"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield." -Lao Tzu
***
"I… did it."
A young man stood opposing the corpse of a creature. His right arm was outstretched, reaching towards the grotesque monster. Floating in between them was an imperfect ball of fetid liquid. Behind him stood a mature looking woman. Her face was stoic, yet the stillness of it showed a slight hint of amazement.
'What the hell… is it really this easy?'
Quies stood there in disbelief, yet he was unwilling to stray his focus away from keeping the tensegrity of the blood… thing. Experimenting, he moved his hand around. As he did, the ball of liquid followed, albeit sluggishly.
Keeping his focus on the fetid liquid, he tried different gestures and movements of his hand to see how it would manipulate the form of it. He noticed that the form of the liquid was actually quite easy to change. It seems that the kinematics of his hand transferred to the movement of the ball. Daringly, Quies reeled his hand in, consequently reeling the blood ball closer to him, and flung his arm out as fast as he could.
In response, the blood ball followed the snappy movement, and shot forward at an immense speed. Its form changed and molded into a long, spearlike shape as it soared through the Illusory air. Sensing his connection with it wavering, Quies shut his hand closed into a fist, making the ball of liquid pause in the air, reforming back into its original shape. Suddenly, Quies hissed as a searing pain struck his head.
'Ssss…'
He grabbed his head with his free hand, though the pain quickly subsided.
'There's a limit.'
"You… really are somebody, Quies."
Quies turned his head slightly towards Valerie. The mental strain that this mantra was putting on him was growing, but still bearable. He still had a few tricks he wanted to try out.
Next, he adjusted the form of his hand. Moving the blood ball closer to him, he changed the form of his hand into a sharp, spike-like shape. His fingers pointed forward, meeting at one point. Following the implied command by its newly versed commander, it followed sluggishly, forming into a sharp stalactite shape. As he oriented his hand in different directions, the blood spike followed.
He flicked his hand inwards and then immediately flicked it back outwards, spreading his fingers on the outward moment. The blood followed his movements once more, spreading across a wide and invisible surface like a clean brush stroke on paper. In front of him, stood a wide wall of fetid blood.
After holding it for a few more moments, it broke its form and splattered across the black surface of the illusory realm. He let out a sigh, relieved of the mental strain that pressed on his thoughts. In excitement, he started jumping up and down, shaking his hands.
'Holy crap… what an ability!'
Finally having a moment of respite, he turned to look at Valerie. She had a coy smile on her face, which Quies didn't really know how to interpret.
"Well?"
Quies immediately wiped off the look of glee on his face.
"Eh, it's whatever."
'That was so cool!'
Valerie let out a light laugh. She knew that he was obviously lying. Her fluffy cat ears were perked up in excitement.
"Alright, alright, say all you want. I mean, even I was impressed by that. Sure, it was the first time I saw bloodrend in action , and there's possibly better users out there, but still! So cool!"
The two of them stood there, not knowing what to say.
"So, uhh… what now?"
Valerie seemed to be deep in thought, staring blankly. His remark broke her concentration.
"Ah, umm… well first I should probably return us to the ship. Don't worry! We'll be safe. This whole time I was practicing splitting my consciousness between my illusory and physical self. It's a new thing I'm learning, but I was able to make some progress today! I should try controlling both of my selves next time… Oh, what was I saying? Right, I'll take us out of this realm. You don't have to close your eyes this time."
Quies stood in front of Valerie, turned to her. He was waiting for something to happen. Eventually, the white sky began to crumble like small grains of sand. Its suffusing light slowly faded. Eventually, everything was black.
"But you do have to open them!"
Quies fluttered his eyes open. It was similar to waking up from a dream, except for the fact that he was lucid throughout the entire thing. He returned to where he stood on the deck of Valerie's small schooner. She stood opposite of him as they faced towards each other. Valerie raised her arms and stretched upwards. Her back curved similar to a cat, and her ears fluttered.
"Ah, I'm tired…"
She openly yawned and wiped her eyes. To be fair, Quies was similarly exhausted after everything that just happened.
"You better get some rest. Tomorrow is gonna be… long. I can feel it already."
Quies sat down on the side of the Schooner.
"Are you really sure bringing me along would be a good idea?"
"Well, I have no choice really. Even if it doesn't seem like it, you're a pretty valuable asset."
That word put a foul taste in his mouth.
'Asset? Asset?! Is that what she's been thinking of me the entire time?!'
"Oh, you also know a few things that I might not. You left Etris for a reason, right?"
"I… guess."
"Sounds great. See you tomorrow."
Valerie stumbled backwards, yet landed perfectly on the wall of the schooner in a resting position. Her hands were raised, postured behind her head. Quies raised a hand to interject, but noticed that she was already asleep. Eventually, he lowered himself and settled down in a similar position to Valerie across the boat. He closed his eyes lightly. Valerie was right. The plan she had laid out for their Etris "visit" was rather extensive.