I was now sitting back in the chair next to Chieftain Franklin, ignoring the snoring coming from him. The sounds were mildly distracting from my meditation.

The glances I threw at him over the course of the Conclave told me that as little as half an hour ago, he was at least trying to stay awake.

Chieftain Franklin was more asleep than awake, but at least he was trying. It was more than I could say for the others.

The pattern was always the same. His head slowly and steadily sinks lower until he snaps it back up in a moment of wakefulness. Then there are two blinks of his eyes, which are unfocused and dull before his eyes slide shut, and his head starts sinking again.

Either he was trying to keep track of my actions like his Faction Leader ordered, or he was self-conscious about falling asleep alone. Pretty sure it was the latter. Because he hadn't bothered to spend the second it would take to turn his head and check if I was still here in a while.

If he was with the rest of his people, which I found out were badger-kins from the muttered curses all around me, Chieftain Franklin would be snoring right along with the rest of his kin.

Watching the badgers sleep was something that everyone should hear once in their life. Sadly, you don't have to get that close to them to listen to it, either.

As the gathering badger-kin nodded off into sleep one by one, the chamber was filled with a constant cacophony of snorts, gasping, and wheezing. Then they began to synchronize.

They were a nightmare of interruptions made flesh. Eventually, someone got fed up enough to cast a spell that sectioned off their area, bringing silence back to the chamber.

Not that I cared. The shouting match— I mean the discussion taking place between the Faction Leaders — mainly Derg and Kanieta — with a few others chiming in to offer their opinion, was all about the concessions that would be forced on the Crescent Moon Faction.

The whole situation came down to how I am irrefutable proof that the forbidden spell was used by Elder Jolten. Or my — I shuddered at the thought — soul being nearly disconnected from my body was irrefutable evidence.

Not that Derg would accept the opinion of a single healer. He needed half a dozen other healers to be called in to test me before he accepted the truth.

Because of my appearance and its implications, Kanieta vehemently argued they should be more active in pursuing peace with the Olimpians. And to prove the Peoples' sincerity, the Crescent Moon Faction needed to be sanctioned.

Proposals like limiting the number of Enlightenment Ceremonies they could hold — whatever those are — were being thrown around. And that if they cannot force their own elders to follow the Conclave's laws, then permanent watchers should be placed within their ranks.

To me, no one looked like they were all that opposed to the suggestions. The delicate-looking female that caused Kanieta's tails to bristle — well, all but the tip of one — every time she spoke was saying that the Conclave should be more moderate, but few were listening to her at this point.

Kanieta had even broached the topic, and I could tell by the silence and how quiet Derg got that it was serious, that removing the Crescent Moon's status as a faction shouldn't be off the table. After all, they needed to set a precedent of how severe the consequences of casting a forbidden spell will be.

At that point, Derg settled back in his chair and looked around at those murmuring in agreement. Which was the majority of the room.

I was hesitantly trying to use my mental powers by passively feeling the room's mood, but I could tell most of the others were genuinely intent on making an example of Derg and his faction.

I had no idea what the end result would be, but I got the definite feeling it wouldn't be good for Derg and his people. A fact everyone in that section knew, as the anger and hatred coming from them was clawing its way across the room to me.

With the general consensus come to, Derg was left to sit in his chair while the other faction leaders debated what the consequences would be.

Even from behind, I could tell by Kanieta's posture and the flicking of her tails that she was sitting there with a smug, self-satisfied smile. She had won, and she knew it.

Everyone in the room did.

But that was a couple hours ago. Since then, they had been discussing the minutia of how they would fuck over the Crescent Moon Faction.

I had closed my eyes and started meditating, and the badgers began falling asleep on mass. They found everything more uninteresting than me, and I was reluctantly learning how an entirely new political system worked.

An actual diplomat would probably find it fascinating, but that wasn't my job. I delivered my message, so now all I had to do was wait for a chance to slip back to the legion without anyone getting suspicious.

While they continued to prattle away, I focused my mind inward.

The first thing I did was perform a simple technique to practice manipulating my mental energy. The technique consisted of taking my mental energy, then evenly spreading it out through my body before gathering it again as fast as possible. The exercise was for children as they first developed their Control.

It was far easier to control one's energy while it was within their body, and there was hardly any loss when control was lost. When it did inevitably happen, about eighty percent of the energy would return to the core without guidance, given enough time.

Grabbing hold of the mental energy in my core, I pushed. What the— Stop! I frantically thought. What in the Ancestor was that?

The moment I pushed on my mental energy, it went skittering right through my body, which I expected, then it continued right out of my skin, which was a complete surprise. It wasn't all of my energy. I still had a fourth of my mental energy, but I wasn't entirely sure whether my body contained the energy or I just stopped it before it could leave. The fact my mental energy could so freely leave my body was kind of a big deal.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That was strange enough, but my core was now refilling with energy several times faster than before. And I wasn't referring to what my regeneration rate was most of my life. I now have several times the super regeneration rate I gained after the incident… So, that's great?

Now that I think about it, when I was healed, I just assumed that my mental energy was bouncing around my body. An assumption I made based on my experiences and the records of every other practitioner that had ever lived.

Excuse me for coming to that conclusion just because my core was filled when I checked minutes later. How dare I not pay attention when I was busy accepting existing without constant pain filling the back of my thoughts anymore.

Whatever the completely reasonable reasons that caused me to miss that fact, I was now half convinced I was imagining it all. The only thing I knew of to help push one's mental energy out of their body was to have more mental energy. It created more pressure.

After a few quick tests, I discovered some things.

Even my new regeneration didn't explain everything that happened to me. My core wasn't instantly filled. It still took a minute or two to fill up. If it was all leaving my body, how did I have so much in my body?

The other thing was if I wasn't actively restraining my mental energy outside of my core, it would leak out of my body. Like there was no difference between my body and the air.

Being more careful, I eased my mental energy out of my core. Once I had it nestled in my chest, I began pulsing the energy through my body.

The first couple of times I pulsed my energy, the result was faster and far smoother than I expected, and the outer edge of my pulse leaked out of my skin. I don't know why I was surprised. I had flailed around enough to know my energy moves around my body far better now than before.

It was just when it actually happened I wasn't ready.

For a moment, I was irritated that I had lost mental energy. Every drop is precious. Then a smile spread over my face at the thought. But it's not. Not anymore.

Even as I practiced with the mental energy, more was filling my core, and I had already regained more power than I had lost.

It did not take long for my skill to show in my practice. Despite how it may seem, I wasn't relearning how to control my mental energy.

What I was doing was comparable to graduating from a poorly made and rusted sword and shield to a perfectly balanced masterwork sword and shield. And new equipment didn't matter to a master of their craft.

I was a master at Control. There was no denying that. And my lifetime of training didn't forsake me.

Now that I — for lack of a better example — can feel my mental hands again, I was quickly reasserting my skill over my improved body.

It wasn't long before my internal pulsing was as easy as it used to be. Then I started making tendrils and moving them around my body, an essential skill to practice.

For everyone but me.

Holding a tendril outside the body was hard and draining. It can be done for hours and even days. But it will be sucking up either your willpower or mental energy the whole time.

My eyes were still shut, but I could feel a smile spread over my face. Before, I had to hoard my mental energy like the village drunk guarding his last cup of wine.

Now it was like I was standing in the middle of a river and wanted a drink. All I had to do was bend down.

It would take time, but I had to shift my perception. My willpower had suddenly become a whole lot more valuable than mental energy.

After a bit more practice, I formed more tendrils and poked them outside my body. This is… too easy. I thought in bewilderment.

Experience has long taught me that holding a tendril out in the world is like sticking your arm straight out and keeping it in the air. Easy at first, but it quickly devolves into a mental struggle of perseverance.

Now it was like keeping my arms out while floating in the water. Keeping my tendrils inside my body was almost harder than moving them outside.

Pushing the two tendrils farther out, I kept up a steady flow of mental energy. The tendrils quickly moved past three feet and then five feet from my body. Five feet became ten and then fifteen.

The reserve from my core and the mental energy I was playing with had been used up, and I was now growing the tendrils at the same pace as my core was being recharged. And still, I was having almost no trouble at all.

When I reached what had to be around twenty feet, and it was still no more of a struggle than poking the tendril through my skin, I let the casting go.

I had already passed my previous limit of extending a single tendril, — seventeen feet four and one-eighth inches — and I did that with two tendrils simultaneously. Finding out my new limit — I had to have one even if it might take a while to find — would have to wait for another time.

It was time. I had beaten around the bush so much that I was digging up roots. I even walked around it and went down the trail a little way in an effort to avoid facing the stupid thing.

After my internal practices, I should have gathered my will and mental energy to cast a pulse. It was the next step. Besides collecting mental energy and releasing it all at the same time with the intent to retrieve information, there was little more one had to do.

Anyone could ride out the information shoved into their mind. Or they should be able to do so.

The last time I released a pulse, I nearly passed out. And the flood of information into my mind hurt so much that it had to have added to the brain damage I suffered.

Logically, I was able to put two and two together. My soul was damaged and nearly ripped from my body. There would be consequences. It was why whenever I controlled my mental energy lately, it felt like I was doing it with thick gloves on. And the changes in my body that I was now noting had to have resulted from the damage and subsequent healing done to me.

Now that my soul had been healed, it meant that releasing a pulse would be fine. Yeah, nothing to worry about! It'll work out great! No matter how many times I mentally cheered for myself, I couldn't believe it.

It was like I had walked around a specific corner one time, and as I turned, a rock smashed me in the balls. It might have been a complete fluke, and it probably won't ever happen again, but it would take some time before I ever walked around a corner — specifically that one — the same.

Gathering all my willpower, I forced the smallest of pulses out of my body. It should have been barely enough to show my chair and a few feet around me.

The pulse went twice as far as I expected, which caused my body to tense up in expected pain, but there was nothing. The strange ability to sense what was inside the pulse remained, but it was hovering at the edges of my mind. Waiting for me to reach out for it, not forcing its way into my mind like before.

With the small success that proved I was being ridiculous, I decided to release a normal pulse. The worst that could happen was me falling onto the ground and needing the healer's help again.

The pulse rolled out of my body, quickly enveloping the room before hitting the walls and stopping cold. But the pulse surprised me as it started rolling up the walls. Higher and higher it went until my energy started rolling over the people ove— wait…

My face scrunched up as I focused on the information that caught my attention. It was… By the Guardi—

Doubling over, I emptied my stomach onto the ground.

My mind roiled with the sensations of warm and coagulating blood covering my body. The heady scent of copper filled my nose as if I stood in a field of dead, their blood soaking the ground.

I could feel people turning their attention to me. Chieftain Franklin had jerked awake and was facing me, reaching out with a hand. But I ignored them as I sucked in a breath, a moment of clarity coming to my disordered mind.

"AMBUSH!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. At the same time, I swept out with a tendril knocking the chairs and those sitting on them away from me, creating an open space.

Leaping forward, I used another tendril to pull myself forward and into Kanieta.