Kitsune of the Blue Sun
Chapter 207- Meditation of Flames

[Freya POV]

We left Keeno and Amaterasu to have whatever time they needed after that episode of whatever happened. Pram wanted to stay there for them, but the air around Keeno had gotten suffocating with the heat and anther, more dangerous air. We all sat down and decided that we should also try this meditation thing. From what we heard Keeno say, the reason she fainted like she did was due to her Divinity, so we would most likely be safe.

“Are we all ready?” (Mostima)

“Yeah. Though I’m worried if something similar will happen to us.” (Pram)

“It’s reasonable, but since none of us possess any kind of Divinity, we should be fine seeing as this is a technique that many used to use a long time ago.” (Mostima)

“Mostima, are you absolutely sure we’ll be fine?” (Freya)

“Nothing in this world is absolute but death, Freya.  However, I’m fairly positive. Those manuals and these techniques are, in their most simple sense, are just ways for us to become more comfortable with ourselves.  There shouldn’t be any harm in at least trying.” (Mostima)

“…You seem different that usual, Mostima.” (Pram)

“How so?” (Mostima)

“You’re being somewhat nihilistic.  Saying things like death is the only absolute and your tone is carrying a lot of negativity.” (Freya)

“…” (Mostima)

She seemed to contemplate this before standing up again.

“We should probably move further away from Keeno. I can’t be sure, but her Death Authority may be affecting us a little.” (Mostima)

Pram and I nodded and stood up as well. We moved further into the old temple, down a few stairs and through a few hallways. We only stopped once we could only feel the cold air of underground with no trace of heat from Keeno.

“Ugh.  My head.” (Mostima)

“Need any healing magic?” (Pram)

“No…but I was right.” (Mostima)

She slowly sat down, leaning her back against the wall.

“I don’t know if Keeno also has thoughts like that all the time, but if so, she must have a much stronger mind than we give her credit for.  Whooo.” (Mostima)

She motioned for us to sit down and we did.

“Close your eyes, steady your breathing, clear your minds. Focus on the feeling of your mana as it flows through your body.  Let it pull you into the flow.” (Mostima)

Doing as she said, I felt the flow of my mana and allowed my consciousness to flow with it, blocking all thoughts from my mind.  It was surprisingly difficult to do this at first but before long I started to get the feel for it.  The blackness slowly started to get painted by the colors of blue and orange. The colors began to move, forming the shapes of flames.  Those flames began swirling around forming other shapes.  Wolves, snow leopards(not that I knew how I knew that), foxes, and other creatures. The flames settled back into wolf shapes that started chasing each other in circles. This continued on for a long while until I noticed the wolf made of blue flames shrinking while the orange one grew. When I saw this I got a feeling that it was a bad thing, but I didn’t know exactly how to fix it.

I tried seeing if adding more mana to the blue wolf would help, and it did, but not much. Through doing that, though, I got some kind of feedback. The orange wolf seemed to contain so much positivity, like a representation of what I’ve been trying my hardest to become. The blue one was the opposite. It held what felt like nothing but negativity and rage, hatred and envy, bloodthirst and viscousness. I shrunk back when all those things hit me, causing the blue wolf to shrink even more, causing the feeling that sniffing the blue wolf out would be bad to become even more prominent.

When I felt that, I stopped trying to block the negativity from washing over me, and the blue wolf stopped shrinking, but it didn’t grow either. I knew I couldn’t let it shrink anymore but I also didn’t want to let it grow. That’s when I saw the orange wolf almost catch the blue one. When it did, its flaming fangs almost ripped into it in attempt to snuff it out.

“NOOOOOO!!!”

My shout stopped the orange wolf and caused the blue on to grow slightly, just enough to start keeping pace with the orange one in their chase of one another. I also noticed how, though it was just a flicker, the flames of both wolves seemed to change to a smokey black, but it could have just been due to my lapse in concentration. It was then that the wolves started to fade back into cloudy colors as I felt this trancelike feeling to end. When I opened my eyes, I felt strangely rested but very sweaty, like I’d just ran a few miles in the old Lokir. I looked around and found Pram sitting, looking at me with a peaceful smile while Mostima still had her eyes closed.

“You’re finally awake. How did it go?” (Pram)

“I’m not sure. I fell like I somehow understand myself a little better, but also not?  It’s hard to describe.” (Freya)

“I understand completely.  Though I will say, I feel like I’ve gotten a new perspective on things somehow. Though now I wonder why this meditation thing stopped being used. I mean, if everyone did it, then it’s strange we only found it in buried ruins.” (Pram)

“Heh.  You sound like Keeno.” (Freya)

“Pfft.  Yeah, I do.” (Pram)

I moved closer to Pram and leaned my head on her shoulder.

“Did you see anything?” (Freya)

“Mm-hmm. After a while of nothingness, I saw a small green and gold seed floating around. I grabbed it and tried planting it in the ground. When I didn’t that, it sprouted instantly and grew till about my knees. I tried to make it grow more, but it wouldn’t move an inch, so I just sat next to it for a while and stared at it. The more I did that, I felt like something was starting to click in my head, but before it could fully, I woke up. Then you woke up a few minutes after me.” (Pram)

“Hmm.” (Freya)

I then recounted what I saw to Pram. Once I was done she seemed to be contemplating my story.

“I think I understand, but also don’t?” (Pram)

“Exactly.  Like, I get I have to do something, but I don’t know if I’m too scared to figure out exactly what, or if I’m just subconsciously rejecting it.” (Freya)

“It’s possible it’s both.” (Pram)

*rumble*

The two of us turned our heads at that sound. In the direction it came from we saw Mostima floating slightly off the ground as small pebbles floated up around her.  She then winced and fell to the ground coughing. We rushed over to her to find she’d coughed up some blood as it trickled from the corner of her mouth, nose and her eyes.

“Ugh.  That was unpleasant.” (Mostima)

Pram started healing her while I held her steady.

“What happened?!” (Freya)

“Just pushed myself a little too much.” (Mostima)

“You broke a few ribs, nearly burst your lungs, and popped several blood vessels in your eyes. Thankfully your heart and brain are fine, cause if they weren’t, I’d have to tell Fia something that’d break her.” (Pram)

“How’d I manage that?  I didn’t think I was making my mama that unstable.” (Mostima)

“I think I’m seeing why this technique might not be known now, if someone could end up this way or worse.” (Freya)

“Yeah.” (Pram)

“Well, I’m not dead, so can the two of you ease up a little?  You’re both hugging a bit to tight.” (Mostima)

Pram and I looked at one another and let go of Mostima, not even realizing we were hugging her like we were.  When we did, though, it felt like we were getting drawn in again.

“Ah.” (Mostima)

Mostima’s eyes went wide and a second later the pulling feeling was gone.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to use gravity magic like that.” (Mostima)

“Seems like you’ve also learned something, even if it hurt you to do so.” (Freya)

“Yeah.  But if that’s what happened to me, what about Keeno?  I mean, we all felt what happened, but in that the only thing that changed?” (Mostima)

“Only way to know is to go see her ourselves.” (Pram)

“True. Shall we?” (Mostima)

Nodding, we all got up, through Mostima stumbled a bit, and walked back the way we came.

Chaos Realm:

Grrr. Aha! Found you, you little annoyance. Oi!

Order: Payto?

I’ll be right back, I gotta deal with this quickly!

*poof*

Luna: The sound effect wasn’t necessary!

Order: And I just got back and everything.

Luna: Well, I doubt it’ll take too long.

Order: True.