After the teleportation, I found myself in the dojo-style training space from last time.
I set Penguin down and watched as he immediately started exploring.
"This is the place where Llewellyn and I trained before," I told him.
Penguin chirped.
Well.
I took a deep breath and started looking around.
Time to see if that book had actually stuck—and if I could put it into practice.
Overall, I didn't feel that different, but. Two things had definitely changed.
One, I seemed to know the book cover to cover now. And two, the perception of the Magic Field all around me was actually… very strong.
It was a bit disconcerting, but it felt very good.
I walked to the center of the room, exploring the Magic Field with my mind.
After the first Distorted Realm with Llewellyn, when I'd used Magic for the first time, I'd become aware of Magic moving inside my body. Now it felt the same, but my perception of my body had changed. If I shifted my focus just so, it felt like my body's boundaries were gone.
It wasn't all the time; if I didn't think about it, my usual perception was there. But as soon as I changed my intent, my boundaries were gone and there wasn't really any inside or outside anymore.
As a consequence, I didn't just have access to what I'd thought was "my own" Magic before. I had access to ALL the Magic present in the Magic Field.
It was insanely cool. I'd have been screaming in excitement if only I had any idea what to do with it.
According to Breath and Bone, recognition was the most important aspect of this process—but. The book talked about recognizing the Elements, not the Field; though the recognition of the Magic Field seemed to have been implied.
Anyway. I wasn't sure what that meant in practical terms, but I was eager to try.
How does one recognize the Elements, though? I remembered the quote from that one master: "I no longer wield Fire—I simply remember that I have always been burning." How did this translate to Water? "I no longer wield Water—I simply remember that I have always been flowing"?
I supposed that might be right in theory, and it definitely sounded cool, but I didn't really understand it.
I also remembered what Llewellyn had said last time. "Water isn't a tool. It's alive, it wants to move."
How did these two things go together?
I really didn't know what I was doing.
When did that switch from Pure Magic to Element happen? And how? How could I help it along?
I shifted my weight, trying to let go of all the stiffness I apparently carried without realizing.
The floor under my feet felt solid.
I exhaled and let my attention drop lower as the book said. Then I started scanning the Magic Field again.
Water Element, Water Element… Where was it?
The book's actual words were: "The Elements are not brought into the body, nor are they summoned out of it. The same substance that becomes Water or Fire is already the practitioner's own Magic, their life force. To divide them is error. To recognize them as one is practice. There is no step between—only the recognition of what has always been so."
I mulled this over as I stood there.
Maybe the question was, how was I Water, then?
I tried to look into it, but nothing changed.
I was starting to get frustrated. I had no idea what I was doing, was it even possible to gain this understanding from a book? One I had "absorbed", not even read properly?
I knew the content, but I clearly lacked the understanding.
…Wait.
Something occurred to me then.
It was a weird thought.
The book said, "To divide them is error. To recognize them as one is practice."
But right now, wasn't I dividing things? At least in the sense that I kept thinking I was Ryo and Water was Water, that I was someone trying to find Water or to understand that they were the same as Water?
…I dropped the idea that I was Ryo. I was just the Field, just formless Magic.
What if I became Water?
A wave surged out of me.
I stumbled back and it crashed on the floor, making Penguin squawk.
Whoa.
For a moment my body had really been everything, limitless, and power buzzed everywhere.
Insane.
I did it again.
Another wave crashed down.
Buzzing with excitement now, I tried to do the same with a Water sphere.
This was more difficult. It took several attempts to figure out how to be both limitless and a smaller shape like a sphere—which was also flowing. But after a few attempts it actually worked.
The itch in my chest was almost purring, and when I was expanded, it wasn't just in my chest anymore, it was everywhere.
When I tried a jet of Water, the power in it was unbelievable.
I was absolutely pumped now.
Whooping with excitement, I let wave after wave roll, the Water crashing into the floor and bursting back up in a celebratory spray.
I could definitely see why Llewellyn was so frustrated with the way I'd gone about things last time.
It was the same difference as raising my arm to wield Water vs. moving Water the same way I moved my arm. As my arm was me, Water was me also.
I looked at Penguin, who was shaking himself off from my latest wave.
No, what! I walked over to check if he was okay.
"Hey, I'm sorry," I said, crouching down.
Penguin chirped and nuzzled my hand, apparently unbothered.
I picked him up and settled him on a bench.
"System," I said aloud, "can you generate moving targets for practice?"
[System Notification: Affirmative. Generating moving targets. Difficulty level?]
"Start easy and work up?"
Three wooden mannequins materialized at the far end of the dojo, spaced about two meters apart. A few moments later, they started moving side to side.
Perfect.
I focused on the left one.
I shot a jet of water at it—and missed it completely.
"Damnit."
The mannequins kept sliding back and forth.
I tried again, this time trying to remember what I'd learned from Llewellyn during our training. My next Water jet caught the mannequin's shoulder, spinning it slightly.
Better.
Penguin chirped in encouragement from his bench, watching intently.
I spent the next half hour working on accuracy.
It wasn't easy to drop being a person to summon Water while at the same time keeping in mind the reference point of where to hit. Even though it didn't feel weird in practice, my mind was having a hard time dealing with the paradox.
After a couple of attempts, I managed to hit the center mannequin's chest and graze the right one's head. I completely missed it when it suddenly reversed direction, but as soon as I figured out how to calibrate my distance, I started landing attacks almost dead center at the right time.
Yes!
Now that this was sorted, I had to try the whole martial arts angle. After all, it was a book about Martial Flow.
***
After about two hours of practice, I showered and went home, exhausted but still a bit euphoric.
I really felt amazing.
My whole being buzzed with Magic, and I felt like my Elemental Mastery had gone up a whole level, at least.
I didn't know if this would be registered as progress in my System abilities since my learning of it had come from pure Magic, not through the System automation of Magic, but I suppose that wasn't really important.
Ah, things were great. I really felt happy—and a bit more useful, now that I had a better idea of what I was doing.
***
Penguin and I made dinner, then I sat down to work my next shift.
A direct message from Ciarán right when I was clocking in told me that RightSideOfHistory had been active again.
I checked quickly and sighed.
She'd apparently posted a THIRTY-tweet thread unpacking the "savior complex" and accusing Llewellyn of normalizing passive heroism through "affective silence".
Whatever that meant.
"There's some stuff about you," he added. "Not too much, but I created an alert, just in case."
Ah, that wasn't a bad idea. I thanked him.
I clocked in and scrolled quickly through the other posts, before even opening our shift's checklist.
Someone had replied to a mainstream news update with: "Okay, but who's profiting from Llewellyn's silence?"
The forums were worse. A dozen new threads speculated about whether Llewellyn was an AI-powered robot, a clone, or "a System construct designed to pacify the public with controlled heroism".
Then they spun all that about me too. It was almost entertaining. Almost.
Penguin wandered over, settling on my desk. He watched the screen with apparent interest as I refocused on the checklist and started working through the moderation queue.
"You'd think they'd get tired of making stuff up," I told Penguin when my eyes landed on a comment about Llewellyn being a Ghost King—one of the creatures of Innishae's folklore—occasionally shapeshifting into a human. "But no. Every night, same nonsense."
The #EndTheKnotsNow campaign was also still going strong. That was where most of the comments about me seemed to be.
I sighed and picked up both laptop and Penguin so we could go and sit comfortably on my couch.
Unfortunately, as I was lazily scrolling through the feed, settling into my body again after being so expanded earlier, a new thread popped up.
"FOUND HIM. ID confirmed. Llewellyn's mystery man isn't a mystery anymore."
What?! Wait—
I clicked on the thread.
Shit. I froze.
[truthdigger47]: Took some digging but I found him. Here he is. Same face. The guy's name is RYO HAEWELL.