A Blade Through Time: A Grimdark Progression Fantasy (Desolada Book 1) by Louis Kalman

Author:Louis Kalman [Kalman, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2022-09-19T14:00:00+00:00

18

RECURSION (II)

Unsure what to do while Felix rested at the table next to me, I waited.

A scarred man at a nearby table shaved with his knife. It was an unsettling sight—I could almost sense the thoughts whirling inside his head as he held the blade to his neck. After a long moment the blade continued, leaving a spot of blood along his throat. We made eye contact for a second. His grin was horrifying.

I decided that was enough interaction with my fellow prisoners.

Fortunately, none of them paid me much heed. I appreciated their silence. There was much to think about. So much had happened recently that I needed some time to center myself. I wanted to meditate, but clearing my mind seemed quite unlikely under these circumstances.

Instead, I reached for my power again, straining for a glimpse. For anything.

During my physical training the connection between my mind and muscles had improved. Before, I had never bothered to consider how every part interacted outside of some rudimentary interest in studying anatomy. Now I could sense specific muscle groups I had been unaware of before, a side effect of gaining a greater mastery over myself.

Similarly, what had started as a vague feeling of magic in the back of my mind had improved as I became more familiar with it. The shape of my power became clearer, more defined. So I did not search for my magic, not exactly. I looked for anything inside of me that may be related to it.

And there was something. Just a sensation, hard to pin down, in my general vicinity. I closed my eyes and turned my head like a hound locking onto a scent. When I opened them I was facing the Captain. Unsurprising. The demon would have powers of its own, perhaps even beyond its innate mastery of karma. Very useful to be able to sense other magical beings. Even if that meant they could also sense me.

I closed my eyes and continued to explore. Controlling my breathing helped, and though it had seemed impossible before, I found myself naturally drifting into the trance state of meditation. My awareness brushed around the area, forming an image of the surroundings in my mind. It stopped whenever it encountered the boundary of the tesseract, a tightly-woven net of silver threads that repulsed anything it touched.

At first, I wondered if I was experiencing some sort of astral projection, my spirit slipping from my body to view the immaterial plane. Supposedly some individuals could navigate through this mental realm, though it was rare among humans. More likely this was some sort of new sense, like a blind man gaining the ability to see. Maybe it was both, a concept greater than a single, narrow definition.

Then a hand clapped down on my shoulder.

My eyes snapped open. Vertigo washed over me at the sudden disorientation as I readjusted to my normal vision. Annoyed, I looked over to see Sensi looming over me. She held an amber-and-ivory cigarette holder, a curlicue of smoke drifting past her expressionless face.

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