Chapter 435: Chapter 435 - Home Is Just A Dive Through The Gate Away
"I am *not* going in that."
Sevra stared at the writhing tear in reality at the center of what moments before been nothing more than the carefully arranged essence condensers and sigil arrays. Elua had spent weeks positioning them so carefully, but now they were clearly torn out of alignment in a way that could not at all be safe.
What emerged from the controlled detonation of months of accumulated energy looked less like a gateway and more like a wound in the cosmos itself. Like something the Voidlings themselves would make... if only they were ultrawhite and kind of looked like infinity itself incandescing.
The portal’s edges rippled and shifted between deep violets that hurt to look at directly and silvery whites that seemed to pull at her very spirit. Something was also ’burning’ her essence field just from being nearby, though that wasn’t a *color* she could see with her eyes alone.
Even Madrigil was watching from an extended distance. His academic instincts were clearly fascinated by the mechanics at play even as his survival instincts kept him well back from the portal’s influence. Or perhaps he simply did not want to risk being swept up in it and transported home.
All in all, the event horizon - if that’s what you could call the swirling boundary - gave off the distinct impression that stepping through it would involve being dissolved into pure information, reconstituted on the other side, and possibly involve philosophical conundrums about what it means if life itself can just be boiled down to such transmittable ’data’.
"Why? It’s perfectly safe."
Elua er Goltbred said this with a straight face and a casual tone that was the same as when she was asking why the scout wouldn’t try to eat the meat of one of those weird mole creatures they’d found a month ago. The teenager stood at the control area of her months-long project with obvious satisfaction in her mint eyes as it reflected some of the portal’s eldritch-adjacent glow.
"The visual effects are admittedly dramatic, but that’s simply what happens when you punch a hole between dimensional spaces. Controlled or not."
In the distance, the steady rhythm of construction noises continued as dozens of new model spiritual constructs went about their tasks. Some lay perfectly fitted stones in predetermined patterns, their movements synchronized to each other like clockwork. Others hauled massive stone blocks along the forming roadway from a nearby quarry - one that would connect the gateway staging area to the main mansion complex.
The sound of sigil-worked metal on stone rang out as the quarrying constructs shaped the next foundational section of the road. Finishing constructs followed behind all of it to smooth joints and add decorative elements as well as extremely basic ’stamped’ sigil clusters
It was the sort of large-scale infrastructure project that would take large mortal crews years to complete. And even quite a while for skilled cultivator Guilds that specialized in this type of work. And it was happening as mere background noise to their conversation before the waiting gateway, thanks to the wonders of automation.
"No. Nuh uh. You saying that doesn’t make it look any less like it wants to eat me and all life in existence. Just like those moles’ disgusting queen..."
Muttering the last part with distaste, Sevra recalled that it *literally* ate its kin, it was so voracious. And now... it had been processed and its parts made into a number of things she preferred not to think about. She couldn’t deny a certain professional admiration for the scope of what the ancient cultivator had accomplished as a single person in a short amount of time.
But sometimes she just wanted to curl in her bed and not think about the details. This was one of those days, as momentous as it was. The roadway alone represented more organized civic effort than most small Guilds managed in years.
And the plan created to do so and beginning the execution of it by building a modular steelworks - to make components for her constructs - had been automated in a single month after the ancient cultivator returned from her seclusion.
"You have the book?"
Sevra patted the leather satchel at her side at the question. The carefully bound volume inside it kind of scared her. Mostly because she had been made to memorize its contents cover to cover. Just in case it was lost, stolen, or for some rare reason did not appear wherever the Shadow Whisker member did.
"I still think it’s overkill to have me learn it word for word when the thing is practically indestructible."
"Practically is your keyword. Having excess avenues to achieve your goals is not so often a bad thing, in the long run. It keeps an operation running when it may have stalled, a relationship ticking when misunderstandings may have occurred, and in some cases saves lives if the overstocked component really was so critical."
’And information... while it can be overstocked, is rarely done so. Though people like to say they know too much, they often just want to fall back on the bliss of ignorance.’
Elua’s expression grew more serious as she pulled a small crystalline device from her robes.
"This should help you find your Memory cultivator. A tracking device keyed to that blood sample I took. It won’t give you his exact location, but it will tug you in the right direction."
"...What sample?"
"You remember that ’bug’ that bit you a month ago while you slept? That."
Sighing and deciding that wasn’t worth engaging with, though she was sure she would have given permission if just told about it... the scout accepted the device. Letting only the ’gratitude’ spill out from her spirit while tucking it carefully into an inner pocket.
A small smile played at the corners of the reincarnator’s mouth as she studied her... friend’s face. Nearly half a year of shared isolation had created a strange bond between the *apparent* teenager and the ’grown’ woman. Someone she had tricked at times, had definitely lied to with her facade in the past... but for the most part was the first person outside of her family she was so freely ’herself’ with.
"I know I’ve said this about a thousand times in the last week... but tell Qat I’m building something wonderful for us. That I’m not just hiding and sulking or being as absolutely completely as selfish as I feel."
With a strained face, the brunette clenched her fists. She’d cried the first time she said it to Sevra. Even though she had not done so while writing it into the private letters to Qat. Letters that the other woman did not actually have the capability of unlocking to read within the book.
"That I’ll be home the moment I’m ready to be. And that she is allowed to use people she trusts to come in here to get me if ever needed. That I will abandon this idea in a heartbeat if she just asks me to."
"I already promised I would deliver your decision and devotion. Stop distrusting your courier."
"Why should I? You haven’t even taken a single step towards the gateway to avoid me making you promise another hundred times."
Eying the whiteness, the cultivator slid her foot on the ground a few inches before stopping.
"Elua, I really-"
"Enough fussing."
With casual but irresistible force, the teenager grabbed ahold of the cloak’s collar then threw Sevra directly into the writhing cosmic channel. A startled yelp cut off abruptly as she vanished into the swirl. Only moments later, the event horizon destabilized into a small point of linked containment to the target location.
With a sound like spacetime itself sighing in relief.
’Or perhaps that was just me.’
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
"Damnit, Elua!"
Sevra’s unfriendly curse echoed across the suddenly nighttime sky. The transition through the portal itself had not been as disorienting as she’d feared. At the very least, she did not remember being turned inside out and reassembled by someone with only theoretical knowledge of human anatomy.
But tumbling through the airspace a few stories above an estate that she recognized easily enough from ’looking into’ the heiress repeatedly... was not her idea of a good time. She was sure that the ’teenager’ had known exactly what was going to happen and it was surely why she was exposed to ’flying’ so much!
Months of training and advice from the ancient cultivator had not been wasted. Her Air Element responded fluidly even through her’ toned down’ panic. Because urging the tinged essence around her to fall under her control was so much easier than in the density of the exclave itself.
Streams of controlled wind pushed back against her fall and redirected her trajectory toward the middle of the largest building below. The sort of slow-fall hovering that would have been impossible to her if she hadn’t become a Primalist in essence while she waited to escape. Which was also why, as she aimed for the wall leading down into the courtyard instead of the tile rooftop...
The Adhesion Technique methods Elua er Goltbred had drilled into her during their long afternoons lately could also be invoked. Her feet touched the relatively smooth surface and stuck for mere moments, absorbing momentum in a short run-off down the wall. But ultimately she still had to end with twisting her body and landing on her back in a soft patch of soil being prepared for replanting flowers.
’Not bad for someone who thought she’d die the first time she was launched in the air. I never want to do it again, but it’s still nice to know I *can* do that...’
She allowed herself a moment of shallow pride before the lack of sounds caught her attention. An eerie silence that felt wrong enough for her to try and rapidly launch out in a Walk to take a quick look. Seeing what should be a dinner party if she was any expert, but with everyone either standing or sitting in a daze... and some ’assassin’ looking uninvited guests curled and twitching on the ground...
"Oh. Right. This must be that thing I was supposed to warn the parents could happen."
Sevra muttered to herself as she snapped back and made her way up and across the roof to the other side. Toward what looked like an already open window that would lead to the nursery. Two cultivators were *down* at the base of the building and dirty boot scuff marks on the threshold told her brilliant tracking skills that this was their primary entry point.
’Which is probably why that crazy swordswoman that loves that crazy reincarnator has... *this* going on across it...’