Chapter 3: Lessons

As Darian awakes, he gradually grows aware of his surroundings. He can see his mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen. He sees his father preparing the forge for the day’s work. He can see the trees dancing in the wind outside his house. All of this comes to him with no effort. He lies there, amazed. “So it wasn’t a dream. Am I becoming more connected?” He thinks to himself. “What should I call this? Outside sight? Extra sight? Strange vision? I’ll think of something.”

While deep in thought, Darian climbs out of his bed and gets dressed. His mind replays the encounter he had with Aeric and his friends last night. He puts his hand up to this face, but feels neither wound nor scar. He looks down at his leg and sees the same. He finishes getting dressed and heads to the kitchen.

Darian enters the kitchen and sees his mother busily frying eggs. “Good morning, Mother.”

She turns to face him and smiles. “Morning, Son. Did you sleep well? You look exhausted.”

“I feel exhausted. The cuts I got from last night are gone, though. As if I never got them.”

Her face grows worried. “I believe your father wanted to talk to you about that. He should be able to help you more than I can. He’s at the forge. Why don’t you head out there? I’ll call for you both when breakfast is ready.”

“I’ll head out there, then.” Darian leaves the kitchen. As he exits, he can see her watching him leave. Darian enters the backyard and immediately heads to the forge supplies. He knew his father was in there before he even left the kitchen. He walks to the supply shed, but as he approaches, his father’s aura momentarily flares brighter than Darian had ever seen. Darian freezes in place by instinct.

Edwin walks out of the shed as his aura returns to normal. “I believed you, boy, but I had to be sure. It seems you really have awoken. We’ll have to change our training schedule now.” He walks to Darian, who is beginning to relax, and places his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Come with me, boy. Let’s find a quiet place to talk.” The two of them leave the backyard and begin walking towards the treeline bordering their property.

Their family owns a large plot of land on the outskirts of the town that has no immediate neighbors. They use the surrounding woods to hunt and gather firewood; they do not go too deep into the forest. Though there is no obvious cutoff point, the forest eventually turns into the “Ell Woods”. The Ell Woods are known to host dangerous spirits and creatures that don’t take well to humans entering their domain. Even the trees themselves have been known to attack those who venture too deep. There are a few ways to lessen your chances of getting attacked, but the best method is simply to turn around and head back the way you came when you find yourself overcome by a sudden chill.

Darian and his father continue to walk until they enter the forest. From there, they walk until they are no longer visible from outside the treeline. Edwin stops, turns to Darian, and says, “Watch well, boy. I am going to show you something that is best not to do often. If someone like me is close enough, they will know where I am and that I am connected. Prepare yourself. If you are as sensitive as I think you are, this might hurt you.”

Darian watches intently as his father takes a few steps away from him and assumes a relaxed stance. He watches him for a few moments in silence. Suddenly, Darian feels it all at once. A burst of light; a rush of wind; a terrifying pressure. With his eyes, he sees only his father simply standing there, but with his vision, he can see a tremendous change in his father’s aura. The aura now envelopes an area of five feet around his father. Darian finds himself frozen in place as his father stands before him. He hears nothing but his own heartbeat as it thumps against his chest. An overwhelming urge to run rises from within him. Just as he was about to turn and run, the aura vanishes. His senses come back to him as his surroundings become more clear again. He notices the birds chirping and the leaves rustling in the wind. The forest feels so peaceful again, as if it’s very existence wasn’t just in question.

His father wakes him from his daze. “You need to work on not freezing every time somebody’s aura flares up, boy.”

“Flares up? That was an explosion! Is that what being connected is like?”

“That’s a part of it, yes. There is more.” Edwin turns to a nearby tree and walks to it. Darian sees his father’s aura flare up again, but this time it is more controlled. Instead of exploding outward, the aura becomes dense. His father reels back and strikes the tree. A resounding crack is heard as the sturdy wood turns to splinters. When his father removes his hand from the tree, a hole about three times the size of his hand remains imprinted. Darian immediately realizes that if that attack was to connect with any living creature, it would kill them.

Edwin faces Darian. “All living things have energy flowing through them that they expend just by living. You and I can sense this energy as they expend it. Most things have no control over how they expend it, or how much they have, but you and I are different. We’re Life-Connected. We can draw energy from the source we are connected to and control it. Though, how much you can draw and control depends on your physical state, your mental state, and your connection. Son, your mental state is good, but your body is weak and your connection is untrained. This means you have a small capacity and weak control. However, this is only when compared to someone who has been trained, like me. Are you getting all this, boy?”

Darian looks at his father with deep consideration. “I think so, but I have a few questions.”

“Ask them.”

“You said that living things give off the energy they expend. Why can I see nonliving things like rocks and buildings?”

“Good question, boy. That’s expended energy bouncing off objects. The energy does eventually go away, but when you’re surrounded by living things, you see a lot of energy.”

“Okay. Second question, what do you call the vision that lets us see energy?”

Edwin pauses for a moment as he thinks. “I don’t call it anything. To be honest, you are the second person I know of who can see energy. Connected can feel energy if it’s from a strong enough source, but they can’t use it to see like we can. You can call it whatever you want.”

“I’m going to call it Energy Vision.” Darian exclaims. “So, what makes us special? Why can we see what others can’t?”

“We’ll talk about that when the time comes.”

Darian feels unsatisfied with that answer, but continues on. “I have one last question, then. What do the aura colors mean?”

“The colors surrounding each living thing depend on their mood. A creature in a neutral state will have a gray aura. That is the only color you can know with certainty. For most animals, the more intelligent they are, the more color they show in their aura, but as the colors grow, they become harder to understand. People are simply too complex to assign moods to colors.” Edwin’s aura periodically changes color, as if to illustrate his point.

“The best way to understand a person through energy is to open yourself up to them. However, by doing so, you risk being overwhelmed and having your own emotions corrupted. A trained connected can hide their emotions and protect themselves from being overwhelmed by the auras of others. That is one of the lessons I will be teaching you. Anything else?”

“No, I think I’m good.”

“Then, we’ll start by teaching you about your energy points. For most connected, there are between two and six energy points on their hands. These energy points allow you-”

Darian’s head suddenly whips to the side as he looks towards their house. “Mother is headed this way.”

Edwin follows his gaze, but can’t see through the trees. “Really? I can’t sense her. Are you- Ah, now I see her. You have pretty good ‘Energy Vision’ considering your lack of training. I would estimate it is about forty feet. Mine is only about thirty.”

Helen approaches from the trees and smiles at them. “What are you two doing out here? I could sense your energy flare from the house.”

Edwin returns her smile and gestures to Darian. “I was just teaching the boy a bit about energy since he’s awakened and all. Better to teach him now, so he doesn’t get himself in trouble.”

“That’s fine and well, but how are you going to teach him about evocation without me? Or did you suddenly gain the ability yourself?”

Edwin chuckles. “I was going to ask for your help, eventually. I can’t give him an example of it after all. Let me finish teaching him about energy points before you blow him away.”

“Of course, dear.”

Edwin turns back to Darian. “All right, boy, let’s continue. Energy points allow you to use evocation. Most connected have energy points, and by extension, the ability to evoke their energy into forms that match their source.”

“What do you mean, wouldn’t all of their sources be the same? Aren’t they all connected to Life?”

“Technically, yes, but ‘Life-Connected’ is a broad term. While it’s true that all connected are connected to life, it would be more accurate to call them ‘source-connected.’ You see, boy, they are all actually connected to one or more elements of life; not necessarily life itself. There are the major elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Then, there are the minor elements: Gravity, Light, Darkness, and Lightning.”

“What separates major and minor elements? Are some stronger than others?”

“The strength depends on the connected. What separates them is how common the connections are. You are much more likely to see a warrior connected to Earth alone, than you are to see a connection to Gravity alone. However, each major element has a related minor element. That means, that if you’re connected to a specific major, you have a higher chance of being connected to its associated minor than the others. The connections are: Fire to Light, Water to Darkness, Air to Lightning, and Earth to Gravity. All of that said, there are lesser elements as well, but there are so many, that I will not list them, nor do I know them all.”

He glances at Helen, before turning back to Darian. “Looks like I got off track. Let’s get back to energy points. As I was saying before, most connected have between two and six energy points somewhere on their hands. The total number is split between the two hands. If you lose a hand, you lose the ability to use evocation. To use the energy points, you connect the points on one hand to the points on the other. Look to your mother, she will take it from here.”

Helen grasps one hand in the other. “When you connect the points together, it’s called making a ‘Path’. It’s called a Path because it allows your energy to flow more quickly and efficiently from your source to your evocation. You make your path and build an image of the evocation you wish to use in your head. The stronger the image, the stronger the evocation. Because of this, evocations thought up on the spot are weaker and evocations that are complex, require more time to evoke into reality. Once you have completed your image, you can conjure your evocation through your points, or with enough practice, you can conjure them from anything your energy is connected to. One thing to keep in mind is that even though you are evoking the element from your source, you are using your energy to coax the element out. If you use evocation recklessly, you will begin to suffer rebounds. Any questions so far?”

Darian looks at his mother with confusion. “Yes, mother, I have a few. First, how do I know where my energy points are? Also, you said something about using evocations through something your energy is connected to. What does that mean? Finally, what are rebounds?”

She gives him a gentle smile as her aura flares out and merges with the ground. “Let’s start with energy extension. Just as it naturally surrounds your body, with enough training, a connected can extend their aura around objects such as weapons or surfaces like the ground or walls. This can protect the object or surface your aura is surrounding, or to attach yourself to it. This technique can even make an item sharper or tougher.”

Her aura retreats to its original position. “With even more training, energy extension can allow a connected to evoke through those objects or surfaces. This can be used effectively in many situations, but I’ll let your imagination figure those out.”

Her smile fades and she takes on a more serious expression. “To respond to ‘What are rebounds’, let me go into a bit more detail on what your energy is used for when you use evocation. Major and minor elements are inherently hazardous to us because of their powerful and foreign nature. Your energy is used to shield yourself from the negative effects of dragging these elements into our world. Once you spend more energy than your body can handle, you begin to lose that shield. As you lose the shield, the elements damage your body. How it damages your body depends on the element, but it’s never good. As for lesser elements, they’re too diverse to speak on. For some of them, you need to shield yourself and for others, you don’t. They seem to have a more personal link, unlike major and minor elements.”

She clasps one hand in the other. “Finally, how to know where your energy points are. We’ll show you later. Now, I’m going to show you what a proper evocation looks like.”

Darian finds himself disappointed that his question was once again put to the side, but excited to see another example of what a trained connected can do.

While holding her hands together, she looks over at Darian. “This is my path, Darian. I’m lucky that my energy point locations allow me to create a path simply by holding my hands together, but others aren’t so lucky. Sometimes, connected can have quite complicated paths. Now, stand back and look at the tree, that your father so kindly struck.”

Darian looks over at the tree, but with his energy vision, he watches his mother’s aura intently. For the first moment, her aura remains steady and smooth. Her aura then flares out for but a moment, before the flared portion of her aura condenses and surrounds her hands. The condensed aura continues to shrink until it is the size of a marble in between her clasped hands. She then quickly pulls her hands apart and a rush of wind whirls around her. The marble grows to the size of a sword before it’s replaced by what appears to be the head of a spear, made entirely of wind. She thrusts her hands toward the tree, and the wind spear becomes a blur as a piercing sound echoes through the forest. The tree Darian was looking at immediately bursts into splinters as it’s torn in half directly where his father had punched it. A wave of wind explodes outwards away from the impact, kicking leaves and grass into the air. The tree collapses to the ground in a violent crash.

Edwin lets out an impressed whistle before chuckling. “Show off. You could have shown him evocation without showing me up.”

Helen smiles as she turns to Edwin. “But you made it so easy for me, dear.”

Darian runs up to this mother excitedly. “What was that? Your source is air? Can you use lightning?”

Helen tries to settle him down. “That was a wind evocation that I call spearhead. And no, I can’t use lightning.”

Darian finds himself disappointed he won’t see lightning, but keeps it to himself. “Spearhead? That’s it?”

“You don’t need to be creative when naming evocations, you just need to be descriptive. It helps bring the image to your head again when you need it quickly.”

Darian turns to his father. “Why can’t you use evocation? You obviously have a source.”

“I don’t have energy points.”

Darian’s curiosity turns to confusion. “I thought you said all connected had energy points?”

“No, boy, I said most connected have energy points. I can’t use evocations, but you better believe I’m damn hard to handle in a melee. You can always work around your flaws and find a strategy that suits you.”

Darian worriedly asks, “What if I don’t have energy points? I won’t be able to shoot out balls of fire or wind or something?”

“Well, I think it’s time to find out, boy.”

Helen’s aura flares toward both of them, and they reflexively jolt. She smiles at them both before looking at Edwin. “I think you meant it’s time for breakfast, didn’t you, dear?”

Edwin turns to her and smiles. “Of course, that’s what I meant. Come along, boy. You can train more after breakfast.”

An hour after breakfast, Darian is sitting outside, with his hands together, while his father works the forge. He sits there with his eyes closed, trying to concentrate. “I don’t feel anything. Shouldn’t something be happening? When mother did it, it happened so fast.”

Edwin responds without looking. “Like I said, it takes time before you can feel your energy points. Stay like that for as long as you can. If you don’t feel an urge to change the position of your hands by tonight, you probably don’t have energy points.”

“If I don’t have energy points, how will I find out what my source is?”

“One step at a time, boy. Let’s find out if you have energy points before worrying about your source.”

“Also, what exactly do you mean by an urge? I’m felling plenty of urges to move around and stop sitting here.”

Edwin sighs. “Helen said you would know if you felt it.”

Darian feels a tinge of annoyance. “That doesn’t really help much.”

“Maybe it will once you actually feel it.”

Darian decides to forget about it and simply focus on his aura. He views the world around him, using his energy vision as he tries to focus. He watches the energy dance and whirl around him, as if the world itself is alive. He looks at the aura of his father and wonders why it feels like a wall that blocks all emotion, but when he looks at himself, it feels as if he is an open door, waiting for something to walk through. Is it because of the training his father went through?

He focuses on the energy whirling around him. He enjoys the pleasant feeling as it passes over his skin. He doesn’t remember ever noticing this before, but it feels as if letting it in would be more natural than keeping it out. Why would someone want to train to keep themselves closed off from it? He gradually imagines the energy flowing into him. He imagines accepting the energy and using it for himself. Slowly, the energy seeps into him. He follows the energy with his vision as he seems to absorb it. He watches it flow into himself until he can see nothing but the energy inside him. It dances and whirls around, as if to encouraging him to join in. He visualizes dancing beside it and before long, he can feel himself diving deeper and deeper into his himself.

He continues to dive ever deeper until he begins to fall. He falls faster and faster until he is plummeting down an endless abyss. As he falls, he notices the energy that was with him has disappeared and has been replaced with a sinister presence. The presence circles him as if inspecting him. It grows closer until it is nearly touching him. As it draws nearer, he feels his skin burn, causing him to scream, before the heat sears his throat shut. The very air around him seems to boil with rage.

The presence coils itself around him and attempts to leap into him, but is blocked by the sudden appearance of a shield of energy forming around his body. He notices the burning fade and the rage dissipate. The presence slinks back into the abyss. Darian watches it for a moment before the sound of his name being called draws his attention upward. He hears his parents calling out to him. He wills himself to them, and the bottomless abyss turns to light as he opens his eyes.

He looks around and sees his mother holding him at arm's length, looking into his eyes with frightened concern.

“Darian! Oh, thank the gods! I thought we would lose you.” She wraps her arms around him in an unyielding embrace.

He sees his father come into view from behind him. He’s drenched in sweat and seems to be out of breath. “You gave us quite the scare, boy. We weren’t sure you were coming back. However, we have a pretty good idea of your source, now!” He lets out a strained chuckle.

Darian’s energy vision slowly recovers, and he immediately notices his parents’ auras. “They have color. I can feel how terrified they are.”

Darian looks at his parents with tired eyes. “What happened?”

Helen wipes her eyes. “You made contact with your source. Or rather, it made contact with you.”

Edwin places his hand on Darian’s shoulder. “It tried to take over, son. Something woke it up, and it tried to possess you. I had to step in to stop it.”

“The shield. Was that you?”

Edwin’s aura gradually shifts back to gray. “It was. I’ve got a few tricks I can pull off when needed. I noticed you absorbing ambient energy at a dangerous rate, so I gave you some of mine. Normal connected can’t absorb energy. It looks like you’ve got a rather hungry lesser source. You were in such a hurry to find out what your source was, and now you know.”

Darian looks down at his hands and sees cracks have formed on his fingers and blood is slowly forming on the surface of them. He looks back up at his father. “Do you know what lesser element it is?”

Edwin shakes his head. No, not exactly, but I think it’s similar to mine. As I’ve suspected since last night, you probably have a lesser element with an ego; otherwise known as a ‘Demon.’ I have one as well, but it’s not as active as yours is. The more intelligent it is, the more cautious you have to be when using it.”

He feels his throat tighten and tears stream down his face. He recalls burning alive in the dark abyss. “A demon? Why couldn’t it be something normal, like Earth or Air? What am I supposed to do now?”

Helen embraces her son again. “We’ll get through this, Darian. We’ll train you how to control your aura, then it’ll never bother you again.”

Edwin kneels down next to him. “We’ll make sure of it.”