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I began as little more than a spark of living mana, likely the remnant of some struggle between greater astral beings. I barely had consciousness or a will of my own and remember little about that time. While adrift in the Astral, I found the Old World, though I don’t know whether it was the result of random chance or something more. The primordial muck of the changing world in its infancy acted as my crib nursing the meager physical body I managed to manifest.

I truly cannot say how many years passed that way. Thousands? Millions? There was one fragment of that time which, even now, endures within my memory as clear as day. I had a companion, another astral creature whose essence resonated with my own. Most likely, we had both been born of the same event within the Astral making us the closest astral equivalent to relatives.

Our first encounters were what one would expect from primitive beings, brief and full of wariness on both sides as we probed each other in the Astral. Eventually, our encounters became more frequent and extended until we grew comfortable enough with each other’s essence and were certain neither of us would attempt to consume the other.

It can’t be understated how weak we were for most of the Old World’s history. In the Astral, we were beings of the lowest order and would have been easy prey had the Old World had any native astral beings. Fortunately for us, the world existed in a mana-less star system which left its Astral sector void of any inhabitants until we came along.

Although we may have been nascent beings, incapable of complex thought or action, we seemed to share an innate imperative to grow. That left us with only two options, produce and cultivate mana within the Astral or consume matter in the physical realm and use it to fuel growth within the Astral. If seen from an outside perspective in those early years, I doubt most would be unable to tell the difference between the two of us. However, this changed as we took the first steps on our divergent paths.

My companion chose to consume the matter of the Old World breaking it down into its fundamental components and converting those components into mana for its astral body. It grew faster than I and developed its first complex patterns within its astral body. In many respects, it paralleled the development of life in the Old World gaining much from the consumption of more complex organisms as they appeared. Had I been capable of feeling envy during those early days, I very well may have envied my companion’s progression as it grew increasingly more complex and expansive within the Astral.

For my part, I began the production and cultivation of mana. It came to me easily like breathing for a newborn babe. The process proved time-consuming in the extreme despite how natural it was for me. To elaborate a little further, I produced the first complex structure within my astral body a substantial amount of time after my companion, and given my then-limited understanding of concepts like time, a conservative guess for the gap would likely number in the thousands of years. Meanwhile, in the physical realm, my form remained relatively simple, little more than a mass of protoplasmic ooze that I kept within the murky depths where I first manifested.

The years passed as my consciousness grew more and more advanced due to the increasing number of complex structures within my astral form. Each one became easier taking less and less time. The increased consciousness brought with it my first active thoughts and observations of the Old World. I started to comprehend the majesty of the physical world.

I moved my physical body for the first time. Distance, temperature, hardness, and more became concepts of interest. I imprinted these ideas into my astral self and experimented with my physical form. I became more durable, faster, and able to sustain my form in different environments. I explored the world through the deep, rarely emerging from the waters of the Old World. There, I encountered ever-increasingly sophisticated forms of life that fed my burgeoning curiosity. My encounters taught me three things that would eventually alter the course of the Old World and its inhabitants.

The first was that I was effectively immortal. Some of the lifeforms managed to destroy my physical form, usually by consuming it and breaking it down with their bodies. However, as an astral being, “death” in the physical realm proved little more than a setback requiring me to expend precious mana to manifest a physical form. Like the formation of complex structures, manifesting a body decreased in difficulty the more I did it.

Secondly, by inserting my mana into the bodies of living creatures, I could change them warping their forms. I employed this technique, which I would later name Fleshcraft, extensively. Often, the lifeform subjected to my tests would die but when it survived, the results were fascinating. Creatures changed by my mana retained whatever amount of mana I used and the mana became their own though they couldn’t replenish it once it was gone. Of even more interest, these creatures manifested basic signatures within the Astral due to a strange reaction of the implanted mana. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that I was essentially triggering an astral awakening within the proto-souls of these basic lifeforms.

The last insight came after a failed experimentation on an unfortunate aquatic creature. I channeled my mana into it for longer than intended causing the body to erupt violently. Mana, still charged with my will, flooded the immediate vicinity. I sensed the environment warp around my body twisting as the mana suffused the water and earth. The consequences of the mishap itself were minimal but it revealed an exciting truth. I could use mana to change the physical realm, just as I changed living creatures.

***

During what I believed to have been the Stone Age, something significant changed within my companion. It had advanced in magnitudes I couldn’t comprehend by this time. That isn’t to say I hadn’t made significant advancements. All astral beings produced mana by simply existing though the rate varies depending on the power and nature of the being. Despite my companion’s superior power, I produced more mana by several degrees since I had focused solely on improving and maximizing it. Additionally, my mastery over mana had proceeded to a level that allowed me to perform the phenomena now known as magic with relative ease.

I only noticed the change due to my honed awareness of the mana in my vicinity. My companion expended an incredible amount of mana and its astral body became less. It was something that had never happened. Throughout the ages, I had learned many methods of mana manipulations, and a significant number of those required large expenditures of mana. However, even when extending mana from my astral self, I did not become less. The array of complex structures that comprised my astral form remained stable and unchanging. The only drawback of mana expenditure was that it required the diversion of mana that could be otherwise used to expand my astral self.

I reached out for my companion’s astral body. The touch carried with it my sentiment.

Confusion. I imparted this to the larger astral being and waiting losing focus on the physical realm. The response eventually came but I couldn’t understand it. The thought was too complex and nuanced with meaning.

My companion realized this almost immediately and sent several simpler thoughts.

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New. Success. Life. I parsed through its communication and sent my own.

Interest. Curiosity had been one of the first emotions to truly integrated within my being so I had no trouble expressing it.

Come to me. The thought was abrupt yet carried a familiar impression. We had exchanged this sentiment in various forms over the ages. This familiarity was born of the unique nature of existence within the Astral as opposed to the physical realm.

Astral beings experience the Astral differently than mortals. To us, space is merely a concept from the physical universe. Of course, distance does exist there but it exists as an idea, subject to change if one has the power to do so. My companion and I had comingled in our earliest days so we always conceptualized the distance between us as minimal. There had been a few shifts here and there but largely we remained within reach of one another.

Conversely, in the physical world, a large amount of distance between us eliminated our ability to interact. It hadn’t been an issue at first because I remained stationary for so long; however, once I began to move, we had difficulty locating one another especially due to my habitats usually being aquatic.

While I followed the impression sent by my companion, I examined its astral body more closely. I observed two things of note. Firstly, millions of its complex structures were missing, an amount that if lost by me, would have set my progression back by a staggering amount but hardly seemed to affect my companion. Secondly, a new structure had appeared. The structure was simple in comparison to some others but to my astral self, it seemed to extend beyond my companion. Where it went I couldn’t tell because its trail simply stopped like the rest of it didn’t exist.

Eventually, I found myself slithering up the shore of a riverbank. A chorus of screams marked my arrival. I shifted my form growing a pair of eyestalks so I could observe the area around me. I didn’t usually rely on sight when perceiving the Physical but it had its uses.

Not far from my current location, a gathering of humans panicked. I knew of these creatures from past encounters with them. Some groups of them did perplexing things like throwing their dead into bodies of water I inhabited or leaving bound females of their kind on the shoreline. I didn’t understand the why of their actions but I did experiment on the females with my fleshcraft.

Humans, unlike basic forms of life, had what I had identified as the complete version of a soul. Because of this, my fleshcraft had a more dramatic and interesting effect on the handful of females who survived. Most gained a fair aptitude for mana manipulation and they sometimes did things with it that I had never considered. Additionally, their talents appeared to have a loose relationship with the physical changes I imposed on them. Much later, I would learn that this was due to the soul’s inherent synchronicity with the body and its connection to mana.

Normally, I would ignore the humans; however, this time, I waited as two approached me. The larger was a human male wielding a long stick with a stone affixed to the end. I had seen such tools appearing with more and more frequency as of late. I had even been poked by them on a few occasions. The other human was my companion yet something was different about them.

It, or should I say she, took the form of a human female. She had multiple markings on her body along with bone ornaments that made her stand out compared to the other humans. Her mana signature was abnormal; specifically, it was far too potent.

I probed at her using my physical body as a conduit for my astral senses. What I found vexed me. Her physical body was suffused with mana which should have been impossible. As I stated earlier, the Astral sector in which the Old World existed had no mana. My companion and I had to create the mana we used with our respective methods. The near-nonexistent mana saturation meant that any mana not being actively manipulated within the physical realm would disperse into the Astral almost immediately. Even in the case of my fleshcraft subjects who gained a mana pool based on how much I gave them, their mana still returned to the Astral. However, due to the prior stated reaction with their souls, their mana would become the basis for their astral presence and thus remained available to them if they managed to access it like most of the human subjects did.

I probed deeper without any resistance from my companion and found something abnormal. Aside from the mana in her body, she had an astral structure like those that composed our astral bodies imprinted within it. I regarded it for a time in confusion. I couldn’t understand how it was possible. I recognized the structure; it was the simple one that had appeared in her astral body. Like it had in the Astral, the structure extended beyond what I could sense but this time, I could follow its length because I knew its origin. I followed the structure until it touched against the divide between the physical and the Astral that we now know as the Boundary. I moved beyond the divide and had to stop myself before I accidentally delved into the central portions of my companion.

I began to withdraw when I noticed another astral presence. It was so simple I almost mistook it for another piece of my companion’s astral body. Upon closer inspection, I paused. This other astral body had the same simple structure extending into the physical realm as my companion. I followed it and ended up staring at a small bundle being held by her.

A human infant had a direct connection to the Astral and its body housed a minuscule amount of mana. It defied belief. The baby started to cry presumably because I was doing the equivalent of invading its soul with my presence.

Before I could react, a tiny surge of mana shot from the infant and slammed into my physical body. I recoiled; until then, I had never been attacked with mana. Although it didn’t cause any real damage, the attack scrabbled the unseen tendrils of my astral senses causing me to lose control for a second.

I instinctively lashed out with my mana against the source of the attack. My rebuke never found its intended target. Instead, it hit my companion’s arm which had been raised to protect the child. Blood sprayed from the ruined appendage coating all three humans in red. The baby cried louder and the male roared stabbing his pointed stick forward. I ignored both of them.

Mistake, I sent to my companion. Two new feelings emerged within me as many emotions mixed. Fear. Regret

In the millions of years since our arrival in the Old World, neither of us had ever harmed the other. I had no idea how she would respond to the attack on her, accidental though it might have been. That uncertainty sparked a realization; if she desired it, she could’ve consumed my astral body and integrated it into her own at any moment. I had no way to defend myself from such a scenario.

Forgiveness, she sent back.

I relaxed immediately. There was certainty in the method of our communication. I do not think it ever occurred to us to deceive one another in those days. This would change later, unfortunately.

In the physical realm, the annoying male had stopped poking me courtesy of a few words from the mouth of my companion. I couldn’t understand the speech of humans so I simply waited. The group of humans farther away eyed us with abject terror and had huddled together, speaking to each other in hushed tones. I paid them no mind and watched my companion’s arm which seemed to be healing at a visible rate. Through my astral senses, which had stabilized, I saw the mana in her body pooling in the injured arm. It swirled in complex patterns that I recognized as unique compared to the idle shifting of the rest of her mana. It reminded me of the way I moved mana to change my body.

Eventually, the male stepped behind her though I could tell he was angry thanks to the wide array of expressions I had witnessed on my fleshcraft subjects. Apparently, she held a dominant position in whatever relationship they had.

I focused on the child and sent more thoughts to my companion. Child. Structure? How?

She smiled at me, an expression I would come to love and hate over the millennia. Structure. Mine. Child. Mine.

Surprise. It was the only thing I felt as I processed the information. She had reproduced. I had never considered doing something like that. My physical form had remained simple throughout the ages even as I became more adept at changing. It consisted of an amorphous amalgamation of biotic matter; I simply added parts that I needed when the occasion arose such as eyes and took them away when they were no longer necessary.

Even more surprising was that she had used a portion of her astral body in the birth to impart the strange structure unto the child. The concept of willingly becoming less seemed inconceivable to me. How did that aid her growth?

It didn’t and she knew it, yet she had done it anyway.

Her astral body brushed against mine. I. Show. You.

The sentiment marked a new age for the Old World and us. That child harkened the advent of sorcery within the blood of man but more importantly, the lesson my companion taught me in the following years would ultimately lead to the formation of the man I am today.