“No, child,” the elderly dragon repeated. “I know I cannot convince you with words, so I will show you with my actions and my care that not every corner of the night sky hates you. Stay where you are, and do nothing. Those who love you will take care of the rest.”
With that, she exhaled, and more green mist washed out.
All three Source energies streamed out of the nearby objects into that mist—the Sourceplants, the treasure, the pools of liquid, the spiritual insects and grass from earlier, the two eggs I just realized were on either side of me. The strongest concentration of Source energy came from them, as it streamed into me.
I didn’t see what the point was. It seemed like trying to put a person back together with bandages.
And yet...
The tenth crack formed. The tenth wisp drifted out. The tenth drop of qi puddled into existence. In spite of all the damage roaring through the rest of me, devouring me into nothingness.
“Why is this happening?” I asked, hearing my own voice grow faint, and echoing oddly into the burning void.
“Because you are still growing, child,” my adoptive grandmother informed me. “Loss and growth sometimes speak the same language. It is the way of things, when the night sky works properly. Mourning turns to dancing. Tears turn to gain. Otherwise, why would we cry at all, if it did us no good? Watch now, young rider, as you face what you think is the end, and are made new.”
I continued to fade and ache, and I realized I didn’t have it in me to believe her. But I longed for the comfort of her words anyway, and so I let my defiance go.
I could do that, at least.
Even if it didn’t matter.
My chest and arms disappeared. I could only assume my head was beginning to fade as well, as I could not look around to see it.
But in a horrible example of irony, I still had a clear sense of my essence cracks, my mana wisps, my qi drops. And as I continued to be less and less, they stabilized within the very next few moments.
I had five undefined essence cracks remaining, and five that were already defined as parts of a human figure: my heart, my mind, my bones, my flesh, and my essence itself. The remaining five sought out definitions for themselves: one for the senses, forming a line through my ears, eyes and nose; one for my limbs, adding more definition to my legs and arms, which I believed would have given them greater speed, strength, and coordination, back when they existed; one for my ‘hide,’ as it called itself, enhancing the durability of my skin; one that called itself my ‘claws,’ which strengthened any part of my body I might use as a weapon, such as my knuckles, feet, joints, or even my teeth and forehead—all parts of my body I had likely lost for good. Finally, the last crack chose to define itself by running from my chest to my mosaic’s mouth and calling itself my ‘breath.’
I had six undefined wisps, and each wrought a science out of the fiery devastation within my Soulscape. One looked at what little life there still was here and chose biology, the study of life, for itself. Two more looked at the earth breaking below and the starry sky blazing above us, and sought out geology and astronomy, respectively. The next two pondered over all the fire happening within my body, and sought out chemistry and the narrower focus of thermodynamics. Finally, for reasons unknown to everyone but the faded part of my brain, the final wisp focused onto kinesiology, despite the fact that I was little more than a collection of Source energy now. Then again, even if I were not dying, I had no idea how I’d continue to develop magic from all these different sciences.
Lastly, my six undefined drops projected their own confidence and specified into arts and elements. The first three completed both Western and Eastern concepts of the natural elements by selecting water, wood, and metal, acting on whatever impulses I had before my soul had broken. The next two rounded out my apparent fascination with nature by focusing on the nature of lightning and frost. But the final one reached for an art I wholly appreciated, even though I’d never have another opportunity to use it.
My last art was the art of war.
There I had it. All thirty substages had been defined. I would die on the cusp of Advancing to the second stage, or perhaps become a half-formed ghost, in a pale imitation of Grandmother Mara’s own part-soul.
The lava below is cooling, the sense-crack in my mosaic pointed out.
There are no more fiery stars that can fall our way, my wisps regarding the sciences of earth and space revealed.
“There,” the motherly spirit said in satisfaction. “Now, child, I can show you the other side of pain.”
My qi drops went to work, each making a microscopic subdroplet and splashing it out through the green shield and into the ground below. My wisps began to circulate, spreading their natural laws into the atmosphere.
And the human mosaic raised both its arms and pointed outward, and suddenly the cracks in its body radiated past it.
I blinked, and realized I had actual eyes again, and eyelids to cover them with. Then I realized my heartbeat had quickened, and I inhaled deeply to realize I had organs and a torso again. Then I realized I could breathe, which meant I had the rest of my face as well, along with a neck, and the knowledge made my limbs tingle.
I couldn’t bear the suspense anymore, and looked down.
My body was back.
All of it, including the transformation I had received from Lunei. Somehow, it looked more perfect, more toned, and felt both denser and lighter.
“This...” I started to say, before I became too overwhelmed to speak.
“Is only the beginning, grandson,” Grandmother Mara finished for me. “You have suffered a veritable mountain of pain, loss, and betrayal in your life. And you will no doubt suffer more. But an eternity’s worth of opportunity still remains for you. Yes, you have lost an entire world’s worth of friends and family, but the rest of the universe is still open to you. Yes, I see that you have been denied over a decade’s worth of wealth and care, but I know of hidden treasure on over a dozen different worlds, and the Holy Vessel-Saint no doubt knows of many more. Yes, you have likely encountered over a hundred unworthy princes and kings, but that just means there’s an inheritance for you to claim for yourself, that somewhere a crown of your own is waiting for you, one that you will need to wear wisely. The horrors in the night sky are many, young rider, especially now, but they cannot cut off every single opportunity to bring you joy. And speaking of joy,” she added as she looked toward the two eggs at my feet, now beginning to wiggle in place. “It’s time to meet your new brother and sister.”
I stepped backwards, so that I could see them both without turning my head. All around me, outside the green shield, the three Source energies streamed out, no longer competing, but working in harmony. The planet below us stilled further, and began to spin. Our floating patch of land slowly sank downward, toward the cool, dark, earth below. As I did so, the eggs continued to wiggle and rock.
“Nestor’s going to be so happy,” I said without thinking, and Grandmother Mara chuckled again. I began to hear a rapid tapping sound from the white egg, and a rougher, pounding sound from the dark egg. Cracks formed along both of them. They opened at roughly the same time, the white a little sooner, as a tiny claw poked its way through the top of the egg, while the black egg broke open a second later from the side, as an entire limb finally slammed its way through the side. The white claw continued widening the opening, careful and curious, as if something was trying to get the best view it could before moving on to the next stage. But the little creature in the black egg had already torn its way free, just as the white egg finally tilted and fell over.
A tiny, black, winged lizard the size of my hand tumbled out of the breaking shells, rolling several inches in the grass before letting out the littlest roar I had ever heard. It gave everything around it an angry, bleary-eyed gaze, until Grandmother Mara chuckled over the thing.
“Oh hush, you silly boy,” the grinning dragon told her brand-new grandson. “Go help your sister get out, or she�
��ll spend forever studying her own egg shards.”
The little black dragon reared his head to chirp in defiance, but then he turned and crawled awkwardly over to the white egg, the one being methodically broken apart from the inside. He shoved his head against it, knocking the egg over and sending his little white twin tumbling out of the hole she had dug from the top. She squawked in sleepy indignation, then crawled about awkwardly, her bleary eyes and sniffling nose hunting about the ground. She greedily began collecting as many egg fragments as her tiny paw could carry, while her brother roar-squeaked impatiently at her, lashing his dark tail behind him.
“Both of you, look up and greet your older brother,” Grandmother Mara chided, and two tiny creatures turned their heads upward in surprised annoyance. “Jasper, this is your adopted brother, and adopted sister. Their mother named her son Topa, and her daughter Dimali. Say hello, grandchildren.
Topa, the onyx-colored dragon, immediately turned toward me and began squawking, in what I thought was either a greeting, a challenge, or both. Dimali, the snow-white dragon, gave me a single, disinterested chirp, before shuffling through the ground for more egg shards.
I laughed at the sight, the joy from recovering my body multiplied by the sight of the two tiny, adorable creatures.
“Hello Topa,” I said, kneeling down. “Hello Dimali. It’s nice to meet you both. My name is Jasper Cloud.” I extended a finger a few inches away from Topa’s face. He sniffed it, licked it once with a tiny, cat-like tongue, then let out another tiny squawk, this one attempting to sound formal and dignified. “Dimali,” I continued, moving my finger through the grass to a larger egg shard, “here’s one you’ve missed.”
The white little dragon perked her head up at my finger, then zoomed over to where I was pointing. She pounced clumsily at the fragment, missing on the first leap, then trying again, squeaking in delight when her claws finally made contact. Then she looked up at my finger and nuzzled it, chirping and purring as if it had become her favorite thing in the world.
“I was right,” I said, chuckling again. “Nestor really is going to love you guys.”
“When they are ready to exit this place, they will get to meet him,” Grandmother Mara promised. “And through your bond with the little mouse, all four of you will share gains as you grow. My daughter’s children are already linked with you, through the nature of being born inside part of your soul. For now, I will need to care for them, but it is safe for you to return to the outside world. I suspect you may be needed there.”
I just then realized that I had pulled my entire body into my Soulscape, and reformed it while within this place. As soon as I asked how such a thing could have been possible, I found myself back in the outside world.
I looked about at the now-empty treasure chamber, wondering just how much I had stored within myself, and how I would ever get any of the items back out of my personal world. Then I heard sounds of combat from beyond, and rushed toward the Sourcepalace’s massive foyer.
I emerged to find violence and fire scattered about the room. Almost a dozen of the sparkling crystals now lay on the floor, and numerous braziers and chandeliers now burned where they lay on the ground, throwing light and incense haphazardly about. I saw a small shape with a brush-tipped tail blur about, trying to fix the damage wherever it could, smothering the flames and snatching up the crystals from the floor. Nova flew about the room on her glorious Soulscape wings, dodging blasts of fire and lightning as she returned fire from her war-baton, sweating in concentration as she battled foes I still could not see through the haze of smoke and incense.
No, I realized as I paid just a little more attention, I can make out exactly who our enemies are.
Two robed middle-aged men radiating qi at the heart-core stage, the fourth stage of qi Advancement, carefully tried to circle her, armed with long staves that crackled and burned with heat. They were sweating with exertion as well, though part of their strain seemed to come from protecting the third, familiar figure hanging back some distance behind them, one with an angry, disdainful expression to his face as he glared at his two protectors.
“Have I not already told you imbeciles to be more careful?” Koram’s voice called out as he complained to the men guarding his life. “You’re damaging my family’s property!”
“This place is not your property!” Nova called out angrily. “And neither am I!”
“Beautiful young maid,” Koram began in what he thought was a reasonable tone. “Please reconsider. I can guarantee you would have high status if you were to attach yourself to me, and I could even allow you to visit this place with me in the future. Once your owner learns that he has a representative of the Glorious Star Charter as a guest, I guarantee you he will grant this place and everything inside it to me out of gratitude. Submit now, and I will advise him to be lenient with your punishment.”
As a reply, Nova screamed in frustration and justifiable rage before working a spell in her free hand, while still blasting at Koram’s protectors with her war-baton. A bright, yellow fireball hurtled toward the obnoxious young idiot, who shrieked in alarm as he fell backwards. He was saved at the last minute, as one of his guards managed to tear away from Nova’s blast just in time to deflect the fireball with a qi-infused strike from his glowing staff.
“Young master,” the older man panted, “please do not antagonize the woman any further. She is powerful, and we cannot protect you, restrain her, and prevent further damage to our surroundings all at the same time.”
“Then you both will be beaten and cast out of my clan when we return,” Koram snapped in a frightened, angry tone as he regained his feet. “You outnumber her, and are both a full stage ahead of her. If I wasn’t literally incapable of striking my own servants, I would cripple the both of you here and now. Now hurry up and restrain her—” he yelped and leaped backward again, as the furry blur darted past him to catch another falling crystal before it could hit the ground—“and someone kill that damned rat already! I swear, every world I visit now has disgusting and annoying vermin in it!”
Nestor let out an angry squeak as he dashed over to smother another fire. I walked forward, trying to figure out how to help. My body felt lighter, denser, and stronger, and every crack, wisp, and drop inside me had just doubled in size, containing far more power than they had before. But I still couldn’t access my Source energy, except for what had permanently enhanced my natural functions. All spells, charms, and techniques were still beyond me for now, and that fact terrified me.
Patience, young grandchild, Grandmother Mara said to me from inside, reading my fear. Give it a few minutes. Not every recovery is immediate.
“You!” Koram pointed as he noticed me. “Manservant! Inform your master’s maid that Koram of the Glorious Star Charter, and of the Exalted Pillar Family, has come here as a guest! If she does not stand down and submit to me now, your master will no doubt punish you both!”
“Koram,” I sighed, “what are you doing here? How did you even find this place? And for the sake of every unseen heaven, explain why you expect everyone to know or care about your family and charter?”
His face flinched from me as if I had slapped him, and I longed to make the comparison literal.
“You foolish ingrate,” he sneered, “the Charter my family has helped found now controls nearly a third of the stars within the night sky. As the youngest son of my family and one of the most exalted of rising talents within my charter, I have a name whispered in jealous awe by hundreds of justifiably jealous young men and thousands of admiring, almost-worthy women. It is to your master’s greatest fortune that I have arrived upon this barren world on a private expedition, and once he learns of the incredible venture I have designed, he will no doubt fall over himself in his hurry to invest in my business—”
“What business opportunity could you have possibly hoped to find here?” I asked. “This is a barren rock with literally no resources worth exploiting, and you couldn’t have known about the exis
tence of our Sourcepalace or our master would have already given us orders on expecting guests. Why did you bother spending so many resources to come here?”
“It is not your place to question another’s plans, servant,” the young idiot snapped defensively. “But just so you may have the honor of knowing, I intend to make a statement showing that normal rocks stamped with my family’s seal are more valuable than the supposedly precious metals marketed by lesser houses! It is a genius method of displaying my family’s superiority, and one your master will no doubt have the sense to agree with!”
“Selling plain rocks...” I sighed, as I held my head, “and your family sent you all the way out here to try out the idea, probably just to get rid of you... Koram, next to trying to murder my bonded companion, this is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen you do yet, and I deeply resent that I’ve run into you a second time.”
“He tried to murder Nestor?” Nova screamed as she dodged another lightning bolt from the young master’s bodyguards. “I’ll kill him! Everyone get out of my way so I can tear him limb from limb! Jasper, stop talking to him and go get me a table saw!”
The dark-haired idiot flinched away from my friend’s outburst of wrath.
“Good heavens,” he said in horror. “I know she is pretty, but your master really should focus on utility over ornamentation... wait,” he said as his eyes widened. “Did you just say we have met before?”
“I have in fact, used your name twice already, while demonstrating that I have no knowledge of your personal background,” I replied, struggling to keep the exasperation out of my voice. A small part of me felt guilty for revealing my identity at all to the odious creature, but dealing with him at all just took too much patience. “Despite the fact that my appearance has changed and that I have sworn a Sourcevow of secrecy forbidding me from sharing the exact details of our encounter with anyone but my master and my senior disciples, which my friend over here fortunately qualifies as, you should have more than enough clues by now to determine who I am. Unless you have made a habit of randomly attacking bonded Sourcebeasts.”
Soul Shelter Page 27
