After his discovery, Warren felt elated. Connecting with the energies had given him many new insights.

As he sat on his bed he started sorting out his thoughts and making his first conjectures.

The feeling the Earthly energy gave him was one of life and vibrancy. The Deathly energy had given him despair before the connection was established but had given him a feeling of peace and warmth afterward.

Warren pondered about this discovery the longest. Death was a natural occurrence. Death is part of the natural cycle of life. This sentence once more ran through his thoughts. For some reason, this gave him peace of mind. He felt much calmer at the mind than he had been before.

He now understood that the dark energy was not a 'bad' energy. It just felt threatening because of what it represents. All humans instinctively fear death. It had tried to make a connection after 'life' had also done that. But it seemed that the rejection had made the energy determined to try, by all means, to explain and to be understood.

Warren chuckled, it was like the energies had the consciousness of a small child. However, as he kept pondering, he felt this to be a very natural thing. He also could not find a reason for his confidence in his conjectures. Due to the connection he simply 'felt' that this was what the energies had communicated.

Warren then walked to his desk, grabbed a leather-bound notebook. He had bought this earlier, as he had wanted to document his life in this new world. However, he never actually started to write... As there was very little excitement in his life so far. He'd rather erase the memories of the times he was breastfed, had diaper changes et cetera...

But now he had something he wanted to document: the discoveries of his two gifts!

He quickly wrote down his discoveries in a summary, as he wasn't going to write it in the style of a book.

"Discovered that I possess two gifts. Appraisal and Elemental affinity."

"Appraisal is very easy to use; lets me appraise people and objects and gives a description based on par with my knowledge base. The more I know, the more it will show. People seem to be hard to thoroughly appraise, will work on that."

"Elemental Affinity lets me connect with natures forces. For now, this only gives me the opportunity to exchange small amounts of information; feelings and intentions. If I can develop this it should be very useful! Successfully established a connection with 'life' and 'death' energies. Should ask Robert about this."

After rereading it once, checking if he missed anything major, he closed the book and hid it in his drawer beneath some of his clothes. It was, after all, private information that if leaked could cause quite some uproar. Imagine hundred years of history recorded on gifts, and then being the first anomaly with two gifts...

He then decided to not dabble any further with his experiments for the day, as it was all new and exciting. Being thorough was necessary, and he felt he could not quite get in a concentrated state. Even though his encounter with 'death' had, in the end, benefitted him, he still felt somewhat wary about interacting with the energies. Therefore he chose to wait and gather some more mental strength before attempting any further.

After making this careful and pragmatic decision, the rest of the day went by rather uneventfully. He decided to only consult Robert by the next day, as he himself still would need some time to digest his experiences.

During breakfast next morning he quickly made some arrangements with Robert. His father looked suspiciously upon the vague appointment being made in front of him. The feeling of being left in the dark bothered him somewhat but he decided to ignore the feeling. He had insisted on Robert as his teacher, and given Robert free reigns in how to handle the matter. He also trusted Robert so the uncomfortable feeling was quickly suppressed.

After breakfast, Warren followed Robert to his office in the East Wing. When they arrived they found Herbert already making 2 cups of steaming thee. Herbert had overheard their talks during breakfast and immediately went to accommodate the appointment.

This efficiency no longer surprised Warren, nor did it Robert. They sat down in the chairs adjoining his desk. Robert sat across the desk, thanked Herbert and send him off.

"So, you were rather adamant to have this meeting this early so there must be something you wish to tell me?" Robert's eyes twinkled as he once more effortlessly deduced Warren's objectives.

"Yes, yesterday I once more tried to connect with the elements and.." Warren had thought many times about how to explain the various occurrences but now still struggled to find the right words.

"And?" Robert's brow creased, anticipation written all over his face.

"Well, I succeeded in connecting with two different energies. First I connected with a very gentle natured energy. It felt like life and vibrancy, after that I could feel the earth move and breath. It was very magical."

Robbert nodded but did not interject as he knew Warren had more to share.

"At this point, it was like my consciousness was outside my body. Like I was floating around in space. Then a menacing, threatening energy started to move up closer to me. I panicked and tried to retreat, the gentle earthly energy then protected me from the dark energy. But it still made contact with me." Warren gave a detailed description of the entire process. Robert's eyes had become more serious and various wrinkles were now ployed along his forehead.

"Then something very odd happened. It made a connection with me, and after that, it turned in a very warm, very natural feeling. This deathly aura felt very misunderstood. I still do not know why or how, but it feels safe to connect with it." Warren then looked at Robert inquisitively, wanting to hear his conjectures about the events.

Robert then nodded, acknowledging that he had heard and understood the account of the event.

He then put up a pondering face as he slowly started to his explanation.

"Yesterday I conjectured that these energies in the air are natures forces. This is still very likely. However, unlike various theories that I know about, these energies are very different than our own mana. Like I said before, not much is known about interacting with Nature's forces. We stimulate these forces with our own mana, but we cannot understand the concept of these energies themselves."

"You're very likely the first person that is actually able to investigate these forces this deep. I know of some gifts that are similar to yours. Like those gifts that interact with controlling fire. It was widely assumed by many theorists, that by decreasing of increasing mana around a fire would make it possible to control the fire. Or even possible to lay out paths for the fire to follow."

"However after hearing your account, it seems that these energies are much closer to a different kind of study. In theology, many believe that the world was created by God and that he created the constraints of the world. He installed laws that control everything'; fire, wind, gravity, rain, sun. All fell under the natural laws made by God."

"There have been many beliefs throughout history, but this explanation has been adopted by many, nowadays the most dominating belief is those that believe in Yaksa. This religion is called Yanism, and this one to tells of the same world constraints. Your feelings during the interaction with these energies sound similar to the world constraints."

"This does not mean this rings true, as many stories in religion are more symbolical than real. However, I think it is likely that these energies might follow the same concept. You've experienced life and death, two major laws in life. And you also mentioned something that felt like the wind. So it's very possible there are also Nature's forces like fire, water, earth and the like as depictured in theology. Since you feel it is safe to interact with these energies, you should continue to investigate, however, take care when doing so - this deathly aura is enough of a warning to keep your wits about."

Warren had been listening attentively and felt Robert's conjectures could very well be true. But it also felt like a very simple explanation, the fact that something like this hadn't been a widespread theory bothered him a bit. But given his own experiences with the energies, he was at least inclined to believe Roberts words.

After a quick confirmation, Robert once more continued lecturing.

"Right, since you have established a connection with two energies, it is important to find out what they're uses can be. They're very mystical but should have some underlying principles that can help you smoothen communicating with them, perhaps you can order them to do various things, or maybe they can inform you of various things. This all depends on how you approach your goal. Try and discover as many of them as you can." Robert stated matter of factly.

"Now let us move on from this subject, we should discuss your lessons, to prepare you for the test in the academy. In two years you need to be among the brightest, smartest, best educated among your peers. This task in itself is already daunting. So you'll have a lot on your plate from now on." Robert smiled mischievously as if enjoying Warrens miserable upcoming time wherein he'll be studying a lot.