The soft light of the afternoon sun filtered through the window of Elias's room, casting a warm glow on the polished wooden floor. Elias sat on his bed, cross-legged, his journal resting in his lap.
Aina , with a rare, almost imperceptible shift in her demeanor, was sitting down beside him on the bed. The mattress had dipped slightly under her weight, a small, unexpected intimacy that momentarily broke through Elias's anxious thoughts.
"Elias," she began, her voice calm, her gaze fixed on a point just beyond his shoulder, as if addressing the very air.
"I can tell you are still troubled. What you experienced… it is a rare occurrence, to encounter a will stronger than your own the first time you used 'Flow Perception',even for those with developed senses. But it is part of the world you must understand."
Elias looked at her, a flicker of hope in his eyes.
"The malevolence? The… the evil thing?" The words felt small and inadequate for the terror he had felt then.
Aina nodded slowly.
"Yes. To understand such threats, you must first understand the world itself. The Flow that permeates it."
She paused, gathering her thoughts, her posture perfectly erect even seated on the soft bed.
"You know that Flow is the energy of life, that it resides within us. But Flow is far more than that. It is the fundamental, omnipresent force that fuels the entire world,that drives all of creation."
Elias listened intently, his earlier intellectual epiphany from the garden, when he had equated Flow to the expansion of the universe, resurfacing. This was the cosmic scale he had managed to grasp, the idea of Flow as the universe's own lifeblood.
Aina turned slightly, her gaze sweeping around the room, as if seeing beyond the walls.
"Every living thing, every stone, every breath of air, is permeated by Flow. It is the very lifeblood of the world. The energy that allows a tree to grow, a river to run, a mountain to stand. It is constant, dynamic, and everywhere. We've established that in our previous lessons,correct?"
Elias nodded.
She looked at him, her eyes cold, holding his gaze for a moment.
"The planet itself possesses its own immense Flow. This planetary Flow courses through vast, invisible networks beneath the surface, like veins of pure energy. We call these 'Ley Lines'. And where these Ley Lines intersect, or where the planet's Flow is exceptionally dense, 'Nodes' are formed. Think of them as immense, natural lakes that form from large rivers, vast concentrations of the world's inherent energy flowing into and out of them constantly creating a dense pocket of energy. Places of great natural power, often where ancient civilizations once thrived and current civilizations propagated from, or locations where strange phenomena occur."
Elias absorbed this, picturing the invisible network beneath the ground, the pulsating Nodes, the planet breathing Flow like a living organism. It was a beautiful, terrifying thought, lending a new, profound layer to the seemingly mundane world outside his window.
"All life, all matter, draws sustenance from this universal Flow, Elias, even if unconsciously," Aina continued, her voice unwavering.
"It is the very essence of existence here."
"And this Flow," Aina went on, her voice shifting to a more practical, yet equally profound, tone, "influences everything. Even the creatures that inhabit this world."
She began to elaborate.
"Most animals you see are what we call 'Mundane Beasts.'"
"Like a deer?" Elias asked, recalling the graceful creatures he sometimes saw darting through the manor's distant woods, their forms now imbued with a new, unseen significance.
"Precisely," Aina affirmed, a subtle nod of approval.
"A deer, a wolf, a bear, the birds in the sky, the fish in the rivers, even the smallest insects that crawl on the ground. They are the normal creatures of this world, Mundane."
She described them in detail, painting a vivid picture with her precise words.
"Mundane Beasts possess a basic, inherent Flow, just enough to sustain their lives. Yes,they too posses souls. Their Flow signatures are simple, predictable, like a faint, steady pulse. They are driven by natural instincts: to hunt, to forage, to reproduce, to migrate. They are not inherently phenomenal or supernaturally powerful. A Mundane wolf is simply a wolf, albeit one sustained by ubiquitous Flow just like all life in the world."
Elias thought of the Blackwood region beyond the manor, the vast forests and rolling hills that teemed with such creatures. He had seen the nimble deer, their movements fluid and silent as they grazed in the meadows near the keep. He had heard the distant, cunning barks of foxes echoing through the twilight, and knew of the territorial bears that slumbered deep in the ancient woods, he had sensed all of them with Flow Perception,all of them Mundane Beasts, living their lives, sustained by the unseen, pervasive Flow.
"However," Aina's voice grew subtly darker, a hint of the dangers to come. "The world's Flow is not static. It constantly moves, gathers, and disperses. These Nodes are ever moving and changing, albeit over periods of time. Within areas where there is a high concentration of Flow – within Ley Line Nodes, for instance, or ancient ruins where powerful Flow events have occurred, or even places where powerful Flow-users have lived and died – Mundane Beasts can undergo a profound transformation."
Elias leaned forward, intrigued.
' Fascinating.'
This was the part that connected to the creature that had terrified him.
"When a Mundane Beast spends prolonged periods in such a high-Flow environment," Aina explained, her eyes distant, as if recalling ancient knowledge from texts he had yet to read, "or consumes resources saturated with Flow – plants, water, other creatures that have absorbed this energy – their own inherent Flow begins to absorb and integrate this external energy over a period of decades. It is a fundamental principle of this world: Flow seeks to gather, to concentrate, to flow."
"And the result?" Elias prompted, eager, unable to contain his curiosity.
"The result," Aina stated, her voice firm, "is an 'Imbued Beast'. Imbued Beasts are still fundamentally animals, driven by instinct, but their physical capabilities are significantly enhanced. A deer might develop unnaturally fast reflexes, able to dodge arrows with impossible grace, its muscles rippling with unseen energy. A wolf might grow in size and get hide so tough it can deflect blades, its fangs sharper, its senses keener. A bird might learn to fly faster than the eye could follow for impossible distances and so on."
"Their core strength, their speed, their senses – all are heightened," Aina continued.
"And they might develop minor, rudimentary Flow abilities. A bear might unconsciously generate a small burst of force to knock down a tree with a single swipe, or a fish might swim against the strongest current with unnatural ease by affecting the water around it. But these abilities are still tied to their natural form and instincts. They are not distinct 'Traits' like those found in humans. They are merely amplified aspects of their inherent beast nature, fueled by the Flow they have absorbed."
Elias pictured it: a mundane wolf, slowly transforming, its fur growing thicker, its eyes sharper, its movements swifter, a subtle aura of power clinging to it. It was a terrifying thought, the wilderness becoming even more dangerous, the familiar forests of the Blackwood region now harboring hidden threats. He wondered how many such creatures roamed the vast, untamed lands, unseen by the common folk, their enhanced forms lurking just beyond the edge of normal perception.
The world, he realized, was far more alive, and far more perilous, than he had ever imagined.