Understanding

While Rethys waited for his body to regain some semblance of vitality, he spent the time aiming his senses towards anything interesting. He had tried to use this time to continue experimenting with what he could command his ether to do, but realized that in his paralyzed state, even his magic refused to answer.

He ran his sight through the enchantments binding Sevi's blade first, trying to gain some understanding from them, before moving to the ether surrounding the room and then onwards.

It seemed that, even if his body protested at the slightest nudge and his magic was being uncooperative, his mind was still in full swing. And as he immersed himself into the ether all around him, he noticed just how sharper and stronger his magical senses were.

He could now sense things clearer, from farther away, and with less effort. In fact, it not only required less effort, but felt more... natural. It felt right to be able to see things as he did, and why would it ever be hard to do so.

It seemed that, if his senses continued to improve, one day, his ethereal senses would be as simple to use as his material ones.

Eventually however, he got bored of simply busying himself with his surroundings and instead decided to call upon Sevi's seemingly boundless wisdom to satisfy his curiosity.

"Hey Sevi, why didn't I get a new ability when my core evolved? I got new abilities when it evolved the first time. I mean when I got to use magic." He asked.

"I can see how you may have arrived at such a misunderstanding, but core evolution wouldn't grant you new abilities, as that is what knowledge and study are for. These past two weeks you have been practicing improving your grasp on intent and discovering the concept of command, those would grant you new abilities with experimentation and innovation.

"Core evolution however only improves your general magical as well as physical capabilities. To put it another way, it does not expand your range of motion, instead only strengthening you, if that makes sense." Sevi explained.

"I think I understand it." Rethys noted, realizing that the abilities he awakened when he first came here were actually invented by himself.

Granted, he only discovered them thanks to the state of mind granted by the entity's control, and not all his discoveries were exactly risk-free. Remembering that most of his body was wholly numb now without his ether helping him feel through it, Rethys promised himself to be careful when trying anything new.

'Should just ask Sevi for help.' He thought.

"You should also not bother asking me for help with developing your magic. Not only are you not my disciple, and thus not privy to my techniques, but developing your magic yourself is also objectively the best way to attain the most power. Reaching an understanding unique to you will give you strength greater than any master could impart upon you." Sevi revealed.

"Never mind then..." He sighed. "I understand."

"I could still provide you with pointers however, to help you know what you should not attempt, at least." The ancient mage reassured.

"I see. Thanks, Sevi."

"You are welcome, Rethys."

Returning to his own thoughts, Rethys spent his time going through what he knew of the ritual rooms' layout, and trying to best formulate a plan of action.

What felt like hours passed while he decided on a course of action, but his body was still as heavy as a rock, and twice as unresponsive. Just as he was getting deathly bored from staring at the ceiling an idea popped into his head, and having nothing better to do, he decided to voice it.

"Now that my soul core is awakened Sevi, how do I get to the next step?"

"I am afraid I cannot help you with that, Rethys. If what you told me is true, then you seem to able to perceive the ether in a wholly different way than normal mages. Whereas they would vaguely feel the flow of ether around them, you said that you can vividly see and sense it. Is that not so?" Sevi asked.

"Yeah." Rethys nodded, or tried to at least.

"Then it seems some processes will be different for you after all, which would require some innovation from you. Fear not however, for while it is rare for such complications to arise, they are not wholly novel, even without your unique element. I assume however that aside from needing to discover this one aspect by yourself, that the rest would proceed as is custom for every mage.

"As unhelpful as this may sound, for now, focus on trying to establish some connection with the ambient ether. How you go about doing this is entirely up to you, and may in the end require a method unique to yourself." Sevi explained.

"Alright." Rethys answered as he turned his senses towards the ambient ether flowing all around him.

His attempts however, only fell flat, and he only felt confusion.

For Rethys, the ambient ether was not some esoteric, vague thing. He could not only see and sense it, but also understand it to an extent. For ever since the Origin entity brought him to this place, he understood ether as a cosmic, primordial force permeating the whole world as he knew it, and then some.

He saw the oceans of ether in all their frankly heavenly majesty flowing in and out of existence in seamless and incomprehensible movements, and though he could not understand things of such a scale, he at least knew in his heart of hearts that there was a logic to it. Ether did not move randomly, and though Rethys learned that from seeing the unfathomable, he could nonetheless apply it to the mundane.

This was how he was able to see in the dark, by measuring the difference in the way ether moved through different substances, namely the stone walls, and the empty air. Unbound mages being able to absorb this ambient ether, and Sevi telling him to try and "connect" with it made no sense to him whatsoever. It even felt wrong to try and think of the great ether in that way.

'I must be going about this the wrong way.' He sighed inwardly.

"You need not rush things, Rethys." Sevi softly intonated. "Remember what I told you, magic is not a sprint. Mages spend their entire lifetimes without reaching the unbound stage, and it does not at all detract from the wealth of knowledge they may acquire and contribute with. You will not decipher Acceptance in a few hours, and not in a few weeks either, even if its name gave you some hints."

Rethys found it hard to accept Sevi's reasoning, after all he had to get as strong as possible, as fast as possible to have the slightest chance of leaving Yvtar.

He didn't like resting on his laurels, he never did really, and his current circumstances only exacerbated his restless nature. But even he understood that he wasting effort, trying too hard to consider something from a wrong angle.

Rather than metaphorically bang his head on a brick wall trying to figure things out, he decided to instead approach this issue when his views on these things broadened.

"I understand." He said as he turned his attention away and let his thoughts meander a little.

Eventually, he felt his muscles slowly begin regaining strength, and from there it didn't take long for him to regain his mobility again.

Standing up, Rethys stretched and flexed his muscles, feeling new strength flowing through them. It even seemed that some of the numbness inflicted by his infusion magic had been alleviated by this enhancement.

He felt stronger than ever, in every way. His body felt lighter, even though he could clearly tell he had gained a bit of weight. His physical senses from sight to hearing also sharpened, and even his skin felt firmer to the touch.

"Did I get taller again?" He asked out loud.

He didn't really mind getting taller, not at all, actually. The increase in height, however, was quite a bit more pronounced this time around, and it would take Rethys a while to get used to the change.

"A common symptom of core evolution. Think of it as your soul correcting your physique to a more perfect form." Sevi chimed in.

Hearing the trapped mage's reply, Rethys couldn't help but wholeheartedly agree, as he could feel it within himself. The changes that happened to his body didn't feel like changes at all, but rather how he was always meant to be. It felt good, it felt right, and he felt ready. And after a few rounds of stretching and getting used to his new physique, he felt confident enough to put it to use.

Before he could go to and retrieve the runic lexicon however, he had to first learn how to open the way there.

"So how do I get to the ritual rooms Sevi? You said yourself that emission is not enough to open the way there, right?" Rethys asked, hoping to at least get a hint on how to proceed.

In response to his question, Sevi materialized in the air before him a collection of glowing runes amidst concentric magical rings. A magical circle, and intricate one it seemed, now floated in the air in front of Rethys.

"A simple magical circle armed with fail-safes. You must disarm the entire ensemble simultaneously, otherwise the circle will detonate. Its detonation is harmless however, and I will regenerate the circle whenever you fail. You can use this to learn simple spellcasting in relative safety. Make sure however to fully master your method of doing this, as I assure you the enchantments blocking the way down will not display such forgiveness."

Approaching the hovering magic construction he noted was of the Mind element, Rethys started with the first step he envisioned, first forming in his hand a sphere of Origin ether, before then sending a command to it.

'Erase the magic circle in front of me.' He focused within his mind as he pushed the sphere closer to the magic circle.

It was then that the sphere broke apart into a wave of ether that washed over and through Sevi's magic circle.

But just as Rethys thought he had succeeded, the circle burst into a shower of bright ethereal sparks. The ether was harmless however, since Rethys was immune to mind magic.

"A good first try." Sevi commented as she renewed the magic circle.

'What went wrong?' Rethys pondered.

He had after all went through the same steps he did when instructing his ether to fuse into his soul core.

Trying again, he formed another sphere of ether and went through the same motions, only focusing harder.

"I'm doing something wrong." He concluded.

"Of course you would be doing something wrong." Chuckled Sevi. "You did not truly expect to discover spellcasting in a few minutes now, now did you Rethys?"

"That's not very helpful, Sevi." The young man sighed as he scrutinized both the shape in his hands and the circle floating before him extensively.

He didn't try again, instead focusing on what he did understand from last time, and tried to keep a cool head while trying to recall anything he might have missed.

Eventually, understanding dawned on him as he realized what he had overlooked.

"Spellcasting is a difficult process to understand Rethys, usually requiring those studying magic to take time to establish proper rapport with their magic. Your ether will simply not understand what you are trying to convey at first, as it is different from simply having it assume different shapes. It will take time to-"

"It worked!" Rethys exclaimed as the sphere in his hand dissolved into a wave of ether that completely erased the magic circle.

It seemed that he had confused what he had succeeded in doing in his exercise with what he had commanded his energy to do when he sparked his core evolution, as they seemed to be two different processes.

For his energy was part of him, and thus moved instinctively with his desires, without needing any intricate command. Rethys had confused that motion, which was simple channeling, with successful spellcasting, and then tried to replicate it with the spell that was meant to disarm circles.

What he actually had to do was as he had done in his first exercise where he altered the shape, or rather nature, of the mass of ether. For just as he could change its parameters from being set as a sphere to becoming a cube, he could make it so that it became a magic dispersing sphere. The ether itself would then take it from there, understanding what its master wanted, whether it was form or function.

A simple misunderstanding it seemed.