"Seira! Where's my burner?"

Kiro conjured fire from his index finger, attempting to heat the vial evenly.

"Sorry! I took it to the cultivation room to study!"

He shook the prototype, his heart racing. "Please go get it! Quickly!"

Specks of blue emerged from reaction, and he desperately tried to calm the sloshing solution. While his healing salve worked great for superficial wounds, it wasn't potent enough to treat anything more serious. This was his attempt to rectify that.

White light blossomed from the nascent elixir, and he held it as far away from himself as possible. One downside of working with such mutable mana was that it was highly… reactive.

His conjured flames flickered the tiniest bit, and a spark of red stained the perfectly white fluid. His eyes widened, but before he could react further, he was engulfed in a ball of multicolored smoke.

Seira emerged from the door, rushing over to his side. "Kiro! Are you ok?"

Even if they were fire aspected, a Purification-stage mystic would have a hard time walking away from such a blast without some burns.

He opened his eyes, laughing. "I'm fine."

In the week since they had arrived on Asura, all of them had made tremendous progress in their cultivation. His core was now filled with a crystalline lattice, a clear mark of the late Condensation stage. After Rynn's dramatic tales of ascension, it had almost been underwhelming to see the first specks of condensed mana form in his core.

He sat up, marveling at his newfound strength. If he were to be transported back to Paradise, he would have been hailed as at least a Brave, if not an instant Elder. Still, as Seira gave him an effortless hand up, he was reminded of how far he had left to go. She and Rynn were neck and neck in cultivation, having both hit the peak of Condensation.

That gap was despite his best efforts, too. Every morning, Aer would wake them up at dawn, and they would eat breakfast together before going off to their personalized training. This was different every day, though he and Seira were often paired together for physical training. This was also when he would read through the jade slip, which he had only recently discovered housed more than five thousand pages. After a few hours of individual work, they would convene for lunch before diving back in with group training.

This typically started with sparring, and despite the gap in skill and cultivation, he was starting to land a few hits on Seira. Rynn, to his amazement, had far surpassed them, and would now frequently demand that they team up against him. Seira, perhaps in a fit of pride, would always decline, and Aer never pressed her. Instead, the Saint herself would spar against him, humbling him with dozens of subsequent beatdowns.

The afternoons were normally reserved for cultivation, though they only did so for two hours every day. When asked why they cultivated for so little time, the Saint cited a foreign proverb: having power is a danger to your enemies, but power without purpose is more of a danger to your friends.

After their cultivation, they had free time until —

"Dinner!" Aer called, a heavenly fragrance wafting over from the kitchen.

The door opened, and a line of steaming platters emerged, dishes of every shape and size piled on top of them. They could only watch, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as plate after plate of mouth-watering food floated over to them. While their master had always given them more than they could possibly eat, this feast far surpassed even the matriarch's wildest imaginations!

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Tender, perfectly golden skewers of meat rested next to a bowl of heaping custard, both of which were bordered by an assortment of drinks, plates, and silverware. A plate of strange multicolored disks arrived before them, after which trailed platters full of roast vegetables, braised lamb, candied pork, fluffy pastries… the mountain of food before them was too much to even see, much less taste.

Amongst them all, though, one particular dish caught his eye. A perfectly smooth bun, stained red by its ingredients and steamed in herb-infused water. The smell alone set his stomach grumbling, and he could almost taste the perfectly cooked, sweet-and-savory meat that was embedded inside of it. Beside him, Seira wiped a bit of drool from her chin, and he recalled the last time they had eaten this dish together.

It had been a cool summer's night, one of the last he had spent as part of the Tang family, and they had just snuck off to see the harvest festival. Despite their clan's ban on Suns eating mana-infused food, Seira had just bought them a pair of specialty steamed buns. Together, at the tender age of seven, they had roamed the streets, marveling at the various performances brought together by this year's harvest. His ribs had nearly been broken in the aftermath, but he still treasured the memory like no other. Actually, today must have been a similar time of year, right before their —

"...Birthday!!!" Aer shouted, spraying them with a shower of sparks.

He blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. "Sorry, what?"

"Happy Birthday!"

He looked at Seira, but she seemed just as confused as he was.

"Sorry, Aer, but firstly… how did you know it was our birthday? Even I didn't know it was our birthday."

That earned him a weird look from Seira, but she ultimately kept her mouth shut and nodded.

The Saint looked at them, and her mouth forming an 'O' as she smacked her forehead. "Right! Right! I forgot to tell you guys, but I was there for your birth. I've been checking in with Paradise since you were itty-bitty."

"Alright, but..." Seira gestured to the abundance of food in front of them. "What does that have to do with this?"

She licked her lips. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

Aer stared at them, her eyes wide in shock. "Oh! You poor things! It's just like that old hag to ban birthdays…"

Their master mumbled to herself, then perked up and clapped them both on the shoulder. "That's ok! That just means I get to make your first birthday party the absolute best it can be!"

She waved her hand, and an enormous cake floated over to them, two sculptures sitting on top. As it got closer, he could recognize that they were miniaturized versions of himself and Seira.

He leaned in, marveling at the detail. "Did you do all this?"

"Yep! That's one of the handy things about a wind aspect. It's like having a million hands at once!"

She demonstrated by juggling the dishes while simultaneously rubbing her belly and patting her head.

"Anyways, where I'm from, birthdays and deathdays are the most important days a person can have. And, seeing as you only get to experience birthdays, we try to make those as extravagant as possible. After all, it's the day you were brought into this realm, the day you went from nothing to something. Without being born, you can't do, well, anything."

She looked around them, giving a slight frown.

"Normally, a birthday is celebrated with all your closest friends and family, but given the circumstances…"

He nodded. "That's fine. You've already done more than enough, Aer. Just look at all this! A few weeks ago, if you would have told me that I would be far past the Ninth Level, surrounded by mana-infused food and people who actually care for me, I would have called you insane."

The Saint sniffled, pulling them both into a hug.

"I know, and I'm sorry I took so long to get you. Let's eat, and as a special birthday present, I'll tell you anything that you want to know about the universe."

Rynn peeked out from the doorframe, glaring at them.

"Honored Saint, I would like to know something…"