Aleister’s eyes woke up staring at the blank white ceiling as an oddly sharp pain pulsated throughout his forehead. He lifted himself up and saw Syn casually lounging about, reading a book. The book snapped shut, causing him to jump up and instantly stand tall.

“How was your journey?” she asked, placing the book in her lap.

“Uh,” Aleister stuttered, as he wasn’t unsure how to answer. “I’d probably say it was bad.”

“Oh? How come?” Syn asked in a curious manner.

Aleister inspected his body through a series of pats. “Well, I don’t feel any different, and it doesn’t appear that my body has changed either.”

“Hm, do you really not feel different?” Syn grew an interested smirk, as she asked, “Then, why don’t you explain to me what you experienced, and perhaps then we can solve this particular conundrum.”

After hearing Aleister recount what he experienced, Syn nodded and uncrossed her legs. She stood up and walked towards him. “Sit,” he did as instructed before she continued, “And now imagine that the mountain you started to climb actually exists within the palm of your hand.”

He struck a questioning look at her, but quickly closed his eyes and imagined.

“While you do so, feel the world around you.”

“I need a bit more of an explanation on that front,” he asked.

“What I feel in the world around me will not help you,” Syn said.

“You also said that everyone else has a different experience when trying to become a Weaver, yet, your still able to help me there,” he said, opening his eyes.

Syn stood in silence for a couple of moments, musing over a couple of thoughts before saying, “Why are your eyes open again?”

Aleister promptly shut them and returned to focusing on the image of the mountain in his palm. At the same time trying to feel the world around him, a process which he felt would be easier outside instead of being stuck in a blank room.

“The environment you’re in shouldn’t stop you from feeling what you need to,” Syn said, as if she just read his mind. “Try imagining that the world connects you to everything around it. This room that we’re in is just as much a part of this world is as you or the vast wilderness outside.”

He nodded his head, and without breaking focus, started imagining himself as an extension of the world around him. The first thing that popped into his mind, were strings. Like how a cat would play around with a ball of yarn. A string, or multiple strings sown together created that ball. No, that wasn’t quite right. They may comprise a ball of yarn, but once created the ball was now independent. Almost there.

Aleister cleared his head.

Each creature, each piece of land, him included, they were all created from the same material which all shared the same origin. Each individual was a like a piece of string, and if you them all together, and they too would create a ball of yarn, the world.

To him that seemed to make sense of how he could connect to the world, but it seemed to unravel the more thought he put into it. Or did it? Not all strings were of the same length, size, or color. This would explain the differences between each creation in the world.

Aleister sighed as he opened his eyes in frustration.

“What’s the problem?” Syn asked.

“Hm, I’m not exactly sure,” he said. “Trying to imagine such an abstract concept in the first place isn’t doing anything but making my head spin even more than it already does.”

“That is the whole point of my exercise,” Syn said. “By making you think about it, merging your thoughts with the world will work to activate your soul.”

Aleister had a perplexed look on his face as he said, “Your words seem to have had the opposite effect on me because now I’m even more confused.”

Syn moved her left hand onto her chair arm and rested her tilted head on it. “No worries. Like I said, you will understand with time. But, because of this, I have learned a bit more about you.”

“Hopefully, that’s a good thing.”

“It is.” Syn crossed her legs. “So, you know that there are many ways of becoming a weaver now, correct. We can simplify these different ways into three different methods, and along with that, the three different types of magic. Those that activate their souls from worshiping a god, or making pacts with otherworldly beings, use divine magic. Those that are born weavers or force themselves to become weavers using methods like the white onyx crystal and have the power of the Loop running through them use primal magic. People that study magic and the world itself in order to control it use arcane magic. It is by far the most uncommon and most difficult method because it relies completely on you as the person to learn and study it.”

Nodding his head, Aleister took in this information. “The way you led up to this and mentioned the third way of having to learn magic, I’m assuming that because the white onyx crystal did nothing, I’m going to end up having to become a Weaver the hard way.”

“The hard way is a bit of an understatement,” Syn said with a smirk. “Also, the white onyx wasn’t completely useless, although for now it seems like it.”

“Then what is it going to do for me in the future?” Aleister asked.

“While unable of letting you become a Weaver, it strengthened and activated your bloodline, so any special abilities related to it will become easier to learn and use in the future,” Syn answered. “That’s good news for you, because when the time comes for you to learn those abilities, you’re going to question your sanity.”