.
The ball was indeed destroyed. They didn’t need to confirm it in the end, because the system informed them of it, once the ball finally impacted the floor below. The message was delayed because it takes quite a long time to fall more than thirty miles.
At my request, Lady Kanon used her ‘shortcut’ to transport Mr. Kowa’s team, along with Lady Dilorè, herself and me, to her Garden Pavilion. I felt it the most suitable rest spot for this group. The recovery room in the Dragon Stage was not only too small for Lady Orho but lacked sufficient spiritual energy for either of the Spirit Beasts. Unless they switched to mortal body simulations, it was not suitable for them.
As soon as we arrived, Ka, wearing such a mortal simulation, instantly claimed the serving girl role and busied herself serving tea and seating everyone. Lady Kanon claimed the spot next to me immediately. The training I had given Mr. Kowa intrigued Senhion’s ‘sister’, but unfortunately, I found it a somewhat difficult principle to explain to her.
“I understand the term ‘Will’, of course, but you don’t seem to mean it in the sense of the word that I know,” she complained.
I was still wearing my blue crane robe, over a simple under-robe and skirt, the same simplified court attire that I had worn through most of my life on Huajie. No matter how grand the robes my foster son ordered his ministers provide to the ‘Imperial Mother’ that he doted upon, I had stuck to this ordinary court lady costume. I slipped my hands under my cuffs, linking the sleeves together, and tipped my head in thought.
“It is the same Will, I am simply having him apply a higher state of its nature,” I told her.
She grew a puzzled frown, so I continued, “Perhaps, without my background, it is something difficult for an immortal to grasp. Even those immortals who have cultivated up from mortality normally do not refine the principle to the point of effective application during their ascent. I have deduced that less than one in a billion mortals ever masters it to any extent.”
Lady Dilorè, on my opposite side, chuckled and shook her head.
“You certainly seem to be the same being in my fairy sight, but is that really you, Your Highness?”
I hid my mouth behind my sleeve. “My Lady, I find that honorific far too lofty for my humble self. Even when I am Tiana, I have difficulty hearing it.”
Lady Dilorè looked intrigued. “Really? She never says so.”
“She would never embarrass you by saying so. I am sure that when I return to being her, she will be quite furious with me for telling you.”
Dilorè put her hand over her mouth while giggling. “That was quite a bizarre sentence to hear, Your… well, what should I call you?”
“This small one is merely a scholar named Fan Li, My Lady. Kindly ask your cousin what she would like you to call her when I return to being her.”
The fairy tipped her head and smiled. “You don’t know now?”
“I feel I should not answer for her. We are one soul, but different incarnations.”
The truth was, I knew Tiana’s answer perfectly. This was my personality forbidding me from speaking for another, a sentiment that I admit was not entirely valid in these circumstances.
Dilorè shook her head and returned to the topic of discussion. “I want to know more about this principle. We were watching that mortal fight. He clearly exerted mana in ways that I have never seen a mortal do. It was like watching a dryad controlling her plants. The limbs and vines move themselves with the Earth and Water mana within them somehow, yet no dryad can tell you how she does it. He appeared to be using the same method upon the [Earth Bullet]s he fired, and upon the arrows that Orho shoots.”
Just as I had suspected, they had been watching us rather than training. Well, they had probably trained also, but their real motive for entering the same scenario as us now stood revealed.
I smiled. “Isn’t it even more like yourself?”
“Myself?” Lady Dilorè echoed, puzzled.
“Consider when you fly. Or when you grow your raiment. How do you do it?”
She frowned. “I just… stream the mana that is touching me, don’t I?”
“It isn’t as if you are manipulating mana with your pneuma, as in a magic spell. Your pneuma doesn’t extend out of your body as far as the mana that you stream.”
She frowned, puzzled. “But I can feel myself streaming it. It’s just a natural power of my body.”
I nodded, then looked at Lady Kanon. “It is the same for you, is it not? You merely do it. It’s just like moving your finger. You don’t think of the nerves and muscles that operate, nor of the mechanical structure of bone that they move, you just move your finger. A gelatinous blob in the ocean, lacking all these things, cannot do it. Just the same way, you merely stream the mana and fly, as a natural process. You merely grow wings, or a raiment. Instinctual structures made of Will within your being do these things. An immortal can grow new structures with new purposes within their minds just as instinctively. A mortal, lacking these structures and instincts, like a gelatinous blob lacking bones, muscles and nerves, cannot do it.”
I drank some of Ka’s excellent tea, thinking that it reminded me a bit of the fine teas that the Household Ministry regularly obtained back then, and smiled.
“I taught Mr. Kowa something uncommon even in my world of Huajie. Most in my world who seek strength either refine qi or refine their physique. They are every bit as much one of those gelatinous blobs as the mortals of any world. But in my world, a few discover how to purposefully grow the muscles, nerves and bones of their Will. I gave him the ability to gain an immortal’s powers by cultivating an immortal will. When you and I were that young Celestial Maiden in the Fundamental Realm so long ago, we could influence the spiritual energy and the physical forces merely as a matter of our nature. That was Will that we were wielding, and we had no understanding of how we were doing it. I was able to wield Will consciously as a half-mortal because I was taught by my mother, a truly impressive mortal scholar and martial arts master. She could teach it because the best mortal scholars of that world happened to possess the knowledge of how to acquire the ability.”
Lady Dilorè raised her eyebrows. “A ‘half-mortal’? So you were something like a half-fairy?”
“It was quite different. Spirits grew angry at my mother and hid her away for a few decades. She returned pregnant. It was an infrequent event, but not unique. Such children possess a physique which is half spiritual energy.”
Dilorè had a slightly blank expression upon hearing that description. Naturally. This was not a process she had ever seen in her own world. Huajie and Huade bear very little resemblance to each other.
“The mortals of that world must have been quite extraordinary, to gain the power of immortals,” Kanon observed.
“Most were ordinary farmers and tradesmen. But the soldiers and mercenaries had to be mighty to defend the peace of those ordinary people. The warriors had to be fierce, the martial disciples valiant and the scholars knowledgeable and brave, because the wilds of that world held not only fearsome barbarians, but also creatures and dangers far beyond the level of the monsters and demons of Huade. As a mere twelve-year-old, I and a pair of my fellow disciples had to battle a thunder tiger the size of an elephant when it threatened a village under our sect’s protection. It wasn’t an extraordinary task. It had been assigned to us as a test of skills. It wasn’t a task worthy of an adult practitioner of our sect, you see.”
I sipped tea and thought fondly of those memories of so long ago. Huajie had been my last life before Earth, but even then, the events I described must have been a millennium and a half in the past.
Lady Kanon asked, “And you are recreating that physique even now, it appears.”
I nodded. “Just like these two spirit beasts, I could not maintain this body inside a Huadean environment. I am enjoying it while I can.”
Tiana’s cousin hmphed. “I was wondering why you were staying in this form.”
“Would you like your cousin back?”
“Eventually, I certainly would like her back, but I am enjoying meeting you, so I am fine with you taking your time. Besides…”
She suddenly was leaning closer and brushing my hair. “… I seem to recall that you aren’t a fifteen-year-old in this form. Over a thousand years old, right?”
As her face came closer, I held up a hand, resting my palm against her nose and my fingertips on her forehead. “I am very sure that the fifteen-year-old would never forgive me, My Lady. Please desist.”
Dilorè let out a defeated chuckle.
Mr. Kowa had been chatting quietly with Lady Orho as we spoke. The two did not actually seem to be developing as a couple, but they had become friends. Now, he directed a question to me.
“Look, Chiara isn’t still stuck in that world, is she? I don’t want to just be sitting here sipping tea while she’s going through that.”
Ah. No wonder he seemed uncomfortable.
Lady Kanon answered before I could. “Her time dilation is extremely high at the moment. It has been mere seconds since you left that scenario. Nothing is happening to her. Rather than rush to her side, it would be better to use this time to contemplate what you will do.”
His brow bunched up. “What I will do?”
I smiled. “You must still clear the stage, Mr. Kowa.”
He hooked a thumb at Ka and Lady Orho. “Can I have their help?”
With a shrug, I told him, “Or course, but wouldn’t you rather rescue her yourself? I think you have the power to do it, now.”
He twisted his mouth, then admitted. “Yeah, I think I would, come to think of it.”
“So we will not assist him anymore?” Ka asked.
“We will have you return for later events, but I think he should clear this challenge alone,” I said.
The disappointment that had been in their eyes for a moment, that I had just dispelled, was quite clear. So they had been enjoying working with him? Or was his charm working on both of them?
I wondered if Jia could possibly research that charm a bit, to confirm whether it worked on Spirit Beasts.
“Then I should just sit here and think a while? I want to get her out of there!”
Considering the horrific situation his fair lady was in, and the fact that he didn’t know she had been spared the greater parts of the pain he had witnessed her experience, his anxiety was understandable, but I really did wish he would consider the implications of what I had just said. She had experienced at most a handful of seconds since he left her scenario.
I gave the impatience of a fiery youth a patient smile. The fellow really did remind me of my foster son, when he was also that age. I gestured to the Spirit Beasts and noted, “Even if they won’t be assisting you, perhaps they can help you plan. You have done well up until now by borrowing their thoughts.”
Turning to the skymaid, I asked, “Lady Orho, do you have a favored refuge here in the gallery, where you could take them for a discussion? Lady Curator can provide you with replays for you to analyse.”
I do, indeed, Commander, she answered with a faint smile curling her lips ever so slightly. She turned to Mr. Kowa, Shall we go there? Ka can follow, once she is done serving here.
Ah. I think I just accidentally played “wingwoman”…
Shortly after the two left, I was answering further questions from both Lady Kanon and Lady Dilorè about the mystical power which I had taught Mr. Kowa, while sipping another serving of Ka’s tea. I felt a presence at that moment and received a message by a means which I had not encountered since my death on Huajie. I immediately raised my sleeve to my mouth to hide my surprise.
Lady Kanon’s brow immediately creased as she looked up. “To just suddenly appear like that…”
“Don’t be alarmed,” I assured her. “It seems I have someone to meet. I should go alone.”
I rose and strode to the edge of the pavilion, then stepped upon my lotus blossom platform and rose to the roof.
