Liv found Luna in their room, enjoying a bowl of some stew. It smelled good, at the very least, and Liv realized-she hadn't eaten dinner yet. Luckily for her, Luna pointed at another bowl, set next to her, filled with the same stew. Settling in, Liv quickly ate, sating her appetite. Luna turned to her. "You feel like you're going to do something stupid."

Liv opened her mouth to ask how she knew, but Luna beat her to it. "Your left leg is twitching. You've been staring into the distance while eating the food. You haven't said a word to me since you got here. Also, there's just an... air around you, I suppose."

Liv's mouth stayed open until Luna hugged her and she had the opportunity to close it. "Don't die, please."

Then she got up, walking away into the bedroom. Liv sighed. She'd been read like a book, hadn't she?

She quickly lay down on the carpet, reaching inside herself. Her Will and Voice sat there, as usual, but now a newcomer joined it. Note. She felt weirdly familiar with it, for some reason. It just felt... natural. Ripping her attention away, Liv focused on what she'd come here to do. Dominion. Need to get that.

Liv resurfaced, grabbing Jay's book. She'd have to read whatever new stuff he put in there. Opening it, she flipped to the last few written pages, newly used.

When one is creating their core. After they use the basic energies, and the higher energies, if they can, the rest of the energies are almost always out of reach to the students. How does one get them?

Well, some students are gifted them by their elders, but those energies contain a... taint, let's say, for those are not their energies.

To avoid this, you must obviously create these yourself. To do so, there is one major way, and other, lesser known ways that are possible. The major way is sacrificing your life force. This will immediately age you, and so is not one I would recommend for your specific case.

Next. All of the lesser known ways involve some sort of restriction that you cannot accept. The only real way you could do this is Sundering Memory.

You will know what Memory is when the time comes. I believe your linked friend has some help for you with this, and as soon as you contact her, you will understand what I mean.

Oh, and Diamond's message? Yeah, remember it.

Liv pulled her nose out of the book, putting it aside. Vivian? How could she help? Well, it was worth a try.

The link between them opened, Liv quickly grabbing her attention. Hey, Vivian?

Yeah?

I was told to ask you about Memory.

Vivian went quiet for a while, and Liv didn't know what to think of it.

Then she felt something shoved through their link, and felt it emerge within her. This is a drop of your Memory. I'm sorry, but I'm going now.

Vivian shut the link on her side and Liv sat there, confused. Then she decided to prod at the droplet she'd received. It was, as Vivian stated, a drop of Memory, incredibly pure. And it was hers. She could tell. Instantly, Liv found herself at a crossroads. Sunder it, or keep it?

The link with Vivian opened again. Sorry for shutting you off like that.

Liv had a question to ask. Vivian. I need Memory to create higher energies and also to form my core, but I also want to keep it. How do I do all that?

Vivian gave her a thankfully quick answer. Keep the droplet. It will pull scraps of Memory from the inside of your body. Things you've forgotten, stuff like that. It will all condense into another pure droplet of Memory. It goes faster if you push them to the droplet.

Thank you.

Vivian uncharacteristically paused again. No problem.

Also, why did you have a droplet of my Memory?

Vivian answered slowly. I-I can't answer that for you. It's in the drop.

Liv trusted Vivian enough to take her by her word. Okay.

Then she reached inside herself. Time to work on Dominion.

The emptiness appeared, once again, her Will, Note, and Voice forming three-fourths of a circle. And so, she grabbed the two energies closest to the hole Domination left, Will and Voice. Liv didn't exactly put them together, but more... looked at their differences. Will wasn't anything to do with the world, really. It was all her iron-clad mind. The Will she used affected the world, but there was no control there. It just happened. Voice. It controlled the world, but nicely. It ushered spirits through what she wanted them to do, asking them.

Liv started the feel the pool between.

Domination was neither, but also both. You controlled the world. And you didn't ask, you just said it would happen, so it did. It had nothing to do with spirits. It had everything to do with the world. However, it wasn't simply demanding and not giving. Domination was ruling. If you ruled too harshly, the world would break.

If you broke the world, it would break you.

Domination snapped into place, her inside energy pool fully circular now. Time to form her core.

She turned to the drop of Memory, which had another accumulating next to it. Scraps of things she'd forgotten filtered down, sinking into the small globe. The guards' names and faces from her original town. How the bread tasted there. The one time she'd stolen a pair of knives and gotten chased for four hours for it.

Liv reached up and grabbed more from the pool above, bringing them down into the droplet. It expanded, maturing as Liv got another handful. A third droplet didn't take very long, either.

And now she had three drops. Pushing the original aside-she couldn't afford to lose that-Liv grabbed the remaining two. The first, she annihilated. Instinctively, she knew how, pulling on something inside the Memory to make it... stop existing. In that moment, the world asked her for what she wanted in return for the gift, and she asked for all the energies she needed.

They poured into her, the new pools seemingly endless. The world called out to her. Take what you need, and no more. We will reclaim the rest.

Liv attempted to send a reply, but it was quiet, watching. Then she started. Ten drops of all the base energies floated inside her, pulled from her pools. It wasn't enough, so she pulled more, creating a lattice through her entire spiritual body. Then, next came the higher energies, Aether being one of them.

They flowed into the lattice, strengthening it enough for the next steps. She pulled as much as was needed, which was more than the five drops prescribed. Then she found the Constants. Air. Water. Fire. Earth. Lightning. Elements existed in here, but so much more did as well. Concepts of every kind. She flooded them into the lattice, binding it to her, making it hers. Then she pulled a thread of the Spirit energies out, flowing it through the lattice as well. They took the shape of walls, both there and not there, adding a sense of 'existence' to her core. Finally, she pulled out the Soul energies, of which there was one. It furnished the walls, completely finishing the core, the lattice still visible inside the walls. But there was one last thing to do. Liv guided her drop of Memory through the space, pulling it to the wall. Then she stopped. The drop of Memory was good, but. It could still be better.

Liv pulled strands of her own memories out, so easy to manipulate now that she had a droplet of Memory. They flowed down to it, imprinting themselves on it. Memories of Vivian. Memories of the school. Everything.

She didn't give any of them up. All of these memories were too valuable to forget. They touched the drop of Memory, and made it... less pure, but more of everything that was Liv.

Then she imprinted the drop of Memory that Vivian had given her onto the drop, and there was an immediate response. It shuddered, then perfected, as Liv could feel.

She grabbed the drop and pushed it into the wall, watching it accept the Memory. It flooded it all, the entire wall briefly glowing before settling down. Liv sighed. The walls went invisible, now perfectly in tune with her. She supposed they were part of her, now.

Liv released her inner space and came back to the real world, seeing Luna poking her nose from above. She sat in a white room, with Luna staring down at her, and Eternity sitting on a chair in the corner.

Luna immediately punched Liv in the face and she immediately felt her cheek start to bruise. Just as Liv was about to ask why she'd done that, Luna hugged her and Liv acquiesced. Life was good.

Wait. Why was Eternity here?