A Chant to Change

At dawn of every day, a young boy would traverse through the village pastures. He'd eventually find a spot to stay in till early morning, solely to focus on a coarse piece of origin fragment.

'Every damn time, every damn day… I feel nothing around me.'

When morning arrived, the boy would rush back home, to prepare to travel to Aurora, the Capital City. There he would rush to the training grounds, to find a middle aged man waiting for him.

Once training ended the bruised and exhausted young boy would helplessly return to the Keep to wait for his father.

A day passed as such, a week passed as such. The boy had grown tired and frustrated… But, he hadn't given up yet.

The evening breeze was gentle, the weather was slowly and unnoticeably changing, autumn was arriving.

Kai sat in his usual place in the courtyard of the Keep. His eyes were closed, his legs crossed and his hands cupped together.

Eventually, the young boy's eyebrows twisted, and his eyes opened.

'What if I really am incapable of achieving resonance?' A forlorn expression appeared on Kai's face, he tightly clenched onto the piece of fragment. "Why can't I feel this stupid energy?"

"Perhaps you can, you just need a little help…" A soft voice spoke besides the black haired boy.

Kai turned to his side and noticed the cloaked youth walking towards him. He smiled faintly.

"Things aren't boding well for me, I could really use that help you keep talking about…"

Kai looked at his friend with expectations in his eyes. But, the prince, in turn, only gave him a resigned look.

"What I'm about to share with you is to be kept in secret, even from your father. I wish I could tell you everything, but I simply cannot…" Theodan paused for a moment, "what I'm bestowing upon you is a chant, it will help you detect the so called world energy, and also help you assimilate it, albeit differently from refiners. But, as long as you can detect the energy successfully the chant would have served its purpose, anything beyond that is unnecessary. I hope it shall aid you well…" Theodan hesitatingly removed a few pages of well cut parchment, on which, neatly placed ink dictated a series of chants quite unlike anything Kai had witnessed.

Accepting the series of parchments, Kai brought it closer to his eyes, he intently read through it, "this doesn't seem to be from a refiner manual… to aid in assimilation yet alone world energy, this… If this is true, then this could be considered worth a fortune, even if it is incomplete… Are you certain of sharing this with me?"

Theodan smiled with relief, "I was rather afraid you won't be satisfied with this much, but I'm glad to see you're as humble as ever… as for sharing this with you, I've made my decision. You can view this as a token of trust, I hope you'll remember it."

The black haired youth replied with slight embarrassment, "I know where I come from, I've been reminded plenty anyway. But this, I'll never forget it." Kai swore as he placed his right hand over his left chest with a proud expression.

The two laughed and chattered a while before the prince was forced to depart. Kai too made his way home with his father, he was awfully alert on the ride home, so much so that even Damien was curious as to what had his son so circumspect.

Morning came once more, Kai had left his house hours ago to make way to the village pastures.

There he sat in a secluded location, he was keenly observing the chant Theodan had provided him with, there was no context or information to glean apart from the instructions to perform it.

'Why is it referred to as a chant, I've never heard of anything like it. How did Theo even manage to acquire it? There's just too little I know about this… Hmmm, since everything else has come to a standstill, might as well give it a try… After all, what do I have to loose.'

The instructions listed that the chant must be performed in cycles, once one completes a certain number of cycles, especially depending on the person's individual affinity to world energy, a change shall occur. Kai hoped this change would help him glean the secrets to refining.

The peculiar thing Kai noticed is Theodan had initially written something else instead of the term world energy, it had been scribbled over, but if he observed it very closely, he could roughly tell what it said.

'Spiritual energy? Is that different from world energy? Or is it the same thing, if it is, then why refer to it differently…' Kai observed the Chant over and over again with a bemused expression.

Eventually he gave up on figuring out the secrets behind this mysterious existence, after all, he didn't have much time to spare.

The chant was in many ways oracular in nature, it didn't have any understandable foundations, but perhaps that had more to do with the incomplete nature of the text.

The chant was divided into layers, he just wasn't sure what they were layers of. Theodan had seemingly shared only the first layer with Kai.

The first layer required the user to breathe in a particular fashion, while attempting to channel world energy through his meridians all the way to the dantians, each time he would complete the transfer, a cycle would finish.

Kai referred to a different parchment to recognise the positions of the so called meridians and dantians.

There were three major danitans positioned at the head, the chest, and the abdomen. However, the meridians were a much more complicated matter, there were a multitude of them positioned all over the body.

If not for the elaborate diagram, Kai would have never realised the true positioning of said meridians.

What perplexed him though, was that once again the parchments had mentioned something he had previously never heard of.

After a moment of being lost in thought, Kai once again forced himself to focus on the task at hand. He positioned himself as dictated in the instructions, and began the breathing exercise.

The instructions emphasised to practice the breathing exercises independently first, until mastered, and only after, to attempt the cyclical transfer of energy.

And so, the skeptical boy began his practice. The breathing exercises were elaborate and complex, causing Kai to make plenty of mistakes initially.

He was tempted to begin the transfer simultaneously, however, the instructions were absolute. Hence, Kai continued to practice the breathing exercise till it came time for him to return. He packed his wares and left for home.

On the walk home Kai fiddled with the origin fragment in his hands. He was close to home and only needed a few more minutes to arrive. However a moment later he abruptly stopped in place.

Kai stared at the fragment piece in his hands, it hadn't changed at all. Yet, the boy's eyes were slightly wide. He was intently staring at the piece of ore.

'It can't be… I must've imagined it.'

For a brief moment, Kai felt the warm cold sensation intensify on the surface of the fragment, as if it was being drawn to his fingers. It was so subtle, that a moment's distraction would've been enough to miss it.

The very next day, a young black haired boy could be seen rushing through the village, it was only dawn, and most were still sound asleep.

The boy made his way to the pastures of the village as usual.

Although Kai felt sleep deprived, sore and exhausted, there was a pinch of anticipation within him.

He couldn't stop thinking of the subtle increase in sensation he felt from the fragment. The only factor he could relate it to was the chant.

The boy calmed himself down as he sat cross legged in his usual spot. He had plenty of time to practice, so he wasn't going to rush this.

For about an hour, Kai practiced the breathing exercise, until he could perform it repeatedly without making a single mistake. He still wasn't satisfied and practiced for another hour.

Only when he felt tired out of his mind did he give up on the idea of practicing more. He took a deep breath as he observed the diagram on the parchment once again.

He began visualising his meridians and dantians. It took him a while to remember them all, yet alone how he must exercise the transfer of energy.

After a while, he finally felt comfortable in performing both processes simultaneously. The only problem was he felt way too exhausted to continue.

'Tch, I'm so close… Let me just try it once.'

The boy calmed his heart, he had been anticipating this moment. Finally he brought his hands together, crossed his legs and straightened his back.

He took a deep breath before he began the complex breathing, coupled with the slight whispers of chanting that were required. Even to him, it only sounded like mumbling, but he didn't question it, he trusted Theodan.

As soon as Kai completed multiple cycles of breathing, he slowly began to inculcate the transfer of energy within his body. He had no idea what would come of it.

For now, things seemed to remain unchanged, he would constantly imagine the sensation he felt from the origin fragment, flowing from his meridians to his dantian.

But, promptly after finishing his first cycle, he felt a rush of exhaustion throughout his body.

'It can't be this difficult to perform such an exercise, something could be wrong… or something could be right as well." Kai pondered his options as he slowly recovered from his exhausted state.

When he felt ready, he attempted the same process once more. As soon as he finished another cycle, a similar exhaustion wiped through his body. Kai felt a sudden wave of lethargy spread through his mind.

A slight concern began to appear on the young boy's face.

'Perhaps, I'm rushing this.'

Kai opened the parchments he'd neatly bundled together, and read through them once more, only after he'd verified everything did he feel comfortable enough to try again.

He took a minute to compose himself. The matter of a few days ago was still on his mind, meeting his Uncle and Cousin had left a slight strain on him, his father didn't fare any better either.

Damien refused to talk about it, but Kai understood what he was going through, in fact, every time he thought of Ian Grier's words, he would feel frustration and anger.

But now was not the time to think of such things, for now, he had to learn to forget, so he could focus on what's important, what would ultimately relieve him of this whole mess.

Kai closed his eyes once more, he positioned himself correctly. He felt determined once more just thinking of his father.

'I must do better, I will do better…'

He resumed the breathing and chanting, eventually he began the mental transfer of energy. Time passed and the boy completed the first cycle, however, before the wave of exhaustion could strike, he began the second cycle.

Kai was unrelenting, he refused to stop. Despite the exhaustion spreading through his body during the second cycle, he continued on…

One cycle… two cycles… four cycles… five cycles…

Once he reached the sixth cycle, Kai felt like he could faint at any moment, but what caught his attention was the very faint feeling circulating within his body… If he were to focus too much on it, it would disappear.

However, what was odd was the trajectory of this familiar yet unfamiliar sensation, it would travel from his meridians to his dantian, exactly as mentioned in the parchments.

He was unsure if this feeling was psychological or actually present, after all, in his current state it would be reasonable to assume he was just imagining things.

As soon as he finished the sixth cycle, he felt a stark pain in his meridians, this was unlike the exhaustion from before, he felt like someone was stabbing him with multiple needles.

Kai immediately fell on the ground clenching his body in the places he felt the excruciating pain… "Arghhh, ugh." He cried out, but it wasn't until a few minutes later, that the pain began to slowly recede.

Once Kai finally recovered enough to think properly, he was livid by the outcome of the exercise, but even more so, he was confused as to why it happened this way.

'I need to consult with Theo… something must be wrong here.'

Kai picked himself up, he was unwilling to try anymore, especially after that horrid experience. He packed his belongings in a hap hazard way, preparing to head home.

But, as soon as he picked up the fragment to place within his pocket, Kai's pupils contracted, he exclaimed in surprise, and immediately dropped the piece of ore.

'This, this is impossible!'