Sometime later, Hugh opened his eyes and stretched. He was feeling much better and the pattern had finally stopped absorbing energy. His body was now filled again along with it. He felt good, just like when he wanted to step into the liquid stage before. This time though, instead of Heron, Hugh wanted to ask Elder Dolnma about what to do next.
With that in mind, Hugh stood up and left the room, finding his way back to the front. When he stepped back into the front room, Dolnma looked over at him with a smile.
“I see you’re already done. That’s not too bad. Not too bad. Did my martial nephew give you a path for the liquid stage?”
Noticing Hugh’s blank look, he continued.
“It looks like he’s stingy as ever. What color was your talent orb at testing?”
Hugh was a little surprised, but answered anyway.
“Senior Dolnma, it was mostly silver with little bits of black.”
Dolnmas’ brows creased in thought as he muttered.
“Silver and black, silver and black. That’s definitely unique. You’ll have to give me a moment to look that one up. I don’t recall a silver and black.”
Hugh watched and patiently waited as Senior Dolnma rubbed his beard, not looking up at anything.
“You know. I’ve heard of several mixes before. Red and brown, tan and orange, blue and green, even gray and black. Are you sure it wasn’t gray and black? Was it half gray and half black, or actually, lets just run it again.”
After saying that, Senior Dolnma walked over and held out the now familiar orb.
“Well go on boy. Place your hand on it so we can get a better read and see what will work best.”
Hugh hesitated before asking, “What if it explodes?”
Senior Dolnma snorted, “That won’t happen unless you overload it. This here talent orb is not one of those measly ones you’ll find in a small town, only good for the basics. We use it to check on affinity balance up to the restructure stage. Go on and put your hand on it, relax, and push some energy into the orb. Since you’re not a pure mortal anymore, it doesn’t need to go through the entire process of filtering through you.”
Hugh felt a little relieved at senior Dolnmas’ words, so he placed a hand on the orb and focused himself. It was a little easier than last time, now that he was a bit more familiar with energy. That and the pattern had stopped absorbing every little bit he took in.
Hugh drew a little energy out and pushed it up, through his arm and out through his palm, into the orb, smoother than last time.
Dolnma frowned as he took a step back.
“Hey now, you didn’t have to shoot it out so forcefully. No wonder why you thought it would break. Any harder and you would’ve broken this one too. Even before you move into liquid, you definitely need to practice slowly moving the energy inside of you.”
Hugh was at a loss. He felt like, no, he knew that what he had just done was extremely slow in comparison to last time. The energy didn’t shoot up and through his arm, but traveled at a more controllable speed. He felt that if he wanted to, he could have guided it elsewhere instead of rushing straight to his palm.
Not really sure how to respond to that, Hugh opted to keep silent as he watched the orb. Senior Dolnma also stopped talking and watched as the color of Hugh’s energy took shape inside.
Just like the first time, the orb began to glow a pearlescent silver and small strands of pure black spun around like snowflakes in a snowglobe. This time, there was something else in there.
As the orb grew brighter and brighter, in the very center, there seemed to be a very small orb. It looked like a marble with spots of varying colors, shifting and mixing around. It was so hard to see that Hugh couldn’t discern anything about it except a blur almost appearing like a shifting gray.
Dolnma was much more experienced, and with his eyes improved from reaching the peak of the restructure stage, he focused intently on the little orb in the middle, watching as a million little dots of different colors shifted, blended, and swirled around the surface of it, while the outer silver and black strands glowed more and more.
Eventually, the glow reached its peak. All the light was sucked back in until it covered the small ball in the very center before disappearing leaving the orb translucent like it was a moment prior.
Hugh hadn’t a clue what anything in the orb meant, even though this was his third time using one, so he looked up to see Dolnma still staring intently at the orb with a blank look.
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It was the third time Hugh called out and even changed back to Elder Dolnma that he finally snapped out of it.
“Huh?”
Hugh asked his question, “So what should I do to progress through the Liquid stage?”
Dolnma made several faces again before asking, “Did you have any other method you have already started?”
Hesitantly, Hugh answered, “I, uh, have an inheritance, but it’s called a seed.”
Dolnma sighed and advised, “Then you need to follow its path. Anything I would try to give you would just ruin it.”
Seeing Hugh frown at the advice, Dolnma added on, “I could give you something else, but your colors are too unique. That’s why I asked if you had one since only old inheritances produced unique effects like that silver and black stuff, let alone the middle orb of myriad colors. For you to practice anything else would probably break everything you’ve built so far, maybe even kill you.”
Hugh still didn’t seem convinced and Dolnma felt a little helpless at the situation. He had never seen such variety before, let alone the initial silver and black. He didn’t believe Hugh at first and thought that he had meant gray and black. That he knew, as gray it was mostly aligned with stone or metal energy. Black was dependent on the shape it took, which the shape Hugh’s took was also unknown to him. Thus, Dolnma only felt like he was lacking somewhere, only to advise Hugh to continue his inheritance.
Hugh finally said, “I already did the first path, and filled it with energy, but then it began to absorb everything. Another path is there, but…”
At this point, Dolnma cut in, “Perfect. Trace the next path with your energy! Hugh, listen. While most people don’t find this out until later, it is generally better to practice a method with more than one path. In fact, most methods only have one path. Out of all of those, few can get you that far. Usually the simpler they are, the worse they are.”
Hugh couldn’t help but ask why.
“That’s because the simplistic paths don’t align with anything, or barely do. It’s like the patterns in the training rooms. Those work by aligning energy with the natural patterns that result in receiving support from the universe. Everything has a shape that represents it. Fire, earth, water, wind, even light and dark. They all have a corresponding shape that when energy follows that shape, it evokes that particular affinity. That’s why a more complex pattern is better. It has been created to align with a particular energy type. Then there are methods like you have, that have more than one path to trace. The creator has found a way to combine more than one shape and affinity. That way, once you reach encapsulation, you can invoke more than just one. Somebody who practices a method that invokes fire energy could more easily wield it in their techniques. It is the same with all methods. It’s all built upon the foundation you make at the liquid stage. Then the encapsulation stage is like confirming it, defining the path you drew as the energy you will use.”
Hugh took all that in and asked the only question on his mind.
“What if I want to use a different kind?”
Dolnma shook his head, “Don’t be greedy. There’s more than one way to do something, and even if you do only practice one kind, you can still use others, just a very small amount.”
Hugh felt like he gained a whole new understanding of energy from Dolnma and was happy he came to the Nexus instead of trying to get something out of Heron.
“Thank you Elder Dolnma!”
Dolnma frowned, “Stop calling me that. I’m not that old!”
Hugh hesitated, “Thank you, Senior Dolnma!”
Dolnma smiled for a split second before saying, “I can’t believe nephew Diosk got such a disciple.”
With a sigh, Dolnma instructed, “Go back to the training room and work on your second path.”
Hugh was relieved that he was able to learn about how patterns worked, even though it was still superficial. His mood was a lot brighter as he returned to the training room in the Nexus and began to draw in energy once again.
In the front room, Dolnma frowned while holding an inscribed stone. It was a communication stone that was linked to Sir Diosk. As Dolnma held it, he thought about what he was going to say before finally sending a message.
“Hey brat! Why didn’t you tell me your new disciple had an inheritance!”
Receiving no answer, Dolnma put the inscribed stone back away and sat back down to wait while pondering the greater situation.
“It’s gotten too quiet around here. Diosk didn’t answer right away so I guess the tribal lands have gotten a little rowdy.”
While considering that, Dolnma pulled out a few other inscribed stones and sent some other messages, one of them to Hatia.
“Where did you leave the gift for your junior brother?’
Off in the distance, Hatia happened to be resting in a camp. She was currently in a completely different state than what Hugh was familiar with. He would be surprised if he saw her right now. Regardless of her current situation, she felt a slight energy pulse from one of the inscribed stones she had on her, so she took it out and pushed her energy inside to use it.
After reading the message, she realized that she hadn’t left it anywhere and it was still with her. With a frown, she sent a message back.
“I still have it. I’ll be back once we finish our task here.”
Hatia had been called away, as well as most others that normally stay where Hugh currently resides, to deal with the Tribal lands. A new power had recently risen, uniting them and contesting the surrounding areas for more land.
Unknown to Dolnma and Hatia, Diosk wasn’t in the tribal lands, nor was he even in the Ceralt Empire. Diosk himself wasn’t exactly sure where he was anymore. As he looked at the unfamiliar land and structures in his surroundings, then to the sky with only one moon in the night, he wondered how far away he had been sent.
Diosk had been investigating an old ruin that several people had gone missing from, which is why, as somebody in the Shattered stage, he was asked to investigate by the Gardath Kingdom at the request of the Ceralt Empire. While it was located in the unblessed lands between the Gardath and Cowr kingdoms, it was closer to Gardath.
Diosk had arrived in an unknown land that felt completely devoid of energy. For the first time in a long time, instead of flying around to go from place to place, he decided to walk.
Eventually Diosk found himself in what he thought was a town, as lights were seemingly everywhere and people were still busy despite the time of night it was.
After receiving several strange looks and even more unfamiliar words, Diosk decided to just sit down and listen to the chatter around him to slowly figure out the language himself. That’s how Diosk spent the next period of time, moving from spot to spot, just listening and learning.
