With the canvas prepared, Theo could finally move on to the second step of the process, the part where he actively built the foundation for Tia's enlightenment.
Or, in layman terms, a part of the process where he created a physical manifestation of the concepts that would be tackled in the next step.
For now, though, Theo picked up a sharp-headed brush of soft spot before dipping it into the other vial - the one with just the ordinary ink.
"Now, I'm going to start painting over your back, so be prepared for the cold touch," he muttered in the same, monotone voice as before.
Yet, as soon as Theo raised his brush, even before he could properly press its soft, ink-wet tip against Tia's skin…
She twitched.
Maybe out of the anticipation, maybe out of the fear or maybe out of the anxiety of whether she would twitch or not.
Either way, if Theo was even half a second faster, the whole process would end up in shambles, forcing him to start over.
"Anxious, aren't you?" seeing how Tia wasn't really ready for the act yet, Theo lowered the brush and spoke instead.
"I…" she attempted to speak, only to then press her lips together and swallow hard as she lowered her head. "Can't say I'm not."
"I see."
There was no anger or disappointment in Theo's voice. He merely acknowledged the fact for what it was, using this variable to alter his plans a little.
"In that case," Theo muttered before reaching out with his left hand, opening up his palm and then…
Gently placing it down against the delicate skin of Tia's back.
"Ah!"
Not expecting the sudden touch, the young woman jumped a little, her muscles gently moving underneath Theo's palm.
"Feel my touch," Theo instructed with the exact same voice as the one he was using all the time. "Feel the presence of my hand, the warmth of the touch, the mana brimming underneath my own skin…"
In the midst of the formalized procedure, Theo didn't even notice he failed to correct mana for spiritual energy.
"I…" Tia attempted to say something, only for Theo to press at her back a little bit harder.
Nowhere hard enough to cause her any discomfort, just hard enough to stop her from speaking.
"Do not speak. Purse your mouth, breathe steadily and…"
While reciting out the instructions, Theo raised his brush again and gently pressed its wet tip against the girl's skin, right between the thumb and the pointing finger of his open palm.
"Mhmm…" Following up on Theo's advice, Tia focused on her breathing, failing to even notice the touch of the brush against the skin of her back as a result.
"You are doing great," Theo sprinkled a few words of encouragement, keeping his hand at the girl's back for just a little longer while his brush danced in an upward motion, leaving behind a perfectly curvy stroke that made up roughly a third of a full, near perfect circle.
"You should be used to the touch of the ink now," Theo spoke, explaining away as he breathed out and gently pulled his hand away.
For but the shortest of the moments, Tia's skin stuck to the palm of his hand, as if her very own body refused to let it go.
Then, Tia's skin sprung back, snapping away from Theo's hand right as he quickly dipped the brush again and left another mark.
This time, however, the girl didn't twitch, the scary unknown now tamed in her mind.
From there on, the process continued smoothly, allowing Theo to easily paint something right in the middle between a set of seven concentric circles and a seven-fold spiral.
That, however, was arguably the easiest part.
"Now, I need you to focus," Theo spoke gently again as he dipped the tip of his brush into a cup with a mixture of pure water and strong alcohol in it, dissolving whatever ink was left on the brush before dipping it into the vial of the dark coloring mixed with a bit of his blood.
Thankfully, now that the most challenging part of the process was about to begin, Tia no longer showed any signs of rejecting the touch of Theo's hands or his brush.
"First, I want you to imagine all the elements your creativity can conjure. All the basic aspects that mana… that the spiritual energy can manifest as," Theo continued with his instructions, this time taking care to properly alter his dictionary for the girl's better understanding.
"That's it?" Tia asked with, judging by the small movements of her shoulder blades on the canvas of her back, disbelief.
"That's right. All the elements you can imagine. And I want you to think about them really, really hard!"
In all honesty, what he said now mattered little. Or rather, there was no strict, unchangeable procedure for what the initiator should tell the initiatee right now.
It was all about soothing the other's nerves, so that their inner self, the very version of themselves that they hid at the deepest parts of their souls could surface.
A part of themselves that mages often came to reference as hidden ego, of one's pure creativity.
"Don't worry about doing well or doing bad. There's no right or wrong in this exercise, only what you consider to be just right," Theo continued to soothe the girl with both the tone of his voice and the words he used, all the while keeping his brush away from her back.
It was only when he sensed the mana within the girl start to boil up a little in a way no liquid, gas or solid body could, that he dared to bring his brush back towards her skin.
"That's right, you are doing perfectly well, so just continue…"
By now, Tia had long forgotten about keeping up the cloth of her robe up to her chest, now leaving the task of hiding her bosom just to the makeshift cover Theo organized for her before.
Her breath stabilized right between its deepest and most shallow form. Her joints and muscles relaxed… just like a man's would if he were to take a deep breath and then exhale as if he never had to impress a woman ever again with his physique.
In this process of entering a state of deep meditation, Tia's height visibly decreased by roughly half of an inch, effectively compressing the size of the canvas upon which Theo could paint.
Thankfully, though, the framework, the foundation for what was going to happen next was already there, giving Theo proper guidelines to follow.
And as the resonance of Tia's mana reached its peak, Theo closed his eyes and allowed the sense of this resonance to guide his brush-bearing arm.
And as the blood-infused ink left marks on the young woman's back, the relatively simple shape of something between a spiral and concentric circles started to gain extremely, almost impossibly fine details as if Theo's brush turned into but a conveyor for the ink, while the ink itself moved to exactly where it should be.
The process of creating the physical framework for Tia's hybrid magic foundation has begun in earnest…
Even though neither Tia, the initiatee, nor Theo, the initiator, could claim to still be properly awake at that point.