Zel blinked a few times, filing the revelation away in the back of her head to be dealt with later. She put on her usual smug grin, and instead of accepting the apology properly just said, “It’s not as if I died, is it?”

The Singer returned a bitter chuckle.

“I’ve a request, if you don’t mind. Show me your breathin’ method,” he said. “Both o’ you.”

Raised eyebrows from both of them, a smug question from Zelsys, “Why?”

“‘Cause you split a fuckin’ lightnin’ bolt n’ came out without so much as a burn mark, that’s why!” he exclaimed, angrily. It wasn’t anger directed at Zelsys, but rather at himself - both out of guilt, and because of his own inability to understand the feat he had helped achieve. A deep sigh, and an admission, “And yer the best odds I’ve got at figurin’ out Fog-breathing for myself.”

Zelsys took a deep breath, then exhaled the breath as Fog. A furrowed brow from Strolvath, “That it?”

He looked to Zefaris with a questioning look in his eye, asking, “You use the same method, yeah? Show me.”

Zefaris repeated the exact same thing Zelsys had done, only further exacerbating Strol’s confusion. The singer scratched his chin, leaning on a knee as his gaze jumped between the two of them.

“What’s the trigger?” he questioned. “There’s obviously no verbal component, so it’s gotta be mental.”

With a simple smile, Zel just set down her bottle and, without breaking eye contact, swiped to the techniques section in her Tablet and opened the detailed readout for her Deep Breath method. She turned it around, making sure to maintain her grip of the device so that Strol could read it. He leaned forward in his chair and squinted, the twin irises of his eye opening like the apertures of a camera - he didn’t seem to need the verbal trigger to activate his Homunculus Eye. It made her hand buzz with the familiar pins-and-needles sensation, and the projection flickered a few times, but she paid it no mind.

He looked up to her and hesitantly said, “This completely goes against the teachings of every major Fog-breather family. I’ll pay you whatever y’ask if you agree to teach me once we get back.”

Just as she was about to give a vague agreement that she could go back on later, her focus slipped and she noticed the projection flicker as it returned to the techniques listing, Strol’s eye darting down, reading something off it, then slowly rising back up when the Tablet reacted to her will and changed back to the readout for the Deep Breath method.

“By the way…” he drawled, “When’d you figure out a new breathin’ method?”

Zel briefly furrowed her brow, turning the Tablet to look at it.

Sure enough, there was a new entry in the listing. Whilst Zel and Zef both tilted their heads in confusion at this, the scarred singer’s head whipped around at the sound of a clattering pot lid. He wordlessly walked to the stove and began to stir the stew, audibly sniffing at it for a short while before he portioned it out into the same bowls they had used yesterday.

Being unnamed, using the details function only made sense to determine a name for the mysterious new breathing method. Over the course of her morning, Zelsys allowed herself to be led into a rabbithole of new additions in the Tablet’s registries. As it turned out, the new breathing method was rooted in the fact she had exerted manual control over her breathing and heartbeat, and her ability to do this was listed as a new trait.

Stormsurge

It didn’t seem right, but… This was the only new trait. Even the details readout didn’t help much - it said what the trait meant, sure, but the description seemed less like a direct description and more like some fragment from the Tablet’s old records that vaguely fit. Like the device didn’t know how to describe the trait, so it just looked through its records and put in the first thing that fit its criteria, whatever those were.

STORMSURGE Type: Essentia Synthesis and Manipulation Trigger: At-Will (Consumes Fog or Metabolized Essentia (Fulgur)) Effects: Electrokinesis C+, Kinesthesia Enhancement B+, Body Control Enhancement A+, Self-Resuscitation Advancement: Produce a Thunderclap “The human body is a wondrous contraption, marred by crippling limitations. The Kargareth Slayer’s Guild has devised a most wondrous method for bypassing one of these limitations - through imbibing elixirs distilled from bottled lightning, they force their muscles to contract at full power with but a thought. If only there were a way to chain the lightning within a living person’s Azoth stone…”

Checking the unnamed breathing method’s details again, she used the tablet’s recall function to remember how to replicate it. She recalled breathing, but controlling each lung separately, air and Fog flowing in and out of her respiratory system without intermingling. Zelsys swallowed a spoonful of soup and decided to try replicating the feat, to see if it fit the breathing method.

It was… Surprisingly difficult. It wouldn’t work right away, she had to start with a Deep Breath and from there slowly transition to breathing with each individual lung while maintaining her Fog-breathing. Having both Strol and Zef watching her somehow helped, tangible pressure helping her to push past the initial barriers.

After the first two or three manual breaths with either lung, she felt a switch flip in her head, barely-perceptible muscle spasms spreading through her chest as her lungs began to breathe individually. It took continuous focus to do it, but switching back and forth wasn’t all that difficult once the initial start-up was complete.

Returning to normal breathing and explaining the method as she understood it to Strolvath, he immediately asked, “Like an engine?”

Zel reached into the recesses of her memory, ones she had never had to access, and there it was - she did have a rudimentary understanding of how combustion engines worked. It made enough sense, enough to give her an idea for naming this advanced breathing method.

Breath Engine