"Hey Sansa, it's been a while," Ethan greeted casually.
Ascendants were a private bunch, often locked away in research or battles whose gravity he could barely grasp with his current strength. Going months without seeing a familiar face was perfectly normal.
Sansa, engrossed in her notes, looked up at the sound of his voice. Tucking her notes into her spatial ring, she saw the smiling Ethan, and her mood lifted at the sight of the mysterious ascendant whom she had high hopes for.
"Come on...."
"'It's been a while?' Like you've ever loved seeing my face when I didn't want something, go on, spill it, what do you need this time?" Sansa retorted with a playful frown. She knew seasoned ascendants often secluded themselves, but it was unusual for a young Initiate to adopt such reclusive habits so thoroughly.
Ethan was taken aback. This was the second time today someone had called him out about only meeting people when he needed something. Shaking off the thought, he handed Sansa the access card for his old room.
She accepted it without question, processing the cancellation of his access to the Initiate accommodations. With his task complete, Ethan left the Order Hall and headed straight for his new room. He really didn't want to spend any time here, so he interacted very little with Sansa before leaving for his place in District 7.
Stepping inside, he quickly arranged his belongings to make the space feel less empty, then entered his concealed lab. The low, persistent growling of the Phantom Wolf greeted him. The creature was on edge, having woken up in an unfamiliar place, bound by chains that held fast despite its struggles over the past five minutes.
"Hey, boy. You need to calm down," Ethan said, his voice even. "You're not getting out of here anytime soon, so you might as well get comfortable."
He took out some Rank 1 creature meat he had purchased and placed it in a container near the wolf to ensure it wouldn't starve. However, when he moved closer, the wolf felt threatened and lunged, its teeth snapping shut just short of his hand as the chains rattled violently, keeping the wolf in place.
Seeing the creature's continued aggression, Ethan accepted that his study would have to wait. The wolf needed time to adjust.
Ethan activated the privacy circle in his room once more. With his Elemental Eyes active, he watched as the space elemental energy from the circle enveloped every wall of the room, cleanly separating his space from the outside world.
Of course, he was aware that the Order wasn't providing this service out of generosity; every second of energy consumed by the runes was being added to his tab. But to him, the cost was worth it because for the first time, he felt secure enough to use his Creation affinity.
He channeled his Creation energy from its core through the pathways and into the runes in his eyes as it took on a silvery hue.
At first, the world looked the same as it did with his Illusion affinity. But as he maintained the stream of Creation energy flowing into his runes, the material world began to unravel before his vision. He picked up a book and stared intently. He could now perceive its fundamental composition—a complex web of interlocking patterns. It was like seeing the underlying language of reality itself, but he couldn't understand a single word of it. Not yet, at least.
The view was fantastic as he kept looking around, everything was replaced with these patterns and symbols, and suddenly a sharp, familiar headache began to pierce his skull; it reminded him of the flashes of memory from his body's original owner, which he had stopped getting after a whole year in the order. But this time, no memories came - it was a relentless, building pain. But the moment he cut off the energy to his eyes, the pain began to ease up, letting him breathe better.
He checked his timer. He had only been in that state for about 20 to 25 minutes; he wasn't sure. What Ethan didn't realize was that this duration was four times longer than what other Creation affinity ascendants at the same Rank could typically manage in the same state.
After resting and meticulously recording the experience, he tried again; this time, he had set his timer. He no longer focused on physical objects.
Instead, he turned his silver gaze upon the shimmering field of space energy surrounding his room. After a few seconds, his vision "zoomed in" again, revealing patterns. Unlike the static, bronze-colored patterns that replaced every physical object in his vision, these were the color of space energy and were in constant, fluid motion, despite the stable state of the privacy circle.
Suddenly, the headache returned, so he immediately deactivated the rune and stopped the timer: 23 minutes again. Honestly, it had felt like only 5 minutes so far. A profound tiredness washed over him, identical to the fatigue he felt after using up his soul energy. He was certain now; this deep-pattern vision was directly linked to soul energy consumption or at least something related.
His gaze fell upon the Phantom Wolf, which still hadn't touched the meat he'd offered. A flicker of disappointment passed through him. From his research in the Order's library, he understood why elemental creatures were often ahead. Unlike humans, who had to painstakingly research, design, and inscribe spell structures, creatures like the wolf were born with their own spells.
"If only he had chosen an elf body instead of this human body, two years might have been enough." Ethan kept talking to himself while thinking of his next steps. At this point, it was either complete his own spell structure with the remaining months he had, but still, he didn't know if that would make him strong enough to handle Leo's mission. Pulling himself out of his ramblings, he continued his experiment with his eyes.
The Spell structures were complex assemblies of patterns that, when correctly drawn and powered, produced a specific effect. For ascendants, deciphering and recreating these structures for human use could take years of dedicated study, which was why the knowledge was usually so closely guarded within families or passed only to direct disciples.
Although the notes on the incomplete water spell structure had been invaluable, Ethan still found most of its principles confusing, but of course, the note was not written to help him understand. He had read through the dead ascendant's journal over thirteen times at this point, cross-referencing every detail with other scraps of knowledge he could find.
Sansa contributed a great deal to his understanding without ever realizing it. By carefully splitting his questions across multiple tutoring sessions, he had managed to pick her brain extensively. He had learned that even as a research-focused ascendant, Sansa was formidable in her own right. She was a flame ascendant born within the Order and, from what he could gather, possessed two complete spell structures of her own.
Considering the water ascendant had spent years researching a single structure and died before completing it, Ethan had to admit that Sansa was either a genius or had stumbled upon an incredibly lucky encounter. The timeline was staggering; researching a single spell structure, even of the lowest Rank, could take anywhere from five to twenty years, especially if you don't have the creation affinity.