For the first time in a long while, I had felt the gap between myself and another being not as something I could immediately overcome, but as something I would have to grow into. His presence had ignited something within me that I had not felt since the earliest days of my ascent.
Excitement.
It began as a faint sensation deep within my mind, then spread outward, stirring something restless beneath the surface of my thoughts. The familiar inability to remain still returned, the quiet urge to move forward, to grow stronger, to push beyond whatever limits still remained.
A faint smile formed on my face as I rolled my shoulder slowly, feeling the stability of my body, the flow of Essence through my channels, the steady pulse of my core.
For too long, I had been ahead.
Now, I had something to chase.
