'Hmmm…' Karl closed his eyes.
'Hmmm…' Karl opened his eyes.
5 minutes passed with the repetition of this process when he finally lost it.
'THIS WON'T DO! Fuck why can't I sleep! Ain't I a child? No I don't care I was 28 years old. I am now a child! That's what matters! If I can't sleep this boon will turn into a curse for the next few years. Wait, is that how luck is trying to fuck with me! Giving me hope for a perfect future and suddenly killing me after I rot in this hell for a few years! Fuck I have to do something!'
Karl closed his eyes as if in deep focus.
'What I have to do is, first learn the language. I have to keep in mind the repetitive words and understand their meaning by comparing them and keeping in mind the expression of the one speaking.
This is easy but I can't do that if someone is not speaking. Where do I get my sample of words from at night! I can play with maids but after the party I don't think I can act more.
Ok so learning language is what I can do during the day when someone like mother is playing with me. I will have to play along and try to make them speak as much as possible.'
Karl nodded seriously which due to his childish face just looked like a kid dozing off in sleep.
'Next question is what do I do at night. I don't think I will be able to keep a 'work during day and sleep during night' schedule. I will just have to wake up till my body allows it and sleep is... also decided by my body. It feels like when I fell ill as a child. So what else can I do?.....
Wait, am I stupid?? It must be this childish brain! How could I forget about ether! Ether is an energy that is present everywhere in the air. The first step if I want to get stronger is to gather ether in the body! But first I will have to learn to sense ether.'
James straightened his hands towards the ceiling, his eyes still closed as he started-
'Wait, What do I have to do?' Karl thought trying to remember the novel.
'It was said in the novel that many geniuses like Karl learned to sense ether by themselves so it won't be too difficult. It was clearly said in the novel that ether is everywhere.
Then maybe I should try to feel ether through my skin, like air feels on my skin.'
As James focused on the air touching him, his face serene as if asleep, he could not feel a thing.
'Hmmm, what now?' Just as James was thinking what to do next he remembered. 'Oh yeah! Lungs! It was said at the start of the novel that people learn to sense ether as it enters in their body as they breathe.
Man what the hell is happening with me. I keep forgetting such basic things. For now lets try to feel ether inside me, around my lungs.'
James once again tried to feel something unknown and this time he did. He felt something… different.
'Bingo!' James exclaimed in his mind.
As James focused on that new feeling, he was able to understand it better.
It felt like something was entering his body with every breath. It was not like smoking or vaping, it had no temperature. It was just there, that was all he could sense.
As he kept his focus on the slight amount of ether he could feel around his lungs, trying to understand it better, time slipped by.
Karl suddenly felt a hand holding him which broke his concentration.
His first instinct was to move his hand towards the hand that held him, still not used to his eyesight.
'Habits die hard huh.'
Karl opened his eyes looking at his mother who was also looking at him with smile.
'Why at this time?' as Karl wondered and looked around the room, his eyes went towards the window, the sight shocking him.
'What the fuck! I have understood shit and its already morni-!'
Just as Karl was getting angry he felt all the power slip out of his body as laziness took over him and he fell asleep in his mother's embrace.
***
As Karl woke up, he saw the sun high up in the sky.
'I must have slept from morning till noon.' Karl thought looking around to see where he was.
He was now in a bed with his mother lying beside him, her hand over his stomach.
'So how much did I understand?' As Karl ransacked his brain to remember how much he had understood of ether, his mother feeling his movement, turned to look at him.
"H#&*@" she said as she patted Karl on the stomach.
'Those words must mean something like 'you are up?' or 'good morning'. Gotta keep paying attention to the language, but right now I wanna continue with ether.'
Karl thought as he closed his eyes again and started feeling the energy he was now all too familiar with.
'I can now sense ether anywhere inside my body if I focus and can also follow it as it comes inside my body. Though I can not feel it outside my body.
Another thing I became sure of, during ether search is that my brain is getting sluggish. I don't know why but I can feel the thinking speed becoming slower. I lose focus of my thoughts which makes me miss basic facts. Is this what it is like to be stupid?
If I have to make guesses then it might be because this body has a brain of a kid but I was thinking just fine till now. Well, I can just hope it gets normal. Nothing more I can do here.'
Karl put a stop on his thoughts and tried to know more about ether, ignoring the words his mother was speaking looking towards him.
***
'One week has passed since I first sensed ether. I can now control a bit of ether inside my body and can even sense it outside my body.
I made a breathing method in which I inhale and exhale heavily like a patient on ventilation. Not very cool but it works. Though it was only useful for learning to sense ether. It doesn't help in controlling ether.
At first breathing like that worried mom and others but after another check up by the same preacher, I guess, they thought it was some kind of sleeping habit. They probably forgot about it as I stopped doing it after a few days.
Overall, in the last week, I learned to sense ether easily both inside and around me and can control a bit of it inside my body. But what feels better is being able to understand others.
Ether practice becomes boring unlike the process of understanding a language by myself even though my speed of getting a feel of ether is a whole lot faster than my understanding of the language which I remembered was called Arhius in the novel.
One of the things I now know is that my mother's name is Ercia. I already knew my father's name from the novel, Kevin Hearth.
My granny's name is Martha. I am yet to know of this body's grandfather's name but I think I can live without knowing it. I have also not seen grandma and grandpa since the party so I think that they have left.
I have also come to understand a lot of words or at least gist of words. I now know whether one is wishing me good morning or good night, asking me how I am feeling or telling me to stop. Just those basic lines but they are a start.
My schedule is mostly playing with mother trying different things to ignite new emotions in mother and understanding the words associated with those emotions.
Sometimes maids take care of me but mostly it is mother. Maids don't get too friendly with me which is kind of my doing. They just change my clothes when I shit and giggle, give me a bath and feed me.
When some did try to act friendly with me, pulling my cheeks, I replied in kind with a loud cry, so they don't play with me anymore. When taking care of me they do talk to me which I try to understand but they know that I will cry if they touch me.
I do act friendly with one of the older maids though. Her name is Helda and she speaks a lot! I can take a bit of physical harassment if it means knowing more words of Arhius.
Talking with Helda turned out to be a good move as the other maids also started talking a lot which I gave my approval to with a smile. So now they talk a lot but don't touch me needlessly. Perfection if I say so.
My next plan is to understand Arhius better, at the level where I can understand each and every word the maids or my family speak, and also to learn to control ether freely, all by the next week.'