Chapter 206 (2/2)

After more time passed, he suddenly felt something click, and he was back, deep within his Aether Well, where all the Aether he had produced was pooling. But now the flows in it had become more noticeable, and a very noticeable increase in colored lights were flowing towards Randidly in the darkness.

It was perhaps only 1 more mote of light for 5. But it was an improvement. The Aether around him continued to hum, and the tingling in his body grew stronger. His will expanded and pressed, motivating more and more drops of Aether to move, flowing outward towards those connections to his four blessed individuals.

But the Aether seemed reluctant. He could almost hear the thrumming question, why, in their resistance.

“You must…. give to others…” Randidly whispered, surprised how difficult moving his mouth still was. Sentences were miserable, even more so now than it had been when he had been struggling directly against his social anxiety.

Why

“Because if you give… to others…” God fucking damnit, his mouth was a shapeless, wet paper bag controlled with chopsticks. “Others… give….. back…”

Me

Randidly’s eyebrows twitched. There was definitely a voice. Was this really the creature fucking with him…? He had started to assume that when the wisps told him he wasn’t alone, they had meant themselves, or more recently he had thought the wisps referred to his connections to the people he had blessed, where something was currently happening with Aether.

But… was it possible that something else was at play here…? Holy shit, his inner world was a fucking tourist destination.

“Well… us.”

Us

“Yea…. both of us.”

Us.

But this time the strange vibration seemed satisfied, and the Aether began to flow easily. It was still extremely heavy, as Randidly pressed his will as best as he could on the imaginary world. But somehow… he felt infinitely more connected to the Aether than he had in the past. He felt the hole shifting, slowly rising and setting itself directly inside of his chest, no longer simply matching the beating of his heart. It WAS the beat of his heart. They became one and the same.

A pain much worse than Agony, spiked through Randidly, and he felt like his body, eyes, mind, and soul were dipped in fiery, jagged knives, and they were pulled rapidly through a passageway of broken glass. Everything was miserable and the pain was so great and sudden that his breath wouldn’t come. There was only the strange, icy fire, consuming-

Then it was gone, and Randidly breathed heavily, shivering.

Us.

The voice truly sounded bright now, but Randidly could only shake his head. Still, feeling was now flooding back through his limbs. With that feeling, he simply pressed harder, motivating more drops of Aether. But it seemed like there was a limit to how much he could give at once.

There was a strange elasticity on the pathway that led to his connected people, and more and more drops of Aether went to press up against it. Randidly added more, pressing harder, but still nothing happened. He was beginning to sweat what would happen if he could not add more, when there was a pop from one of the connections.

Alana’s had… expanded, was the only word, and more Aether began to flow, not only on the magnitude of drops, but now a small stream, a few fingers wide. The Aether greedily rushed towards it, flowing down towards her. After a short amount of time, a greatly increased amount of red lights floated back, heading towards Randidly’s chest.

The connection to Mrs. Hamilton popped then, and a thin stream of Aether flowed outwards towards her. Then Annie’s popped, and hers accepted more and more Aether, more than either of the other two, almost twice as much. And the amount of white lights the floated back was commensurately thick.

Finally, Sam’s connection popped, and suddenly the amount of lights that Randidly was absorbing grew by a magnitude of 10, counting all of the changes. His body was buzzing, slowly coming alive, and he felt himself resonating with the strange vibrations of the Aether flows. There was something here, something growing. Whereas the Aether had previously been stagnant, now it began to flow.

And slowly, things were changing. Randidly opened his eyes, his mental eyes, only to find that although it was dim, he was once more floating in his inward world, surrounded by his skills, the energies for his Soul Skill, and of course, the creature.

She folded her arms.