"Look!" Mara pointed, wincing through a bloody nose as her silver mana settled. She cut off the flow and both her and Zhu settled on the ground leaning on each other.
The immense floral structure began to condense. The giant petals didn't drop; they liquified into streams of solid violet mana, pulling inward toward a central axis. Long, serpentine vines cracked like stone as they snapped together, fusing into a dense, bone-like core that slowly lengthened into two pale, elegant legs.
The pulsing bulb shifted upward. Broad shoulders broke through the shell of light, followed by slender arms. The thick petals reformed into fluid, sweeping robes that draped smoothly over a rising torso, the fabric woven from woven stems and translucent violet silk.
Finally, the glowing core condensed at the neck. Features sharpened out of pure, pale-violet light, smoothing into porcelain skin. Long, dark hair—dark as the void, but shimmering with subtle veins of iridescent silver—cascaded down a broad back.
The towering flower was gone. In its place suspended above the empty spring was a tall, ethereal male figure. The petals of the flower wrapped around his figure becoming robes that swayed gently in the non existent wind.
He slowly lowered his feet onto the stone courtyard floor. The moment his bare soles touched the carved runes, a gentle ripple of blue and violet light washed across the ground, soothing the shattered earth and mending the cracks Herkid had fought so hard to defend.
The figure stood motionless for a long moment, adjusting to the weight of physical form, the concept of gravity, and the rush of cool night air.
Slowly, his eyes opened.
They were a striking, luminescent violet, encircled by a thin ring of gold at the center—a quiet, permanent mark of the lotus spirit sharing his mind.
Faral looked down at his long, elegant fingers. He flexed them slowly, watching light ripple under his skin like liquid glass.
"A body..." Faral murmured aloud. His voice was no longer just an echo in Zhu's mind, but a deep, resonant timbre that carried through the open air.
Zhu exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, squinting her eyes with a huge grin. "Well, look at you, Mr. Stinky Fart. You actually have legs."
A subtle, amused smile touched Faral's lips as he tilted his head toward her. Within his golden-ringed eyes, a tiny, joyous pulse of violet light flickered—the lotus spirit wiggling in sheer delight at its very first look at the real sky.
Herkid stared. "It worked..."
A moment of silence passed before Faral laughed.
Actually laughed. A quiet, warm sound none of them had ever heard before.
"Yes."
The sanctuary fell quiet as the lingering violet-and-gold light of the completed array ritual settled into the stone tiles. Faral stood adjusting to his newly manifested physical form, flexing his long fingers, while Mara applied a small cloth to her nose to stem the bleeding.
Nearby, a soft rustling sounded from behind a shattered pillar. Two small, shadow-draped forms crept out, their ears pinned flat and their glowing violet eyes wide with lingering alarm.
Rose and Thorn, Zhu's twin Nyxari cubs, had hidden away during the chaotic battle of mana and vines. Now that the noise had subsided, they tiptoed across the cracked court, sniff-testing the air cautious of Faral's unfamiliar silhouette.
"Hey, little ones," Zhu said softly, dropping to her knees and extending her hands. They were usually attached to her body in tattoo form but for today she asked them to stay back as they drain her energy and it would make the process more difficult for her to keep the mental path open.
Thorn, the bolder of the two, let out a tiny, chittering growl before darting forward, shoving her head straight into Zhu's palm. Rose followed a second later, his pitch-black fur rippling like liquid ink as she scrambled up Zhu's lap, whining softly and nosing at Zhu's cheek to make sure her human was unhurt.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Zhu giggled, burying her face in Rose's silky fluff. "You guys were super brave."
They are unusually sensitive to spiritual fluctuations, Faral noted, his deep, newly physical voice vibrating through the quiet court. The lotus within him flickered its golden eye beneath his irises, watching the shadow cubs with sudden, intense curiosity. Nyxari creatures naturally dwell on the thin boundary between the physical and the ethereal. They can feel the lingering doorway to your mindscape.
As if proving his point, Rose stopped nuzzling Zhu and froze. He sniffed deeply at the faint, shimmering thread of silver-and-gold mana still trailing from Zhu's chest—the residual pathway to the mental plane. Thorn perked up too, her tail whipping in rhythmic curiosity.
Rose let out a sharp yip, batted at the shimmering thread with a tiny shadowy paw, and pushed his forehead firmly against Zhu's sternum.
A sudden, unexpected pulse of shadowy mana flared from the cubs.
"Wait—" Herkid started, leaning forward. "Zhu, what are they doing?"
Before anyone could answer, the residual pathway flared. The Nyxari cubs' physical bodies didn't collapse into sleep like a human's would; instead, their shadow-like coats dissolved into dark, wispy smoke that flowed directly into the glowing nexus at Zhu's heart.
"Whoa!" Zhu gasped, her eyes going wide as her own consciousness was lightly tugged backward.
Inside the mindscape, the sky was calm, bathed in soft blue twilight.
Zhu opened her eyes to find herself back on the vast expanse of lush green grass. Beside her, two dark clouds of shadow mist materialized, swirling before snapping into the solid forms of Rose and Thorn.
The cubs stumbled slightly on the soft grass, looking around in utter bewilderment.
Thorn let out a bewildered squeak. She bounced once, testing the ground, then sank his tiny claws into the soil. When she pulled back, the grass sprang right back up, completely unblemished. She tilted her head, let out a confused mew, and began running in hyperactive circles around Zhu's feet.
Rose, meanwhile, looked up at the sky—where rivers of sky-blue light and pale silver clouds drifted in silent majesty. He sat down, his jaw dropping open in a tiny kitten gape, his tail thumping rhythmic beats against the ground.
"You guys actually forced your way in?" Zhu laughed, dropping onto her backside on the grass.
New!
A joyful voice echoed through the space. A gentle burst of violet-and-golden light condensed beside them, and a miniature, ethereal version of the lotus spirit drifted down from the sky. It floated right in front of Thorn, its single golden eye blinking happily.
Small! the lotus cheered. Shadow fluff!
Zhu blinked, why was this little plant still in her mental world?
Thorn puffed up her fur, her ears dropping into defensive "airplane mode" as she stared down the floating magical flower. She let out her fiercest, tiny Nyxari roar—which sounded remarkably like a squeaky toy being violently squeezed.
The lotus bobbed up and down in pure delight. Angry fluff! Cute!
A tiny vine extended from the lotus, gently booping Thorn right on her dark nose. Thorn sneezed, batted wildly at the vine, and immediately began pouncing on it as if it were a string.
Rose bounded over to join the fun, tackling his brother into the soft grass as the lotus giggled in echoing, chime-like tones, floating low so both cubs could chase its glowing tendrils across the endless field.
Zhu leaned back on her elbows, watching the chaotic trio tumble across her mind. Since it didn't seem to hurt her she didn't try to get rid of it from her mental world.
Faral's spiritual projection materialized beside her, gazing down at the playing cubs with a quiet, rare tranquility.
"It seems your mindscape is becoming quite lively," Faral remarked, though his tone held no annoyance.
"Yeah," Zhu smiled, watching Thorn finally catch a glowing lotus vine and chew on it contentedly while Rose curled into a ball on a patch of sunny mind-grass. "I think they like it here."
The lotus floated up, hovering above Zhu's head while the two exhausted cubs curled up against her side, their shadowy fur merging seamlessly with the quiet peace of her inner world.
Friends, the lotus chimed softly.
"Yeah," Zhu whispered, resting her hands on her sleeping cubs. "Friends."
Then she looked at the projection of Faral who came without authorization into her metal world. She narrowed her eyes, "How did you get in here?"