The Secret of Tanencha sy Tyrin

3 | The Tyrin is Taught

Stella exhaled. The Tanencha had been there the entire time. It was just waiting for something to be said, just as she had suspected. She smiled to herself.

A few moments later, the posts miraculously vanished, until only one was present. "Let's start simple," The Tanencha said. "I want you to focus on a single post." Stella nodded and fixed her vision so it aligned with the post. "Don't just stare at it," The Tanencha scolded. "That won't do you any good. Close your eyes." Stella complied. "Isolate each part of it." The Tanencha continued. "Now, imagine what it would look like if shot with a bullet."

Stella did. The metal around the hole would be darkened, burnt from the blast. It would be a clean mark, though that depended on the power of the bullet. She guessed that the shot would be powerful. Most likely, it would come in and out, a clean blast.

"Good," The Tanencha said. "Continue thinking about it." Could it read her thoughts?

That was possible. It was also possible that she was overthinking this, and the Tanencha just had an overall knowledge of her emotions. I should do what it says, Stella told herself, and thought further and further, thinking of each action the bullet would make from both the initial shot, to the eventual collision. Soon, each individual millisecond before and after the shot became clear to her.

"But I did that before!" Stella complained, shaking her head, "That's what I was trying to do initially."

If the Tanencha was a person, she could imagine it rolling its eyes right now. Stella didn't think it was entitled to. She had asked a genuine question. "No, you weren't." It replied with the voice of an adult who had spent hours scolding an insolent child. "I would say what you were doing was absurd, but you didn't know."

"Fine," Stella said. "This approach doesn't seem different, but I suppose it is."

"Correct," the Tanencha seemed a bit less annoyed now. "Now how about we get back to it?"

Stella nodded and moved her body into a power stance, with her shoulders parallel to the target. "Continue envisioning your target. Think only of it, and what it will do. Clench your fists, squeeze your teeth, and pause your body in that position."

She complied and felt her entire body tense, and then kept it in that position. She closed her eyes tightly and kept them there, continuing to envision her target. There was no way of keeping time- she couldn't think of anything but the shot, but the target.

"Now," The Tanencha said. "Release. Stop thinking about the bullet and..." It trailed off, waiting.

She instantly relaxed. The tension that had manifested inside of her for the last couple of moments was slowly disappearing. As she opened her eyes, she saw something she had not been expecting. A small ball, one radiating light was floating just inches away from her eyes.

As Stella thought about it, she realized, maybe before, she was thinking about it too linearly. For one, this wasn't a bullet at all- she didn't know what it was at all. Additionally, she hadn't thought about releasing the tension she had been holding before. Initially, the belief that hyperactive concentration was the only thing present in her mind.

She reached her hand up to touch the ball, and instead of the flaming heat she had expected to experience, it was cold, though not enough to hurt. She attempted to hold it with the entirety of her hand, but instead, felt cold- not anything solid.

"What's this made of?" She asked, moving her hand around the space within the ball. "Is it a gas?"

"It's not, not, a gas." It said. "It's a mixture of many things, but overall, you, Tanencha sy Tyrin."

"The Energy of Essence." Stella murmured and brought her hand down to her side. "It's from both me and you?"

"No, Stella," The Tanencha said. "Just you. I have manifested myself inside of you, and you have allowed me to do, so by definition I am you."

Stella then remembered how the instant the Tanencha had begun talking to her, she had been overwhelmed by memories, thoughts, and ideas. She had brushed these to the side at first, too occupied by the Tanencha, which had begun it's teaching. Now, she wondered, if there was a way to see those once more.

She cleared her throat and spoke once more. "Those memories- the ones that were," She struggled, looking for the word. "Implanted, for lack of better terms, in my head, are they still there?"

"Of course." The Tanencha said. "Why would be the point of having a glimpse of them, just for them to be taken away?"

"I don't know. It was just a question," She muttered under her breath.

The Tanencha didn't speak for a moment, as if it was reconfiguring itself, changing positions, taking a breath, or just letting the silence sit.

"Would you like to continue?"

Stella sighed. "Yeah, right." She returned her gaze back onto the sphere in front of her, which, she noticed, was becoming dimmer.

"Relax once more," The Tanencha told her, "Or we'll have to start all over again. That would just be wasting time."

"Okay," She said, and took a deep breath, regaining her sense of comfort once more. She remembered the comfort of home- that nice old, dated living room had shown her. As she was thinking, she focused on the sphere in front of her and noticed the light slowly becoming stronger, more absolute.

Soon, it gained the same power as it's original stature, and that was when the Tanencha decided to speak again. "Good," It said, "Now, propel the force forward."

"Okay," Stella exhaled. She remembered what the Tanencha had told her before- that they were the same thing, just different parts of that. If that was true than didn't that mean she could exercise some control of the Tanencha, and if so, was that what she was doing now?

Everyone was taught at a young age that "Knowledge is power," and in addition to having power over the Tanencha, she had memories of the world- possibly more. If she exercised more control over the Tanencha, and the memories and power it had given her, she could quit on her duties as a Renegade.

She could escape the system. A system that had kept her, and so many other orphans away from true freedom.

With that, she focused even harder on the power, hoping to propel it forward, knowing she could, and now knowing how. Hopefully, with practice, this entire process wouldn't take as long, and the incessant jabbering of the voices in her head would stop.

She concentrated on the sphere harder, to the point that she could only see it there. The isolation of the object remained as she directed her attention only on it, and it's movement.

An explosion interrupted her thoughts. She shook her head and refocused her eyes towards the world as itself, excluding the sphere. Looking closer, her eyes widened, as she saw that a clean shot had traveled through the metal target in front of her.

"Impressive." The Tanencha then said, "But can you do it faster? How much more could you hit?" it preened.

Stella nodded. Instead of feeling physically drained as she had thought, she felt power- eminent power. "I think so?"

"I know that you can." The Tanencha said, and she smiled. From what she had heard so far, the Tanencha was not one to glorify things.

Stella lifted her chin up at the sky. "Okay," She took a deep breath. "Let's continue."