The novice training hall hummed with channeled power.
Spencer sat in the observer's gallery, ostensibly watching the instruction as part of his "Talent study." Siuan had arranged the access — a guest examining how unusual abilities interact with channeling — and the arrangement served everyone's purposes. The novices had an audience that made them perform more carefully. Spencer had an excuse to watch One Power weaves being constructed in real time.
And Thread Sight recorded everything.
[Skill Archive: Recording. Category: One Power Weave — Healing (Basic). Status: Theoretical (Comprehension 0). Notes: Five-thread structure (Spirit-dominant, Water/Air support). Cannot reproduce — requires channeling ability. Value: Counter-strategy, recognition, advisory.]
The instructor — a Yellow Ajah sister named Chesmal — demonstrated a simple healing weave while novices attempted to copy her work. Through Thread Sight, the weave appeared as silver threads forming geometric patterns: Spirit as the primary structure, Water and Air woven through in supporting configurations.
It was beautiful. Intricate. Completely beyond Spencer's ability to reproduce.
But the knowledge of HOW it worked was invaluable.
If I understand healing weaves, I can advise others on their use. I can recognize when someone's being healed — or when they're being attacked with something disguised as healing.
Knowledge is the weapon. Even knowledge I can't directly use.
Spencer archived weave after weave through the morning session: basic healing, elementary fire manipulation, the foundations of ward construction. Each archive recorded the thread-structure, the power requirements, the theoretical principles. His Skill Archive was filling with channeling-adjacent knowledge that would never let him channel — but might let him survive channelers.
---
That evening, the accumulated EXP tipped Spencer past a threshold he'd been approaching for days.
[LEVEL UP: Level 10 achieved. Stat increases: PER +1 (now 20), ACU +1 (now 18), RES +1 (now 17). VIT +1 (now 14, Stamina max now 42). New unlock: Weave Intervention Tier 2 — Twist. Inventory expansion: +5 slots (total: 10).]
Spencer sat on his bed, feeling the change settle through his consciousness. Level 10 was a milestone — double digits, the first real step from survival-tier to strategic-tier abilities.
Twist. Not just a subtle push, like Nudge. Deliberate alteration. I can change a thread's direction, strengthen a connection, redirect someone's path.
The difference between suggestion and command.
He needed to test it.
The candle on his desk burned with ordinary yellow flame. Spencer focused on its thread — the small, bright signature of fire doing what fire does — and reached with the new ability.
Twist.
The flame shifted. Yellow became blue, burning cooler and stranger, casting unfamiliar shadows across the room. Spencer held the alteration for three seconds, feeling the Codex Stamina drain — 12 points, significant but sustainable — then released.
The flame returned to yellow, flickering slightly as if confused by what had happened.
[Weave Intervention: Twist test successful. Target: candle flame thread. Duration: 3 seconds. Cost: 12 Stamina. Notes: First non-practice Twist. Reality responded to deliberate alteration.]
Spencer stared at the candle and grinned.
Blue fire. I made blue fire.
Not for any tactical reason. Not because I needed to. Just because I could.
For a moment, he wasn't a hunted transmigrator playing dangerous games with Aes Sedai. He wasn't a carpenter carrying secrets that would get him killed. He was a man who had just changed the color of a flame by wanting it to change.
This is what power feels like. Not the weight of it. The wonder.
---
The inventory expansion was equally valuable.
Spencer spent an hour reorganizing his Codex storage: the pure saidin sample remained in slot one, irreplaceable and secret. Slots two through four held the provisions and supplies that had served him since Caemlyn. The new slots opened possibilities.
[Codex Inventory — Updated]
· Slot 1: Pure Saidin Sample (Eye of the World)
· Slot 2: Rope (50ft), flint, steel
· Slot 3: Medical supplies (bandages, needle, thread)
· Slot 4: Dried provisions (3 days)
· Slot 5: Spare knife (borrowed from Tower armory)
· Slot 6: Tower library book — "Channeling Theory Vol. III"
· Slot 7: Detailed Tower map (hand-drawn by Spencer)
· Slot 8: Clean clothing (traveling set)
· Slot 9: Empty
· Slot 10: Empty
Six slots occupied, four free. The Inventory was becoming a genuine strategic resource — supplies and intelligence stored in a dimension no one else could access.
And when I need something quickly — a weapon, a reference, an escape route — I can reach for it without anyone seeing where it came from.
Spencer extinguished the candle between his fingers, feeling the small burn of real fire against real skin. The ache grounded him, reminded him that power had costs.
Tomorrow I test the Twist on something that matters. A Black Ajah sister's schedule, maybe. Redirect her path to isolate her for observation.
But tonight, I earned this moment. Blue fire and wonder.
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