Throughout his entire life, Ken had been a loner, and had struggled to connect with others because he perceived everyone to be so different from himself. From a very young age Ken had found himself able to perceive a tiny shred of what he ter started to call souls. Humans along with many other flora and fauna of earth had them. If he remained in the vicinity of organisms with souls, he started to be able to perceive them, and then to understand them. Ken theorized that this had somehow allowed his mind to develop at an astounding rate because as a child his brain was not only being stimuted by his physical senses, but also by a feed of information constantly streaming in about the souls around him. Ken was able to sense his surroundings fluidly at one year old, and by two he was speaking fluently and learning how to read.
His parents were shocked when they had started realizing Ken’s intelligence and had him tested by geneticists, who discovered multiple rare gene mutations that had altered his entire body, especially his nervous system. The genetic researchers extrapoted that Ken’s body would grow to maturity in half the time of a normal human and his brain, spinal cord and nerves would end up around 10% rger than the average person. It seemed a miracle to Ken’s parents, and they knew their son was going to be someone special. Ken, on the other hand, had always known he was different. If he was in a being’s presence long enough, he began to catch fleeting glimpses of their souls: the very essence of who they are. They were nothing like him.
It had taken him only a few months to come to the conclusion that there was a vast gulf between the essence of his being and the essence of the simirly shaped beings around him. He had only observed two types of beings: animate, and inanimate. Inanimate objects' essence were mostly extremely tiny and static. Animate objects that could actively influence their surroundings, had souls that varied unimaginably from each other. Every single one he perceived was unique, which caused him endless fascination. The other rger beings who shared his shape had the closest souls in size to his own. He had observed these beings closely, as there were four of them, his family, that interacted with him often. As he grew older, and his understanding deepened, Ken was filled with horror.
These beings around him acted against their very essence. Within their souls, their essence and uniqueness was waiting to be expressed in reality, to sense others and connect with them, and to grow and cultivate. They were blind, deaf, and numb; crippled creatures filing in anguish as they injured themselves without being able to feel it at all. It was terrifying to be around. All Ken’s observations and understandings of the nature of these beings filled him with dread. They suppressed their souls purposefully, forbidding them from expressing themselves even in the face of the repercussions of such an action: pain and regret. As he grew, Ken’s mind and soul became unable to take the strain of experiencing so much pain around him. Ken felt his soul becoming burdened down by his perception, and as his understanding grew so did the weight. Ken’s existence was not that of a bright eyed young genius exploring the world. Ken could sum up the entire first 9 years as struggling to survive.
As the weight on Ken’s soul grew and his body and nervous system exploded in their development, he experienced constant pain. When he was three years old, he was pced in an isoted ward and a medically induced coma. Even when shut off from his mind and body, Ken’s soul maintained its awareness, continuing to observe himself, the staff and the rare visitor. The weight grew. He became filled with feelings of helplessness. In the back of his mind, he became aware that he could make a single action, a mere flex of his will to reconnect his soul to his mind, and use the mind to suppress himself. He had observed the other beings do it to not just their almost non existent perception, but also their very essence. His soul was stronger than anything he had perceived but his soul’s constant strain and growth had put pressure on his body to evolve to even continue existing. Ken never acted on these thoughts. Even though his perception caused him constant pain, the very thought of turning it off terrified him too much to consider it for more than a moment. The pain he felt was nothing compared to the terrors around him. Even if he removed his perception he would still carry with him his understanding. He would just carry it blindly.
After spending years on life support while machines fed his developing body, and struggling to survive the pressure and pain, Ken’s dim consciousness had felt something change. The weight on his soul slowly decreased, and then started to rapidly drop. A few weeks before he turned nine, Ken reached something he ter understood was called a bottleneck. With his surroundings remaining retively sparse and static for years, his soul seemed to have comprehended all it could from them. When the weight of new understanding stopped increasing, his soul continued to struggle and grow while its opponent had stagnated. He was winning. He was growing. Ken started to feel things that he had not since his earliest memories: etion, along with something new: euphoria. Only a few days ter, Ken’s soul surged with power. Ken found his resistance against the “weight” of his perception had risen dramatically, and the level of detail he could perceive had been slightly increased. However the most remarkable changes were happening to his mind and body. When his soul had reached a new level, it had reconnected to his body and mind and was beginning to guide them in their growth. Ken’s stunted and weak body began to transform.
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Ken snapped out of the trance that had caused him to briefly relive the first nine years of his life and found himself in a square room. He estimated about 20 meters wall to wall. The walls, floor and ceiling all glowed with a dim white light. He felt a small but strange tickling, almost itchy feeling in his head and he understood that this was his connection to EIS. Ken sat down on the ground where he stood and started thinking, and staring at the wall. In what felt like the span of a few minutes, his understanding of the world and even himself had been massively changed. He spent a few seconds entertaining the idea that he was dreaming or under the influence of something and would wake up with the world going back to normal, before he threw those thoughts away. Oddly enough, it was not the wall of light or the vivid sensations he felt that convinced him this was all real. It was L’Raksha.
Ken’s entire life was based around his soul “Insight” as EIS had called it. He perceived his soul and the essence of those around him. He tried to understand how his soul worked. If an action benefited his soul he tried to repeat it, and if it harmed him he avoided it. He had encountered many beings in his 24 years of life, and he had never seen one with a soul healthier or more powerful than his, until today.
The two kneeling on the top stair had had an equal level of “soul health” as he did which was already a first for him. On top of that their souls were more powerful than his, and he could tell that they had a level of control and poise that he couldn’t understand. L’Raksha was something different. Sensing him with Insight had made him feel like he was looking at the sun. Not a gring light that burned his eyes, but the concept of a sun is what he felt. L’Raksha’s soul radiated life so powerfully that Ken thought it was sufficient to bring life warmth to an entire sor system. It was a power so outside of Ken’s ability to understand, that he understood that such a thing could not come from his subconscious. The incomprehensible couldn’t be imagined, only experienced.
Ken reviewed everything that had happened so far in his mind. Ever since he awakened when he was 9 years old, he had lived for one singur purpose, to nurture his soul, and he had never regretted that choice. He quickly thought of the questions he needed to ask. L’Raksha had shown him what was possible. Ken had not been able to progress his soul in over 6 years. Now thanks to CCC he had a chance at what had been his life's goal: to reach higher levels of soul cultivation, but it wouldn’t mean anything if he failed to survive in the new world.
