Ascension of the elder

"Hi mum."

Hearing the voice of her son Maria looked up and smiled. Putting down her book and tea she said

"Come here darling let me have a look at you, you've been training for the last week and I missed you."

Coming to his mother Kyle was a bit nervous as there is always a connection between a mother and their child and he didn't know if his mother would pick up on anything unusual in his demeanour. But regardless Kyle walked forward and his mother took his hands while looking at him warmly.

"How are you dear, you seem a little nervous?"

When his mother took his hands Kyle's decided to use his soul sight to get an idea of his mother's strength. Looking into her spirit realm Kyle could see in her first level that two of the nodes and some of the connected sub-nodes in her head were active but not cleared as his were as they hadn't reached the saturation point where the nodes begin to clear themselves, this was probably due to the cultivation method his mother used which like his "Breath of Ares" only directed a tiny amount of energy in to the nodes. Wondering further down this line of thought Kyle began to gain a picture of why there were different paths and how people could walk down them. The paths would appear to be connected to which nodes were cleared and active during the first level as this would lay the foundation for later levels, but as always this would take time to prove or disprove.

While using his soul sight Kyle decided to look further into his mother's strength and so with a thought he dove deeper towards where the gate should be. When he arrived he saw something curious. The gate was opened but not fully, it was as if someone not strong enough had pushed open the gate but only enough to just squeeze through. Not thinking too much about this Kyle passed the gate to have a peek at the second level. Entering the neck level was as if someone had dimmed the lights. This realm seemed darker somehow but Kyle had a feeling this was more to do with him rather than where he was. In this area Kyle could see there were more nodes and sub-nodes but he was distracted by the main channel and didn't fully explore the surroundings.

The main channel in this area was different than in the first, looking back he could see energy pilling up at the gate but being unable to pass through due to gates only being partially open. As the energy trickled through the gate its nature appeared to change, growing stronger and wilder. This would appear to be what changes between levels as the energy passes the gate its fundamental form changes giving more power to the user, but as the energy passes through the first level to reach the second and the energy is only a trickle the user cannot fight at full strength for long.

Pulling his sight back Kyle readjusted his sight to look in his mothers eyes. While he was inspecting his mother's spirit realm less than a second had passed as the soul unfettered by the limitations of the physical brain can operate at a much faster pace.

Kyle decided to take a chance on this as his mother looked at him with a gaze filled with love and surprisingly a little guilt.

"Mum while I was training something unexpected happened and it doesn't seem related to anything from the warrior or mage paths so I think it may be related to the sorcerer's path."

Looking at him with curiosity his mother motioned for him to sit down.

"Please tell me what happened."

Looking around Kyle could see some servants around. As he didn't know who to trust Kyle looked pointedly at his mother then the surroundings. Realizing what he wanted Maria pulled out a small brass array from her purse which had been left on the table. Infusing some mana into it a bubble surrounded them which no sound could pass in or out of. This was an isolation barrier which can be used for meetings or private conversations.

Looking up Maria saw Kyle's maid Miranda was inside the barrier, looking at Kyle she asked

"Can she be trusted?"

Looking at Miranda, Kyle made a decision which would pay dividends in later years.

"I think so and it's not like I can hide this permanently."

Hearing her master's words Miranda stood a little straighter and moved a little closer to Kyle. Seeing this Maria smiled a little and thought 'looks like my little boy knows how to sway people'. Not thinking beyond this Kyle began to narrate what he thinks his mother should know and what he needs to keep her from getting suspicious.

"Okay to start with when I was training I had an unusual experience, when trying to breach the first level again I suffered from some backlash which caused me a great deal of pain but it seems to have awoken some kind of inner sight. I can visualize my cultivation and I noticed some things that I need to clarify."

When Maria heard that her baby boy had suffered pain from a backlash she looked at him with pity and her eyes clouded almost crying, but when she heard about the inner sight her mage background came to the forefront and her curiosity took charge.

"Wait inner sight and visualizing cultivation, can you explain what you mean fully."

"Well when I see my mana it appears to be a river flowing through my spirit realm while the bottleneck I'm trying to breakthrough appears to be a gate. I've also seen something which doesn't appear in any of the training manuals I've seen."

Her curiosity peaking Maria couldn't contain her excitement as something new within cultivation is something which hasn't happened in decade's maybe even centuries.

"Well speak up what else did you see."

Seeing her eagerness Kyle couldn't help but smile a little.

"Coming off the main channel there are several pools which I've called nodes and further off of these nodes are a greater number of smaller pools I call sub-nodes. These sub-nodes appear to connected to our physical bodies at various points while the nodes themselves while not physical reside in each should and both sides of the hip with another in the chest and the last three in our heads. The main channel is connected to the node in our chest allowing the mana to flow into us from there."

Hearing to this point Maria suddenly became quiet and her eyes drifted off while she thought about what she just heard. After a couple of minutes she turned her attention to her son again and began to tell him some details and theories she had heard previously.

"Well to start of your inner sight sounds like an upgraded version of what some of the most powerful sorcerers have, which they have termed a spiritual sense. My master had this sense as well and came up with some theories that what we know of cultivation only scratches the surface. This seems to validate what she believed."

Hearing this Kyle wanted to meet this elusive master but he knew she was currently in the Capital advising the Emperor.

"Mum there is more. This is the part I didn't want to get to the ears of the outsiders."

Hearing this Maria stopped her line of thinking and looked at Kyle seriously.

"I found that when I am in physical contact with someone else, I can see their spirit realm. By comparing my gate with Miranda's I can say that there is something strange with my gate. Miranda just needs time to accumulate enough mana to open her gate however my gate appeared to have chains barring me from opening it. These chains do not come from my body they have been somehow imposed on me from an external source. I don't know however if this source is an array or a poison. I also cannot tell who crippled me in this way, but it has to be someone close. This would be either a long standing servant or someone from our own family. That's why I'm happy with Miranda being my maid as she came to us after the fact.

Both Maria and Miranda were shocked by this revelation. Miranda could only think 'how can someone do this'. But Maria was much more direct with her anger

"IF I CATCH WHOEVER HURT MY SON I WILL FLAY THEM AND ROAST THEM ALIVE."