The crystal warming was real. Theron knew that now. But it wasn't enough.
He could warm a stone. So what? That didn't prove anything to anyone except himself. He needed to produce visible fire — actual flame — before any of this meant something beyond his own private experiments.
The gap between "crystal gets warm" and "fire appears" was huge. And he had no idea what was missing.
He thought about it for two days before he figured out where to look next.
Breathing.
Lycurgus had said it was the most important part. More important than the circle. More important than the hand position. And Theron had been using it — the 4-count inhale, 2-count hold, slow exhale — but only roughly. He hadn't tested it properly. Hadn't isolated it as a variable.
It was time to fix that.
Friday night. Same setup. Same circle. Same hand position at 144 degrees. Same crystal.
Only one thing would change each time: how he breathed.
He wrote his plan in the notebook first.
Hypothesis: The specific breathing pattern (4-count inhale, 2-count hold, slow exhale) produces significantly better results than other patterns.
Method: Test four different breathing patterns. Everything else stays the same.
Pattern A: Quick breath. One sharp inhale, no hold, fast exhale with words.Pattern B: The correct pattern. 4-count inhale, 2-count hold, slow exhale.Pattern C: Natural breathing. No deliberate pattern at all.Pattern D: Deep inhale, no hold, immediate exhale with words.
Three attempts per pattern. Twelve tests total.
Pattern A: Quick Breath
Theron stretched, positioned his hands, and took one sharp inhale through his nose. No hold. Exhaled fast while saying the words.
Nothing. Crystal stayed cold.
Second attempt. Same quick breathing. Same result. Nothing.
Third attempt. He tried to push harder, speak louder.
Nothing.
Pattern A: 0/3 successes. No effect.
Pattern B: The Correct Pattern
Four counts in. Two counts hold. Slow exhale.
During the hold, he felt it again — that warmth starting in his chest, spreading down his arms. Faint, but there.
He exhaled and spoke the words.
Crystal warmed. Two seconds. Same as before.
Second attempt. Same result. Warmer this time, maybe. Hard to tell.
Third attempt. Crystal warmed again. Consistent.
Pattern B: 3/3 successes. Crystal warming confirmed.
Pattern C: Natural Breathing
No deliberate pattern. Just breathe however felt comfortable. Theron took a breath — shallow, casual, the way he normally breathed — and spoke the words.
The crystal barely reacted. A tiny hint of warmth, so faint he wasn't sure it was real. Gone in less than a second.
Second attempt. Same thing. Almost nothing.
Third attempt. He really tried to focus, but kept his breathing natural.
One faint flicker of warmth. That was it.
Pattern C: 0/3 clear successes. Possible trace effect. Effectively failed.
Pattern D: Deep Inhale, No Hold
Four counts in — deep, diaphragmatic, the same as Pattern B. But instead of holding for two counts, he exhaled immediately.
The crystal warmed. But less than Pattern B. The warmth lasted about one second instead of two.
Second attempt. Same result. Weaker than the correct pattern, but definitely there.
Third attempt. Same.
Pattern D: 3/3 with reduced effect. The hold phase matters.
Theron sat back and reviewed his results.
The difference was stark. Pattern B — the correct breathing — produced consistent, clear warming. Pattern A produced nothing at all. Pattern C produced almost nothing. Pattern D produced something, but noticeably weaker than B.
The hold phase was the key difference between B and D. Both used the same deep inhale. But B held for two counts before exhaling, and D didn't hold at all. And B was significantly stronger.
The hold is where the effect builds, Theron wrote. Lycurgus called it "gathering." Something accumulates during the pause. Release it too early, and the effect is weak. Don't pause at all, and it barely works.
He thought about what Lycurgus had said. Pneuma gathers during the hold. Releases during the exhale.
He didn't fully understand what pneuma was yet. But he could feel something happening during the hold. That warmth in his chest. The sensation spreading down his arms. It was real and it was consistent and it responded to the breathing pattern.
He wasn't done yet.
One more thing to test. During his observations of Alexios and the other students, he'd noticed something about the type of breathing, not just the pattern. The nobles breathed from their bellies — their stomachs expanded when they inhaled, not their chests.
Diaphragmatic breathing. Theron had read about it in athletic texts. It pulled more air into the lungs. It was deeper and more efficient than chest breathing.
He wanted to know if it mattered for magic too.
Test: Chest Breathing vs. Belly Breathing
Same pattern both times. 4-count inhale, 2-count hold, slow exhale. The only difference was where the breath originated.
Attempt 1: Chest breathing.
Theron inhaled into his chest. His shoulders rose. His stomach stayed flat. Four counts. Hold two. Exhale with words.
Crystal warmed. About one and a half seconds. Decent.
Attempt 2: Belly breathing.
This time he focused on expanding his stomach first. Let his diaphragm drop. The breath went deeper — he could feel it filling his lungs more completely. Four counts. Hold two. Exhale with words.
Crystal warmed. Two and a half seconds. Noticeably longer than the chest breath.
He did it again, both ways, three more times each.
The results were consistent. Belly breathing produced stronger, longer-lasting warming every single time. Not by a huge margin. But enough to notice. Enough to matter.
Diaphragmatic breathing is superior. Deeper breath = more pneuma gathered during hold = stronger effect on release.
By the end of the night, Theron had filled two full pages of notes. His hands were cramping from writing so much. The crystal sat on the table, cool again, looking exactly like it had that morning.
But Theron knew things now that he hadn't known yesterday.
The breathing pattern wasn't just preparation. It was functional. It did something real — something physical, something measurable. The hold phase gathered energy. The exhale released it. The depth of the breath affected how much energy was gathered.
It was mechanical. Like a lever, or a pump. Pull the lever correctly, and the machine works. Pull it wrong, and nothing happens.
He closed his notebook and leaned back in his chair.
The warming effect was now reliable. Consistent. Reproducible every time he did everything right.
But he still couldn't make flame.
There was still something missing. Something between "crystal warms" and "fire appears" that he hadn't identified yet.
He thought about what it could be.
The visualization. He hadn't tested that properly yet. When he cast, he focused on the circle and tried to imagine fire appearing. But his mental image was vague — just a general idea of "fire." Not specific. Not detailed.
The nobles, when they cast, seemed to see something clearly. Lycurgus had told Alexios to "find the fire in your chest." Alexios closed his eyes and concentrated for ten full seconds before casting.
What exactly were they seeing? What were they imagining?
That was the next question.
And Theron already had a plan to answer it.
End of Chapter Nine