The following day as my carriage was leaving I was resting in the back seat. During my meditation last night, I had another moment of clarity that shot me to the threshold of 65% saturation with both chi and aura. They had both reached a sort of fundamental bottleneck at 64% that after crossing, will change my very bloodline at its core thereby giving birth to sorceries.

On top of that, the constant cyclical nature of the concept of my chi and the metaphysical growth property of the concept of my aura has seen me passively cultivating my aura and chi just by being alive, my aura more than my chi though. After all wood feeds fire, which produces earth, that bears metal, which collects water, which nourishes wood. This is the foundation of my aura concept.

‘I really did make the right choice with my concepts.’ I thought with a smile.

Because of this self cultivation, I had reached tier 6 of chi and passed on to tier 5 of aura. Though since things were advancing a little too fast in my opinion, I purposefully abstained from active cultivation of aura and chi and just concentrated on saturating them and the accumulation necessary to form my third circle unless I’m ready to answer some of the hard questions of my family.

‘Speaking of family, I haven't seen them all year.’

They were all in the years above me and in the midst of their own lives so I’m sure they decided to just ignore me. Now, after the assembly, I don’t think they have that option any more. I wasn’t particularly close with any of them so I can't wait to see what angle they would use to approach me, if they do at all.

A few hours later saw me coming up on the castle I called home.

‘Still unchanged’ The carriage stopped in the front and I immediately got off, rushing to my room before anyone could say anything but-

“The grand duke wishes to see you in his office, young master.” I exhaled heavily, of course he does.

I made my way over to his office and knocked on the door.

“Who is that?”

“It is Solis, father.”

“Come in.” I entered into what had now become familiar territory before coming to a stop in front of my father’s desk. Though something was different, he was not alone this time. A man who looked like a slightly older version of my father was there standing in the room with him.

“So this is my genius researcher grandson.” The older man was looking at me intensely.

“I cut my adventure short so I could come see what the fuss is all about, you-” Then he paused suddenly, and deepened his inspection of me. He walked over to me briskly and grabbed my hand while injecting his oppressive mana and aura as if to search for something.

Instinct forced me to stand still, I was not powerful enough to oppose this monster yet.

“Father, what is it? What ar-”

“Quiet! I’m checking something.” We all stood in silence for a while before he smiled.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you got lucky with quite the son Alister. You! Boy, no Solis, you’ve almost reached 65% saturation. And it is not with the whitefyre sorcery we are known for, It is something much more…...profound.” He closed his eyes as if to think of something.

“Yes, your aura has stained your mana and the surrounding mana, just a little bit, with your concept. You did your best to hide it but you have to be at a certain level before you can hide something like that from my senses.” He opened his eyes back up then smiled at me.

“I heard you don't want anything to do with this place and you’re thinking of fleeing when you’re done with schooling. HAHAHAHAHA, just like me. I didn’t want to rule this place, but my father had only one son, and his father only one and it has been that way since the first Whitefyre. Luckily, I’m a bit more in tune to mana than the average person and found the bloodline curse responsible for it when your father was born. Apparently, someone didn't want us fruitfully multiplying.” He paused for a bit, then continued.

“It was easy to break the curse on your father who had been just born, but it was too entrenched in me by the time I realised it was there. So from your father’s line you are curse free, and it showed. How many children do you have?” He looked at my father for this.

“Eight.” My father answered absently.

“Eight he says, bah! Anyway, you, I find interesting.” He looked at me excitedly, then said.

“You can achieve full 65% saturation anytime you want can’t you?” He asked.

“Yes.” I answered

“We do it tonight, It’s not every day we get to see the birth of a completely new bloodline is it?” I was getting frustrated, that means I wouldn’t be ab-

‘I know about the chi, it is part of what got me so very excited. Don’t worry, your father will not be there for this.’ Telepathy, advanced form of free mana, or in this case, aura manipulation that can be used to convey secrets between people. I just nodded my head at the man.

“Go on ahead and pick a spot you find comfortable, I’ll be right with you.” I turned and left.

I haven’t seen my father so submissive, so……

‘Non-responsive? is that the word?’ He just let whatever happened happen.

I went to my comfortable meadow in the surrounding forest and sat in a comfortable position and waited. I began my meditation at the threshold, my aura and chi seeping out and adding vibrancy to the mana surrounding me. I was at the absolute peak of 64% saturation when I sensed him. He came right in front of me and sat.

“Your concept is very……..I feel as though I’m looking at the root of all things, cycling into everything and back to the root of all things. An extremely all encompassing concept isn't it? But how are you containing such profundity within your aura without letting it flow out of control?”

‘He really does have sharp senses, let's reward him.’ I let my chi take the forefront as a balanced cycle in concept itself bloomed around us. Everything seemed perfectly in place as it should be.

“Balance, the concept of your chi is balance, isn’t it.” Close but not quite.

“Cyclical balance.” I replied. His eyes widened and his smile stretched.

“You know, I only found out about and started cultivating my chi later in life. I didn’t want to disappoint my father, and his father before him, so the Whitefyre concept was a given. However, for chi, I could be as adventurous as I wanted to be. So I chose something abstract and obscure and ingrained it into my chi as I knew it. Understanding, comprehension, the concept of getting to know something better and learning its intricacies. This secondary concept is what helped me advance to the tier 8 aura grandmaster and tier 6 chi master that I am today. Now, I want to see where your concept will take you.” He stopped talking and I just looked at him.

“Well then, get on with it.”

Finally, I allowed that last bit of saturation to take effect and landed on 65% saturation and immediately felt the effect.