Acacia reveled in the run. The wind whipped at her long, honey hair in the cool morning as the two of them went through their normal routine. But this time, Acacia chose to enjoy what her friend had put together for her. They ran longer this day, with several stops for sprints. Acacia worked hard at combat training as well, feeling the staff become more natural to her now that she was comfortable with being embarrassed by Gelland's mastery of it.

At the mention of it, Gelland expounded on her experience. She was indeed a master of what she referred to as polearms. Her staff had a notch in it that was modular, meaning that she could attach any end she had at a moment's notice. Like a spearhead or hammer.

Gelland showed her an attachment that looked odd, yet familiar. It was a cross used for the war game, Hunt. It had a crook to catch and throw a ball made with water. It also had a beak at the end that Gelland had taped up, to not hurt anyone. Apparently her friend Cross was named after it. She made her own from a tree in the woods. Gelland told her they would be practicing running, throwing, and fighting with the cross from then on.

After an hour of fighting and showing off, Gelland tossed the ball of water to the ground. "So, I have something to tell you about me. I am not having you on, and I'm not lying. I hold a Versicolored Vein of Creation. I did not win it, like all others are. But it was given to me by The Master, Who, in turn, leads me to pass the powers on to others, for a time. That is what I did with you and that man. I gave you a piece of the power."]

She frowned, "You really are a Metamorph? I always thought the posters were more dramatic than was believable. There are only a handful in the entire country, and you're one of them?" I knew she was terrifying, I just didn't know how much. She could take on teams of people at once, how could I have ever stood a chance? "You keep throwing surprises at me one after another. What else are you, a princess?"

"No, I hope not," Gelland giggled. "That's not my style. I'm not cut out for the boring life of being doted on or swishing my dress so that another can show off how pretty I am. I like to whack stuff. Which includes you. Get ready, you're about to receive the power again. Are you alright with this?"

Acacia felt her aching, fatigued muscles and the welts that Gelland had already put on her. At this point she actually longed for the relief that power would grant, "I may have to limp back if I don't. But, I want it. Let's go!"

Acacia sprang forward with the staff, lit afire by the sudden blood rush. Her muscles bulged, and her pain disappeared. She jabbed outwards, distancing Gelland who tried to dance around her. Though she felt pain much less in this state, she needed to make it realistic. If she became used to barreling in with inhuman strength, what would she do when it wore off, leaving her exposed with a false sense of security?

Gelland slipped underneath her guard with an upward block, coming within inches from hitting Acacia's cheek with the butt of her staff. Acacia pushed back against her to keep her away, but with all of her strength it was jarring to feel herself be halted. Gelland was not touching Acacia's weapon, but instead a massive muscular arm formed from cords of the bright pink she'd seen in the blind man's eyes held her weapon at bay. Apparently taking advantage of her confusion, Gelland bashed the arm into her chest, sending her to the ground.

Acacia was picked up, held aloft more than ten feet in the air as she struggled against the constraint of the hand that was as big as she. Her smiling face, which showed her fangs on practice days, told Acacia that Gelland wasn't straining at all to lift her. Growling, she pried at the fingers, succeeding in pushing them slightly apart, noting the look of amusement in her partner's eyes. Acacia felt the strengthening effects end, immediately missing it, as she slumped over the hand, which clamped back around her. Though she was not exhausted, she knew it was best to give up.

Being let down, Acacia said, "I guess I really didn't win that earlier fight, did I?"

"I wouldn't say that. You took to it very naturally, and so I was surprised when you threw me around like that." The floating arm above Gelland's shoulder, which was much bigger than its user, receded. The cords spiraled backwards until they shaped a ship's wheel with five handles. It faded without a sound. Pink particles lingered for a moment before they too disappeared. "True, I have other tricks related to that power, but you definitely won that one."

"That's a relief," feeling a weight lift off of her. She didn't want to believe that Gelland had thrown the fight just to pity her.

"You will start training with that power from now on, as will I on your off days. Your off days will also become less frequent. The body gets stronger from regrowing tears in the muscles while exercising. If you work hard, the instant regrowth of them will decrease the amount of time that you need to get strong."

Acacia felt elated at that. Hopefully the training isn't nearly unbearable forever. I want to feel powerful. Yet, I don't want to look buff. I like my figure. But... she studied Gelland, she doesn't have that problem, so I might be safe.

They both sat down, Acacia having fetched her notebook. "This is the first lesson in Tethering: Aug. Do you know what it is?"

Acacia bobbed her head back and forth. "Somewhat."

"You could see it just now, in a physical form. You could feel it coursing through you. It is what coursed through that boulder that I broke through you. It is spiritual energy."

Acacia wrote furiously, many questions popping up in her mind. "What do you mean that you broke the rock?"

"I have many things that I don't understand about the Vein I was given. Notably, it's impossible to cause someone to cast your own signs. Furthermore, you can't use Densing other than the one you have. I apparently can cause others to both cast my signs, and... " she grimaced, "on accident I may have discovered that I can cause others to use their Densing in conjunction with my own. Maybe, that they can use the plasma transformation of their own if I will it. I was mad at you, but I didn't mean for that to happen."

"That's wild. And complicated. Just please ask me before you blow up a boulder in my face again, okay?" Scribbling in what she could of that, she said, "So what can I do with aug, or spiritual energy? Do I use it for everything?"

"Not everything is known about it. That's what it's been called for a long time, and lots of people have different interpretations of what spirit is. Some call it mental energy, some morale. But you use it for your plasma transformation and for most everything in Tethering. Aug is different from stamina. But just think of it as a different pool of stamina that you can draw from that helps you recover faster, the more you have."

"So..." she began, unsure of her own question, "aug is used for turning things into plasma. Does that mean fire is spiritual? Are the sun and stars spiritual energy?" [i]Just like the rumors were somewhat true about Hals walking safely in the dark, could they be essentially halos because they were actually related in some way to spiritual sources of energy like the stars?[/i]

Gelland paused for a minute. Then carefully said, "I don't think so. Fire is just fire. The sun is just the sun, I think."

Acacia sighed inwardly. [i]I thought I was onto something there.[/i]

"Next, you need to write down 'Four Studies: Summon, Trap, Ward, Attribute'. I had a friend named Cross who learned, from my father, to take images, enlarging them and doing other miscellaneous things. Attribution can't help you much in a fight, unless you had the time and materials beforehand to attach something like flames to a sword. Wards are what I intend to study next. They help you redirect objects and Spokes away from you or in your favor.

"I can't teach you, in depth, either of the latter two. My father would have been experienced enough to teach you all four, but I can teach you Summon or Trap Tethering. Except in the rarest of cases, you cannot create matter, only gather or call upon it. That's the gist of Summon. Call on a fire, and it comes, or out of a chip, and it appears. With Trap, you only have a few signs, and they do very specific things. But they can set a trap of a Spoke on a surface for someone to get caught in."

She got out a small, black puck. Most people had seen them, but not everyone had the expertise to use them. Acacia herself had never used one, but her adoptive parents had a couple they used infrequently. "With these, you can finger spell what you want to attach to the chip, and get it out later by using the sign you determined to call it. The name of it needs to vaguely resemble what it actually is, however, and you need to actually know the sign you called it in order to get it out. That's a reason why I, like most, like to put miscellaneous things into a bag and just use the sign 'Bag', with the intent of getting it out."

She gave the sign apparently for "Bag", and a backpack popped into existence on her back. "Normally it would go into your hand, but there are different kinds of chips that can perform different functions," she made another sign, what Acacia recognized as a variation of the letter "D", the bag disappearing.

"With Summoning, you pull from the Spokes around you. Or-"

"Sorry, what do you mean by 'Spokes'? You keep using that term," Acacia interjected.

"Ah, my fault," Gelland said, reaching for her notebook. She drew one large circle, then another inside of it. The inner circle she divided into four equal parts, Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma. The outer circle was divided into five segments. Out from each of the first three states of matter came a large line, which pierced the outer circle, and stuck out. But out of the Plasma part, located at the bottom, came two lines. Land, Water, Wind, Fire, Lightning. "This is called 'The Dual Wheel'. Made to be reminiscent of a ship's helm, it shows the five Spokes and how they line up with the four states of matter. When you cast, you can only use these five Spokes. You can shape them with your aug, and make them fly in different directions.

"So with Summoning, if you're around a stream with loose rocks near it, you can use the Call Water or Call Land signs in that order, and they will fly towards you, awaiting your next sign command. For any signing from a chip, you use two signs: the 'Name' sign, then 'Action' sign. For most Summon signings, you use those two, plus 'Call' at the beginning."

"Got it." [i]I don't get it! [/i]She thought, trying to keep the panic down, but she wrote down everything anyway. She had seen ships near the university down south, but never up close. All of this was news to her, and she fought off her jealousy of the girl, Gelland. Acacia had been so close to being part of things, but it was like an invisible barrier separated her from the world. Gelland had been the only one to fill her in on things she was missing. Most people knew about their Densing. Most, a rudimentary idea about chips. About ships. Not Acacia. Unbidden, she felt a stab of homesickness. No, this is why we left. Don't turn back to that, focus on what's here.

Apparently noting her confusion at the explanation, Gelland made two quick signs. She held her right hand above her head. Little pebbles and dust particles started to swim towards Gelland from all sides. They coalesced into a shifting glob about double the size of her hand. It swayed from side to side, freely. Then another sign. The glob stopped its sway, and contained itself in a firm ball.

Acacia looked at Gelland, who gave her a wink. A fourth sign. The mass above her hand began to violently shift in itself. The strands of particles moved in every direction, scraping against one another with loud clacks. Yet it maintained its sphere shape. Gelland waved at Acacia to get back. Then she threw it. It whirred and clacked, hurdling through the trees. Striking one, it exploded with a crack. Bits of bark tore off nearby trees, showering the grass. A single pebble rolled their way, stopping a few feet from Acacia's foot. Looking back, the one tree had been stripped clean of its rough skin in a tan spot of about a foot and a half. 

"Amazing..." Acacia breathed.

"That's just good science." Gelland said. She had made it seem effortless. But Acacia thought she glanced a shimmer of sweat of her forehead. They called a short break.

"This is something I doubt you and I will ever have, but there is an alternative to having to be near the Spoke you want to call."

"And what's that?"

"If you have the money, you can sign a contract with certain storage facilities, called Stockpiles, and their weapons and Spoke farms will be made available to you at any hour of the day. That includes a coffee that can help your ability to heal," Gelland gave the sign for Coffee. "...Which, I would personally love to have access to."

"All of that is available? I'm sure there's one in the city. How much does the contract cost?" she said, practicing the signs she was given.

"Too much for us to even think about getting. The man I killed in my hometown ran one of the largest in the country. For those who can afford it, the contract extends to their immediate biological relatives. Bloodforged parents and their children. They have to pay the fee again every year. Not worth it, to me. But it could come in handy... if say, you sign Call Fire, and there's no fire nearby, it would be called from the Stockpile automatically. Albeit, there is a slight delay. It's faster to use chips in that case."

Acacia pursed her lips. "Why do so many things revolve around families?"

"What do you mean?" Gelland said.

It wasn't something that was asked. One didn't deny the importance of family. Except for one who didn't have it. "Why hoard everything with your family? People keep stockpiles to themselves. What keeps them from being like you and your father? You both were Augmentors to people outside of your lineage. Would it be so bad to share the information?"

"You don't get it, Cay." Gelland said, folding her arms. "It's not about others being like us. Yes, naturally I want to cling to the power that 'belongs' to my family. So we're the same. We all want power in one way or another. The power to conserve, propel, change. Some things that my culture taught me, I want to justify as good because they serve my self interest."

She paused. "As far as what I had said about abilities, I think since going to war, the country has really relented with the hoarding of signs. They have to be shared through and for combat. Families might keep a list of signs and strategies for the Augments in private, but once they did them in public, it was free to use.

"Kolen said that melee combat is preferred above using an Augment, since others around you couldn't pick up on things. But if you were going to use it, make it very subtle or make a show. Many say that people should understand that it was you who did it. I'll show it to you, because I think it will profit you. But I've heard a lot of things from others that I wish they hadn't shared, and had kept their mouths shut. Not everything is worth sharing."

Acacia swallowed hard, and stuffed her response in her cheek. Next, Gelland taught her the Action signs. They were very difficult to get straight, especially remembering when to use Call and when not to. She then demonstrated what it would look like all together. Gelland made the Call Land signs, and once the jumble of rocks had assembled, floating above her hand, she made the Line sign. The rocks instantly flew straight out from her, striking the trunk of a tree, leaving a sizable dent as the stones plopped to the ground in a heap.

Acacia attempted the same. The rocks swirled above her hand, but when making the next sign, they tumbled to the ground. "It doesn't take any aug to have it rest in your hand, only with what you do from there." Gelland said. She tried again and again, reaching similar conclusions before finally getting it right. However, the rocks missed the trees completely. She huffed, feeling more mentally tired as the training went on. [i]That must be the aug leaving me. [/i]she thought, feeling she had a better grasp on the concept. 

After fifteen minutes, Acacia asked, "What happens if I expend all my aug? Would I die?" Her gaze drifted to some leaves that were rustling.

"Unlikely. You would lose consciousness before that happened. Let's end here for today." Gelland said.

It took her a moment to register that Gelland had spoken. "Thank goodness. I need to sit on all of this for a while. I guess I can see now why you saved it for last."

"Yeah, it's pretty complex. Also if I had started on this, you might not have had enough aug to make any signings. The training helped you build it up. Maybe I should have told you that before."

"It's... fine. You're the expert here," Acacia said.

"Take these two." She pulled out two chips, handing them to Acacia. "Keep them on you. As long as they're on your person, you can draw from them. One chip holds lightning, the other is fire. Don't waste them, there's only so much they can hold, and they may save your life. Lightning is also hard to collect. I'll show you how, another time."

Nodding, she put them into her bag.

"I also got you something else. In a week or so, your bracers will be ready. I know you have to still be somewhat upset about your arms. Well, I'm having some gold bracers specially made for you with their names on them."

"Gelland! That's crazy! You must have spent so much heap on that! You've already given me so much, why?"

"I learned that my Master gives freely, and gives good gifts. I am given to, and I will give what is not mine. Time, energy, money- I own none of it. Besides, think of them as congratulations- you're basically an Augmentor now."

She was elated. Of course, she wasn't a true Augmentor. She would pester Gelland for the rest of her secrets like she'd been promised. "Thanks, Sis! You're a crazy person, but I love you for it."

"I hope you like them! Let's go back together. I want to show you what I need done to that building, and then I need to go to work."