I sat in the dining hall the next morning, nursing a drink and picking at breakfast. Melissa had joined me, but Karen wasn't feeling up to it. She'd actually argued with the paramedics last night to not be sent in for observation, but apparently this morning was a different story.

I'd seen day after pictures of people after car wrecks and I could almost guess that's about how her arms felt and looked right now.

"You know, I didn't tell Karen, but I was treating last night as a celebration. I'd managed to break through the first block." Melissa said quietly.

I blinked, having to think for a moment on what she meant before getting it. "Huh. Congrats." I paused for a second. "And then last night happened. Yeah, little bit of a damper on it."

"Funny." Melissa stretched her arm, the shoulder apparently causing her no pain this morning. "My power feels like lightning strikes, I even blew through my block like hitting a lightning rod. But last night? I couldn't react."

"I'm still trying to figure out why I did that last night myself." I shook my head. "Grabbing Karen away from what's his name, sure. But actually taking a swing at him? I've never actually gotten into a fight."

I was quiet for a minute. "But hey, you broke through a block. Does that mean you're not considered mortal anymore?" I mentally crossed my fingers.

"Not mortal?" Melissa gave me a funny look. "Not sure what you mean."

"When I ask 'What is the strength of the world's soul?'" the amused answer echoed through me, still with that weird emphasis, "he not longer says as mortal as you and your people. Only as mortal as your people."

Melissa dutifully repeated the same question. "No, I'm still as mortal. Weird. What's the difference?"

"The dantian. You remember when I threw myself off the bars?" Melissa nodded. "I hadn't been trying to use any power. Almost since day one of the alien and his presence, I've been shoving it down, not wanting it to mess with me."

I paused, thinking back myself. "Then, all of a sudden I realized I wasn't pushing the same bit of power back, because there it all was in a big pile inside me. It all kinda collapsed into itself, and now it's just sitting there, all the time, pushing a little bit of power. And I can spin it for more." I tapped my chest. "Just sitting there right under my heart. Then I asked, found out he didn't consider me mortal, and actually said I was one of like four not on a false path."

"And you decided to just... not tell anyone?"

"Tell them what? Crazy guy in my head says you're all doing it wrong?" I pulled out my tablet, flipping it to the notes I'd been taking. "I've been trying to figure it out. There's millions of people out there doing something extraordinary. Short of the alien idiot actually announcing I'm right, who'd believe me? It's not like you're not getting results yourself."

I imagined the actual response and just shook my head. "Heck, ninety-nine percent of them are probably stronger than me. You're probably stronger than me, if getting past the first block isn't the same thing as the dantian. To be honest?" I looked at Melissa. "I kinda hoped it was and people just weren't being truthful."

"Yeah, I can see that." Glad I was being given the benefit of the doubt, then she continued. "So, how do I get on that true path?"

"Wait, just like that?"

Melissa shrugged. "I just broke through my first block yesterday, so even if you're wrong, it's not like I'm really far into this anyways. I know there's at least one person out there who claims they've made it through like five blocks."

"Let's not try this with breakfast in front of us then."

~~~

"You really think she's going to want to watch me try this?" Melissa asked me as we walked down the dorm hall.

I shrugged. "Worst case scenario is she says no, but I want to check on her anyways."

I stopped at a door and rapped on it a couple of times.

"Hey Karen." I called through it. "You okay?"

There wasn't an answer at the door for a moment, before it opened to reveal Ash instead of Karen. "Oh, hey." A thin sheen of sweat was on his forehead, and he was obviously about to say something else. "Come on in you two."

He stepped out of the doorway, letting us in. Inside, Karen was sitting on a couch in a tanktop staring at the TV, the heat in the little studio dorm blasting like mad. Her arms were covered in deep purple and black bruising. I winced seeing them.

She looked up. "Hey."

Ash dropped into a chair, manly attempting to hiding a wince of his own. "How are you two doing?"

I was quiet. Melissa answered. "Honestly, not hurting somehow. You guys fairing alright?"

Karen winced a shrug. "Bruised, but nothing like the cops said to watch out for from last night." She turned her attention away from the TV. "Hurts like hell to put anything on them though, so yeah."

The room was quiet for a moment, no one able to figure out anything to say to that.

"Hey, so we kinda figured out something at breakfast earlier and figured you might want to watch." I spoke into the silence. At both Karen and Ash's look of interest, I explained.

"So, what?" Ash looked at Melissa. "You're going to try to do whatever Nicole did? Because the alien is saying something different to her?"

"About that. It's not like she's actually hurt doing it her way either, and that was a hell of a punch last night." Melissa gave a small grin.

"Do we need to go to the gym then?" Karen asked. "I'm... not really up for that right now."

I shook my head. "Not yet, maybe if we can't do it here. I didn't think you wanted to go anywhere so maybe just clear space in here and do some stretches to get into the same mindset."

"That I'm good with." The gloom seemed to be banished from Karen's voice now, at least. "Ash, you mind helping move the couch and stuff?"

Within a few minutes, the little living room was clear enough for Melissa and I to sit on the floor, with Karen and Ash now sitting on the couch pushed against the wall.

"So, just take the power, hold it, and keep grabbing and holding more of it then?" Melissa asked, starting to stretch out.

"That doesn't sound quite right, but maybe since you're already past a block. Try?"

Melissa nodded and closed her eyes as she slowly stretched out in her warmup reaching out past her toes. I could almost see when she grabbed her power, as her fingers dug slightly into the worn carpet. She slowly released the stretch and repeated, before she paused. "Yeah, I can kind of get a second bit of power, but I can't pull it past the block like I did with the first one."

"Don't pull it past the block then. I was pushing it down, trying to not use it. Can you bring it back before the block and hold the two there?"

Melissa nodded. "About like what I did to break the block, I had to build a bigger strike. But just keep holding it back."

"It's probably going to take more than two bits though. I'd held it back dozens of times, thinking it was all the same single bit of power." I explained. "How many can you pull up?"

She didn't answer immediately, but each time Melissa stretched her body, she let out a breath of concentration. After a few breaths, she gave a full body twitch. "How the heck do you hold this? It almost feels like it's shocking me internally."

That worried me. "Mine didn't feel like anything until afterwards. You ok?"

"Kinda…Kinda like a joybuzzer. Isn't electric... shocks to the heart bad?"

Ash answered her. "Defibrillation. Maybe you should stop Melissa." He pulled out a phone. "I'm dialing 911 if you start looking like you touched live wire."

Melissa paused between two stretches, motionless before she let out a long breath. "No, I'm ok. If I hold it steady, it doesn't shock me."

The three of us watched her carefully as she very slowly resumed her different stretches. Five minutes went by, then we started getting close to ten. Watching her stretch was weird when you're trying to see something, but not seeing anything different.

"Lightning.. in a bottle maybe." Melissa breathed out, speaking for the first time in minutes.

Now, I could almost feel something weird happening. Almost like static electricity in the room, but centered on Melissa but still tried to reach out to shock us as well as I saw both Karen and Ash lean back. I could feel the overflow coming from my own dantian pushing back against the feeling, and without meaning to it spun it a little faster, not letting the overflow get bigger but pushing more of my energy out against hers.

Something shifted, clicked. Melissa opened her eyes and stared into nothing, even as I felt all the electricity pull back. Like trying to describe color to a blind man, except now I could see but I didn't know what I was looking at. A small portion of Melissa's body seemed more real than the rest of her, and I could feel the energy flowing from her, spinning on its own. It then slowed down but didn't stop.

"What the heck?"

Melissa's eyes focused again, staring at me. Or more appropriately, at my chest where I still had my own current spinning ever so slightly faster than normal still. I took a deep breath of my own, and it returned to its own languid spinning.

Pulling my tablet over to me, I flicked the lecure recording software on. "Recording this unless you say stop. So, in detail, what'd you do?"

Sitting up from her last stretch with both Karen and Ash's eyes on her, she thought for a moment. "I pulled back from the first block, like you said. I then kept pulling power, but then pushing them together. When I broke through the block the first time, it only needed to be combined once."

She paused again. "For this? At least thirty, I kinda lost count. I had to slow down after the first few though, that's when it started really fighting me and I got shocked. Eventually, there was enough that it started feeling like a big storm, you know when you can feel the lightning and thunder. But bottled inside me." She waved a hand. "Then it, collapsed I think? Like you were talking about, into a pool of energy inside me. It still feels like lightning though."

Melissa looked at me. "Seriously, what's the freaky thing in your heart? All of a sudden I could feel pressure and when I opened my eyes, I could feel it was you."

I shrugged. "I can't feel myself, but that's not a bad description for what you feel like. Does this change anything?" I pushed myself a little, the energy flowing out a little more and Melissa's eyes widened.

"Yeah. I can feel it more clearly."

"For scientific purposes," Karen cut in, eyes wide. "I can't feel anything from either of you. Though I felt the weird storm thing right before you said 'what the heck' and then it all went away."

"Me either." Ash added.

I tapped my cheek. "So you can only feel it if you have one then? You originally broke a block. Is it still broken?"

Melissa closed her eyes. "I can't really move it... Oh wait, you said you had to spin the energy to get it to move..." I could feel the energy in her grow for a moment and it actually seemed to branch away from it's single spot in her for a moment. "It's like I cut a channel before, but I can't make enough flow towards it?"

"Inconclusive then." I said for the recording. "Alright, big question then. Ask about the world's soul."

Melissa asked, then looked almost flabbergasted. "You are the first to step off the cliff of the false path?" she said, hopefully echoing what she was told. She then repeated her question. "Damn it. He's not repeating the extra stuff. But yeah, I'm apparently not counted as mortal anymore either."

"What is the strength of the world's soul?" I asked for myself.

Your [world's soul] has not even lit its da̘̤̖̼̰n̡͔̬t͘i̤̣͍̱͡a̸̜͙͖͚ņ̗. It remains as mortal as your people. The word dantian had changed again, I could actually feel something about it. It felt like a purer bit of my own power, and Melissa's, and many, many more examples. "Dantian, power to define yourself?" I asked quietly, trying to put that something into my own words, directing the question at that presence to no answer.

"So, any ideas on how to get a dantian for someone that doesn't have this power?" Ash asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. I've got so many more questions now though." I looked at Melissa and where I could still vaguely feel the power flowing from her, pretty much the same place on her body where mine was. "Didn't Danny say we could get full body CT scans?"

"Yeah, the Seekers have bought a few scans from the hospital before for people." Karen said. "Maybe we can figure out what's up between you two, and then get me in on this!" She pumped her arm, then yelped. "OK, still hurts. Damn."