Tara nods in agreement, as this would only benefit her. As Misreta releases the tension in her shoulders with an exhale. If Tara denied the sealing, it wouldn't be forced upon her.
Misreta taps lightly a few places on Tara's body. Her wrists, ankles, pharynx glow for a moment before it fades. Tara can feel restrictions on her energies, not enough so she can't use them but won't be able to advance.
[Requirements for Hidden Quest: Node Training 2 have been met]
Task 1: Unlock 3 of the 4 Cardinal Gates
Task 2: Reach Wisp state of aural threads
Task 3: Assist in forming the Nodes of 10 others
Reward: 2nd Stage of Nodes unlocked; ????
"Can I help others form Nodes?" Tara asks after reading her new tasks, circulating her aural energies through her body to understand the changes of the seals.
"Are you talking about your friends and family here? Or your allies in the other world? Either way, it's best you spend time comprehending how your Nodes work, what they can, the difference between your intangible energy versus their Wisp energy. Only then can you help others form them."
It hadn't occurred to Tara that she'd be able to share this technique with Lapis Tome and Ruby Blade. It makes sense to get used to the new power source first so that way she can explain and answer any questions others' may have.
"Luckily, I have a way for you to practice using the Wisp energy, how Nodes work, and even how your Node Clones operate." Pulling out two scrolls, one of which a brighter amber orange while the other a deep turquoise color, Tara gently takes both of them.
It was 2 different tri-sided gathering arrays, ones that quicken not only the gathering but the absorption of ambient energy. Of the various arrays, such as cloaking or messaging for instance, gathering arrays were the hardest to get right.
Arrays were already complicated overlays of inscription patterns, with even the most basic gathering that could be drawn might not succeed. It all came down to the inscription masters dispersion of energy into the individual sections.
Too little and the circuit-like symbols won't activate. Too much and it very might explode in the inscriptionist's face. And even then these are likely the most complex inscriptions Tara has ever seen!
Even the Masters of the Academy would need to work together to formulate and configure everything for just one, let alone both of them. If they could, they would no longer be just inscriptionists but true arraylists. This would elevate the Academy's teachers to a whole new status and they'd likely be invited into the Eight Sword Sect, even if their potential in Body Altering had faded. Arraylists were one of the hidden strengths of the various sects and other powers, just an additional one was a qualitative leap in their defenses and growth of their people.
The two before Tara are called the Bedawing Sun Array and Slumbering Moon Array. The former gathers ambient energy and turns half of it into Solar energy. The latter, when placed underneath in a bed chamber, will allow someone to cultivate while resting. It will also turn the half ambient energy into Lunar energy. A gathering array that can alter ambient energy into another element is many times more difficult to create than a basic one.
"In truth, I was imparted this by the woman who bestowed you with the Twin Sphere technique. She told me that these were not included within the memories originally because there was no way you'd be able to fuel them alone. Now that you have the Node Clones, each one can take a side while you work on the centerpoint." Msireta admits a little exasperated at the reveal.
This truly is the best way for Tara to get some practice all around. She'd grow proficient in inscription making a lot, learn the difference between the two states of energy, practice controlling her output and usage with the greater quality and quantity of stores, and see how the Node Clones actually worked first hand.
"Before you begin and summon your Clones, I'd like to ask which of the Cardinal Gates are you going to focus on first. While working on establishing this array is important, it's good to divide your time and focus on a steady schedule." Msireta imparts. Too much attention in a particular area, especially during a time like this for Tara, would do more harm than good.
"Yeah, I have a few other things I'd like to work on as well besides the array. The South Gate, the eyes should be the best place to start. If I'm right it should help to tap into the Mirage Gaze you mentioned. I think that'll be really helpful if I can begin to use that as a trump card!"
Tara reports back to Beiling once her routine is planned, saying she had achieved a moment of enlightenment and wanted to seclude herself to maximize her gains. Her teacher permitted her request, informing Tara she had about two weeks before the Nukura twins were stable enough to back up their bet.
Speaking of the bet, following the one-sided battle, Reji Frae's life changed drastically. Frae had immediately gone up a class rank for her victory and thanks to her close friendship with Niven and Tara, nobody looked down on her despite not witnessing her true strength yet. Frae was sought out by the pill making department and, true to Tara's word plus the twins' reaction, she had a natural disposition in making and refining.
A letter was even sent to the Eightswords Academy's sister school, Panacea Garden Institute of the Nine Root Alchemy Sect about Frae's talent!
Tara conjures her Clones before her. Mindful Dark appears to her behind and to her left, the Cluster Soma behind and to her right, and with Ordained Soul in front of her. They form a triangle with Tara's Prime Body at the center. Once Tara gets over how uncanny it is to see multiples of herself, she notices that they are already channeling on the inner Gates.
Fire and Wind energy from the Ordained Soul flows to the right sole and palm of the Blaze and Hurricane Gates. These two reconfigure the spleen and the gallbladder respectively. Light and spirit energy whirl at the Fulmen Gate at her abdomen, which does the intestines.
Water and Stone energy is churn from the Mindful Dark to the Gates. The left sole and palm are the Flood and Mountain Gate, for the pancreas and bladder. Dark and mind energy washes over the Tenebrous Gate which reforms the synapses.
The Cluster Gate has less than the others with only the Alloy Gate, which reforges the arteries. Here, she channels Gravity energy into Metal. It's not as fast as the other Light or Dark, but it's not slow either. All of the inner Gates were covered except for the last one, the Luminous Gate at the nape of the neck.
The curious thing is that Tara can sense the energies on her main body. It's faint but there's elemental energies pooling at those points. She'll later discover that her ability to phase through the lower elements made her Gates much stronger.
Most Zolani and Animus unlock their Gates using only a single element at most, or two for the rare constitutions, creating a uniform restructuring of their organs and inner pathways.
This uniformity throughout the entire body is what allows them to begin changing their intangible aural energy into Wisps. By making each part conform with Gates' implied element, well, no one in recorded history had done so. It would likely cause a chain reaction that would destroy the norms, similar to how her variant bone structure helped enhance her physical strength by an entire stage.
Instead of getting started immediately on the array forming, Tara leaves the three Clones and gathers six rocks roughly the same size and weight. First, she fires a small beam of body, mind, and spiritual energies at three of the rocks. They crush in violet, explode in pink, and implode in blue upon contact. Then she tries the fused Wisps with the remaining rocks.
Violet and lilac are denser as the rock shredded from the Cluster Soma's Wisp. Pink and black are heavier, surprisingly, as it disintegrates. Finally, cobalt and white have a powerful heat that ignores Tara's aura entirely despite the Wisp coming from herself. The last rock melts quickly with even the ambient Stone energy of the chamber hissing in reaction.
The Wisps were definitely more powerful and destructive, but also more easily convertible. The changing of Light Wisps into Fire, Wind and Lightning or Dark Wisp into Water and Stone are instantaneous. Only Gravity Wisps into Metal is similar to her old conversion rate.
If her regular aural energies were quantified as 10, then the Wisps were at least 45. Her Nodes did not produce enough to use in place of her for aural energy, but it was enough that she could empower her Aural Arts for a few attacks. Add that to her force concentration, Elemental Raiment, and Twin Sphere energy any threat below peak Vein Plating could be faced if not run from.
A fleeting thought crosses Tara's mind. She sends Solar energy to both her Cluster Soma and Ordained Soul Nodes. The Cluster Soma initially rejects the energy, recirculating it back into her body. The energy taps each inner Gates' position, even the last Gate before finally being accepted by the Cluster Soma. The Ordained Soul happily--almost greedily--absorbs the Solar energy.
With Lunar Energy, this sort of refinement also happens with the Cluster Soma. It's not accepted at first until it makes a pass through. The Ordained Soul Node does take the Lunar energy but is nowhere nearly excited. The Mindful Dark's reaction is even stranger as if it would like to take on the Lunar energy, except the frequencies are off. A certain type of trigger hasn't been met just yet.
This experiment, unknown to everyone even Tara and Msireta, causes a shift in the Cluster Soma Clone. Vaguely, at the location of the Luminous Gate, atoms of amber and turquoise indolently orbit each other. Time will tell what will occur.
After these short experiments, Tara plans out a routine for the next two weeks.
In the morning work on building her Retention Technique. The link she had decided on was using Vein Plating Blade Arts she got a peek at before. The offensive trajectories are called the Parhelion Strike which Tara will use for the Hufang Sword Arts and the Solar Body Arts. The defensive trajectories are called the Perilune Guard, which she felt were good for the Riversword Blade Play and Lunar Body Arts.
The afternoons would consist of joining her clones, who since morning, were focusing on the inner Gates. Besides spending some time channeling some Solar energy into the Ordained Soul in hopes of a reaction, Tara's attention during these sessions was unlocking the South Gate of the Eyes. Inspiration came to her from when she unlocked Viyen's locked aural ports.
Tara plans to use a combined effort rather than just aural energy to restructure her eyes. First she intertwines her aural energies before circulating it through her body then her Soul Realm. Then she wraps that energy around in a separate Light Wisp to align with Eye Illuminating.
Given their potency and purity, Tara didn't want to risk being unable to control what happens. The first time she did this, Tara experienced a piercing pain as her vision went white. Eventually the pain and temporary blindness faded after about ten minutes.
Tara could not discern an immediate change and could only sigh before continuing. She would then do this until she had 5 Wisp out of her 10. Each Node had 10 Wisps each, and that number was growing daily.