Chapter 0181

The spirits have mastered the ability to remain calm in any given situation. Their expression didn’t change one bit when Tempest asked about their influence over her personality. That doesn’t mean they don’t feel uneasy due to the topic.

There were ripples and fluctuation in the spirit plane as the Tempest’s spirits communicated with each other at a speed humans can’t perceive.

There is always a bit of lingering guilt when the spirits have to broach the subject. Their desires overcome their guilt all too quickly. Ventus was the one to answer as she actually had this conversation many times before. Tempest dying and reincarnates happen all too often.

“There are three causes or possible explanation for the personality issue.”

“So very being is merely an issue to you guys huh?” Tempest took exception to how Ventus phrased her answer.

The problem is a serious one in her view. Her personality, her very sense of self was, no is, subtly influenced by the spirits. Give an inch here and inch there and after a time, she’d have nothing of herself left. All the pieces of her, Tempest Arashi Kataigida, would be in the hands of the spirits, clay for them to mold however they wish.

Tempest didn’t want her very being to be a product of conditioning or worse, brainwashing by the spirits.

“I understand you feel violated by what you perceive as our deception. Please let us explain first.” Ventus wanted to hold Tempest in her embrace and ease the pain and fear she saw in her expression. She tightly controlled her image in Tempest’s sea of consciousness. Ventus knew Tempest would not welcome her touch right now.

Mizu already strikes first by cuddling up to Tempest and even now she clings to their beloved daughter. Adding her caress would prod Tempest’s temper and mistrust. Still, Ventus couldn’t help herself.

Back on the spiritual plane, one wind spirit went over to smack a water spirit in the back of the head. The water spirit glared back at the wind spirit but did nothing.

“You may start,” Tempest said like a queen allowing her subjects to plead and prostrated before her.

Back on the spiritual plane, all the wind spirits sighed in relief. Tempest might notice her how each aspect of her behavior mimics aspects of her elements - carefree as the wind, easygoing as water and lordly like lightning - but the spirits, who was always watching Tempest, notice each shift.

Tempest is hardest to deal with when she acts carefree. The spirits have nothing to entice her when she acts like a silly little goofball. In almost all of her incarnation, Athena is one of the exceptions, Tempest like to eat. When Tempest is being a silly little goofball, the best way to get her attention or to soothe her is to present her with a plate full of delicacy. Tempest is easy to persuade when she is easy going but she is easy going when things are going her way. Change the course of action she settled on isn’t easy but doable as long as one present her with greater benefits. When she acts like a high and mighty lord of the realm is when she is in her most analytical state of mind. Tempest is the most unbiased and fair in her analytical state of mind. She considers the situations, the causes and effects, and the consequences before deciding on and implementing her judgment.

As such, Ventus knows Tempest will look at the facts presented to her with a clear mind.

“As I said before, there are three factors influencing your perceived shift in personality. The first factor we believe to influence a mage’s personality is the outside factor, mana. A nature versus nurture dilemma. You are born with an innate nature, your genes so to speak. Then there is your upbring which plays a role in your behavior. We believe that when a mage takes mana into their body, the elemental characteristic of the mana influences the mage’s personality.

“For example, if a child gets enough food and nutrient growing up like most industrialized nations, then they tend to grow taller, stronger and generally healthier. If they don’t get enough food like the children in third world countries, they tend to be shorter, weak and frail. Mana will replace food as the factor which influences growth. The more mana a mage infuse into their body, the healthier, prettier, stronger, etc, etc, etc, they become. And like food, mana will affect a person’s behavior, more so their personality.

“The second factor is influence by proximity. The sea of consciousness houses the mage’s personality, core or however you want to call it. Spirits enter their mortal's sea of consciousness to improve communication between the spirits and their mortal. Once we take up residence in the mage’s sea of consciousness we indirectly influence the mage’s personality. I call it to influence by proximity. I believe the idiom “He who stays near vermilion gets stained red. He who stays near (black) ink gets stained black,” best describe the second factor.

“The third factor is like attracts like. We desire your soul Tempest but have you ever question why we desire your soul so much?”

“My soul is beautiful. Of course, you desire it.” Tempest answer narcissistically. Tempest knows she was going to grow up beautiful. The spirits almost guarantee that. All the Elders in the Council of Elders in the Eternal Spirit Guild is supermodel beautiful. Tempest didn’t think she’d be so beautiful she can cause the downfall of a nation but she thinks she can hold her own or that she’d make it to the cover of Cosmopolitan once or twice.

Her soul, in its pure form, is a different story. Tempest thought fireworks took over her vision when the spirits shared with her their memories of her soul. It was a kaleidoscope of colors, more dazzling than the brightest diamond shining under the sun and purer than freshly fallen snow. It was more of everything beautiful in Tempest’s life.

There was no question in Tempest’s mind how desirable her soul was.

“Although your soul is brilliant, there are other souls just as beautiful as yours.”

“Hey.”

Ventus shrug while Astrapi threw out Tempest’s favorite phrase to her face, “Truth hurts. Live with it.”

“At the time of creation,” Ventus continued with her explanation before the relationship between Tempest and Astrapi can get any worse, “there many souls as beautiful as yours, Tempest. Despite it, it was your soul that fascinates us to this day.”

“Even now, your soul holds us in thrall,” Mizu spoke earnestly, trying to convey her feelings to Tempest.

“It was everything we are, everything we want to be. It was our everything.” Astrapi had a dreamy look as she reminisces about the first time she saw Tempest’s soul.

“We think the core nature of your soul was completely in line with our elements, hence the immense attraction we felt towards you.”

“So basically you are attracted to how I am and everything else enhances those same qualities and ignoring everything else, which results in a sense of manipulation on my part,” Tempest spoke the words as a statement but her tone held a hopeful note.

“No,” Ventus denied. “We are attracted to the main qualities of you and held it as our ideal. We took advantage of the situation to attempt to preserve our ideal in you. We tried to keep your soul in a static state, hence your feeling of manipulation on our part. We have long since acknowledged that things change, especially the soul. We acknowledge and accept those changes but by the time we did so we already set into motion the forces which try to preserve the soul in its static state. Once the forces were set in motion, we can not stop it. I’m sorry you suffered because of our stubborn insistence.”

Ventus sounded sincere and apologetic. They acknowledge their mistakes and tried to fix it, yet once a precedent is set it is hard to reverse.

Tempest sat down in thought. She shifted through all the information the spirits gave her, trying to find loopholes or fallacies in their logic. When she couldn’t find any glaring problems with their explanation, she began to sort out her emotions.

Just because they have logic on their side doesn’t mean they can discount her feelings. Aside from the leftover turmoil she experienced as Athena and the part where she was possessed by the spirits, she didn’t find the spirits objectionable.

Athena is Athena. Tempest has decided she is Tempest Arashi Kataigida. Tempest let go of Athena’s resentment towards the spirits.

Carefree as the wind.

Easygoing as the water.

Lordly like lightning.

This is how Tempest thought she should be. This was how she wanted to live.

The spirits brought out the better side. She can’t blame them for it. Okay, she can and will blame them. She would hold their past mistakes as a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads and take it out whenever she needed to force… ah no, persuade them to do what she wants.

Hmph, hmph. See if I don’t work you guys to the bone! Tempest grinned evilly at her spirits. Tempest thought she was menacing when she put on her ‘evil’ face, but she looks like an adorable baby trying too hard to be an adult. She was so cute the spirits have to actively restrain themselves from going over to her and coddling her.

Then out of the blue Tempest pronounced, “No possessing me!”