Hunter sighed in relief after he read the last few words in the first journal his father left him.
The first few lines of the method for practicing the internal arts was a preface, telling Hunter not to worry about having to do anything unspeakable. It was almost like his father had been self aware enough to know that Hunter would probably be disgusted by what he’d done, but decided to proceed anyways. It was disturbing to think about— what kind of distorted mind had his father been left with after all was said and done?
The next line was there to assure him that it was not the internal arts which had left him in such a mental state, either. Which begged the question, what happened to his father? Had he always been capable of killing in cold blood, and Hunter had just been too naive to see it? But Trey believed that his father had been a good man as well, at least at one time in his life.
Hunter let those thoughts drift from his mind as he focused on the method for the arts. It was difficult to piece it together. His father often diverted along tangents regarding theory and hypothesis. It was all fascinating, if he ignored how his father had gone about testing some of those theories. And he found that sometimes he could ignore it, and get lost in the information itself. The internal arts functioned on a principle which slightly deviated from the mainstream view of etherium— how it flows through the body, and into a drawstone. The most common theory is that its the drawstone itself which pulls the etherium from outside the body, through the body’s channels, and then into the drawstone, which can then be guided along network channels into glyphs, which makes up a construct.
But his father discovered a small, but critical detail. The Drawstone doesn’t pull in etherium from outside the body at all. Drawstone’s only activate once they’re connected to a human because its the human that provides the catalyst. He detailed how drawstones appear to act something like natural Link glyphs— a concept already familiar to him, as before his father came along and developed the sublgyph, drawstones were cut into shards, and these shards were used to direct the flow of etherium between glyphs in a network. But a link sub-glyph could only direct etherium, it couldn’t ‘activate,’ or catalyze the movement of etherium on its own.
Once he discovered this, he started to pay attention to what was actually happening at the point of contact with etherium. He said that it was his innate sensitivity to etherium which allowed him discover how etherium only entered the body after more etherium has left. His investigations revealed a network of channels in himself and others, networks which all behaved in similar ways. The channels in the human body were like a vacuum for etherium, hungry for their fill, and appeared to tolerate etherium’s absence quite poorly. These networks of channels grew as an individual aged and used drawstones, allowing more etherium to not only be stored, but move through the body. He described the network as appearing like criss-crossing veins, which led to another tangent about an alternative network channel design which utilized a similar pattern.
Hunter had been using his fathers ill-gotten work longer that he’d realized. Because it was very clear that he hadn’t just been studying his own body when he was researching the nature of these channels. So by the time Hunter had discovered the journals, and decided not to read them, it had been too late.
His father said that he found that he could, with great focus and mental effort, manipulate these channels.
The first step was to discover them, to trace the origin (which he called the point of entry into the body) and the destination (the point where the body connects to a drawstone, typically a hand but it could be any part of the body, hypothetically. He also said that the channels were odd. They were present in the body, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint where. Only that they could be felt, and manipulated.
He also told Hunter that the hyperspatial nature of the body’s channels was something that didn’t appear to be a pragmatic area of research— it was better to focus strictly on the manipulation of the channels themselves. To that end, he detailed exercises to help Hunter build his focus, and develop an experiential understanding of his channel network. He also told Hunter what he expected his son to find, which was his theory about the nature of Hunters AR deficiency.
There is a period in youth where AR naturally rises— the network of channels in the body grows organically, but no network appears to be the same. Some are more compact, others are more sparsely lain. Too compact of a network restricts the flow of etherium just as one that is too sparse would. The guidance of etherium requires a balance of allowing for its chaotic nature to flow as it will, but along intended lines. Too compact of a network means that the etherium is suppressed, it ends up getting backed up on itself, and rebounds right back out of the body. Too sparse of a network means that the etherium’s chaotic nature is given too much space to flow unguided.
His father said that the networks act somewhat like a shallow riverbed, but the etherium that flows through it can easily overflow, and dissipate without guidance to get it to the drawstone. According to his father’s theory, something caused Hunter’s natural etheric development to halt. He assumed it had something to do with their mutual sensitivity, which he believed was much stronger in his son than in himself. His best guess was the loss of his mother created an strong psychological reaction in Hunter, and the trauma had the accidental effect of suppressing his development.
However, he believed that once he consciously came in contact with his etherium channels, he would probably find that they would go through a period of rapid growth, and he recommended that Hunter wait for a while before he starts manipulating them too drastically, at least until their natural growth begins to stagnate, as it might cause some inefficiencies later on.
What he didn’t say, however, was that there would be any damage. In fact, he said that channels don’t act like normal biological structures. Like muscles, they can develop and atrophy, but damaging a network after its been established won’t have too much of a negative impact on the physical body.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Once the networks were found, and understood, they could then be manipulated. His father had come up with three methods to do this.
Contracting the channels, expanding the channels, and deepening the channels which he named, respectively: Pinch, Pull, and Hold, with a fourth method that he wrote was to only be attempted once the first three were mastered.
His father wrote that each method took him many months to master. There would be a slight increase in AR as he gained more mastery over his channels, but the real jumps came with being able to master the final technique, not only forming channels consciously, but encouraging the development of already-existing channels. This came about by being able to pinch certain points in the network, and pull at the ‘walls’ of the channel in between those two points, and then suddenly allowing an influx of etherium into it. This trains the channels flexibility, allowing them to hold more etherium over time.
In short, Hunter would be able to cycle the etherium along his network in a path that he chose, reinforcing that path as the dominant one it should take in the future. He could use the natural dissipation of etherium as it overflowed from a channel to help pave new channels, but he figured that reading too much into that would be like an average child trying to understand advanced calculus. He needed to work his way up to it.
Once he’d read through the journal, he came up with a training plan. He would spend an hour every morning training his focus, and increasing his awareness of his channels. From there, he would see what happened. Either his AR would naturally begin to grow, or he would have to start the process himself.
Either way, Hunter was excited to finally have a tentative cure for his curse. With this, he might finally be able to stand above his peers without worry. He would never have to be at the mercy of a world that had proven to be nothing but cruel and cold to the likes of him. He figured he might as well use the rest of the day to practice, and so he leaned back in his couch and started to bring his attention to his breath, like his father had recommended. Every time he got distracted, he would bring his focus back to his breath.
It was tedious, and he was surprised by how bad he was at it. But his father had said that it was all part of the process. It would take time, and he’d make progress a lot faster than he’d fear.
The reassurance had felt like the father that he’d always believed Gideon Koar to be. Supportive, encouraging, and reliable.
It clashed with the image of the man who the world had come to know him by. Which Hunter had now come to know him by. The child in Hunter felt relieved that his father had looked out for him, but the man Hunter was becoming was disgusted, and felt like the feeling of comfort was a betrayal— a justification of the lives taken.
He shook his head. He had committed to this, he had decided that he would follow through, no matter what.
It didn’t matter what his father had done, not anymore. Gideon Koar was gone, and he couldn’t hurt anyone else. Hunter couldn’t take back the pain his father had caused, but he might as well use the legacy he’d left behind. Hunter didn’t owe the world anything. It wasn’t up to him to balance the actions his fathers had taken.
At this point, he figured the world owed him.
He was surprised to find that the training took him over two hours to finish. By the time he was done, he had just enough time to eat dinner and finish the rest of the homework he’d accumulated over his time at the hospital.
Tomorrow he’d be back to class.
The day would start with martial arts, and end with History.
Hopefully, the latter would be a palate cleanser for what was sure to be a very uncomfortable start.
----------------------------------------
Jason loved the analogy of comparing Pippen to a dog. And his dog was in a very poor state.
But if he’d had a real dog who’d just put up such a miserable display, he wouldn’t have hesitated to put it down. He’d known Aera was strong and capable, but Jason had invested much of the small amount of wealth afforded to him by his family in order to foster Pippen’s more ruthless instincts.
He’d put him up against worse odds that Aera was supposed to present. Pippen was strong, mean, and had sent his fair share of young men to hospitals over the years— mostly at Jason’s discretion.
But he'd overstepped with Hunter.
Jason was willing to see that as his own mistake. He had turned Pippen into a very focused young man, but that focus seemed to take on a very inflexible trend. The dog knew how to hunt and play fetch, but perhaps Jason had leaned Pippen into his baser instincts a bit too much. He hadn’t realized that Hunter was more frail than he looked. He’d recognized the possibility of Aera taking a move this early in the game as a personal invitation, but he’d hoped that Pippen would be a bit more discrete with how he approached the situation.
He hadn’t expected the dog to lead the attack himself with so little forethought. He’d taught him better. It made him wonder if Pippen had ever followed his instructions in the past, to attack at from a distance. At the end of the day, it was the smarter play, even if getting close and personal would be more satisfying.
And that answered the question, didn’t it? Pippen’s personality had become all about satisfying the animal in him. Jason was surprised by his own lack of foresight in this matter.
But what was done was done.
Jason had made the only move available to him. He had to sacrifice the pipsqeak for his own survival. Aera was forcing his hand.
That’s what he told himself.
And he liked the thought. It made him mad, not just angry, but it gave him that hint of instability he’d grown to enjoy. It made him willing to do things other’s wouldn’t. It made him ambitious.
Aera was the perfect whetstone for his ascension. When the Oberon’s were removed, the Chan’s would rise to take their place.
But he needed some help. Pippen’s overreach might have put things a bit outside of Jason’s ability to handle.
He decided to call in some support.
He dialed a number, and waited for the line to connect.
“Edith Chan.”
“It’s me, mum.”
“Jason, dear. How are you?”
“I may have made a small miscalculation.”
His mother was silent for a second. She was very clear about the sort of circumstance which would justify her intervention. She’d warned him many times.
“Would this have anything to do with all the drama surrounding the Oberons?”
He hesitated to admit it. It was difficult for him to ask for help in the first place.
“It would,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I see,” she said, “I’ll make some inquiries, but it will take some time. Be prepared for my call.”
She hung up, and Jason signed once more. Getting his mother involved was always unpleasant. She would never let him live it down. But he’d learned a lot from her, about people, about how to make people do what he wanted.
In a way, it could be said that the Chan family was acting according to his mothers unifying vision. The Chan’s had always been ambitions, but before Edith Chan was born, they were skittish and squirrely-- content with the scraps they could snatch from high society. Edith had decided she’d wanted more.
She’d raised Jason to want the same thing.
At this point, whatever happened next was out of Jason’s hands. His mother would come up with a plan. She always knew what to do.
He just had to wait, and then do what he was told, and then he would come out on top. Barnum would still be his. Such was his faith in his family.