Chapter 16

Silva was laying in bed, her head in a hidden in the pillow. Every time she tried to move the sourness reminded of itself and she stopped in her tracks. She knew she was in a bad shape, so she expected at least some muscle ache, but this was much more than she had bargained for. "What is worse I have no one else to blame for my own overzealousness.” She had gone jogging only thrice, once every two days, but already she was regretting every second of it. She would not stop doing it, but a little bit of whining to herself was acceptable.

She had never gotten a massage, but right now she considered if she could afford it and gather enough courage to actually go for it. In the end answer to both questions was a no.

Steven had scolded her for not stretching properly before and after running. He also had shown her how to do it right, but she just could not get up in time to do it correctly and still make it in time for school.

Trying to remember what Steven had told her she did some stretches but ended up doing it half-heartedly. “That should do it.” She sat down back at her bed and let her body fall back until it reached the wall.

It was already evening, Silva and her dad had eaten dinner and now she could hear him watching movie down the corridor. He had congratulated her for thinking about her health when she had told him about her plans to jog and he had also laughed about her misery after he had seen the results.

But that was fine. Getting in shape was never quick and took both time and will. Or so the guide she had read on claimed. Silva hoped that the muscle ache will be gone sooner than she reaching the body state she was wishing for.

So it was quite fortunate that she had better luck concerning her ability, making her mood not be downright pessimistic. She had tried to use it as much as possible, even when washing, cooking, on the toilet, while running and, of course, while trying to fall asleep. When she woke up the ability had turned itself off, but she was not sure at which point, if it happened right after she fell asleep the exercise would have no meaning.

It had been years since she had gained her ability and she had been actively using it ever since. While she could not claim to have experimented a lot with it she still had managed to increase the area she could influence others in by quite a large margin. At the start, it had only been as wide as her room, which made a bit more than three meters in radius around her. Now it reached past ten and Silva had the confidence to increase it even more.

At least compared to her friends she could say that she had been very diligent in her practice, even if it was largely unintended. The only thing she regretted is that she had not tried any other applications of her ability and she hoped to rectify it in the following months.

She wanted to try to hide objects from others, even while she was absent, hide only from selected people, speak while still under the effect of her ability and more. But for now, her attention had been drawn elsewhere.

Flexing her proverbial muscles she once again activated her ability. She concentrated on how it happened, how her power flowed, how it slowly coursed through her. The sensation of flow was definitely there.

Silva’s mind wandered as she thought back of different energy types she had searched for on the net. There had been several kinds of energies described by folklore, fantasy and religious texts, but the problem was that most of them fit, with the exception being the religious ones. She was not a believer in any particular deity so it was the only one she threw aside immediately.

In the end, it did not matter what she was feeling but the fact that it was there. Truthfully the feeling was very vague and she had to… Not concentrate exactly, it was more akin to meditation, but instead of emptying her mind if had to drift towards properties of her ability.

The discovery came to her a few days ago. The day had been exhausting and she had been spent. When the evening finally came she had been so tired that all she could do is fall in her bed and try to shut her mind down.

Instead of falling asleep, she thought back to the problems she and her friends had amassed seemingly from nowhere. After good ten minutes of fretting her mind had finally drifted to simply evaluating her ability. It was then that she had felt it for the first time. A feeling that she had felt only once before in her life when she had awakened her ability. It was very subtle and back then it had gone past her attention unnoticed. But thinking back now it was similar.

Slowly she let her mind follow the lines along her body where the energy slowly circulated. Intangible was another word of how she thought of it, that however did not stop her from trying to influence it. For now, she was curious if she could slow or fasten the circulation of this energy.

After twenty more minutes, she finally gave up and thought of how she could convey this new information to her friends. She felt that they could fare better than her, or at least have some ideas of what exactly she was going through. And hopefully won’t think that she is crazy.

Soon Silva found herself returning to the earlier sleeping position with her face buried in the pillow. She had also tried the meditation positions found on the internet, but not one of them had worked for her or changed the difficulty of feeling the energy. Finally, she had decided to lay down, it was much easier than sitting with her legs crossed, though her way came with the danger of falling asleep.

Today there had been no progress. Again. Tomorrow was the day that they had planned on having the trip to the mountains and the lack of the said progress weighed on her mind. If she had more it would be easier to speak with her friends.

But well, it was not the biggest worry she had at the moment. It did not even come in as the second biggest.

Tomorrow they would be visiting the mountains and the monster wolf was still on the loose. There was some good news at least, as the latest information revealed the wolf’s current position to be very far from their planned destination and it was fresh as well.

The latest story that had aired on the TV had the hunters speak about their encounters and the general trend of the movement seemed to head on the entirely opposite way of where they were going. The app dedicated to its search also confirmed this notion. With all that Mika had lost the last try at stopping this excursion.

“... and speaking of Mika.” Silva stopped her observations for a moment. She still felt the energy on the edge of her perception but after a few seconds, the sensation had faded. “She should be more careful with her wording to avoid any misunderstandings...”

Silva was, of course, thinking about the name 'date'. She understood that it was only an expression, but it did make her feel like she was cherished by her friend. She also intentionally ignored the fact that the word 'date' had many expectations attached to it. Or tried to ignore. “What am I even going to wear? I have nothing…”

In her mind, she catalogued every piece of clothing that she could call presentable and came up woefully lacking.

If Mika had not said 'date' Silva would have gone in jeans and hoodie, but now she felt that it was not appropriate for the occasion. “I'll have put on make-up as well... Stupid Mika...” Silva grumbled to herself as she returned to the faux meditation.

At least that worked, as she had cleared her mind in only a few minutes. She observed the energy, or more specifically the amount. She had used her ability quite often today, and by evening whatever was fuelling the ability was running dry. She knew that sleeping will replenish it, but it was not the fact of sleeping itself. Resting did the same, albeit at a lower rate if she calculated correctly.

There was one thing that bothered her about energy recovery. From where did the energy come from? She had spent a lot of time studying the circulation through her body and had concluded that all of the flows were closed loops. There was no start nor there was no end.

When Silva used her ability for a long time the stream of energy started to run dry and when she recovered it returned to the previous capacity. That’s why it was strange.

She furrowed her brows as she pondered the problem but the only other source she could think was from around her, but she did feel anything similar from it. “Maybe I just need to practice more?” The thought made Silva sigh. As always she only got ‘maybe’ and ‘possibly’, nothing was simple in her life lately.

It was already getting late and she expected no further results from her experimentation. It was already the midnight and it was time to get at least some sleep. Her father had gone asleep an hour ago already, so when she went to the bathroom to wash she was extra careful to not make noise, only to remember that she could just use her ability to erase noise made by her. She still had to mind the distance, but for once the apartment being so small had its upsides in cases like these.

As expected when she finally got to her bed the sleep eluded her. It was not strange to her. Even though she knew that tomorrow will, most likely, be a busy day she still could not force herself to fall asleep.

The problems she had to face just kept multiplying. That Amaraleo guy and mysterious number, the unclear future, the school, the small but constant trickle of suspicious news on the internet, the blue floating bead... “Wait… The bead!”

Silva suddenly rose up. "Come to think of it, the energy around the crystal feels similar to the one I have in my body!"

Next few minutes was spent by her trying to calm down. There were implications to her conclusion, but she was not sure of what they were. She had the feeling that it was important, but without actually returning to that basement she could only speculate.

Silva started to concentrate on her ability and her inner flow, she had to see if feeling out the energy would make her memory clearer.

After comparing her memory with the flow in her body she came to the conclusion that she was not sure. With furrowed brows, she tried to recall every detail but to no avail. “It feels similar, but there is something different...”

But what was the difference Silva could not tell... However, the more she thought about it the more confident she was, that it was almost the same...“If only I could go back and check.” Silva thought but immediately discarded the idea. It was too dangerous. There were no guarantees that the place was not secured more tightly after her break-in. No, there was no way it had not become more dangerous.

There was something else too. The energy she felt in herself was nothing before what she had sensed back there. Whatever had caused the phenomena only added to the danger, but at the same time, she remembered how that room had made her feel. The strength and confidence, the palpable improvements of how she felt and used her ability.

Silva wondered where those ruffians had obtained something like that. After a moment of fantasising she remembered how the bead itself had felt. Almost as if it reached for her very soul. She shuddered and discarded those thoughts and returned to her practice.

After half an hour of aimlessly trying to feel the source of her energy, she opened eyes, but still, it did not feel like she could fall asleep.

Silva sighed, which was quickly becoming a habit. After longingly looking at her pillow she decided to do something different. Her body was demanding rest, but her mind was still running wildly.

Silva lied down on her bed and started her version of meditation. Last time she had tried to meditate this way she had almost fallen asleep and she hopped for the same this time.

To her satisfaction, Silva soon felt like drifting away as her mind seemed to flow together with the energy in her body. She activated her ability wondering if this time it will last through her sleep. With a corner of her mind, she wondered what would happen if her father entered her room and found no one. Then she dismissed the idle thought as her father would not enter her room until he got her permission.

The last thought she had before drifting away completely was how she should clarify the dress code on her planned meeting with Mika.

–

The loud ringing of the alarm clock was quick to end Silva’s sleep, but she quickly managed to find her phone to silence it.

After what felt like a short fight with her unyielding eyelids, she managed to open her eyes to see her room faintly lit up by the autumn morning sun. Not much of light came in through the windows, but it was enough for her to see.

Silva groggily sat up and lazily scratched her stomach. Her mind was still catching up to her body as she stood up to walk to the bathroom. She slowly made her way not bothering to be quiet, as her father had already left for work at this hour.

When she returned to her room and slumped back in her bed her mind had cleared up enough to take notice to one very obvious fact. She had her ability still active!

Silva tried to remember if she had turned it on this morning and her conclusion was that she had not. After she checked if her energy had been depleted she was pleased to see that it had not. So that meant that she had found a way to keep her ability on indefinitely!

After regaining her composure Silva realised that, while cool, the fact itself did not change anything. She already had an easy time to keep her ability up. The fact that she could do that forever meant little when she also had to live her life. There was no way she could spend all of her life as a hermit.

And speaking of life, she was late for school. Letting out a curse she quickly started dress. The stiff joints did not help and it became apparent that she would be late.