Maya softly let out a relaxed breath. It felt wonderful to be so unafraid of the spiritual training that still remained ahead of her. Years ago, she would've been nervous beyond belief and eagerly looking for opportunities to procrastinate, but now? Now, at twenty-eight years old, she was the Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, and had been through so much training and meditation to get there that practically nothing scared her about the idea of taking on new training courses at all.
Seated comfortably on the floor of her favourite training hall in Fey Manor, Maya was prepared to take on yet another new course Pearl had dug up for her. It was unbelievable how many old scrolls and things were tucked away in the Manor, probably not seen in decades at least.
According to Pearl, this new training technique was supposed to help her reduce the stress of prolonged channelings, which was something she'd wanted to work on. She could keep up a channeling for days at a time now so long as the spirit she was playing host to kept her body fed and rested, but she tended to come out of it exhausted. If this new technique coule help, she would definitely try it out.
"OK, here we go..."
Palms pressed together before her, her index fingers extended, Maya closed her eyes and began to quietly recite the prayer she'd memorized from the scroll. After one time through, nothing seemed different. She recited it again, and then again. It was hard to tell if anything was really happening. Keeping her eyes closed, she recited the prayer twice more, and was about to begin again when she felt a strange sensation creeping over her skin. It started from her clasped hands, and then extended up her arms and overtook her whole body.
"Whoa..."
Staying calm, she waited until the feeling vanished, and opened her eyes.
Maya was used to strange sensations caused by experimenting with old training techniques and such, but what she saw now made her mouth fall open in shock.
"Wh-what the-...!?"
All of a sudden, the chamber seemed to have become much, much larger. The floor stretched out for what seemed like miles, and the ceiling rose unbelievably far into the sky.
More importantly, though, Maya was no longer alone.
Slumping backward from her sitting position, Maya caught herself with both hands on the floor, staring up in disbelief.
"Wh-who..."
A positively gigantic figure rose over her, wearing channeling robes just like hers.
... Ther really were just like hers. In fact, they were the specific design worn only by Kurain's Master, only, like their wearer, they seemed to be several hundred times too big.
Maya's disbelief only grew as she looked past the towering figure's raised arms, and saw what was unmistakably her own face.
(H-holy... wh-what the heck kind of training is this supposed to be...!?)
By all appearances, Maya had been shrunken down to a size no bigger than one or two inches in height, and was now sitting in the shadow of a normally-sized duplicate of herself, the double's size seeming at least a few hundred feet high in total. She was barely any bigger than her double's toes like this...
The huge version of Maya wasn't moving much. She was sitting still, just as Maya herself had been until ten or fifteen seconds ago, still maintaining the same meditative pose.
Finally remembering what she was doing, Maya thought back to the scroll. What had it said again...?
(Something about "finding the centre of my energy" or... whatever...?)
She noticed something else strange. High above her, she could see the Magatama that the double was wearing. Unlike hers, which looked its usual brown-ish colour, the double's was glowing a soft purple colour. Without really thinking, Maya touched her own Magatama with one hand.
She let out a startled yelp, shuffling back on the floor when the gigantic duplicate of herself suddenly opened her eyes, up in the sky. There was something else strange. Her massive double didn't have brown eyes, like she did; she was looking up at a pair of eyes glowing the very same shade of violet as the oversized Magatama up there.
She sensed something. Thinking back to the scroll again, she got a sudden idea. Her gigantic double had reacted the second she touched her Magatama. So, did she need to make her way up to the huge Magatama the double was wearing and touch that one? It was an idea, at least, and this whole situation was weird enough that she definitely preferred at least having a guess as to what she was supposed to do.
Spiritual training was really weird in general, she supposed, especially coming from dusty old scrolls no one had touched in decades.
Getting to her feet, her gigantic double still staring back down at her with glowing purple eyes, Maya approached the spot where the double was sitting. If she was going to reach the huge Magatama hanging from the double's neck, she needed to climb.
It was a good thing she'd taken a bath. The air was filled with only the pleasant scent of her favourite soap as she drew near to her gigantic double's crossed legs. What was the best way to start...? She could try grabbing onto the massive set of robes her double was wearing, or get onto her huge legs directly. To do the second one, though, she would need to start with one of her double's bare feet. She'd washed them in the bath before starting her training, so it wouldn't be too bad, right?  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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