CHAPTER 30: CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Quest: Progress of Water Mana coalescence: 93/100%

Hiro was humming, sitting on the edge of the observation tank kicking her legs idly in the water while the team rushed to get the equipment ready in time. She was trying to keep her mind on what she needed to do and the voice telling her she was going to fail running in the background of her thoughts. She didn't need those intrusive thoughts before this major moment.

Professor Gendry dragged an assistant out of bed and walked them through the procedure he wanted the young man to do. Professor Davenport had walked Hiro through her part. The past three hours they ran through the theory to form a new core several times. The professor had shared with her the documents from the past. They were the framework of what she needed to do once her power was gathered. The power Hiro would bring to bear in her center meant the professor couldn't be inside her center while she was forming the core. Hiro's mana would throw her out as it rushed through her whole system like during a change.

All the texts said the sooner the core could form after gathering the scattered mana the better. They shared the case studies of the handful of incomplete changes they had documented and what they did to fix them. The Professor had put it into a relatively simple procedure to force a new core formation.

Hiro felt ready for it. She could already feel the pull of her power trying to condense itself as it gathered in the mana construct she had formed. Waves of power were pulled to her center like an inevitable tide. Her limbs tingled as they had been drained some time ago. Unfortunately, it meant her hands were aching. Without her water's healing power actively running through them the injury she had sustained several days ago had something to say about how far they had healed. Some nerves were still on the mend.

The temporary discomfort would be worth it though. Hiro had Button pull-up cord braiding she was watching them through her crystal. Nothing wrong with a refresher. If she didn't get the blend of power right in the final steps she could permanently handicap how her power worked together.

She tapped her fingers on the edge of the tank impatient to get in. Her progress bar was slowly ticking up. Professor Gendry's tall form came up the stairs on the back of the tank and asked to attach the final set of monitors. Out of everyone there, Gendry was the only one who didn't look tired working late into the night. His red eyes were alert and focused.

Hiro was tired but also buzzing with energy in a strange contradiction. Professor Davenport kept yawning through her constant stream of words to the assistant.

As the final monitors were attached Gendry laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "That's it, you're ready to go in. We will signal you when everything is on and running. Then you can begin when you're ready. Good luck Skylark."

"Thanks, Professor," Hiro replied before sliding smoothly into the water.

She settled herself into the salty water. An idle thought ran through her mind if only the water was blue. She did almost lose her hands after all. She could have used a turn in a healing tank. But then again, she could make any water tank into a healing tank now, blue or not.

She got a thumbs up from the professors and she gave one back before taking a few deep breaths. She marveled that she could breathe water for a moment. Magic was awesome. Then she dove into herself.

Her senses came to her in a rush as she turned her awareness inwards. Her center had changed dramatically from the flooded cavern a few hours before. The sound of water burbled like a stream. The rivers and streams of water mana were drained. The pond was half empty. The donut construct had grown as it filled. She had finally made it flexible enough to adapt to the power she was putting into it.

It glowed a lovely green-blue, lighting up her center. Her other cores were barely touching the top of the pool of water. They reflected the light of her construct along the walls in ribbons of light. She was captivated by the beauty of what was inside her. She stood and watched for a moment. She was listening, watching, and taking in what had happened since she had left.

She hopped into the pool and walked across the rocky bottom until she hit the water. The golden thread of time shot up from the bottom of the pool, covered by the water but glowing within. For her plan to work, she would need her platinum core to come up as the pool emptied.

The deepest part of the pool was enough to submerge her. She sunk into it and followed the path to her hidden core. She needed to bring it to the others. She was going to make it the foundation to build her water core. The texts mentioned when others had used a partially formed or incomplete core formation to build on things went easier. The power wanted to be combined, that's why the change happened in the first place. It was like drops of water touching and merging.

She reached the subnautical chamber and stood in front of her time core. There were only two visions in front of her now. One showed her four cores working in concert to weave her power through her. The other of her four current cores swallowed inside the water core and her power was drowned by water.

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"Guess I'm committed to this process one way or another." She muttered before talking herself through the next process to calm her nerves. "Davenport and Moria both have told me that this inner space is what I make of it." She looked up at the tunnel above her. It was big enough for her to fit through but the massive globe of power wouldn't fit without adjustments.

"If I just..." she reached her ethereal hands forward and mimed pushing the tunnel walls further apart. The space obliged her and grew in size. She made the motion again and it opened further. it didn't take long before the opening was big enough. The water in the tunnel retreated as she pushed and willed it into the pond above. "Ok, that was easier than I thought it would be." She turned to the core. "Now for you."

She raised her hands and gestured for it to move upwards. It didn't budge. "Well then, that's frustrating." She tried several different gestures to will the core to move. When it still didn't move she gave it an altogether different type of gesture, much ruder than the rest.

She paced around the globe pondering. She decided to test a theory and flew back up. The pond was almost empty at this point. A foot or so of water was all that was left of the pond. The bulging donut of power floated above her. She reached out to the other three orbs and pushed at them with her will making the same gestures as below. All three of them moved at once, beginning a slow orbit around the donut of water magic.

"Alright, so why is that one so stubborn?" She pondered looking down through the enlarged tunnel below her feet. She shrugged, "I suppose it doesn't matter. I can bring my power to it instead."

She closed her eyes. She could change this pace to be whatever she wanted it to be, but what did she want? Right now it looked like the underground cavern she had gotten her powers in, all the way down to the pond that in her hubris she had almost drowned in. That's not what she wanted it to be like.

She thought about the concepts she had chosen. Light, accuracy, sky, electricity, magnetism. Time had chosen her and water had been a fluke. The ones she had chosen were about her creativity and love of the open sky. She loved the color and the sun on her face. Not dark caves. She loved looking up at the sky, seeing what the clouds were doing, and saying hello to the constellations at night. She would often sit outside the house when her mother was in a mood and imagine what flying would be like. Where wings could take her and nothing could stop her.

She had picked electricity and magnetism because they sounded cool, but she also liked building things with her hands using electricity to weld things together and using magnets to do her job better or stick things to the fridge. She aspired to be accurate and precise when building. She kept things neat and clean as well.

Her center where her cores resided should reflect those things. Moria believed the center of one's power represented their soul. Hers was doing a bad job of representing her. It was time to come out of the cave and into the light. While she was at it, she could consolidate her powers together.

Hiro kept her eyes closed she focused on her feelings and her desire for what she wanted rather than worrying about the particulars yet. She always started a project with brainstorming. Then she would go back and refine the concepts. She wanted the whole space to be united. No more hidden chamber. She wanted to be outside where she could see the sky.

She opened her eyes. The chamber was shifting in front of her. The edge of the chamber faded into a light blue until it looked like the sky. She could tell there were still boundaries to where her center resided, but it didn't look like anything but a boundless sky. The ground fell away beneath her as the two chambers became one. The remaining water floated in the air under the donut construct slurping it up.

She nodded, it was a good start. She had a lot of ideas about day-night cycles and maybe a river. Floating metal boulders would be awesome. But first, she needed to get her magic under control.

She could feel that the water mana was almost completely absorbed. She floated down to where the Time core was. It was above the new floor of the conjoined chamber. "Since you won't move I'll come to you." She told it before bringing the construct filled with her water mana down. The threads of power that fed the construct lengthened as she did so. She observed as the last vestiges of loose water mana were slurped up by the construct. The rain cycle that trapped it blew up into a massive torrent of water raining into itself, recondensing and raining again.

Hiro nodded to herself. The construct she had made with Moria's guidance was working perfectly. Now was the simple but hard part. She had to combine it with the Time core. It already had a link to it. The golden clock face was ticking at the center of the donut. The thread of power between the two was visible. According to Professor Davenport and the texts, if she charged that connection with mana she could force a change. The hard part would be controlling it.

If she intended to make one unified core she could pull all their power together and a new change would trigger but she wanted multiple cores. To have that she had to control and balance all her power. "It's all about willpower." Hiro whispered, repeating the professor's words, "I have to be strong enough to control one silver, five gold, and one platinum concept. Easy." false bravado flavored her voice. Her platinum concept already had refused to budge. Easy was not the right word for the task.

She closed her eyes once more. She tilted her head from side to side trying to crack her neck and limber up. It didn't work here in her center but it helped her focus anyway. The comfortable motions before starting a big task helped settle her nerves. She took a minute to visualize what she wanted. Her time core combined with the water core. It powers the center thread to a braided cable of power. The other three cores rotated around it. The braided power would spread throughout her body and allow her complete access to her magic once again.

She had to take the scathing voice of failure that sounded like her mother and push that from her mind. She had no time for doubts right now. She needed to fly again, to be free. This time she was walking into the situation with her eyes wide open. Proverbially anyway. She had both her physical and metaphysical eyes closed right now while she prepared to focus on the process of making a core.

Hiro opened her hazel eyes, her face a study of focus. The time core in front of her began to resonate with a vibration she could only feel deep within her. It was time.