Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 228: Testing

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

I hovered in the sky, taking deep breaths to center myself as my Acquire Phase burned against my skin. As a white core mage, my control and grasp of my Phoenix Will had improved drastically. While my First Phase strained my body very little as a silver core, now there was practically no noticeable decrease in mana reserves or taxing effects across my body.

Yet as I slowly inched deeper and deeper into the burning furnace that was this nigh-infinite expanse of insight, a different kind of strain started to burden me.

"Careful, Toren," Aurora's voice feathered across my mind as I worked to keep the power under control. "This is the hard part. When you assimilated the insight of the Will before, you couldn't afford to dive this deep. But the perils are just as great as the rewards."

I quietly acknowledged my bond's words, using them as a centering focus. For the first time in months, I was undergoing mental assimilation once more with my Beast Will. My progress of improvement in mana manipulation and spellcraft had been nearly exponential due to the influence of this process back when I was a silver core, but there was a hard limit to what I could truly absorb. But with my innate understanding of organic magic as a white core mage, the last obstruction to assimilation was lifted.

As the knowledge and understanding superimposed itself into my mind under the effect of this form, I imagined I was at the edges of a furnace, the heat scalding and barely contained. I needed to keep fueling the burning fire within, but if I poured too much energy in, the tongues of flame would surge outward, burning me, too.

I felt sweat bead on my skin as I grasped at the metaphysical embers drifting from the fire, pulling them deeper and deeper into myself. Some of those embers went out, my knowledge too slim and my hold too weak. Others kindled even brighter as I grasped their true meaning, burning like tiny stars in my subconscious.

Aurora's steady hand guided me through the process. I could feel her shade's touch on my shoulder as her intuitive understanding of this kept me along safer paths. Her watchful presence prevented me from putting too much energy into that bonfire, kept me from diving too deep. When there were paths that I could not yet comprehend, a subtle nudge from her in the right direction pushed me onward.

"You should rest for a time, my son," the ancient phoenix said soothingly. "One can only do so much at one time. You are still flesh and blood."

At my bond's words, I felt myself hesitate. I thought I could keep going; keep absorbing more and more insight. But I'd also learned to trust what the shade had to say.

Reluctantly, I edged back from the recesses of my Phoenix Will, and as I did so I felt a wave of mental fatigue wash over me. I blinked my eyes open in surprise, then immediately winced at the glare of the rising sun.

Sweat beaded over my face, and I could notice a flushed tone to my skin as my eyes adjusted with abnormal speed to the glare of dawn. I exhaled a shuddering breath I hadn't known I'd been repressing.

"Without the guiding hand of others, it is often easy to overwork oneself," Lady Dawn said from my side as I gradually took stock of myself. "Especially during assimilation. It is easy for you to get lost in the deluge of power."

I nodded slowly, feeling like my brain had been basking on a summer beach for a few hours too long. My thoughts were slow to form, each struggling to coalesce from the slurry my mind had unwittingly become.

It's like any type of learning, I thought, using the dot of the rising sun as a focusing anchor. One can dive headfirst into knowledge and be quickly overwhelmed. It takes time and effort to truly cement what one is shown and taught.