Theo watched as the lift doors slid open onto level eight. In front there was a short hallway that ended in a T-intersection, and in the wall opposite there was a double set of glass doors. Bright lights filtered through the frosted glass and onto the ground in front of them. Gently moving shadows could be seen through the glass, though Theo could not work out what they were made by.

  “This is one of the better levels. We all got to go on a walk through on family orientation day,” Perry said as he pulled Theo forward. “The whole section in front of us is a giant meditation garden. There are sections within the garden that stimulate different elements. Depending on your resonance, you can go to one of them to focus on different aspects of your cultivation. For Basics though, we just go into one of the classrooms that are down the other hallways.” He looked at the map on his watch as he spoke.

  “Why are you doing Basics anyway?” Theo asked, somewhat at a loss as to how someone who had grown up in this world did not come into this training with a whole raft of advantages.

  “To piss my dad off mostly.” Perry smiled. “Keep it to yourself, but my first bloodline trait helps to mask my cultivation base, so I can make it look like I am making no progress at all. I’m actually about to hit body three. I’ve got a mutated bloodline, so it doesn’t follow exactly the same path as my fathers.” He paused, his gaze distant, before turning back to Theo. “Thankfully, all of us in the old families rarely discuss them, so the teachers know nothing about it. They all think that there is something wrong with my cultivation method. Mostly, it's just an excuse to fuck around for another hour and to give my dad the shits. I can just imagine him grinding his teeth when the teachers get in touch… feels good really.” Perry laughed.

  “I see,” Theo said. “What’s this cultivation method you’re talking about?” Perry stared at him for a moment, before chuckling and moving towards one of the classroom doors.

  “That, my friend, is why you are in Basics. Think of it like mindfulness, or a meditation method. The teacher will help more than I can, what works for me won't necessarily work for you. My family has developed and refined their own techniques over generations. It’s focused on further developing my resonance with the thermal energies. Even still, I will have to adapt it to suit my own style. But that is something we all will continue to work on as we keep progressing.”

  They arrived at the classroom door, just as he finished speaking. He palmed it open and swanned into the room with a boisterous, “I have arrived, my dear lady.”

  A long-suffering sigh could be heard in response. “Take a seat Gallagher, and try not to disturb the other students.” Perry winked at Theo as he moved further into the room before taking one of the meditation mats towards the back.

  Theo was left standing at the front of the room waiting patiently for Jo to get to her feet and make her way over. The room was set up similarly to a Japanese dojo, with wooden flooring and large wooden support poles around the edges of the room. Seemingly natural light filtered in through paper screens, giving the space a well-lit, airy feel. Besides Perry, there were only a handful of other students in the room, all of whom had already settled down into their own meditation.

  Theo turned to Jo, who had a warm smile for him as she beckoned him in. Caught up as he had been the first time they had met, he hadn’t paid much attention to her appearance. She had a lightly weathered face, with bright brown eyes that matched her hair. As before, she emanated a peaceful air, and her soothing voice helped to settle Theo’s nerves.

  “Welcome, Theo. It’s nice to see you again. I’ll be helping you to develop your cultivation, as well as giving some instruction on the basics of aether control and aetheric progression. Take a seat towards the front, and I’ll be right with you. As you can see, there are not that many students in the class, so I will be able to get you up to speed in no time.” She guided Theo further into the room, settling down on one of the meditation mats towards the front of the room.

  “If you pull up your class schedule, there should be a link to some basic breathing exercises, if you could do the first one for me for the next ten minutes while I check in with the other students, I’ll get back to you after that. Just make sure you stay on the mat; there is a sound dampening array built into it that prevents the audio from disturbing the rest of the class. Once you sit on it, it attunes to you, so your voice will still be able to travel.”

  Theo did as Jo requested, pulling up the instructions. It was strange having the sound so audible, but clearly not disturbing anyone. Shrugging to himself, he settled into the exercise. He focused on his breath, paying attention to the pacing. Slowly, he felt his mind settle, becoming increasingly aware of each part of his body. He felt a tickle on the base of his foot, and fought not to focus on it. Bringing has attention back to his breath, he gradually let go of the distractions, letting them flow through his mind unchallenged. He was brought back to the room by a gentle clearing of Jo’s throat.

  “I can see you are picking up on meditation relatively quickly Theo. Have you practiced in the past?” she asked.

  “Only a little bit. We did some mindfulness training as part of my psych practice, and I have done a few basic courses. I tried it out for myself, but never put it into consistent practice.”

  “Understandable, most of us get so caught up in our lives that we often forget to slow down. I imagine you are feeling a little out of your depth given everything that has happened. Not to mention that you are probably full of questions given how much information has been thrown at you over the past week.”

  “That would be an understatement.” Despite this only being their second meeting, Theo felt incredibly comfortable with Jo, which surprised him. Her very presence seemed to encourage him to relax.

  “Well, as the class name would suggest, why don’t we start with the basics? Some of which you may have heard from your friends… or perhaps not.” He noticed her glance towards Perry with a frown.

  “There are three stages to corporeal cultivation, the body, the heart, and the mind – what we call the three gates. Each of those stages is split into nine tiers or substrata. You will learn more about the heart and mind gate as you progress further in your studies. As it is not likely to be something you will need to worry about for your first year, let’s just focus on the body for now.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “For the first gate, we have found there is little variation from person to person in the way it progresses, with the nine tiers following our baseline physiology. For example, substrata one focuses on the skin, two is the muscles, and three the bones. Each substratum corresponds with a different biological system and has a different impact on your physiology.” He nodded in response.

  “Passing through each substrata requires the cultivation of aether. That is what I will be helping you with in this class. I assume Patrick gave you a broad overview of what aether is?” She paused, continuing when he gave her confirmation. “Active cultivation is a skill, but not one that is universally learnable, or at least, so we have found to date. Meditation is the basis of cultivation. It is only in a state of calm that we are able to first get a sense for aether. Once you have done that, it becomes much easier to begin to actively manipulate it.

  “It can take some time to get it down pat, and you will slowly refine the process over time. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, your peers have been brought up with all of this as the norm, and so they are able to pick these basics up quickly. It will probably take you some time.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Theo was about to ask another question, when Jo was called by one of his fellow students.

  “Hold that thought, Theo,” Jo said as she stood. “There is a guided visualisation in the resources that will be helpful. It takes about ten minutes. I’ll be back once you have completed it.”

  Settling himself, he pulled up the recommended file. Closing his eyes, he settled his thoughts and focused on his breathing. The first few minutes of the meditation were just that, the slow counting of his breath set to calming ocean noises. Gradually, the sounds of the waves faded out and a soothing neutral voice began to speak.

  He lost himself to the visualisation. He had always found visualisations felt natural and came easily, though he knew that was not the case for everyone. The voice was pitched so that it was not intrusive, and he was able to follow the process of his body filling with the different shades of the light spectrum. As the violet light faded into white, he was directed to bring his mind’s eye to his core. He was momentarily confused, unsure what that meant, but was soon directed to picture a ball of energy just below his sternum. He felt it pulsing within, a golden warmth filtering through his body.

  “Well done, Theo,” Jo said, sitting back down with a smile. He opened his eyes when he heard her voice. “I can see the aether stirring within you.”

  “I feel light,” he said, still a little head floaty from the meditation.

  “That’s very normal.” He felt a little uncomfortable as he saw her scanning his body. “Forgive me Theo, I was just getting a sense for how the aether moves through you. I don’t think it will take you too long to get a grasp of the more active style of meditation, what we call cultivation.”

  “That’s reassuring,” he said, knuckling his thighs to help ground himself back into his body. “So, how fast do people usually progress through the gates? What’s the expected time frame for getting to the heart and mind gate?” Theo asked. “I’m a little anxious about being so far behind the others.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much, Theo. I imagine you will catch up soon. The first few tiers of the body realm move rather quickly. It slows down after that as the amount of aether required increases with each substratum. Only a few students will form the body gate in their first year. Most won’t do so until some way into their second year. The process of moving through the heart gate is a little bit different, and probably not worth confusing you with right now. Our expectations are easily achievable once you have picked up the art of cultivation, though each person’s pace varies significantly.”

  “So, does that mean I need to be at the mind gate by the end of the training?” Jo laughed at his question, though it was not unkind.

  “No Theo, there is no expectation for you to make it to the third gate whilst in your training phase. Not everyone manages to form the second gate, and most in the response teams are someone near the peak of the second gate. There are only a few masters that have passed the heart gate and entered the realm of the mind. The farthest progressed that I am aware of is in an elderly woman in China, who is at substrata eight of the mind realm. Sadly, it has been centuries since anyone has survived to form the mind gate.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Mostly it’s because people age faster than they can absorb aether. The general density of aether, even with boosts from anomalies, rarely allows for a quick enough progression in the later gates. Thankfully, we have noted that aether density has been slowly increasing over the past century, though we are uncertain as to why.”

  “What are anomalies?” Theo asked, having gotten stuck on the word.

  “Ahh, of course… the things we take for granted.” Jo laughed. “We’ll get into those further down the track, but very simply, they are portals that develop in areas of higher aether concentration. You will have a class on basic anomaly theory that will go into it in more detail. They are one source of aether, often in much greater densities than is readily available environmentally.

  “Getting back to our previous point though, I wouldn’t worry too much about your pace of progression. The limits set by the institute are designed to weed out those without motivation for personal growth, and are thus a relatively low bar to achieve.”

  “That’s reassuring. Pat kinda freaked me out a bit when he warned me about the culture in the institute. It seemed like there was going to be a bit of a class divide, and that I was going to be the lowest rung on the ladder.” He saw Jo grimace but she didn’t automatically deny what he said. He felt his gut drop, not that he should have been surprised. The walk through the lunch room had been clear enough already.

  “There are some tensions, as I am sure you have already noticed yourself. Though, the governing body of the Institute tries hard to ensure they don’t become enshrined in policy. This particular institute is centrally managed by the ARFO group, and is less influenced by family politics than some of the others may be.” She paused as she considered her next words.

  “There will inevitably be some elitism, and you may face some pressure because of the manner in which you were discovered, but your background will not come into play when it comes to your ability to pass through the training program. At least, not if you are putting in genuine effort. I should also emphasise, that whilst bloodlines and base genetics play a part in the ways in which your cultivation may develop, following your own path is by far more important. I believe your friend Perry is a prime example of that.”

  Theo laughed. “He definitely seems to be. You speak like you know him already, even though this is only the first week?”

  “Ahh, I apologise, Theo. I shouldn’t be so presumptuous, but his family is well known to the faculty, and his father sits on the Board of this Institute. I have taught his elder siblings in the past.” Theo nodded at her explanation before redirecting the conversation. As interesting as Perry’s family connections were, he had no intention of dwelling on potential drama.

  “So, to open the body gate, I first need to progress along the nine tiers of the body?”

  “Exactly.” Jo’s smile seemed to radiate warmth. “As I mentioned, the first substratum is to cultivate the skin, which helps to create a physical vessel that can better contain aether. The more completely this is done, the easier it is to prevent aether loss, and thus progress along the path of cultivation. An incomplete first tier can lead to aether leakage that will impede your future progress. The second substratum is muscle cultivation; this is the step that will most dramatically increase your physical strength. Most of your colleagues are at this level by now and are working towards substrata three which is absorbing aether into the bones.”

  “I’ve got some work to do then,” Theo observed.

  “Patrick showed me your initial testing results. You are not as far behind the others as you may think, though your absorption of aether is more diffuse. I’m guessing that once you get the basics of your cultivation technique down pat, you will catch up very quickly. The density of aether in your body was much higher than it should have been, which seems to indicate that you have found an intuitive method of holding on to it. Much more than we would expect of someone who has not progressed past the first tier.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” Theo asked, though the spike of anxiety he had felt seemed to settle.

  “Only time will tell. Either way, it is not something to be alarmed about.”

  “I have to ask, why do I feel so relaxed? Every time I feel a surge of anxiety it just disappears. I know Patrick is a bit indiscriminate with the pharmaceuticals, but do you push that shit through the vents or something?” Jo laughed at his comment, which she quickly quieted when the other students looked towards them.

  “Both Patrick and I are in the Siren Division. I am also at a much higher cultivation level than you. You probably don’t have a good sense yet for each of the Divisions, but Siren’s, as mythology would suggest, are focused on sound and vibration. A pure Siren is a support class. We can boost and enhance our team or make our enemies weaker.”

  Theo was fascinated, if not also a little alarmed by how much this was like a video game.

  “Sirens have significant benefits in teaching and liaison roles. We are often very skilled at emotional manipulation, in this case, being able to keep you feeling calm. Patrick is particularly adept at this. One of the reasons why I teach this class is that my control of aether allows me to sense how it moves through the body, so it is particularly good for assessing if someone's cultivation method is working.”

  “That makes a whole lot of sense,” Theo said. He quietly recalibrated some of his recent memories of Patrick.

  “You’ll get a clearer picture about each of the divisions over the coming weeks. For now, let's get back to developing your base methods. This will be something you continue to develop and adapt throughout your life. I’ll provide you with a guide, but I want you to listen to your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t push it. There is something within you that has already started on the cultivation path, and it would be remiss of me if I tried to force you onto a different one.” Theo pondered her words for the moment.

  “I am going to check in with the other students, and then I will get back to you, and we can start on developing your meditation and breathing techniques. For now, complete the other two breathing exercises that were in the induction, but pay particular attention to how they feel, and what seems to resonate with your body.”