“But why take such a risk? Why not simply decouple prana flow from your blood flow?”
“You’re saying that’s possible?” Vir asked in surprise. He’d always theorized it, but had never had any proof it could be done.
“Why yes, of course!” Ashani said. “Quite possible.”
“Er, can you guide me? Can you tell me how?”
Ashani frowned. “I’m afraid I cannot. Only flesh and blood cycle prana, and I do not possess such information. The Vidya network was destroyed along with everyone else, millennia ago.”
“I see…” Vir said. While the setback was unfortunate, it was nothing next to discovering that prana could be decoupled. “Guess I’ll have to rely on my tricks, then.”
Staring at the orb, Vir could hardly believe its capacity. It was no larger than a C Grade, and while he’d never laid eyes on an S, Vir was sure Ashani’s prana core consumed many times the prana of even those vaunted orbs. He needed more prana. Lots more.
“Then how about this?” Vir asked, resting his other palm on top of the orb. If one arm’s suction bought him this much…
The prana rushing in doubled, growing so thick Vir began to see it with his naked eye.
“Two months!” Ashani cried.
“I can do even more!” Vir said, heart pumping with excitement.
Excitement that ended only seconds later.
The charging halted abruptly, and the prana that had grown visible disappeared.
Vir looked inside himself, and to his horror, found no pranites circulating within his body.
“What happened to them?” Vir asked.
“Consumed. Moving them around that quickly takes a fair bit of energy,” Ashani said, producing a shining steel box with metal clasps.
“Consumed?” Vir panicked. The pranites had been instrumental for him. He was hoping to rely on them going forward. And now they were gone?
Ashani lifted the lid of the metal case, revealing three full syringes.
“How many more do you have?” Vir breathed in relief, preparing his arm for the injection.
“This is all, I’m afraid,” Ashani said. “Janak maintained quite a stock, but I’ve administered them to my lupine friends over the years.”
“Well, I suppose I’d better make them count, then,” Vir said as Ashani injected him.
Vir immediately felt the new pranites within his body, topped up with prana.
Ashani shut the lid of her metal case.
Vir still hadn’t gotten over how much metal the Imperium seemed to use. They treated metal the same as how modern-day people treated wood. In fact, he hoped to come across small objects he could pocket. Quite literally. Each one would be an Artifact, even if their uses were unknowable.
Still, Vir wasn’t about to steal from Ashani’s home. There was an entire city to loot—there would be time for such things later. Or so he hoped.
“This is going to be an issue, though,” he said. “Is there any way I can control which wounds the pranites heal?”
Ashani shook her head. “None. They behave according to their programming, which cannot be altered.”
Vir frowned, an idea coming him. “What about refilling their prana? Is that possible?”
Again, Ashani shook her head. “Prana is prana. If I enabled them to restore themselves, they would rob your body’s own energy. That would be quite disastrous in your current state.”
“Because my blood’s prana capacity is still so low,” Vir said, nodding in understanding. “But that means you do have a way to restore their prana?”
“Well, yes.”
“How?”
“Simply will them to,” Ashani replied reluctantly. “You’re going to turn them on, aren’t you?”
“The pranites are full right now,” Vir said. “Shouldn’t be an issue.”
I hope. A worrying thought came over him.
“Er, the worst that happens is they consume my prana, right? They’re not going to take over my body, or something?”
Ashani chuckled. “There is no worry of that.”
Right. Of course. Phew.
A simple application of will, similar to his Talents, released the pranites, allowing the pranites to consume prana.
Though the little machines were nearly full, Vir still felt them draining his nearby blood cells.
Definitely need to expand my blood’s capacity, he thought. It would be a crime not to—the highest prana density in all the realms was right here, at Mahādi. It had to have been many, many times greater than what the Domain Lords’ lairs had been.
If he got his blood to acclimatize, he could very well store up enough prana for multiple activations of most of his Talents.
That was an advantage nobody in all the realms could boast. The mere thought made him giddy.
“Vir? Are you well?” Ashani asked with concern.
“Sorry,” he replied. “I sometimes get lost in my own mind. I want to try charging your prana core again.”
“Though, I must wonder how much more you could channel if you simply disabled that current running through your body.”
“Sorry? Current?” Vir asked.
“Yes, the beautiful pattern coursing through all your limbs,” Ashani said, pointing to his body.
With a frown, Vir turned Prana Vision inward, but saw nothing. “I don’t see it,” he said.
“Look closely. ’Tis a subtle thing. You must be quite the master to work prana so delicately. Especially tied to your blood as it is.”
“What are you—” Then Vir saw it. She was right. The pattern was barely a trickle, only a few blood cells thick.
Vir traced the pattern through his body, and traced, and traced. It was the most staggeringly complex working he’d ever seen.
“This… isn’t mine,” Vir whispered, attempting to take control of it.
That was a terrible mistake.
Vir screamed in pain as blood ruptured throughout his body.
When Vir came to, it was to a world that hurt more than it had any right to. His whole body just… throbbed with pain.
Vir clutched his head, finding himself on a bed in the same white room he’d been in before. Janak’s laboratory.
“What happened?” he asked groggily.
“You broke the circulation pattern,” Ashani said from beside him. “Why did you do such a thing?”
“Didn’t mean to,” Vir said. “I think I just figured out what my predecessors did for me when I first arrived here.”
So this is what I gained from Parai’s sacrifice, Vir thought.
Shardul had said Vir shouldn’t ever expect any more memories from him again. Those words hadn’t been easy for Vir to stomach. The one memory fragment he’d had with Parai had revealed dozens upon dozens of cycling patterns he hadn’t had time to memorize. If he could only revisit that memory, he’d learn so much more.
Alas, it was not to be. Parai had sacrificed what little of himself remained within Vir to bestow upon him this one power.
A power so subtle, Vir had never even noticed it. That impressed him as much as its intricacy. Delicate, yet powerful. Complex, yet elegant. This was a masterwork of prana, and Vir had sacrificed something extremely precious to obtain it.
Looking at it coursing through his body was a strange sensation. Vir recognized the pattern as his own making, yet it wasn’t his conscious doing. It felt a little like what happened when he mastered a skill. Like Leap—Vir didn’t think of sucking prana from the ground to power it. He’d practiced it so many thousands of times that it now happened automatically. Subconsciously.
As outlandish as it sounded, Vir sometimes found himself wondering if he’d forgotten how to consciously invoke the ability. It’d become so baked into his muscle memory that his knowledge of it started to gather dust in his mind.