"I probably did," I said bashfully as I scratched the back of my head. "In any case, we'll start off with something a little more primitive," she said, moving between Ysevel and I. "I'll demonstrate first, then Ysevel will be next, and finally, you, Thoma. Now, observe what I'm doing carefully," she said as she drew enough scarlet mana for me to be able to sense what she was doing.
A small, scarlet dagger rapidly appeared in her hand, which she threw some distance away, sticking it point-first into the ground. "I used a dagger because it's a form I know you can visualize more easily, but I want you to draw from the realm and mimic what I just did," she said to Ysevel.
After a moment of furrowing her brows in focus, I could see Ysevel's eyes beginning to glow scarlet while she drew from the scarlet sphere in the blood-red sky. A small dagger of solidified mana began forming in her hand, and with little effort, she matched the distance of Kalia's dagger with her own, sticking it point first into the ground.
"I did it!" she said with visible delight, turning to find a look of surprise and approval written on my face. "That was amazing! How did you manage that so quickly?" I asked, not bothering to hide any excitement whatsoever. "It's just like casting a spell. Like Lady Kalia said earlier, it's much easier if you visualize it first and then try to form the mana according to the shape," she said excitedly.
Now that I can do, I thought, recalling the months of mental practice I had before bed when trying to create my Whip of Doom.
I closed my eyes and focused momentarily, trying to recall the feeling Sabura had instilled in my mind when he first showed us the Wraith realm. When I found it, I pulled on that mental sensation, feeling the scarlet mana begin to fill my eyes and body as I entered the third stage.
Within the heartbeat that followed, I was back in the translucent realm.
Recognizing my surroundings, I could also see both Kalia and Ysevel's forms before me. While they had minimal details, I instinctively knew it was them by both the sensation in my core as well as the way they carried themselves. I reached my translucent hand out towards the scarlet sphere, and it responded by sending the tendrils of mana I asked for.
Okay, let's see if I can do it with this mana, I thought, staring at the mana that condensed to my hand.
When I felt I had enough, I sent my consciousness back into my body, but something was vastly different.
"Wait, where did the mana go?" I asked, feeling the mana leave my eyes and looking around me momentarily to see if I had somehow lost it. "Remember what Sabura told you about the Wraith realm and how it resides in the lines between life and death? That's where it is," Kalia said, already knowing exactly what happened.
"Try it again, but this time, don't just condense the mana to your hand as you would with Ethereal or dark mana," she continued, putting a hand on my shoulder as I looked at her with visible confusion. "What's that supposed to mean, my Lady?" I asked.
"When you send your consciousness to draw from any realm, there is a translation of mana that occurs between the realm you're drawing from and the realm you're in," she began to explain. "Wraith mana doesn't need that since it technically already exists in every realm," she said, trying to explain it like I was a small child.
"It already exists?" I asked myself quietly, trying to understand her words. "That's correct. The form I told you to use is only to help you visualize it more easily in this realm for the time being," she said with a nod. "Now, try it again, but this time, don't think about bringing the mana with you," she continued. "It's just like the cube we used to train with," Ysevel chimed in with a reassuring nod.
My eyes opened widely in realization.
"Is this why your mom gave it to us to train with? Did she somehow know that I would become Wraithborn all along?" I asked. "As far as I'm aware, she gave that to you to train with so that you could better understand the principles of entering the third, fourth, and eventually fifth stages of mana manipulation," Ysevel said, putting a finger to her chin pensively.
"However, you are right that it is similar to the cube in the way that you have to form the mana. But to bring it forth, think about the inside of the cube as being the Wraith realm and the outside as being here with you in the physical realm," she said, watching me scrunch my brows together as I tried to figure it out.
"Remember what Sabura said about perspective," she said, walking over to me and putting a balled fist to my chest. "I have to change my perspective," I said, understanding what she was talking about, immediately getting a warm smile and a nod of approval from Ysevel. "Are you ready to try again?" Kalia asked with a hint of awkwardness in her voice at the exchange.
"Y-yes, Lady Kalia. Forgive me," I said after clearing my throat. "Very well, then. Go ahead," she said with a gesture out to the other two daggers in the distance.
Reaching again into the Wraith realm, I summoned the mana to my hand. I remembered Ysevel's example of the realm being like the inside of the cube, but I didn't know how I was supposed to bring it out.
That's when it hit me.
The translucent forms, I thought, looking beside me to see the two of them still standing beside me.
They still lacked many details, like facial features, but they were fundamentally both in the realm with me and in the Underworld.
It's like she said, it already exists in both realms, I thought with a chuckle as I realized my misinterpretation of her words.
I formed the dagger in my hand using the mana I'd gotten from the sphere while focusing on the concepts of molding the shapes to my will that I learned in the training cube. I recalled the sensation of molding the object within the cube and how this could, in theory, exist in both realms.
Focusing my thoughts and my will over the mana in my hand, I began to shape the image of the dagger I had in my mind's eye, prompting the mana to respond accordingly. I closed my eyes and thought of it existing in the lines between life and death, just like the rest of the realm.
With a deep breath, I slowly began to blur the lines between the realm my consciousness was in and the one my physical body was in. It felt awkward, almost like de-focusing my eyes and blurring my vision, but within that blurriness, I saw what Kalia meant. There was a distinct rippling of reality that was almost tangible, like the rippling heat waves coming off a stone on a hot summer day.
I could not only feel the dagger in my hand within the realm, but I could physically feel something in the palm of my hand. I reopened my eyes to find a scarlet dagger with a faint, ghostly aura in the palm of my hand. It wasn't as perfect as what I had in the Wraith realm or solid as Kalia's or Ysevel's, but the fact remained that I managed to do what she'd asked of me.
The look of surprise in Kalia's and Ysevel's eyes nearly made me burst into a fit of laughter when I looked up at them after examining the dagger for a few moments. "Well, how's that?" I asked, desperately trying to contain the chuckle that was itching at the back of my throat.
"H-how did you do that so quickly?" Kalia asked, moving in closer to observe its structure. "I-I don't know for sure," I said, scratching the back of my head. "Ysevel's example of the cube made a lot of sense to me, as I spent the better part of a year training with her to use it properly. When you mentioned that it already existed, I didn't think you meant like the forms of you I see in the realm," I said, hoping my explanation was good enough.
"This is unprecedented," Kalia began as she took a step away from the dagger. "It took me hundreds if not thousands of cycles to understand the concept, and yet, you understood it on your second try?" she asked. "To be honest, it took me a few months to get to where I was at with the cube and that was while having a direct mental connection to Ysevel the whole time," I said humbly.
"Even so, it still should have taken you much longer than that to figure it out. I'd expected as much from Lady Ysevel, given her status as a fourth stage, but this…" she trailed off, gesturing to the dagger. "I don't think I'll say much more for now, as I don't want to overwhelm you. Go ahead and throw it to where the others are," she said, pointing off toward the two daggers still stuck in the ground.
I wonder what she means by overwhelming me, I thought for a heartbeat before throwing the dagger as requested.
The scarlet dagger soared through the air much more rapidly than I had anticipated it would, and it struck the ground with enough force to leave a small crater around it.
Shit, did I throw it too hard? I thought, already mentally preparing for Kalia's scolding.