Nar tutted internally as he was separated from the others, and forced to look further and further back, until finally, he found an empty circle just two rows away from the back wall of the hall.
He took a seat within the circle, and looked over the rows of heads that spread from him, all the way to the podium.
“Good,” the master said, as the last apprentices sat down. “This room you are in is the Aura Hall. So called because it is where you will be doing the most of your aura training and practice. This Hall, unlike all the others you will find tomorrow, never closes. There will always be instructors present, no matter the time of day or night, and you can train here whenever you have free time.”
The way she inflicted on the word “free” told Nar everything he needed to know about what exactly they were supposed to be doing with such time.
“Those green circles you are now sitting in are aura pods,” the master continued. “And this hall can accommodate five hundred of you at a time. There are less than five hundred apprentices here tonight, but going forward, you will need to either find a free pod, or book a pod through your Scimitar tabs. If there is none available, register yourselves to join the queue. When a pod is freed, it will be assigned to you for a period of 15 minutes. If you’re not within the pod and cycling aura within that time, you will lose your booking and the pod will be freed for another apprentice. I believe that this is simple enough to understand.”
Nar nodded hesitatingly to himself. He got the concepts and the gist of it, but the whole thing was still very foreign within his brain.
“Now, navigate to the Booking System in your Scimitar menu,” the master told them. “Then onto the Aura Pod tab… Once there, you should see an ID for the pod you’re currently sitting on, at the top of everything else. Focus on it, and it will show you the pod’s controls. For now, just look for the on/off controls, and think “On” once you’ve found them.”
On, Nar thought, and the little grayed out indicator slid from “Off” to “On” and turned green.
Around him, the green circle shone with sudden light, and before his eyes, a curtain of diffuse green rose around him, slowly closing him off from the rest of the hall.
He craned his neck backwards, following the circle of light as it reached all the way to the ceiling, and found himself immersed in a deep silence.
Looking down, he noticed that the floor was also covered in that same green, diffuse light. There was just enough space for him to stretch out his hands without touching the light curtain that now surrounded him.
“You can touch the green light,” the master’s voice said, coming from everywhere around him all at once. “And once you’re done, just think “Off”, and the barrier will open up again. For now, stay where you are.”
Nar congratulated himself for not having thought “Off” right away and staying put.
It’s just like the gains earlier, he thought. She should have told us to stay put first.
“You are now within a very powerful aura dampening column,” the master continued, after a bit of a prolonged silence that made Nar wonder if she had had to wait for apprentices to hurriedly turn their pods back on. “While you yourself will not be affected, the pod will block your aura from lashing out and harming other apprentices, faculty or the ship itself. Unless directly told so, you can be confident in trying out anything you want within that column, and using your aura to its full extent. Of course, you can still harm yourselves, and that is why the hall is manned by instructors at all times.”
Amazing… Nar thought, passing his fingers across the diffuse light. It’s solid… And so smooth.
Touching light. Now there was another thing to add to the growing list of things he’d never thought possible or even imagined himself doing.
“Good. With that out of the way, let’s finally get started with tonight's exercise,” she said, sounding as though she was right there with him, within that confined space. “For now, I just want you to close your eyes and breathe. Just like when you use your [Meditation] skill.”
Nar did as asked and closed his eyes.
“Breathe in, breathe out,” the master's voice said, taking in an almost lulling drone. “Breathe in, breathe out… Good. Keep going.”
In. Out, Nar thought, filling his lungs with air, trying to empty his mind, just as he usually did.
“Now, reach deep down, to that place within you where your core is,” she said. “Do you see it? Are you there?”
Yes… Nar thought.
His mouth hung open as he considered the sphere of light before him. As always, he was both blinded by it and yet still perfectly capable of openly staring at it, tracing the swirling patterns of white, black and gray across its surface.
You’ve grown… Nar thought.
He remembered being taken into the light of his aura, when he had finally accepted it at the end of the Ceremony, but he hadn’t looked at it since. The sphere of light, or aura core, he should probably call it, was as tall as him now. He couldn’t close his arms around it anymore.
This is a lot more than the gains I got… What happened?
“Now reach out to it,” the master's voice came down to him.
Despite the distance he felt the voice had traveled, she still sounded as though she was right there with him. More than inside that tube of light, it was as though she actually stood within that dark place with him.
Reaching out, Nar did as he was told, and his hand passed into the light. He felt a surge of energy radiate from the center of his chest, and grinned.
“This right now that you are doing, is the closest you will ever get to touching your own soul,” the master said, as though she was talking only to him. “This is where the power of your soul gathers, in a place that is neither soul nor physical, but somewhere in between. You can almost think of your core as the heart of your aura, from which aura spreads throughout your entire body through the channels you currently have. Try doing so now. Just imagine that you are siphoning some of that light into your chest, and up to your right shoulder.”
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Nar felt the warmth, energizing touch of his aura spread up to his shoulder, and unbidden, he called on it to continue spreading further down. Into his upper arm. Elbow. Forearm. Wrist… And finally, the palm of his hand, and his very fingertips.
It tingles…
Marveling, he raised his arm to his eyes. It seemed to emanate a very soft and discreet light, the same color and substance as the sphere before him.
“This is possible, because during the Climb, under the weight of the Pressure, you slowly carved and opened channels throughout your body to allow your aura to circulate through. Think of these channels as like your veins, except they are in that same middle space between your body, mind and soul, and not in the physical realm.”
Nar wiggled his tingling fingers, a giant, childish grin plastered over his face.
This is… Well, he didn’t really have a word for it. But it felt right. It felt true. This was the way things were supposed to be. The way he and his aura and soul were supposed to be. Together, as the one that they truly were.
“Now, I want you to try and pull out as much aura as you can,” she urged him. “Pull until you find that you can pull no more without needing to exert considerable strain on yourself. When that happens, stop and let go until you are back to that edge between effortless and effortful.”
Nar reached for his aura again, and pulled, feeling it spread across his chest, his other arm, his neck and face and head, and down to his stomach, legs and feet.
A little gasp escaped him. It was like the feeling of the hot water on his skin, in the shower, except a lot better and stronger.
“Now, when I count down to three, you are going to quickly open your eyes and look at your aura bar in your UI,” she said. “Ready? 3. 2. 1. Now!”
Nar flung open his eyes, and the immediate feeling of his aura escaping his grasp and shattering into a million smithereens was so overwhelming that he almost didn’t catch the number on his gray bar before it quickly refilled somewhat.
1895, he thought, holding onto his chest and taking in painful breaths. Familiar shards of pain cut across his entire body, as sharp aura flowed backwards into his core.
“I know it hurts, but the lesson had to be learned,” the master said, her tone soothing. “You were circulating your aura through your channels, cycling, as we call it. And when you stopped abruptly, your core sought to jealously pull it all back at once. However, the aura was already cycling in one direction, the one you set for it, and the two wills clashed, causing the pain you felt, and the sensation of shattering, or breaking, as the two wills destroyed the cohesiveness of the aura within your channels. Depending on the level of your [Aura Channels] you will have recovered some or less of the expended aura. Some is always recovered, and some of it simply leaks out of your channels, and into the physical reality. Never to be returned again.”
Nar’s breath caught on his throat.
“Gone?” he breathed through the pain.
Part of his soul, gone?
“Gone and lost forever,” the master confirmed. “However, aura is merely your soul's energy and power, not your soul itself. Like stamina, it will be replenished. We wouldn’t last long if we lost a part of our souls every time we used our auras, now, would we?”
Nar shook his head, and relaxed onto his hands, leaning back.
Crystal… he thought, still feeling sore all over his body. This is all insane.
“And if you were able to catch the number on your aura bar when you opened your eyes, you will have seen that it matches your [Mastery] exactly,” the master's voice continued, close by and ethereal. “As I explained before, we auramancers have more flexibility in how we use our auras compared to aethermancers. Our skills are often flexible in the amount of aura we want to use, and we can reach beyond what the System setup to help us, and draw both further and deeper upon our aura core, and beyond, directly from our soul... This is something you might have experienced while Climbing, thanks to the mercy I mentioned earlier.”
Another confusing thing, Nar thought, thinking back. Glad that one makes sense now.
“However, that mercy is now gone, and it will be a long, long while before you are capable of achieving similar results again,” the Master of Aura said. “From now on, you will be limited by your [Mastery], and pushing past that will be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible for most of you. At most, and this is what I want you all to do, is to always strive to cycle slightly more than your [Mastery] allows you too. This will not only boost of [Aura] and [Mastery] gains, but also start building on the capability to one day started going beyond your [Mastery] once more. That is, if you aspire to reach such high levels. At least past level 100 for sure…”
Again with level 100, Nar thought, grimacing. Crystal… That feels so far away.
“If it is your goal, you will get there. Never fear. In Auramancy, you get what you put in…” the master said, as though she had read his mind and was speaking directly to him.
I’ll give everything! Nar decided, clenching his jaw. Whatever it takes.
“Good. Now, of course I know that you can see your UI with your eyes closed, but you can’t fight with your eyes closed, now, can you? But the mercy that aided you is now gone, and you will find that it is a great deal more taxing to use your aura for simple things like empowering your body or your weapon now, or in any way that is not through a skill.”
Tentatively, Nar reached out for his aura again, but other than a very faint, and potentially imagined touch of warmth in the middle of his chest, he didn’t feel anything as dramatic as before, when he had had his eyes closed.
“And with that, you should have everything you need to practice for tonight and the next few days,” the master said. “I want you all to continue doing this exercise. First, pull in slightly more aura than you can control, and holding it in, try to spread it out across your entire body. Don’t think too much about it, just try to feel it all over you, however it is that your aura feels like. Hot. Cold. Bright. Dark… Or anything else, just feel that all over yourself. This will push you to both upgrade your [Mastery] as well as your pathways. And don’t worry, with the small amounts of aura you currently can draw upon, even through incredible effort of will, you cannot damage yourselves in any significant way, and instructors will always be present to step in should the need arise.”
Well, that’s a relief, Nar thought, looking up to the heights of his aura pod. He wasn’t looking forward to knocking on death’s door again, even if the knowledge that he wouldn’t be able to so freely access his aura at his current state still stung a little.
Well, I’ll just have to get more [Mastery]. That’s the whole point of this, anyways. To learn, and to get better.
“Alright. From here on out, you are on your own,” the master said. “Class is over, and you can stay here practicing for as long as you want or as little as you want. If you get hungry, there are snacks available for you at all hours in between meals in the canteens, even throughout the night. However, I must warn you, by the end of this week, you must have upgraded your [Aura Channels] to the first level of [Aura Pathways] at the minimum. This is the true beginning of your journey of building a mighty network of pathways within you for your aura to cycle through and manifest the true potential of your paths. Without dedication and perseverance, you will never reach the heights of excellence that the Scimitar demands of its elite delvers. And if you unlock [Aura Pathways] before the end of the week, or already have the skill, then strive to upgrade it. Never rest on your achievements. Always strive to keep going higher and better. And if you haven’t unlocked at least that first level of [Aura Pathways] by the evening of the Seventh, we will be forced to take more drastic measures… Good luck, and work hard, apprentices.”
Nar gulped at the promised edge in her words.
Thank the Crystal I already have pathways. But they’re called [Pathways of the Champion] though, and not [Aura Pathways]. Does that mean anything?
He sighed. Maybe it was time for him to finally have a look at his skills, now that they were done.
No. Not done, he corrected himself. Now was the time to practice. All of his free time was now time to practice. Hopefully not just his aura, but also to practice whatever training they gave him in swordsmanship and tanking as well.
“Hello, Nar. May I join you?” the master’s voice suddenly spoke, startling him.