Adam was extremely excited about his sudden progress. Segen was also home so Adam couldn't help running over and telling him the news! Segen was just about as ecstatic as Adam. “That's wonderful uncle! This is a huge breakthrough of studies on deviant spirit essence! Are you going to take your findings to the curator of studies at SILU?”
Adam was a little surprised at this suggestion. He been doing the studies for his own benefit, rather than to write it down for others to view... it might be fun though. Adam pondered aloud: “Perhaps I should.”
A few days later, Adam made the time to meet with the curator of studies at SILU. The curator of studies was a lofty position. In Frieden, the position was held by a wizened man who was named Ian. One might also call Ian a librarian, but he was more than that. He could organize all the available studies and could easily direct one to research materials that they didn't even know was relevant to their experiments or studies! He had vast knowledge on all kinds of subjects, so much so that it would be hard to find another at the SILU institute in Frieden that even new half of what he did! He had been very helpful to Adam in finding many reference materials over the past few years.
Adam walked into Ian's office. “Hello, Ian.”
“Adam, welcome. Did you need help finding something?”
“Not today. I have something to talk to you about instead.”
Adam told Ian about the recent results he had and how he wanted to put together an official work on it. It was an advancement in deviant spirit essence, surely it would be important to properly document. Adam also expressed his desire to document his unorthodox path. He couldn't tell anyone that spirit essence were actually spirits, but he could tell them about how he heard spirit essence and how he could organize them into songs which acted like formations.
Ian expressed some interest. “I haven't heard of such a thing before, and that's saying something! I can definitely help you with getting things together to document your studies on deviant spirit essence into a proper work. That is a highly debatable subject and your new insight will provide new avenues of research on it. As for your unorthodox path... you can use extra time to put it together, but there will be little to no interest on it. I mean no offense by it, just that it is extremely unlikely that your work will provide anyone help. By the time another who takes the same path as you appears, your work would have been filed away into a spot where no one will even remember it...”
Adam wasn't offended by Ian's words, though he was a little saddened. Long ago, Cathryn had also tried to look for any references to a path like Adams. Unfortunately, if it had been documented before it was done a very long time ago and nobody knew if there were any surviving works on it left! Even if Adam put his own work together on his path, it would likely disappear by the time another who trod the same path as his would appear.
It was simple enough for Adam to put together everything he knew so far of how spirit essence could mix together and form what is called deviant spirit essence. It was mostly an initial thesis that utilized the condition of his body as a proof that what he wrote was true. After that, it got harder. Adam had only just begun to understand deviations better and his understanding was not perfect. He wanted to see more deviations and study them! There were a few he could easily find to study, such as steam, but most he would have to go out and find if he wanted to study them.
Adam found it exciting to put the results of his life down into a work that could benefit others and improve their understanding of how spirit essence interacted. Things quickly ground to a halt, however. After writing everything down over the span of a few months, Adam didn't have much else to put down. Even though Adam knew steam was a deviation of water and fire essence, he couldn't seem to comprehend it. He could listen to the spirit essence as it formed steam, but he couldn't figure out why it was like that. Adam knew it was because he lacked an understanding of how water and fire reacted, but he didn't know how to learn what was hidden from him! At the very least, trying to study deviations in a library or a small lab was not going to lead him to any answers.
Adam was lost in his own thoughts, looking out toward the night sky that he couldn't even see. He was excited to study deviations, it gave a new meaning to his life. Now, however, he was stymied. The only way to go forward was certainly to go and continue to explore the world and find examples of deviation as presented by the world itself in its most natural form. Only then would Adam have the best chance of understanding more about deviant spirit essence. But... that would mean leaving Segen behind! Annette was getting older and would not be very fit for such a journey. Adam didn't want Segen to follow him and leave Annette behind, like he had with his own family. Adam also didn't want to leave Segen behind! Yet, he still wanted to go out and explore the world some more. Adam was caught and really unsure of what to do.
Segen walked up and asked: “What are you thinking about?”
Adam didn't want to spread his worries so he only said: “Oh, nothing much.”
Segen gave an exasperated sigh and spoke with a frank tone. “Uncle, if you want to go you should just go!”
Adam looked with surprise over at Segen. With a small chuckle, he said: “Is it really that easy to see through me?”
Segen smiled. “You thought you were hiding it well? Uncle, this is something you want to do. This is very different from purifying your body, which was something you had to do. After everything you have been through, you deserve to do something you want! If you think you will enjoy going out and learning more about deviant spirit essence while on a mindless journey through the world, nothing should stop you from that! Don't worry about me or Annette. We can take care of ourselves just fine.”
Adam gave Segen a smile. He was right. Adam would enjoy a fun journey to just try and learn something at his own pace. No longer did he need to worry about purifying his body. No longer should he worry about taking care of those who could take care of themselves. No need to worry about when he might die. Adam wanted to relax, play his flute, and journey the world to discover the inner workings of deviant spirit essence. Why should he stop himself from this? With no more thoughts of doubt, Adam started to plan a little 'expedition' whose goals were to further study deviant spirit essence!
It wasn't that hard for Adam to acquire funding. He was going to be the only one on the trip and besides some simple travel expenses he only really need access to dragon's blood with which he could easily write down his findings. After planning a general route he would take, Adam left on a leisurely journey.
Adam didn't feel any hurry to actually get to any particular place. On the road, he would whistle or play his flute. In towns, he would join in with revelry whenever there was song or dance. If there was anything really fun or interesting, Adam would send a letter to Segen. As he went around looking for any kind of deviation he might be able to study, he enjoyed life.
On his way, Adam's travels took him through a pass high up on a mountain. To any other traveler, they could see clouds riding low in the pass making the area very foggy. Adam, however, did not notice it until he got close. When he was finally close enough to see the fog with his elemental sight, he was awed! It had been so very very long since Adam had seen the sky and the clouds floating way up above. It was only as he was entering the foggy area that he truly recalled them. Those fluffy white masses that were clouds also formed fog and this fog... was extremely similar to steam!
According to Adam's studies, steam was formed from a mixture of fire and water essence. Heating water with fire could easily achieve the proper mixture for steam. The steam eventually disperses after spreading out, though it doesn't truly go away! No matter where you were, there would always be a certain amount of fire essence and water essence that found themselves mixed together in the air.
Clouds are full of cold water. This water had condensed down due to how cold it was at that elevation. From where Adam stood, he could see small amounts of dispersed steam floating in the air that started to loose their fire essence, which left pure water essence behind! The water essence collected together and began to form clouds! The whole process started flashing through Adam's mind as he quickly pulled out a journal and quickly began writing his thoughts down. He knew there absolutely had to more to the process than what he had discovered so far, but it was already more than what was known about clouds before.
On other parts of Adam's travels, he would occasionally come across one of the most interesting types of deviant spirit essence; lightning! There were just so many elements to it and lightning would only exist for but a fleeting moment! It was extremely hard for Adam to study lightning since it hardly struck anything that was close to him. The few things he was able to discern about lightning was that it was actually more than just a mix of wind and water essence! Lightning being formed from either wind or water essence was a commonly believed fact since it came from clouds. Enough was known about clouds to know that they were formed of water droplets and well... they hung up in the sky! And it was black thunderclouds that formed lightning. Lightning actually included fire essence too, since lightning was extremely hot! Adam was unsure of how, but he also felt the influence of earth essence somehow effecting lighting but he couldn't quite see where it was present in the process. The sites where thunder struck were also left with a small amount of death essence in its wake. On the whole, lightning was still a very interesting mystery that Adam had yet to figure out.
By far, the easiest type of deviation to study had been magma. Formed from fire essence and earth essence while having the presence of death essence within it, magma could be easily found at any active volcano. Adam also noted that when the magma cooled, the death essence was slowly replaced by dormant life essence. It seemed that the earth essence that came from deep below the ground to form the magma was perfect for farming and breathing life into soil.
Over the course of his studies on deviations, Adam came to realize something. Deviations are initially thought to be spirit essence that exhibits behavior that is contrary to its nature. Now, though, Adam realized that these so called 'deviations' did not act contrary to their nature. Spiritualists simply did not understand enough about spirit essence to actually dictate what was or wasn't part of its nature. Take the nature of fire and water essence, for instance. You would think they they absolutely could not mix at all and yet fire can be used to heat up water. Water becomes infused with fire essence through this heating. It then boils until the point where it can no longer hold any more fire essence and then becomes steam. Fire and water essence could actually tolerate each other and not fight too much, but it could only go so far. This was just one example of a simple thing that is completely overlooked by the spiritualist community. The interaction between spirit essence doesn't have to be through grand formations. It could actually be as simple as boiling water in order to cook.
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This method of thinking was actually of great benefit to Adam's own abilities as a spiritualist. He came to realize that he didn't have to fully control spirit essence to make it do what he wanted. In some cases, he could just bring them together and let them do everything for him. His control over spirit essence became more natural and free flowing as he no longer needed to confine them with the songs he used to control them.
Adam sat before a beautiful wintry scenery of a forest. During his quest on his studies, Adam had traveled far north where snow was on the ground all the time. There were hardly any towns or villages out this far and if he went further north, everything would turn into barren white tundra.
In Adam's lap was a piece of paper and he held a quill at the ready to start writing. Adam was thinking of what to write to Segen. Adam had recently started encountering troubles with his studies in the form of funding. His studies had gone from being highly debatable information on deviations to outright controversial discussion on spirit essence in general. He had been told that if he continued in this direction, his funding may be entirely cut!
Many spiritualists did not wish to believe Adam when he said cooking water could be likened to a formation in that the cook is controlling spirit essence to change its state and causing interaction between spirit essence. They had found it outright insulting to liken formations to a cooking fire! They believed that formations were fundamentally different and thus could not be compared, even though Adam felt that it was still control of spirit essence no matter what the means. There were a few who were interested in Adam's thoughts on the subject, but they wanted Adam to further explain. However, Adam found it too hard to fully explain in a scientific way that could be broken down and thoroughly studied. Formations could be used to create water and summon fire to heat the water into steam. A cook will move a pot of water on top of a fire he started, thus forcing the interaction between water and fire essence to create steam. That was as close as Adam could get to describing it, but it still wasn't enough. It was like saying fire is fire because it is fire. Using that analogy, the spiritualist community was asking him: 'Yes it is fire, but how is the flame itself made?' There is an answer, but Adam simply couldn't find the answer they were looking for.
Segen already knew of Adam's troubles. Adam currently felt unsure of if now was a good time to go back and see Segen for the first time in the past couple years or to continue on with his studies. He didn't need SILU's funding to continue traveling, his flute was enough for him to get by with. It just saddened Adam that all the effort he had been putting into writing his thoughts down and his view of the world would be for naught. Regardless, Adam did definitely want to continue studying the world like this. Ever since he had begun to mix the spirit essence in his body, he felt like he was on the cusp of something and the more he studied 'deviations' and spirit essence, the closer he felt to whatever that was!
In the end, Adam couldn't decide what to write to Segen so he packed up and continued on down the road. Dark and gloomy clouds started to roll his way. Adam couldn't see them, but he could feel it in the wind and smell it in the air. There was a hollow in a nearby tree that Adam retreated into. Not knowing how long the incoming storm would last, Adam pulled out his flute to pass the time by.
Before too long, gusty wind picked up as the dark clouds covered the sky and rain began to pour down. Eventually Adam heard thunder! Hearing the thunder, Adam stopped playing and perked himself up as he spread his elemental sight out. Now was a perfect opportunity to try and understand lightning better! If only it would strike somewhere close by!
Adam waited patiently as lightning struck all around. None came close to him though! Just as Adam was feeling disappointed and believed the lightning would completely pass him by, A bolt suddenly flew down from the sky! This bolt of lightning directly truck the tree Adam was hiding under! Surprise and delight washed over Adam as he got an extremely good look at lightning! Adam unfortunately couldn't see where the bolt started, but he could see the interaction of water, wind, and fire present. He managed to catch a glimpse of the the lightning streaking down the wet bark of the tree to directly enter the ground! There he could see how earth essence interacted with everything! There was some sort of guiding interaction between the wind essence and the earth essence. Adam also tried to find the 'song' of lightning as it struck, but it was too fast! The entire song of lightning was compressed down so it sounded like a single note that was impossible for Adam to pick apart! Quickly, everything broke apart as the lightning collapsed. The fire essence was hot enough to incinerate a path through the very air and when it was gone the air crashed against itself creating a massive BOOM! After the lightning had passed, a small amount of death essence lingered where it struck.
The tree Adam sat in shook, as though ready to burst apart! Adam didn't pay it much attention as he dedicated everything he could to memory. He had never been able to get such a good look as he had now! Adam felt that this lightning was what he was looking for!
Not paying attention to anything else, Adam began to experiment. He gathered water, wind, and fire essence over the top of some earth essence and tried to get them to interact. Adam was unable to see the initial reaction of lightning within the clouds that could show him how it starts, but he knew it needed some mixture of water, wind, and fire. He just had to figure out everything on his own.
The storm passed and Adam continued with his experimentation for a few hours... yet it bore no results! Adam just couldn't figure out how to start lighting. Adam sighed to himself and decided to stop. He was obviously going at this from the wrong direction and needed some other form of inspiration.
As Adam tried to relax, he saw a squirrel start to scamper around. Distracting himself, Adam watched the squirrel as it tried to find the nuts it had hidden away. Adam listened to the song of the spirit essence inside the squirrel and all around. His mind shifted over to the song of lightning that was so fast it only sounded like a single note. As Adam replayed the song over and over in his head, he heard something on the periphery of his mind and immediately thought: “Yeah, something like that.”
Adam then froze. Where was that sound coming from! The moment Adam tried to concentrate on that single sound, though, he lost its location! Adam quickly looked around with his elemental sight, but couldn't see anything besides the scampering squirrel. Confused, Adam tried to put himself in the state he was in previously when he heard that sound that was almost like lightning. He concentrated on his memory of lightning and just on the periphery, Adam could hear little peeps that sounded so similar to lightning! Adam slowly and carefully started to reach out and concentrate on that sound. Finally, Adam found the source of the sound... it was the squirrel! Hardly discernible little sparks of lightning existed within the squirrel! Whenever it moved, there would be little sparks of lightning flying through its body, as though directing its movement! Adam was extremely baffled: “How is this possible!?”
With doubt, Adam carefully looked at his own body. There, he too found these tiny lightning sparks! Adam just sat there blankly staring, at a loss. Adam then threw all his current thought out the window. Something was going on and he had to get to the bottom of it! Adam put all the thoughts of different types of spirit essence aside and concentrated solely on the physical nature of his body. He narrowed his elemental sight down to the smallest point possible and deeply investigated every part of his body!
Everything in the world was made up of spirit essence, yes, but it often took physical form in the world. Its 'physical form' could act very different from its 'spiritual form'. The human body was a perfect example! Even though it was made from a mix of spirit essence, it wasn't a swirling mass. It had skin, blood, blood vessels, organs... what Adam presently found the most interesting was the brain and strange cords of tissue that ran along the body. The brain was constantly emitting tiny sparks of lightning that traveled along the cords to control the body! Even as Adam slowly opened and clenched his hand, he could see them at work!
Adam once again felt incredibly stupid! Since he could only see the world in terms of spirit essence, he had long ago forgotten about the physical manifestations of spirit essence and how they too could have interactions with the spiritual form of spirit essence. The body itself was a wonder of nature that should be studied. It could reveal so much on just a few ways that spirit essence reacted with even itself, not just other types of spirit essence! Another new door of study opened itself to Adam and he became very excited. First, though, he wanted to understand more about lightning.
He concentrated on the small sparks within his body. He could finally see the start of lightning within his own body! The interaction between the various types of spirit essence to form lightning. He couldn't quite understand what it was doing on the 'physical level' but in time he eventually would. He noticed something new, though. Life essence was also joined within the lightning! After the lightning sparked, and infinitesimal amount of death essence would also linger... these sparks of lightning controlled the hart and therefore your life. But as they function, death spreads through your body and you age... the process of life leads to death! This was huge! The reason behind aging was this! However, Adam still had to put that aside. If he tried to understand everything at once, he would understand nothing.
After learning what he could from his body, Adam stretched out his hand. Unfortunately, he had yet to learn how to control life essence so he couldn't really create lighting outside his body. However, he felt that he could create an arc of lightning from his body to something else!
Adam stirred the spirit essence in his bones to start the reaction for lighting. He did it so that the life essence within his body would join in to complete it. Finally, a blue arc of lightning shot out of Adam's hand and hit the tree he was targeting with earth essence! A giant BOOM! Issued as Adam went numb. Lightning was never something a spiritualist had been able to control and yet there it was! Another rush of excitement flooded itself through Adam and he couldn't help but shout: “I did it!”
Suddenly, though, Adam cried out in pain! Adam felt a cracking sound as something seemed to open up in his mind! It caused so much pain that he could no longer think properly! The spirit essence in his body suddenly went out of control and rapidly grew! The cracking and popping sound of bones issued out with the tearing of flesh! Adam screamed an inhumanly sound as he took to the skies! Underneath all the pain that clouded his mind, there was a sudden drive that entered it. It was driving him to find a place where could properly 'vent' himself. Adam didn't know what that meant, but knew that he had to. Onward and onward, Adam drove himself far to the north into the barren tundra!
After a time, the pain Adam felt started to recede. His mind remained hazy, but he could think a little. With his eyes hurting, the only thoughts he currently had were: “Why is it so white? This painful white, where did all the black go?”
Below Adam was the white of frozen tundra. Above Adam was the white of overcast clouds. It all seemed to stretch on for forever and Adam felt a small amount of fear from it. What if it did go on forever? Adam could only drive himself to go faster in hopes of reaching the end of this forever white.
After days of constant travel in the sky, the white finally began to change! There was a single mountain in the distance surrounded by a forest of trees. Adam could see a large town or city within the forest, but didn't pay it much attention. That was not where he was heading, it was the mountain. Simply seeing it nearly drove Adam mad with the insane desire to reach its top and claim it for his own!
He tried to push himself faster and faster, but this was as fast as his body would let him go. Impatient, Adam thought of a way to go faster! He used his control over wind to make it more easily slip past him. He also imbued his body with lightning. He made it so that the lightning was attracted to the mountain and helped push him faster and faster!
Adam whistled past the forest and up the side of the mountain. He reached the highest point of the mountain nearly crashing into it with his great speed! Holding the top of the mountain in his grasp, Adam raised his head up as he breathed deeply and let out a great long roar! It was the mightiest and grandest roar he could muster! It was as though he was declaring: “I am the strongest. I am the king!”
Part way through Adam's roar, another roar sounded just below him! It was elegant and seemed to say: “I will not be outdone by you!”
After Adam's roar finished, the haziness of his mind went away. Replacing it was surprise and confusion. Adam thought: “What is going on!?”
There were things before him, colors! He could actually see with his eyes! Quickly looking around, Adam froze in fright. Just below him on an outcropping of the mountain was a beautiful ruby red dragon!