Aleister snapped back to reality as he found himself in the same position, with Syn still sitting in front of him.

She stood up and said, “That was just the easy part.”

“How long was I out for?” he asked, in the middle of a yawn.

She grabbed a large white crystal and said, “About five minutes,” before tossing it over to him.

The white crystal landed on his palm, but it bounced off, catching him by surprise. He raised his other hand and caught the crystal as it fumbled around. “Phew, that was a—bit awkward. Also, damn, was that really only five minutes? It felt like I was out for a while.”

“It felt that long because you entered the state of deep rest, similar to the deep rest state you experience while sleeping,” Syn said in order to explain what he was feeling. “However, I don’t want you to be asleep. You need to be in that state while still keeping you mind active.”

“How exactly am I supposed to achieve that?”

“Through time and practice. If you were able to follow the standard path of becoming a Weaver, it whole process would be a lot smoother, but unfortunately we’re going to have to brute force it.”

Playing with the white crystal in his hands, he said, “So I assume this is somehow going to help with that process?”

“Correct,” she said. “This is a purified chunk of a white onyx crystal. Now you may ask, how purified is it exactly?”

“I didn’t ask,” he said, but in haste added, “But do tell.”

“An expert purified and compressed an entire small vein of white-onyx was to create what you hold in your hands. Such a treasure costs more than twenty-thousand gold.”

Aleister stopped messing around with the crystal in his hand upon hearing the price. “Twenty-thousand gold? How did you get your hands on this?” He now felt more than nervous while handling the chunk.

“The person you call Master gave it to me to give to you,” Syn explained. “Twenty-thousand is a bit of an understatement, but I guess its so-called active price would be close enough.”

“Active price?” he asked.

“Yes.” Syn leaned her back and placed her hands on the floor before continuing. “The method of using a purified chunk of white crystal is an archaic technique, and was much more common and accessible in the past. However, there stopped being enough white onyx veins to mine. And thus this more forceful method was put out of practice. Nowadays, they are rare enough to where most won’t recognize its true value, and those that do, won’t even sell it.”

"The Aeon of Heros, huh?" Aleister grew a solemn expression.

Noticing this, Syn said with a wry smile, “Don’t worry, although I may speak like I’m from those days gone by, I'm not that old.”

Aleister shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking about how old you were, but more so, that I’m assuming that these gems were actually the reasoning behind the name of that era.”

“Most likely,” Syn agreed. “Although, that isn’t the only way of becoming a Weaver. Any method to awaken your soul will do. The most common way in this era is by striking a deal with a god and becoming a loyal devotee of theirs. Pacts with higher beings of power also work.”

“That almost seems similar to what we have right now,” Aleister noted.

“It is similar in the way that with my contract, I’m able to grant you powers that you otherwise wouldn’t posses, but at the same time, it is much more complicated than that. I can't awaken your soul.”

“That makes me wonder,” Aleister scratched his chin, “How did you become a Contractor in the first place?”

“I'm not entirely sure how,” Syn said as she corrected her posture. “My memories are incomplete but I know that I'm not originally a being from this realm.”

Aleister didn’t know quite how to react as he tried to process this information. “How many different realms are there? How were you born into this realm? Did you ever live in the realm you come from? Do you even know what realm you come from?”

“I don't know how many realms there are. Infinite perhaps. All I know is that the River of Souls connects all of them. On a similar subject, saying how many planes exist, and yes, there is a difference between the two, is a complicated answer. Technically, there is an infinite amount of planes when you account for the ability to create demiplanes, and even if you didn’t account for them, they are quite numerous,” Syn carefully explained. “Now then, if you have any more questions about this topic, don’t ask, because I’m not going to answer. I honestly can't tell you much more besides its distracting and wasting time from our current goal.”

“Fine.”