Luxuria to Ira

“Well, as I was saying, what you experienced wasn’t an Awakening, It was an Enlightenment. You often hear of the bards talking about painters and craftsmen sitting under trees or on mountain tops for seven days and seven nights and coming back as mages. That’s all nonsense. They are just masters of their fields who have accumulated enough Fame to activate their Aura. As they are ill equipped to deal with the sudden efflux of Aura, normally they should die from discharging all their life force which is associated with their Aura but due to the addition of Fame, which is personal in nature, the Aura develops a ‘sense of belonging’ and refuses to leave, automatically… gasp… forming a Theca.”

“Right, like you these people are exhausted by their forced state of Theca and pass out, recover in their sleep, pass out again upon waking up, ad infinitum till they learn to restrain their Aura. The so called seven days and seven nights are mostly spent in such a cycle. The abilities they gain from their Aura are also related with their field of endeavour.

The mortality rate is nearly zero as anyone capable enough of being a paragon of his field is capable enough to grasp the basics of Aura. Although there is an anecdote about a painter who spent a long time feverishly working on his masterpiece without food or rest and right after completing it went into a state of Enlightenment, dying of starvation within it. It is said that the painting was contaminated with the Aura of the dying painter and became an enchanted item.

Awakening on the other hand is quite risky. It involves extreme stimulation like surviving a life or death situation or exposure to killing intent from an Aura adept. If the person is unable to grasp his Aura and form his Theca rapidly, he will die due to the dispersal of his life force. Those who survive often carry physical or mental scars from the ordeal. Early preparation with image training and meditation are helpful in reducing casualties as per tests conducted in the army.

Both Awakening and Enlightenment require a mature body and awakened children below sixteen suffer from many complications. Thus, we were waiting for you two to come of age.”