Enlightenment II

After he was healed Will opened his eyes to get his bearing. However, instead of seeing the world as it normally looked, he saw a color spectrum of mana.

It felt like he was living in the Matrix but instead of numbers, he saw color.

Not only could he see the brown mana orbiting around him, but he also green particles for plants, and black particles for space.

Around the priestess, he saw blue particles of water. And around Sir. Perceval and Dracul saw red parties for fire.

Outside the cave he saw a rainbow of mana floating, falling everywhere. It was so beautiful.

Will blinked as a room swam into focus around him. When it settled down after a moment, he wondered why he was laying down on the floor.

"Why am I laying down?" Will asked.

"You collapsed!" the priestess replied.

"Has the world always looked like this?" Will asked. Seeing mana was like seeing the building blocks of nature.

Imagine a chemist being able to see elements or a physicist being able to see antimatter, that's the way Will felt about seeing mana moving around and orbiting him.

"Look at your nose, you fool!" chastised Sir. Perceval.

Will looked down at his nose, he could see himself breathing in and exhaling mana. It was as if he was seeing air. He saw white, blue, brown, green, and black particles entering and leaving this nose.

Shivers ran down his arms, and the sight brought a hundred different questions to his mind.

"Now, look at your arms," Sir. Perceval said leading Will's didactically.

Swallowing hard, Will looked at his hands and arms. He saw mana orbiting his arms like bracers and his.

"No, look harder boy. Look inside you," Sir. Perceval pushed harder.

He shuddered and looked at his arms and hands like he had X-ray vision.

But he couldn't see anything only his skin. Then he strained to look even harder, but all he could see was his skin and the orbiting mana. He strained his eyes until the bulge out without blinking, but nothing happened.

"Alas, it won't be today, it seems. Grow in power boy, then one day you might just learn to see the mana inside a person's body as we elder dragons do," Sir. Perceval said a disappointed.

Then Will feinted again.

Blinking, Will stood up and looked around. He was in an opulent room, there were caves or dragon insight.

"Nisha where are we," Will called out. But, Nisha did not respond. Will could feel his spiritual connection to her severed.

He looked around the room. The floor was black marble shot through with gold. The walls were covered with rich silk tapestries, showing various images of his life on Earth and on Terra.

Will saw pictures of both his wives looking rather splendid in their wedding gowns and pictures of his children. The far side of the large room was shrouded in darkness.

"Welcome home," the silken honeyed voice that had only spoken to him once flowed out of the darkness.

"You are growing powerful, and growing fast. Tomorrow, the gods shall meet and decide your fate. As your mother, I've come to see you just in case…just in case…just in case we lose!" the sweet maternal voice softly began to cry.

"Mother? You're my mother! If you're my mother let me see you!" Will demanded looking at the darkness.

Will looked down and noticed his clothing had changed. Now he was wearing an indigo robe with gold embroidery. He was also bulkier than he was in real life; not overly muscled like Marcus, but still far more than he currently was.

"Why am I dressed like this?" Will asked.

"The last time I saw you here, you were wearing this. It suits you well," the melodic voice replied.

"Why don't I remember you?" Will asked.

"Because it is not time. You serve a higher purpose. When the time is right, I'll be the first to greet you, my dear son! But for now, you need to wake up. Nisha is calling for you," the woman whispered her voice trailing away.

"WILL!" Nisha screamed telepathically.

"I'm fine. I just overexerted myself," Will said earnestly.

"Where did you go?" Sir. Perceval asked.

"I saw my mother—" Will was interrupted.

"That is enough! Do not mention the rest!" hissed Mother Tiamat in her draconic Loong form.

Will could tell she was angry but not at him. She looked upset with Sir. Perceval and Dracul.

"Will you and Nisha need to leave, Xing'er take them to the mines. I need to have a conversation with my children!" Mother Tiamat said with smoke plumes shooting out of her nostrils.

"Let's hurry," the priestess advised Will and Nisha.

Will tried to fight off the drowsiness that assailed him, to walk outside.

"Let me heal you some more," the priestess said casting restorative magic.

As they walked to the mines, Will looked at the world with what felt like new eyes.

"Priestess Xing, I noticed that Sir. Perceval and Dracul's mana felt similar like they were almost the same person," Will commented.

"Sir. Perceval's father was Lucifer and Mother Tiamat's eldest son. The gods' created us so our bloodline and souls are tied to an ancestor's attributes.

I assume you are the only terramancer in your Terran family because you share a different bloodline and ancestry than them. Bloodline magic can turn a small talent into potent magic.

Sir. Perceval and Dracul, for instance, are strong pyromancers because they inherited Lucifer's bloodline.

Their arrogant hot-blooded natures and contempt for rules are a part of their bloodline. This is why, even as a novice, Dracul could wield such unbelievable fire," the Priestess explained.

"So my magic is tied to my bloodline?"

"Indeed, dear one. Your mother's bloodline must be quite powerful terramancers?" Priestess Xing said rhetorically.

"On top of that, your soul has been tied to something even more primal than magic types. Your soul was not reborn on Terra by accident, but your soul was called here for a specific purpose," the Priestess said.

Will's eyes widened as he considered the possibilities of what Priestess Xing said. It made him think of what his mother's said about his purpose.

"Earlier someone said I was the second weakness fighter? What were they talking about?" Will asked.

"Oh, you heard that? Then I apologized, you should not have heard that. Only Mother Tiamat can tell you more. I have no desire to get on Mother's bad side," Priestess Xing shivered.

"But can tell you this, your mother loves you very much. She has suffered more than most as a mother. And I'm sure it hurts her that she can't be around you," Priestess Xing said.

"That's a nice thought. But, I do like the fact that you dragons seem to know more about my life than me. It's frustrating. And, I also get the feeling you know some big secret about the future. I do not like the feeling of being dragged along in the dark!" Will said frustratedly.

They walked alongside each other in silence under a vendor that inadvertently cut the tension.

"Princess Xing'er take these," the vendor said handing her three skewers of meat. "These are on me."

After handing one skewer to Will and Nisha, the priestess handed three gold coins to the man and said, "Don't worry about it. My friends enjoyed it, so I will pay for it. You can keep the change as well."

"Thank you very much, Priestess Xing!" The man gladly accepted the gold coins.

After eating the skewers for a few minutes, Will asked, "What are spirit stones used for?"

"Spirit stones are gems and can help increase your magically cultivation. I know you humans tend to use herbs while sleeping to advance their cultivation. Think about spirit stones as a better option than herbs.

Dwarves and dragons are the only races that mine spirit stones to help increase our cultivation.

The cave in front of us, is actually where spirit stones can be mined. If a dragon needs more spirit stones, they can come to buy them in town.

This is one of the few areas forbidden to other races. But Mother Tiamat has given her permission for you to enter. I can show you the inside," the priestess said pointing to the gem mine.

"How much is a single spirit stone worth?" Will asked

"Ha-ha, Mother Tiamat said you ask that question. She has agreed to sell you one spirit stone for 10,000 gold and the price is nonnegotiable.

Although that may seem like a lot to us, for a wealthy Grandmaster, that's probably nothing, I could be wrong," the priestess joked.

"No, you're right. It's not much, I was just curious," Will said.

"However, if you purchase more than 100,000. Mother Tiamat said she'll give you a special blueprint cultivation room blueprint to help your family advance quickly," said the priestess upselling Will.

"What do you recommend?"

"Hundreds of spirit stones may be worth a lot in the hands of a Novice rank, but for a Grandmaster rank, they're worthless.

The rank determines the number of resources they need to improve their cultivation. For a Grandmaster or Sage anything less than tens of thousands of spirit stones if not hundreds of thousands of spirit stones is pointless," the priestess said.

"That's over a billion gold," Will sighed.

"Now you know why we dragons collect gold. Cultivation, even for dragons, is expensive!" the priestess comforted.