The garden kept her interest for the first ten minutes, but the moment I settled down to begin meditation, anxious shifting and impatient groaning could be heard alongside me. I could clearly feel Sis spiritually chafe against the stillness. I knew she was trying, but it was apparent sitting wasn’t going to work. Eventually we agreed that I should consult Nightshade for less sedentary means of meditating, and she left the tower to distract herself until I reached out to her with whatever new plan we have.
Without the gremlin distracting me, reaching out to Nightshade went without a hitch. Though Nightshade didn’t seem to understand the issue with sitting still for an extended period of time. To be fair, I was the same; sitting and meditating was something I had recently rediscovered a love for. Clearing my mind of all the issues plaguing me was refreshing in a manner few things were. Even though Nightshade didn’t understand Callia’s issue, she was still willing to work over what we needed to focus on going forward.
“Mind, Body, Spirit. You have chosen the path of mind, and your sister has chosen the path of body. I live on the same path as you. Meditation is natural to me. However, perhaps what your pair needs is not to empty her mind but her body.”
Well, it wasn’t the most helpful, but it was a start. Instead of calling Sis back to the tower, I went out to her. Without a clear direction, we decided to brainstorm a number of ideas. Just like how meditation was a skill, the most important part was devising a skill that would let us utilize the gains of the system to strengthen her mastery. Whatever we went with would also have to clearly be some kind of spiritual skill. Finally, it had to be low tier so we would be able to push it towards mastery as a foundation for more advanced skills.
-
Dynamic Meditation - lets Sis keep moving, but it is still a form of meditation
-
Life Affinity nature connection skill - It shouldn’t be impossible to use Sis’s affinity as a bridge to developing some kind of spiritual connection skill. However, that will likely be a higher tier and much more complicated to develop.
-
Make it my problem - Nightshade has explicitly focused on the imbalances being a shared load between me and Sis. If I do all the work, then maybe it won’t even be her problem. This plan did not amuse me, but it was still viable to our understanding.
My plan for dynamic meditation had concerns since it seemed like an advanced skill requiring a foundation of meditation, but it was also the most promising plan available. Yoga seemed just as promising as sitting around, so we decided to try pushing archery as the meditative focus.
The biggest issue with archery is that recovering arrows would regularly break the focus, and we wanted to push the limits. So I found myself back with Master Yoren devising a runic quiver that would replenish physical but temporary arrows. This was a huge leap up from changing the natural properties of an existing material since I wanted to make a quiver of infinite crappy arrows.
With that in mind, Sis and I quickly settled into our new routines. I would spend my mornings with Grandpa and my afternoons with my runic and smithing masters. Then in the evenings I would hold long sessions of meditation with my plant mentor guru.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Sis would have the usual training in the morning. Then in the afternoons she would work toward the skills we had theorized. Practicing total focus and self-control in a repetition of arrows being loosed at the same target. Keeping it simple for a start and maybe trying to make it more complex if we start finding success. However, her evenings were still reserved for team bonding time with her friends.
While this was an important task for the future, we also still had 5 years until our stats unlocked at 15, and Nightshade’s warning had been that the unlocking of our stats would be the time of judgement. Some time into one of my meditation sessions, Nightshade had decided I was ready to learn enchanting.
It turns out that enchanting was also a matter of spiritual mastery instead of mana or mind, like I had originally assumed. Enchantments were far more rigid when made; however, they wouldn’t decay with time. Instead of infusing mana with an intent, enchanting was connecting to the object spiritually and teaching it a skill the user or someone connected to the user had mastered. There was a nifty skill called Linked Transcription that let an enchanter use a willing subject to have their skill inscribed, letting enchanters make a variety of skill-empowering objects even without personally providing the skills.
To sum up the advantages over runework. Enchantments are far more durable, easier to diversify when pulling from a community, and far more intuitive in use. The disadvantages would be that runes can achieve far more abstract effects, can be given conditions for activation instead of supplying mana, and large structures are easier to imbue with runic power.
My arsenal of magic powers now included infusing power into language (runes), teaching an object to use a skill when empowered (enchanting), and restoring a creature to its conceptual nature (healing).
I wish I could say I was skilled at enchanting, but Nightshade was insistent that I could be at best considered mediocre, which kind of stung after how easily runes had come to me. Then I think about it again and remember that the majority of the heavy work in runes was language, which I had already spent more than 12 years in another life sitting through lectures on. My weakness and impatience for grammar was responsible for more than one unfortunate accident in runecraft. Maybe my talent was just mediocre, but I had the advantage of a full life of memories cheating me far ahead, and I’ll take whatever I can get.
Nearly a year after settling into our new schedules, Sis broke into the tower during my meditation time. She had finally gotten her first levels in the tier 2 Dynamic Meditation skill. I was personally shocked, having long given up and accepted that plan three was seemingly more likely to be our only choice. That didn’t stop me from scooping up my sister and cheering in joy.
Persistence
Callia breathed deeply in and then out, releasing another arrow whizzing off into a tiny target burrowed off in the distance. With a mechanical precision she took in another deep breath while knocking another arrow. Total focus every movement and signal pushed to its limit as Callia assumed full control of her body's every function with nearly inhuman focus. ‘Ziiippp’ Another arrow was released just as Callia finished her exhalation.
Callia wasn’t sure when, but something had changed in her demeanor as she continued to pelt the target with arrow after arrow. Time seemed to fade, and Callia’s world contained only her and the target locked in a steady rhythm. Her accuracy is flawless after all the countless hours of practice. Sweat poured down her face as her body hit its limit, but that didn’t matter; only complete mastery of the next shot did. The next arrow zipped off and straight through an arrow-sized hole that had been carved into her target at the dead center of the target.
Nearly a year ago Callen had brought her to Nightshade with news that they needed to strengthen their spirits or risk being crushed under the load of skills they had mastered throughout their childhood. It was ominous, and Callia had her doubts about the plant that had previously caused her twin a great deal of suffering, but it wouldn’t be a waste to spend time on training those kinds of skills from her original perspective. However, Callia discovered that a lifetime of playing and training outdoors had made her uncomfortable with quietly sitting indoors.
Callia hadn’t started off seriously, but seeing the grueling effort Callen had devoted to her joke plan 3, she felt if she didn’t put in the same effort, it wouldn’t be fair to Callen. That had marked the shift in her efforts, and the relentless pursuit had finally borne fruit. Even if Callia was more than a year of effort behind Callen, she finally took her first step. His response had made the effort worth it. He had been more worried than Callia realized, and no amount of pranking had freed him, but her getting this skill had lifted a great weight from Callen.