Quoted By:
You've been a mage long before you were a psion and when your psychic powers awakened and you were getting a handle on them, at first you weren't too impressed. They were weak, limited, restrictive, couldn't do half the things magic could. And admittedly part of the problem, as you eventually realized, was the first Path you fell into. But nevertheless, you persisted in learning to control them, because not doing so would've meant letting them control you.
Then, as your skill grew and you discovered new Paths, you realized the advantages psionics held over magic. They were precise and predictable where magic was temperamental and had to be guided rather than used. They could be subtle and covert, manifesting almost exclusively through natural phenomena, where magic was obvious and loud. And perhaps the most striking difference: to be a mage meant being chained to the living world, to functional biospheres with life abundant enough to generate mana. But to be a psion meant drawing upon Wyrd, the mysterious and still poorly understood force that nevertheless seemed to permeate the very foundational blocks of reality. A resource available anywhere, to anyone able to use it -- even within the otherwise cold and lifeless depths of the void between the stars.
You spend the next couple of days in meditation in the cargo hold, returning to the living space only to deal with biological necessities, to open Fia's comb lockbox for her, or to answer the occasional hail, such as the couple of bounty hunters, who professionally and politely request that you surrender to them. With equal politeness, you request they contact the <span class="mu-i">Astral Thorn</span> and shortly afterward watch them break off pursuit.
But when not otherwise occupied, you sit in the lotus position, mind empty of needless thoughts, allowing your consciousness to drift with the ebb and flow of cosmic energies.
Which sounds hokey as fuck when said out loud, but that's how you always visualized meditation: drifting gently on the surface of a vast, unknowable ocean. It is what it is.
The first time you emerge from a meditative state, you discover that Fia, true to her earlier warnings, has followed you into cargo and is sitting under the wall on a small pillow, tapping away on her PCU. But as you rise to your feet, stretching out stiffened muscles along the way, she gives you a decidedly odd, somewhat wary look.
"You were doing some spooky shit," she complains in response to your questioning gaze.
"What do you mean?" you tilt your head - and push some Wyrd into your eyes.
<span class="mu-s">[Expanded Vis Sense: 1 Wyrd spent]</span>
"I don't even know. Like... you'd be sitting there, but then suddenly you'd be gone. Not literally, but I'd have to look up and confirm that you haven't left. And then at other times, it's as if you were right next to me, all but shoving me into the wall."
"Interesting," did she... no, if there was Wyrd there, it has already faded away. It might simply be too early to tell.
(cont)
