Comprehending a Mystery was not an easy task. Though, in essence, just observing how the layers of Oren were behaving, and copying them should be enough for Wanderers to manifest the Mysteries, or at least their effects, the said Wanderers would have absolutely no control over the effects that their manipulation of Oren would produce. In fact, they would not even know what the effect of the Mystery was.
It was not for reason that creating Arcanas was considered to be one of the most dangerous things that Wanderers could do. Yet, despite knowing the dangers, some Wanderers still dared to test, or use Arcanas still in their testing phase, and of unknown Rank, and Grade. His father… In any case, just observing the patterns in the variation of Oren was not enough.
To comprehend a Mystery, Wanderers first had to interact with it, and learn what the effects of the Mystery were. Only when the Wanderers knew exactly what the effects of the Mysteries they would be summoning were, would they be able to safely proceed to the next step, trying to imitate the rules of the Origin Sea, and manifest a version of the Mystery, one that they had comprehended.
Thus, after Alnea made sure that the Serenity of his Heart was not disturbed by the Mystery’s manifestation, he reached out with his hand, and brushed it over the circles that were closest to him, trying to understand their essence, and what they represented. To let the Mystery, and the rules behind it reach directly into his Spirit, and let him experience the effects of the Mystery.
And as he wished, the moment that his fingers brushed over the circle, he felt his senses shift all around him, making him feel as if he was rotating along with the circles. Except that he was not. His Spirit stood where it was, but his senses kept rotating with the circles, as if their centre of orientation itself had changed. They were still his senses, but somehow, the circular waves had latched on to them, and refused to let go, even when they started quaking.
Only when the circular waves broke apart, did they let go of his senses, just like they had done the last time he had interacted with them. This time though, they were not able to hide their secrets from him. At first, as his senses had kept rotating with the circles, he had thought that the circular waves were rotating, and disorienting his senses. But he was wrong.
That was just a side effect of the waves that came with their ceaseless rotations. The true effect, the main purpose of the circular waves was to latch on to his senses, or rather, to his Spirit itself. As for the taste of eternity, and time that he felt in the waves, they were beyond his comprehension. Rather, he was not even able to feel their effects.
Perhaps, they were part of the rules behind the Mystery, or maybe, they could even be part of a higher Ranked Mystery from the same branch as the one he was comprehending. A small glimpse of what he might have to comprehend in the future. At the moment though, he did not have either the time, or the leisure to think about them. Every moment that he spent doing nothing, was a moment that he was wasting his Spirit Power.
Thus, after suppressing the excitement of gleaning something from the Mystery, and regaining his Serenity, Alnea reached out to the thread like waves just as they were being pulled together by some unknown force to form a giant circular, or rather, a spherical wave. It was circular in all places of existence, after all. Even in the material plane, it existed in all the planes that could exist, so forming a sphere, was only rational, and logical.
Except that the way that the wave was formed was completely irrational. He still could not understand how the waves had been brought together. And so, instead of interacting with the Mystery, Alnea waited for it to complete its cycle, and reach back to the point that the circular waves had exploded into tiny, thread like waves, before interacting with them once again, only to fail in gleaning any meaning from experiencing the strange sensation of being brought together by some strange unknown force.
What exactly was the purpose of the thread like waves? What was their effect? And why were they being brought together like this? Alnea did not have an answer to any of his questions. So, once again, he waited for the Mystery to complete its cycle, before interacting with the Mystery. And once again, the result was the same. He had no answers.
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A little confused, and disappointed, Alnea proceeded with the next part of the Mystery. His Spirit Power may have increased, but it was still limited. He could not afford to continue wasting his Spirit Power. He did leave a mental note to himself about the waves though, hoping that he would be able to figure them out later, before brushing his fingers over the sphere that was at the centre of the all the spheres. The most natural form for the forces to balance each other out…
Once again, some strange thoughts popped into his head. But this time, he did not question them, and just went along with their flow, trying to find their meaning. Meanings, which he did not get. Instead, he got a strange, and unusual pressure, that came from within himself, which made him feel as if his Spirit was collapsing in on itself. It was as if an unknown force had been created within him, that was pulling his Spirit to its centre… just like how the thread like waves had been pulled together to form a sphere.
…Something did not seem right. The sphere was formed from the thread like waves coming together. How could it be the force that was pulling all those threads together? That defied all logic and reason. Unless…
Instead of thinking about the thread like waves, Alnea concentrated on the feeling that the spherical wave was bringing him. An unusual feeling that made him feel as if the sphere existed within him. He had already known that it was because the sphere existed in all planes, even within his Spirit, but what if that was wrong? What if, it was not the sphere that existed in all planes, but the strange force that was bringing all the threads together?
That would also explain many things, Alnea thought. Like the pressure his Spirit was feeling at the moment, or the pressure it felt from the chains of his Oaths. It was because the unknown force within his Spirit… The unknown force that existed in all planes… even the physical plane. Even in his world… like the pressure that one of the Glyph Arrays in his dagger could create. If so, then—
Before Alnea could complete his thoughts, the sphere collapsed from all planes of existence, exploding into countless tiny spheres, but he was not disappointed. He had gleaned enough to make a few guesses about what the spherical wave represented. He even had a few thoughts about the thread like waves, and what they were supposed to do.
Of course, he still would have to confirm his thoughts, but he could do that later. At the moment, he was focussing on strange sense of nothingness that with the explosion. A feeling of strange emptiness, that made him feel as if his Spirit was just about to disperse within the Origin Sea. Fortunately, it was just a feeling. But Alnea already knew that.
And so, instead of panicking, he focussed on the feeling that came soon after, the return of the feeling of pressure. Except, this time, the feeling of pressure came from outside of his Spirit, from the centre of the circular paths that the smaller spheres had taken. And as he interacted with those spheres, he noticed that they too were feeling that pressure.
In fact, the whole reason why they had formed their circular path was because of the pressure, and the strange force that kept attracting the sphere towards each other. They were still missing something at their centre though, a larger sphere, which could exert a force of its own, and keep the spheres in check. And so, it was only natural for the spheres to collapse to the focus of their paths. Something that he had expected before even interacting with the waves.
What he had not expected though, was that after he had recognised the existence of the strange force, and that it came from the spheres themselves, the speed at which they fell towards their centre increased, instead of decreasing. That surprised him for a moment, until he recognised the source of change in the behaviour of the waves. His comprehension of the Mystery. It was a rare occurrence, but he had already experienced how the waves had changed at just his mere observation, so after the initial surprise had passed, Alnea quickly recovered himself, and went back to observing the waves.
However, before he could observe anything, the spherical waves all collapsed towards the centre of their orbits, creating something eerie, and strange, that existed for just a fraction of a moment, before blowing up in a bright, loud, and jarring explosion, that shook his Spirit, making him feel as if he was in a bright, and colourful world with endless possibilities. Yet that too lasted for only a fraction of a moment, before fading away, returning peace to the Origin Sea. True peace.
There were no more waves in the layers of the Origin Sea around him, circular, or in any other shape. Neither was there any pressure surrounding his Spirit, except for the pressure of the endless layers of Oren. The manifestation of the Mystery was gone, dispersed back into the Origin Sea. As was his hope of completely comprehending the Mystery…
Or maybe not, Alnea thought, as he went over all that he had experienced, and comprehended. The clinginess of the circular wave, the strange force that had formed the sphere, and had created the circular paths, along with causing the collapse of those circular paths, all pointed to one thing. Gravity.