Chapter 4

  Yin was dumbfounded, even half an hour after Emriss had pulled him through The Way to Titan’s Grove.

  The name suited the location, the main feature, a tree that seemed to reach for the stars, made even the largest things he’d ever seen seem small in comparison.

  The monarch had assigned some people to get him settled into a guest home, and Yin had followed them without question, still busy taking it all in.

  Everything seemed natural, even when it was obviously made for and by people. Houses, workshops, large entertainment venues and even fountains and sculptures, all seemingly grown naturally.

  And even more shocking were the remnants that sometimes crowded the streets. Every shape, size and color imaginable, making noises that often defied description. Some seemingly mindless ones hauled carts with people or goods in them. Others, more defined and real looking walked on their own carrying out jobs or simply enjoying their days.

  And the people. If people was even the correct word for so many of the beings out and about. Birds as large as horses came and went, some speaking the common language flawlessly, others cawing or tweeting. Sacred beasts in the gold tiers of cultivation were everywhere, mingling with the humans all around. Animal features of every type abounded, horns, ears, tusks, fur. Yin saw more diversity on one street than he ever had in any zoo he could remember.

  ‘’There’s a type of parasitic worm-fly that enters through the mouth and attaches to the spinal cord and takes control of you.’’ Yin’s caretaker guide lightly told him, probably not the first words she’d said to him but the first he’d had the presence of mind to hear.

  ‘’Hope they taste good.’’ He answered, twisting to get a better look at a fluffy serpent that wound itself around a large man’s waist.

  His guide chuckled and he saw a remnant about to cross her path suddenly stop mid step, completely frozen until she’d passed it. ‘’They don’t, quite painful too, and the host never actually loses consciousness.’’

  Yin was starting to feel self conscious about his blatant tourist-like rude gawking and refocused on his guide. ‘’Sorry, I was a bit out of it there, what’s your name again Parasite Lady?’’ He looked around, there’d been more people that Emriss had assigned to him but none were left to be seen.

  ‘’My name is Margo.’’ Margo said sourly. ‘’Don’t call me Parasite Lady, I just happen to like researching them, it’s not my ‘thing’.’’

  Yin looked at the obviously Lord/Lady level woman who seemed like a surprisingly easy target for bullying. ‘’Uh huh, yeah, sure thing. I think I’m done sightseeing for now, can we go faster?’’

  ‘’It’s not my thing~’’ Margo whiningly insisted as she made a gesture at him. Moments later a forged disc of force madra appeared under Yin’s feet, lifting him up as Margo herself was carried up on a gust of wind. ‘’I’m not even a bug person! I just think they’re interesting! Plenty of people research things they’re not fond of!’’

  Yin found it easy to balance on the disc of madra and was quick to cross his arms and try to look stoic and impressive. ‘’Margo, this young master does not judge you for your weird-’’ ‘’Hey!’’ ‘’-habits.’’

  ‘’What ‘young master’? You’re just a vagrant! Don’t get a big head.’’ Margo argued heatedly.

  Yin knew she could easily be anywhere between fifty and two hundred years old despite her youthful features. He remembered that people in this world stayed mostly the same, personality wise, no matter how long they lived. Weird bug girls, would forever be weird bug girls.

  ‘’Huh? You- You’re thinking something rude! Tell me what you’re thinking right now!’’ Margo demanded, still flying over natural architecture that could house hundreds of people.

  ‘’Some things are true through the ages.’’ Yin said, smartly cupping his chin in a hand. ‘’Weirdos will continue to- Aah!’’

  Margo dangled Yin over a sheer drop into a fountain a lethal distance below him. ‘’Now now, be careful! You might fall~’’ She sang, but when Yin looked up he saw tears threatening to spill over in the corners of her eyes.

  ‘’Hahaha! I was just kidding, I like people like you a whole lot! Can I call you Big Sister?’’ Yin fell right back into habits and overcorrected to keep from a beating.

  Margo made a face that looked weird upside down, it made more sense when she put him back on the force disc. ‘’I was just joking around, I wouldn’t actually drop you.’’ Sincere worry.

  Yin took a moment to brush off his tattered clothes and gathered himself. ‘’I’ve been around people who would have for a long time.’’ He sniffed and glanced at Margo who looked like she wanted to swaddle him in a blanket and take care of him forever. ‘’How far is this place I’m staying at?’’

  She paused, bringing them both to a halt mid air. She turned around in a slow circle and then chuckled. ‘’Heh, sorry I overshot there, it’s back this way.’’ They moved back at a much faster pace, Yin was somehow glued to the conjured disc despite the inertia and wind pressure.

  Despite her odd character Margo was a very skilled sacred artist.

  They landed in front of a large square building complex, Yin had seen the center was empty but no details as it seemed hidden by wards. Margo led him through a wide set of doors that opened for her seemingly without input. He wondered if that was her doing something subtle or if the doors did that for anyone.

  The interior struck Yin as oddly Earth-like, all the rugs, furniture and paintings were from Cradle. But the way they were arranged and displayed differed from the sort of feng shui thing they had going on in Cradle.

  ‘’Well, you can have any room here you want really. There’s only three more of you, uhm, ‘Outsiders’ as My Lady called you.’’ Margo told him after stopping in a long hallway with windows into the central plaza. Yin’s eyes snapped from the nature outside back to her .

  ‘’There’s three? Who are they?’’ Margo hesitated and Yin pulled out the big guns, he thought about the night he’d split his soul and his eyes teared up.

  Margo crumbled instantly as he’d expected. ‘’Aaah! Well two of them are sacred beasts, a Yudaloi and a Seviatig. And the third is a human like you.’’ She nervously corralled him into a room, apparently deciding for him which one to take. ‘’I really shouldn’t tell you more than that so you don’t form any weird opinions before you meet them, so, how about you wash the road off you and get some rest? Your stuff will be brought here as soon as I note down your room number.’’

  Yin watched Margo retreat, idly wondering why the tears in his eyes refused to stop. It didn’t matter all that much, he inspected his new temporary lodging. All of it was amazing.

  The bed was large and, unlike the one he’d grown up with, very soft. There was a bathroom with an actual toilet, sink and shower stall. The shower even had a simple control script that let him decide between five different temperatures. He made a mental note to study how it worked when he had some time.

  Heeding Margos advice he took a long shower in the medium setting, being too used to river water to tolerate any higher heat.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  When he came back into the main room he found not only his backpack and other little items. He’d also been given a whole stack of clothes, all a soft green with neat patterns. Probably picked to match with his hair color.

  He tucked himself into the bed and thought about Emriss' question, what was his dream? His ambition? Even now all he could think of was gaining strength for the sake of it. It would be cool to fly on his own power, to be free from everything. Able to call down the wrath of the sun on a dreadgod.

  Rather than figure out his dream he landed on the answer of what his second path would be. Ramiel. The question was how to make it happen, simple light wouldn’t do what he had in mind.

  He lay there for a while, tossing and turning, before figuring out the problem. He got up and changed into a set of his new clothes and then lay on the floor, quickly falling asleep.

  —

  Margo retrieved him in the morning, treating him like he was a tower of cards balancing on a needle. To think his special technique, ‘puppy dog eyes’, backfiring could have such a result.

  ‘’You have any ambitions Margo?’’ Yin asked her as she used very delicate applications of force madra to slide him into a chair in the forest-like interior courtyard. She paused, impossibly balancing on the toes of one foot while her center of mass was much further forward.

  ‘’Eeeh.’’

  ‘’Sorry, that was too big of a question for you-’’

  ‘’No it wasn’t! I just needed to think for a moment.’’ Margo huffed as Yin smirked at her devilishly. ‘’I want to be of use to My Lady. To help her achieve her vision for this world.’’

  Right. Yin could vaguely remember that Emriss had a few major goals for the world at large. Unity, freedom of information, no more Monarchs. Probably a whole slew more but he couldn’t remember it all.

  ‘’Hm, not bad. I’m stealing that, figure out a new one.’’

  Margo squawked in tune with another person making a similar noise. Yin looked up and was treated to the sight of a bird as big as a car laughing. It was a very strange sight.

  When it was done yucking it up it swooped down on wings that couldn’t fit in Yin’s room even only half open. As it landed Yin relaxed his eyes and saw it through his copper sight, it was at the upper end of jade.

  ‘’So you’re another one of us huh? You look like a beat up mermaid. What was your name in your last life?’’ It asked the last part in English, momentarily throwing Yin as it had been a decade since he’d spoken it.

  ‘’Even here it’s custom to introduce yourself first shitbird.’’ Yin smirked at it, and he thought it did the same. But that might have just been how its face always looked, the edges of its beak turned just slightly upwards at the base.

  ‘’Fair enough.’’ It warbled, apparently laughing again. ‘’Montai. Formerly Jason.’’

  ‘’Yin. Oskar, back on Earth. Margo, don’t look at me like that, I’m freaking out.’’ He pleaded with the woman who was looking way too disturbed for someone on the upper end of strength in the world.

  ‘’It’s just so uncanny, you guys are speaking an actual different language.’’

  Yin glanced at Montai who was a bird, and therefore very hard to read. ‘’How long ago did Emriss help to unify the spoken word in this world?’’ Neither person nor bird volunteered to answer.

  A singing voice trickled in, growing louder by the second, announcing the arrival of another person. Though when Yin saw her he was again stunned. She was some sort of goat person, with a life attuned cultivation in the gold realm. She also wore absolutely no clothes, letting only the thin fur on her person obscure the vaguely feminine figure she had. ‘’Ah! It’s a girl! I’m so happy, I thought it would be another boy! I’m Zeurel!’’ She disregarded anything resembling polite manners and simply ran up on hooved feet and grabbed his hand to shake.

  Clearing his throat, Yin affected the deepest voice he could make. ‘’This one's name is Yin.’’ He kept a stoic face for all of a second and then coughed from the strain on his vocal cords.

  Zeurel stared at him with her uncanny goat eyes for a second and then flopped to the soft grass covered ground. ‘’A boyy? C’mooon.’’ She moped listlessly. Muttering about Yin being ‘cute’, the rude creature.

  When the entertainment value dried up Yin looked around. ‘’You said three, where’s the last one?’’

  ‘’Duong probably won’t leave his room.’’ Zeurel pouted on the ground.

  Montai shrugged his wings. ‘’Yeah Duong, he’s uh, kinda depressed or something.’’ The bird clicked his beak and leaned in closer to Yin. ‘’Do you have food on you? Something smells good.’’

  Yin slipped out a strip of very dried meat and offered it to Montai.

  ‘’You’ve already split your soul.’’ A voice said over Montai’s exaggerated eating noises. Yin, and everyone else, turned to see a pale boy in what he’d call a Cradle style pajamas. ‘’How?’’ He demanded, barely containing his frustration.

  Yin looked at who he assumed was Duong, his soul was unnatuned at iron. Yin held up two fingers and rotated them in opposite directions and then drew them apart. ‘’Like that. In your soul.’’

  ‘’Whaat! No way it’s that easy!’’ Zeurel piped up from the floor, having adopted a casual lounge position by Yins chair.

  Duong stalked up and sat on a comfortable looking leaf that somehow supported his weight. ‘’You think I haven’t tried that? I meant.. How could you just.. Do it? I’ve tried but as soon as I get close it’s just… death.’’

  Yin nodded along at the accurate if inarticulate explanation. ‘’Ok, I see your problem. Stop being a baby and just do it.’’ Duong looked about ready to beat Yin up. Even though they were roughly the same size and build, Yin didn’t fancy his chance against an iron cultivator. Besides, Duong might have come up with some dangerous pure madra tricks. ‘’I know, I know, but that’s all there is to it. It totally feels like you’ve done yourself in for a second or two but then it gets better.’’

  Unless your parents are belligerent idiots. Yin made sure not to say that part out loud.

  ‘’Aaaahh I wish I was human.’’ Zeurel complained, scratching at one of the little horn nubs coming out of her head. ‘’I could have gone for life and death or something.’’

  ‘’I would have done a shadow and wind path for stealth and an earth and lightning path for combat.’’ Montai said perching above them now on a thick vine that Yin was almost sure hadn’t been above them a moment ago.

  Duong seemed to be introspecting so Yin offered up his plan for his path. ‘’I’m going to go with a hunger and dream path, The Devouring Mind. And my other path I’m not sure about the details yet, but something with light. Oh! Right! Margo!’’ Yin turned around but didn’t find her, she’d left at some point. ‘’Margo! I need a dream spirit!’’

  ‘’Bro, isn’t making the hunger aspect a part of your path kind of a bad idea? Wouldn’t it be better to make those hunger binding spears or get a remnant graft?’’ Montai asked and then snapped his head up, Yin followed his gaze and saw Margo descending, joined by Emriss and some other people he hadn’t met.

  ‘’Yeah let’s just find a soulsmith who can whip some up for us, idiot.’’ Duong muttered, probably too quietly for Montai to hear, but Zeurel tittered about it with a hand over her mouth.

  ‘’Margo, go get me a dream spirit real quick!’’ Yin called up and then added on. ‘’Hi Emriss, I missed you!’’

  Everyone but Emriss gave Yin odd looks. ‘’I am pleased to see you are doing well, Yin.’’ She said, softly landing, her followers taking up spots seemingly wherever they wished. ‘’Unfortunately I have little time to spare today so I would like to hear your answer.’’

  Her words and manners were soft as ever, but her words were absolute. Yin took a moment to formulate his response. Zeurel pulled herself up to peek over the armrest of his chair. Duong rested his elbows on his knees, so leaned forward he was almost doubled over. And Montai, above them, was reaching for a fruit that must have grown while Yin wasn’t looking.

  ‘’I want to become strong enough that no one can hurt me.’’

  There was deeper meaning to it, he was sure Emriss could see it.

  Montai sure didn’t. ‘’Aayy same bro, ha ha!’’ He pronounced the ‘ha’s very bluntly.

  Emriss smiled at him, and Yin felt his guarded heart heat up. ‘’A fine answer. I couldn’t help but overhear your idea for a path though. Hunger and Dreams. Like someone we know?’’

  Yin’s heart exploded, somehow he wasn’t dead though. Of course, how could he have possibly not made that connection in all the years he’d lived here. Hunger, Light and Dreams were the Silent Kings path.

  ‘’H-Ha ha..’’ Yin said nervously, doing his best to think of how to explain his reasoning as several truegold and lord level cultivators stared him down. The Monarch among them, smiling as placidly as a still lake, was the most terrifying of them all.