The next few days after our visit to Teacher were rather busy. First, I returned Rowan and Ava's friend to them. They were concerned when they saw his condition, but Alysha patched him up real quick. Afterwards, true to his word, Rowan gave me the spirit core.
I felt a little bad, since saving his friend took little effort on my part, so I offered to pay him for it. This would take out a big chunk of my wealth here on Earth, but it was worth it. Even if I couldn't bring the spirit core back to Lumina, I could give it to a promising junior and foster a new talent for the Vanguard Guild.
Rowan rejected my offer. Rather, he rejected my money. Instead, he wanted the opportunity to join the Vanguard Guild. Not just for himself, but also for his sister and his friend. I thought this was a fair deal, so I pulled some strings for them. After that, whether or not they would get into the Vanguard Guild was entirely up to them.
After dealing with Rowan and company, my teammates and I headed to Vanguard Tower with Teacher in tow. When we arrived, it took a lot of effort on my part to keep Guildmaster Walker and Teacher from fighting. I knew they wouldn't take it too far, but even so. The last thing we needed was for two Seventh Rank Awakened to fight each other. I doubted Vanguard Tower would survive if that happened.
My teammates and I took this opportunity to punish the guild hunters that had attacked the Summerfield siblings. We kicked them out of the Vanguard Guild and reported their actions to the government. Maybe this would lead to their arrest, maybe it wouldn't. While my team and I had solid reputations, the government couldn't arrest people on our word alone. Still, reporting the guild hunters at least ensured they wouldn't be able to join any of the top tier guilds.
Once my teammates and I finished with our business at Vanguard Tower, we headed back to Hunter's Rest. We were all still on medical leave, so we weren't allowed to go hunting or any other strenuous activities. I thought this was ridiculous since we traveled through the Portland Wasteland without issue, but Guildmaster Walker insisted.
I didn't know about the others, but at least I managed to keep myself busy. Alysha and I were working on a way for me to perceive the silver thread connecting my soul to my body back on Lumina. That was the key. Without it, I'd be stuck on Earth until we found a way to physically travel to Lumina.
To my dismay, we made little progress.
"Ugh, this isn't working," I said, after trying for the umpteenth time.
Alysha chuckled.
"Patience, Brandon," she said. "It takes most people years to develop this ability."
"I don't have years!" I took a deep breath to regain my composure. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I'm just… frustrated."
Alysha nodded.
"I understand," she said. "You're eager to return home. In your shoes, I'd feel the same way."
I sighed. It was mid-morning, a few days after our visit to Teacher's valley. I sat on a cushion on the floor, my legs folded in the lotus position. For comfort, I wore a loose white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.
Alysha sat next to me, also in the lotus position. Unlike her usual attire, she wore a pastel blue yoga outfit today. Aurora lay nearby on my bed, taking a nap.
It was stormy outside. Black clouds darkened the sky, lit up by the occasional bolt of lightning. Rain lashed against the window, while thunder rumbled in the distance. The sound eased some of my frustration.
"Tell me about this ability," I said. "I know you've explained it to me before, but maybe hearing it again will help me."
Alysha gave me an understanding look and nodded.
"It's called Spirit Sight," she said. "Not because it allows you to see spirits, but because it allows you to see the world the way spirits do."
I nodded. That was our working theory. If I could perceive the world the way spirits did, I'd be able to see the silver thread connecting my soul to my body on Lumina. I experienced something similar before, when Kiki revealed her true form to me. In fact, during our first attempt, I asked Aurora to emulate what Kiki did. However, Aurora didn't know how so we gave up on that.
"It's not magic," Alysha continued. "At least not in the usual sense. Nor is it Holy Magic or martial arts. It's…" She paused. "The best way I can describe it is opening your soul's eyes. Any being with a soul can do it." She gestured to herself. "I can, though I'm not that proficient. I can open my soul's eyes a sliver."
I snorted.
"That's better than me," I said. "My soul's eyes are firmly shut." I sighed. "And I don't know if I'll be able to open them any time soon."
I leaned back and stretched my legs out. Alysha frowned.
"Maybe we're going about it the wrong way," she said. "I learned Spirit Sight through meditation and inner focus. That's the way my people do it."
I nodded. Alysha's family didn't originate from Earth. Instead, they came from a realm called Elirea. Similar to Lumina, it was a realm of magic rather than technology. However, unlike Lumina, they also had martial artists as well as wizards. Well, they didn't call them martial artists. Instead, they called them knights, but in principle they were the same.
During the Calamity, when the Gates first opened, the Elireans were among the first otherworlders to arrive. They taught Earth's Awakened how to use mana in the form of spells and techniques. Afterwards, several Elireans brought their families to Earth and settled down here. I believe a god was involved in that, though I wasn't sure.
"You're different," Alysha continued. "Your soul originates from Lumina, but you also lived a life here on Earth. The method to open your soul's eyes may differ from others."
"What method would that be?" I asked.
Alysha frowned.
"I'm not sure," she said. "Is there anyone on Lumina who is familiar with Spirit Sight, or a similar ability? If so, maybe we can ask them."
I nodded. It was as good an idea as any. I looked over at Aurora to ask her to deliver a message for me. However, the moment I laid eyes on her, an idea came to mind.
"Wait a minute," I said. "Maybe we don't need to go that far. I have a contract with Aurora."
Alysha raised an eyebrow at me.
"We already tried that, remember?"
I shook my head.
"No, that's not what I meant. Aurora and I shared a bond. Through that bond, we can sense each other's emotions, among other things. We can even send emotions to each other. What if I used that bond to develop Spirit Sight?"
Alysha wore a thoughtful expression on her face.
"I'm… not sure," she said. "I haven't heard of anyone using a spirit contract in this way before." She shrugged. "Still, it's worth a try if nothing else."
I nodded, before I took up the lotus position again. I closed my eyes. Instead of meditating and looking inward, I focused on my bond with Aurora instead. Finding it proved easy. While the bond I shared with my familiar was intangible, it very much existed.
I thought back to when Aurora and I first formed this bond. We shared mana with each other, a connection formed between us. At first it was vague and indistinct. However, when I gave Aurora her name, it solidified, for lack of a better term.
After that point, Aurora and I became connected. From another perspective, you could say we became extensions of one another. Now I just needed to use this bond in order to open my soul's eyes. Not by much. A sliver would do.
The question was: how?
This was the part that stumped me. Aurora and I gained many benefits from our bond. It helped that we had such high affinity for one another. Whenever I cultivated, some of it went to Aurora. Whenever Aurora cultivated, and ate Ice elemental crystals, some of that went to me. We also knew how to convey our emotions to one another.
Was that the limit to what we could do? I never thought about it before since I hadn't needed to, but my intuition told me that this wasn't the case.
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I started by pulling on the bond instead of pushing my emotions through it. I didn't pull on anything in particular, except for the bond itself. I felt a reaction right away as something stirred.
'Gabriel?' Aurora said, her voice in my mind. 'What are you doing?'
'I'm trying to see if I can develop Spirit Sight using our bond,' I said.
I felt Aurora's annoyance.
'Did you have to wake me up for that?' she asked in a grumpy tone. 'It felt like you tugged me.'
'Sorry,' I said, conveying my feelings through our bond.
Aurora snorted.
'Nevermind that. Now that I'm awake, I might as well help you. Is there anything you need me to do?'
I thought about it for a moment.
'Why don't you enter my body? That may increase my chances of success.'
I felt Aurora's assent. Once she entered my body, I pulled on our bond again. This time, the effect became more pronounced. I felt the distance between us shrink, which didn't make sense since she was already inside my body. However, that was the best way I could describe it.
'Whoa!' Aurora said. 'What was that?'
'I'm not sure,' I said.
I stopped pulling on our bond. The "distance" between us returned to normal. I opened my eyes and looked at Alysha.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I don't know if anything is wrong," I said. "However, it feels weird."
I explained what happened to Alysha.
"That is strange," she said, frowning. "However, I'm not an expert on spirits and spirit contracts. The only reason why I developed Spirit Sight was to help heal people." She gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry."
I waved off her apology.
"No need," I said. "Not many people know about spirit contracts in general. I'm grateful that you're even helping me."
This was unexplored territory for me. While experts on spirits existed, they focused more on spirits themselves. I didn't know if there were experts on spirit contracts. This was because most people didn't form spirit contracts in the first place.
Most who did were less talented Awakened who wanted a boost in power. I doubted they explored the bond they shared with their contracted spirit all that much. If they did, they kept it to themselves.
"Let me try again," I said, before closing my eyes again. 'Aurora, why don't you try pulling as well? Maybe something will happen if we pull together.'
'Okay,' my familiar said.
Together, the two of us pulled on our bond. This had an immediate effect. The two of us grew "closer", and I felt we were approaching some kind of threshold. What would happen if we touched that threshold, or even crossed it? I wanted to find out, and I knew that Aurora felt the same.
Without saying a word to each other, we pulled even harder. The "distance" between us shrank until it disappeared altogether. This time Aurora and I touched the threshold. As soon as that happened, various thoughts and emotions overwhelmed my mind.
'What's going on?'
'Gabriel!'
'I'm scared!'
'What is happening?'
'It's too loud!'
Panic, fear, and confusion accompanied these thoughts.
It took me a moment to realize that not all of these were mine alone. Some of them belonged to Aurora. Unlike before, when there was some "distance" between us, I felt Aurora's emotions as if they were my own. Not only that, but her thoughts felt like my thoughts. I assumed the opposite was true as well.
Unfortunately, Aurora's confusion and panic affected me, just as mine affected her. This started a vicious cycle, sinking us deeper into a maelstrom of thought and emotion. It became more and more difficult to distinguish which were mine and which were hers.
If this went on, we might lose ourselves in each other. I felt tempted to pull us apart. However, I didn't know what would happen if we did that.
'Aurora!' I shouted, cutting through the noise.
'Gabriel, I'm scared! What's going on?'
'I'm here. It's going to be alright. Follow my lead. Breathe in and out.'
'I'm a spirit! I don't need to breathe!'
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, which Aurora felt.
'Hey!'
A little levity helped calm us both down.
'Just follow my lead,' I said.
I felt Aurora's agreement. I used the square breathing method to calm my emotions and focus my thoughts. Aurora followed my example. She didn't need to breathe, but that didn't matter. The act itself mattered.
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Repeat.
Aurora and I went through this cycle several times. Little by little, the two of us worked together to get our emotions under control. All extraneous thoughts fell away, until the maelstrom of emotion and thought stilled. Our breathing synchronized, until it became difficult to discern who was leading who.
If the chaos from before was like a raging ocean, then our thoughts were now like a calm lake. The "distance" between us, already nothing, shrunk even further. It was as if we were merging together and becoming one. However, something stopped us. Some final barrier stood between us and perfect unity. I wracked my brain, trying to think of a way to break through this barrier.
Fortunately, I wasn't alone.
'Contract,' Aurora said, and I understood what she meant.
Or did I say it and she understood? At this point, it was difficult to determine who was who. Did it even matter anymore?
Aurora and I started exchanging mana, similar to when we first formed our contract. At first nothing happened, but then the rhythm of our breathing matched our mana exchange. When I breathed in, Aurora breathed out. When Aurora breathed in, I breathed out. We created a cycle, an endless loop.
Little by little, Aurora and I merged together. We became one. There was no distinction between us. I was Aurora, and Aurora was me.
The moment this happened, two sets of images started flooding my mind. Memories.
In one set, I remembered being inside a cold, comforting place surrounded by a thick barrier. Later on, I became too big and needed to break through the barrier. Once I did, I found myself out in the open. This terrified me, until a cold tongue licked me and I felt at peace again.
It took me, the Gabriel half of myself, to realize that these were Aurora's memories. I witnessed every moment of her life, from when she first hatched to when she set off on her own to explore the world.
I also saw what happened a little while later, when a human wizard attacked her. Darkness engulfed her and when she next woke up, she found that she had become a spirit bound to the Frostheart.
The next several centuries passed by as Aurora remained trapped, all alone except for the occasional visitor from Clan Frostheart. She tried several times to escape, but nothing worked. There were several times when she felt tempted to form a contract, just so she could escape, but none of her visitors felt like a good fit for her.
During all this, I experienced all of her emotions as if they were my own. In a way, they were. The pain, the solitude, the despair.
Things changed when I… Gabriel arrived. At first Aurora was curious about him. Unlike her previous visitors, he seemed right in a way she couldn't quite explain. When they started interacting, she felt anger, annoyance, even sorrow. However, when he agreed to form a contract with her, she felt an overwhelming joy.
After they formed their contract, I witnessed all of my/Gabriel's adventures except from Aurora's perspective. It was interesting, to say the least.
At the same time, while all this was going on, the part of me that was Aurora experienced all of Gabriel's memories. The anguish, loneliness, and desperation of his first life. The healing he went through in his second life. The confusion he felt when he woke up as Gabriel Sturm once again.
It took a long time for me to integrate all these memories, until both halves felt like natural parts of myself. Once I felt comfortable with everything, I opened my eyes.
What I saw surprised me.
I was still in my room, or Gabriel's room if I wanted to be specific. However, a thick layer of frost covered a large portion of it. The rest was protected by some kind of runic circle, which kept the frost contained. Alysha and Francis stood outside the runic circle with grim expressions on their faces. Francis, in particular, looked exhausted.
"What the…?" I started to say, before stopping.
When I spoke, my voice came out as both Gabriel's and Aurora's, with the two layered and intertwined with one another.
"Huh. That's weird."
My two teammates gave me funny looks.
"Brandon," Alysha said, a serious expression on her face. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," I said. "I feel a bit weird, but otherwise I'm fine." I looked around at the frost that covered everything. "What happened?"
Alysha and Francis shared a look.
"We were hoping you could tell us that," Francis said. "According to Alysha, you were meditating on your bond with Aurora, when all of a sudden frost started spreading out from all around you. I was already on my way to visit, so I was able to draw up a quick runic circle to contain the frost."
Alysha bit her lip.
"There's something else as well," she said. "You, um… You might want to look in a mirror, Brandon."
I gave her a quizzical look, before I stood up. Rather, I tried to. However, I stumbled and fell to the ground. This confused me. I looked down at my body. Two legs, two arms. Everything seemed fine.
Ah, I see. That was the problem. Half of me was Aurora, who was used to four legs and two wings. Walking around in a human body felt strange and awkward for her.
Right. I hadn't considered that. This would take some getting used to.
As I studied my body, I noticed something strange. For some reason, my skin sparkled. It looked as if someone sprinkled glitter on me. However, when I took a closer look, I realized that a thin layer of frosty scales covered my entire body.
Wait, scales?
I stumbled to my feet, feeling like a newborn foal, and staggered to the bathroom. Thankfully, it was within the runic circle. Frost covered the mirror, which made it a little difficult to see, but enough of it was clear that I got a good look at myself.
For the most part, I retained Gabriel's looks. However, it appeared that I had gone through some kind of transformation. Parts of me looked draconic. In addition to the scales that covered my whole body, there were thick ridges around my eyes and my pupils were now slits.
I turned around and saw a strange bulge on my back. I took off my t-shirt and saw that I now sported a pair of wings. They were small, too small to be of any use, but they were undeniably wings. I gave them an experiment flap. It felt strange, as if I gained an additional pair of limbs, but in a good way.
A smile spread across my face.
"This is fucking awesome!"