Chapter 57: Epiphanies, Ascendency, and the Ethereal

Epiphanies, Ascendancy, and the Ethereal

His fingertips grew warm where they touched each other in front of his body. Had could feel some of the power coursing through the Sign of Eternity he made with his hands. Had he been more within himself, he would have thought that this was the first time that had happened when he meditated. His mind only had sensation and knowledge without judgment and deep emotion.

Breathing deeply, he pushed forward, feeling the power slowly go down his arms.

Severus watched Sage silently, monitoring him, as he had grown accustomed to do. He could not help but think that during these meditations Sage was very prone, as he did not seem to be aware of his surroundings. He felt the need to watch over him, to make sure that nothing happened to Sage while he was strictly self-aware in his meditation.

Nothing much had ever happened when Sage meditated, but this time was very different in a way Severus found it difficult to wrap his mind around. He thought he could feel a presence. At first it was a strange feeling, like a sixth sense, but then it became stronger and clearer. It had a strange effect on him as well. The presence was like a strength or energy.

His eyes narrowed and he uncrossed his arms suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. A glow had settled around Sage's fingertips. Distinctly blue, and growing brighter. He fought the desire to take a step forward with the fear of disturbing whatever was going on. Something inside of him told him that it was not something that he should fear or be worried about.

He watched the scene before him unfold, not feeling as if he was living or breathing at all. The blue glow spread down Sage's body and it began to take the appearace of a whisp of smoke travelling over Sage, but without the smoke, still glowing light blue similar to electricity. It definitely wasn't physical, but Severus could not explain it.

In the stillness and silence of the room, the whisps of blue grew in number, spreading exponentially through the room. They were swirling around the room, concentrated by Sage. They were coming closer and closer to Severus as they spread. He could *feel* it.

"Ambient magic", he thought.

It was the same thing that you could feel a shadow of if you were learned enough and if you stood close to Sage, but that was when it was wholly confined within his body. This was different. It was either metaphysically expressing itself as a form outside of Sage's body, or it was whatever powers resided within Sage's body calling up the magic inherent within the environment. Severus's mouth gaped slightly, or perhaps the ambient magic everywhere had always been under Sage's control, but Sage had never been able to control it. Severus closed his mouth tightly. There was an infinite number of possible explanations.

Sage opened his eyes to a black world without sound. He took a deep breath when he saw the small, thin whisps of blue travelling around him, swirling like a vortex. He gasped when he looked down at his hands and saw them glowing the same color blue. He sharply exhaled when he eyes travelled down his body to see the same glowing matter covering his entire form.

Abruptly he stood up and spun around once to see what his surrounding were. There was nothing other than the swirling force all over, as far as he could see, growing more dense. He turned again and again. *What is this?* Slowly he reached out his hand to touch it at it seemed to curl around his hand as if it were a force of its own, definitely not an actual physical form. Indeed, it almost seemed to be coming off him, emanating from him.

"This is the force of your magic, something which you can see, but which you cannot feel. Although you can feel it within you as many different things."

Sage spun again to face the voice, knowing who it belonged to. Merlin.

"It grows," he answered simply.

"Not really, Magi, only your perception of it grows. It is infinite."

Frowning, Sage asked, "Why couldn't I see it before?"

Merlin shrugged, "You were not self-aware enough to see it, to use it. It continues to grow in your perception, but it has always been there and has always been infinite. This is only the ambient form of your magic."

"This is what people who are trained can feel."

"A shadow of it, yes."

Sage looked beyond Merlin, watching the vortex.

"Where am I," he asked.

Smiling, Merlin answered, "Your Llywen."

"It does not look like it," Sage responded smartly.

"Your Llywen can take many forms. It takes the form you require of it. There is much yet that you have not learned about it and one more thing you will learn about it today. You perception of your powers is not strong enough to sustain it yet, but you will have the knowledge now of what is possible. What purpose your Llywen serves that you have not been able to use."

His eyebrow arched slightly, "What?"

"Look behind you and you will see."

Still looking skeptical, Sage turned around. He frowned at the blackness behind him and the swirling vortex. Scowling, he was about to turn back around to Merlin when something seemed to materialize. He squinted, his mouth gaping slightly. He pulled his head back, it was his uncle. Slowly the background of the room he had been meditating in also materialized.

Severus took a step forward as Sage stood up and looked around, but he stopped his movement when Sage didn't seem to notice him. Sage's eyes were glowing brightly with the same matter that glowed around his body. With rapt attention, he watched Sage turn to face the other wall, finding obvious interest in it that Severus could not fathom.

After a few short minutes, Sage turned around and frowned at him, squinting. Then Sage's eyes grew wide, he had seen him.

"Uncle?" Sage asked, almost in a whisper.

"Sage? All right?"

He walked closer to his nephew, and Sage took a step closer to him. His nephew reached out a hand to him tentatively and touched him on the shoulder. As Severus's shoulder gave way under the slight push, Sage recoiled in shock.

Severus frowned. What was going on?

Sage took another step forward and grabbed Severus's forearm hesitantly, "Are you real?"

"What? Am I real? Of course I am real," he answered, feeling rather uncomfortable. Something was definitely not right.

"You aren't just a representation of you in my Llywen?"

Severus scowled, "No."

Sage's eyes narrowed, "You must be... This is not the real world... It does not feel like the read world."

His nephew was obviously very, very confused.

"You are silver," Sage stated as if it were a perfectly normal thing to say.

"Silver?" He replied, definitely at a loss for what to do.

"Your aura, your ambient magic. It is silver. It is very strong, your ambient magic," he whispered again. "I cannot see where it ends."

Severus frowned. Something strange was definitely going on. He, Severus Snape, had ambient magic? And it was silver? Sage could see it? He looked down to see if he had any strange silver whisps going around himself. He saw nothing.

When he looked back up, Sage had his eyes closed serenely.

"Dumbledore," Sage whispered again, "The headmaster has purple." He opened his eyes, "And Potter, Potter has red."

His eyebrow was almost irrevokably raised now, or at least that is how Severus felt. He was sure he had not gone anywhere, but by the way Sage was acting, he felt like he was in some alter-dimension.

Sage smirked, "Yours is more concentrated than his. You must be stronger."

"Than Potter, I should think so!"

Frowning, Sage answered, "No, sir, than Dumbledore."

Severus felt his eyebrow fall and turn into a concentrated furrow, "How can that be?" He was more powerful than Albus Dumbledore?

"Perhaps because you are younger than the headmaster, you do not have the experience needed to tap into it. But it is true, you are, and so is Sarmach."

Sage stared at his Uncle as the man seemingly contemplated the news that he was more powerful that Dumbledore. The man's reactions were certainly true to life, but this interaction simply could not be real. He had not left his Llywen yet, he could still feel it. Sage's mind knew Severus enough to know how he would react, that must be why it seemed so real.

Suddenly, Sage felt his heart speed up for no apparent reason. His eyes started to cloud and then he was torn in two. He felt as if he was being ripped out of himself, and he vaguely heard himself snarl in pain. He felt his body impact roughly with the floor, but he did not remember falling.

He opened his eyes and saw his Uncle kneeling next to him, not sure of whether he should try and help or not.

A bruised feeling spread up his body and it felt as if it were pulsating. A headache had come on out of nowhere, as severe as if his head were being cleaved in two.
He whispered, "It was real..."

He had been in his Llywen in the material world, the real world. But wasn't his Llywen an Otherworld?

A/N

Thank you especially to Miss Darkshadow and Miss Winter for their lovely reviews. You both really keep me going, and I appreciate that. I can at least count of the two of you to help me achieve my goal of 500 reviews! You are the best.

I hope you all like this chapter. It is full of stuff that is very important for the future. Really full. So, I suggest reading it twice so that you remember stuff. ;-) Just a hinty hint.

If you liked the chapter and you have a minute, drop me a note to tell me, please. Sage AND Snape will be endebted to you and will perhaps be persuaded to send you cyber kisses if you are a girl!