Theo placed the leather-bound book on his desk, leaning back in his chair, and letting his mind wander. It had been an interesting read, notwithstanding the need to translate most of the older English so that he could understand it properly. In the end, it had been a pretty simple treatise on the Body Gate and the first nine tiers of cultivation. Most of it had mirrored what Jo and Pat had already told him, though it seemed the old ways of cultivating truly focused on building meridian density and node breaking ahead of a resonance focus as the institute seemed to push.

  Maybe they had better ways of envisaging their energetic systems back then, or perhaps it had something to do with their alchemic organizations. He seemed to remember alchemy had been more broadly accepted during the Middle Ages, only losing their relevancy as medical science took the fore. Either way, there had been nothing revolutionary that would help him break down the wall he was seemingly facing in his own cultivation.

  Sighing, he pulled out the reading for his next class. Beth had already sent him a text saying she would join him on the walk to Resonance, and he was keen to refresh before she joined him. He could practically feel her exuberance through the screen of his phone. She was excited for this fortnights class as it had switched over the Hydra, and as her dominant resonance, she was clearly feeling confident. Not that that helped him too much. Whilst he had had some breakthroughs with Jo, he was not yet at the level of identifying particular resonances. Still, that was what this class was for. He just hoped he did not have to face Jason in the exercises. The man was turning into a right shit to deal with.

  Thankfully, today’s class was going to be slightly different. Master Harris had warned them all last week to expect a small change for the first hour. Of course, that had caused a buzz of whispered speculation amongst the group, but it remained a mystery still. Theo had had his fill of surprises, and rather than the excitement his friends were feeling, it had just added another layer to the ever-present anxiety that continued to eat away at his guts.

  Still, there was nothing for it. He was pulled from his introspection by a knock at his door. He stood, grabbing his bag and shoving the readings in before heading over to join Beth.

  “I am so pumped for this,” Beth said, punching Theo lightly on the arm as he shut the door behind him. “I hope I get to duel Jason, that prick is going down.”

  “I will happily spend all my accumulated good karma to try and make sure that’s the case,” Theo said, laughing at his bouncing friend.

  The walk to the classroom was quick, and Theo relished the growing familiarity he felt with the place and the people he had met here. He had some good connections forming, mostly in his radiant division class and through his core group of friends, but it was enough for him to start feeling settled. Grateful he could not see Jason waiting, he smiled and waved at the few people he knew as the waited outside the classroom. It wasn’t long before the doors were being opened by the third-year attendants.

  Master Harris, surprising everyone, was already seated at his desk on the platform at the front. There was a medium sized wooden chest by his side, the only thing out of place compared to the previous week. The table setup remained the same, though this fortnight there was a small silver bowl filled with water on their desks. Theo and Beth picked up their pace, aiming for their usual seats. Theo chuckled when he saw a few of the people that had been in the front two rows trying to move back, but they were firmly rebuffed by those who had already claimed their spots. It had become a weekly event for the class, but so far he and Beth had remained safe.

  “Ahhhmmm.” Master Harris cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Settle yourselves, quickly please, we have a full agenda to get through today.” His words quelled the jockeying for seats, and with some resigned looks, the last of the trainees settled into their spots.

  “As I mentioned last week, there is a slight change to today’s class structure.” He patted the box by his side, motioning for the two third year students to come over. “Whilst we will mostly be focused on the free use of aether and on developing your resonances over this first year, it is important that we also touch on the more structured components of your cultivation progression.”

  At Master Harris’s gesture, the two third years began passing out small woven bags to each of the students. It took a while for them to make their way to Theo and Beth’s desks, and he had a hard time getting a close look at what was being handed out before they arrived.

  “Everyone should now be at the point in their cultivation progress that they can take active control of their internal aether. For the first hour today, we will be utilising a cultivation aid to give you insight into the process of node cleansing.” A few murmurs of surprise rose at his words, a bubbling of excitement spilling over. Beth leaned over to Theo, her whispered words coming in a rush.

  “Fuck yeah! Free resources,” Beth said under her breath. “This is going to be awesome!” She fell silent when the third year reached their desks, passing them both one of the small, black fabric bags.

  “Have you used one of these things before?” Theo asked quietly. He hadn’t yet opened the bag, but he may have squeezed it and given it a shake. It felt like Christmas.

  “Yeah, my mum has given me a few potions and pills before, but they’re pretty expensive.” She faced forward when Master Harris cleared his throat again. “It will be good to get some instruction on how to properly focus the effects though.”

  “Active skills are the primary means through which we harness our combat or professional potential. It is essential, and I stress this, essential, that you give due consideration to the build of your skills, the synergies they can form, and the directions in which they evolve. I know most of you will have had family instruction on such, but for those of you that have not. Please, heed my words.” He stood then, all the bags having been passed around the room, and the third-year assistants back to their positions at the front.

  Theo had grown quite excited at Master Harris’s words. Active skills had of course been talked about more than once since he had arrived, but it was always done in a way that assumed whoever was listening knew what they were. His friends were generally good at picking up on their own assumed knowledge, but aside from that brief conversation at the end of the first week, a more detailed discussion on skills had managed to slip through the cracks. Nor had it come up in his classes with Jo as yet, focused as they had been on his breathing techniques.

  For Theo, there had been so many new things to think about and learn that he had just ended up adding it to his mental list as a thing to ask about at a later time. But now they were to have half a class focused on it, along with his first experience of using a pill.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Skills form in two main ways,” Harris continued once the students had settled back to silence. “The first of which is through targeted training, most of which will occur during your Division classes. The most common of these are the infused strikes each resonance can manifest, though the paths of their development are incredibly diverse.

  “Each division will have a number of basic skillsets that are recommended, depending on your chosen role in your strike team. For example, Thermal energies can develop Fireball as a single target ranged skill, or Firewall as an area control skill. Damage focused Hydra’s can develop single target skills like Water Whip for melee, Deep-Sea Orb if ranged, or area skills like Rushing Wave. Each resonance will have a catalogue of basic skills, and your instructors will be aware of the necessary steps for training them.

  “The second method by which skills form is through moments of inspiration. These are often during periods of peak stress, usually in battle, or some other moment of crisis. The nature of skills formed in this way are far more variable, and tend to be more attuned to the individual and the circumstance which motivated it.” A student up the front of the class raised their hand - Blake, Theo thought his name was - getting a nod from Master Harris.

  “Who decides on the names of the skills?” Blake asked.

  “A good question,” Harris said. “Naming conventions vary from culture to culture. We tend to keep things quite simplistic, oriented on practicality and skill effect. The Chinese for example, tend to be much more poetic in their skill names.” He paused, contemplating his next words. “The Central AI has a compiled catalogue of all recorded skills, and so we tend to follow the established precedents. Mutations and other divergent skills will have names that are associated with the base type from which they form, and the effects they have.”

  “What about Ancestral skills?” another student asked.

  “Ahh, jumping ahead somewhat, but still relevant. Ancestral skills are a unique category of skill. We have enough data on them to know that they correlate with heredity and to a smaller extent, bloodline, but not a huge amount is known about how those particular skills formed. For example, as a thermal dominant resonance myself, I have two skills named after Vulcan, which reflects my Italian ancestry. Most research on these Named skills has come from artifacts and writings discovered in archaeological digs and from limited anomalies. With that data having been added to the central AI, there has over time been in a shift in skill nomenclature.

  “The skills themselves tend to be reflective of the mythology associated with the Named Deity. It is why you would never have a Vulcan named skill for someone who is water dominant. Similarly, you would not have a named skill from say the Norse pantheon, if your dominant genealogy is from Latin America.”

  “Is that why Indigenous Australian’s progress differently to us?”

  Harris paused his pacing across the front of the room, an annoyed look on his face at the interruption. Theo tried not to laugh as his oversized glasses enlarged his blinking eyes disproportionately. Still, he responded to the question.

  “Different cultural cultivation systems will be focused on in your second year of studies, and is not particularly relevant to today’s topic. But you are correct. Aboriginal, and even some of the Islander tribes tend to be more totemic, and the development of their skills reflects that. It tends to be similar across most First Nations peoples throughout the world.

  “One thing that remains consistent across culture, however, is the importance of node cleansing and the bearing it has on a skills development. Can anyone tell me why nodes are essential for the tiering of skills?”

  There was silence in the room at the Master’s question. Theo looked at Beth quickly, seeing a look of uncertainty. He was certain the man was seeking a more in-depth answer than the ones his friends had provided him a few weeks ago. He knew if it was Carrie sitting beside him she would already be answering. A hand at the front of the class was raised tentatively.

  “Yes, Jacqueline.”

  “Ahh, I think… ahh, is it because our active skills are more complex than what we can do with free aether?”

  “Partially correct, yes,” Harris said, giving her a small smile and nod. “More specifically, each node acts as a template for the skills aetheric formula. Using Fireball, as an example. It is not simply a condensed ball of fire attuned aether. It actually requires a combination of multiple aether types to generate the force, to maintain the shape, and to provide direction once cast. In this instance, usually air type aether to do so.

  “As we continue to develop an active skill, the formulation becomes more complex, requiring a significantly larger investment of aether than we can normally manage independently. Oft times, it requires the utilising of resonances that are outside our usual competencies. For example, a Fireball that evolves from tier one to tier two with an added splash effect, may require the involvement of radiant or even water-based elements. If it progresses to involve a damage over time burning effect, then it may involve darkness and earth elements.”

  Even some of the more disinterested students were now tuning into the conversation, the faces showing interest as the Master’s lecture grew more complex. Theo was fascinated, and more than a little excited. He couldn’t wait to see what his first skill would be, even if that was going to be quite a way off.

  “The initial use of an active skill requires far more cognitive complexity than we are able to hold in mind, particularly whilst in the first two gates. Masters that have progressed to the mind gate are much more adept in their free form aether manipulation, but even then, the amount of aether required to free cast a Fireball is significantly higher than if it were one of your active skills.

  “And that is the secondary benefit of the nodes. Each node holds a small reservoir of aether that helps to reduce the cost of active skills, making them far more energy efficient.”

  That made a lot of sense, and potentially explained some of the comments Jo had been making about his diffuse aether absorption. It was probably also a reflection of him having dual resonance in two of the aether aligned affinities. He had done a little more research after his prior discussion with Brendan, and he had managed to find the base formulas. He was looking at being able to grow more than seven hundred additional aether capacity because of his dual resonance. It seemed huge against a base of only eighty. For his own sake, he had not shared that with anyone, even his core group of friends. He had a big enough target on his back already.

  “Most of you should have already cleared a few of your nodes since you commenced active cultivation. Those furthest from your core tend to break down any residue or accumulated congestion relatively quickly, and during the body gate we expect at least a dozen or so to clear without any active assistance from cultivation aids. After that, it becomes significantly harder to break down the build-up of toxins and debris that congest your energetic systems. Consider it like the calcification and plaque that can build up in an insensates cardiopulmonary system.

  “Whilst that is a slightly inaccurate analogy, as for insensates such a problem tends to occur in those with an unhealthy lifestyle, and is more prevalent with age, the physiological representation is mostly accurate. The energetic systems we are born with, likely because of the current levels of aetheric density, are underdeveloped, and stricken with impurities. For insensates, where there is no active maternal cultivation during the foetal development phase, it is practically impossible for them to overcome the physiological barriers that block access to aether.”

  Whilst Theo was caught up in the lecture, he couldn’t help the small chuckle when he saw Beth stifle a yawn. He glanced her way, getting an eye roll as she expressed her opinion about the lecture. Thankfully, Harris soon settled back into his seat at the front of the class.

  “Enough lecturing from me now. It’s time we delved into the experience of using a cultivation aid. This may not be the first time for some of you, but I kindly ask that you pay close attention to the guided meditation. It may be that you will learn something new.”