Beil chuckled. What was she so worked up about? She had just touched his mind and chest a bit. Maybe that was enough for her, just imagine what her reaction would have been if she had accidentally traveled lower. He kicked that thought away like a cow pie, trying to maintain his composure and strengthen his mental shield. She still had that infatuation spell constantly whirling around her, even while she was in her meditative state just a hint of it was picking through before it drifted back into her, but now it was back to its full force.
"So," he said with a serious tone, though his mood was anything but at the moment. It worked though, Nova uncovered her face from her hands and looked at him with a little more composure.
"Did you find the source of the infatuation spell?"
She shook her head and took a few breaths before speaking. "No, well I think I found it, but I didn't find which one it was out of the options."
He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, a very bird-like gesture. "How many options?"
"Three, besides the one I was just using, the only problem is when I try to travel down the energy signature I end up walking for what feels like hours only to creep forward like a metaphysical inch. How am I supposed to find out which one it is? It's not like I can follow it from the outside, when I tried that every other energy overwhelmed my senses, especially yours since you're the most powerful source of energy out here. Seriously, how do I control spirit energy besides crawling around with it? I don't know what to do. I even ended up not registering that you were you at first." She said the last part quietly and was about to shrink again from how embarrassing the memories were, the shame raising up like stomach acid, but Beil had walked up close and lifted her chin with a tallon.
"What are you-"
"There should only be two pathways. Focus. One pathway of energy for your body, one for your eyes. Feel them, don't try to follow them like a road. Your body hosts the core due to your soul transfer, and the core supports your body. They are one in the same." He let go and tapped her sternum.
"Because the snake body had no eyes, the cave troll who gave you yours connected it with your core so that the spell could be maintained automatically. If your core weakens or empties, you will lose your sight. It is both a blessing and a curse " he said softly and took a step back. "So, try to strain the connection. Use up the energy in any way you see fit until your eyes give out, this will narrow down your choices. It is also good core strength training."
Nova took a deep breath. She was focused now, it was a sign of her mental fortitude to snap back to attention after realizing the importance of the information.
Truth be told he had given in to the infatuation spell a little bit by following his urge to touch her, mostly because fighting it was both painful and difficult and allowing it to seep in alleviated a little of the pressure, but he vowed not to let it overcome him like it had at first. He had also utilized it like a tool to help her snap out of her shame. It was an innocent mistake, and honestly a lot of young Ayakashi and Yokai make the same mistake when they are first learning to control their power.
He was about to let her know that as well, but she had sat down and was already back into a meditative state. He marveled at her ability and sat next to her, attempting to enter into his own mind. With a bit more effort than he wished it would take, he located his core and relaxed himself, allowing his consciousness to slip out of the physical embrace of reality.
While Nova just fell like a dream into herself, Beil had to army crawl through his mental walls of resistance that he had built up over the centuries. While they helped him against threats, they hindered his progression, hence the reason he had stagnated. Unless he was willing to make himself vulnerable again, like when he had first come to this realm, before their wars claimed his focus, before the pain made him hide himself away, he would never get any stronger even if another seven hundred years ticked by. He had indeed reached the decline.
But forget the somber reality of his power hitting the ceiling of his limitations, Nova was just starting to walk, and if he was able to help her for even a moment before she surpassed him, he wanted to do it. After this he could no longer protect her, but if he could teach her all he knew, he would be satisfied.
With that thought he woke up standing in front of his energy core, a slightly larger, denser, and greener sphere of sparking swimming light. His will was the only thing keeping it stable at the moment. While Nova's will was as strong as an ox, even when she was practically an infant in this practice of energy manipulation and the shock of soul transfer, after so many years his was like a crippled buck. He struggled sometimes to keep is spirit energy from destabilizing, often choosing to waste it on a pointless spell or task to prevent the energy from becoming over full and sending pain through his body like boiling water. Unlike a born Yokai or Ayakashi who could practically live forever if they were not killed by external forces, soul transfer causes a natural destabilization of the core after enough time has passed. It was likely that Nova too would not last more than a thousand years. Beil ground his beak and swallowed the lump in his throat.
Collecting his thoughts and bottling up his regrets, Beil occupied himself with the task at hand. He stretched his energy over to her, making a thin bridge linking them together, and looked around to find her likeness. He found a woman, not the sixteen year old he stood next to physically. This one had kinky caramel brown hair, more abundant freckles, tanner skin, and a chiseled facial structure that made her look much more European than Asian. She was taller, broader, and stronger looking, yet she was wearing a rather girly short white dress with lace at the hem and flower sleeves. He stood still, waiting for her to notice him, which didn't take long.
Nova jumped when it touched her. It felt like an electric hand had grabbed her and she spun around to see not Beil as she had sensed him to be, but a man standing proud and curious a few steps away. He was quite well toned, wearing a skin tight white shirt that showed off his strong arms, wide cuff green pants, and an unbuttoned black jacket, but a big detail was the gold badge on his chest that shimmered in the light of her core. His hair was a carrot orange in tight ringlets, his eyes were the same dark green, and his cheeks were as high as they were before, bringing familiarity to the new body, especially when they crinkled up as he smiled at her.
"So this is what you used to look like on Earth? You look really nice." He sounded almost exactly the same, the only difference was that his mouth made it easier to produce crisper consonants that a beak just made difficult, but he was still Beil. She smiled back.
"Same to you," she said and her slightly gravely voice from her previous life was back, deeper and cracking just a bit. He tilted his head in consideration, a habit his bird body had contained for many years, and nodded. He liked her new voice. Or, it was the old one. Well it was new to him.
"To be honest I was expecting your Itsumade body. This is a nice surprise."
His smile shifted to a toothy grin with a dimple on his left cheek that her eyes were drawn to. "Then why do you not have your new body in here either?"
"Well I had this body first and for a lot longer than my new one. What's your excuse?"
"I always missed this body, so for centuries I maintained this form as my subconscious self to never forget my origins. It is grounding, in a way."
"How's that?"
"Well," he thought and shifted his weight, his black shoes squeaking as the leather moved.
"Under normal circumstances I would say consistency, but seeing as both you and I are kinsoul, I offer that it may be because these were the first bodies we have memories of living in, growing up with, and coming to terms with our identity in. Does that seem enlightened?" He raised an eyebrow and she sucked her lips into a thin line to keep from laughing at the face he was making. He seemed really out of practice with his human face, squinting his opposite eye too much to make only the one brow rise, and he almost looked like he was in pain. She took a breath to speak evenly.
"Serms like a logical speculation to me," she managed to say without breaking into giggles, but the tightened quality of it did not go unnoticed.
"Is it my expression? I know, I don't know how to shift my face as much anymore." He tried several more ridiculously malformed emotions, flashing teeth at weird moments and bending his nose around like a rabbit or worse.
Nova started to visibly twitch from the effort and her voice came out a little more squeaky. "Nope. no, you're just fine!"
Beil grinned with more natural ease. "You would think with how I retained a good amount of human face that I could at least control my eye brows, but this is still difficult," he said and proceeded to make his brows do the worm, if sort of slowly and uneven, but it was enough. Nova broke and the laughter matched his previous energy before she had first meditated. She wasn't able to hold it in anymore and she felt like her gut was going to compress in on itself as she suffered from the lack of air, tears streaming down her face.
When she finally recovered, Beil was gone. Noticing this sobered her up quickly and she was afraid she offended him before she noticed that his energy trail had simply looped around to the other side of her core, obscuring him from view. It was like a guide rope for cave exploration made out of green spirit energy, anchoring him back to his own body. She followed it and found him pondering over the three blue trails leading from her core.
"Could you please send your energy out? I need to determine which of these is your body and eyes."
A bit timidly she stepped a little closer. "I don't know how to do that."
He put his knuckles to his temples and some of his energy reached over to lightly touch one of the paths.
Bombarded by inappropriate desire, he doubled over in pain from restraining himself and she was about to race to his side when he held up a hand. "I am okay, please do not touch me. It appears that this path is the infatuation spell. Do you know how to retract it?" He was gritting his teeth and grinding his fingernails into his thigh so she felt regret for her next answer.
"I'm sorry, no. What is it doing to you? Why are you in pain?"
Though he did look like he was in pain, it was almost the opposite and he wretched his energy from the path with great effort. How the hell could a fresh Kinsoul maintain this much strength in her energy core? This simple spell's power should not even be possible let alone stronger than his own, but here it was, nearly overtaking him. All she had eaten was rats and a crystal bird, so whatever the source of her energy was it was dangerous and abundant.. and very well hidden.
"Okay," he said after adjusting himself and regaining his control and breathing, "you need to retract it. What you need to do is touch it, follow it back to the core, and unravel it from the inside. It is perfectly safe for you seeing as it is your energy, but be careful not to slip too far into the core, it could shut off the other two pathways and without those you will either become blind again. Your other pathway leads to your body so either or your body will shut down into a catatonic state or your soul will detach from the snake and travel to the Great Beyond to be reincarnated without any memories."
Nova swallowed hard and her physical body did the same. "How do I unravel only the charm spell?"
"Charm, you say? That is a unique take on it. Well to start, touch it. You will sense the effect and be able to trace it back easily." He had recovered enough to be amused again and stepped back to watch.