“Well,” She said with a frown, “I see why you called on me,” She said and tilted her head, squinting at the goldehat flickered on Lillian’s shoulders, “They really don’t hurt? They aren’t burning your clothes?”
“No ma’am,” Lillian said unfortably, “Just kind of chilling there, I guess?” She added with a nervous ugh.
Bck Lotus sighed, “Give me your hand, let's have a closer look.”
Lillian nodded and took the woman’s hand. She immediately felt that tingle rush up her arm again and spread throughout her body. It felt a little like Bck Lotus was expl, cheg inside of her to see what had ged. The woman closed her eyes a out a breath, the tingling moving further in towards Lillian’s heart. THUMP! Her heart beat and she felt the heat on her shoulders for the first time, there was a warmth that spread out of her chest and down to meet the sensation that was ing from Bck Lotus. It quickly retreated and the woma go.
“Hm, it reacted,” She hummed, “But otherwise nothing seems different,” She tilted her head, “I’d expected some manner of maion after cheg you st night but this wasn’t what I expected, to be ho,” She crossed her arms, “Regardless I think you’re just a bit of a te bloomer and your ability is unveiling itself in stages. Have you tried cheg your instincts?”
Lillian frowned and shook her head, “To be ho I got o nothing out of my awakening, so I didn’t bother cheg again. It felt kind of pointless.”
Bck Lotus pursed her lips, “Well, try again?”
Lillian nodded hesitantly before taking a deep breath and thinking about her ability. She knew academically that it rocess all light-touched could simply do on instinct funny enough. She took another sing breath in the same way that Bck Lotus had taught her before and exhaled, trating on- That’s new.
There was signifitly more information now, the zone of fort created was just an after effect of the fmes inside of her. They were the real source of be. Fmes that could spread and heal or inversely they could most assuredly be used to harm. The problem was as far as she could tell they oended from her body, she would have to ‘ignite’ something in order for it to go further. She could also tell that her body was st energy somehow, she wasn’t sure what it was but it had something to do with what she was being more and more aware of in the air. It seamlessly fueled the fmes.
She let out a gasp as she came out of her thoughts, “Wow, that’s a lot more detail,” She said aloud, looking down at her hand and flexing her fingers. She sched her face a little and with some effort she felt the trickle of energy move through her body and to her palm. A tiny, sized golden fme popped into being. She brightened and held it up to Bck Lotus, “Look! I did that! Oh my god! Look at it, it’s so pretty!” She ughed, “Wow!”
Bck Lotus narrowed her eyes at it and then gnced up at her face, “It moved through your meridians,” She said with a stony face.
“Huh?” Lillian asked.
“I see,” Bck Lotus muttered, “I uand now. Last night makes a lot more seo me.”
“Um?” Lillian tried to cut in.
“I checked your pathways to test your ability but my power spread because you possess the ability to el through your meridians,” Bck Lotus tinued mumbling, getting to her feet and pag, “The energy acts as a fuel source for the fmes, and because of its ins you have a knaartial arts. Your ability is very simir to mine,” She kept talking.
“Uh, miss Bck Lotus?” Lillian tried again.
“Still, it's a very funal ability for rare grade, peak rare then, if not one of the odd ducks that encroach a little further while still reading as rare,” She kept going and going, “I could tell that the energy couldn’t leave your body very far, part of the rare-grade limitation? Yes. Hm. May not be able to form a core but we’ll try. I’ll have to add additional sessions. Nightly if necessary.”
Lillian was getting very lost, she held up her hands, “Miss Bck Lotus!” She called.
The woman tensed and spun, “Oh! You were talking, I’m sorry Lillian, what was your question?”
“What’s a meridian?”
–
Alex was howling with ughter as they sat together at the couch, his arms ed around his waist as he bent over and stomped his feet. The others were chug too, even John seemed a bit amused despite his greater focus on his beloved sandwiches. Alex kept chortling before finally catg his breath and wiping a tear from his eye, “So you just caught fire in the middle of the gym and Jessica threw water on you?” He threw his head bad ughed, “Oh man, I wish I was there.”
Lillian flushed, “Yeah, it was uh, embarrassing.”
“Sounds like you finished maing,” Greg said, resting his on his palm and chug, “Happeo Alex too, he awoke in a couple stages,” He said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder.
Alex sat forward, “Hey man, that’s private!” He barked, suddenly very unamused.
Lillian looked over at her, stretched out on the couch they were occupying. Her feet were on Lillian's p and she was staring up at her phoh her head tucked against the arm of the couch. Alex and Greg were across from them, bickering as always. Val sat forward o John and hummed to himself, “Maybe you ignite your sword, you ignite your bht? Have you tried?”
“Not yet, gonna wait for the session tonight with Bck Lotus,” Lillian said.
“Wise, she seems to uand your ability well, simir power sets are unon,” John muttered, “Stick to that pn and don’t use it much today.”
“Agreed,” Ollie chimed in from the floor between them, he was surrounded by notebooks now and was writing furiously, he didn’t even look up as he spoke, “Though personally I’m more ied in the physiological ges you experienced, have you looked in a mirror sihe ihis m?” He asked.
Lillian blinked dumbly, “Physiological- what? What ges? What happeo my face?” She gasped, reag up and patting at herself.
“Eye color is brighter, closer te now,” Ollie said without looking up, “And unless you somehow dug up some hair dye in the middle of the night, you now have a green streak in your hair, left side.”
Lillian bnched and looked at the others, “Do I really?”
They looked at one another, “Uh, yeah,” Val said and poio his temple, “Right here.”
Lillia out a groan, “Oh man.”
“Maybe,” Lillian said and brought her hand up to her face, “But my mom is gonna kill me.”
–
“Don’t force it!” Bck Lotus barked, pag behihe two of them were in the dojo in the dead of night, Lillian was standing with her legs spaced and her broadsword in her hand. Her eyes were fixed on the bde. She could feel the heat in her chest building and trying to work its way through the els in her body that Bck Lotus called meridians. Apparently the energy was supposed to be stantly moving but her body hadn’t reached that stage yet.
Even so, she’d been able to make that tiny fireball earlier, so there was no reason she couldn’t project it a bit more, right?
Well, that’s what she thought anyway until she actually tried it. It felt like trying to press a water hose against a metal wall. Every time she felt the energy reach her hand and build up it eventually fred out from within her palm and scattered all over the pce. The worst part was she was trying to use the more dangerous version of the fme, so it spread across the ground and caught portions of the floor on fire before Bck Lotus swung her arm and put it out with a gesture.
Lillian groaned after the test failed attempt and dropped her on, “I ’t get it to catch,” She sighed, “What am I doing wrong?”
“Inexperience,” Bck Lotus said solingly, “That’s all. That and your body probably has to be at the cyg stage before you do anything plicated. Why don’t you sit down and we’ll work on that a little.”
Lillian nodded and sat down, hung forward a bit, “No drills tonight?”
“You’ll do them in the m, won’t you?” Bck Lotus asked, “Besides, getting a grip on the breadth of this strange ability of yours is far more important right now. We’ll probably hold off.”
“No kidding, it even dyed my hair,” Lillian muttered, “Mom’s always been worried about me ing back from a vacation or something with my hair a brand new color. She just wants to be involved in the process, you know?”
“I uand where she’s ing from,” Bck Lotus said with a sigh, “But I wouldn’t worry, it’s a maion of your ability, not some youthful venture. Have you figured out the meaning, yet?”
“Meaning? Besides green?” Lillian grunted irritably, “Yeah I’ve given it a little thought but nothing es to mind. Any ideas?”
“The nature of our abilities, yours and mine, inates in some ese mythology and admittedly some of its pop culture,” Bck Lotus said, resting her hand on her back. Lilliahe energy slowly into her body. The woman was a bit more careful this time, “Green has some otations, for one, Iy.”
Lillian frowned and shifted a bit beh Bck Lotus’ hand, “I don’t feel fortable walking around with a streak in my hair that says ‘hey look! I have iy!’.” She mumbled, “I hope it’s just a pretty color or something. Feels weird to me otherwise.”
“It also be associated with health and prosperity,” Bck Lotus added patiently, the energy spread a bit more and she felt it reag towards her heart again. She felt her heartbeat spike and this time mao breathe enough to allow the tingliion to reach its destination. It slowly spread out, ing along until it reached the point it had the previous night where the pain had started. Lillian grunted and ched her teeth as Bck Lotus pushed further this time, increasing the distance several more inches before Lillian shook her head furiously.
Bck Lotus pulled her hand away, “Good effort,” She said, “How do you feel?”
“ probably stand,” Lillian muttered, “Everything hurts though.”
“I’m opening your meridians. I inally sent my energy into you st night to explore your power, I didn’t realize you possessed the trait and pushed your meridians open forcibly. I’m taking a more dired focused approaow. You should be fine in a few hours,” She said, “We’ll have to do this every night until your body is pletely open.”
“That might take a while,” Lillian panted, leaning bad looking up at the dark haired woman.
Bck Lotus grinned, “Well, we have ten weeks.”
–
Lillian dragged herself into the dorm after Bck Lotus ruthlessly put her through a set of drills anyway even after saying she ‘probably’ wouldn’t. Probably my ass. Lillian grumbled as she pushed through the door. Some of the girls were still awake and talking, Jessica waved at her and she even spotted Cassiopeia sitting up and reading a book. The girl gnced her way and frowned before looking back. What the heck did I do to her? She thought, I should clear that up at some point, she thought before nding on her bed with a grunt.
“How’d it go, golden girl?” Jessica asked, walking over and sitting on one of the posts of her bed.
“Painful,” Lillian said with a sigh, “My ability has ‘simir’ features to hers so she’s getting a little fixated, I think. I dunno. She really seems driven to get it right with me for some reason.”
“Probably because you caught Miss ovna’s attention,” Anirl said a few bunks down, “I saw them arguing earlier, looks like they’re not on good terms right now. Bck Lotus is signed with ASTA, so that’s not good.”
“You saw them arguing?” Lillian asked.
“Yeah, didn’t make anything out, but Miss ovna wasn’t hearing it, sent her away, you believe there’s someo there that send the number one away like that? Shoot, I saw her try to go into the room after Miss ovna and like, she couldn’t even walk in the door. Probably some fanext-gen ASTA tech. Just froze wheried to step in,” The girl reted, closing her book.
“Bet they were a thing once, Sonya likes ‘em pretty,” Another said, staring up at the ceiling. “She’s ly shy when she’s in a good mood.”
All of the girls started ughing;
“She’s impossible!” One ughed.
“At least she isn’t a lecher or something, just likes to tease,” Another said.
“I bet she was a dirty old man in a past life,” A third said before a book snapped shut and they all went silent. They gnced over to see a scowling Cassiopeia staring at them.
“Could you not badmouth Miss ova in front of me please?” She said darkly, “She’s done a lot for me, and I would appreciate it if you kept your mouths shut,” She snapped a her book down before rolling ood night.”
“Oops,” One girl whispered.
“Uh, hey,” Lillian murmured.
Lillian stared at the words for a moment before a pit formed iomach. She frowned and then slumped, “Yeah. How’d you know?”
Snow said.
She gnced over at Snow, opened her mouth and then closed it. She’d learned not to ask stupid questions over the past few days. She’d already stepped on one nd mih the girl, she wasn’t about to do it again.
Lillian watched her go, reag up to touch her cheek, her mouth hanging open a little bit, “Huh,” She looked at her hand and then up at Snow as she jumped into her own bed. “Yeah, good night,” She mumbled and g her pillow. She wasn’t sure if she was going to get any sleep after that. Not that she had a choice. Her schedule ractically set in stone now, the day was ing, and she had a feeling things were going to start moving fast soon.