“Ladies.” Marisha began awkwardly. “I’d like to talk to you about, ah. My grandson.” Bryn looked away from the cherry-red glow of Ezekial building the tower. He was brighter than the moon down there, bright enough to be seen in day-light. She’d wondered before if the first time she’d seen him had been a terror-induced hallucination, now she knew differently. Was this him channeling the might of the divine to do things that no other pearl could? She refocused on Marisha, who was looking awkward.

“Oh, Marisha. Hey- I was reading my tome and it said that knights compress their aura- he compared it to ice, where magisters leave it in a watery form, and-.” Bryn caught herself. Probably not best to discuss the greymist technique in public. “Does that help you with Netli? What did you want?” Bryn realized she had interrupted- Marisha, it seems, had intended to speak with the young women of the tribe.

“Oh? That’s very interesting… Come by and tell me more sometime, please. Ladies.” The old woman nodded and moved off. Bryn blinked. What was that about?

“Was she holding a condom?” Hannah asked. “Netli already has condoms.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, Itzal gave it to him. Apparently it’s enchanted to be soft but tough and easy to clean. It’s nice.” Bryn blinked.

“Who enchants a condom? Do you know how expensive that is? Well, Itzal could have done it himself, I guess. He's a magister. Nice catch, though." Bryn found the big lug exhausting herself, but she couldn't deny he was a fine hunk of man.

"Mmhmm. Apparently he broke a girls pelvis before and he's been afraid ever since. I had to prove how tough I was before he'd fuck me." Hannah chuckled and rapped her knuckles on her shell with a click. "Finally it came in handy. He likes how it feels, too." Bryn nodded. She liked it when her feathery hair was played with. It was nice to have your special attributes appreciated. Of course, there were twistfuckers and they weren't nice, but that was an entirely different thing.

Bryn focused on her tome again. She traced the diagram with her eyes, then closed them and tried to cycle it yet again. Trace a path from the lungs to the heart to fucking everywhere. That was the hard bit. Then from everywhere back to the heart, then the lungs, then exhale. The merest bit of aura emerged with her breath and she felt bizarre bits of awareness all throughout her body from the bits of aura that had gotten lost on the way. She began the tedious process of gathering them together again.

Why was she doing this again? She knew the basic magister exercises and they weren't a tenth as complicated. Oh, right, because Akasha had personally given her this opportunity. She'd used a divine boon for it, to waste that would be heretical beyond belief.

Bryn leaned back on Ms. Kittysaur and sighed. This sucked, though. How was she supposed to keep track of it all? She was making some progress though- already her domain had shrunk by a foot and she'd gained an awareness of everything around her.

Within her domain she could feel everything at once. This was different. It was like a mist- thus the name- that spread out as far as it could stretch or could be gathered in a single spot. The first was just a bigger, vaguer version of her domain, but the second… She squeezed the aura around her fingertip and beheld the bizarre complexity within.

People were made of BITS. Tiny little balls, all stuck together, that made up… everything. The skin, the flesh, the muscle, the veins-

THE VEINS.

She looked at the diagram. "Fuck." She muttered.

"What?" Hannah asked, startled from her conversation with the other girls.

"What?" Bryn replied. Hannah scowled and turned away. Bryn grinned, then closed her eyes.

Start at the lungs. This time she traced the veins, letting her aura branch as the veins did. It was easy, it flowed, it was effortless. She exhaled and this time none of the aura remained stuck in her body. She'd mistified more aura in this one breath than she had in two days of painstaking work.

It didn’t make any sense though- aura was a purely ethereal substance, it could swim through flesh and bone as easily as blood. Why would it?.. The essence! The essence was in the blood! As it flowed it bridged the ethereal and the material, binding the aura to the flow of blood! A weak binding, liable to break with the slightest effort, but it worked! Bryn focused deeper. Along the flow of blood the aura bound to something, something in the blood but not of the blood, which she exhaled.

Then it was still her aura, still connected to her, but in a thousand thousand tiny pieces, each of which she could move individually! Well, not quite, but still far finer control than the usual membrane of aura. With this method Bryn could… She could…

She could keep reading to learn the techniques to actually make use of it. Bryn buried herself in reading, her enthusiasm rekindled.

Well, that was fun. Bit of a weight off my orb. I’ve been worrying this entire time about staying low key and secrets and don’t let them know you’re sentient, oops the entire town knows, bla bla whatever. Thought I was good at that. Fade into the background, ya know? Avoid confrontation. Fat chance.

Upon reflection I’ve always been good at avoiding things I don’t like. I’m absolutely terrible at resisting temptation. I want. I need. I crave. If I don’t get what I want I either go away or go crazy. It’s no trouble when the cookies are at the store and I have to go out and get them, but if I’m stuck in a room with ‘em? I eat the whole damn jar. The remnants of Wash absolutely do not help. Self-control was anathema to him.

I think I’ve been going a bit stir crazy trying to hold back, then not holding back anyways. I need mechanical power for, uh, stuff, so let’s get some steam! I’ll get the water for the steam with my infinite fucking supply of water. Waterwheels? What are those? Teehee. Fuck it. Fuck excuses.

Why did I drop a borehole? To see what happens. No more, no less. Any utility is a side benefit.

Hey, I need to test out this genetic engineering magic- urh, ima call it biomancy- on humans, what’s a safe test? Let’s turn her fingernails into cat claws! Then give her the option for kitty eyes! No fetishes here, teehee. I’m no weeb.

Zeke to Zeke: This is a callout post.

So, my tower. That’s me yelling at me to stop fucking around. Be honest with yourself. Stop trying to hide. It makes you unstable and stupid. Sure, it functions as a great watchtower, but that’s not the point. The point is me making a statement: I’m here and the world has changed because of it. My enemies beware.

This also means an awkward conversation with Bryn coming up. Heeeyy, grats on your magic thingy, you’re not a prisoner anymore. Yeah, you know the whole threatening to sic a dragon on your ass if you ran? All over. Tell whoever you want about whatever. Well, I’d still prefer you not do that, but whatever. Not gonna STOP you. Wanna stick around?

People are hard. Actually, Bryn’s so adorably awkward the blunt approach might just work. Then I’ll give her shiny new knives and ask her to teach me how to read. Chrome finish on the knives. And cake.

No chrome on the cake. Just the knives.

I wonder if latching onto the first human being you can speak to is a healthy or unhealthy coping mechanism.