-So, what now?-
He began walking towards the pillar and she followed. Both their bodies felt real, with substance but she knew it was not so. Her real body was back in the room holding hands with his.
-You place your hand in the pillar and we see-
He was not going to say much more. That was clear. So, without thinking anymore about it, she placed her left hand, the one with the ring, on the pillar.
The whole thing started to vibrate slowly at first. She looked at him and saw his interested expression.
-Should I do anything else?
-No, the pillar is sensitive to your cultivation potential and no chants or techniques are needed. It will begin to manifest as colored light that climbs higher and higher along the pillar lenght. The higher it reaches, the bigger your potential is...
His words were cut short as the pillar suddenly began to lit up and a light blue radiance started emerge from the inside of the structure reaching all the way to the top in an instant.
-Aridel, I feel something weird...
He witnessed how her hand seemed to become translucent and despite his surprise at this development was huge, he still had the presence of mind to put his hand over hers and try to help her to stabilize the enormous ammount of qi present.
The next thing left the two of them in complete awe. The pillar had been shinning before but as soon as he touched her, the pillar seemed to become purer and the air warmer and fragant. Aridel and Mei looked as the energy at the top of the pillar surpassed the boundary of the structure and the light itself began to take the shape of branches and leaves of a collosal tree that formed over their heads and that seemed to reach into the endless sky.
Their silence now was a solemn one. The view, too beautiful for words. The power both of them felt coursing through their bodies was intoxicating yet soothing.
-It reminds me of Yggdrasil...-she looked into his eyes and smiled. Aridel felt even more awed at her and what their power combined was cappable of.
-It was supposed to measure the color and leaning of your cultivation potential. It was meant to show one of the colors of the rainbow, not light itself-
She liked it when he gave her information. His words let her know her results were not common ones.
-What was it like for you? I mean, when you got tested the first time-
He lifted his gaze again into he tree and blinked. What just happened was a miracle, the stuff legends were made off. But she was too ignorant about everything to know to what extent.
-Mine was also a full pillar of dark element, it reached all the way to the top of the pillar and thunder manifested by the end of it. You and I have a similar potential, the only difference between us right now is the ammount of time spent cultivating and the degree of control we are able to have over our power-he said with distinctive respect on his voice and his eyes became a tiny bit softer-
Oh my, those eyes of his, dark but so expressive were going to land her in so much trouble. She just knew. And for the first time ever in her long life, it seemed she could daydream about a real future lovelife with someone. He squeezed her hand lightly and she felt that with her whole being.
-Is this tree formed with our powers combined?-she marvelled without taking her gaze from him.
-Our powers resonated and merged too-he explained-I have heard before that couples can try this type of test together and if they are really soulmates, the result is... well, you are seeing it-
-Let me guess-she added after a while- Lots of people try it but few actually find they found their soulmate-
He nodded.
-And many of those who do not get their soulmate fall out with each other-
He nodded again.
-That´s sad-
-Why do you think so?-
-Love itself is a miracle-she answered-and to expect true love to be only a perfect, world shaking, undying, unchanging thing is a waste-she lifted her eyes from his and looked into the millions of leaves made of light-I´d rather have a single shinny leaf of love with me than go my whole life looking for the entire tree that I might never even see-
-But what do you think to do now that we both saw it-
He took her hand and separated her from the pillar. The collosal tree and its brilliant leaves scattered like shards of a broken mirror. Just as Mei was about to open her big mouth, a single shinny leave landed on his chest, near where his heart was. Talk about omens...The other leaves vanished but this single one remained, small and beautiful. She plucked it from his clothes, took his left hand and placed it there.
-We move on with our lives together and see if we can make something real and tangible grow over time?
He was silent for a while and then he let go of her in the real world. The leave, however, was also in his hand brought into reality. Mei felt coming back to her own body like she was dunked on a pool of cold water. She really hoped this whole out of body thing became better with practice...
-I agree, lets see where time gets us-with that, he placed the delicate leave on an inner pocket inside his robes while keeping his amazing poker face.