49: The practice of the mirror

"Welcome to the crystal wall!" Gregory exclaimed.

The place was majestic, and over the top. More than fifty meters wide and five meters high, that square had the largest mirror in the city, in a perpetual deep greenish color that engulfs those who are easily distracted.

The amount of people coming and going through the mirror every minute was around twenty-something, as it was the most important traffic point. Besides them, there was a good amount of people gathered in the right half dedicated to using the mirror in another way.

"This is the last mirror made by the city's founder, the Archmage Dingars," Gregory said.

"Oh it's… huge," Airys said, with a slight headache from the dark emerald void in front of her.

"That's why we are so close to the temple, she loved a town that was here." Gregory ran his hand across her forehead to pull her out of her trance. "To this day the mirrors keep working because of her incredible resonance."

"He already started his chair." Heylin blew the fresh pastelito into her hand. "We better let that pair practice, are you coming with us Natsume?"

"Thanks, but I'm also interested in improving my resonance control" she clarified, after swallowing the third bite of her pastelito.

"Okay" She took the first bite of her food. "Come on Melody, Melody?"

Melody had run to listen to her uncle wanting to know and train her soul. Heylin gently shook a smile and decided to go out with Samantha for a walk.

"Anything you want to do?" She told her.

"Get my family vacation back," Samantha sputtered. "And go visit Ana."

Continuing with what Gregory was saying to Airys: he explained and showed her that one of the common reasons for visiting Dingars was to train the soul, since mirrors are a less barbaric, quick and clear method to advance in it. As a general rule, the better you are at using mirrors, the less time it takes to master your resonance.

And he was right. There were about a dozen and a half people exercising and touching the mirror without finishing crossing to the other side. Children with their tutors practicing to become adventurers, a woman with her boyfriend wanting to learn to pass, a man with a straw hat accompanying another old man. Some could not even dip a finger and others appeared to have mastered it and were going through a practice routine.

"And what do I have to do?" Airys asked after Gregory asked for a meter and little space of the mirror.

"The first/"

"The first thing is to try to cross it!" yelled Melody, super animated. "You have to touch it, like wanting to live more and then you give it energy and it becomes like water and with that it becomes soft and you can pass and…"

"That" he agreed with his niece.

"Simple as that? Touch it and that's it?" Airys said.

"Well you have to concentrate on using your soul, didn't that boy teach you how?"

"Ahh, I get it…" Airys clapped her hands. "Like trying to summon my creatures."

"Can you summon creatures?" Gregory put his hand to his chin. "It is only a matter of time to discover her resonance" he thought as he witnessed how Melody clung to Airys to ask her to show her invocations.

Natsume finished eating the third pastelito while she listened to that talk, licked her fingers and walked over to the mirror.

"If it's like using my resonance, it should be easy"

Inside her, Natsume was credited with the weight of Echsos's death. Of course the assassins are the reason, but ... if she were able to use her resonance better, not have that weakness after using it or at least use the silver currents with ease... neither Seng nor anyone would have prevented her from taking him to a safe place. That is why she had high hopes for the subject of practicing with the mirror, surely this way she will reduce her difficulty with controlling her soul and perfect her technique.

She placed her hand on the surface of the mirror. A boy and his friend stared at her, basically because she snatched their space. The moment she concentrated on feeding the soul beyond her hand, the surface lost its solidity and she was able to sink her hand like a pool of water.

"L-like this?" she asked nervously.

"Yes, exactly!" And with that joyful response, Natsume's hopes were stained a funereal, hopeless gray.

"A-and what can I practice next?!"

"Eh?"

"I-isn't there another step?" Natsume stuck her foot and knee in and out like nothing. "I mean, once you get the hang of this, can you practice something to improve it further?"

Gregory sighed without understanding the young woman's concern, so he came over to chat with her. The normal thing is that they worry because they CANNOT do it, not because they do it on the first try, being sincere, Gregory was intrigued by that reaction. On her side, Melody kept saying almost nonsensical things to Airys about how to try —think about food or animals —while she herself was not even close to do it.

"I-I'm almost there!" Melody screeched, pushing with all her strength against the crystal wall. "Mmm!"

Airys laughed a little and stopped as soon as Melody saddened with doggy eyes, neither calmly nor forcefully, the section of the mirror that she touched had no effect. However, the girl didn't give up, to the point that she didn't speak to Airys, focused on the task of getting through the glass. Airys sighed, it was about time she tried. She relaxed and closed her eyes.

"That Natsume has made it does not mean that it is easy" she internalized those words, perhaps the most intelligent of her life.

She instinctively moved her left hand to the mirror, touching it gently should be enough if she applied her soul correctly. Nothing to be distracted, nor to think about bad things, it's just her hand. The tips of her fingers made contact with the mirror. It was cold. She planted her palm and applied a technique very similar to summoning —since it was the method of using her soul that she knew best —and opened her eyes to appreciate the result.

That second, the instant she could relax her hand beyond the glass… it terrified her.

"Wasn't this supposed to be difficult?" Natsume replied with some unfounded fury against poor Gregory. She reached in and out of her arm in quick succession to make her point clear.

And that's when she and Gregory saw that. They all noticed it.

The people who had problems to achieve it, for a second were able to pass through the mirror as if it were a cloth of water, Melody put her arms up to her shoulders happily. For those who were a little less skilled than Natsume and herself, the mirror went haywire, generating chaotic ripples equal to those caused by thousands of rocks falling into a pool.

Airys took her hand away from the mirror, and with it the insane effects and sudden advances of the others vanished. Natsume and Gregory were puzzled, the exaggerated expression of fear in Airys's eyes and the way she clenched her fist to her chest with her other hand caught their attention. The girl was going to burst into tears.

The feeling that overwhelmed her was identical to the most horrible memory that she held within her soul. The one from that moment where her soul joined that of that man, the murderer of Echsos. And much worse this time because she received not one but a dozen similar sensations entering her system, her soul.

Gregory looked at Natsume's frustrated face, Airys's haunted face, and her happiness escaped him in a long breath.

"Why can it never be easy?" he murmured.

"Uncle Greg ..." Melody's voice sounded sharp and weak. "my arms got caught ..."

Gregory repeated the previous sentence, although he had nothing left to sigh again.

———————————————————————————————————

"Yes, like this. Easy ..."

Can't imagine how liberating and convenient it was that the mirrors weren't lethal to people who lose concentration midway through. Gregory marveled at the enduring resonance of the Archmage Dingars and how well developed it was. As Melody was slowly removing her arms from her, the girl's nerves were dissipating. It was a matter of being patient.

"It doesn't matter if you run out of energy or lose focus, as long as you have your body on one side you can always return" He explained to her niece while she stroked her head and pulled her little arms.

"Thank you, uncle Greg" Melody regained that momentum of her words and hugged her uncle.

"Now..." Gregory got up and looked at the pair of girls. "Obviously your problem is not something you can solve with mirrors."

Natsume looked restless, she didn't stop moving, as if she wanted to run away and demand justice from the heavens. For her part, Airys couldn't make eye contact, still and shy, not even the most idiotic would miss that she was in some kind of denial or cycle of fear. Both trapped in a mental maze, where the final goal is blocked by an invisible wall, impossible to climb or penetrate.

Gregory made himself comfortable on the floor, with his niece between his legs, asked them to come closer and determined to keep his word to be Airys's tutor —and Natsume apparently —acted as he should, as a functional adult and being rational.

"I need you to trust me, explain to me everything you know, what you need from your resonances and the root of the problem" he said with a face more serious than Melody's tickling allowed. "I promise not to reveal anything you will discuss with anyone; I swear as Dingars Guard."

Natsume thought about it for a minute shaking her legs. Revealing your greatest strength and weakness was not easy, but neither was welcoming strangers into your home...

Airys looked regretfully at Natsume. She didn't want to; she couldn't reveal that to her.

"My resonance..." Natsume broke the silence, told the three of them what works and what doesn't of her resonance, without omitting a single detail.

Among the negative effects —or those she could not use to her advantage —were how difficult it was to use the silver air for attacks, the fact that daggers or swords doesn't work when she tries to imbue them with that wind, how pathetic and dangerous it is. stay vulnerable when the effect wears off... and the bad smell of the wind.

"Wait," Airys blinked doubtfully "bad smell?"

Natsume blushed and turned to the side.

"Yes…"

Airys squeezed her face about to urinate with laughter, it would never have crossed her mind that a resonance would give you bad breath.

"What about you, Airys?" Gregory said.

The brief joy she recovered, slipped from her grasp again. She opened the mouth, but a snake strangled her neck to keep her from saying anything, it did so with such force that it hurt. The words on the tip of her tongue blocked by Natsume's sweet and friendly gaze.

"My resonance caused the death of your brother, I helped Maryon", that was the sentence that squeezed her heart like a raisin. It was already undeniable! Deep down she understood how her resonance worked, no matter how much she pretends it won't change that fact!

"I can already think of ideas to overcome," Gregory sputtered. His instincts and the realization of how painful it was for Airys to tell them motivated him to put that off for later. "You will excuse me if you already know, but I have a couple of things to explain about the soul and resonances..."

Gregory began by recounting that time he traveled to Zar'kyo Mountain City about seven years ago. It was there at the university that he finally understood his own resonance and mastered it. One of the things that an old man with a funny name taught him was that to find out the limits, uses and development potential of resonances, you need to know three things, universal parameters that all resonances comply with without exception.

"… Category, soul color and soul shape."