trans_9 | That Which Binds Us [Closed]

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That Which Binds Us [Closed]

Today has been one of the few, rare occasions that Brother Cargn Thane has deigned to come out from his shrine in the city.

It wasn't that he was antisocial. In fact, he was quite willing to chat up anyone who bothered to visit him. Rather, it was more so that he has been preparing things, repairing the Shrine of the Aquila, and generally keeping himself busy.

But for the moment, that all could wait.

At the moment, he could be found in one of the sensoriums, preparing it for the training session he'd promised Miku. The room it conjured was mostly dark, but lit well enough to see by a single burning brazier on the back wall. It was a spartan and simplistic room, the walls appearing to be made of stone. In the middle of the floor was a simple carpet.

Cargn was seated at one end of the carpet, waiting for his pupil to arrive.

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Miku stepped into the sensorium room quietly, and looked around. Dark, terribly dark if she had anything to say about it, and quite the difference from the bright department store she'd conjured up previously.

"Hello, Cargn-sensei," she called.

Cargn had always found that shadows helped clear the mind of the clutter that comes with visual stimulus (at least, he always did back when he actually had eyes).

He looked up when she entered.

"Ah, good," he says. "Please, take a seat, my dear."

Miku nodded and sat down at the other end of the carpet, smoothing her skirt under her knees with one hand as she sat in seiza position, sliding her shoes off and setting them to the side. The camera she usually brought everywhere with her was surprisingly absent. "Thank you, again, for agreeing to teach me."

"It is fine," Cargn said, chuckling slightly. "It has been several centuries since I last tutored someone in such a manner, so you will have to forgive me if I am a bit rusty."

After a few seconds, his expression and tone fade into a somewhat more serious demeanor.

"Before we begin, I must ask you: What is it that you seek to take away from this training? Mere control, so that your power does not control you? Or a deeper understanding, to wield it in a manner of your choosing?"

There was no right or wrong answer to this question. Cargn's expression, though serious, was attempting to be somewhat encouraging. The whole point of this was so that she could learn to be comfortable with her power.

Miku looked down for a moment and thought about the question. What did she want from it? To not worry about touching every little thing with a fear that someone's memory might spark her into seeing something she wouldn't would be a great boon, and she knew that she'd be happy with that in the end.

But was that what she wanted from it? She was quiet for a long while, her eyes on her hands. Miku felt a little guilty suddenly, as she realized that in doing this, she would be throwing away her mother's desperate lessons. Never speak of it, never think of it, never use it. With this, she'd be doing all three, but at least this time it would be of her own choosing and manner. Finally, she spoke, her voice very soft. "I'd like to be able to wield it in order to gain a better understanding of myself. I want to be of use to the others, should they ever need my help," and there was a hesitation there, as though she were unsure of that, "and be able to use it without fear."

She wasn't sure if that was the right answer, but, it sounded right to her, and felt like something in her heart had settled finally.

Cargn smiled slightly at that.

"Good," he said simply. "The worst thing one can do in this situation is to forget that one's power is a part of oneself. Like an arm or a leg, one can learn to control it. But it is also important to remember the danger inherent in such powers, because they are so closely linked with your being. That you fear your power is good. That you seek to conquer that fear is better."

"Now," he continues. "Tell me all of what you currently understand of your power. From there, I can seek to expand your knowledge and understanding of it."

"Ah..." Miku looked down at her hands again and drew her thumb across the back of her hand in thought. "I can see, push away, and talk to the dead--ah, which I don't recommend, as they tend to try to kill you after asking for your help-- When I touch things, sometimes I'll see events that happened. Sometimes I get bad feelings, but, they aren't very concrete. My mother and my brother could do the same, but my brother's ability didn't seem to be as strong."

"I see," he says, nodding slightly. "Then let us start with the least dangerous of your abilities, your visions of the past. I shall supplement your power with my own for our first few attempts, so you can better understand before attempting it on your own."

He stands up for a moment, moving to one of the dark corners of the room where he'd rested the massive, 12' long halberd he wielded in battle, before returning to his seat with it and placing it between the two of them.

"We shall begin using The Burden of Truth, as it has had a long and proud history, and was made to channel psychic energy."

"First, close your eyes and take the time to clear your thoughts."

Well, that was certainly.

Big.

Miku's eyes widened slightly, but she did as he asked and closed them. A little thread of worry coiled around her chest as she tried to quiet the rest of herself. She concentrated on her breathing, in and out, and in and out, until she felt still.

It reminded her of koto lessons, somehow.

Cargn held a hand above where the halberd rested on the ground, channeling a small portion of his psychic energy into the blade.

Suddenly, a strong, almost living psychic aura began to emanate from the blade. To someone as spiritually sensitive as Miku, the feeling from it would bring to mind the image of an old, faithful guardhound, ready to serve at its master's call as it regarded the girl quietly.

"Try to focus your mind on the blade's aura," he says quietly. "Imagine it in your mind as a single, bright pinpoint of light in the darkness."

"Alright..." Miku replied, though she struggled for a moment to get the image of a dog out of her head. It was harder than she thought; the more she tried to whittle it down and make it one thing, the more it wanted to be a dog.

Finally, she managed, but apologized anyway to it, Sorry, Truth-kun. "I... think I have it." For now, anyway.

"Allow me to help," Cargn says with a slight chuckle.

His image suddenly appeared in Miku's mental landscape. The dog-image looked over at him as he gently patted its head. In an instant, the image began to glow with a brilliant white light, condensing into a single, bright point.

"You will get the hang of it in time. For now, it is enough that you understand the concepts."

He lifts his hands up, placing them on either side of the glowing point.

"This image is but a moment in time. It represents the blade's 'present'. Its entire being in that one, single instant."

He holds the point out to her.

"Concentrate upon this point in time. With your mind, reach out and take hold of it."

The moment she would do so, she would receive a momentary vision of the present, looking in upon the room the two of them were in, like a brief out-of-body experience.

Miku blinked against the light and held a hand up to shield her face. Too bright, it made her eyes ache until they could bear the shine, so Miku hesitated for a moment before forcing herself to concentrate.

So, she just needed to reach out and take it. That... well, if she'd done this sort of thing before, the it wouldn't be hard, though it was much more difficult to draw things forth than to just stumble into them. Stumbling into things would get her killed, eventually, then what would they tell Steve and Tess?

Her mental self reached out for the point of light, and suddenly, it felt like it always did. Like she was in a world of black and white, though this time, she was outside of herself, watching her body and the Seer's.

Hey! Why hadn't anyone told her how creepy she looked when she was having a vision?

Don't worry, Miku. Everyone looks creepy when they're having visions.

"This next part will be a bit harder. Now, try to imagine that this pinpoint of light is actually a line, extending infinitely in two directions. This represents the entire being of the blade, all throughout time."

"The point closest to you will be the present. To your right extends its future, yet to coalesce into the present. To your left extends its past, already solidified into reality."

Automatically, Miku looked left. It was easier, much easier, to think towards the past than the future, neverminding the present which she held in her hands.

Small, the line grew towards the left much faster than it did the right. It couldn't be helped, after all. Miku knew where her strength lay, and it wasn't in future readings. That, she would leave to others, like Naldox-san, who could do it without strain.

"Like this?" Miku murmured, concentrating on the ever-lengthening line. Around them, everywhere, came the sound of static.

"Very good," Cargn said with a smile. She learned quickly.

"Now, release your hold on it, and allow it to exist on its own."

His psychic projection stood up in the dark, psychic landscape, and began to walk towards the left, following the line and tapping it slightly at different points, until he appears satisfied at one point and stops before it.

"Over here," he says simply.

Miku glanced up from the line to the Seer and back to her hand, where the line shone. Carefully, carefully, she pulled her hands away and held her breath. Somewhere in the back of her mind noted this was the longest she'd ever stayed in this state.

Or maybe time had stretched out and it was only a few seconds. She knew visions could be funny like that.

The line held, thankfully, and Miku breathed a little sigh of relief before she followed Cargn to the spot, and stood before him on the other side.

He motioned to the point where he had tapped the line earlier.

"Now, just as before, reach out to this point."

When she did, she would see the image of an incredibly large industrial foundry. The image shifted focus to a lone figure (http://kirimitsu.deviantart.com/art/Techmarine-71255447) in the foundry, hammering away at a red hot chunk of metal.

The image shifts again to somewhat later in time, the figure having hammered the metal into the vague shape of a blade. He plunges the glowing, searing metal into a cold bath of water to cool it down.

Another shift, and now the figure is slowly, masterfully perfecting the blade using what seemed to amount to a rather advanced whetstone. When the figure's painstaking work is completed, he takes the blade, bringing it over to another station to fit it into its place on the massive, golden halberd haft. He carefully secures it into place, and begins to wire the compact powerfield generator to it. It seems like hours pass as he continues his work (though that may just be a side effect of the vision), but when he finishes, the figure silently stands, triumphantly admiring his work before placing it into an ornate, silk lined wooden case.

This was the halberd's earliest memory, the day The Burden of Truth was born.

For a moment, the static threatened to overwhelm the sound, and Miku disappeared from sight. She stood inside the vision, and watched the man as the heat threaten to singe the tips of her hair.

It was harder to breathe here, and Miku abruptly let go of the vision as it ended, breaking the link with the halberd and hurtling herself back into her own body with a groan.

Cargn returns himself to his physical body, satisfied with the progress they had made.

"I believe that is enough for our first lesson," Cargn says with a smile. "It is good that you were able to grasp the essentials so quickly. Training abilities such as this is similar to training one's muscles. The more you use it, the easier it becomes."

Miku reached up and touched her bangs to see if they were actually singed, just in case. Satisfied that they weren't, she bowed neatly and deeply. Her head felt a little spinny, but it was something she was thankfully used to.

At least this time she hadn't awoken on a floor somewhere on the ship with no idea how she'd gotten there. "Thank you, sensei." It was kind of a relief to be able to finally get a hold on her abilities, something she liked. "I'll be more comfortable practicing while you're nearby, though, for a bit."

"I'm glad to hear that," Cargn says. "I'm sure you will get the hang of it quickly, but for now, it is prudent to train with supervision."

He stands, taking The Burden of Truth from its place on the ground, hefting it up and placing it against a wall. The look he gave the blade as he placed it there was similar to that one might give to an old friend.

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That Which Binds Us [Closed]

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