Sylvia had somehow gained the ability to control Dream Bubbles, and even seal Light Cones away inside them. Even though Black Swan could see the process with her own eyes, that power was still like a sealed black box. Sylvia didn't understand the logic behind it at all.
But the fact that she could do it proved one thing: Sylvia's body had the right hardware to toy with Memoria. Now they only needed to upgrade Sylvia's "software."
The key was to first let her sense that Memoria could be controlled.
Black Swan's fingers slid from Sylvia's chin down to her waist, then from her waist and stomach up toward her chest. After that, her fingertips lifted from that sensitive skin, as if drawing out a thin strand and pulling something free from Sylvia's divine body.
"Now—feel my movements. Can you still follow my fingertips?"
"Mm… It feels like I can, but also like I can't."
Sylvia frowned. Once Black Swan's fingertips left her body, the clear sense of touch cut off at once. Yet Sylvia could still faintly catch a trace of movement, and that left Black Swan with a real problem.
It wasn't as if Black Swan had never guided juniors before, but this was her first time guiding a normal person whose memories she couldn't read.
Even when she worked with people from the IPC, she could act on the level of memory itself. Many things, like "feelings" and "experience," could be placed straight into the other person's mind, which saved a huge amount of time.
Sylvia was the exception. Black Swan couldn't see her memories, and she couldn't touch them either, so of course she couldn't teach Sylvia these things directly. Even Dream Bubbles were less efficient than Black Swan teaching her by hand.
Still, this level of trouble had been expected. If one method didn't work, she'd try another. First, she'd test every method she could think of.
So Black Swan took Sylvia's hand.
"It's fine. Take it slow. There's no need to rush. Leave your body to me."
Her other hand supported Sylvia's waist. In that empty void, with the huge hollow as their backdrop, Black Swan moved with light steps, as if she were leading Sylvia through a dance.
"…?"
Sylvia felt a little confused. Though her eyes were closed, she could still tell that Black Swan seemed to be pulling her into a dance. Did this count as helping? It felt wrong somehow.
Just then, Black Swan's breath brushed her ear. Even in this extreme place, that warm current of air flowed into her ear with sharp clarity.
As their bodies touched more and more, Sylvia, with her eyes still closed, instead began to sense the outline of Black Swan's body with growing clarity.
"Relax. Loosen that tension bit by bit. If you shut yourself off too much, you won't sense anything."
"But…"
"It's fine. You can leave everything to me."
Black Swan's voice was soft enough to sound like a spell. Sylvia tried to pull back the power she'd been using to resist.
The ripping force pressed down on her, but something strange happened: with Black Swan holding her hand and arm around her waist, that force somehow broke apart.
It was as if the force had slid off Sylvia's body.
Black Swan watched Sylvia's reaction.
'She's so cute. She trusted me just like that. No wonder Miss Acheron's so taken with her.'
No one disliked the feeling of being trusted, and Black Swan was no exception.
No wonder only a few short days had been enough to leave Acheron so smitten. Even Black Swan couldn't help wanting to get a little closer.
As Sylvia's resistance faded, the power unique to Memoria swallowed them both. Under Black Swan's guidance, the force that had once been wild became calm as it passed around them, allowing Sylvia to move through it with ease.
"Very good, dear. What new feeling do you have now?"
"…It's strange. It's like I can hear a lot of noise. It's a mess, but it also follows some set path."
Sylvia didn't know how to describe it. It felt as if she'd fallen, bare and unguarded, into a deep whirlpool. Yet she was safe. The violent current didn't crush her; instead, it brought her a sense unlike anything else.
"That's Memoria, dear. You're touching its existence in the right way."
"…I am?"
Sylvia was so immersed in that strange feeling that she almost failed to react to Black Swan's words.
"Keep holding on to that feeling, then follow my lead. Raise your hand. Feel my movements."
The hand lifting Sylvia's palm guided her little by little, and the stirred Memoria left its original order. It began to move with their joined hands.
In Sylvia's senses, it was like Black Swan had reached into the whirlpool and scooped up a handful of spray with ease. It went against common sense, yet her mind seemed to accept that this was only natural.
"This is the flow of Memoria. Your will can draw it along. Try to wake up your instinct."
Black Swan kept using words to soothe Sylvia. Now that they'd reached this point, the next step was the most important one. Sensing Memoria was only the most basic stage.
The real key, and the hardest part, was learning how to stir Memoria with her own will and make it take shape in her hands.
Many newly transformed Memokeepers got stuck here before they grew used to their new memetic form. In turn, once they crossed this step, everything after it was only steady practice.
"…"
Sylvia fell silent for a moment. For some reason, the feeling of Memoria flowing reminded her a little of the feel Sparkle had taught her.
One was Dream Bubbles and the other was Memoria, but the impression from what she'd done with Sparkle not long ago was still fresh in her mind.
By instinct, Sylvia moved her hand according to the trick Sparkle had taught her.
Her fingertips swayed, and the Memoria caught in the flow responded to her with ease, as if she were drawing silk from a cocoon. Just like that, it left the whirlpool and gathered in her palm.
"…?!"
Black Swan blinked. She was more than a little surprised. Had Sylvia learned that fast?
In the previous step, she'd still been half-lost and unsure. How had she reached the hardest part and then turned sharp all at once?
Though Black Swan felt stunned inside, she still encouraged her aloud.
"Beautifully done, dear. You learn fast."
As she spoke, Black Swan slowly weakened her own power, allowing Sylvia's will to sink more directly into the restless Memoria.
"Open your eyes. Next, try to sense the discord hidden inside this whirlpool."
"This fast?"
Sylvia opened her eyes at once, then jumped when she saw Black Swan right in front of her. She was close. So close it almost looked as if she were about to kiss her.
Black Swan's palm covered the back of Sylvia's hand, leaving both their arms exposed to the frantic ripping force.
"Come. Follow me. Feel it. There's something discordant mixed into the pure Memoria, like waterweed and fish swept into a whirlpool."
"Hiss…"
Sylvia didn't feel anything else. She only felt pain and a strange discomfort. Without her noticing, Black Swan had already brought her quite deep inside. Once she left the range of Black Swan's power, that violent force acted right on her arm.
"Bear with it a little, dear."
Whether Black Swan meant to do it or not, the tip of her nose brushed Sylvia's. The arm around Sylvia's waist tightened.
"Memoria isn't your enemy. Feel it, follow it, then master it. Only then can you understand every detail of the accretion disk."
"…How did you know what I wanted to do?"
Sylvia stared at Black Swan with suspicion. Was this woman lying when she said she couldn't see Sylvia's memories? Was she messing with her?
Black Swan only pressed her lips together and smiled. The hand at Sylvia's waist slowly moved upward.
"Hehe. How cute. Talking to yourself while thinking is a common habit, you know. This is Penacony, after all."
Sylvia's mouth twitched. That sounded more than a little creepy.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're kind of like a peeping tom?"
"…"
Black Swan choked on her words. She couldn't help puffing out her cheeks and glaring at Sylvia.
Come on. Memokeepers didn't even have the same life form as humans anymore. They were closer to Memory Zone Memes than to normal people. How could Sylvia use the moral code of some random planet to call her a peeping tom?
Besides, even among humans, standards varied all over the place. How could one rule apply everywhere?
After Black Swan stared straight at her for a good while, Sylvia gave an awkward little smile, blinked, and turned her innocent gaze away.
"Let's talk about the impurities instead."
"Mhm. Then feel them yourself."
Black Swan let out a soft huff. All of a sudden, she didn't feel quite as eager to guide this person anymore. Not unless Sylvia opened her mouth and begged her.
"…"
Sylvia stayed quiet for a while. Just as Black Swan was wondering whether she felt too embarrassed to ask for help, Sylvia's voice rang out again.
"I think… I can feel a little foreign matter. It's prickly and numb? But it's moving too fast. I can't quite catch it."
"???"
Black Swan froze.
Was Sylvia really a genius?
"You truly felt it?"
"Yeah. A little. I can feel that strange, foreign sensation mixed inside."
Sylvia nodded. Those little tricks Sparkle had taught her were quite useful. Where had that woman dug up all these techniques for handling Memoria? Sylvia would have to ask later, and thank Sparkle while she was at it.
As she thought that, Sylvia twisted her hand, then scooped a small clump of Memoria out of the whirlpool. After that, she tried pinching it with her fingers, attempting to knead it into something else.
The skill [Wish of the Child of God(Budget Version)] activated.
By chance, the Memoria Sylvia was playing with had its innate frequency changed. As a result, the thing that had been hiding in the shadows was at last forced into the sunlight.
A tiny thread of golden power was slowly separated out. Then it slipped through Sylvia's fingers and merged back into the outer whirlpool.
Black Swan stared at the scene with wide eyes. For a Memokeeper, this move would've been easy, but Sylvia wasn't a Memokeeper. Why could she learn so fast?
"You…"
Black Swan felt Sylvia's talent was absurd. Maybe this child had been born to become a Memokeeper. Should she find a way to lure her into the Garden of Recollection?
For some reason, that thought came to Black Swan.
Sylvia was also surprised. She'd only pinched it a few times, yet she'd squeezed out the Stellaron's power? Yes, she had drawn a skill that boosted her luck, but this still felt absurd.
"Speaking of which, if this thing's so troublesome, how did The Family handle it back then?"
Sylvia didn't notice Black Swan's thoughts and instead grew puzzled. With Black Swan's teaching, and with the "talent" Black Swan had admitted she had, Sylvia was able to sense the Stellaron's presence within it.
So how had The Family fused the Stellaron into the Memoria back then? Or had someone from the Garden of Recollection helped them at the time?
"I'm not sure about that. I didn't dig too deeply into those memories from back then."
Black Swan had come here to collect memories of the Charmony Festival, not to do archaeology. As for those old events, she'd only taken a simple look at the broad outline, so of course she'd missed many details.
"Forget it. I'll study it when I get the chance."
Sylvia sighed. It wasn't as if she liked archaeology. If there were stories to hear from history, that was best; if not, she wouldn't force it.
What mattered was that she'd made a key breakthrough. At the very least, she could finally sense the hidden power of the Stellaron. Next, she only had to follow the trail and find that Stellaron's location. Then everything would be done.
Black Swan looked at her with expectation.
"Dear, would you have any interest in joining the Garden of Recollection?"
"Huh? The Garden of Recollection?"
"You've got great talent for becoming a Memokeeper."
"I'll pass."
Sylvia refused without much hesitation. What was going on lately? Why did people keep trying to lure her away from the Astral Express?
Besides, after becoming a Memokeeper, what if those two Herrscher cores stopped working? Who knew whether Herrscher cores supported use by Memokeepers?
"All right."
Black Swan blinked. She didn't find Sylvia's refusal surprising. Unless there was some serious reason, Pathstriders rarely changed their allegiance.
So Black Swan skipped over the topic with ease and pulled her focus back.
"If you're willing to call me teacher, I'll teach you a few more little tricks."
Sylvia blinked, then called out in a very sweet voice.
"Teacher Black Swan."
"Ah, how cute."
Black Swan smiled and patted Sylvia's head. Right after that, Black Swan's entry refreshed.
--+--
[Target: Black Swan]
[Affection: 70 (Curious)]
[Relationship: Teacher and Student]
['Curiosity is often the first step toward falling, girl!']
['When it comes to forbidden relationships, you sure know how to play, huh?']
--+--
Her affection had gone up, and the relationship had changed along with it. Still, Sylvia found it absurd. She'd only called Black Swan "teacher," right? Wasn't that a joke?
That counted?
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL