We make it back to the apartment at about 11:30 in the morning.

“Home sweet home,” John mumbles, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He immediately goes into the kitchen. It’s not long before he comes back out. “Meh, I don’t feel like cooking anything.” He grabs the phone sitting on a nearby stand. “Just gonna order pizza, I guess.”

“This early?” Aeon asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, this early. Come on, you said you wanted to relax, too.”

Aeon sighs. “Yeah, I don’t want to cook right now, either.”

“Okay, then, let’s take it easy, for now. I’m buying.” John starts pressing buttons on the phone, then waits.

“Well, then, Solo. While John is doing that…”

“Hm?”

There’s a notebook and pen sitting on another stand in here. Aeon grabs them, and comes back to the table where I’m sitting. “It’s about time, don’t you think?”

At this point, John looks away from what he’s doing. “You two better not blow anything up.”

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“If you say so…” I just barely hear a voice coming from the phone John’s talking on. “Oh, right. So, make that extra large…” He goes back into the kitchen. We’d probably be making too much noise in here.

“Alright, then. Let’s get started.” Aeon opens the notebook to a clean page. “Aether. The new power man came to wield in Transcend Christ. There are people who also call it NuMagic, but really, they’re the same thing. You can probably guess this by now, but the strange attacks the Angels used to you, the lights that I made, and the ones you saw Sakura using are all Aether Arts.”

“Hm. Interesting. I think I follow you, so far.”

“And it’ll take about a half-hour?” I can hear that John is still on the phone. “Okay.”

“Let me get into the Theory of the Aether Arts.” Aeon draws a large rectangle vertically in the middle of the once blank page. He writes the word ‘Grimoire’ on the inside. “Do you remember hearing me say this word, Solo?”

“Yeah. When you healed us after the fight, you said something about a ‘Golden Grimoire’. Could you explain what that is?”

“Of course.” He draws a straight horizontal line between the half of the page. “It was once said that Aether was the air of the realm where the gods lived.” In the top half, Aeon writes ‘Invisible Realm’, and in the bottom, ‘Solid Space’. He returns to the top half, draws what I think is supposed to be the air, and writes ‘Aether’ there. “It was the Aether that allowed the gods to make their many miracles happen. For the longest time, there was no Aether down here in Solid Space, where we live, but…” Aeon draws a few arrows around the Grimoire, all pointing outwards. “...due to the Golden Grimoire appearing in Solid Space, Aether started to spread, here.” He writes ‘Aether’ near the pointing arrows.

“So, let me get this straight. Is the Golden Grimoire from the Invisible Realm?”

“There’s not really any proof, but it is believed to have come from there. After all, there were no other known sources of Aether before the Golden Grimoire appeared. At least, there don’t seem to be any that were recorded.”

“Any idea why it manifested?”

“Maybe one of the gods dropped it.”

I know Aeon could very well mean that seriously, but I find myself laughing at that.

“Really, though, there are a ton of theories out there, but sadly, we still haven’t found anything concrete, yet.”

“There really is a lot of mystery surrounding this, huh?”

“Well, hopefully not forever.”

“Okay, I think I understand what Aether is. How do the arts work?”

“Alright, now you get to learn why the Golden Grimoire is called so, and why some people call the Aether Arts ‘NuMagic’.” Aeon draws a stick figure in the bottom half.

“Okay…?”

“You see, normal people, like this one, aren’t able to use the Aether around them. In order for a human to use it, they must have their Aether Sense awakened.”

“Exactly what it sounds like?”

“Yeah.” Aeon seems to be drawing an aura around the stick figure. “Not everyone is able to undergo this Awakening. John, for example,” he says, pointing to John, who has finished his call and is now listening to us discuss this, “has no talent for Aether. Instead, he’s a Neijing expert, drawing his power from within himself, his Qi.”

“Interesting. I see.”

“For people like me, Marie, Sakura, and you, on the other hand…” Aeon draws another stick figure with an aura around it, then he writes ‘Channeling Aether’ there. “...we draw power from the Aether that’s all around us. So long as your Aether Sense has Awoken, you can manipulate the Aether.”

“So you’re saying you think I could Awaken to an Aether Sense, huh? How might I go about doing that?”

“Oh. Your Aether Sense was already active when we first met.”

“Uh… are you sure?”

“Yeah, I can tell. You must not be aware of it, since you lost your memories. Still, I guess the Aether Sense is just something your body doesn’t forget.”

“Hm…”

“Anyway, even Aether Adepts like you and me can only get so far with just manipulating Aether alone. If you want to do something a little more complex…” Aeon draws an arrow from the person, to the Grimoire. “You must connect with the Golden Grimoire, first.”

“Connect?”

“Basically, if your Aether Sense is good enough, you can read ‘incantations’ off of the Golden Grimoire, and cast ‘spells’.”

“Ah… so that’s what you mean.” I’m a bit impressed with myself, considering how easily I’m fitting all this together, compared to how confusing I thought it was gonna be. “Some of this is a little strange, though. ‘Incantations’? I mean, are there, like, actually things written in this Grimoire?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Well, not in the literal sense. What you do when you connect with the Golden Grimoire is not unlike reading, when you get down to it, though. With your Aether Sense, you pick out a piece of information from the Grimoire and then you can use it.”

“Okay. I think I get it.”

“Well, I’d say that’s as far as we’ll get with just words.” Aeon closes the notebook. “Now--”

John loudly clears his throat.

“Ah, yes.” Aeon stands up. “Maybe we should go outside for this next part, just in case.”

I find myself laughing a bit at what could be coming next. “Alright, sounds exciting. Let’s go.”

Aeon exits the apartment, and I follow him.

“Uh, maybe we should get a little further away from the car, as well.”

“Damn, you’re really expecting me to put on a serious light show, huh?”

Aeon scratches his head, laughing. “Let’s just be on the careful side, okay?” With that, both of us walk down the sidewalk for a bit.

“Okay, is this far enough?” Barely anyone standing around, too, so no one should get hurt.

“I think it’ll do.” Aeon sits right there on the ground, next to a building, and crosses his legs.

“What?”

“I think you’ll have an easier time focusing if you make yourself comfortable.” Saying this, Aeon closes his eyes.

“Worth a shot, I guess.” With a shrug, I take a seat right next to him.

“You still seem tense. Try to relax. Once you’ve done that, using your Sense should be simple.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Just focus, Solo. You’ll be able to do this without much issue because you’ve already Awoken. I know there’s a lot on your mind, but if you zero in on that energy I know you feel in the air, you’ll definitely get it.”

“Yeah, I’ll try.” It can’t possibly be so simple. If it was just a matter of focusing, wouldn’t I have been able to do this from the start--

“Oh…!”

It flicks on like a switch. This feeling, it’s not unlike what I felt in the air when other people were using it before. That was only for brief moments, though. Now, there’s the feeling like I’ve almost always felt the Aether. Difficult to describe with words.

“See? I knew you could do it.”

“This is awesome! It really was always there. Now I know exactly what it is. Now I can…”

“Solo?”

Man, this is so cool. I can move Aether as easily as moving my hand through the air. I wonder what’ll happen if I gather a whole bunch of it in one spot?

“Ah! Solo, hold up! That’s dangerous! Wait wait wait wait wait!!!”

What a pretty light I hold in my hands. When you build this much up, you can even see it with the naked eye, I guess.

“SOLO!”

“Huh?” My concentration is broken. “Wait, what’s wrong, Aeon?”

“I-if you make an Aether Shot in a place like this--”

BOOM!

“What the!?”

A car I happen to be standing near explodes. Since I’ve lost track of the bunch of Aether I just made, I must assume that…

“My car!!!”

Someone shouts from above. Uh oh.

“S-Solo!? Why are you running!?”

“Why do you think!?”

“At least you’re learning quickly, I guess…”

“Man, I’m sorry, Aeon. I really didn’t know what was gonna happen.”

“Well, anyway, I think we’ve got a bit more space to practice, here. Are you still feeling up to it?”

Right. At this moment, Aeon and I are in a vacant lot where no one else is standing around, and any property I could destroy is far away. I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of what happened earlier.

“Uh, sure. About those spells…”

“Now for something a bit harder. Again, if you want to do anything more complicated than just moving Aether around like you did before, you’ll need a connection with the Golden Grimoire. The process of forming this connection is…abstract, to say the least, but it’s something you get the hang of, eventually.”

“No shortcuts or anything, huh?”

“Hm…” Aeon scratches his head again. “Okay, here’s one hint; Aether Adepts have often said that some sort of mental image has helped them form the connection. Something like… maybe reaching out and grabbing a friend’s hand, or turning a key to unlock a door, or something along those lines, for example. Try to reach that calm state you were in before, picture it, and request of the Golden Grimoire what it is you need. If your connection is good, and the ‘spell’ matches with your unique synchronization with the Grimoire, you’ll make it happen.”

“It does sound a bit complicated, but I’m sure I can work it out.”

“Okay, then, give it a shot. I’ll do nothing to distract you, now, so just focus.”

Alright, then, closing my eyes again, I find myself ‘searching’ for the Golden Grimoire. Let’s see, if the Grimoire is the ‘source’ of Aether in ‘Solid Space’, then surely, there would be a great concentration of Aether where it is, right? Then, maybe I should be ‘searching’ for that. Let’s go.

At this point it’s getting a bit hard to feel my own flesh, to feel my feet touching the ground, the wind on my skin and in my hair, the clothes on my body, my lungs breathing in and out. Still, I have to make that connection, right? So, let’s keep going.

A few concentrations here and there. Maybe other people around me using Aether, perhaps? So it feels something like that. I’ll keep it in mind for the future. Still, what I’m looking for has got to feel far stronger than these. My search continues.

I have no body. The ‘me’ in Solid Space and the ‘me’ that thinks these thoughts right now, seem as if they have nothing to do with each other. I wonder if I’ll be able to get back? Maybe I should worry about it later. Maybe the Grimoire has the answer.

And so.

Search further.

Search further.

Search further.

Even greater concentrations, now. Really strong ones. Still, I just know these aren’t what I want, either. After all, there’s only one Golden Grimoire, right? Not sure why I know that. Not sure why I know I know that, when there’s no way I’d know. No way I’d know I’d know. But I do know. For certain, without the slightest doubt, I most definitely know. I know it better than I know anything else in this world.

So I search, beyond the bounds. Beyond any limit I once perceived.

I don’t need these words. Don’t need these thoughts. All I have to do is…

“”

“…”

“…!”

“!!!”

“Solo!!!”

“Gah! What!? What, wha, wh, w… what…?”

Wait.

Let me think for a moment. I’m standing here with Aeon, in an empty lot. What was happening, again?

“What’s wrong, Aeon?”

“Phew. Thought I lost you for a second, there.” He breathes a sigh of relief.

“Were you worried? What’s the problem, Aeon?”

“Like I said, I think you almost got lost in the Aether. That could’ve been really dangerous. You might have gotten completely separated from your corporeal form if I didn’t realize what was happening and get you called back.”

“Oh damn, my bad.”

“It’s not your fault. Maybe I’m moving this along too quickly; it tends to take a bit longer to get a handle on connecting with the Golden Grimoire. We shouldn’t try to rush it along.”

“Yeah, I guess that sounds right.”

“We can cut off the lessons here, for today.” Aeon starts walking away. “Come on, that pizza has probably arrived back home, by now.”