Page 71 of A Cage of Crystal

He’d kept his ethera aligned with his body for hours on end. At least, he assumed hours had passed. His ethera didn’t feel the passing of time the way his body had been able to. There were no hunger pangs, no bodily urges. His primary relationship to time now was his growing anxiety.

“Breathe, Teryn.” Emylia’s words made him want to clench his jaw, but the mild buzzing resistance his ethera generated lacked the satisfaction he was used to.

Which gave him no choice but to listen. To tune back in to the feel of his breath, the rush of his blood, the rhythmic pulse of his heart. Despite his irritation over Emylia’s constant reminders, she was right. The strength of his connection to his vitale—the one bodily sensation he could consistently feel—always calmed his nerves. With his soul lying in perfect harmony with his body’s shape, his spiritual heart-center aligned with his sternum, his ethera’s eyes aligned with his body’s eyes, his soul’s feet nestled within his body’s feet, he could almost pretend he was whole again.

“Good,” Emylia said. “You’re going to try some subtle muscular movements again.”

A spike of panic flared inside him. He’d tried to control small muscular movements already and failed miserably. According to Emylia, if he had any chance at reclaiming his body, he needed to not only strengthen his connection to his vitale but also to the thin thread that linked him to his cereba. The only reason he even had that tiny link was due to his connection to his vitale. While Morkai reigned over Teryn’s conscious movements, Teryn maintained a sliver that controlled his automatic functions like breathing, blinking, and swallowing. Emylia had surmised that if Teryn could intentionally create small movements related to these automatic functions, he could learn to control larger ones next.

He hadn’t managed so much as a flinch the first time he’d tried, which had resulted in him flying into a panicked rage and losing his connection to his vitale entirely.

“You must start small and be patient,” Emylia had said. “You will get there.”

That same anxiety filled him now—of being inside his body, yet unable to move it. He tuned back in to his breath, his pulse, his blood, and felt the panic melt away.

Emylia kept her voice slow and gentle. “Now shift your attention to what’s outside your body. Focus on the sensation of the blankets against your back. Feel the pillows cradling your head, brushing against your cheek.”

He followed along, noting the various levels of resistance generated between each object and his ethera. It didn’t feel quite the same as it should, but he tried not to dwell on that.

“Now focus on a single finger on your right hand,” Emylia said. “Pour all your attention there. Feel the pressure of your fingertip against the blankets. The connection between the finger and your hand. Then your hand to your arm. Arm to shoulder. Shoulder to neck. Neck to spine. Spine to mind. Then follow it back down to your finger.”

Teryn did as she said, following his awareness of each part of his body. Or was it just his ethera he was noting? He supposed it didn’t matter. Emylia moved him through the exercise again and again until he felt a strange hum in his ethera, filling the space he was focusing on, rippling from his mind to his fingertip.

“Good,” Emylia whispered. “Now send a single surge of awareness from your mind to your finger. Don’t try to figure out how. Just trust. This is an automatic function. A flinch. You maintain that link. You can send energy through that circuit. That’s all you’re doing now. Are you ready?”

He breathed in deeply, felt his lungs expand. Felt the resistance between his back and the mattress shift with the movement. Felt the subtle sway in the energy from his mind to his hand, then back to his mind. He settled his attention at the top of his head. Then, with a rush of single-minded intent, he sent his awareness down his neck, his arm, his hand, and into his finger. The energy echoed back his intent with a flinch of movement.

“You did it,” Emylia said, keeping her voice level despite the excitement it contained. “You moved your finger.

Teryn’s pulse quickened in response to his shock. He…did it. He finally managed to move something—

A sudden wave of energy tore through his chest, and he felt as if he were torn in two. He shifted his attention to his surroundings, to the bed in the dark bedroom, the pale morning light creeping in through the closed curtains. His eyes fell on his own back, upright and no longer aligned with his ethera. His body moved of its own accord—no, Morkai’s accord—glancing left and right, eyes blinking furiously.

This was the first time he’d witnessed his body being operated by Morkai, and it drained all the pride he’d felt in having made his finger flinch. What good was a damn flinch when Morkai could make his body sit? Stand. Walk. Talk.

Keeping his eyes on his now-awake form, he slowly shifted away from Morkai and slid from the bed. “You did great,” Emylia said, standing at his side. “We will practice again next time he rests.”

Teryn could only nod, eyes trained on Morkai.

The sorcerer ran a hand through his stolen body’s hair, then threw back the covers.

Before Emylia could chastise him for his growing anxiety, Teryn focused on the sensations of his vitale, reminding himself that his heart was still his own.Hisbreath kept his body alive.Hisblood pulsed through that body, even as Morkai made it walk across the room to the wardrobe.

“Does he know we’re here?” Teryn asked. “Can he see us? Hear us?”

“No,” Emylia said. “He’s fully immersed in operating your body. He has no awareness of the spiritual plane we stand in now.”

That gave him some relief.

“Now that he’s awake,” Emylia said, “you should rest your ethera. If you don’t rest it on purpose, your ethera will eventually give you no choice. It’s better you do so now so that you’ll be at your best when Morkai sleeps. You aren’t strong enough to wrest control of your body while he’s awake yet.”

Teryn debated the wisdom of her words, but he couldn’t stand the thought of resting while Morkai did devils-know-what in his body. “I want to see where he goes. What he does. I need to know what his plan is.”

Morkai stripped off his nightshirt, giving Teryn the first glimpse of the crystal. It was wrapped in a thin strip of leather and secured around his neck on a long cord, the crystal itself resting at his sternum.

“We know what his plan is,” Emylia said. “It’s the same as it’s always been. He intends to become the Morkaius of Lela.”

Teryn whipped his gaze to her. “Morkaius? What is a Morkaius?”

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