Chapter 32: Spirit Vision

Chapter Thirty-Two
Spirit Vision

Klein looked at the dark-blue viscous liquid—something difficult to say whether it was a cup of drink or a solid lump—and swallowed with some effort.

“Do I just drink it like this?”

“No additional preparation? A ritual, an incantation, or a prayer?”

Old Neil gave an “uh,” then said, “Preparation? There is some. First, have a glass of Intis Olmir wine. Then smoke a Desi cigar. After that, hum a melodious tune and perform a light court dance. Tap dance is also acceptable if that is what you prefer. Finally, play a round of Gwent…”

Seeing Klein’s expression become more and more blank, Old Neil smiled and summed up everything he had just said.

“If you feel nervous.”

…You have quite the sense of humor…

The corner of Klein’s mouth twitched twice. He suppressed the impulse to draw his gun.

He set his cane aside, stretched out his right hand, and lifted the opaque cup as though it were a heavy object. The potion’s smell was faint and light, illusory to the point of seeming absent.

“Young man, do not hesitate. The more you hesitate, the more nervous you become. The more nervous and afraid you are, the more it will affect your absorption afterward,” Old Neil said casually, his back to Klein.

At some point he had gone to the sink nearby. He twisted open the tap and began washing his hands with a loud rush of water.

Klein nodded silently and inhaled deeply. Like a child pinching his nose before swallowing bitter medicine, he brought the opaque cup to his lips, tilted his head back, and gulped it down.

A cool, slick sensation rapidly filled his mouth. Then it slid down his throat, along his esophagus, and into his stomach.

The thick, dark-blue liquid seemed to grow thin, long tentacles. Cold and stimulation drilled instantly into every cell of his body.

He began twitching beyond his control. His vision swiftly blurred. Every color deepened. Red became redder, blue bluer, black blacker. Rich blocks of color crowded together at random, like an oil painting splashed across canvas by an Impressionist master.

Klein had experienced a similar scene before, during Daly the Spirit Medium’s questioning.

At this moment, his sight was indistinct, and his thoughts drifted yet remained clear, like a shipwreck survivor floating upon the sea.

Gradually, he saw the surroundings more clearly. All the colors overlapped one another in distinct layers. Gray, illusory mist hung faintly in the air.

Around him were things whose shapes could hardly be described, nearly transparent, almost as if they did not exist. In the depths, pure streams of light in different colors shone one after another. Those lights seemed alive, or else seemed to contain infinite knowledge.

This is starting to resemble what I saw during the luck-changing ritual…

Klein instinctively looked down and found that “he” was still standing where he had been, his body twitching again and again.

All at once, understanding struck him. His consciousness sank abruptly, fusing with his body.

Boom!

The mist scattered at high speed. The blocks of color returned to normal at the same instant. The clear lights and the nearly nonexistent things vanished in the blink of an eye.

The alchemy room returned to ordinary appearance, but Klein felt his head swelling, as if it might be stretched open and split. Everything he looked at bore countless overlapping afterimages. Beside his ears, faint whispers of unknown origin drifted in from nowhere.

“Hornacis… Flegrea… Hornacis… Flegrea… Hornacis… Flegrea…”

Pain stabbed at Klein’s forehead. His heart rapidly filled with an impulse to vent, to destroy.

He frowned and shook his head several times.

“Is your vision abnormal? And are you hearing sounds you could not hear before?” Old Neil asked with a smile from the side.

“Yes, Mr. Neil. What should I do?” Klein endured the fierce agitation and asked.

Old Neil chuckled.

“That is because the potion’s power is overflowing, and you lack a method of controlling it. Good. Do as I say. Imagine an object in your mind. Something common, simple, easy.”

Klein gathered his attention and sketched the black silk half-top hat in his mind. He thought of the feeling of rubbing it, of its exact shape.

“Place all your attention on it. Repeat it again and again, outline it again and again. Do you feel better?” Old Neil’s voice pierced through, like a song to soothe the soul.

Klein transferred his attention, bit by bit, onto the imagined silk hat. The whispers beside his ears gradually grew quieter until they vanished. The overlapping images before his eyes slowly merged, no longer blurred.

“Much better.”

Klein calmed the chaotic feelings in his heart and exhaled.

He lowered his head and looked at his body, finding nothing abnormal.

Moving his hands and feet again, he asked half expectantly, half doubtfully, “Did I succeed? Am I a Seer now?”

Old Neil took a silvered mirror from the side and brought it before him.

“Look at your eyes.”

Klein focused on the mirror. He saw himself wearing a black top hat, with deeper contours and ordinary features. Aside from the sweat covering his face, he did not seem any different from before.

Following Old Neil’s reminder, he looked carefully at his eyes. Only then did he discover that his originally brown irises had darkened considerably—so deep they seemed like a lightless night, so deep they appeared capable of absorbing another person’s soul.

Under normal circumstances, dark-brown eyes were easily mistaken for black. Without close inspection, even Klein himself might not have noticed.

“This is the external manifestation of the potion’s power. Once you learn meditation and know how to restrain it, your eyes will return to normal.”

Old Neil smiled and extended his right hand.

“Congratulations, new Beyonder. Our Seer.”

“Thank you.”

Klein reached out and shook his hand.

“Mr. Neil, when can I learn meditation?”

“Right now. Elementary meditation is quite simple, especially for Beyonders.”

Old Neil smiled.

“When you imagined an object in your mind to shift your attention and restrain the overflowing power, that was in fact the first step of meditation. Do it again.”

Klein closed his eyes and once more outlined the black silk half-top hat in his mind.

His attention seemed easier to concentrate than before. Very quickly, stray thoughts arose, then fell away one after another, leaving only the hat he had sketched.

“Let your mind become slightly empty. Then replace the object you have outlined with something that does not exist in this world, something born entirely from your imagination.

“You must obey this rule. Only then can you enter meditation. Only then can you gradually become one with the transcendent ‘I,’ the infinite ‘I,’ the cosmic ‘I,’ and receive insight and revelation regarding truth, gaining knowledge only you yourself can understand. In mysticism, this is called a ‘mystical experience.’”

Old Neil’s voice was gentle, meant to calm.

“As for that later description, you only need to hear it for now. At present, the most important thing is entering meditation.”

Something that does not exist in this world, created entirely from imagination… Does something from Earth count?

Klein tried replacing the black half-top hat with the long, thick, olive-green intercontinental ballistic missile he had seen on television.

But no matter how he outlined it, how he imagined it, it merely made his attention more concentrated.

Looks like that does not work…

Klein had no choice but to exert his imagination. He sketched a ball of light, then many similar objects, and gradually gathered them together.

The balls of light overlapped, full of a fantastical flavor. Klein’s thoughts slowly emptied and began to drift.

His body and mind quieted. The illusory gray fog mixed with blocks of color, full of nearly nonexistent objects and pure lights, appeared once more. They floated silently in the sky, as if within reach.

His spirituality extended bit by bit, unfolded inch by inch. Klein quietly looked down upon it, felt it, and gathered it.

“Very good. Worthy of being a Seer. You entered meditation very smoothly, only a little worse than I did back then. Just a tiny bit.”

Old Neil chuckled.

“In that case, I will begin teaching you the most commonly used, easiest to master, and most promising ability in the mysterious domain: spirit vision!”

He turned off the gas lamps one by one, but opened the hidden door of the alchemy room. The place around Klein became exceptionally dim, yet not so dark that he could not see the outlines of objects.

“Good. Continue in your present state. Raise your hands and place them before your eyes. Point your index fingers toward each other, but do not let them touch.

“Open your eyes and wait until they adapt to the darkness.”

Following Old Neil’s instructions, Klein completed each step. He saw his opposite fingers and the outlines of nearby objects.

“Normally, you should lie down and let your body relax completely. But since your meditation is working well, let us continue.”

Old Neil gave a soft laugh.

“Place the focus of your vision behind your hands. It must be behind them. Then slowly move your fingers. Keep them pointed toward each other without touching, and do not let them leave your field of view.”

Klein listened calmly. He fixed his gaze on the empty space behind his hands and slowly moved the two index fingers within his vision.

Once. Twice. Three times…

All of a sudden, Klein saw a point of fiery red between his fingers.

“Huh…”

He could not help making a sound.

“You see color? Not bad. This is the initial stage of spirit vision. The color you see is your own aura.”

Old Neil laughed.

“Do not rush. Repeat it a few more times and stabilize it. After that, look elsewhere. I will take this opportunity to explain the meanings of different colors.”

“All right.”

Klein moved his fingers back and forth, concentrating on the dot of fiery red.

Old Neil thought for a moment, then said, “To put it simply, the mainstream fields of mysticism divide every person’s nonphysical parts into four layers. The innermost core is called the Spirit Body, meaning the most fundamental spirituality of each person. The animist school believes every living being has spirituality and a Spirit Body.

“I am not clear about others, but for Mystery Pryers, the purpose of meditation—the method by which we improve our power—points toward the Spirit Body.

“Outside the Spirit Body lies the Astral Body. It is the method by which the former communicates with the spirit world and with the starry sky. It is the outward expression of the former, and it is directly related to your will and your current emotions. The scene you saw after taking the potion was what your Astral Body saw while wandering through the spirit world. That place does not obey the rules of the material world. It involves the transcendent ‘I,’ the infinite ‘I,’ the cosmic ‘I.’ Past, present, and future may all overlap there. That is the root of divination.

“In the spirit world, what you see are only images, only symbols. They must be interpreted before you can understand their concrete meaning.

“Divination, and many other forms of magic, are performed through the Astral Body.

“Do not confuse the relationship and difference between it and the Spirit Body.”

One is essence, the other is application…

Klein continued watching the aura at his fingertips and made a concise summary for himself.

“Farther outward is the Mind Body. Starting from here, it has a connection to the flesh. It involves the brain and represents the combined manifestation of your reasoning, thinking, insight, and ability to understand things. Some potions primarily enhance this, and quite a few spells target it.”

Old Neil explained in considerable detail.

“The outermost layer is the Ether Body. It is the manifestation of your life energy and physical condition.

“The aura colors you see are the external symbolic presentation of the Ether Body. In other words, with spirit vision, aside from directly seeing certain spirit bodies, ghosts, and wraiths—heh, perhaps including certain existences that should not be seen—you can also see other people’s Ether Bodies, or auras. Through their thickness, brightness, and colors, you can judge a person’s health and emotional state.

“When your spirit vision improves, and once you have mastered more mysticism knowledge, you will be able to discover even finer details. You can use them to judge the length of another person’s lifespan.

“Yes, I just mentioned emotional state, because the Astral Body also has a little outward expression. When your sequence rises and your spirit vision reaches a fairly strong level, you may even see another person’s Astral Body. Then you will know far more things. That is something Beyonders like Seers and Mystery Pryers can achieve.

“Some people even claim that spirit vision at its strongest can see anything anywhere, including the past and future. However, I do not quite believe that.”

That sounds rather amazing…

Klein nearly felt yearning rise in him.

Old Neil coughed once and continued.

“Let us return to the colors of the Ether Body, or aura. Areas involving movement, such as your hands and feet, will show red. The head and the surface of the brain will show purple. Areas related to excretion and detoxification will show orange. The digestive system corresponds to yellow. The heart and regulatory systems are surrounded by green. The throat and parts of the nervous system show blue. The body’s overall balance covers it in white. These are signs of health.

“Once they dim, or become thinner, or change color, it means there is a problem with the corresponding area. It is fatigued, or ill.

“In addition, the inner layer corresponding to the Astral Body displays the current emotion. Red means passion and excitement. Orange means warmth and satisfaction. Yellow means joy and extroversion. Green means peace and harmony. Blue means calm and thought. White means brightness and positivity. Dark colors mean melancholy, sorrow, and silence. Purple means spirituality has taken the lead, producing coldness and detachment…”

Klein silently memorized everything while stabilizing his initial spirit vision.

“All right. You may look at other things now.”

Old Neil did not explain further and nodded.

Klein slowly turned his head and looked toward Old Neil. As expected, he found auras of different colors and different thicknesses around him. The purple around his head was brightest; the red of his hands and feet was comparatively dim, and the overall white was somewhat thin.

As expected of someone old…

Klein muttered silently.

Only at that moment, seeing these things with his own eyes, did he truly feel that he had become a Beyonder.

I am a Beyonder!

He shifted his gaze and examined Old Neil carefully. But all of a sudden, he saw a pair of lashless, cold, emotionless, nearly transparent eyes in the empty darkness behind Old Neil.

Those almost illusory eyes were quietly watching Old Neil.

Watching him.

This…

Klein shuddered. His mouth opened, and the words escaped before he could stop them.

“There is a pair of eyes behind you!”

Old Neil froze for a moment. Then he forced out a smile.

“Do not mind it.”