Elias helped Miss Gable back inside, her trembling hand clutched in his small one, feigning exhaustion. Once she was settled with a cup of warm tea and a bewildered explanation to another maid about a "sudden flash of light," Elias retreated to the sanctuary of his own room. The door clicked shut, sealing him off from the mundane world, but his mind was anything but quiet. It raced, buzzing with the terrifying implications of "Flow Programming," the accidental power he had just wielded.
He pulled out his journal and began to write.
The lightning strike. It had been real, devastatingly so for the snake, and utterly bewildering for Miss Gable. Elias was overwhelmed by the sheer, raw power he had unknowingly tapped into, and the terrifying potential it held. This was beyond anything Aina had taught him, beyond any Flow ability described in the manor's extensive library. This was his power, born from the intersection of his Flow and his old world's scientific knowledge. The absolute necessity of keeping this secret from Aina and everyone else was paramount. This was his unique advantage, a weapon he might one day wield against Deus himself. He just had to refine his understanding of how it worked.
He decided to dedicate part of his private time to experimenting with "Flow Architecture." He didn't dare try to manifest these phenomena in the physical world again, not after the lightning incident. His calculations needed to be precise; otherwise, he'd end up messing things up and leaving himself utterly drained. Instead, he retreated into his Spirit-Domain, transforming his internal universe into his personal workshop.
There, in the boundless black expanse of his personal universe, he began to work out his programs.
He started small, trying to manifest simpler phenomena that he could calculate. He put his hands together, focusing on generating heat. He recalled the principles of kinetic energy, the vibration of particles. He would then have to come up with variables centered around the exact thing he wanted to create. It took some time. Normally, in textbooks, there would be numbers to show how much of each quantity was at play within the equation, so he now had to come up with these variables in order to fine-tune the workings, then infuse the ambient Flow within his domain with these precise parameters, willing it to coalesce into warmth. He struggled with precision. Nothing happened the first time. He tried again and was thrown back by the recoil of a grenade-like explosion. On the third try, he could only make a small spark fire, and on the fourth, a faint haze. He persisted. Fire was the most basic thing to understand, so he had to use it as a simple example to develop this technique. He tried several other times.
Sometimes, a sudden, intense hotspot would flare in his domain, scorching the ethereal black water before quickly fading. Other times, he'd attempt to conjure a small gust of wind, calculating pressure differentials and air movement. This often resulted in a minor, uncontrolled vortex swirling around him, or a violent internal current that buffeted his consciousness. By evening, he was exhausted, having finally gotten the rough outline of what to do. He made a few more notes, then dragged his tired body down for supper. After that, he went to the library and did some reading before falling asleep. His mother, Lady Elara, found him passed out while reading a book and gently picked him up and carried him back to his room. He woke up feeling a little bit fatigued but continued again the next day after training with Aina.
The process of manifesting phenomena was agonizingly intricate. He drew deeply on his knowledge from his old world—fragments of basic physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics. He would first break down the desired phenomenon into its fundamental scientific components. Then, he would define the various variables and parameters and simply use that to influence the Flow.
For heat, it was about the kinetic energy of particles; for wind, it was about air pressure and movement. Then, he would attempt to "program" the ambient Flow within his domain with these precise, calculated parameters, willing the Flow to manifest the effect. It was like writing lines of code in his mind, then running the program through his Flow. He theorized that this went beyond science. If he could equally program, say, philosophy as well as science, he would be able to imitate Traits of the Cognitive or even Soulfire class. But for now, he was still experimenting with what he knew.
The cost of this fine-tuning was immense. This continuous, intricate calculation of variables, the mental gymnastics required to translate scientific principles into Flow commands, caused excruciating mental strain. Each day he practiced, he experienced throbbing headaches that pounded behind his eyes, sometimes so severe they made him dizzy. On occasion, a faint nosebleed would trickle from his nostrils, a physical manifestation of the sheer concentration. While his Flow was infinite, his current body's capacity to accommodate and process these complex calculations and the resulting Flow manipulation was limited. It quickly drained the Flow he could currently accommodate, making him feel profoundly depleted after even short bursts of practice. He could only sustain these effects for very short durations, even within the safety of his domain. He made up his mind. He had to ascend in order to get a stronger body to fully utilize his Flow.
Despite the secret experimentation, Aina's rigorous training continued. She remained tough on Elias, particularly focusing on Flow Infusion precision and Flow Suppression. She pushed him to infuse objects with the exact amount of Flow, to strengthen them without breaking. She drilled him endlessly on the techniques she'd taught him so far and forced him to apply them in their lessons.
Ironically, Aina's demands for greater Flow control and precision in her lessons inadvertently helped Elias refine the very skills needed for "Flow Programming." The discipline she instilled in him had one purpose—to control his untamed power. The ability to precisely manipulate Flow, to control its output, to make it subtle or forceful, was crucial for programming it, so Elias put in the effort. She noticed his rapid, almost uncanny, progress in these specific areas. Internally, she was satisfied by him putting in the work. She attributed his progress to his vast Flow pool and natural aptitude, often commenting that she expected nothing less since he had Mellou blood, completely unaware of the true reason for his accelerated learning.
Elias hoped that his sister would give him some breathing room since he decided to improve himself instead of being reluctant like he was initially, but that was a delusion. Aina decided to push him harder, believing he had even more potential to unlock.
Elias became even more meticulous about his experiments. He ensured he was truly alone before retreating to his domain and learned to mask his Flow signature even during his private practice, using his improved Flow Suppression. He felt a constant low-level anxiety about being discovered. It was as if someone somewhere was monitoring his progress. He would normally shake it off, but he knew of the existence of a being like Deus. Such a level of surveillance wasn't beyond the self-proclaimed god. These thoughts made Elias more cautious and cunning in his movements and actions.
"Part of why I'm learning this was to use it against the off-white bastard anyway. It's best I keep this a surprise."
He worked on improving this technique every day for weeks. Then, as night fell, Elias, physically and mentally exhausted but buzzing with calculations and theories, finally climbed into his bed. He lay in the dark, his mind still working through the parameters for manipulating light, for generating a small, contained flame.
He stopped thinking for a bit and closed his eyes, picturing the vague Trait Sigil that hung above his Spirit-Domain, still obscured by the shimmering flakes of cosmic dust like clouds. He wondered what his true Trait was going to be. Was his "Flow Programming" a manifestation of it, or something entirely separate, a power unique to him in this world? He fell asleep pondering this profound question.
All this while, preparations were being made for his fourth birthday, which was fast approaching.