Chapter 65

Just as Xafsa had warned me, in the Aspirant repositories, there were few books on the [Vitality] Aspect, but unlike other trial Aspirants and Aspirants, I had a mentor clear the way for me by pointing me towards relevant Aspects already available at this rank.

That was how the topic of the [Mastery] Aspect ended up being brought to my attention, after Xafsa had strongly recommended I formed it after getting a deeper understanding of my Path and how it was already part of the Aspects I was considering forming.

According to it, while I did possess enough of a foundation in terms of Aspects and [Knowledge] to pursue the synthesis of the [Vitality] Aspect, it was only just barely.

As in, by leveraging various facets of my [Will], [Cultivation], [Awareness], [Insight], [Harmony], [Purity], [Clarity], and my [Ambition] Aspects at their present Tiers, synthesis was theoretically possible.

Nevertheless, Xafsa advised against seriously attempting it.

Not because I had an extreme likelihood of failing.

Not because the [Vitality] Aspect would be useless.

Not because it would take me years even if I were part of the top percentile in terms of synthesis age.

But because doing so with an aspect like [Mastery] would make every subsequent progress much easier.

Presumably.

So I began reading.

The text's earliest definition was almost disappointingly simple.

[Mastery] as a concept encompassed the state reached when repeated [Exertion]s, [Comprehension], and [Cultivation] ceased to remain separate processes.

One acted.

Observed the result.

Understood the discrepancy between intention and outcome.

Corrected it.

Repeated.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Until waste diminished.

Until variability narrowed.

Until execution no longer depended upon deliberate reconstruction of every individual step.

I had been treading that concept in everything I did for years now.

Flight.

Movement.

[Secrecy].

[Focus].

[Will] healing.

Meditation.

My resistance to exhaustion could also be included as a manner of [Mastery].

Even the way [Guided] gradually optimized my actions through a process of elimination.

From this perspective, [Mastery] was a concept inherent to my Path.

But like so many other concepts relevant to my Path, I had never treated the [Mastery] Aspect as worth forming, for one fundamental reason that I had previously hypothesized no rationale could deny.

It was for that same reason that I wouldn't be forming the [Discipline], [Diligence], or [Refinement] Aspects.

Because I already formed the [Cultivation] Aspect.

I wouldn't form the [Analysis], [Learning], or [Reasoning] Aspects either.

Because all they would ever amount to was a furthering of my [Insight]s, which were already developing towards the [Comprehension] Aspect.

I also wouldn't form the [Observation], [Attention], [Instinct], or [Detection] Aspects.

Because all of those concepts naturally flowed through my [Awareness].

I wouldn't form the [Stealth], [Concealment], [Silence], or [Misdirection] Aspects, too.

Because they were merely narrower expressions of [Secrecy].

I wouldn't form the [Resolve], [Determination], [Perseverance], or [Endurance] Aspects.

Because each represented just another facet of [Will].

I wouldn't form the [Focus], [Concentration], [Composure], or [Lucidity] Aspects.

Because whatever they offered could already be accomplished through my [Clarity] Aspect.

Just like I wouldn't form the [Balance] or [Coordination] Aspects merely because their concepts occasionally appeared within my actions.

And that applied to so many more Aspects I had learned about over the course of my stay in the Prime Temple of the Red Sand Sector.

[Drive], [Aspiration], [Achievement], [Progress], [Talent], all concepts already directed and consumed by my [Ambition] Aspect.

That was the logic I had followed until now.

If a concept was related, even barely, to one of the Aspects already belonging to my Path, forming it separately would only introduce redundancy.

And until recently, I had assumed [Mastery] belonged among those redundant concepts.

Except...

The more I read, the less [Mastery] appeared to obey that logic.

Unlike [Discipline], which merely supported continued [Cultivation], or [Observation], which naturally furthered [Awareness], [Mastery] wasn't limited to a particular action, method, or result.

It encompassed the conceptual relationship between all three.

The process through which an action was understood, refined, reproduced, and eventually brought so thoroughly under one's command that changing circumstances no longer undermined it.

That distinction appeared minor at first.

Then I moved beyond the introductory text.

Because I had already spent both months previously researching it as a Seeker and years unconsciously accumulating a foundation in it, the basic records contained little that [Guided] hadn't already learned or derived through my experiences.

So, instead of remaining among them, I began delving directly into more advanced texts.

"The Separation Between Repetition And Mastery".

"Consistent Outcomes Within Inconsistent Environments".

"Mastery Of Principles Against Mastery Of Procedures".

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"The Failure Of Flawless Technique".

Each brought [Clarity] to another part of the concept.

Repetition wasn't [Mastery].

One could repeat an action thousands of times while preserving the same inefficiencies within every attempt.

Success wasn't [Mastery], either.

An action could succeed through favorable circumstances, overwhelming force, or the intervention of an Aspect without its wielder understanding why.

Even consistency wasn't sufficient.

Perfectly reproducing the same procedure only demonstrated [Mastery] for as long as the circumstances remained unchanged.

"True" [Mastery] required... adaptability.

An inherent [Comprehension] of what parts of a process were essential.

Which could be altered.

Which could be discarded.

Which apparent failures were only alternate routes toward the intended result.

A healer who could flawlessly repair one injury in one species hadn't mastered healing.

They had mastered a procedure.

A healer who understood the principles supporting that procedure could alter it when faced with another species, an unfamiliar physiology, an environmental complication, or an Aspect disrupting the expected result.

That was [Mastery].

Not merely knowing how to succeed.

Knowing what made success possible.

The distinction immediately connected to everything Xafsa had been forcing me to confront.

Why it asked questions even when my methods worked.

Why it corrected conclusions that happened to produce acceptable results.

Why it occasionally demonstrated several different treatments for the same condition, only to explain that none were inherently superior outside the circumstances making them so.

My existing Aspects could each consume fragments of those [Insight]s.

My [Insight] Aspect could assist me in understanding the principles.

My [Awareness] Aspect could enable me to perceive the differences between circumstances.

My [Clarity] Aspect could separate essential details from irrelevant ones.

My [Harmony] Aspect could reveal how the individual elements interacted.

My [Will] Aspect could manifest the resulting procedure.

My Origin Aspect could retain and allow me to reproduce what I observed before with unerring accuracy.

But none of them represented the [Mastery] of the entire process itself.

None accumulated the [Insight]s produced by repeatedly transforming incomplete ability into deliberate command.

That was what made [Mastery] different.

It didn't merely overlap with the Aspects already belonging to my Path.

It acted across them.

An Aspect that could deepen how I used other Aspects without being reduced to any one of them.

Which meant my original rationale still held.

Just not in the way I had first applied it.

Forming the [Discipline] Aspect remained pointless because I didn't need it.

Forming the [Balance] Aspect remained relatively pointless because my [Cultivation] already allowed me to elevate my [Balance] beyond what I required.

Forming the [Intuition] Aspect was similarly pointless because where my [Awareness] could have failed me, my [Clarity] Aspect synergized in such a way that it rendered the comparison inapplicable in the long term.

But the [Mastery] Aspect...

Its concept still necessarily presented a minor overlap with [Cultivation], but otherwise...

Until the time came to resume my duties, I read more texts on the subject, serenely grasping all the effects and ramifications of adopting the [Mastery] as part of one's Path.

Then I moved on, spent my Essence development quota where my priorities dictated I should, before intermittently coming to it.

One period, I studied the difference between technical and conceptual [Mastery].

Another, the means through which the Aspect might interact with [Cultivation].

Another, records of Essence Entities who formed it and how they had applied its concept to their Path.

I learned about a sword wielder whose Path revolved solely around swordsmanship, who made the [Mastery] Aspect line the absolute core of their Path.

I read about a healer who had attained absolute [Mastery] over his own species' biology, henceforth pursuing biological [Perfection] and [Transcendance].

Those records led me toward texts concerning the future syntheses available with the [Mastery] Aspect.

Some were so specialized that they held little relevance to me.

[Grandmastery].

[Dominion].

Aspects revolving around surpassing others, establishing absolute authority within a discipline, or imposing one's superior command upon others.

Others appeared more compatible.

[Flawlessness].

[Completion].

And, most prominently, I found an old aspiration of mine.

[Perfection].

As was warranted by such unfathomable concepts, the books touching on them in the Aspirant repositories were extremely vague, barely venturing beyond the mere mentioning of their existence.

I presumed... because they represented [Knowledge] and [Truth] that didn't yet belong to emerging Paths.

Still, at least from all the records touching on the [Mastery] Aspect, one recurring distinction appeared.

[Mastery] was about eliminating the distance between what something was and what it was [Ideal]ly intended to be.

An action without waste.

A structure without deficiency.

A process comprehended inside out.

An application whose result matched its intent without deviation.

As my research deepened until the Aspirant repositories failed to provide me with more extensive reading materials, a conclusion of sorts emerged.

Or maybe it could be considered just another [Insight].

One that was built on top of a million others.

One that told me the concept of [Mastery], what it was, what it could become, was worth forming as an Aspect.

Which made it so that from this moment on, the [Insight]s I sought stopped being merely intellectual.

As such, at the end of another period of duties, once the last patient had been transferred from the treatment chamber and every instrument had been marked for sterilization, I found Xafsa as it reviewed the procedure records.

"I have decided to form the [Mastery] Aspect," I announced.

"Expected." Several of its sensory nodes turned toward me as its filaments continued moving across the sheets of the record it was reviewing. "Anything else?"

"Have you formed the [Mastery] Aspect?" I asked.

"Why else would I have dared to advise such an Aspect to you?"

And received an unsurprisingly logical answer to it.

"I never assume logical hypotheticals to be [Truth]s until I acquire the confirmation they are," I explained, then moved to the reason for my visit, "Do you have any practical [Insight]s to share regarding the formation of the [Mastery] Aspect?"

"Explain what you presently grasp of the concept of [Mastery] to me," it said straightforwardly, conveniently finishing reviewing one record and placing it aside to focus on me.

I did just that.

I described the [Cycle] of action-[Exertion], observation-[Awareness], understanding-[Insight], and repetition-[Cultivation].

How [Mastery] emerged when those stages stopped functioning as separate processes and instead became one continuous means of refinement.

How it differed from mere [Comprehension] of all the principles involved in a discipline.

How my Path already obliged me to pursue [Mastery], but that I had accomplished it through my [Cultivation] Aspect until now.

How an overlap existed between [Cultivation] and [Mastery], but that this overlap would manifest as a form of synergy once realized.

Xafsa listened to everything without interrupting.

Only when I finished did its filaments shift.

"Your definition remains overly focused on improvement," it judged.

"As for whether you've voluntarily stirred your [Comprehension] away from the fact that improvement is not actually fundamental to [Mastery], I will leave you to seek that [Insight] and its deeper implications on your own. Improvement is one of the many roads that do lead to [Mastery], after all."

I stayed silent.

"Do not mistake my intention when I evoke the term 'one of the many roads', however."

Its filaments intertwined more tightly around one another.

"On this matter, I do not advise you to seek the other avenues leading to the result you are understanding as [Mastery]. Improvement as a way to touch upon the concept of [Mastery] is perfectly fine and compatible with what I understand of your Path."

"Other than that, you seem to have acquired all the foundational [Insight]s needed. Hence, I can only offer some clarifications..."

My explanation having seemingly not disappointed it to the point of being given a hundred basic books to read before coming back to ask it again, for the next dozen minutes, Xafsa shared its opinions on what it considered to be the most deserving [Insight]s to [Focus] on.

It distinguished [Mastery] of a result from [Mastery] of a method.

[Mastery] of oneself from [Mastery] of an external discipline.

[Mastery] gained through control from [Mastery] gained through complete accommodation.

It explained why its own healing relied less upon forcing [Life] toward a predetermined state and more upon identifying the range of states within which that [Life] could be altered through [Vitality] while still remaining itself.

Much of what it said either exceeded or equaled my current [Insight]s, in turn broadening and deepening my own [Insight]s by a very satisfying amount.

As for everything I failed to understand...

[Guided] retained it anyway.

Eventually, without any sudden revelation or miraculous formation of the [Mastery] Aspect, our discussion ended without ceremony, and I returned to the Aspirant repositories.

Enough hours had passed for me to resume more Essence development-intensive studies.

So, once again, I left [Mastery] as it presently existed.

Not yet an Aspect.

Only a concept scattered throughout my Path, waiting to be gathered.

And so I delved once more into the bottomless depths of neural-pathway growth and regeneration, cerebral construction and segmentation, and the numbing and neutralization of sensation.