Nsala malongo, So.....powers. They exist. You work your alchemy, and they start popping up. It isn't what you expect. It's not like the comics. Subtle things happen. You get a little something here, a big something there. Some of them appear useless at first. Some years ago, after work in the upper cinnabar field, I gained the dubiously awesome ability to see a sort of spirit double floating around people. At first I was BEYOND stoked, and thought I was well on my way toward ascension from my normal state into a vicious and powerful spiritual overlord, as was foretold. By me. When I was like, fourteen. Then, after the wonder wore off, I realized that this was absolutely useless. The double gave me no information about the person, no power to manipulate myself or the other. It was just there. So. Countless hours of heat and concentration, and the end result was this? Of course it *was* useful in the long-run, as a mark of my developing spiritual s...