79 || Node Training

A roar of effort and defiance echoes out into the rocky and gemstone filled space. A young girl no older than 13 with light brown skin and bronze-colored eyes is on her arms and knees. Her white serval-like ears and tail, along with her eyes, are tinted with a violet purple.

"Come on now! If you can't even handle this much, we can't even begin the formation process." A voice cajoles with a disappointed sigh. A similar visage of the girl stands firm, arms crossed. Unlike the girl on the ground, this one has caracal like ears and wears a violet robe.

The unique pressure placed upon Tara's body doesn't seem to be affecting her Guardian in the slightest. Several meters away from both of them stands another one of Msiretsa's projections wearing an lilac purple color. This one has her hands up, using her energy to form a massive dome around the two physical projections. Within, the Gravity has been increased five fold!

Moments earlier, Msiresta had admitted she hadn't taught this skill to a human before, but had long planned about how to do it. Her hand moved out faster than Tara's eyes could track, tapping her aural ports from top to bottom in rapid succession. Tara in turn felt all of her aural energy leave her body and then appear beside her as projections. Before she could get a look at them, Msiretsa's projections grabbed hers and split off elsewhere in the expansive Stone chamber.

This left the two main bodies together, though Tara was looking terrible.

"You're going to feel exhausted as this is your first time. However, I'd like for you to summon your weapons for me."

Weakly nodding, Tara focuses Sun Claw and Moon Fang. After a few beats, the two daggers appear in Tara's lap. Msiretsa's carefully takes them before inspecting every detail.

"These are pretty good for whomever made them, definitely made with a good Design, though a little shoddy in some places. Some of the material is definitely special, that'll definitely help you later in Vein Plating!"

"Why would tha--" Tara barely lets out an utterance as she watches Msiretsa's crush her daggers with her bare hands. Despite being bone tired, Tara jumps up with a shout!

"It's fine, it's fine! Sit down, you're making me nervous," Msiretsa waves with her hand and blows the former weapon's dust in Tara's direction.

Cobalt and phlox energy enters Tara's body.

"What I destroyed were merely the physical placeholders you had before. They weren't your real daggers anymore and you would have outgrown them soon considering your development speed. Take a meditative pose, please."

Tara sits down at the request and takes her Twin Sphere gathering pose, her hands forming Sun and Moon signs. The new energy in her body is similar to spiritual and mind yet all together different. The feeling of a calm serenity and explosive curiosity seems to flow through her body! Tara closes her eyes to ruminate on the feeling and guide the energy where it should go.

Meanwhile, Tara's physical projection struggles to rise. In front of her is Msiretsa who is doing different yoga stretches.

"You'll likely hear this multiple times but as you know, there are more than eight prismatic elements. It's not entirely incorrect to refer to them as Lower vs Upper elements, but it's not right either. The Zolani being children of both elementals and spirits have a different understanding. What you refer as Lower we refer to as Terrestrial; the four you call Upper we call Firmamental. What my sister is using right now is beyond those. This is the first yet lesser known Nomological, or Law, element Gravity."

This information meant very little to Tara at this moment...but also meant everything. Right now her energy was being baptized by a force stronger than the prismatic elements her main body could use. This Gravity energy was one of the few Laws which all things abide by. If she could adjust to it and train under it, her growth would be explosive!

Tara strains her neck to raise her head, howling as she circulates the physical energy throughout her body madly. Slowly, very careful and strenuously, Tara forces herself to her feet. The feeling that she's almost tapped out of energy to the point of disappearing comes over her but she's standing nonetheless!

"You passed the first test! And much faster than my other students, that's for sure. Now keep standing there and don't fade away or we'll have to start over." Msiretsa gives a twirl of her pointer finger and the Gravity increases another notch. However, Tara is still standing on shaky legs.

As physical! Tara goes through a tough test, mind Tara's training is much calmer in comparison. Sitting across from a pink and black robed Msiretsa, this Tara learns some very interesting things about herself and the universe she's in!

"Setting up a mental Node is actually fairly easy, so we'll save that for last. Instead, you've had a question you've been wanting to ask for a while now?" Psychic Msiretsa points out.

"What did you mean by welcome back earlier? And, not to be rude, but why is Darkness here?"

The two Zolani projections share a glance, silently communicating on what to say next.

"We share your memories to a point, that much you know. However, it seems at the end of the week for some time now, you ascend to another Plane through your dreams?" Psychic Msiretsa addresses slowly.

"When you do, the connection between us and yourself is gone, except for several brief moments. Like once you brought Wolyung and Oorun into battle in a strange arena and after that you've met with your friends from another world several times. Those two were well aware of their surroundings at those moments."

Darkness Msiretsa chimes in here. "Night and Space are under my domain, while Dreams and Sleep are shared with the Mind. I hope to help you tap into that aspect of your Bloodline that you've been activating subconsciously, among a few other things for your future foundation."

The two had confirmed something Tara had been wondering for some time now. Whenever Tara entered a virtual space, either through the Arena simulation or their chatroom, her internal Guardians were present and accounted for.

They were also aware of her exiting the Story to return back to the natural world. This fact is fascinating to her and she can't wait to tell her grandmother about this finding. There was one thing, however...

"What do you mean by my Bloodline? I'm just an animus, right?" A thought of her hidden title [Child of ????] comes to Tara's mind.

They both shake their heads, summoning a screen like object before them to display.

"Like us, you were born with a special constitution. While many humans have a similar ability to wield dual elements, using both Twin Sphere energies is a daunting task. Even among the users on Avezil, they train using one; though Moonlight has ties to Darkness, it is still under the Light element thus making it harder to command without it being overshadowed by Sunlight."

"Have you noticed it takes longer to shift from Moonlight to Water, Stone, and Metal? Part of the reason I'm present is to help further the division between Lunar and Solar by creating a Darkness Node. Considering Lunar energies connection to mind energy, now is a great time to help make things smoother and more separate. In helping you access your Bloodline, it will also raise your Essence in both volume and quality." Darkness Msiretsa admits.

"We're not exactly certain what your Bloodline is but that it's rare. Not only can you Dream Travel, which by itself is a sign of a strong Origin from your ancestor, but you've connected to others in different Worlds. If we can make it stronger, you might be able to travel directly to other Worlds and Realms without having to use a Boundary Gate." Psychic Msiretsa chatters excitedly!

In order to create a Darkness Node, Tara needs to bind her mental energies to her shadow. Luckily the Lunar Energy is enough of a connection point to the two energies. Tara takes a breath and closes her eyes to gather. Both of Msiretsa's projections stand parallel to each other with Tara at the center. Pink and black energy extends from their bodies and forms an array underneath. A familiar figure splits from Tara, completely black except for what looks like glitter through the body. The process begins!

Meanwhile Tara's spiritual energy has the harshest training. Before the first Event, Tara had been attempting to manifest her energy. The first three stages in energy usage are gathering, conversion, and circulation. Drawing the world energy to oneself, making it one's own, and then moving that energy through the aural ports plus the body. Manifestation is the next step which allows one some control over the energy they use to impact the world.

This is the natural state of Navel Enshrouding and Eye Illuminating. However, it is also something that could be practiced earlier. Partial control meant more efficiency, leading to the big Aural skills Tara uses now to have a smaller energy consumption.

Spirit Tara is being forced to skip this level entirely. Instead she needs to focus on Elemental Raiment or Condensation. Similar to Tara's ability to weave energy into clothes, this involves her covering her body parts into pure elemental energy. In doing so, Tara's physical combat ability and overall strength would multiply once again, to say nothing of her Aural Skills or elemental moves.

The reason Tara had to learn this was in order to make a Spirit Node. Unlike the body or mind, which is used to interact with the world through actions and thought, the soul is more esoteric and intangible. Even though aurators and priests can access and guide spiritual energy, it is still very mysterious.

However, it was understood that spiritual energy is connected to elemental energy. So, in making a Light Node, Tara would have an easier time making the Spirit Node.

To do that, she needed finer precision over her main element which is Light. Manifesting wasn't enough to form the Node, only by achieving Light Raiment could she form it.

The problem is that this Tara is pure spiritual energy. Without the reaction of mental and physical energies, the conversion rate is horrible, not to mention painful! It is harder still, as Light is one of the harder elements to access due to its ethereal nature like Darkness.

Her right hand is gripping her left wrist as she focuses on her hand. She can feel her finger tips go numb as Tara attempts to change the energy directly to Light. The pain is searing and it's demanding a lot of mental stress. There's a 'pop!' as the transformation dispels past her knuckles. Unless it reaches her wrist, the circuit won't connect so to speak.

After every attempt, which had been fifty by now, Tara would be healed by both Msiretsa projections. Light Msiretsa is slowly guiding Tara with each heal, a bit of the residue Light energy retaining in Tara's body. Tara is slowly getting close to meeting her goal with time. With a sigh, Tara takes a small break before continuing.

"You're getting the hang of this faster than I thought," Spiritual Msiretsa encourages as she reflects on the progress that's been made. She had predicted Tara wouldn't reach her knuckle till the hundredth attempt. "Once you reach Elemental Raiment, your control and manipulation of elemental energy will see a large boost."