“How did you do this?”

Gage sat in the middle of one of the tent’s rooms on a large sitting pillow. It was the same off-white material as the box he had bought. Ma’tuk, who had been released from it shortly after reaching the medical tent, hovered nearby. “With my Breath? It all feels like magic to me, but Ma’tuk said magic was different and that I might blow myself up if I try it.”

Hye-jun was kneeling behind him, looking at the back of his head. Her fingers were gentle, but firm, as they shifted through his hair and pushed it aside so she could look at his very first wound in this world. She traced a finger over the very fine line where his head had been split open. “It isn’t wrong, exactly, though that seems a little bit of an understatement.”

She sat back, “Alright, tell me more about what you have done so far.” As she spoke, she stood up and walked around him before sitting on the pillow across from him. “Try not to skimp on anything. The more I know, the more I can work with.”

“Okay, so along with this I have healed my dog.” Gage gestured in the air roughly how large Eshu was, “About yea big. He had gotten cut by a bug… thing… across his nose. I was able to put my Breath into him? I was able to use it to build an image in my mind, and I worked with that. As I did, the wound followed what I did, and I was able to close it back up.” He closed his eyes, thinking back to that day. It was only just a few days ago, but it felt much longer.

As he thought back, “I could feel that there wasn’t anything in the wound. No foreign material or poison. And I took my time with it. I was able to stitch it up. It seemed to be a little bit easier, over all. Though I was still quite tired afterwards.” Hye-jun stayed quiet, letting him speak.

“The last healing I did, was rough. A hynta, one of those lizard dog things, had taken a spear to the side. Everyone thought it was dead, until it cried out. To prove a point to Kossi, I went over to heal it. I used some Breath to pull the spear out cleanly.” Gage winced, remembering the blood pooling out of the wound. “I was not anywhere close to the same precision this time. I just poured power into it, and it seemed to work. I don’t know how long it took but eventually it got up and ran off.”

Gage slowly opened his eyes. Hye-jun was seated cross-legged, her hands rested on her knees, but she sat up with a very straight back. Finally, she nodded and spoke. “This does give us a starting point. You did a good range of the basics, I suppose, though I would say you got fairly lucky about it, being untrained and all. What do you know about Breath?”

“That everyone has it, regardless of sentience, as long as you’re alive.” Gage bit the tip of his thumb for a moment. “That you can use it magically as a mage, though that is rare. Then, there is a physical aspect you can use, and then something about the gods helping you use it?”

She continued to watch him. As Gage remained silent, she raised a brow and gestured with a hand for him to continue, “Go on.”

“That’s pretty much it. I learned how to mediate. I have a kind of internal visualization for my power. But honestly, that’s about it.” Gage shrunk away from Hye-jun as she continued to stare at him. Her eyes seemed to bore into him.

“You. Manipulated. Yourself. And. Others. Without. Knowing. ANYTHING?!” Hye-jun’s eye twitched as she stared him down.

“I should-”

Ma’tuk jumped in front of Gage’s face. “I would not.

“Probably also-”

“Do you not see the fire in her eyes?”

“Mention-”

“You are going to die.”

“That I also-”

“She will bury you beneath this very tent.”

Gage smiled weakly and pulled up one of his sleeves, showing the chitin plating around his forearm.

“Gah!” Ma’tuk dropped to the ground and began rolling around in frustration.

Hye-jun’s frown deepened. She offered out her hand and Gage placed his arm into it. Her fingers traced around the plating. She picked at the edges and then flicked it. “From its reaction, I am guessing this is not natural for your people. Did you do only your arms?” Gage shook his head and she sighed with defeat. “Alright, show me.”

Gage took off his shirt, before hiking his pant hems up above his knees. “And Ma’tuk did my nose, I have the sniffer of a dog.”

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The orb stopped moving around. “I did not do that for you.” It lifted into the air to hover just off to the side. “I helped you do that. Do you not recall?”

With a confused look, “No? I was asleep. I didn’t do anything.”

“Well, I mean, you did.” Ma’tuk began twirling in place. “Though I can see how it would look like that. It would also explain how well you did. You followed instructions, rather than questioning it. I suppose the tradeoff could be you do not remember. A fugue-state. Inter…est…ing…” It trailed off.

Hye-jun’s eye was twitching again. She sat back and looked Gage over. “We will, for the moment, ignore your ill-advised experiments on yourself.” With a deep breath, she seemed to calm. “Those will be addressed. For now, you clearly need a teacher. Where I am from, one shows the talent of being able to manipulate their Breath early on. They are then taught the basics before they start heading down a path.”

She reached into her sleeves and pulled out a glass orb, roughly the size of a bowling ball. Carefully, she set it down between herself and Gage. “There are two paths one can take with their Breath. The Path of the Mind or the Path of the Body.” As she spoke, she waved a hand over the orb.

Inside the orb, a pinprick of light formed. Slowly, it grew into a smokey tendril that swirled around. It grew steadily until the entire ball was filled with a pale, blue light. It swirled to the edges of the glass. Within the depths of the smoke an image appeared of a person. “The Path of the Mind. My own path, is one where you take your Breath and use it to grab hold and channel the energies of the natural, and sometimes unnatural, world around you.” The image of the person drew out… an ink brush? Light bloomed in the person’s chest, flowed down their arm and through the brush. With quick and efficient strokes, they painted a symbol in the air. Lightning crackled around it for a few moments, before shooting off into the surrounding smoke. “We call this natural energy, shen.”

“This is magic. You train diligently and study furiously. Over time you can manipulate more shen while using less breath. It takes patience and years of study.” Hye-jun’s hand snapped out, palm up. She drew in a quick breath and blew it out just as quickly. There was a small sizzle and a burst of flames! In less than a second there was a lick of fire floating above her palm. “With magic you can shape the world around you and bend it to your will.

She closed her hand around the flame and snuffed it out. “I know that wasn’t much of a demonstration. This path does take its toll. You must learn absolute control, have a steady mind, and never waver. If you lose control of the shen as it passes through you, it can be… damaging. Because of this focus you must maintain,” She hesitated, thinking over her words. “It can wear out your breath and you must rest to regain your power.”

Hye-jun waived her hand over the orb again and it shifted to a different silhouette. “The Path of the Body focuses your breath inward. You use it to manipulate your own body, instead of the world outside. One can become faster, stronger, or more flexible, to state some of the more obvious examples. One can heal themselves from grievous wounds or extend their life, in the upper echelons of this path.” The figure in the smoke moved. As they did, small streams of light began to flow throughout their body. It leaped into the air and a mountain appeared. As it fell towards the mountain, it struck out and shattered the peak in half.

“Unlike with the Path of the Mind, this path wears at your body. There is only so much it can take before it collapses. As one progresses, they temper their body to be able to manage more of the pressure it is put through. Some of the feats that can be carried out are out of myth and legend.”

She looked to Gage, who sat transfixed. His full attention was on her and the orb. He was so enraptured, he had even forgotten to question how she had held a glass ball of that size in her sleeve. “You have started down this path. You are not restricted to it. Some have been able to progress down both, however…” She balanced her hands out to her sides, as if teetering a scale, “It slows your pace. While you could theoretically perform both, progression will be slow, and you will never be a master of either.”

With a clap, her hands came together just before Gage’s face. Startled, he jumped in his seat. Her grin was sickeningly sweet. “Now this is where you complicate things. There is a third path. One utilized more by the anugrah than my own people. The Path of the Soul. It is done by many for a multitude of different reasons, but for all, the results are the same. Inherently, it is the easiest path to set out upon. This path can be broken down easily as making deals with powerful beings.” She snorted and shook her head. “Of course, it isn’t actually that simple in practice. The gods and spirits have a power greater than breath. It is called nimbus. With it, they can perform greater feats than even the greatest archmagi or tempering master.”

Deftly she scooped up the ball and slid it back into her sleeve. “You make oaths and pacts with the gods and spirits. Depending on whom you pact, it could be as simple as never taking a bath every third day or only drinking wine forever more. As long as you keep your oaths, they use… used, their nimbus to empower your breath. The more oaths you took, and the greater your dedication, the more power they offered you. There is only so much strain a soul can take, and so like with training your breath or body, the devoted had to train their souls to sustain the shackles they bound themselves with.”

“You, my dear, naïve student have started down this path as well.” Hye-jun looked to Ma’tuk. “I suppose you are lucky, being the first devotee to a new god, the oaths you probably had to make should hopefully not have been too straining. The good news is you can use the power they granted you to fuel your path of the body.”

Ma’tuk did its happy bob. “Gage’kin has great potential! Do not worry Hye-jun, he will prove to be a very good student. I will even help him study.” It bobbed in place. “Yes, yes I will.”

Gage nodded along, “I do wish to learn more about, well, all of this. Perhaps my path is not set yet, or perhaps it is, but this is all new to me. Regardless of if I can do it, I want to learn of it.”

Hye-jun chuckled, “Well, well. Alright then, aren’t you eager.” A glint in her eye suddenly made Gage nervous. “From now on, it is Daja Hye-jun to you, my student.”