"If I had to sum up my general thoughts on Split in a single word, I could only choose 'confused'." Donovan had spent a few minutes coming up with an answer to the interview-esque format Arc had decided upon. They weren't in a rush, he would have a week or so to carry this conversation along, and it made for a more enjoyable form of conversation than work.

  "Confused? Why is that?"

  "Because it never seems to react the way I would expect it to." This part was something he had been continuously cursing Split for. No matter how hard he tried to come up with some type of strategy for using it, he couldn't nail one down. Just as he felt something might be starting to click and everything was falling into pce, he would run into some roadblock that threw off his theories. "I can pull it just fine until I can't, then I have to push it. I don't know why that is, nor can I figure out where the boundary for this change happens. What's worse about that example is that the Arboreal Maiden made it incredibly clear that pulling is how most people use it, and yet there are situations where that isn't possible."

  "Where does that tend to happen?"

  "Many pces. I can understand when it occurs somewhere outside of my body, I just don't have the same level of control there, but I frequently lose control past my knees, occasionally at my fingertips, and sometimes near the center of my chest strangely enough. Something tells me I am failing to properly control Split in my extremities for the same reason I lose control of it externally, a ck of experience and gradual bleeding of what I can control over the distance it takes to get there, but that same logic shouldn't apply to what I've gathered in my chest, right?"

  Donovan's primary problem was that he couldn't really see what was happening while he did stuff with Split. He was working on it, but for the moment there was too much going on for him to handle, sort of like patting his head and rubbing his belly while hopping on one foot and reciting the alphabet backwards. If he could have Arc record him while he trained, he would be able to get at least a modicum of an idea as to what he could be doing to improve.

  "Hmm. Can you demonstrate what you mean for me? Even if it's subtle, I should still be able to get a sense of what is going on." Donovan thought that was a brilliant idea. Maybe having Arc analyze him while he trained would help to figure out the science behind Split. "Though, I must ask you to narrate what you are doing, or at least what you are trying to do. I don't think I'll be able to figure out your intent through the interpretation of muscle activity."

  "Yeah, no problem." Donovan wriggled himself out of the cockpit and sat in the center of the pilot's room. Here he should be in clear view of a few of Arc's cameras, and the open space provided him much more breathing room with regards to position. "Should we establish a baseline first? Just so you know what 'normal' is like?"

  "That's a good idea." Donovan sat down and assumed a stance simir to the lotus position, his legs being a bit further out in front of him. "I believe it would also benefit you psychologically to see your progress."

  "Like a before and after photo?"

  "That was what I had in mind."

  "Doesn't that also carry the risk of demoralizing me if I don't make progress?" Donovan didn't think it would bother him, he just wanted to poke some fun at Arc's assumptions.

  "Hmm. I hadn't considered that." Arc, as per usual, saw a legitimate critique in Donovan's jest. "I doubt it would affect you negatively given your personality and history when it comes to such tactics, but I shouldn't make the same assumptions as others."

  "It was a joke, buddy." He exhaled, inhaling slowly as he calmed himself. Even if he was in a rush to live up to the 'expectations' of the Arboreal Maiden, there was no need to stress out over it. Should she be believed, and Donovan saw no evidence to the contrary despite their rather tenuous retionship, then he had more than enough time to take this slow. He needed to do this the right way. "I'm ready."

  "The sensors are focused on you. Would you like to tell me what it is you pn to do?"

  "I was thinking that I should show you what it looks like when I circute it inside of my body first. We don't have the experience to establish a true baseline, but it is the most basic exercise I can think of." Donovan csped his hands together in his p. "One strand, as strong as I can make it, starting from the core beneath my sternum, working up towards my throat, then to my right shoulder, pelvis, left shoulder, back to the throat, and returning to the core."

  "Is there anything more specific? Perhaps certain blood vessels or bones?"

  "No." Donovan didn't think he could name all of those even if he was. "The pathways don't seem to match my anatomy one to one, so I'm just going with the path of least resistance."

  "Understood. Begin whenever you feel comfortable doing so."

  He took a few more deep breaths to get himself into a concentrated state, abolishing the conversation and thoughts of being monitored in order to prevent tampering. He was just practicing the manipution of Split inside of his body, nothing more, nothing less. There was no need to push himself unnecessarily hard. There was no reason he should be zy with it. He required discipline, focus, and a calm mind.

  Slowly, a small thread emerged from the well of power within his chest, following the same path it always took whenever he wished to communicate with others. At this point he had done this many thousands of times, and yet it wasn't quite at the point of second nature. That was fine though, such a thing should come with continued practice and a better understanding of what it was he needed to do.

  This familiarity changed upon reaching the base of his throat, the thread taking an abrupt turn towards his shoulder. This was not a problem in an of itself, he often followed a simir path to bring these thread to his fingers. The problem would come ter, once the thread reached his shoulder and made a turn towards his pelvis.

  The explorations he had taken through his body, sending strands every which way in order to find more efficient pathways and seeing how his body responded, primarily radiated outward and then back inward. He had been informed that this was usually the way people made loops, and so he had done minimal teral experimentation. This wasn't to say he had done none, this was a path he had taken before, but he wasn't as familiar with the pathways. The substantial length of thread that would need to be woven only added to the challenge, needing to split his concentration between the formation of the thread, maintaining the path it had already traveled, and guiding it along a new one.

  A thread that wasn't uniform in strength and size would be more likely to 'snap'. A strand that was woven too thin would not be able to supply enough Split to what y beyond, choking it out and allowing it to dissolve faster than Donovan would naturally lose control of it. A strand which had been woven thicker than the surrounding thread was at risk of infting, much like a balloon, until the point of bursting. The trick to stopping this was to gradually increase the size of the thread as it was woven. Split would naturally bleed from it at some yet unknown rate reted to the thickness of the thread and concentration of Split within, thus the best way of mitigating the issue was to increase the capacity of new segments so they could feed the old as well as satisfy their bleed.

  The further around his body he progressed, the slower he would advance. At a certain point he was spending much more effort weaving than guiding, however he was nearing the end of his journey.

  "Now I'm going to up the intensity." Upon reaching the point of a full circuit, the thread having reached his core, he allowed himself a moment to inform Arc of his intentions. This was something he could afford to do now that he didn't need to guide, and by 'sucking' the other side of the thread like a straw he could accelerate the flow of Split, reducing the stress he incurred whilst 'pumping' it. "Three, two, one, now!"

  He began to absorb the thread from one end and weave on the other, circuting a new thread into position. This one was as thick as he could make it with any degree of consistency, and subsequently the one that would accept the greatest flow of Split. He found the amount of Split leaving his core and not returning through the thread to be increasing at an arming rate, however because it wasn't leaving his body nothing of value was lost. All it would take to gather it back into his core was half an hour.

  "Done!" Donovan couldn't keep it up anymore. This had been more of a sprint than he bargained for, exhausting him more rapidly than simir exercises in the past. If he and Arc wanted to make an experiment out of this, he would need to be able to perform other actions as well. "What did it look like?"

  "A loop, just as you said it would be." Arc brought something up on one of the screens to the side, a rotating model of his body with a sort of x-ray projection of the path inside of it. According to Arc's sensors, it wasn't nearly as thick as his imagination led him to believe. Estimated measurements were provided alongside 'known' objects of approximately simir width. Instead of being in the range of pencil lead, Arc's sensors suggested the thread was closer in diameter to a hair or muscle fiber. "Might I ask why the path is jagged?"

  "It was the path that offered the least resistance, though I really only figured that out by way of prodding around. It's possible there might be a more efficient path that has a short section that's tougher to get through, but I wouldn't know." Donovan pondered the implications of this width, which corresponded with the most common application he had seen thus far - the strengthening of muscles. Of course, he couldn't draw conclusions until he saw what other people's strand thickness measured out to, but his newfound hypothesis that this strengthening saw threads being woven through specific muscle fibers had a modicum of logic to it.

  "Hmm, I see. That would make the most sense for a beginner. Perhaps a conversation with the Arboreal Maiden would provide further insight into that option."

  "I could just speak to Titanyana, or anybody who does it frequently really." He knew Arc was simply defaulting to expert consultation when it came to matters they knew nothing about, but something this simple should be expinable by less experienced individuals and those with only a theoretical grasp. "She's not my only resource when it comes to this sort of thing. There's an entire gaxy of people who depend on this stuff to survive, I'm sure they've got the basics down."

  "This is true, though I doubt anyone would be able to describe the functions and mechanics of Split to an entity like myself at the same technical level." Donovan nodded, understanding where Arc was coming from. Without the ability to sense every part of a thing, the only practical method of understanding it was to know how it operated. For example, Donovan was not a magnet, nor could he see or sense magnetic fields, but he knew what they were and how they interacted with other objects well enough to understand how they could be used in a constructive (or destructive) manner. "Perhaps I should start a dialogue with the Holifanians about the subject of mechanized Split applications."

  "That would be a negative from me." Donovan shut that down the moment it came up. "I know we are relying on them at the moment and have a formal alliance with them, but I don't want to lose any of the advantages we have through sanctioned technology sharing, nor do I have the desire to lose out on advantages we could have gained through our own efforts. We just can't guarantee they will stay quiet about such matters."

  "Have we not already demonstrated some of our advantages at this point?"

  "I think you would agree there is a bit of a difference between demonstrating we know how to do something and providing them with the knowledge and equations to do it themselves. Part of the reason I'm fine with giving them access to computers is because I'm confident they wouldn't understand what they'd be looking at if ever they disassembled it, and they certainly wouldn't know how to replicate it." Donovan returned to the center of the room, assuming the position once again. "I think they are smart enough to know that as well, which is why I trust them not to try it in the first pce."

  "I was too eager, I apologize."

  "No need to be sorry, buddy. I know you are trying to help." Donovan gathered a bit of the Split in his chest back into his core, no point in leaving it there when he could use it. "This time I will be sending the thread to my index fingers and making it bridge the gap. I think I have enough for two or three attempts left in me."

  "Then we can repeat the experiment ter. I will handle the measurement of distance between your fingers, but please try to keep it constant."

  "Of course. Starting in three, two, one, now!"