home

search

[TAS] 39. Kiel - Speculation, Part 1

  A week's worth of sol-id rest had done a lot for Ki'el, but it was still nowhere near enough. Af-ter the first day, the med-i-cine helped her to eat and drink, and speak with-out cough-ing, but try-ing to stand or move still elud-ed her. It felt un-com-fort-ably like she was wear-ing weights across her en-tire body--weights that she had the strength to move, but which stretched her flesh when she start-ed and stopped her mo-tions.

  It was good that she had Chi-an there, but her real sav-ior was Kuli, as al-ways. The aug-ment with-in her helped her to hold off pan-ic, helped her to sense the flow of en-er-gy, helped her speak more clear-ly than her voice alone al-lowed, and... helped her to un-der-stand what ex-act-ly she had done wrong.

  [ The aether that your mas-ter left with-in the Aether Sword is a lev-el far too high for you to con-trol, ] had been the pre-am-ble, but the aug-ment con-tin-ued. [ Use of aether al-ways has a con-se-quence, and when you do not un-der-stand the con-se-quence, the ef-fects ap-pear mys-te-ri-ous, con-fus-ing. I have not been told the prop-er meth-ods for us-ing that lay-er of aether, and so I can't pass them on to you. But every lay-er of aether builds on the ones be-low, and you can be-gin to un-der-stand it by un-der-stand-ing the aether lay-ers that it con-trols. ]

  Ki'el nod-ded. Even Sobon had said that he would strug-gle to prop-er-ly use aether above the third tier--above Ac-cel-er-a-tion and Re-verse.

  [ The first lay-er of Aether is res-o-nance, of work-ing to-geth-er with or clash-ing against oth-er en-er-gies, as you felt clear-ly while fac-ing the Con-se-quence lock on your qi cy-cle. To build the sec-ond lay-er of aether, no mat-ter whether you are cre-at-ing Gen-e-sis or Con-sump-tion, you must use both Sin-is-ter and Right-eous aether. No aether is good, and none evil. Gen-e-sis could not ex-ist with-out Sin-is-ter aether, and Con-sump-tion could not ex-ist with-out Right-eous aether. ]

  How are they used?

  [ The form of aether dy-namos that Sobon cre-ates re-lies pure-ly on math, and the math-e-mat-ics will like-ly not pro-vide you with the an-swer you seek. How-ev-er... to a lim-it-ed ex-tent, Res-o-nance aether al-ways touch-es the sec-ond lay-er of aether, just as it touch-es the phys-i-cal plane be-low. Ar-rang-ing that part of res-o-nance aether that you con-trol sim-ply cre-ates a loop that pulls aether from the next lay-er down-ward, and your own essence from the phys-i-cal plane up-wards, al-low-ing them to mix. The same prin-ci-ple holds for build-ing up to each fur-ther lay-er, al-though the arrange-ments get sig-nif-i-cant-ly more com-pli-cat-ed. ]

  Ki'el didn't un-der-stand, even when Kuli showed her a ba-sic di-a-gram that in-clud-ed three lay-ers. The arrange-ment of the dy-namos must have made sense, but it was not in-tu-itive to her at all.

  [ Func-tion-al-ly, Gen-e-sis aether is will-ing to weak-en it-self to pow-er oth-ers, and Con-sump-tion aether weak-ens oth-ers to pow-er it-self. The raw en-er-gy, with-out in-tent, pow-ers it-self by weak-en-ing it-self, and no en-er-gy is lost. ]

  That much Ki'el could un-der-stand, though it felt odd to say that she had used a "pow-er to strength-en oth-ers" to grasp the key dur-ing her tribu-la-tion.

  [ That was a mat-ter of will and con-nec-tion, not en-er-gy. Both Space aethers con-nect you to a tar-get, and Will al-lows for a great many things, for rea-sons too com-plex for a sim-ple con-ver-sa-tion. ]

  When Ki'el con-sid-ered that for a long mo-ment, her mind in-evitably came to the next ques-tion. How do Space and Time aethers con-nect?

  [ The math is sim-i-lar to the pre-vi-ous ex-am-ple, ex-cept in the de-tails. But func-tion-al-ly, Ac-cel-er-a-tion aether con-sumes the pre-sent to more rapid-ly gen-er-ate the fu-ture, and Re-vival aether con-sumes the pre-sent to sus-tain a ver-sion of the past. ]

  Ki'el shiv-ered at the idea of aether con-sum-ing the pre-sent. She un-der-stood, hav-ing ex-pe-ri-enced it, that noth-ing as ter-ri-ble as that sound-ed was hap-pen-ing, but... even with bet-ter phras-ing, the con-cept felt alarm-ing. Draw en-er-gy from the world as it is now, to bring the fu-ture or keep the past. But what ex-act-ly was lost? Was it tru-ly just en-er-gy?

  [ What is lost, and what is gained, will vary de-pend-ing on how you use it. Time-lay-er aethers re-main nat-ur-al parts of ex-is-tence, al-though they do not nat-u-ral-ly ex-ist in the pu-ri-ty that Sobon can cre-ate. ]

  She con-sid-ered that, but moved past it quick-ly. And above time is...?

  [ The lay-er above Time is known as Fate. It is some-thing peo-ple rarely con-trol, and ar-guably, some-thing that few should. ]

  Ki'el would have said the same, just from hear-ing the word, and know-ing that the names of the aether lay-ers had been bru-tal-ly hon-est so far. How do fate and time in-ter-act?

  [ Be-fore we be-gin, you must dis-tin-guish the speed of time from the con-se-quence of pass-ing time. Time aethers af-fect how quick-ly time pass-es, but even the stored mo-ment of time with-in Re-ver-sal aether is lit-tle more than knowl-edge of the past. It is not pos-si-ble to trav-el to the past, be-cause the past--the en-tire mo-ment of time that is the pre-sent mo-ment--no longer ex-ists. The nat-ur-al flow of time eras-es the pre-sent to cre-ate the fu-ture, which is what must be. ]

  Ki'el... was will-ing to be-lieve that she only un-der-stood that be-cause Kuli spoke with care-ful in-tent. Mem-o-ries, knowl-edge of the past, ex-ist-ed, but the time that once ex-ist-ed is gone.

  [ Fate aether breaks this rule. The whole past may not ex-ist, but Fate aether pre-sent in the world to-day is still an-chored in the time it was cre-at-ed. It main-tains it-self frozen in time, while also al-low-ing en-er-gy, will, and knowl-edge to pass through it like a gate-way. It is a con-duit that runs from the mo-ment it was cre-at-ed un-til the mo-ment it is de-stroyed. And fate aether is very fre-quent-ly de-stroyed; it is frag-ile, and at-tempts to ma-nip-u-late it fre-quent-ly cause it to snap, fray, or shat-ter. Al-though fate aether could be used to per-form very pow-er-ful ma-nip-u-la-tions of the fu-ture, even the great-est pow-ers have great dif-fi-cul-ty work-ing with it. ]

  That got Ki'el's at-ten-tion. Could we find a thread of fate aether from the past and change the pre-sent?

  [ That is pos-si-ble in the-o-ry, but in re-al-i-ty, threads of fate snap un-less the past and pre-sent are co-or-di-nat-ed. Gen-er-al-ly, the two fate Aethers work by trans-fer-ring en-er-gy across time, al-though many also fo-cus on the in-for-ma-tion passed through the con-nec-tion, which is known as Prophe-cy. The aethers them-selves are sim-ple in con-cept; Sa-cred aether in-volves freely of-fer-ing pow-er that will be tak-en at an-oth-er time, and Cor-rupt aether takes en-er-gy from an-oth-er time by force, for use now. In or-der to use the links for trans-fer-ring en-er-gy, you can-not risk the link break-ing, and so these uses of the aether are rarely used for prophe-cies. ]

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that. Could I sim-ply push the Tribu-la-tion en-er-gy for-ward in time? To when I could ab-sorb it?

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  [ If the en-er-gy is not un-der your con-trol when you trans-fer it via Fate aether, you will most like-ly dam-age the link. You can trans-fer en-er-gy you have pu-ri-fied, but only as much as you can han-dle cur-rent-ly. And you can-not do it in your cur-rent state. ]

  Ki'el un-der-stood, but as she thought about fate aether, she be-gan to feel a sink-ing feel-ing. Even this fate aether is not what is with-in the Aether Sword.

  [ No. Above Fate are the aethers of Con-se-quence. They trans-fer en-er-gy to and from the past, fu-ture, and past at once. Con-se-quence is the high-est lay-er of aether that the Founders, the alien race which Sobon re-ferred to as the great mas-ters of aether, are will-ing to ad-mit ex-ists to oth-er races, al-though it is be-lieved that they ac-cess oth-ers. It is a cer-tain-ty that high-er lev-els ex-ist, for be-ings that ex-ist pure-ly of aether, but we will nev-er ac-cess them. The en-er-gy in your sword ap-pears to be Truth aether, which will re-arrange the en-er-gy it can reach to cre-ate the vi-sion with-in your will. ]

  Ki'el swal-lowed. This was the en-er-gy that she had cut Kem Jee Sai in half with. An en-er-gy that she had pre-vi-ous-ly... sim-ply spo-ken con-cepts to, like the con-cept of fire. And it was the en-er-gy she had told her con-cept of the qi turn-ing cy-cle to, and ab-sorbed too much of a tribu-la-tion.

  [ I... am not pow-er-ful or well-in-formed enough to give you nu-anced ad-vice on us-ing it safe-ly, but in my ob-ser-va-tions so far, your in-tent and vi-sion must align. When you spoke Fire to it, that did not align with your in-tent. But fac-ing the tribu-la-tion, your in-tent and con-cept aligned, al-though you may have been mis-tak-en to trust it. ]

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that, but only briefly. Isn't that how just qi is used? In-tent, vi-sion, and pow-er?

  [ Truth aether is a fun-da-men-tal com-po-nent to qi. Qi is a man-u-fac-tured en-er-gy, one cre-at-ed by great mas-ters. De-signed to make ac-cess to Truth aether, and more specif-i-cal-ly, the aether lay-ers be-low Truth more ac-ces-si-ble. To use Truth aether is in-deed like us-ing qi, but a lev-el of qi nor-mal-ly re-strict-ed to the most pow-er-ful, who have the most ex-pe-ri-ence with its nu-ances. It is qi with-out struc-ture or fil-ters. Qi al-lows one to build up to a ver-sion of Truth aether piece by piece, where you are try-ing to cre-ate a fi-nal ef-fect at once. ]

  More than any-thing, it was the rote con-fi-dence in Kuli's men-tal voice that sapped the strength from Ki'el, mak-ing her feel like she had been toy-ing with pow-ers far be-yond her com-pre-hen-sion. I was ex-per-i-ment-ing with en-er-gy that peo-ple like the Djang Prince and Princess are not yet qual-i-fied to wield. Kuli didn't an-swer her thoughts, let-ting her dwell on them. The con-se-quences of the pow-er I use... if I make any mis-take... are heav-ier than a tribu-la-tion. And I... can't even sense the en-er-gy, can't un-der-stand it. I was only giv-ing it an in-struc-tion, a word, and hop-ing that noth-ing hap-pened that was wrong.

  [ The only rea-son I would have al-lowed it is be-cause you fo-cus on care-ful in-tent and pu-ri-fied qi. The path that most take, where their qi it-self changes as they evolve... those peo-ple rarely if ever hold the full con-cept of their qi, the full in-tent, in mind. If those peo-ple at-tempt-ed to wield this form of aether, their in-tent would be in-com-plete, con-fused, but they would still have a vi-sion in their mind that res-onat-ed with it. The aether would take the in-com-plete in-tent and the vi-sion and cre-ate an un-pre-dictable ef-fect. As long as you fo-cus on hold-ing the full in-tent in mind every time you use your qi, you will be train-ing your-self to wield Truth aether ef-fec-tive-ly. ]

  Ki'el med-i-tat-ed on that thought for a long time, long enough that Chi-an broke her con-cen-tra-tion to say she was go-ing to get food, and ask what Ki'el want-ed, long enough that Chi-an broke her con-cen-tra-tion again when she re-turned. As her fox-spir-it friend helped her sit up and set a tray with fried rice, fish, and veg-eta-bles on it be-fore her, she asked what Ki'el had been think-ing about.

  "Kuli was help-ing me to un-der-stand... the pow-er that is with-in my Aether Sword," she said, with some ef-fort. "A pow-er that my mas-ter left me. One I was not ready for, but... may be some-day."

  "Some spe-cial qi na-ture? Or some pow-er-ful... aether?" The word was clear-ly still for-eign to the girl, though she only hes-i-tat-ed for a mo-ment over it.

  "Aether. An aether pow-er-ful enough..." Did she want to ad-mit that qi was cre-at-ed? By crea-tures that may, some-day, wish to de-stroy the world, crea-tures that the Di-a-mond Lord had spit-ed for some fool-ish rea-son? Did she even un-der-stand what had hap-pened, was hap-pen-ing? Did even Sobon un-der-stand it? She swal-lowed. "...pow-er-ful enough to have the same po-ten-tial as the great-est qi, if Kuli un-der-stands it cor-rect-ly." That last bit felt like a lame eva-sion, but Ki'el--though of-ten blunt and a proud-ly straight-for-ward girl, was un-used to speak-ing of great and pow-er-ful truths as though she un-der-stood them.

  "The great-est qi..." Chi-an leaned for-ward onto Ki'el's bed, care-ful not to jos-tle the tray with her food on it. "I can't imag-ine what that must be like. What wis-dom it must con-tain."

  Ki'el stared at the tray of food. But that's the point, she thought. It is pow-er with-out wis-dom. If what Kuli says is true, then qi ex-ists so that we can build wis-dom through-out our lives. But... she con-sid-ered, her head cock-ing slight-ly to the side. That is only wis-dom in con-trol-ling one spe-cif-ic qi na-ture. The path I am on, if I con-tin-ue it, re-quires me to have the wis-dom to con-trol many dif-fer-ent types of qi.

  When she con-tin-ued for more than a mo-ment, Kuli in-ter-ject-ed. [ You are free to use the men-tal space I pro-vide to form sev-er-al types of qi, or fo-cus on mas-ter-ing one. I am here to as-sist you; my pres-ence should not force you down any path. ]

  But Ki'el re-ject-ed that thought, not be-cause she want-ed more pow-er, but be-cause she knew that she would end up find-ing in-ter-est-ing con-cepts that she want-ed to un-der-stand, and un-der-stand-ing them would al-low her to use them. A strange feel-ing be-gan to bub-ble up in-side of her. If I want-ed to learn and grow in that way while us-ing qi, would I even be able to? Are the peo-ple in the In-ner Sect lim-it-ed to ac-com-plish-ing only a frac-tion of the things they wish to, sim-ply be-cause of how qi works?

  "Ki'el?" Chi-an's voice dis-tract-ed her again.

  "Think-ing," she said, and reached for her food. "Not all pow-er comes with wis-dom with-in it. Qi must be built over time, but the pow-er of aether is raw."

  "Ah. I for-get that some-times, be-cause the spir-it pow-er of my blood-line is some-thing I will con-tin-ue to un-lock over time." She looked down at her hand. "I... would like to talk to you about my tribu-la-tion, if that is okay with you?"

  Ki'el nod-ded, as she be-gan to eat, and Chi-an spoke about her duel with her an-ces-tor. About the Wheel of Sun and Sky, which had helped her to find per-spec-tive and clar-i-ty in the face of a storm wrought by some-one else. Al-though it didn't give her any ex-tra abil-i-ty to wield the nat-ur-al qi of the Rag-ing Storm Fox blood-line, she still felt as though the ton-ic had changed her for the bet-ter, giv-en her strength to face oth-ers.

  Ki'el ate and lis-tened to her friend, think-ing that it was nice to see her in a good mood. Chi-an was cute, she thought, speak-ing an-i-mat-ed-ly about dif-fi-cult things. Al-though it was clear that the girl still wor-ried and feared, she seemed to have pushed past some of it.

  "...my sec-ond tail is grow-ing slow-ly, but I'll be much stronger when it's done." She reached be-hind her, touch-ing some-thing near her butt, but it wasn't large enough to peek out be-hind her like her first tail. "I was told that the num-ber of tails a fox has is a sign of their pow-er, but I didn't un-der-stand it be-fore. I feel like... a dif-fer-ent part of my an-ces-tor's wis-dom is fill-ing the sec-ond one, maybe. The first one lets me touch and com-mand the types of qi that I am al-lowed to reach, but the sec-ond one... I feel like it be-gins to ex-pand what I can touch, what I can con-trol. Nor-mal-ly, it has to be very close to me. Even dur-ing the tribu-la-tion..." She looked dis-tant. "I had nev-er com-mand-ed my en-er-gy from so far away, but it felt right, nat-ur-al. I think it's sup-posed to be like that?"

  Ki'el nod-ded, see-ing the par-al-lels to Space aether, but didn't try to speak on them. She was still un-sure of what she knew, and what she could con-vey well to oth-ers, and she would need to think for a time be-fore she was will-ing to act on she had been told.

  "Any-way, I should eat, too." She took her own tray from the floor where she'd set it and put it on her lap, but paused. "Oh... I did see Mian. He and Xam are adapt-ing to the Out-er Sect, though they're wor-ry-ing about you. I told him that you've awok-en and are re-cov-er-ing..."

  Ki'el nod-ded, and lis-tened, and ate. She still felt aw-ful, but things were get-ting bet-ter, and she still had a great deal of think-ing to do.

Recommended Popular Novels