Excitement, curiosity and fear were all part of the roiling mass that made up my thoughts as we descended down the stairs of the fort. I hadn’t had a chance to explore when we arrived. Apparently the stairs went down and down until I felt I had lost all bearing on how deep we were.

As we descended, I looked closer at my individual thoughts. The excitement was easy to understand. If this worked I would be stronger. Maybe even a match for Luk’s brother. As my thoughts went to my adversary I looked up at Diego following us down the stairs.

He walked with an expression of boredom. Pretty fair considering all had asked was to watch over our bodies during the process without giving much details. I’d share the details when we weren’t in such a hurry. He obviously didn’t want such a boring job but he could tell it was important otherwise I wouldn’t have asked him. I appreciated his loyalty.

Suddenly I felt the fear more intensely. Examining the fear I realized I wasn’t afraid this process would fail. I was afraid I would. It was a fear born of failures in my own life. Failures that haunted me to this day. I tried not to think of my family. The pain of those memories were almost too much to bear. I had failed people before. I had failed myself.

But I wouldn’t give up. To let myself drown in the darkness wasn’t something I would allow. Not while I had breath in my lungs and hope in my heart.

As I shook myself from my dark thoughts I realized we had finally come to the bottom of the stairs to a large dark door. It was 8 feet tall atleast and made of what looked like ebony wood with a door handle about 5 feet up and a peculiar

looking lock below it.

Grace promptly drew a key from her bag and began to unlock the massive door. The clank and clunk of gears turning inside the door seemed incredibly loud in what had once been a stoic silence. The rumble only increased my curiosity. What could be hidden so deeply beneath a fort. The mystery was palpable.

My expectations were met at least in part. The room was pretty nondescript except it had Bright blue Runes covering the walls and floor. The runes were obviously separate but when looked at as part of a whole they seemed to fit together in a way that just made sense to me. I could feel the energy practically vibrating in the space around us. The sensation was similar to standing in warm sunlight while a cool breeze tingled on your skin. It raised goosebumps and I couldn’t help an amazed “ wow” from escaping.

Diego looked similarly amazed. I met eyes with him. We grinned fistbisting

This was why I had to come to this world. The promise and possibilty of the mystic. I couldn’t stop myself from tracing the runes closest to me. It was a beautiful language of energy and flow. I didn’t know what they meant but I could sense they were acting like a funnel for natural energy.

Finally Grace cleared her throat obviously done with our fanboying. Despite appearing irritated, her features contained a subtle hint of satisfaction and she clearly understood why we were fascinated. She knew the importance of this place. It was known as the ascension room. Here the natural energy of the world was purified and distilled. It was the kind of energy needed to infuse a chakra point.

Here was one the azure forts most important assets. This room created the pure energy that would be needed to refill the chakra point after expelling all current energy. What was in the core of a beginner was a tainted inefficient mess that barely purified or drew in energy. With her help the process that normally took forever would be remapped entirely overnight.

She frowned, If he was even able to enter his chakra that is. Not everyone was suited to the process of cultivation. The process of entering a chakra mentally was something many people simplly couldn’t handle. It was like existing in a void through which your thoughts and will were all that could be felt . Then finding a chakra was different for each one. The root required one to know what binds them to this world. It could be anything from a person, a thing or even an ideal.

She thought over her own root awakening. Her mother and father both been there back in the good days. With their support it had been easy to sense the connection to her root. Her mother had been an expert in the recreation process having taught her in much the same way she would teach him except with a whole lot more lecturing. Her father had been so proud of her. She could still remember the smile on hisface when she finished.

She shook herself away from those memories. They always had a painful ending.

Von could tell Grace had a lot going on in her head right now. He knew that look well being wellversed in it himself so he gave her time she needed until she snapped out of it . She then sat down crosslegged in the center of the room.

At this point she occupied one half of a circle that all the runes seemed to flow to naturally. Directing me to do the same I did she began muttering incantations that sounded almost like latin but not.

Now I was curious, magic was pretty weird here. I could feel it and shape it with relative ease seeming to bend it to my will naturally. Yet it seemed that wasn’t the norm. The people I had met had abilities that used their magic. The problem was the abilities were all specialized for a specific purpose. Why was that I couldn’t help but wonder. I had many questions about why this world operated so strangely. There was even stats and a Leveling system almost like a game.

Now was obviously not Q and A time though so I took the Prompted seat across from her. Red and blue sparks seemed to flow down to her palms as her voice began to rise; she made hand motions leaving trails of light as her hand began gathering more energy. The room felt like it was humming in response to what she was doing

Finally all her movement and chanting ceased. Her eyes glowed a bright blue. Her Hands were held out. Despite my fear I took her hands.

Suddenly we were floating in a void but it wasn’t. I couldn’t really see but I could sense spots of energy all around me. It was oddly peaceful. I actually wouldn’t have minded staying here but we had important business to attend to. Luckily Grace Didn’t waste time

“ We are currently in the chakra space, Do you sense your gates?” grace seemed to just project these words into my head, probably some result of the ritual she cast I imagine. I replied in the affirmative finding the mindspeak reasonably intuitive.

“Good she replied Now I want you to think of what binds you to this world. What is the Root of what drives you forward.

I thought about my life. Filled with much hardships, regrets and mistakes.

The memory of the loss of my mother came to mind first. My siblings and all the memories of them I had over the years growing up in a world without magic. Both good and bad. Every good moment was an outline of the world I felt everyone deserved . All the bad memories that proved to be the cruelest and most informative teacher of how bad the world could be. In the end I was just like any other human. I was driven by desire

Desire to have the strength to stand up to bullies. To be the change I wanted to see in the world. Childish certainly. Selfish totally but honest it was without a doubt.

I felt like I was flying as I felt my consciousness soar towards a mass of energy that gave off a feeling of stability. I could sense

Grace’s consciousness there alongside me incorporeal as I was. She seemed to give off a mental clap seemingly impressed. What I thought at her.

Well you cleared what i thought was gonna be the hardest step. Most people can practice working to control magic but not everyone is capable or willing to be selfaware enough to reach the first gate. People get stuck trying to search for some grand reason for living or get hung up on what other people think they should drive them forward. People seem to think being driven by your desires is somehow lesser

Her mental tone lacked judgment or malice. It was purely informational

I suppose that's not too surpringing. Culture and religion had many times shamed people for acting on their desires throughout history. I shrugged mentally thinking that there could be a whole philosophical debate on desire morality and the like but Honestly I just wanted to get to playing with magic so I asked Grace ``what do we do now”

She responded quickly mentally gesturing to the mass of energy “This is the part where I help. Normally we would spend days in meditation working to empty the mass of its tainted energy at which point you would then be able to work on building a clean power draw structure,the spiral technique was popular in my world.

This was certainly interesting. Guess all those fantasy writers were on to something afterall. Maybe all that time reading cultivation stories wasn’t wasted. I had been endlessly fascinated with them. In atleast some a level of advancement was starting with one spiral and moving up to create a fractal or a spiral of spirals.

Do forgive me but this part will most certaintly hurt.

Her words had barely registered when it felt like I had been impaled through my abdomen with a molten bar of metal. It was pain unlike anything I had ever experienced eroding away my ability to think. Through the haze her mental

Voice rang out “ visualize the spiral”

In the fog of pain my thoughts blurred. I managed to begin visualizing a fractal spiral. It was difficult with all the pain but somehow persisted crystallised the image. A sphere-like 3 dimensionial object completely made of spirals. It looked almost like a globe of whirlpools

Finally as it seemed my mind would fade away I heard her mental voice yell pull and almost feel like she guided me in how to do this. I took what felt like the deepest breath I had ever taken and I felt such a brilliant feeling as this energy flowed through the patterns I made. It gathered at the center and disappeared.

Now I was confused and voiced that to grace not knowing where it was going. She explained it was used to replenish presence of could be used in open meridian channels for a variety of ways but while opening was quick it was excruciating but you would need a massive amount of power. It seemed that I had accumulated the energy probably from the complexity of my pattern

She then guided me through how to pool the energy and then guide it down through the meridians pushing out all the taint to form a basic meridian. It was as painful as she had said it would be but pain was an old friend finishing out quickly, The second leg was even easier but now i was bone tired and

Just fell asleep