Rayce was floating on the clouds.
Not only did his Master actually somehow fulfill his absolutely insane request, it came with an extra set of rewards. One of them was a Codex of Parchments, a blanket name for a set of parchments made by a same artisan.
And this one was of the highest quality Rayce had ever seen.
Every parchment was a masterpiece on its own, and there were a whole hundred of them. Naturally, he had no intention of testing anything on them; these would be reserved for the most difficult and most potent Words, the kind that could alter the nature of reality itself.
... speaking of.
The last reward Master bestowed upon him was somewhat even more impressive than the previous two, and it was 'merely' a Word.
In Shamanism, words weren't merely conveyances of ideas. Just because someone was able to write 'Fire' and understand that fire is hot did not mean that the Word itself would conjure flames. One's depth of understanding of the concept, paired with the concept's own difficulty, ultimately was just the first step toward writing a Word that would actualize a thought.
Word of Singularity... was beyond his ability to understand. Though he could mimic the shape just fine, he had no actual idea what it was. Even if the Master's gift held a brief description, Rayce was unable to infer anything of note from it.
Condense matter into an infinite point of density.
He understood all of those words individually, but in a set... they may as well have been some ancient tongue that nobody used anymore. He though it a lost cause and was going to delegate it for the future when his Master approached him and asked a simple question.
"Is there something wrong, Rayce?"
"A-ah," he stuttered and smiled awkwardly. "Yes, forgive me Master. I'm far too incompetent and am not quite sure what 'singularity' means."
"Oh," Master nodded knowingly. "Hmm. This will be a bit of a lengthy explanation. Why don't the two of us sit down for a bit and talk?"
"Yes, of course!" he quickly procured two cushions and placed them at some distance from everyone else. It was for naught, though, as the swarm descended upon them rather quickly to listen to Master's lecture.
"To understand singularity, there's another word you should understand first," Master said. "Why do you suppose we don't simply... float away?"
"... h-huh?"
"Why are we anchored to the ground?" Master said, gently slapping the ground next to him.
"I... don't know," Rayce replied honestly. He never really thought about it that way. The reality had always been that people were landbound, and had to either use Qi or Mana in order to leave the ground.
"Because there's an invisible force weighing us all down," Master said. "And we use our arts to combat it. That is why when you toss an object into air, it must always come down."
"!!!" there were soft exclamations from the crowd of everyone that had gathered.
"My grand-grandfather used to call that force gravity," Master continued. "But gravity doesn't merely exist here--it exists everywhere. And it leads to a field of sorts that surrounds everything. Trees, rocks, animals--even us. We all have it. Depending on how heavy an object is, that field is stronger. Now, imagine a point," Master added, raising his index finger. "And now imagine something so massive that its size cannot be understood normally."
"Like a big mountain?" Dai Xiu asked.
"No, much, much bigger."
"The entire world?" Xi Zhao supposed.
"No, even bigger than that," Master said. "Something so massive that it eclipses almost all else."
"!!!"
"A star," Master said, pointing up at the sun. "One just like ours. Now, imagine sizing down that star, but maintaining its weight. Sort of like taking a handful of mud and squeezing it into a hardened pebble. Though the size itself changed, the totality of how much mud there is has not. Imagine that star is the mud, and you are squeezing it.
"Now imagine squeezing it until it fits this point," everyone's eyes drifted back over to Master's index finger. "And then squeezing it further and further and further. If you continue doing this beyond all reason, you will eventually reach a point that my ancestors described as 'singularity'. A point of infinite density."
Rayce frowned; though his Master explained it, he wasn't quite yet certain of the word's meaning.
"How is gravity connected to singularity, Master?" Xing Feng asked.
"By condensing that star into a singularity, you retain its totality; and, as I mentioned, the heavier something is, the stronger the field around it. Gravity that powerful, at the point of infinite density, shears space itself. It becomes so overwhelming that nearby things are stretched and torn apart. Manifesting a singularity would mean that, depending on its initial mass, you could theoretically end the world itself."
"Woah!!"
"Really?!!"
"Doesn't that mean brother Rayce is now the strongest one of us?!"
"No," Rayce said, understanding it somewhat. "I'm assuming that the feed for that mass will have to be Mana."
"You'd know that better than I," Master said with a chuckle.
"Master," Wan Lan spoke up. "Can that force--gravity--can it... be manipulated?" they all perked up as they awaited the answer.
"Of course," Master said. "But that has been done before, even if you might not have realized exactly what you are doing. Any time you use to Qi to just a bit higher than you can without it, or any time you use it to make an object heavier--you've been doing just that, manipulating gravity. Just in a roundabout sort of a way."
"Can it be done directly?"
"Why not? Gravity is merely a force," Master said. "But it's not some massive shortcut you lot seem to be thinking it is. It is like Rayce said," he added. "Just as he'd have to use his Mana to feed that singularity, you'd have to use your Qi to feed the change in gravity. So, if you're imagining making a field of your enemies kneel by just making the gravity push them down... well, good luck with that."
"..." everyone looked away somewhat awkwardly, making it evident that was precisely what they were thinking. But... it was enticing.
Rayce felt the thirst in him awaken; knowledge was a precious thing, and most of the world kept it close abreast. Even between a Master and a Disciple, a good number of things were often left unsaid.
But their Master had no such reservations--the man was a leaky barrel, and in order to drink from the well of his knowledge, one merely had to ask.
"Did that help, Rayce?"
"Of course, Master!" Rayce exclaimed quickly. "Though I may not be able to create one to end the world, I will do my best to make your gifts roar throughout it, at the very least!"
"Right," Master coughed awkwardly as he stood up. "Alright, everyone. Rest for a bit longer. We'll board the chariot and depart in an hour."
"Yes, Master!"