The life flame that burned within Noone's core – in his dantian – began to expand and resonate with Noone's thoughts and memories.
Shock like a wave filled his heart when he saw this flame. He had felt it before, once when he was being sustained by the young galaxy tree, and again when his body was forced to process the raw energy from the beings in Tapestry.
When he saw the three colors dyed within the flame, Noone couldn't help but be feel trepidation. Obviously, the tree had done more to him than he realized.
The light from his dantian was obviously excited. Noone could sense the urgings within it, the desire to absorb and grow.
This is possibly leftover desire from the bud when I stole all of its life energy. His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the flame within his own core. The tree was meant to grow and be reborn over millions of years, until Noone came along and stripped it of all the energy it had absorbed.
Suddenly, the frown on Noone's face softened and his eyes became ponderous. Maybe… that's the key? Noone could sense the flame resonating with his own thoughts. His desire to grown and become stronger, his desire to absorb more energy.
Like two wavelengths syncing up, Noone began to notice the similarities. He wasn't so different from the plant, which wasn't so different from the people of Tapestry. They all absorbed energy from the outside, some kind of cosmic law or force which they could take into themselves.
Noone thought about the plant, when it absorbed power from the air, it channeled that energy into the seed. Only by taking in the energy around it and stealing it from the space it occupied was it able to grow.
The people of Tapestry would absorb energy of some kind into themselves, and then use that energy to become stronger…
Noone's breathing deepened further.
"If I can absorb the same energy from the space around me into my life force…" He stared down at the multi-colored flame. "What would happen?"
Before this moment, Noone had never sensed any underlying energy in the world around him. His focus had always been on the sensations of the world, trying to interpret and become one with these forces. But he realized this may have been too shallow.
He really may have taken a wrong step in his understanding.
Using the urgings that the will the galaxy tree had stained onto his life force, Noone's awareness expanded from the inside of his body, out.
He saw himself sitting on the smooth stone floor, small bits of gravel littered throughout the space.
He saw his companions sitting around the fire looking towards him, but he paid them no mind. He did not believe they would do anything to him right now, and Noone couldn't afford to be distracted.
"There must be something I'm missing…" he thought. "Something the plant life-form and the people of Tapestry were able to feel that I couldn't… deeper than just the elemental energy of the world. More fundamental."
The flame within his core began to rotate and twist, Noone's desire influenced the will left behind within it.
Noone inherited the common heritage of the ancestor, and the life force within Noone "inherited" the remnants of an equally ancient existence – a seed of a galaxy tree. Instinct began to act, pushing Noone's conscious mind.
"Sense it…" Words like the whisper of leaves on a windy day brushed through his consciousness. Noone pushed himself harder, attempting to feel whatever it was that he inherently knew to look for.
"Sense it." Stronger, a command.
"Sense it!" Noone's breathing deepened and the flame within him expanded again, sending energy stored within him pulsing through his meridians, anything it could do to help Noone resonate with the energy it desired.
Suddenly Noone 'saw' something float by him. It was thin and imperceptible to the naked eye. He was unsure whether he had seen anything at all, but then another flashed into existence, this time near his hand.
Noone had seen it clearly this time but was at a loss. It looked like a thread, a thin strand which floated through the space around him. It was impossibly thin and nigh non-existent. If he wasn't looking for it already, there was no way he would have every discovered it.
It fluctuated, bending the space around it as though fighting to remain unseen. It snaked in and out of existence like a needle woven through the fabric of the world. It acted like a fish and the world was nothing more than water which it could submerse into at any point.
As Noone attempted to analyze this strange ripple in space, a sickening feeling overcame him. Nausea and pain caused his head to swim. His own body struck out against his mind.
"TAKE."
Noone frowned, but he understood. Whatever this thing was, obviously it is the energy that the colored flame in his core was craving.
Noone calmed his mind, but the feeling did not go away.
Well… there's no point in fighting it. Like a ball of water, Noone compressed his external sight onto the point where the thread was shifting space. All of his external sight condensed onto this single point only a foot away from him.
The shimmering thread of energy suddenly became corporeal.
Despite his expectations there was no resistance or push-back as the ripple shot along Noone's condensed sight towards his head. Noone resisted the urge to cut off his senses and instead allowed the small thread to enter his mind.
Like a fish swimming downstream, the small threadlike energy was sucked through Noone's meridians down into his dantian. He carefully watched the process, not wanting to miss even a single detail.
The energy sank into the cavernous core of Noone's body, and the three-hued flame within him lashed out at the energy. Immediately it was vaporized into some kind of gas.
Noone's eyes widened, thoughts and questions forming in equal measure as he considered what he saw. It was extremely similar to what occurred when he saw the energy seep from the ancestor's bones into himself.
The gas was transformed, no longer was it energy which belonged to the universe. Now the minute power it held began to pulse through Noone's meridians. It coursed through him like a drop of blood through the circulatory system. By itself useless but surrounded by millions of other individual drops it strengthened Noone's inheritance in ways he could not even begin to comprehend.
The flame within Noone's core flared up by the activity. It had been starved of power for so long while Noone was wasting time taking the wrong steps. Everything within Noone urged for more.
Noone breathed a deep breath and a smile broke out onto his face.
"Finally," he thought.
Outside of Noone's consciousness in the material world the group all looked on with various thoughts, they had not seen any of what had occurred. Not even Tobias was able to sense any change, let alone see the thread of energy Noone had grasped.
To them it seemed as though Noone had just become absorbed into his meditation.
Sally looked on quietly, her thoughts traveled back in time bringing up memories of her young life within the monasteries. She had seen her seniors sink into their meditations much the same way. She remembered how peaceful and strong they looked in those moments.
Their bodies would become so calm and still, they too would look statuesque. But at the same time, they exuded an air of capability. What Noone was doing now reminded her of her former seniors. A soft smile formed on her face, the memories were sweet. Although she did not see that path through to the end, she would never forget that time of her life.
Eventually the five of them began to grow weary of watching Noone and went about their own ways for the night. Tobias went about his training and they rotated watch, leaving Noone to his own devices and keeping an eye on him.
Like that the night passed peacefully, no more tribesmen showed up and the sun began to rise on the eastern horizon.