Not a leaf stirred. Defying the storm that raged all night, the day had chosen tranquility. The four youths waited without moving from their spots in the middle of the flowers, not uttering a single word until a voice rang out in their minds.
"Feel!"
They made eye contact, but what was asked of them was something else.
"Close your eyes and just feel!"
Nafız immediately did as told; she knew one had to adapt to benefit from the reward dungeon. The red-haired girl expanded her energy field; for this, she was using the life energy of her body, not her blood.
Jashua and Lareina followed her lead; Alis hadn't snapped out of the trance he entered. The search went on all day; the voice from the deep said 'feel', but it hadn't said what they should feel.
"I'm waiting for you, show me!"
Nafız was leagues ahead of the others not only in reward dungeons but also in long-term meditations. She had the patience and willpower to stay locked in a room for six hundred years.
"You must be the spirit of the plant. Show me the trait I need to feel!"
When waiting didn't yield an answer, you had to state your request directly. Meditation isn't just sitting around doing nothing.
"Think about the night!"
A clue had to come, and the moment Nafız heard the four words, she started grinning from ear to ear. Uncrossing her legs, she stood up, getting into the exact same stance she held all night.
Her call was spot on. An hour later, the energy entering her body through her legs traveled all the way to the top of her head and returned to the plant at the same speed.
"Roots, you want me to feel your roots!"
The answer came on its own, without forcing or suffering, and believe me, it was always like this. Asking the right questions honestly at the right time was enough, there was nothing more to it. Days were for understanding, nights were for experiencing; having cracked the dungeon's working principle, Nafız tipped off the others.
"Think about what you felt at night!"
The two lovers were listening to the Blood God; Alis was in his own world and in no shape to hear anyone. When Nafız shot a glance at him out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the water lily he was sitting on was spinning ever so slowly. The little white guy didn't need any pointers; he had figured out what to do before everyone else.
When darkness fell, the lake went crazy again; Lareina and Jashua's water lilies drew close, Alis was sucked into the whirlpool, and Nafız stood her ground. It was time to experience the understanding gained during the day; stopping to think wasn't enough, putting it into practice was a must.
The one who knocked this out of the park was none other than Alis. His water lily was being tossed around in the whirlpool, but you couldn't call it tossing; it was more like he was cruising. While moving in and out at a steady pace, he kept spinning on his own axis.
Nafız, inside the flower with its petals closed, had her eyes wide open, listening to her surroundings. Her life energy, traveling down her legs, first went to the plant, and from there to the roots, trying to reach the bottom of the lake. The chaos was on the surface; it lacked the juice to disturb the serenity in the depths.
"What kind of thing are you? You put others through a storm while you yourself are at peace. Is your name life?"
Nafız likened the lake to life, but the answer from the addressee of the question wasn't delayed.
"I am who I am. The storm, the calm, the peace, the fury, they all belong to me. The real question is, which one do you want?"
Words were ringing in Nafız's mind amidst the deafening roar. What she was experiencing was a whole different kind of communication.
"I want them all. A storm when I want to be, peace when I want to be, fury when I want to be. That's how I'll live my life; I will be the calm within the storm, the peace within the fury!"
When Nafız finished her piece, the water lily she was on started moving, and a hundred breaths later, it was dead center in the lake. She was at the core of everything; all emotions and energies were centering around her.
"Lareina, don't be afraid! Look inside yourself, cradle the seed waiting to bloom there in your palms!"
The young girl Nafız called out to had curled into a fetal position. Covering her face with her hands, she was cutting off her connection with the world. Tonight she wasn't making a peep, and this drove Jashua even crazier.
"Lareina, answer me! Are you okay? Lareina, talk to me!"
The Young Count was in full-blown panic mode; Nafız had to step in for him too.
"Jashua, get a grip. You've been talking nonsense for two days!"
The red-haired girl wasn't harsh this time; she was trying to figure out what was going down.
"How can I be calm? Lareina is all alone, terrified!"
Jashua's voice was on the verge of tears; the love he felt was clouding his judgment.
"So what, can't she be alone? Is the person you love that helpless?"
"She's not helpless, but she doesn't know how to fight. She's not like me, not like you, not like anyone I know?"
The Young Count was crying; as he pounded his fists on the closed petals, tears fell from his eyes one by one.
"I knew someone like her. There was a little kid; when I wanted to kill the man who helped him and his family, he was brave enough to open his arms and step in front of him. He didn't look it at all, but he did it; he thought for himself and did what he wanted. Now back off, let Lareina find her own way too. If you love her, give her some space, so she can at least give it a shot!"
The Young Count, throwing a few more punches in the frenzy caused by what he heard, suddenly collapsed to the floor, his hands resting on the petals. The storm didn't let up; defying the shaken emotions, it raged on with increasing intensity, wreaking havoc until morning came.
The petals opened once again. Waking up to the morning of the third day, their colors looked absolutely stunning. Especially Alis's white flower was reflecting the daylight in such a way that the young boy looked like he was sitting inside an orb of light.
The spin of the water lily had sped up, just like the movement of his hands. In less than an hour, it could complete a full rotation on its own axis. Watching the person who was once her power animal, Nafız had a smile that was a bit sorrowful, a bit proud, and stretched from ear to ear.
"Who would have thought the human piece of that loser working at the copy shop would turn into someone like this?"
The next targets of her gaze were those born human; Lareina was in a fetal position, while Jashua lay with his hands reaching out to her. Neither was the young girl screaming, nor was her lover trying to get to her; they were in a weird trance.
The Blood God sat cross-legged and began meditating. Aside from aligning with her friends in the lake she was at the center of, she had to get her own piece of the pie too.
The sun rose and set; the waters were slowly getting restless. As Nafız got to her feet, bracing herself to meet what was coming, her words would stir the first ripples on the surface of the lake.
"The lotus plant only blooms for three days. Tonight is your last chance; claim what's yours!"