I walked through, and reflexively blinked from the adjustment of light entering through my eyes. I was back! Was.. I? The roof was a little, no it was a lot closer than before. I turned around and I was floating off the floor by a good amount.
My body was sitting on the bed, my eyes were still closed, but why was I not in my body? In fact, I was out of it. The worst of my fears instinctually surfaced, did someone take over my body?
I sat, no.. I floated in the air, praying for my eyes to stay closed, the instinctual fear of hoping that my physical body never moved was much more soothing than it moving without my will.
Please don't move.. Please.. Please.. Every second was anxiety-inducing, waiting for my body to even move a millimetre was terrifying. Although I had no current physical body, I felt as if my skin was trembling.
I examined my body as closely as possible. A singular twitch occurred and one after the other even more parts of my body moved. My 'eyes' opened, as it sat up, it looked around as if processing its surroundings. It stumbled out of bed, however, its movements were quiet and no sound could be heard.
They robotically stumbled toward the mirror that was embedded onto the wall in the corner, their hands touched their new face and a smile slowly grew.
"I.. I've fin-finally returned." My own voice, speaking aloud.
They cleared their throat, touching their neck and checking themselves in the mirror.
"But.. Why can't I.. Delve into their memories..?"
"It's like a restriction.."
They slowly raised its hand up, instantly a small ball of fire arose from its palm, however, the flames weren't mere ordinary orange flames, it was black, black as the void.
They swiftly manipulated the ball of fire to manoeuvre around its hand and simultaneously separated the flames into smaller portions.
"It seems that I've retained my affinity to fla-"
Before it could finish its sentence, it fell to the floor, clenching their 'heart' with their two 'hands'. Slowly, sweat profusely poured from their body, what was it reacting to?
I focused, sensing the aether around, the energy that I could see within my body.. Something was clashing against something else? Souls?
"What.. What is going on?"
"This shouldn't be possible!? Why is there this.. Intense feeling?"
They kneeled to the ground, clutching their chest near the heart. It was obvious that they too had no idea what was currently occurring.
"Who- Who are you?"
"How do you possess such a soul?!"
Their voice turned brittle and croaky as they spoke. It looked like they were staring off in the distance, but they appeared to be talking to someone.
Writhing in agony, heavily drenched in sweat, their screams muffled, and tears ceaselessly intertwined with the sweat drops that poured out of their glands. The thumps of feet slamming onto the floor, with their hands clawing away at their heart while they rocked from side to side.
"I.. Need.. Help..!" They begged as they stuttered, "I.. Know..! You're there..!"
Could they see me? No.. From how they phrased it, that only meant that they most likely had the assumption that I was in the room. Did they really expect me to help?
"Please.. Please!" They begged helplessly on the ground, charcoal-coloured smoke began to rise from every orifice of their body. Evaporating from my body as it wafted through the air above. Within seconds, I felt as though I was gripped firmly, being pulled into my body.
I pounced from the ground, my heart beating ferociously as I heaved a breath of relief. I was back into my body, the pool of sweat seeped into the carpet, and everything that happened was very much real.
It was then I had saw it, because I was sub-consciously still focusing in on the Aether surrounding me, I could see smaller particles. Not purple like Aether, but it was black. Touching it, gave me a sense of fiery hot sensation on my fingertip, yanking back before it burned me completely.
Was this what Lione had said? To know instinctually, when you could sense your affinity? If the black energy had something to them, could I touch Aether itself then? Could people see Aether?
I gradually and gently nudged the ball of Aether. It was a feeling, that I couldn't express, it was everything at once, hot, cold, earthy, violent, anything you could think of, it was there.
I experimented with the balls of Aether, going back and forth and collecting data on things I hadn't known about it. Light leaked in through the edges of the blinds that covered the windows. I didn't feel tired, rather I felt ecstatic!
What I had gathered was that I was able to 'pluck' out other elemental balls from Aether, ultimately, touching them had a specific feeling, and by plucking the same element from the same Aether sphere, I could do it infinitely. To the point where tens of hundreds of the same element gathered in one spot.
Conversely, attempting to put those same elemental spheres back into the Aether sphere is too difficult to do so.
Opposing elemental spheres can be combined and elicit a 'real-world reaction', fire and water, creates a slow steam, whereas water and earth creates a muddy substance which drops to the floor if not controlled.
Combining the same elemental spheres merely make the spheres larger, though I inferred it'd cause a stronger effect when released. The sounds of steps followed by knocks near the door promptly made me walk before anything was said. Opening it, was one of the maids.
"Yes..?" I yawned.
"Oh! Lady Ophelia, your meal has been prepared. Please follow me."
"Thank you."
I followed behind, walking through the corridor, many decorations such as flowers on tables and paintings of Claudia and her family stuck to the walls.
"We are here, Lady Ophelia. Sir Lione reminds you to meet the instructor in 2. I will call you at the designated time as well." Opening the double door, I looked to see only my father already chowing down in the dining room.
"Where are the others?"
"Lady Claudia and her family are in the main dining room."
The long dining table fitting at least a dozen, was a little big compared to only us two. Nevertheless, I sat down beside my father.
"Don't- worry-" He gulped down the food still in his mouth before continuing, "It's just cooked steak, rice, and some vegetables."
"So, how was yesterday?"
"It was great! I learned Aether meditation, and I found out my affinity." stabbing one of the sliced carrots as I answered.
"That's amazing! What is it? Tell me, tell me!"
I refocused, sensing the aether particles around me, this was really the only way I knew how to activate elements, I plucked out wind and gripped it in my hands. A small gust of swirling wind flew up.
"Wind." This time, I envisioned plucking fire from the aether particle without using my hand this time and, it did successfully. Though I couldn't activate it with a thought yet, I still grabbed it, and fire engulfed my hand before blowing it out.
"And fire."
"Wait.. A dual elemental Aetherian? What?!" Shaking me back and forth, "That's even more amazing! We have to tell your mother when we get back!"
"Hehe, we should."
As soon as I finished eating, I exited the dining room, roaming the halls, the house was much bigger than the one my mother had. The arch-windows went from my knees to just below the ceiling.
I looked out, there it was, a butler who danced gracefully by himself again, how long was he going for? I shrugged it off, it was probably just a pastime activity.
"Lady Ophelia, I've come to pick you up, let's head to there immediately." I nodded, the maid took off and I walked right behind.
"Hm? So this is the kid I'm teaching huh." separated from the house, in the open, it was a very large floor with many tiles. It didn't seem all that special, it felt like concrete.
"Hey kid! Are you listening? Tch, will I really be able to do this..? Lione should really just cancel this off.." The instructor scratched his ear, despite that, he was also noble-like, posture straight, clean blue and gold-embroidered imperial clothing. Tan, black hair and blue eyes.
"So, tell me what's your affinity?"
"Wind."
"Eh? Wind? Ew, why did Lione even let you live here? Seems like such a waste." He sighed as he touched his forehead. I had already disliked this guy, arrogant much?
"Whatever, I'll try to teach you I guess. Just first, do like some basic exercises or something." He left, before coming back with a couch and laying on it right in front of me.
"Well, hurry up. I don't got all day." Fortunately, though it wasn't long, I had a bit of experience under my belt. Doing light exercises, I continued till sunset before he finally spoke.
"That's enough."
"Are we finally training?" I was slightly exhausted, but I was still full of energy.
"Hah. No! That's it for today, I'm leaving, meet back in the same spot tomorrow. And don't be late, I need my pay check." This guy was a total scumbag. A big one at that.