The Ascendant Wizard

While Morena wanted to start right away when she got the vial of poison, she didn't. She waited until she had finished her work for the day, when the sun was slowly setting, before she did it.

She left the study and crossed the dim hallways to her room. The room was as she had left it, no one had entered it since; locking the door behind her, she walked in.

She made sure to also close the blinds, preventing even the moonlight from the night's sky from entering.

Setting down the set of vials, she took only one from it. Collecting as well a small clay cup, and a bowl of water; two things she needed for the process.

'Show me the details.'

With one prompt the AI moved and brought up a screen with all the notes and steps she needed to take; exact numbers, timings, things she should look out for, things she had to make sure didn't happen.

Everything, the AI had covered everything. That was the benefit of leaving it to run such a long simulation.

She sat and placed the items before her, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

'AI.'

[Listening.]

'Begin recording the process of cycle one, map the details for future observations and use.'

[Confirmed. Monitor will alert if heart rate exceeds projection.]

With the AI's confirmation she uncorked the vial and began; the sour and sharp scent of the mixture instantly spreading out from its unsealed top.

She poured the vial into the empty cup, slowly as to not splash the liquid; then she took the bowl of water and slowly poured it in. The process required her to mix the vial with clean water at a steady pace, allowing both to mix without overpowering each other.

As she poured, she watched the liquid turn from a dark black to a swirl of gray, and after about half of the bowl was empty, the AI notified her once more.

But she didn't even need it to tell her that it was enough; she had been keeping detailed track of it herself.

[Within safe microdose range. Proceed.]

She paused for a second once the liquid had been properly mixed, looking at the concoction before her.

'Now is the time to back down.'

She told herself, trying to figure out if she held any hesitation in her heart. Yet there was none; not even a hint that she might regret her choice later on.

'Screw it.'

The liquid touched her tongue and her mouth went cold before it went hot.

She swallowed a large gulp, then another, and finally all.

The burn slid down, it wasn't too painful, nothing she couldn't ignore, but it was there. Like a sensation she couldn't quite ignore.

She put the cup down and folded her hands into her lap, concentrating her focus and beginning to meditate.

Nothing at first.

Then a thin thread of heat lit somewhere low in her gut. At first it was mild, but then it began to spread outwards like cracks on glass; spreading throughout her entire body.

She could feel her skin prickling under the surface, her muscles tensing as the poison began to run wild. In an instant the energy in her body moved to try and prevent the spread, it wasn't something she did, it was a natural reaction.

She kept her eyes closed and pulled breaths in through the nose. She would count to five, then release them, a pattern meant to stimulate her body and energy as much as possible under the stress.

The heat quickly got worse. It wasn't like a slow bloom that spread, but rather raging flames that consumed everything around it, threatening to burn her entire body up.

She focused her attention on the nodes within her, making sure that energy was able to flow through them freely, and redirecting it to interact with the poison.

It was a difficult task, especially with the poison running wild; the pain coursing through her body, but it was required.

The veins on her body started to rise in such a way that anyone could see them, if they were looking that is. A blackish toxin leaking from her pores as the poison built under her skin.

But she kept on breathing, five seconds in, five seconds out; repeat.

When all the nodes in her body had begun to run on overdrive, that was when the pain got the worst. Like a thousand large ants biting her body all over, she could feel the poison within her.

With a jolt, her neck shot straight up in pain and blood leaked from her ears; her eyes darting around the room as her thoughts threatened to scatter.

But she didn't let them.

If she got distracted then all this would be for nothing.

She couldn't allow that, she couldn't afford to fail here. She took a deep breath, forcing it down along with the energy inside of her along her ribs, to the lowest node.

The heat and pain followed after it like an animal on a hunt; or rather, she moved the poison with the energy, circulating it throughout her body, through each and every letter that was carved inside of her.

She could feel the room tilt around her even with her eyes closed, her belly clenching as she tried her best not to throw up.

The poison worked as designed. It forced her body into a state of need, it harmed it just enough to force her energy to work overtime to prevent further harm. The letters received that panic and worked.

It ground the elemental energy inside of her down, further and further with each rotation through the letters. At first it wasn't noticeable in the slightest, but after the 50th, the 75th, the 159th, then she could tell the difference more and more.

The elemental energy was reduced, but the pain didn't increase, in fact it decreased. The density of the elemental energy itself seemingly changing, not quite like a Rank 1 Warrior, but not nothing either.

She didn't know when it happened, she didn't even know why it happened. Maybe it was the pain? Maybe it was the energy itself? Regardless of what caused it, her mind slipped.

Just slightly, but when she found herself in focus, she wasn't in the room anymore. Her vision thinned until the room narrowed to a lamp and a shadow under the table and then those were gone too.

Thankfully her body didn't stop the process she was doing before, it had become something akin to instinct.

With a blink she found herself standing in a small room with a simple bed, a simple desk, and walls so tight it couldn't be called a home. An apartment, one she knew.

It wasn't from this life, but her last.

A slightly cracked window where the sound of buzzing and the glow of streetlights bled in. A bowl with dried noodles sat on the counter beside a phone that had died and she never bothered to charge.

She could smell cheap soy, strong enough to make her jaw tighten. The laptop's blue light and the coffee stains on the desk.

The apartment door was open.

That was wrong; she never left her door open once in her life.

She took a step toward it and felt something shift, her mind blurring until the room around her warped. Now she stood in front of the door, hand already on the handle.

When she looked, it was not the hall outside her apartment. It was the corridor of the Ravenscroft estate, a band of lanterns guttering as if a breeze blew past them, yet there wasn't a hint of wind.

She felt her stomach suddenly turn and her mind buzzed; her eyes jolting open with a fit of coughs.

Looking around she found herself back in her room, her normal one. Her palms were sweaty, clothing soaking wet from a mixture of sweat and filth purged from her body.

"What was that..."

She huffed out in between short breaths.

It reminded her of the first time she messed with the letters, but it was shorter, much shorter, and this time it had incorporated memories of her past life. Ones that weren't important, mundane ones even she would overlook.

[Vial One Complete.]

The AI's notification reminded her that she had just completed the first vial, the first step of a seven-step process to achieve her goal.

If she couldn't handle this much, how could she handle six more? No, this was nothing, she could do more.

She would do more.