I breathed in deeply. Even with my eyes closed, I could see the flowing blue fog fill my lugs. As it did, I focused on it staying even as I breathed out. To my disappointment, almost all of the blue fog billowed out as I did. What remained was a small amount of it, not even enough to satisfy a mosquito.

The rate at which it changed into the yellow color of the wisp was very slow as well. From what I'd managed to find out, by listening to videos my parents found for me, was that the energy inside of a person was known by a lot of names, Ki, Chi, Qi, Prana. However, I was unable to find anything about the stuff that was outside of my body, the blue fog. When the wind blew, I watched as the blue fog moved along the air currents. It could only enter the body when it was breathed in and it seemed to go around objects.

Those same objects, however, were also filled with this fog. From what I could tell, the blue fog didn't leave objects either, it held the shape and didn't even leave when it was broken.

It seemed to follow the same principles of solid, liquid, and gas.

But I still couldn't figure out what it was.

So now I was sitting in my parent's living room, using meditation techniques to try and understand what this Ki was. Every time I breathed in the blue fog, my body would save a very small amount of it. After an hour or two, it would have vanished and the yellow wisp had grown by a small amount.

I thought that by using meditation, I could hold more of the blue fog in my body. It was kind of right, but the amount I managed to hold was negligible.

What was worse, this morning when I woke up, I'd found that the yellow wisp had gotten smaller. A little examination of the yellow lines that stretched out from it revealed that it was actually being released through my extremities. It wasn't at a constant rate though.

It was connected to how much I acted during the day. Hard exorcise would expel more of the wisp than just being lazy. When the wisp was nearly gone was when I was the most exhausted.

I focused slightly at the blue fog faded away, revealing the more stationary fog within the coffee table. I touched it before standing up. I'd banged by knee on the table more often than I was proud of.

It was somewhat easy to move around as long as I was able to see the blue fog inside of objects. The constant focusing and focusing on different blue fogs caused my head to hurt, but it was worth it to not run into things. I felt around for a moment, grabbing the walking stick my father had carved for me shortly after returning home.

It was useful for when I went on walks, they helped me clear my head when I thought to much on this Ki stuff.

"Mom, I'm going for a walk!" I called towards the kitchen where I could see her wisp moving about.

"Alright, be careful!" I smiled when I heard the worry in her voice. She hadn't been too happy about me walking around outside on my own, still wasn't, but with my father's help we were able to convince her to let me go out.

It wasn't like I walked around randomly. My parents lived in a suburban area on a large island, but there was still plenty of forests to explore. In my childhood, I used to follow the trail out behind the house often enough. Even blind I can still follow that trail.

Stepping out of the house, I took a deep breath of the fresh air and sighed before I began to walk. I used my walking stick to make sure there were no stones or roots in front of me as I walked. After the first couple of times I tried walking this trail, I'd gotten a bit of an understanding where all the little traps were.

I often thought of my brother and friends on these walks. The funeral had been nice enough, though with an empty casket it was surprisingly more morbid than if there had been bodies. Because of that, the dream I'd had in the hospital kept playing over and over in my mind. I wasn't sure what had happened, but I was sure that event was what had allowed me to see what I could now see.

Whether it was a twin thing or just a gut feeling, I was sure that Max was alive. I had no reason to believe so, I just did. I didn't mention anything that was happening to me though, I didn't need to worry my parents more than they already were.

As I walked, the sounds of leaves blowing in the wind soothed my mind. Simply walking was a great way to empty my thoughts. I'd always been told that I thought to much about things, worried. I'd latch onto an idea and get carried away by it.

I stopped suddenly, looking around. What was that? For a second I'd seen a flash of color among the blue..There! A flash of yellow moving across the ground.

Using my walking stick to guide me, I headed after the color. Going off the path was a bit dangerous for me, but I couldn't stop my curiosity leading me forwards.

Damn my curiosity! I was scratched by a tree branch I hadn't noticed. I needed to move slower but the light kept vanishing constantly. I stumbled forwards slightly and reached out to catch myself on one of the nearby trees.

Directly ahead of me was a thin yellow line, similar to the lines that were inside of my body. I say thin, but it was about as thick as a finger. It stretched ahead of me, going farther than I could see. However, the tip moved, sliding across the forest floor. It passed by near me and I leaned down to touch it and found my hand coming into contact with a tree root and dirt.

It was under the ground? I then pulled my hand back, realizing what I had just done. It could have been something dangerous, a snake or something and I just tried to grab it. Though...it was a bit too long to be a snake now that I thought about it.

Instead of paying attention to the moving tip, I decided to follow the rest of it. It definitely lead somewhere.

A couple of seconds of walking and I paused. Moving my walking stick around I found that there were no trees nearby. I could also feel cold air coming from ahead of me, in the direction where the yellow line was going.

Moving forwards a little, I tapped my stick against the ground, hearing something different than dirt "Rock?" I cocked my head to the side and continued to move forwards.

It was a cave. I made sure when I placed my hand on the cave wall, feeling the cool stone "I didn't know there was a cave here" I mumbled to myself. Still, the yellow line continued on so I followed, ignoring the image of an angry bear that popped into my mind. I didn't think there were bears here anyway.

Still...

I moved a little bit quicker. Coming around a bend I gave a soft gasp. Ahead of me was a yellow wisp, bigger than any I'd ever seen before. It was...beautiful.

As I walked towards it, my stick suddenly hit something hard directly in front of me. My hands explored and I found that I was touching a large boulder of some sort. It was blocking me from touching the yellow wisp.

Observing the wisp only told me so much, in addition to the line that left the cave, I could see many lines of various sizes stretching throughout what I assumed was the boulder. Unlike myself though, the yellow wisp never lost pieces of itself. It seemed contained within the boulder.

As I watched the wisp, a new line formed reaching in my direction. Strangely enough, my own wisp responded as I watched a single line reaching towards my hand become much thicker. At the same time, the rest of my body turned slightly numb.

It was interesting, like I'd figured out before, the yellow wisp was tied to my physical health. Without it being evenly distributed across my body, parts of it lost feeling.

'Wait! Stop, that isn't right' I berated myself 'I'm losing feeling in my body and I am just calmly analyzing it!?'

What the hell was wrong with m..me...

Energy. Lots of it suddenly flowed into my body. I felt like I was being looked at, like nothing in my body was hidden. Turning my eyes towards where my hand met the boulder, I could see the line from the boulder and my own had met.

"Interesting" a voice echoed in my head, like I was thinking but not of my own free will. The voice sounded deep yet...feminine?

"Very interesting. A human? I've never spoken to your kind before. How have you come to find me?"

I was about to answer before I felt the energy in my mind. It was so...calming, yet I was slightly worried about this...entity digging around in my mind. The energy was familiar though. My eyes widened when I realized why. My own wisp felt like this, I just hadn't noticed until I felt a foreign wisp. They felt the same yet different.

It was like I just knew which was mine and which was...hers?

"Your eyes are quite special. Connected directly to your...what do you call it? Ki? An apt name for your life energy" I felt the voice pause as it spoke "I apologize if this seems aggressive. My kind do not converse this way. Your...mind would not handle it otherwise, I had to make sure I would not kill you"

I was able to get flashes of information, but when I tried to get more, it made my mind hurt "Thank you for your consideration" it was strange trying to think towards someone or thing or..."What exactly are you?"

There was what I could only describe as a chuckle "I am a living being, same as you. But I feel that you mean my kind. I am Gaian, we are of the stone and earth."

"Another race?" I thought towards her. How? My mind buzzed as I tried to understand just what this implied "How long have your kind been here?"

"Since before your kind was sapient. We are very old beings young Alexander"

I blinked at the mention of my name before I chucked. Of course she knew my name, she'd been digging around in my head not that long ago.

"I am sorry if I disturbed you. I saw your...Ki?...and followed it. It was the first I'd ever seen that wasn't in another person"

Another chuckled filled my mind "No disturbance. I hadn't expected any being to follow my Ki, but it is a pleasant surprise. We are an inquisitive kind, new knowledge is always welcome. But it seems that I may have knowledge you seek"

I had plenty of questions and I was happy she was willing to answer them "What is this Ki exactly? How can you move it so easily?" even though I could follow the lines, I couldn't move it like she had before.

"Control. My kind refer to Ki as Life Energy. It is what gives all living beings life, you, me, the others. Since it is your life, it is yours to control, you simply have to want it enough. To my knowledge however, humans have had very little success in fully controlling their energy.

They have even less understanding of how to increase it. The knowledge you have gathered is interesting but flawed. The techniques are not for increasing your Ki, but for using what you already have"

I nodded, this sounded right to me. I could barely keep any of the blue fog inside of me. Oh! The blue fog "What is this blue fog that surrounds us?" I asked.

Oddly enough, I felt confusion coming from the Gaian before I felt her Ki begin to probe my mind once more "I see. You can see it. Most beings cannot see it or even the Ki of other beings, only their own. Your eyes are certainly unique. We do not have an exact name for it, as it is simply what it is, Energy.

By exploring your thoughts and knowledge, I have found another word that may help you understand. Mana."

Mana? Like with wizards and stuff? That was...interesting. My head was beginning to hurt for an entirely new reason. This was all a bit difficult to digest. Ki and Mana, life and energy. Other races on Earth. I shook my head. Then I thought of something. This Gaian knew so much more than me, maybe...

"Can I ask you to look at a memory of mine? My brother and friends were in an accident, the same accident that made me blind...but I've thought about it constantly and something was strange about it" if this being could see my thoughts and use words he understood, maybe she could also see what he'd seen.

"I can attempt it. You must hold the image of the event in your mind so that I may easily find it" I nodded and closed my eyes, more of a subconscious action at this point. I focused on that moment, the moment the light appeared under my brother and friends, the words that appeared before I was thrown against the wall.

At the same time, I felt the Gaian's Ki begin to explore my mind.

I was in a mountain. Deep underneath the surface of the planet, tendrils of my energy stretched out and touched others, learned what they learned. I saw the world. Distant lands. I saw a forest become a desert. I saw flat land become a mountain.

I saw apes. I watched them move on all fours and eventually walk on two legs, I watched them develop tools and explore their world. I watched them settle down and war. So much war. Peace and happiness, hardships. Love and loss.

What curious creatures these humans. Living as quickly as they could.

A young human touches me and I feel his Life Energy. It is curious, I am curious. I reach forwards and it follows suit.

I understood. This human had made his first steps into understanding Life Energy, all on his own without help.

"Interesting"

I blinked before touched my face with the hand that wasn't touching the boulder, the Gaian. What had happened? It was...like I'd been...living for a long time. I saw the world. I saw more than I'd ever before. It was...amazing.

"To see your memory, I had to allow you to see my own. I am satisfied that you did not lose consciousness. It seems that your meditation was not entirely unproductive. You have unconsciously increased your own intelligence using Ki Arts. Impressive."

"Ki Arts?" I asked her, still trying to get my thoughts back to normal.

"Something I am only familiar with in passing. Ki Arts are the manipulation of your Ki to improve your physical attributes. The original name is more complex than that, but I believe the term Ki Arts is sufficient"

I nodded "Like when martial artists break through boards or do amazing feats of acrobatics"

"To a degree. Your planet is not the only habitable one. There are some races out there that have gained control over their Ki to an impressive degree. They visited this planet some time ago, introducing some of their techniques to your ancestors. It seems the techniques you discovered may have been diluted versions of those techniques."

I sighed. Humans learning amazing stuff but being unable to hold on to all of the knowledge seemed common place "So what did you discover in my memories"

"You spent far too much time in your room" I blinked at that before laughing.

"Was that a joke?" I asked. I hadn't expected the calm voice of the Gaian to sudden introduce a joke to me.

"An attempt. As we have never conversed with humans, Gaians have thought a particular way for as long as we have existed. Touching your mind has opened new...venues to explore. Your question though. In your memories I saw something very interesting.

You were correct in assuming that your brother and friends were not dead. The symbols that appeared with the energy belonged to a Deity"

"A Deity...you mean a God?" was she saying that a God did something to my brother and friends? First aliens, now gods, this was getting out of hand.

"In a way. A Deity is a living being just as you or I. They have reached the point where their Ki now permeates every cell of their body. From the knowledge we have received from other beings, they are capable of using great amounts of what you would call 'Magic'

In times of trouble, a Deity will allow their world to call for a champion. In response, the Deity will summon a 'Hero' to defend their world"

Oh no. I sighed softly. It wasn't like it was something unheard of. Humans had stories of that happening all the time, but of course that was fiction.

"Your brother and friends were chosen to be heroes of another world. You weren't. The energy deemed your actions as interference and responded accordingly in an attempt to eliminate you"

"It tried to kill me? Damn that is harsh" I frowned at that. It seemed I got off lucky with just ending up blind. It could have been much worse.

"Knowledge shows that Deities rarely care for more than the worlds that worship them. Your brother is a Hero, by my understanding, they will be treated well."

Well, that was comforting at least. It was all very cliche, but if they were safe, I wasn't going to look at it too unfavorably. Though that Deity or whatever was going on my shit list. Stealing my friends and family and even trying to kill me...well, I wasn't sure what I was going to do to a God, but this Ki stuff sounded like a good start.

"Magic. It is really possible?" I asked.

"Very possible" I watched as a second line of Ki grew from the boulder and down to the ground. I watched as it interacted with the Mana of the cave ground, the blue fog seeming to shift before it turned a purplish color and shot upwards next to me.

I flinched slightly before extending my free hand and touching the energy. What my skin met was cold stone "Oh...I get it! You used your Ki to move the Mana of the stone into what you wanted" I was a little surprised that I got it so quickly but I figured it must have been because I was still connected to the Gaian.

"Exactly. Ki is the essence of life and reacts to your will. Mana is simply energy that exists. With enough Ki, anything is possible"

I smiled wide. No matter who they were, everyone wanted to be able to use magic in their lives "Can you teach me?" I was eager to learn, more than eager.

"Yes, however you are incapable of learning" the voice shot my hopes down "You have no basics in controlling your Ki, understanding how to produce the effects of magic will be difficult. First, you must prevent your body from losing Ki or your efforts will never gain results"

How did I do that? I'd attempted to do something with it, anything with it, but I'd done no more than gained a little bit more Ki from the Mana "How?"

"You have already moved forwards. You were incapable of understanding the feeling of your Ki before. After meeting me, you have gained an understanding of the differences between the two, even though they are the same energy. All you need to do is practice. Continue absorbing Mana as you have before. It is growing late, you should return home before you worry your parents"

I was still on understanding Ki. I understood what she was saying though, even without looking at it, I could tell exactly where the wisp in my body was, I could even feel the main lines that ran from it to my limbs. It was like being aware of your fingers and toes when you otherwise moved them without really intending to.

"Wait, it is late? How do you know?" despite being able to see Mana inside of objects, I was still oblivious to the day and night. Changes in light could only be told from the warmth on my skin. Unfortunately, we were in a cave.

"Yes, I can tell because I have interacted with the Ki of the trees, just as I am doing with you. With you, it must be willing as you are Sapient. Trees, and plant life in general, however are only at the beginning stages of Sapience, without any true understanding of what they are.

I'm able to feel that the sun has began to set through the leaves of the trees. Before you ask, yes, when you have understood more of your Ki, you will be able to do the same"

I nodded before bidding the Gaian goodbye. She had to break the connection, I didn't know how. When she did, my body slumped to the ground as my Ki righted itself and spread back to the rest of my limbs. I hadn't realized, but she had been keeping my body energized while the connection existed.

Given the size of her Ki wisp, I couldn't imagine how powerful she was. Mine was still only the size of my finger nail and it already let me simply function as a human. I wondered just how much I could do if I had more Ki.

I grabbed my walking stick and struggled to stand. I felt like I'd been exorcising non stop for several hours. In a way, I have. My Ki had done something it had never done in my entire life.

With slightly unsteady steps, I headed home. Fortunately, I was able to find my way to the trail, with a little help from a yellow line of Ki moving under the ground.

Every day simply brought more questions, but now I had a teacher and a goal. Magic!