And again when he’d been roughed up by the Saran jailors. His heart had been pumping hard, and pain and fear drove the ability to new heights.
I’m not crazy, after all!
After meditating on those experiences, he could recreate that sensation. It’d paid off!
The shock of having his arm smashed triggered an instinct within his body that powered up Prana Vision beyond what mere exertion did.
Until now, he’d sighted the black prana that resided within his body only once in nature—on the floor of Saran’s jail. This affinity was scarce. To where it was almost nonexistent compared to the other affinities that filled the water. If he wasn’t actively searching for it, he’d miss it, even with Prana Vision flaring so brightly.
That was an interesting discovery, but it wasn’t immediately useful. His true purpose in doing all of this was to address the problem he’d been putting off for so long. He’d deluded himself into accepting Prana Vision’s glaring flaw—namely that it could only be activated by fear or exertion.
If he wanted to delve deeper into the mysteries of his body’s prana, he needed to activate the ability on demand. But he had to be more careful. With his prior failure in mind, Vir closed his eyes and tried again, this time with a different approach.
When he’d attempted to control his prana in Saran’s jail cell, he’d taken hold of the prana in his neck and stopped it. In hindsight, that could only have ended up poorly. This time, instead of stopping the prana—and thus the flow of blood—he would will it to continue upward into his head, and into his eyes.
With a deep breath, Vir gave it a go. The prana obeyed, and he pushed it up. Through his neck and up his head.
Gently at first. He didn’t black out… but nothing happened. So he tried pushing harder.
That was a mistake.
Searing pain wracked his body. He’d done something horribly wrong again. Vir aborted his experiment, allowing the blood to return to a normal flow.
But he was a moment too late.
Vir struggled through the cobwebs darkening his vision, and as the seconds wore on, he realized there was no winning this battle.
The world turned black, and he lost consciousness. Again.
Vir awoke to a bright sky, the sun high overhead. “Vi—uh, Neel! Oh, thank the gods!” he heard someone say.
He sat up, and regretted it. A splitting headache threatened to crack his skull, and it was all he could do to remain conscious.
“What happened?” he asked after several moments had passed.
Maiya’s hazel eyes looked deeply into his own, searching for any sign of trauma. “You sat down and then you just kinda fell over. You didn’t even say anything. When I looked back, I saw you on the floor, drooling. Nothing I did woke you up. I was so worried. What happened?”
“Uh, can you speak a little more quietly?” he asked, flinching at her words. “Everything’s really loud right now.”
“Sorry,” she said, reducing her volume to a murmur. “Any better?”
Vir nodded, and abruptly stopped. Like last time, moving his head made him nauseous, and it wasn’t seasickness.
He’d made the same mistake again. He thought he’d been careful, but he wasn’t careful enough. It seemed his body violently resisted any kind of alteration to the flow of his blood.
Worse, he’d given into temptation and experimented here, on Bakura’s ship. The man might have meant him no harm, but he should’ve held off until they were back home. Problem was, guilt wracked his mind and heart. It was his inability to help those slaves that motivated him. Even so, it was a foolish decision.
This is gonna be tough, he thought. Blood and prana circulated through his body according to rules far more complex than he’d imagined.
“Sorry. I’m fine now.”
“Promise me you won’t do anything like that ever again.”
“Uh…”
“Promise!” Maiya said, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to mar her makeup.
“I promise, not until I better understand what I’m doing. I have no intention of making the same mistake three times. Rudvik would never forgive me.”
“Three times?” Maiya asked. “What do you mean?”
“Uh, n-nothing. Sorry. I misspoke,” he lied. If she found out he’d blacked out for the same reason in the jail cell, she’d wring his neck.
“What are you even trying to do, though?” Maiya asked.
“Well, I discovered that prana’s related to blood flow, so I’ve been trying to manipulate the flow of my blood to activate Prana Vision.”
“Huh?” Maiya furrowed her brow.
Vir spent the next half hour trying to explain what he was doing, but Maiya only ended up more confused than before. ‘Why’s prana bound to your blood?’ ‘What’s blood got to do with magic?’
In the end, he told her he’d explain it all again once he’d found out a bit more. As it was, he himself was stumbling around in the dark.
After their conversation petered out—mainly on account of Maiya’s seasickness—he sat and contemplated as his mind slowly returned to normal.
This strategy of controlling his prana wasn’t working. He was certainly onto something, but he wouldn’t get there with this sort of brutish approach. Yet without guidance from someone who knew more, how would he ever progress?
As much as it vexed him, he decided to honor his words to Maiya and put his experimentation on hold. At least until he could be reasonably sure he wouldn’t accidentally commit suicide or permanently cripple himself. He only hoped he’d come by that knowledge soon.
Maybe Tanya has the answers…
The sailors sprung into action when the ship neared shore, furling the sails, tending to the rigging, steering the ship to an appropriate anchoring spot, and dealing with a myriad of other tasks.
Maiya and Vir remained near Bumpy, trying to stay out of the way as best as they could.
When the crew dropped anchor, a good thousand paces away from shore, Maiya began to worry.
“Uh, I hope they don’t expect us to swim,” she said. “I can’t swim. Wait. You can’t swim either, can you, Vir?”
“Nope.”
Vir wondered how this would work as well, then remembered their encounter with the pirates the other day.
“You remember how those pirates used a tiny boat to get to shore? I don’t think these large ships can get any closer, or they might run aground.”
Sure enough, Bakura hailed them over. “Right so, dis be where we part ways m’fraid. My men’ll help ya load yer Ash’va onto dat dinghy o’er dere.” He pointed to a wooden boat suspended by ropes over the side of the ship. “Head straight east ’n ye’ll get ta de Saran-Daha highway a’fore sundown. Ah done everythin’ ah can. Rest’s on you two.”
When Vir had stumbled upon the slaves, he’d been certain the man would clasp a collar on his neck and throw him into the brig with the others, but Alda had been right, it seemed. Maybe the man wasn’t a saint, but he appeared to at least honor his word.
“Thank you,” Maiya said. “We’ll be sure to put in a good word with our father.”
“Not jes’ a good word, yeah?”
“Right,” Vir responded. “I’ll be sure he contacts you. And we’ll send you ample compensation for your troubles here.”
The man rubbed his hands together. “Good. Gooood,” he said, his eyes shining in anticipation of prospects that would never materialize. Vir wondered when the man would find out that he’d been duped by a pair of nobodies. Probably the next time he’s back at Saran…