Connections

Jien's mind was fuzzy, his eyes closed and his body relaxed to the point that he was on the verge of falling asleep while sitting. His mind was buzzing louder than ever with the knowledge that had been accumulated thus far with the use of Personal Library. The words felt both like faint whispers spoken an inch from his ear and loud cascading voices as if someone had shouted into into a stone covered room. The feeling was disorienting but this in itself seemed to be helpful in Jien's success.

It was while listening to the varied lines of absorbed text in all volumes that he suddenly felt truly weightless. It was as if he was dreaming of laying on clouds, the experience comfortable but surreal. In this relaxed and calmed state he opened his 'eyes' only to see a vast white space. In the center of this seemingly endless white expanse was a vast sphere that one could almost miss seeing if it weren't for dark text floating on it's surface like petals on the surface of a calm lake.

The lines of text appeared to be grouped in columns of text, each seemingly pertaining to a book that had been recorded. They ran along the sphere in different sections, some from the top and spreading down while others started in the center of the sphere and stretched to the bottom. If one paid close attention they would be able to identify where topics within the same book would begin and end with headers for different chapters. In some of the text, particularly the text relating to the three guides he had finished taking in only recently he could see different pictures in various shapes and colors mixed in.

Despite the large amount of knowledge that was absorbed it didn't appear that even ten percent of the vast sphere was covered. Just looking at it Jien wondered how many books, scrolls and other forms of literature he would have to absorb to fill the empty spaces. Even beyond that, what would happen to him if he actually did manage to do so. Would the knowledge he had taken in drive him mad? Would he die because a single piece of information would be connected to too many others? He wasn't sure but one thing was sure, he had succeeded at reaching this space even if he wasn't entirely sure how. Now all he had to do was see if he could find a solution to the issue he was experiencing.

Jien found himself staring at the sphere, wondering how best he could accomplish what he wanted to do, if it was possible. After a while silently staring at it with an almost blank expression he let out a deep sigh. He felt that he was going to suffer by doing this but he directed his thoughts toward a topic that he knew would have connections between alchemy, in several recipes, as well as some short mentions in some of the survival guides he had received from Mark. It was a simple herb that could be used in several different salves to assist in sterilizing wounds and was also used to purify water if you allowed the herb to soak in it for several hours.

As soon as he focused his thoughts on the particular herb known as Cleansing Clover the image that had been in the alchemy guide for the ingredients glided from its place place among the words of the alchemy guide to the center of the sphere facing Jien. After the image reached its new position a number of what looked like strings made out of gold stretched out from the picture right before Jien's eyes.

He watched the process closely as the lines of glowing gold stretched out until they touched the edge of certain sections of text. Those lines of text began to glow with the same golden light as the strings that had latched onto them.

As soon as the first section of text was fully enveloped in a golden glow a voice rang loudly throughout the whole space reading the text as if it was narrating a story. Jien new the voice very well, it was his own and it's volume currently sounded like someone was talking to him from maybe a foot or two away. However this changed as the next line of text was fully enveloped. The sound of his own voice reading off two monologues rang out, one slightly louder than the other. Then a third broke into the conversation with an even louder tone followed by a fourth and fifth yet louder voice.

This continued until the space was filled with a cacophony of his own voice, monotone in pitch but louder with each piece of information recited. At then end the eighteenth voice was so loud that if one was having a conversation you would have had the other person screaming into your ear with their lips maybe a centimeter away.

Jien held his head tightly, trying to cover his ears to no avail. After all, if his theory was right then this space was in his mind. He wasn't physically in this space so why would covering his ears have actually worked. After the final voice trailed off with the last remarks regarding the use of Cleansing Clover for the purpose of creation of a salve to staunch the bleeding a small wounds Jien finally uncovered his ears. He hadn't realized until that point that he had been closing his 'eyes' tight as if that would change anything.

He looked to the center of the space where the sphere sat. There, in the center of the side of the sphere facing him Jien saw the cause of the issue. The picture of the herb was still there in the center, but the golden strings that had reached out before had now pulled every piece of text regarding the herb toward the center. The picture was surrounded by eighteen pools of organized text, crowding the space around it. The strings still existed and the text was still shining gold as he was still attempting to keep his focus on the topic of the herb in question.

The issue was how was he supposed to make it so that thinking on the topic wouldn't pull on all of the connections, or at least not all at once.