Anna was cold, but she still decided to take some time to familiarize herself with the Sight. She had no intention of starting exploration without first mastering at least the basics of her new ability.
Most of the time, threads of cosmic energies floated in the air for no apparent reason. Contrary to what she had initially observed, some of them passed through walls and objects. She suspected there were different types of forces, each with their own properties. For now, she chose to focus on those that could help her see.
The first energy she observed was thicker than the others. It settled over the room like a veil, molding itself to the shape of the environment under it. This energy was quite useful due to its density. Anna could sense the temple's corridors over a distance of about seventy meters without even leaving the room! All she had to do was gently touch this veil, and its echo would give her a vague idea of her surroundings.
It didn't give a very precise result, but this ability would make any seeing person jealous. The athlete had her own LiDAR. She could determine the layout of a structure, as long as the veil extended through it uninterrupted. Lacking a better name for it, she decided to call it: the Mist.
The second energy that caught her attention seemed more volatile. Unlike the Mist, which fell heavily and remained mostly still, this one was in constant motion. It rippled with a set rhythm, like ocean waves.
When Anna touched it, she realized she could absorb it.
The process tired her a bit, as if she were forced to drink several liters of water all at once. She had to pause to catch her breath and digest it. Anna wondered if she could turn this Aether into Mana, as the Goddess had mentioned. But she wasn't sure she'd have time to explore that possibility anytime soon.
The young woman discovered one advantage of this energy, which she nicknamed the Flux. This one was tied to her third discovery: her own Mana.
Unlike Aether, Anna's Mana felt warm and familiar. Like a vapor she couldn't control, her Mana constantly escaped from her. She didn't yet know how to store or manipulate it, but since this world had mages, she would surely learn the basics soon enough.
Despite lacking control, Anna discovered something she was doing unconsciously. Every time she used the Mist or the Flux to extend her Vision, it seemed she was actually projecting her own Mana to connect to the surrounding energies. With training, she might be able to make this process more deliberate and apply it in other ways. Perhaps soon she would be able to consciously manipulate Mana, not just to see.
Another thing interested her: she could naturally see through it. Wherever the vapor spread, Anna gained eyes. For now, she couldn't control this aura, nor the threads she created unconsciously when trying to connect to other energies. However, anything that touched her or her threads appeared clearly to her. That was reassuring, as it allowed her to perceive the details of an object just by lightly brushing against it.
Thanks to Mana, Anna could also follow the Flux. The Flux was more powerful but less stable than the Mist. The young woman found it alive and slightly dangerous. She could instinctively tell that some of the Fluxes were best avoided. She chose to trust her intuition and focus only on the gentler streams.
The Flux, unlike the Mist, seemed to follow a trajectory. Anna couldn't see the whole space, only the surroundings of the Flux. She compared it to a river. Following it wasn't necessarily the shortest path, but probably the safest. With the Flux, Anna could perceive many details, down to the pores in the stone. It was like a powerful flashlight: wherever its beam landed, nothing remained hidden.
Anna could feel many other energies. Within the Web, she could see all kinds of colors. If they could even be called that. She also sensed textures. Maybe her brain, not knowing how to interpret these new signals, had translated them into something she could understand. That's how she came to see her Mana as having emerald tones and a soft, gentle texture. She didn't know what it meant, but she enjoyed these new sensations.
Anna was satisfied with this ability that let her see through walls and vases. With training, who knew what other uses she might discover? Still, she made a point of reflecting on its limits.
One of the most important aspects directly echoed Kalypso's warning. Without cosmic energy, Anna would become blind again. Inside the temple, the Mist seemed to solve that issue. But it wasn't infinite. When she tried to extend her Sight, she realized the Mist ended just beyond the temple's borders. Beyond that, she sensed a similar energy, but much less reliable. She would need to experiment with this weaker Mist once she was outside, but she already suspected she shouldn't rely on it too much in the future.
As for the Flux, she couldn't control it. Of course, she could follow it to maintain a consistent field of vision, but what if it didn't go where she needed to?
In the end, Mana wasn't very reliable either, at least not yet. Once she learned to control it, it would surely compensate for the Mist and the Flux's drawbacks. But for now, she would have to act like a blind person. Use her hands to touch and feel.
Finally, the last drawback of her power touched on a broader issue. Even though she could perceive colors and textures, they didn't correspond to reality, but to her interpretation of energies. Anna still couldn't read, she couldn't see the real colors of objects, nor their true materials. She could guess some of them by observing the porosity of the surfaces, as long as she received enough feedback from the Mana or the Flux, the way a blind person could distinguish stone from wood by touch. But that was all.
One last, more theoretical concern lingered in the young woman's mind. The Goddess had said that anything impervious to cosmic energies would remain invisible to her. That meant there were objects and possibly entities she could'nt percieve.
If one of these objects lay in her path, she might miss a treasure or a key tool at best, or trip and impale herself on it at worst. Anna decided she would find herself a cane as soon as possible, just to avoid any nasty accidents.
As for those entities, she hoped she wouldn't meet one too soon. Kalypso had mentioned dangers, monsters, conflicts… If one of her enemies could wield that kind of invisibility, would Anna survive the encounter?
She set aside her experiments for later and returned to her current situation. It was cold in the alcove. She would need to find something to wear, and fast. Determined, she began searching the room.