Aether Beasts

Zirani and I continued on our trek through the floor, stopping every once in a while so that I could meditate as I was constantly expending aether, trying to form the patterns from the advanced sets, which while harder than the base sets, still got easier the more I formed them, and I could already see multiple ways I could use some of them in tandem with origin patterns, though there were key things missing. I could guess at what patterns would work for my affinity, but Zirani had said it would be best if I left that until after this training, and since she'd not led me astray so far, I had no reason to disobey her.

We eventually stopped in an area surrounded by dense foliage that glowed, adding to the blue, light coming from above to create an odd mix. Sometimes traveling through this place felt like a fever dream with all the vibrant colors that popped out, not to mention the sheer variety of plant life, a lot of which seemed straight out of a child's dream. I mean a glass-like plant that whistled was not something I'd ever thought I'd come across.

"Why does it do that?" I asked, leaning down to touch it. To my surprise, the plant seemed to lean away from me and the whistling grew louder.

"Don't do that," Zirani said, pulling me away. "That's a purifying plant, a chime flower as it's called. It cleanses the air around itself. It's actually one of the ingredients for the improved aether gathering elixir and pill. A side effect of its purifying nature is that it also purifies the aether in the air. Some people have a room or garden full of plants like this for meditation, though it's mostly used by the green court."

"Is this where you're going to train me?" I asked. "Around these plants?"

She shook her head. "No, there's not enough here for it to make much of a difference. The real reason is that this area has the highest concentration of plant life. It is the densest part of the floor."

I hadn't noticed that before, but looking now, I realized that she was right. They were plants from all over the floor here, including fleet trees, and the giant mushrooms, along with a few other types I hadn't seen or noticed, which made more sense. After the initial first days, I'd turned my full focus to training again.

Zirani walked over and leaned against a tree, crossing her arms. "Now as you know the reason we're doing this is to increase your knowledge of nature, or the green, which is more of an accurate term. In the green court, we don't call it the nature affinity since nature doesn't simply encompass plant life. Nature encompasses everything from the earth to the ocean to the winds and the metal beneath the earth. We call it the green, for obvious reasons."

She turned and pressed a hand to the tree. "The green is a versatile and powerful affinity, more so than any of the others. From healing to positions, to solid forms like wood, to the losers forms like vine and sap. The uses for the green are many. As I've said before, herbs and plants are absolutely crucial when it comes to alchemy, the combination of different ingredients to create something new."

She turned back to me with a distant look in her eyes. "That's where our true strength lies Aiden, our versatility, but also our ability to change our aether to create these different forms that the green takes. You saw me do it with the poison cloud I performed for you back near the first steel hear camp. You saw me change the aether. I changed it to produce the effect that a plant I knew would do when disturbed. That plant releases a paralytic pollen, and all I did was copy that, and that's just the simplest of what can be done. When I was at the seventh level the things I could do with my aether made me a force to be reckoned with. There was no task I could take on. Fire, water, earth, wind, compared to the green, the forms they take are limited, strong yes, but limited.

Just like before, her words sent my brain in a spiral of thoughts, and tons of possibilities and ideas came to my mind as I thought about what she was saying. The ability to produce any type of plant life using your aether, or even just a part of it or an effect. Mixing them to create new things, and well, alchemy was a wide subject, and like she'd said it went from healing to harming, and on and on.

"Don't be mistaken though," Zirani said. "There are limitations, mainly depending on how powerful you are. Certain plant life will be out of your league, and learning how to change your aether is already hard, but with the sheer variety the green offers, it's ten times harder for us. Another path may be more simple, not easier, but more simple. Our path is not simple, your path is not simple, not if you want to utilize all aspects of the green."

I felt my excitement building. "You know I'm willing to do it."

For that type of power and what it would allow me to do, I would be willing to do almost anything.

"That's good." Zirani smiled. "When you're done with your advanced sets and we move onto your affinity sets, I'm going to start to teach you the basics of changing your aether, which leads us back to why we're here. Our bond has grown to the point where I could send information into your head along with memories, and mental images which I've already done before, but I want you to gain some experience firsthand rather than me just shoving all the information into your head."

"So could you send patterns to me?" I asked.

She nodded. "Like I said I can send information across our bond, but I'm not going to do that just yet."

She motioned to our surroundings. "I want you to examine these plants, what they do, their properties, their effects on the environment, etc."

"Just look at them?" I asked, not really knowing what she meant. Did she want me to use a technique?

She shot me a slight glare. "I was getting to that. I'm going to teach you a technique very similar to green pulse, but instead of gaining information from the green you will gain information about the green."

She pressed a hand to the tree behind her. "Just pay attention to what I do."

A pattern began to form around her hand and then the technique was formed. It looked almost identical to green pulse at first glance, but then I noticed the difference and changes. The aether pulsed through the tree and remained there for a moment before returning back to Zirani's hand, presumably with the information on the tree.

"It will be confusing at first, but I will be there to guide you and explain anything you don't understand. Once you got a handle on it and gain a basic understanding, then I will feel more comfortable with sending information directly into your mind."

I gave Zirani a skeptical look as walked over to a nearby fleet tree. "I'm going to be able to understand what goes into my head?"

"You'll be fine. It's not like the tree's going to be speaking to you."

I pressed my plan against the bark of the tree and pulled aether from my core to began forming the same pattern she'd used. "That's not what I'm saying. Will, I understand the… information? The information that the technique brings to me."

"For the most part, yes, though they will be aspects which confuse you, especially when it comes to plants that you've never come across before like the chime plant. If you were to examine it before I'd told you what it did, it might take you longer to realize what it was doing, but now that you know, it'd make more sense and click faster."

Once the pattern was formed I let it run its course, and the technique shot from my palm into the tree. It felt very similar to green pulse, and I took a deep breath as I prepared myself for what was about to happen. I'm not sure why I was so nervous.

After a long moment the aether that had entered the tree returned to me, and with it came a wave of information about the tree, from its density to its weight, to natural pattern it seemed to possess, and more, some of which was very confusing. There was information of something deeper that I couldn't understand, small things that seemed to connect together to create larger things which then themselves came together to create the wood and the other parts of the tree. Layers upon layer of information, and for a long moment I could think of nothing but the tree.

Then Zirani's hands were on my shoulder and my mind began to settle.

"Wow." My voice was breathless, and with a start, I realized I was laying on the ground, my head in ZIrnai's lap.

"It's a lot isn't it." She smiled and slowly stroked a hand through my hair.

That was an understatement, It had been everything.

"Take some time to relax," Zirani said with a soothing voice.. "Then I shall explain further and we begin the process once again."