Chapter 2-9

I left the women to continue their meeting, filling the time until evening with meditation. I examined the fragmented, spiritual remnant that I had absorbed into my inner world. It was a curious, twisted thing. Part of it was the ragged leftovers of the Tribeta youth, still carrying faint remnants of a wood aspect. The majority of it was a severed section of Entreyu’s spirit, cut from his spirit body like cancer.

I could tell that he had butchered his own heart node to remove it. And I took a great deal of grim satisfaction in that. My former student would be struggling to recover from that for a good long time.

In the normal course of events, a remnant such as this should have degraded. It would have dispersed into the mana from which it was formed. But when I’d stolen it from the world, I’d brought it into my domain. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant yet, Ket had informed me that I had created a domain almost as an afterthought. But I hadn’t wanted the remnant to dissolve, and so it hadn’t.

In this space, my whims shaped everything. That had always been true, really. But previously the only things here were the figments of my imagination. My own visualized thoughts. My domain blurred the line between those thoughts, reality, and the Radiant Sea.

I **** the remnant to appear before me. It was an ugly, patchwork thing. The vegetative, sinuous meridians of the youth had been frayed and in some places ripped apart by golden rods. Radiating like pins from his core node. From the junction, the severed part of Entreyu’s spirit hung, like shards of broken glass, strung together with golden wires. And linking the disparate halves was a pair of spell mandalas.

This was what I was looking for. The seals that the Pure were using to bind two spirits together. I had one embossed on my palm, but it had always felt incomplete. I’d also felt a sense of foreboding that warned me off of examining it too closely, or the seal in Myta’s spirit.

When my vas had first tried to cleanse her core node, accidentally no less, we had shared some kind of vision. One we still couldn’t recall all the details of. I’d emerged from it with the mandala burned into my palm, and a vague sense of success. What we had succeeded at was still a bit of a mystery.

I stripped the remnants away, letting them sublimate into mana as I examined the conjoined seals. This time I felt no sense of foreboding, but the runes that formed the mandalas seemed to writhe under my gaze. They twisted and shivered before my eyes, squirming like grubs on the bottom of an overturned rock. Struggling to escape my sight.

The sight of them made me sick, but they also left me with a nagging sense of familiarity. As though I would recognize the symbols immediately, if only I could catch a clear glimpse of them. As if their names were on the very tip of my tongue.

I threw myself into the examination for what felt like hours. But my only reward was the taste of bile in the back of my throat. Finally, feeling defeated, I sequestered the seals into a back corner of my inner world.

Myta was waiting. Presumably I’d been staring at the rings of golden symbols long enough that night had fallen, and she’d joined me in my sanctum as she fell asleep.

“Did your time with Pedu go well?” I didn’t want to press her, but her mood was pensive. My question brought a brilliant smile to her face, however.

“Yes, master. She is just as you described her, and she was able to help me rebuild some of my memories of my mother. And tell me of my grandparents. It was… good. Comforting. I like her, very much, and she helped me plan for the journey to Seto.”

“I’m glad to hear that, my flame.” I ran my fingers gently over her cheek, and the rim of her ear. “If that went well, then tell me what is bothering you.”

“The fight with Mas… with Entreyu, master.” She pressed her cheek into my palm. “I let my anger get the better of me, and I am ashamed of my behavior. But also, I swear I can still feel his hate, hounding me.”

I blinked, and then groaned at my oversight.

“You feel his lingering intention, from the spells he used to try and kill you. This is a good reminder for me that we need to resume your training when we’re on the road again.”

“His intention? I thought that only applied when shaping spells?” She sounded relieved, and I didn’t blame her. Entreyu’s hate must have felt like a phantom, breathing down her neck constantly after the fight.

“Intention is part of what makes a spell a spell.” I replied. “But it lingers in the mana that was used, sometimes long after the spell is complete. We are lucky that the little pig has always been so terrible at sorcery generally. His intent is always half-formed, and his will is nothing but rage. With the amount of sheer power he’s amassed, we’d be in dire straits if he knew how to use it properly.

“Lingering intention is one of the great dangers of fighting any awakened being, or even just being near such a fight. Even bystanders will be threatened by lose mana, imbued with hostile intent.”

“Is there some way to remove it?” She asked.

“Of course. All that mana he threw at you is yours now.” I grinned. “You’ve already absorbed it, I’m sure. So you just need to apply your own intention to it. It’s not his now, it’s yours. Even if he wasn’t so undisciplined, you’d be able to tame it in short order. Just spend a little time directing your mana to enhance your body, and you’ll be fine. Things only get tricky when other forces are at play.”

“Is that why Yatek needed your help?”

I nodded. “He didn’t need it. Not exactly. The minister would have recovered on his own eventually. But between the corrupt mana of the demon, the intention of his opponents, and Ramana’s spell interfering, he was struggling.”

I gave my love a speculative look, a wicked thought crossing my mind.

“Try to purge Entreyu’s intent now. Let’s see how quickly you pick it up.”

Myta gave me a wary look, but she closed her eyes and did as I instructed. Unsurprisingly, she overcame the monk’s intention with ease.

With barely a moment for her to appreciate her triumph, I formed a spell of my own. It wasn’t something that I’d ever practiced before, but my incredible familiarity with my flame made it easy to form. Like a net, my mana wrapped around her sinking beneath her skin. With the link between us, I could have retained control of my mana, even as it passed within her anima. I didn’t, however. That would have been cheating, and defeated the purpose of the exercise.

Myta was startled, but she didn’t remain so for long. Her familiarity with my aspect let her take control of the mana immediately, and she set about purging my intention right away. After dealing with Entreyu’s so easily, she must have expected this new challenge to be simple, despite my derision toward the monk. It was a natural expectation, but my skills were on another level to the monk’s.

I watched calmly as her slight smirk began to fade, her brow furrowing in concentration. My vas knew exactly where each scrap of mana she’d taken from me was. It belong to her now, swimming through spirit body, sparking in her meridians. It followed her direction, but wherever it flowed it began to set her nerves on fire.

“Normally,” I noted calmly, “when you are trying to purge the intention from mana, it is because you have suffered an attack. In the temple where I trained, our masters would imbue the mana with the intent of scouring us with pain, from the inside out. But given your training thus far, I thought this would be more appropriate.”

Myta panted, sweat breaking out on her skin as she tried to concentrate. Unconsciously she raised her fingers to her lips, her tongue darting out to lick her fingertips. She let out a low, whimpering moan as she sank down to her knees. I knelt down close to her, so I could whisper in her ear.

“You know my love, you aren’t the most sensitive of women, not normally. Your nipples,” I tweaked her hard nubs through her top, feeling her areola pebble even through the thick fabric, “aren’t particularly responsive. Although you do have your own little secret spots.”

I stroked the sensitive skin behind her ears, and Myta screamed, outright screamed as she fell to the ground. Her concentration was completely lost as she writhed on the ground to escape my stroking fingers, overwhelmed by the pleasure of my gentle touch on her delicate skin.

“Just focus on the mana,” I told her as I began to strip away her clothing. “If you can accept the sensations, just let them pass through you, then you can still do what you need to do. That’s as true for pain as it is for pleasure.”

I didn’t make a show of undressing her, I didn’t need to. Every stroke of cloth over her skin was an agony of pleasure, like a touch directly to her pearl. Even so, I felt her struggle to return to her task. Her dedication, her determination, were the most formidable qualities my vas possessed.

Soon I had her naked, laying on her back, her legs over my shoulders. Her hips made jerking motions into the air, while she gripped her own breasts hard enough to leave her fingerprints as bruises. I bit her thighs, sinking my teeth into her skin just the way she liked. A gush of liquid spilled from her flower as she came. A small prelude, as I’d been carefully avoiding her slick sex.

Her whole body shuddered, as my hot breath kissed her flower. Her spicy-sweet scent filled my nostrils, hanging heavy in the air. When my tongue delicately lapped at her pearl, my flame lurched. Her back arched hard, her hips rising to meet my face with driving ****. She howled, hoarsely, although her voice choked off when I slid two fingers inside her.

Myta thrashed, her muscles clenching spasmodically as she climaxed. Her concentration was completely destroyed as her senses were overwhelmed. It was incredibly arousing, but also disturbing. Her blank eyes were a testament to the fact that I had pushed her far past the point that I’d meant to. Far past the point where she was capable of any rational thought, or even awareness.

I pulled the offending mana from her, unwilling to let the effect run its course. When my flame began to regain some semblance of control, she grabbed me. Her limbs were weak, still trembling with the aftershocks of my torment, but she clung to me desperately. As though I were the only thing in the world that could keep her grounded, keep her afloat in the sea of her sensations.

I held her, running my fingers through her hair, then tangling them in it when she pulled against my touch. My clenched fist, tugging firmly against her scalp, helped to ground her.

“That was an error on my part. Perhaps we won't do that again.” I noted, after she had finally stopped shaking.

Myta made a noise of protest, pressing her face into my belly, where I’d pulled her head into my lap. Her arms tightened around my waist, to the point that it was almost painful.

“No, master. We definitely need to try that again. Just, maybe with more warning? And not when I’m trying to learn something new.”

“As you say, my love. As you say.”