On the day after ascension, he arrived at school early. The class on aspect projection was set to begin before the school bus would have arrived, so he instead got out his old bike to ride to school. He had time for the ride due to waking around five in the morning.

After locking up his bike, he made his way to the theatre, which had been selected for the training because of the large number of people you had insisted they had discovered axioms. Less than 5% of students had successfully discovered an aspect, but over two-thirds had insisted that they had uncovered an axiom.

He had arrived extremely early, and the room was rather empty while Mr. Serenata prepared the stage.

After around thirty minutes, most of the school had filtered into the auditorium, and Mr. Serenata began the lesson.

“Please, if you could direct your attention towards me?” he spoke, his words once again magnified so everyone could hear them.

“This is the class for teaching axiom projection. While I’m sure that some of you have discovered a personal Axiom, many of you haven’t. You may or may not be aware of this. If you are here to play hooky from your classes, I’d advise against it. This class will require absolute silence, and I can assure you that it will be much less enjoyable than your regular classes.”

Around a quarter of the kids left, and several others were looking unsure.

“Now! I will be teaching you how to project your axioms. I am going to repeat what I said before, this is not going to be easy. There is very little I can do to help you but to tell you where to look.

“That being said, here we go. Patience. You have just felt my axiom,” he said, pacing across the stage. “It will have felt different from other words because I said it with my soul as well. That takes some training, and instead, you will be learning to speak your axioms with only your soul, like so.”

He fell silent, then Dev felt Patience radiate through the room for a moment.

“The instructions themselves are simple, but hard to follow. You must first make contact with your soul. This will require you to delve into yourself. Try to recall what the ascension felt like. That should help you find the right direction.”

That step was easy for Dev, as he had not lost contact with his soul since it was forcefully revealed to him the day before.

“The next step is to draw on your soul and project its energy around you. This part is where the most hangups happen. Everyone’s soul is different, varying from crystals to trees to even stories and weather conditions. Once you find your soul, you must determine the correct way to draw your axiom out, and project it around you.”

“If we had a master of soul magic available, they could show you how to do it directly. But they also wouldn’t need to, as they could confirm your axiom directly.”

“We will now be spending the rest of the day working on drawing out our axioms. I will remain available for any questions, but will otherwise require absolute silence for the sake of those attempting to manifest axioms. You are not required to stay here all day, but you will be expected to be respectful of those who choose to do so. You will only have today to finish this if you want to have the chance to participate in the empire’s second opportunity.”

With that, he stopped talking, and the room fell into a tense silence.

Dev reached into himself, towards his soul, which he could still feel after the Ascension. He could feel a vague spheroid, but he couldn’t identify it. He was able to comb the surface and found the same gaps he had entered through the first time. He reached out, and after a brief moment of resistance, he was able to enter, finding a much-changed landscape.

He moved his perception through his soul and found a much more organized structure. Where previously he had moved through what felt like a massive cave system, this time is felt like there were organized passageways like a palace of hallways connected to that cave system. Some of the caves had been rerouted, and different areas gave off different feelings, but none of them felt like his axiom.

Dev wandered the twisting corridors in search of what he needed. What even is my axiom? Do I know I got one, or was it just the affinity change that I felt before?

After what felt like over an hour of searching, he found a section that had a second feeling overlaid over the top of his soul. Is this fire?

After exploring for a short time, he found that a small portion of his soul had a feeling of fire overlaid over the top of the natural feeling of his soul. Is this my low fire affinity?

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Dev continued his exploration, eventually coming across both life and runes, but never his axiom or his Anima affinity.

Eventually, he stopped in a central location, and took some time to think. Feeling out his soul, he suddenly came to a realization. Is this my anima affinity?

Dev dug into it, examining the feeling that he got in what he had previously assumed to be undifferentiated soul mass.

After a few minutes, he found what he had been looking for. The aura was, in fact, that of his Anima affinity, permeating his entire soul, and his soul’s baseline energy was hidden underneath it.

But where is the axiom?

He spent what felt like several more hours inside his soul, trying to reach deeper into its aura, but continually slipping off. He even skipped lunch. He scoured the surface, then the deepest depths. Recalling what Mr. Serenata said, he tried to determine the shape of his soul, but all he saw was an orb, akin to the sun in the sky. Frustrated, he attempted to simply pull on it, and was surprised when something detached.

There’s no way it was that easy, Dev thought.

Then he reconsidered. Mr. Seenata never said anything about entering your soul. Just finding it and drawing energy out. But why did it simply come out, not requiring a special method?

He pulled some more. The energy left his soul, and then it bounced.

What?

Dev pulled on it again, and it bounced again. He couldn’t see what it was bouncing off. He kept trying for several minutes before deciding to change tracks.

If I can figure out exactly what it is, maybe I can figure out how to draw it out the rest of the way.

Dev pulled again, but this time, he examined the energy as it left his soul. It was only out for a second each time, so he kept on drawing on it, trying to identify what it was. It felt like resilience, and purpose. But none of that helped him draw it out.

Suddenly, he felt someone shaking his shoulder.

“Young man, it’s the end of the school day.”

He looked up, leaving his soul to see Mr. Serenata standing in front of him while a few students packed up.

“Oh!” Dev shook his head. “Of course.”

He reached down to grab his bag, before remembering he had left it at home.

Dev made his way out of the school and unlocked his bike. As he straddled it, he felt his stomach grumble/

Oh, right. I skipped lunch. I guess I’ll be making an early dinner, then.

He biked home, and actually made it before the bus did because he could dodge rush hour traffic.

Now, what to have for dinner?

Searching through the kitchen, Dev eventually decided on Steak and baked potatoes. His mom believed in keeping a well-stocked kitchen, and everything was preserved with some basic arrays.

He made a quick dry rub, before grabbing a couple crackers to tide him over till dinner.

“Hi!” he heard his mom call out as she came through the door with his sister.

“Hi!”

She came into the kitchen, then stopped, surprised at his preparations.

“What’s the occasion?”

“I skipped lunch for more practice.”

“You shouldn’t do that, Dev.” His mom responded, worriedly. “You’re a growing boy.”

“I’ll be fine, mom. And it’s just for today. Plus, I’m making extra food right now.”

“Okay. But don’t make a habit of it.”

Agreeing with a nod, he got the potatoes out to prepare them. He washed and oiled them, getting them ready for the oven. As his dad was getting home, he went outside and fired up the grill.

His dad came out with him, saying, “If you want to split it, I’ll take setting the atble and baking the potatoes.”

“Sounds good.”

With the grill warming up, Dev went inside with his dad, grabbing the steaks and a pair of tongs.

He went back outside and, while waiting for the grill to warm up, kept trying to draw out his axiom.

What am I missing?

He kept on thinking on it as he got up to put the steak on the grill, and kept on trying as they grilled.

“Damn it,” he said as he looked up and saw he had left the steak on the same side too long in his distraction. He quickly went and flipped them over, before sitting down and focusing on the steaks as they finished, determined not to mess up again.

Once they were done, he plated them and went inside, saying, “Dinner’s ready!” as he set them down on the already set table.

His sister was there in a flash, ready to eat.

“Woah. You must be hungrier than me, scamp.”

She pouted, “Without you here, we didn’t have a big breakfast.”

“Oh? Then it’s a good thing I prepared a big dinner,” he said, moving one of the steaks to her plate.

His parents made their way over at a more sedate pace and served themselves once they got there.

While eating, they made some small talk, and prodded him about his day, while he deflected. The steaks were slightly overcooked, but nobody complained.

Dev spent most of the time not paying attention, too consumed with figuring out his blockage. He did make sure to compliment his dad on the potatoes, though. They turned out excellent.

When he went to bed, he was still trying to figure out why he wasn’t getting anywhere.