"Let's just say that I have a bad feeling about him." Vastor clenched his fist hard, where a small card that said Future was.

He had found it under Zinya's door, addressed to the entire Yehval household.

***

Quylla's room.

"Before we start, I want you to know that I'm against you practicing first magic. If you develop a mana flow, you'll die." Lith said.

"I thank you for your concern but it's none of your business. Since I cannot Awaken, I must find my own way to overcome the limits of fake magic and be able to hold my ground. Any less would be a failure I can't live with." Quylla replied.

Lith sighed and told her all about his issue with the vortexes, about the pain he experienced every time he practiced magic above tier zero with his body, and about how the progress he made by training disappeared soon after he stopped.

"It's indeed similar to my own problem with true magic." Quylla nodded. "But I've got no access to Invigoration nor can I check on the status of your vortexes. I can't offer you much insight."

"You're wrong." Lith shook his head. "You are stepping into a realm no one else has ever been whereas I'm just reinventing a wheel that countless Awakened bloodlines have discovered ages ago.

"On top of that, I think our issue is nearly identical. We both need to train a mana organ inside our body to make it capable of casting runes. The only difference is that you are dealing with a non-Awakened core and I with a mass of dispersed energy."

"It's much more than that." Quylla replied. "My problem lies in the fact that my body is too weak to hold powerful magic whereas based on what Faluel said, you could achieve the violet core anytime.

"Your body is strong and your mana flow is off the charts. You have all the ingredients at hand, you just need to mix them properly."

"If it was that easy, Awakened wouldn't be stuck at bright blue for centuries if not forever." Lith said.

"Okay. Tell me this hand-core analogy you came up with again and show me the changes in your body when you train the vortexes." Quylla said as he projected a hologram of his mana flow down to the smallest detail, comparing it with her own.

"This is interesting and it might even hold the key to the white core." She said after looking at Lith's hologram evolving and devolving several times.

"What do you mean?" Solus joined the conversation after making sure there was no surveillance device and locking the door.

"As you can see from my hologram, my deep violet core spreads its energy outwards, creating my aura. The violet in your aura, instead, originates from the vortexes and spreads inwards." Quylla said.

"That's hardly a novelty." Solus sighed. "We knew from the beginning that, unlike for fake mages, core refining stops at bright blue."

"Sure, but maybe you've been considering the problem from the wrong angle the entire time. What if there's only so much mana an Awakened body with a single core can hold?" Quylla said.

"What if the fake mages' violet core is actually a wrong turn, something that isn't supposed to happen? It would explain why even someone with bottomless mana like Manohar didn't get a white core and why people like me can't Awaken."

"Let me get this straight. Your idea is that your violet core is overloaded with mana and that you would have already died if not for the impurities. By following this reasoning, I can't directly refine mine because I don't have impurities anymore and even if I did, it would cripple my progression." Lith pondered.

"Exactly. If I'm right, the key to a true violet core is to turn the vortexes into auxiliary cores that would further refine your body and lessen the strain on your main core." Quylla said.

"I can see cores with my mana sense, but I've never seen multiple cores in a violet cored Awakened, let alone in a white cored one." Solus said.

"I have a couple of explanations for that. One is that once the auxiliary cores are perfectly formed, they channel their mana into the main core. They would act barely as amplifiers and their light would be hidden like it happens with the stars when the sun is up.

"The second explanation is that the final step of achieving the violet core is merging them all into one, just like pseudo cores can become power cores." Quylla said.

"It's an interesting theory, but I don't see how it can help me train my vortexes." Lith said.

"Sadly, that makes the two of us." Quylla paced the room while racking her brain. "In theory, you should have already reached the violet level. I mean, you've learned how to make mana flow through your muscles and your body is strong.

"What are we missing here? Why do the vortexes not keep their spherical form?"

A long silence ensued as no one could think of a proper explanation.

"By the way, Quylla, I was wondering if you have managed to master fusion magic as well." Solus said.

"What's that?" Quylla raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I'm going to kill both Nalrond and Morok! If they told me about this while in the Fringe, I would have learned fusion magic easily. How am I supposed to learn a f.u.c.k.i.n.g set of completely different runes on my own?"

A kick sent an expensive cherry wood chair against the wall, chipping them both until the magic of the house repaired them.

"There are no runes involved. Fusion magic is about using the elements inside your body to acquire their properties." Lith tried to console her.

"Of course there are runes involved. Spirit magic is about runes, first magic is about runes, everything is about runes! You just don't feel them because you're an Awakened." Quylla cursed a bit longer.

"That's it!" Lith said while jumping up. "I'm an Awakened, but my fusion magic is static, not dynamic. That's what holds my vortexes back!"

"Wait, what?" Solus and Quylla said in unison.

"It's easier to show than to tell." Lith created a mind link to share with them both his ideas and Invigoration's readings.

Whenever Lith used first magic with his body instead of with his core, a mana flow through the corresponding vortex would form. Yet as soon as the spell was over, the flow would disappear as well.

By continuously casting spells and holding the flow long enough, the vortex would assume a spherical shape, yet it would crumble the moment the flow disappeared.

"So what?" Solus had appreciated the recap, but she still failed to understand.

"Now look at my fusion magic." By activating one different elemental fusion per limb, Lith showed them how the energy would spread outward from the vortex, like that of a non-Awakened core, without generating any flow.

"Wait, are you telling us that your vortexes are all non-Awakened?" Solus was flabbergasted.

"It explains everything. The pain, the reason why I can use only first magic with the vortexes, and why so few reach the violet core." Lith said.