Lyren's internal vision was blinded by a white light and for a moment he thought he was going to lose consciousness again. But that did not happen and somehow, as the bright light cleared, he suddenly realized that it was like he had entered into his body and he could see everything in his body that he normally couldn't.
It was like he had opened an eye he did not know he had that allowed him to look into himself. He could decide what he wanted to see and he just had look at what he thought he wanted. He could somehow see his internal organs and as he focused on the core that carried his Elyria, a smile bloomed on his lips.
There it was. It was around the size of a fist. It glowed orangish in an isolated region at the middle of his belly. Seeing his core up close, he could not help but feel a sense of pride in himself.
This was his core.
He had finally done it.
He could see strands of orange that stretched out like mini tentacles and somehow lit up the almost grey environment in his core. It also looked as though it was dusk in his core and he could tell that it was not going to change.
He studied for a longer period but there was not a single detail he had missed. Well, apart from the channel that could draw Elyria from his body. That was a mystery he was going to take his time to unravel.
He looked at the channel and realized it really was a channel. He could see inside of it and he could tell that it was smoothing out with every time he drew Elyria. Then he decided to look at the width of the channel.
What he saw was what his mind could call impossible. It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that an almost half a centimeter wide channel was inside his arm. That was difficult to accept considering how tiny he felt it was in the inside.
Now that he thought about it, he realized that it was impossible for the space that his core lay to exist. When he decided to feel it, it was very tiny almost negligible. The core was definitely fist sized. He could feel it but he could tell that there was a very thin membrane separating it from the rest of is body.
Could it be that this membrane was the gray world surrounding his core? That was unfathomable and also exciting in its own way. He finished studying the core and the channel and decided to try and draw Elyria from his body and now that he thought about it, he did not know what color it was.
He had just let the palm pattern draw Elyria and he had not seen how his Elyria looked like. Slowly, he recalled the sensation he felt when the pattern was drawing Elyria. Well, he was finally able to see his core but what use was it if he could not even draw Elyria from it.
Whenever he tried to feel it, it slipped through as though water in his fingers. But he was just rushing things and he was forgetting the lesson he had learned from this place. It highly emphasized on patience which was in turn created a calm mind making it easier to focus.
If he forgot that lesson, he was not going to have any progress all. That was proven by he third row whose first pattern had nearly ended his life. When his thoughts came to this conclusion, he stopped trying hard and decided to cool down his pace.
He recalled the Elyria pressing on to him and how he had desperately tried to draw but he had just ended up pushing it away. If there was anything, he should be thankful that he was finally able to fell it and also, he could feel the lingering Elyria that remained after the rest slipped.
The same way when you tried to scoop water with your barehand, several droplets were always left in the palm. This was progress in its own rights. If he looked at this positively, he was finally being able to touch Elyria. He slowly calmed down and he decided to follow this logic.
He just had to accumulate as much droplets and he would finally be able to scoop some Elyria. Slow progress was progress also. It was hard but as time went on, he was finally realizing that he was being able to hold on to larger droplets.
…
An unknown time had passed and finally, Lyren had been able to guide Elyria into the channel. Though, it was not in fluid form like when the pattern was doing the channeling. Instead, it was almost like he was transferring bubble through a tube.
One can imagine just how difficult that was. If one looked though the channel, they could see an astonishing sight that was almost pitiful. But looking from the outside, Lyren had a calm face and he did not seem to be struggling at all.
It took an even longer time for the Elyria to finally reach his palm and when it appeared, he opened his eyes. He watched amusedly as it evaporated in a whisp of orange smoke that left Lyren laughing at himself. All that time he had spent only to produce a whisp.
But he was happy. That was the first time he had drawn Elyria on his own and it did not matter how little it was. It was much better than when he could not draw anything.
…
It was a long time later when one could see some progress. Lyren had finally been able to draw more Elyria. It was little in comparison but there was an orange glow in his palm which was slowly dissipating.
But he could care less about that. He was finally able to merge the bubbles into fluid form and soon he was going to be able to channel it on his own. He was realizing that the reason it was still difficult was because he was concentrating on several bubbles which turned into droplet.
If these droplets merged, then it got even easier to let flow. It was as though they helped each other when they were a single entity. When divided, it was difficult as he had noted he had to split his concentration on several droplet.
He slowly got used to it as time passed, he was able to channel a larger stream and he could cannel it into his palm and let it slowly dissipate. It felt like forever but soon he was able to feel his senses latch onto the core and he felt that it was familiar to when the pattern was doing it.
After a numerous number of trials, he had finally felt the first ever connection he had with the core. He was able to channel Elyria into the channel and let it flow slowly through the channel. When it was flowing directly from the source, it did not require too much of attention and it happened almost instantly as he felt the energy surge out of his palm.
This drove him into panic as he watched the energy surge out of his palm and it was pushed half a meter from his palm. In his panic, the connection was cut off and he came to several conclusion after this.
You could not just draw energy without a purpose. Yes, he could but that was not going to work for he was only going to waste it all. There had to be an outside influence to control Elyria. Maybe a pattern to take the energy.
Also, he realized that he could not control Elyria once it left his body and the only reason he was able to control it in his body was actually not his doing but the channel. If he were to guide it out on his own, he did not know how long it would take him to finally draw Elyria out of his body.
Also, there was no telling whether if he could succeed or he could only end up destroying his internal organs. He stood up and decided to try lighting up the patterns of the second row without letting the pattern draw energy from him.
He squatted at the first pattern of the second row stretched his hand out…