since birth both girls have been under the watchful eye of two mothers and that isn’t something I could possibly understand. Ingwe covers the distance more sedately with a sleeping Aurora in her arms, she smiles at the sigh of the display and at the sight of me but goes to greet the girls as well before greeting me.
