Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 221: The Depths of the Soul [End of Book 4]

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

I lounged in the center of my rooms, feeling the push and pull of the mana within my core. With every inhale, a little more mana streamed through my veins, and with every exhale, I slowly edged closer to my goal.

It had been many, many months since my ascension to the silver core. And as the deluge of Aurora's mana within my nexus of power continued without ceasing, I scraped closer and closer to the power of the white core.

Until now, when I was on the brink.

I inhaled, feeling not just the rush of power, but of emotion. I acknowledged my fear, cloying and pervasive. Side by side was my rationality and reason, keeping me in check and supporting my goals. Here and there, anger and hate lingered on the outskirts–the traces of Agrona and my enemies still taking space in my mind.

And surrounding it all was hope, suffusing my very being.

It hadn't been long since my talk with Seris. As my thoughts lingered on the silver-haired beauty, I noted the increase in passion that subconsciously coursed through my veins. As my thoughts drifted toward that sole kiss, I felt my concentration waver.

Acknowledge it, I thought, taking a deep breath as I centered myself, and let it flow.

"Once you reach the white core stage, it will be time for your true abilities to grow," Aurora's voice feathered across my mind. "You have struggled to assimilate knowledge from my Will because you lack the inherent insight of an asura's mana core–our natural control of organic magic and connection to the material plane. But that shall burden you no longer."

"Soon," I muttered, my eyes closed as I sat in a meditative pose, my arms resting on my knees, "soon, the ground will not hold me."

I would be reborn in fire and flight.

I inhaled deeply, the ambient mana flexing. Like a man who pressed a piano key, the rumbling vibrations seemed to twist and warp the very air around me as the world itself sensed my ascension. Though I was underground in the depths of Burim, I might as well have been beneath the open sky.

Aurora's feather surged with mana, scraping away the last impurities on the inside of my silver core. But for the last push, all I needed was to...

An ache of pain twisted from my center as those brilliant white cracks spread further across the surface of my core. I winced, wondering if this was what it was like for a butterfly to wrench itself from a cocoon. I hissed slightly as those cracks spread, the pain arcing with it.

"Steady, my son," Aurora said soothingly into my ear, centering my meditative state. "Steady. This is a balance."

I inhaled, noting the pain as well. It flashed red like pincers in my mind, and though it tempted me away from peace, I had experienced far worse. More brilliant white cracks spread.

And as those cracks spread, I found my attention shifting to my pulsing heartfire. The nimbus of energy beating around my heart, it was... swelling, expanding as my core gradually advanced. A beautiful interplay of mana and aether danced in the recesses of my psyche as the bonfire grew and grew, both nurtured by my mana core and simultaneously protecting it.

I'd tried many ways to force my mana and personal aether to interact–and though I'd finally divined a pseudo-method through Resonant Flow, that was more of a sideways implementation. But as I watched the mana nurturing my heart onward like a hearthmother, I finally realized the foolishness of my thoughts.