"I can't yet," he admitted, "but eventually, I hope." He considered an application of Morphing for the eager young Kelvic to see, but thought better of it and decided to be more careful with his energy spent. Syliras was safe, but he was working on an important magecrafting project for the knights and he had to keep his wits and power about him for the duration.
"I'll show you later, but I'm rather tired. Not too tired to teach you, but too tired to show you all my tricks." He grinned. "But there are a few minor shape changes I can manage. I can change my hands into those of a Symenestra, complete with claws. And I can do some minor things, like change the color of things: hair, eyes, skin. Changing my face is difficult, and I'm not very good at it, but I practice in front o fa mirror sometimes. But if I keep at it, I might manage to Morph my entire body into that of an animal. Why not a bird of prey? Would you really suggest a vulture?" he asked, chuckling. They were hardly the most charismatic of birds, but he had his race's abhorrence of carrion eaters.
"I've eaten," he promised as they sat and Ethan tucked into the food. "And food is part of the equation, but one needs to drink a lot of water, get rest, and all... Generally a healthy body will keep the aura healthy. You will probably have an instinctive awareness of your limits. Humans are the ones more prone to a lack of self-awareness."
He steepled his fingers, just watching Ethan eat for a while.
"It's not a favor, this food. It's just hospitality. You're my guest. But... well, there's an ecology to energy, and I'm giving you energy with this food, with my effort in teaching you, so it would behoove you to teach me to fly when the time comes, giving energy back. The flow of energy must keep moving in order for the world to balance. If you give too much and don't get back, you overgive and all sorts of bad things can come of that. If you take too much and don't release any back into the world, you will rot from the inside out. Leechers suffer from this problem, though in a very specific way."
They chit-chatted through the meal, and when Ethan was done, he asked about that for which he had come: Auristics.
"Normally Aurists focus on Sight, but you also seemed to Sense things without your eyes, so I think we might focus on that for now. The Auristics... It's not really sight or smell or any of those things. But whichever you choose to see it as, that's how the information seems to come across to you..."
As he explained, he turned Ethan's chair out, held the Kelvic's left hand out, and bade him shut his eyes. The left hand, generally the stronger receptor, hovered in the air as Hadrian brought his own slowly closer.
"Just try to breathe, try to relax, and be open to whatever impressions your mind might pick up. Don't grab them too tightly. Don't jump to any conclusions. Just observe... with your eyes still closed."
The first time, Ethan didn't seem to feel anything until Hadrian's own hand was close enough that what he felt was merely body heat. The second time, Hadrian was unconvinced that it was truly working. But he took several paces back and continued his slow advance.
"Tell me when you feel it and... tell me what colors it is. There's no wrong answer, really, because you will see auras differently from other people because you are different. Not just that you are a Kelvic, but because you are you." |