Asteria

Elsa’s training was going so well that I estimated it would take only a few more months before she was fully trained. Now, after just twenty days of meditation, I figured she was ready to enter the spiritual plane.

According to her, every time that she attempted it she would get pushed back until she eventually stopped trying. I figured it was some sort of mental block. Forcing one’s astral body to travel to the spiritual plane was a difficult endeavor at best, but gentle coaxing and lots of patience should see us through.

Right now, she was lying on the floor and was in a deep trance.

“Focus on my voice. Anima is streaming into your body. Your body feels lighter than air,” I said.

The chibis that I had sent to monitor her physical and mental state relayed the information to me. Her brain waves had slowed down, and her vital signs were good.

I kept up a soothing patter as I sat cross-legged down beside her prone body. Normally, she would have to enter the spiritual plane on her own, but I was going to cheat a little. I knew a way to take hold of her spiritual body and bring it with me to the higher realm of consciousness.

“You are safe. You feel me beside you. Reach your hand out to me and I will guide you to where you need to go-”

That was when it happened. I was completely unprepared for the attack.

My body was frozen in shock and pain, but anima burst from me in an uncontrolled explosion of terror and rage as a mass of seething, chaotic anima blasted our astral bodies and forced us out of the spiritual plane. Just in time, I remembered to shield Elsa from the worst of the attack.

The agony went on and on. With physical bodies, a person’s nerve endings would have burned out long ago, making them blissfully numb. Unfortunately for Elsa and me, spiritual bodies had no such function. I suffered the brunt of it.

After endless-seeming minutes, the pain finally subsided enough for me to see that everyone was crowded outside of the meditation room’s shield.

Of course, the others were frantic, so I let them in even though I was still too stunned to speak.

One thing’s for sure, though.

Whoever had attacked us, they were going to pay.