“Are you sure that’s the right way, mom?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve done it before and, as you can see, I’m perfectly fine!”

“I’m not worried about myself or you, I worry about the environment. Alright, here I go!”

*Booooooom*

…

…

“It doesn’t look fine to me!”

“…”

“Um, mom? Are you alright?”

“…”

“Hey, mom, are you there?”

“Gasp. Sorry, my little darling, I was just surprised, that’s all. Something like this happening is natural, but the effects are usually not this pronounced. How do you feel? Nothing hurts, right?”

“Well, admittedly, I’m feeling fine, much better than I felt before, actually. More… free, I guess. It’s like there was a dam I wasn’t aware of, and I destroyed it and then the water began gushing out and there’s an entire ocean of it. Is it how it’s supposed to feel like?”

“Yes. Congratulations, you have become a proper awakened Temerian now! I think it’s as good a time as any to teach you about all the things about our race that you will need to know. What do you think?”

“Sure!”

As you have probably guessed already, the exchange above was right after I have awakened the Temerian bloodline. Still don’t like the name. So, you probably want to know the specifics, right? Truth be told, I want to know too.

No, it’s nothing scary like me losing my memories, I made sure I won’t ever do that. It’s just that I didn’t really understand the process. I can’t even come up with a half-decent speculation on what happened!

So, after I got out of bed I didn’t even get to brush my teeth when mother, being super excited, dragged me out of the hut with my nightwear still on. I manager to snatch the slippers on the way out, and we went to the pond.

Then mother walked on water and stopped right below the highest point of the bridge and began to draw many geometric shapes. I don’t know what race needs to activate their bloodline abilities through artificial magic, so it may be that our race is also artificial, or our traits and abilities are artificial. Who knows?

Anyway, as she drew it with her own hand, there were no ripples as if the pond was filled with clay instead of water. While not as interesting in itself, the need to do it in the ritual is quite abnormal. Then she took out a few dozens of wax candles out of her ring, lit them up and put them at various points of the figure, which in itself occupied the entire area of the pond. Needless to say, the candles didn’t float on the water, they actually stood.

Then she took out a few bags full of various precious gems and metals and began to scatter them around the figure.

After that, she flew up and floated to me, took me up by the arms and floated back to the centre of the massive thing, right below the highest point of the bridge, where she flew to after she put me down.

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Then mother said: “I need you to recite the incantation I will tell you now while releasing all of the qi in your body. By the time you finish, there must be not even a trace of qi in there, got it?”

I guess she meant no external qi, as if I got rid of all of the energy that is sometimes referred to as “lifeforce” I would die. Still, releasing it just like that is quite dangerous, as it could, in big amounts, poison the area where it’s released, making it uninhabitable. Still, I decided to trust mother and did as she said.

And I will not tell the incantation for the sake of my dignity. Never. In fact, there was no incantation. Not a word needed to be spoken.

So, I released my qi, and after it was done I was struck by an unnaturally bright light that seemed to come out from all the sides. With light came a weird kind of energy, the kind mother has instead of qi. And it felt great! I suddenly felt beyond powerful, as if I could destroy the planet with a flick of the wrist. Well, I kinda could, but that’s using the power from my soul. And I felt that I could do it even without using my soul. It’s good that I have already experienced being able to wield such amounts of power, otherwise, it’s not impossible that I would’ve actually tried destroying the world while being drunk on that feeling. Well, judging from mother’s reaction the process was a bit different than usual, it seems, so I doubt the rest of Temerians all feel the same way as I did.

And when I came to, the bridge was destroyed, the pond became three times larger in volume and mother was standing in the air. You know the rest.

I put my body through many different tests, using the spirit sense, and all I can tell is that it’s now different somehow.

Speaking of differences: “Mom, why do I have no wings and fangs?”

“They will appear soon. Don’t worry.”

She took my hand and leapt out of the pond.

“Your clothes have become a mess, let me fix it”

Only then did I notice that my nightwear had many tears and burns. My legs, well, it’s good that there was still some fabric covering up the private parts left.

She took out a new set of garments that was composed of a new set of underwear, a simple pink one-piece dress, pink socks and pink ballerina shoes. Just what kind of stuff does she have there?

“Do you have a marine painting inside too?”

“Hm, let me see… Here”

She took out a watercolour painting of the sea during sunset. It looks pretty good actually, love how the waves and reflections of light are made here. The clouds are also top notch. Oh, wait, I mean wow, she does have all kinds of things in there.

I took the clothing and put it on, then took the painting and took some time to appreciate the skill of the artist. I then asked mother to hang it in my room.

After all was settled we returned to the topic of our traits.

“You have probably noticed, but inside you now there’s something that feels like qi, but is not qi, right?”

“Yes. What is it?”

“It’s a bit hard to explain. I guess it’s something like our race’s equivalent of qi? It’s much easier to control, right?”

“Yes.”

It was easy to guide it around my body! And it seems it grows all the time.

“Judging by your expression you probably noticed how your body seems to constantly suck in more of this energy, unlike with qi, where you would have to do it manually. It’s another feature of the bloodline: as long as you live, you’ll grow stronger. Though with the amount of qi you initially had you already have as much as an average five-hundred years old Temerian would have. Seems our bodies either convert or refine qi to make the energy. We just call it internal energy. Try to release a bit of it.”

When I did, only a little survived, the rest turned into qi with a lot of ether. Ether is also referred to as “fine mana” as it seems to have the same qualities as mana, only being harder to control and detect. There was a time when even immortals were not aware of its existence. Most mortals have no clue about it. Of course, with my broken spirit sense, I could do it easily.

“As you could see, it turns back into qi, so it seems it can only exist inside our bodies. Try punching the ground at the tenth of your usual strength, please.”

As I did, I felt slight tremors. Hoh. Seems it’s more effective than qi in enchanting physical strength.

“And since you still are wearing the bracelet you don’t know much about magic, but I can assure you, casting magic becomes a lot easier.”

I will trust you on that. I’m sure it has something to do with ether.

“You can go back to sleep now. In fact, please go to sleep. It’s important.”

I don’t really want to sleep now, but I guess I have to. I wonder if my soul will heal faster now? I’ll have to find out later.