She heard him, Yuemarr, growing increasingly louder.

[Can you be quiet for a minute? Let me concentrate in peace, will you?! Can't you guess that I might be busy doing something important? Why are you chattering so much for-? You can just meditate and see me for yourself here—why don't you just do that instead of asking me to talk to you? It takes so much energy to make myself heard in your endless junkyard of thoughts! Don't you have any idea about your maze of a mind?] An angry voice sounded inside her head.

'Finally, he talks.' Wei Zhiruo felt herself losing all her unsettled fear in an instant. Her body eased up, the taut lines on her forehead settled down on their own and then her anger started bubbling up. Her eyes narrowed down into a slit, and her fist clenched hard. She would have thrown a few fists at someone's head right away, if only he was right in front of her at this moment!

"Say it again?! Chattering endlessly, am I? I wouldn't have to do that and also call you again and again like a senseless puppet if you replied to me even once! Otherwise how do you say, should I make it clear to myself that I am not just imagining things and talking alone to myself? Can't you just meow a meow, a little nyah would do to! Send me an image for god sake! Don’t tell me you are so busy that you cannot even spare a moment to reassure me? At least let me know that I am not losing my head or like I'm mad or something! Can't you do even that? I could at least make sure that you are not dead!" Wei Zhiruo retorted angrily. She felt her nose burning with an astringence, as did her throat, blocked with hard to swallow feelings.

[You wouldn't have to feel this way if you had the courage to come inside and see me. You just had to meditate. Meditate, okay? I am in your body —not too far away is that?] A slightly defensive voice replied.

"Good! Now I am a coward too! I haven't even started on your behavior today. Whole day - Marr. You left me alone for such a long time – and all this while I thought you were dead! At least you could have said something to let me be reassured! Just a notice like, 'Ama, I am still weak, I cannot talk to you right now, so let's meet later later' would have done. Is that hard? But you didn't even squeak! I checked my soul when I woke up this morning, you were nowhere Marr. What else would I have thought other than that you died and left me alone? Tell me, what should I make out of this behaviour?" Wei Zhiruo felt suffocated at this kind of first meeting. She didn't want to be so emotionally charged and out of control, but every word just stumbled out of her heart on its own. 

But Marr didn't seem to be aware of her overwhelmed state. Or even if he was, he clearly tarried away from making them apparent. As usual, he retorted, saying —[That I might be in a dormant state–? Did that thought ever cross your mind? But let's not argue right now — I told you I am busy! It's not an empty word. I am really, really busy right now! You are undergoing a late Awakening, for God's sake woman! Give us both some time to deal with this first, okay?] 

Marr's words finally distracted Wei Zhiruo enough to bottle up her frustration.

"What do you mean? Second Awakening?" Wei Zhiruo sniffed and asked.

[Yes. Our second Awakening. Like the one you had in your previous life when you turned five? You will see soon– let me do my things. But also— I need you in here, meditate and see inside and sort out these red-roots of mine. Don't keep mopping up all the time! Get busy.]

Wei Zhiruo raised one of her eyebrows but didn't reply. She said —

"I still don't feel that kind of tumultuous change inside me. Yuemarr? What do you mean we are going through another Awakening?"

[It's in your inner body —! Like I said, meditate and see for yourself. I am not talking to you right now - you lose your mind once you get frustrated. Did you hear me say 'meditate' even once? I am busy Ama. I'll come to you when you are in the right state of mind.]

Wei Zhiruo, sighed. She knew she was in the wrong. So she brushed away the rest of her anger and finally stopped brooding and got to work.

She spread her Spiritual Consciousness and looked down at her widespread palms using her Inner eyes, peering past its outer flesh, looking through its tendons, its muscles and bones. All its joints were as clear as was the red flowing liquid in those, fine thread like blood-vessels— her human blood running in a human body. 

She had learned what a healthy, fully functional human apparatus looked like. And her current body could hardly be called a healthy one. Dark elements were plaguing the blood vessels, as did some other sort of dark spots intermittently sticking to her spine. What they were she couldn't tell. But they felt pretty ominous.

Wei Zhiruo eyelashes fluttered, flapping in the white mist—just then, an owl hooted quite close by and flew over her head, hastily diving into the sea of fog. She looked up, breaking away from her trance, a little alarmed. Seeing that it was nothing but an owl lunging down on its prey, a wild mouse, she relaxed her stiffened nerves.

"There is no obvious modification in my biological systems — the heart, lungs and spleen, kidney and the guts, almost everything is working the best they can in my battered down condition. I am still, positively, a human. Even if it's a second Awakening, as you said, it can only be the first phase... I don't understand. Why now, Marr? Couldn't we have arranged for auxiliary herbs or other such things before plunging headfirst into this? This body cannot suffer the pain of a second Awakening right now."

[What do you think? Did I want this to happen to us? Of course not!] Marr couldn't help retorting defensively to this, sounding incensed. [You cannot blame me for something like this! No, no, no. You saw those Runes too right –? Yes, it's because of them. I was in my half-awakened state when I just started absorbing them and kept doing that without considering my limits. I wasn't awake, don't judge me. I imprinted quite a large amount in the end. Now I cannot control myself. It's either the Awakening or us getting a shock from excessive absorption of energy! So I chose Awakening. I am having a hard time too-all right? So please, help me sort this out, Ama. I am begging you, okay?] By the end he almost sounded like he was crying.

"You absorbed those Runes? Don't tell me you can do that? I always thought you just liked to absorb negative energy and those filthy miasma like stuff inside the Abyss — those dark elements. I don't know what to say… Marr, let's have a detailed conversation later – and you will tell me every other skill of yours that you've kept secret from me, alright? I know you think they are useless, but let's not be too sure okay?" 

Wei Zhiruo knew that if he had this ability, and never discussed it, it could only mean that he thought it was useless. But his idea of useful and useless might not always align with hers, right? Since this was the first such case, any future loss could at least be averted by knowing his abilities in detail. She will have to have this talk.

She hastily stopped herself from sidetracking, and pierced her palms with her nails. In a few minutes her human blood had almost dyed her palm red. She was going to use her blood as a medium to write down very low level Runes.

[Actually, I hardly knew I could do that! Believe me. Something seemed to have changed in my half awake state. But nevermind this. First, help me sort out these roots of mine– I can hardly see where I am going right now. I have infiltrated my roots all over your Inner body, and now it feels like a maze. It's just so overwhelming for me to do this all by myself. Even if it's the first phase, I am getting panicky with all the stuff lining up one after another! I feel like I am bursting out with energy and I cannot even halt this process!]

"I say, you deserve it. You could have given me a hint, but who told you to be a hero on your own?" Wei Zhiruo started drawing a Rune with her red palm, rubbing it against the rotten wood of the canoe. A circle, a few strokes to form a Rune of [Conceal]. At least this could give them some protection and privacy — even if they remained here in broad day-light, no one could find them behind this huge barrier.

[Tsk. It was too late when I woke up. By the time I understood what was happening it was too late.]

"How many Runes did you get? Did you make a copy of some of them and stored them away inside yourself? Don't tell me you did the thing you do with those books —copying an image of a normal book is very different from trying to imbibe a Rune, okay? You wouldn't have done that to yourself Marr? You would kill yourself doing something like that. Rune's are made of the purest form of energy, and those inside that overlapping space —those were virgin Runes! It needs to be mediated with other things like chains and links of comprehensive thought and understanding, even before one starts comprehending their essence! It's a tough task. What did you do?"

[I don't know —maybe I already made a copy or something. I cannot be sure of how many.]

She knew it. How could he have suddenly been pushed to this juncture if he hadn't done something irreversible? She rubbed her forehead and said —

"Don't be playful, Marr. Be factual. How many, give me a number. So I can prepare my mind. Are you going to explode?" Her mind was already exploding with worries.

[Would you believe it when I tell you that I unconsciously imprinted —locked their essence in my body —and almost all of them too? And...I think I copied the rest which I couldn't imprint? I don't know how I am even alive right now. Ahh -! We should be dead but aren't and now all those Rune's are sealed in your body somewhere and that place is completely foreign to me. The drop that imprinted everything is now sealed away in a certain mysterious part of your inner body, while taking along with itself that humongous Rune collection. I don't know whether to congratulate ourselves for this sheer stroke of luck or what…! Anyways, now I cannot call it back, or seal it up to alleviate our present situation. Now, I have told you the truth. Don't beat me to death.] Marr's frustrated voice almost felt like he was too numb to even cry anymore.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Zhiruo stifled the urge to pound someone's head flat and instead asked,"There is a place inside my body where you cannot reach with your roots? Why? Does it have something to do with the seal on my memory?"

[No, no —that's a completely different story. In short, that seal on your body is for your own good; it just lessens the weight of your soul. You might have obliterated all the memories of our coming here, but there was no other way. You were a mature soul and we had been sucked away inside not even a two months old human embryo! You can guess how much pressure we were under at that moment. We could have died that very instant, stifled inside the womb, but you just happened to remember that Rune called 'Obliterate’ also has a function to act on the soul and memories. It's just that it needed much energy to carve that Rune over your soul —how else do you think you lost every trace of your previous cultivation? Anyways, you pulled it efficiently enough to lessen some of the weight to not just end up bursting like a balloon! I don't know how many memories you permanently discarded or temporarily shelved but we went dormant ever since. You can examine things later when we are done here. But the place I mentioned, where my drop is sealed — it's somewhere inside your Inner body. Maybe your previously Awakened bloodkin body didn't have this, but this new human one does — strange right, I know. I can only feel where that blood drop is right now; neither can I reach it in there, nor can I call it out. ] Marr replied exasperatedly.

"Two months old -? An embryo in the womb — and not a human child? Are you sure Marr? Don't human souls inside the embryo only form after three months have passed? That means that there was no Original soul in this body? Was it just me all along? What kind of sick situation is this?" Wei Zhiruo said. "And I was almost beginning to feel like a thief for taking away someone else's life! Now I feel like an idiot for not guessing it all. I have such saturated blue eyes —humans usually don’t have such rich and deep eye colors!"

[You tend to overthink, I know. I know you were alone, I am sorry for waking up so late and making you feel so bad all this time. But I couldn't control myself! Ama, can you imagine — one moment I am in deep sleep and the next I have managed to put ourselves in such a fix. When I woke up, I was suddenly so full of energy that if I didn't vent, we would have exploded by now! I could only think of making myself grow faster, and faster and then I just pushed us to our Awakening instead! It's all my fault — as you said, if only I didn't think I could handle all this by myself or even alerted you a bit. Maybe we could have done something else? I feel bad just thinking about it right now.] From his self blaming soft voice, Wei Zhiruo could almost imagine his drooping cat ears and tails. She instantly softened and began to reassure him.

"As you said, you weren't even awake yet. You are not alone – to be blamed as such. It was my impulsive action too, okay? Without thinking of consequences, I started chasing that thing into the Rune Formation — it could have been something worse! What if it was a dead-end, a space fault instead? I didn't think of anything but just plunged headfirst into it. Doesn't that sound suicidal in the hindsight? Maybe it will all turn out for the best? At least now, we will not be human anymore after this Awakening."

[I hope so.]

While she was talking, she slammed the freshly drawn symbol with her palms. A yellow Rune shaped in the same way as the Character she had drawn with her blood, sprang up instantly. 

It was circumscribed inside a little more elaborate concentric circle, with motifs of strange men and women, twisted into a symbolic stance of worshipping a sun, etched in its outer circle in pure golden lines. 

Wei Zhiruo directed the Rune overhead, then loosened her control. She chanted a release-word under her breath and then a strong invisible wall formed linked to the Rune, like a bubble shaped golden dome, completely isolating the canoe and Wei Zhiruo sitting over it.

Only after she was sure that the wall was affixed and stable, did she sit down for meditation. With her two still bleeding palms connected together, her eyes closed and back straight as a pine tree — all her Spiritual Consciousness was concentrated in plunging deeper and deeper into her own self.