Chương 40: Both the River & the Channel [Part 2/2]

Just as quickly as the pain had come, it left, though it had done its best to take the meager amount of stability she was still somehow holding on to. What had just happened? She stared at the bucket, trying to understand just what that pressure had been about. Then she realized it wasn't the bucket bothering her. Frowning, she stepped closer and watched the surface of the bath where gentle ripples had crossed the water. Something about the water itself felt familiar, and yet, foreign.

She looked at the basin, then at the bucket near her foot. Wait. Her foot. The one the bucket had smashed to bits. Because she'd already begun compensating for the pain and decreased mobility it took her a while to notice. Her foot was fine. How was her foot fine? Her eyes traced back to the ripples in the basin. Felt their energy as they cascaded and bounced off each other creating patterns. It was beautiful, though the 'discovery' was not particularly groundbreaking.

What fascinated her more than the patterns in the water, was the energy she could sense from it. The water continued being water. Innocuous to most, however there was something there that wasn't before. Or maybe it was and she'd just never been able to perceive it? She studied her foot again, and found lingering traces of that same energy, much more familiar now. In fact, that was her energy, wasn't it? And that blast of energy, that had been her power too.

She hadn't been actively paying attention to the form the energy had taken when it had blasted out of her. She'd been a little distracted, what with the blood and dry heaving. Even so, the last time she'd checked 'insta-heal' had never been one of her abilities, nor was it something she'd witnessed. and considering she'd not been offered a new Skill, it meant that while whatever happened originated from her, it wasn't consciously caused by her. How, though?

It wasn't like this was one of her childhood talents, or something she'd seen post System. How could she even begin to replicate what she'd never experienced. Or had she? She thought back to the strange sensation she'd had when she woke up in the grey training room. Staring at the smooth stone bathing basin, still slightly soapy but more determined than anything else, Scarlet dipped a finger to test the water temperature.

The moment her fingertip touched the surface she felt like someone else had reached into her mind, implanted a memory, then jogged it for her. She was both intimately familiar with what was going on, and utterly confused. Context. Scarlet had somehow gained a modicum of context for the energy she'd felt all her life. Psionic energy was something else, she thought as she slipped into the tub. In a bid to help make sense of the information Scarlet created a crude, if not entirely inaccurate, analogy.

The closest comparison she could think of was that if mana was water in a river, someone manipulating mana might dig out a channel and divert a section of that river. Psionics would be the river; also, the channel, along with the ability to guide the water. For example, Scarlet now knew exactly what had been disturbed by her energetic outburst. The room, and the water in particular still carried traces of it.

If she wanted to, Scarlet knew she could find out where the water was pouring into the room from within moments. She could even delve deeper just based on the residue left behind by the unique psionic imprint. The implications were staggering. What was more, that knowledge had come to her whole and complete. More complete even than a pre-System remembered fact. She bit her bottom lip to stop the smile from forming. She knew what a psionic imprint was and she could read it.

Well, 'read' wasn't the perfect word, but it was the closest description she had for a phenomena that was more instinct than anything at this point. In fairness to herself, the everyday person didn't know everything about the biological mechanics of something like walking. Very few who didn't study the subject could give you a detailed explanation. The fact most people knew basic anatomy was only a result of mass education initiatives in the recent past.

However, not knowing the mechanics of how you naturally do something doesn't mean you can't do it, and do it well. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. For the first time in decades, Scarlet allowed herself to lean into the energy. She wanted to see if she could manipulate it at all like the Historian. She had no delusions about matching his feats from the go. It was her first attempt.

She'd never tried to do more with her energy, her psionics, than read the room; apparently quite literally. She didn't need to reach for the energy, it was just there, bared to her, waiting. So, she went for it, trying to coax a reaction just like when she used Mana Manipulation, or Empathy. She prodded and poked, but apart from being able to dig more into the information about the water, nothing else happened. The water remained stubbornly, unremarkably, still.

If anything, the connection she had with it felt weaker. She was doing something wrong, but had no clue what, or how to find out what without speaking with the Historian. Only she didn't want to do that. Whether it was the 'Anomalous' tag sitting in her traits section, the traits themselves, or the connection she'd felt since before the system, Scarlet did not want to reveal much about her psionics or how she interacted with what she was choosing to call the information layer or the info-layer.

If the memories and impressions she was receiving were somehow coming from the sample she'd subsumed, and that sample was indeed the Historian's, then it meant she and the Historian interacted with psionics differently. Until she knew what that meant, and the potential consequences of revealing anything, she'd rather not take chances. She'd learn his methods, then come to a decision. Though it wouldn't hurt to make some notes in the meantime.

She had become used to pulling things in and out of storage, so for a second she was confused when she went to recall one of her notepads and nothing happened. Then she remembered she needed to be touching the storage pouch if she wanted to retrieve anything. That was alright. Scarlet had an eidetic memory now. Actually, she had more than an eidetic memory. She had imprints or impressions of someone else's memories alongside her own.

Scarlet relaxed, letting go of the effort of pushing or pulling at the energy, or even coaxing it. The moment she stopped trying to force something, the energy surged back stronger than before. Mana had never behaved that way. This felt different. She hadn't realised it too much before, not with the countdown, and trying not to die. Obviously mana was not the same as psionics, however they were not completely separate. The comparison made her pause. She'd first accessed mana through meditation.

However, she'd first accessed meditation through breathing. It hadn't been easy or effortless, but it had been natural. It was absurd for her to have some success with mana, this new form of energy, while straining away at psionics like she hadn't grown up with it. Like it wasn't as much a part of her as her lungs or heart. She touched her solar plexus, where she'd felt her mana heart was. Just like breathing, nobody taught infants how to do it, they just did, and the body worked out the rest.

However, what if you wanted to breathe better, more efficiently? You could learn breathing patterns, ways to manipulate your breathing to produce certain reactions. It had felt the same with mana. It would circulate, and support your skills without any overt guidance. It was only when she'd tried to actively interact with the energy that direct input became necessary.

Perhaps psionics was the same, except instead of Scarlet starting out with the equivalent of a baby's cry, she went straight to meditation, only with no idea what 'air' was, how it worked, or even how to just breathe regularly. That meant she already had what she needed to progress. Right? Her aptitude, intellect, and burning curiosity wouldn't let her go until she tried. Closing her eyes, she replayed the memory of the floating vial, the threads of ink, and the delicate calligraphy that floated onto the contract.

It was a feat that required power, control, and finesse. However, there was something about the way he wielded the energy that felt divorced from the info-layer. It was like he was manipulating the energy blind, which was impressive in its own right. He was like someone who built a rocket by following an instruction manual, and it flew even though he had no idea what the equations meant or why they were there.

After considering what the info-layer was to her, she wasn't so sure the Historian would be as much help as she'd have preferred. Until now she was working under the assumption that the medium and the method were similar. Both her and Maus used mana very similarly, they both had mana hearts, and she could sense one in Tareth. Yet his method of interacting with psionics just felt wrong for her. Fundamentally.

Instead of creating a framework like the Historian, or melding it with a crutch like mana, she decided to try just asking. In her mind's eye she filtered out everything but herself and the water, slipping into a light meditation as she did. She looked back to the water that had now lost all traces except for the faintest trace she wouldn't have noticed if her PER weren't so high and the energy wasn't hers. Curious thought for another time. Slowly she began to interact with the energy.

She'd never just tried to manipulate it raw like this. It had always been sensory, or through mana. Now she was beginning to interact with the energy, to coax it. The process felt a little like turning a thought over and around in her head, only this thought was outside of her head. The request was simple, she'd even done it once before.

'Ripple. Ripple. Ripple.' Easy as an exhale, the surface of the water rippled. In the bath with nobody to see her, Scarlet grinned.