Erika's finger remained pressed to his lips. Those grey eyes, which had just been brimming with tears, now resembled dusty mirrors, reflecting no emotion, only pure alertness. Anna, cowed by his sudden gesture, immediately held her breath. Her small body froze in place, not even daring to blink.
Time crawled in the silence. The faint sting between Erika's brows had long vanished, but the sensation of being 'touched' and Wolfgang's warnings about 'overextended spirit' and 'do not attempt connection' buzzed in his mind. He couldn't be sure what it was, but any unnatural, external touch of energy meant danger now.
Several breaths passed. Nothing unusual happened outside the door, only the distant, rhythmic hum of the Sanctum's energy, steady as a heartbeat.
He slowly lowered his hand, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. Only then did he look at Anna. The girl was still pale, her large eyes wide with lingering fear, now mixed with confusion at his strange behavior.
"It wasn't your fault, Anna," Erika's voice was hoarse, weary from the ordeal. "That 'Mind-voice'... it's dangerous." He weighed his words, needing to comfort her without revealing too much, without pulling her deeper into risk. "Instructor Wolfgang said my spirit... is unstable. Easily disturbed."
Anna nodded, not fully understanding, but the worry in her eyes didn't lessen. "Then... how do you feel now? Does it still hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine," Erika shook his head, attempting a reassuring smile that came out stiff. He shifted the focus to what he needed most to understand. "Anna, this 'Mind-voice' you used before, what did it really feel like? You said it was like a speaking-tube, and that the... channels get mixed up?"
Mentioning this seemed to animate her a little, perhaps glad she could finally help. "Mm-hm!" She nodded vigorously, trying to organize the description of that strange experience. "It's like... you focus your mind, think of the person you want to talk to, and then it feels like your thoughts turn into an... an invisible 'wave' that you send out. But you can't be too far away, and..." She scrunched up her small nose, recalling something unpleasant. "...sometimes, you suddenly hear fragments of completely strange voices. Very fuzzy, can't make out the words, but you can feel the emotion. Sometimes anger, sometimes... fear. The Sister said it's because many people in the Sanctum use 'Mind-voice', and everyone's 'waves' sometimes bump into each other. It's like... like being in a noisy market, hard to hear just one person."
Mixed channels... Noisy market...
Erika's heart gave a violent jolt. An incredibly bold, almost insane idea struck him.
If the essence of 'Mind-voice' was modulating mental intent onto a specific 'frequency' or 'wave' for transmission, and 'cross-talk' was possible... then, was the sting between his brows not an attack, but an accidental 'tuning' to a particularly strong 'Mind-voice' channel being used nearby? And had Anna been able to contact him before precisely because his Mark or special state made him an easy receiver for specific frequencies to 'knock' on?
Wolfgang had warned him not to 'connect', fearing he would actively expose himself. But what if... he just passively listened? Listened to the information leaked through 'channel cross-talk'?
The thought sent cold sweat down his back, but also a thrill of secret excitement. This might be the only crack he could pry open in this tightly sealed prison of information.
"Anna," his voice dropped, taking on an unprecedented seriousness, "Can you... tell me more precisely how the 'Mind-voice' works? Like, how exactly do you 'think' of that wave? Are there specific techniques, or... limitations?"
Anna grew nervous under his intense stare, but she tried hard to recall the Sister's teachings. "It's... it's like meditation. You visualize the other person's... 'feeling of presence' in your mind. Then your focus has to be very sharp, like shooting an arrow, you 'send' the words out... The Sister said, the purer the spirit, the sharper the focus, the clearer the sound, and the less chance of cross-talk..." She paused, adding somewhat sheepishly, "I... I'm probably not pure enough yet, so I disturbed you..."
"No, you did well," Erika immediately countered. He needed to encourage her, and he desperately needed the knowledge she held. "It's very... interesting. I want to know more." He looked at her, his gaze sincere. "Anna, do you know where I could find texts that explain the principles of 'Mind-voice' in more detail? Not prayer books, but ones about its underlying mechanics."
Anna's eyes lit up; she was glad he was interested. "Yes! In the junior sisters' library, there's a very old book called An Analysis of Spiritual Resonance. The Sister said it talks about the principles of 'Mind-voice' and some other mental techniques! But... that book can't be borrowed, you can only read it inside."
"That's fine," Erika said quickly, a plan forming rapidly in his mind. "Could you... go look at it for me? Don't borrow it, just see what it says about stabilizing the frequency and avoiding interference? Remember the key parts and come tell me, would you?" He had to send her away to attempt his dangerous experiment. Alone, if something went wrong, she wouldn't be implicated.
The request surprised Anna, but looking at Erika's pale, earnest face, and thinking she might have 'harmed' him, a sense of responsibility and a desire to make amends rose within her. She nodded firmly, as if accepting a sacred mission. "Okay! I'll go now! I know that book, I'll be back quickly!"
Without further hesitation, she turned and, as deftly and silently as she had entered, pulled the door open, peeked outside, and then vanished into the corridor's shadows like a white butterfly.
The door closed again.
Erika was alone once more, with only the Sanctum's unchanging radiance outside the window. He took a deep breath, slid down the cold wall to sit on the floor, and closed his eyes.
He stopped 'thinking' of Anna. He stopped trying to 'connect' with anyone. He recalled Anna's descriptions—'visualize the feeling of presence', 'focus like shooting an arrow', 'wave'...
He let his entire spirit grow still, emitting no signals outward. Instead, he slowly unfurled his perceptual 'antennae', like stones dropped into water, not aiming in any direction, simply waiting for the ripples to spread naturally, waiting for those fragments of information that might accidentally wash up on his 'shore' due to 'channel cross-talk'.
He deliberately emptied himself, lowering his own mental fluctuations, making himself a pure, passive receiver. Time ticked by. At first, there was only a quiet static hiss in his mind, like wind sweeping over snow-covered plains.
Then, gradually, some extremely faint, blurred 'noise' began to surface. Indistinguishable meanings, only emotional undertones—anxiety, numbness, a hint of barely perceptible fervor...
He waited patiently, his spirit slowly draining under this total concentration of 'listening'. A fine sweat beaded on his temples.
Suddenly—
A 'conversation' of abnormally high clarity, with an icy texture, forcibly pierced his perceptual range like two beams of harsh light! This was nothing like Anna's Immature fuzzy fluctuations; it was full of power and purpose.
[Channel A (voice steady, lacking inflection)]: ...Target area secured. All contacts have undergone preliminary scan. No secondary contamination detected.
[Channel B (voice slightly rushed, evaluative)]: Specimen's mutation rate exceeds baseline model by seventeen percent. Energy siphoning traits manifesting. Shows rejection reaction to low-purity Lumen force fields. Recommend elevating quarantine level.
[Channel A]: Acknowledged. Application submitted for Level Three containment wards. The family's 'retained observation' request has been filed, will not affect standard purification protocol preparations.
[Channel B]: Understood. Energy reflux analysis indicates the specimen exhibited brief energy feedback during mutation, vector appears directed towards...
[Channel A]: Noted. Priority is containment. Purification Ring pre-heat sequence accelerated. Estimated time to critical threshold: three standard cycles. Maintain channel integrity.
The dialogue cut off abruptly. The two powerful consciousnesses vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
Erika's eyes snapped open. He gasped for air as if surfacing from deep water. A violent headache assaulted him, worse than before. Warm liquid trickled from his nose. He wiped it with his hand, his fingers coming away stained with red.
He leaned against the wall, letting the nosebleed drip onto his white novice robes, blooming into a small, stark patch of crimson. But his eyes were no longer lost. They held a sharp, almost cruel clarity.
"Specimen's mutation rate exceeds baseline model by seventeen percent..."
"Energy siphoning traits... rejection reaction to low-purity Lumen force fields..."
"Energy feedback phenomenon... vector directed towards..."
"Purification Ring pre-heat accelerated... three standard cycles..."
These icy phrases chiseled at his nerves like poisoned ice picks. Cecilia, that arrogant red-haired girl, was now, in the eyes of the Creed, just a number, an anomalous 'specimen' to be processed. Three days. She only had three days left.
Why should he care about her fate? Erika asked himself. They shared no bond, only hostility. Pity? In this Sanctum that had devoured his homeland, pity was the cheapest and deadliest poison.
A colder, more practical reason surfaced in his survival-instinct-driven calculations.
Cecilia was the only 'exception'.
The Creed's doctrine proclaimed the 'Blight' to be pure filth, an absolute opposite that must be purified. Auric energy was its absolute bane. But everything happening to Cecilia mercilessly refuted this—her abnormal mutation speed, her rejection of low-purity Lumen fields, even the bizarre 'energy feedback'!
What did this mean?
It meant the power of the 'Blight' might be fundamentally different from what the Creed claimed! It wasn't simple corruption, but a... perhaps more complex phenomenon, possibly sharing a common origin with Auric energy, or at least possessing some unknown connection! Cecilia was the living proof of this shocking truth.
Save her?
No, Erika immediately dismissed the naive and impossible notion. Snatching someone from under the 'Purification Ring' in this fortress built of Auric power, constantly monitored by powerful Clerics, was like an ant trying to shake a tree.
His objective had to be more practical, and more concealed.
He needed to obtain crucial evidence or information from her, or from her place of isolation, before she was utterly 'purified' and this unique 'specimen' destroyed. It could be energy residue from her mutation process, a data crystal recording her state, or simply getting closer to 'read' the energy anomaly occurring within her using his special perception.
This wasn't just curiosity.
This was potentially the only bargaining chip he might ever have.
A clue capable of subvert the very foundation of the Creed was immeasurably valuable. It could be used to threaten certain individuals, help him understand the true relationship between his own Mark and the world's energy, or perhaps... one day, if he himself became an 'anomaly', serve as his ticket to negotiation or self-preservation.
The risk was extreme. If discovered, his fate would be no better than Cecilia's.
But the potential reward was equally immense. This could be his first step in shattering the information prison, truly glimpsing the rules governing this world. Not to save an arrogant girl, but to... carve out a sliver of a chance to survive in this cruel world.
Just then, the Mark on the back of his left hand throbbed with a faint, uncanny resonance—a subtle, yet undeniable echo of the 'energy feedback' phenomenon described in the black-clad Clerics' channel.
This sudden connection sent a jolt of ice through his veins.
Could it be...?