Aias had finally found it. This was his energy, he didn’t know what to do, he was even more afraid now then when he was first unable to find it. What if when he left meditation he lost it again. What would he do then! He tried to find something to distinguish his core with but what was there that wasn’t there before. To begin with a person's consciousness is just one large black space filled with nothing until you notice it, then POW there it is.

But Aias quickly calmed down. He continued for the rest of the day getting used to the feeling of each of the energies that made up the little ball, he wanted to make sure he knew exactly what he was looking for when trying to find it again.

He stopped when a caretaker came to bring him his supper. Aias was surprised to see that the caretaker to bring him food was the same one who had lent him a blood steel dagger when he ventured to the wilderness, his name was supposedly Rainar. After eating he decided to ask Rainar to help him back to his room. Rainar was baffled, he had been there to bring Aias food every day for three month now, Aias had never even said a word or even acknowledged that he was there during that time, he had only sat there concentrating on meditating, but now came this question out of nowhere. Obviously he agreed, why wouldn’t he help Aias, he knew what he had been through during the last three month and had only respect for the conviction Aias showed.

Aias had been sitting for three month in one position, the only movement he had done during that time was hold a bowl and fork, his legs had been paralyzed by time. Aias noticed this the most now that he began moving again, though he himself didn’t move a muscle it didn’t change that his body was now in motion from the caretaker moving. The pain was severe, with every step Rainar took it made every muscle in Aias body screaming with pain. His body was as if dying from the long time it had stayed inactive, and now suddenly that half dead body was moving again. It was far too painful for Aias to suppress but he held in the screams he wanted to shout out.

Aias was on the verge of passing out when he thought of something, “Please bring me to the Varja?” And with that he was now passed out sleeping on Rainar’s back.

Rainar knew Aias was the owner of Varja, infact that was one of the reason he had offered to be the one to bring him food every day. He already held Aias in quite high regard all the way since he had lent him his knife. Aias didn’t know it but the reason he hadn’t been attacked while scavenging in Biagia-chami forest was because Rainar had stayed close by and taken care of any dangerous beast without Aias knowing. All this while observing what Aias was doing and planning.

Rainar wasn’t sure what to do, sure he should bring Aias back to the infirmary so healers could help him but so could the Kjil serpent. A serpent like the Kjil could massage Aias body to increase the natural healing factor along with regulating the blood flow to the body. Leaving Aias with Varja wasn’t a bad idea, and to think Aias had thought of that made it all the more impressive.

In truth however Aias just missed Varja and wanted to be close to his lovely snake.

………..

Rainar brought Aias down into the Kjil serpents pit, there he saw the giant snake eagerly awaiting Aias. When he handed Aias over to Varja he noticed the kind almost human eyes it looked at Aias with, Varja then looked over to him and gave a short bowing gesture with its head. To see a large serpent beast bowing to a human was such an odd experience that Rainar couldn’t help bowing back to it. Varja wrapped itself around Aias body slowly tightening then letting go, it clearly knew what it was supposed to do to help him. Rainer knew he had made the right decision to leave Aias with Varja.

This was the first night Aias had slept through after three months. Because he was meditating his body hadn’t needed rest the way it normally does, same with food, though his body did need food it wasn’t in the same way one would need it when not meditating. The institute had taught its students a meditation technique which made the body give almost no energy to parts of the body that aren’t in use. In Aias case this was almost every part except the vital organs needed to survive.

……….

Aias awoke two days later in the middle of the day, his body was still being massaged by Varja, but now he could feel his legs. Varja let go of Aias so he could try walking again. In the beginning Aias wasn’t able to keep his balance, not moving for three month had not just affected his body but also his mind, his sense of balance and distance were completely out of control. Though he was sitting straight up it felt as if his body was on a steep slope, things that were only a meter away looked to be either only a centimeter or an entire mile of. Aias continued to stumble about for almost an hour until he could finally walk like a normal human and even then his body could barely keep him standing.

Aias let Varja continue massaging him and then started to once again concentrate on meditating. He couldn’t feel the little ball anywhere, but this time he wasn’t as dejected. He knew it was there, and he knew every practitioner had a hard time finding it the first few times. Seeing as the first time he found it it took three month, he speculated it would maybe take between a day to a week to find it again.

Aias continued searching for it, and just as he predicted it took only about seventy eight hours. He saw the progress right away. It had went down by about thirty times. Of course a real warrior was able to find their core in less than a second while in combat, it was second nature to them. Aias felt he had to improve more before he could return to class. Now that Aias thought of classes he began wondering what his friends were doing, how far had they gotten? Did they notice that he changed location, what was it like for everyone else.

……..

As morning shined on the orphanage a commotion started. Aias disappearing was big news, he had sat there long enough that most people forgot the reason for it in the first place. He had become like a statue for the institute, getting offerings during dinner time. Outrageous rumors had even started to spread, one was that if you pray for love to him you will be brought together with the one you like. And many of these rumors were not only talked about but also carried out. It was well known that some students would pray to him for good luck before heading out to the wilderness.

Now that he was gone everyone was freaking out, they began looking everywhere, and because Aias was currently inside a bundle of snake, being massaged while passed out. No one could find where he was. Caretakers ran out into the fields and forests surrounding the institute trying to get his tracks. But it was to no avail. Some began to mourn him as if he had passed away. Some theorised that after constant meditation for three months he had obtained a revelation and ascended into a higher plain. Everyone was confused, it was the topic of every conversation in the institute and it simply wouldn’t die down.

Long into the day when the sun was beginning to set the shifts for guard duty were about to change, and with that Rainar woke up to begin his shift. He thought it would be a normal day but when he began hearing rumors of Aias disappearance he knew something was wrong. After checking in Varja’s enclosure he understood why everyone was panicking. He had to put a stop to everything so he went to several caretakers explaining the situation, slowly stopping the hysterical rumors from continuing to spread and get bigger than they already had become.

It appeared however that quite a lot of people had gone out to search for Aias, the headmaster, Laue Shevue, Rubin Ludwin, along with several other powerful figures in the orphanage. It was a mess, there was almost no caretakers left to defend if something happened all because one boy disappeared. Rainar kind of wanted to see how things played out if he didn’t tell everyone where Aias was but refrained as that could do actual damage to not only the orphanage’s reputation but also the students training.

With everyone now knowing what had actually happened they all went to see the Kjil serpent, looking at the way the large snake moved its body as if massaging something they could feel a bit more relieved.

The day was about to come to a close when suddenly another student asked, “So why did he chose to move?” Now the situation was more hectic than before. After having something like this happen they had all started remembering why Aias was sitting there in the first place. Most believed he simply gave up. It was a logical conclusion, who would need three whole month to find their core, a normal person would need at most twelve hours let alone a day. Others did believe he had succeeded. And the last few were already trying to come up with conspiracy theories, one was how Aias had already found his core three months ago and during this time he had been cultivating the power in it and now was as strong as a full grown warrior.

Either way most were happy to see he was no longer stuck in the ground covered in mud. Those the happiest were his classmates who had missed him since he began his meditation, they had so many things they wanted to talk about with him.

……..

As Aias opened his eyes after having found his core again he noticed that several students were standing above the pit looking to see how he was doing. Aias stood up and began getting ready to go back to his own room, it was right around time for dinner to be served and he hadn’t eaten properly with others in ages. Luckily while he was asleep Varja had cleaned him up so he wasn’t covered in mud, his clothes still reeked quite a bit though as a serpent isn’t suited for cleaning. He really needed to go and get some clean clothes and a shower.

As he left the pit many students began asking him what had happened for him to stop his meditation, if he succeeded or gave up, or if there was something else. Aias wasn’t going to hide it, he had succeeded and he was proud to finally have entered the stage for energy cultivation. All around him gave their congratulations even if it wasn’t anything special to sense your own core. To them Aias conviction was impressive enough to deserve all the praise in the world.

Aias entered one of the dining halls, he got himself a bowl of vegetable soup and began to chow down on the meal. Aias didn’t want many people to see him as he didn’t feel confident in himself yet so he sat in a corner of the hall and kept his head in the bowl. He really didn’t want to meet his classmates before he had some strength to show.

Because of the bodily restriction from the meditation technique he had used, he hadn’t actually tasted anything the past three months. So now that he finally got that nice light vegetable soup on his tongue it felt like bliss.

He just sat there eating his soup he listened to everything happening around him feeling the cozy atmosphere. He also hadn’t been using his ears for the past three months so now hearing the clammering and loudness of people made his heart warm. He finally felt happy after such a long time stuck in the endless abyss that was his conscience.

…………

That night he didn’t sleep either, instead he meditated trying to find his core again. Aias had gone to bed earlier than everyone else as he didn’t want to meet anyone until he felt confident he could feel his core after at least only one minute. That may not be impressive for others but Aias felt he needed a clear goal in mind.

It took eight hours for him to find his core the third time. It isn’t all that easy to find your own core. Aias was taught during the lecture three months past that a person’s core is in their own consciousness, and as a person's emotions change so does their consciousness making it harder to find it the longer it’s been since you last looked for it. As a person becomes more aware of their own self they get better at finding it even when their consciousness has gone through change, that is why warriors are able to summon their energy immediately. However as the consciousness changes with a person’s emotions they could easily lose their power if any strong emotion goes through them. Though for a strong warrior that strong emotion would only make them lose their power for such a small moment it wouldn’t even be considered an opening.

Aias looked at the time and saw he still had five hours till it was time to go to class. Aias was currently nothing compared to who he once was so to regain what was lost in the last three month he decided to start training again. He went out to try and train. It turned out his body was in even worse shape than he had originally thought. He was out of breath and hurting after less than ten minutes of slow jogging. His body had regressed so far that even if he trained for another three months straight without bothering with anything else it still wouldn’t be enough to be like he once was.

Instead of continuing to jog he decided to sit down next to a tree nearby and meditate. He no longer used the institutes taught methode as his entire body needed energy to replenish itself. Aias had walked quite far out into the forest before beginning to attempt training, he was roughly two hours away. This wasn’t especially far away from the institute but for him whose body was in ruins it had taken far longer than it would normally.

Aias was sitting there meditating, he felt he had become more familiar with his conscience and it only took one and a half hour to find his energy this time. But when he opened his eyes again to his surprise there sat a little fox before him. The foxes fur was golden and tail was red. It sat there playfully looking at him.