Alone upon the rising spire of the rock, as it jutted and rose from the briny blue; alone with his thoughts, the monk closed his single exposed eye and joined his inner self in spiritual skyfall. Soaring through the ocean of the soul, even as the waves of the physical ocean without crashed noisily 'gainst the island crags.
Light. Life. Hope. As he'd learned from his master, and from the mother crystal. The monk flew through memory, through mind and time and aetheric flow.
The five-card spread. The old elezen captain predicting yet another great change to come. It wasn't that he doubted the elderly corsair, Schezar reflected - simply that her words seemed to resonate more strongly with the boy whom he once was, rather than the man he was today.
Sudden anger. Hostility. Recognition. Distrust. "I didn't ask to see your memories. Forcing them into someone else's mind like that... it's the height of rudeness! It's torture!"
Again, he agreed with the distress in her outburst, if not the exact wording. However unintended or accidental - he simply meant to extend the sensation of warmth and gratitude - it could indeed be completely alien. Fearsome, uncalled-for.
He couldn't exactly just punch her upset away, as he did with so many other things. The Echo would do as it willed, and he had no way of knowing who it would reach out to touch so powerfully, through him as a conduit.
He had to learn how and when to know.
Pentacles and swords; the Emperor card. The rainstorm crashing down around them. The seafarer's praise for his bloodstained fists, even as she denounced their shared connection to the Echo. His potted orchid, kept safe. The details of the day flowed into each other. The details of the year flowed into each other.
"I'll help you hold back the banshin, Lady Minfilia. 'tis what my master prepared me for."
"You worry me, big brother."
"These sphairai are alive! The white-hot ember, the howling gale, the hyperfused ore... you have to let them grow with you, to let your collective souls become one!"
"Who are you? Why are you hiding?"
The last memory, the last murmured, whispered thoughts, from the daydreaming girl in the botany guild. The one whose grandfather was close to her heart. "I'm not hiding," he whispered amidst the waves. "But I have many malms left to walk, ere the night ends."
Schezar opened his eye. He balanced steadily upon the tip of his finger, his arm outstretched. The monk's entire body formed a single, perfectly vertical line, rising like a tower into the sky. Judging from the position of the stars and the moon, half a day had passed since he'd begun meditating at noon.
With an exultant exhalation of breath, he pushed off from his finger, his chakra flowing through him as he launched into the air. Each stance's mindset came easily with each midair strike, spin, and kick. Opo-opo form, raptor form, coeurl form.
A shift in the center, chakra gates unlocking, aether in his veins. Leviathan form, Suparna form, Midgarsormr form.
The rocky outcropping beneath him shattered into dust, as his palm strike came crashing down like a meteor.
I am a weapon.
I am peace.
Light. Life. Hope. As he'd learned from his master, and from the mother crystal. The monk flew through memory, through mind and time and aetheric flow.
The five-card spread. The old elezen captain predicting yet another great change to come. It wasn't that he doubted the elderly corsair, Schezar reflected - simply that her words seemed to resonate more strongly with the boy whom he once was, rather than the man he was today.
Sudden anger. Hostility. Recognition. Distrust. "I didn't ask to see your memories. Forcing them into someone else's mind like that... it's the height of rudeness! It's torture!"
Again, he agreed with the distress in her outburst, if not the exact wording. However unintended or accidental - he simply meant to extend the sensation of warmth and gratitude - it could indeed be completely alien. Fearsome, uncalled-for.
He couldn't exactly just punch her upset away, as he did with so many other things. The Echo would do as it willed, and he had no way of knowing who it would reach out to touch so powerfully, through him as a conduit.
He had to learn how and when to know.
Pentacles and swords; the Emperor card. The rainstorm crashing down around them. The seafarer's praise for his bloodstained fists, even as she denounced their shared connection to the Echo. His potted orchid, kept safe. The details of the day flowed into each other. The details of the year flowed into each other.
"I'll help you hold back the banshin, Lady Minfilia. 'tis what my master prepared me for."
"You worry me, big brother."
"These sphairai are alive! The white-hot ember, the howling gale, the hyperfused ore... you have to let them grow with you, to let your collective souls become one!"
"Who are you? Why are you hiding?"
The last memory, the last murmured, whispered thoughts, from the daydreaming girl in the botany guild. The one whose grandfather was close to her heart. "I'm not hiding," he whispered amidst the waves. "But I have many malms left to walk, ere the night ends."
Schezar opened his eye. He balanced steadily upon the tip of his finger, his arm outstretched. The monk's entire body formed a single, perfectly vertical line, rising like a tower into the sky. Judging from the position of the stars and the moon, half a day had passed since he'd begun meditating at noon.
With an exultant exhalation of breath, he pushed off from his finger, his chakra flowing through him as he launched into the air. Each stance's mindset came easily with each midair strike, spin, and kick. Opo-opo form, raptor form, coeurl form.
A shift in the center, chakra gates unlocking, aether in his veins. Leviathan form, Suparna form, Midgarsormr form.
The rocky outcropping beneath him shattered into dust, as his palm strike came crashing down like a meteor.
I am a weapon.
I am peace.
![[Image: Pi2KNMr.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/Pi2KNMr.jpg)
