Exhausted

Panic set in, and Lex tried to withdraw his hand, but he was frozen still. He had no choice but to watch as the skin on his hand slowly turned gray, the color cascading up his hand. At the same time, the water from the fountain was quickly being absorbed, and by the time his elbow turned to stone, the fountain was empty.

Besides panic, Lex felt immense confusion because the difference between what he was experiencing and what his body was telling him was different. Pure and complete satisfaction filled him to his very core.

Before he could think further on the subject, his fingers cracked, and then, as if the stone had been nothing more than an outer layer, it started to fall, revealing his hand, completely unharmed.

A moment later, it was as if nothing had happened at all. Lex felt no mystical warmth run down his hand, or noticed any change to his cultivation or anything else. What just happened?