Meatball was ecstatic to be back in her garden. During their absence, the new saplings had gained several inches. Some of the first sprouts were almost a foot tall and had woody stalks. Luminous silver veins ran up a couple of them. The rest emitted green and gold. The Ironroot Whelp excitedly zoomed around them, and Nil could feel a subtle pulse of energy radiating from her. It was whatever fueled her Regenerate ability. All plants emitting Qi and other unearthly existences shivered.
A comforting warmth flooded Nil when he drew the cocktail of alien energies into himself. The garden was rapidly becoming Nil’s favorite place in the world. He enjoyed his nights with Selia but treasured the solo mornings when he could roll out of bed and straight into the garden. It wasn’t just a place for him to cultivate and converse with Meatball. The space reminded Nil of his mother. It wasn’t as vibrant and pruned yet, but it reminded him of the days they first started organizing the space.
Nil and Elizabeth Gibson-Roy had tilled the earth, fertilized it, planted seeds and saplings, and then spread around mulch. They didn’t know what they were doing at first. Elizabeth had done some gardening as a child, but she was more of a bored assistant than a gardener. Nil understood now that his mother associated gardening with her late loved ones. She had him help with digging, planting, and watering so he’d develop similar fond memories. Now, the young plants reminded him of the joy he had felt with Elizabeth when their poorly planned garden first started to take shape. Naked stems, woody saplings, and tiny green leaves didn’t make for an ugly, naked garden, but it was the fruit of their work, and the pair were proud.
“You’ve done a good job, Meatball,” Nil told the whelp as she created a new mound of dirt. “Are you expecting something new to sprout?”
All Nil got in response was a solitary, high-pitched squeak. It sounded more like a demand to be left alone than an answer. He watched her amused for a moment before finally closing his eyes and beginning his daily cultivation exercises.
A sudden emptiness filled Nil, and an unknown force sucked him deep into himself. It felt neither hostile nor friendly. Instead, it was just a bit of nothing. It fought him when he tried to open his eyes at first. The warmth flowing through Nil intensified, and he felt far more Qi flowing through and around him than before. Once the emptiness faded, Nil was able to open his eyes again.
Nil found himself in a clearing under a tall banyan tree. When he took a step, the ground shifted and rippled around him. The waves faded and stopped altogether before they reached the tree trunk. Those moving away kept going and continued into the flowing water around the little island. A mangrove forest stood beyond the river.
A deep breath didn’t just bring fresh air, heat, and humidity into Nil’s body. More Qi than Nil had ever encountered came with it. Unfortunately, he struggled to contain the energy, and most of it left with the exhale. He only successfully held onto a tiny fragment of it and forced it through his energy channels. The imaginary tiger struggled to maintain control as the torrent pushed him from behind or battered his sides, threatening to overwhelm him.
“Natural Qi is your friend,” a voice said. “It doesn’t wish to dominate or be dominated. The energy you wish to harness is not the same. It's wild. Volatile. The Source is alive and whimsical. It wants to control and manipulate. You can’t just dominate it, but grasp only as much as you can handle and then bend it to your will.”
A man emerged from the banyan tree’s shadow. He wore the same clothes as the old man Nil had met in the Nexus market, but his face wasn’t a curtain of wrinkles. It wasn’t that the man looked younger. His hair was still mostly grey. His cheeks sagged and had the visible paperiness of someone in their sixties. Nil struggled to put his finger on the difference at first. Then he realized it was Qi. It flowed through the man and almost seemed to nourish him.
“Give me a name, boy.”
“Sunil Roy.”
“No. That’s not who you are. Give me the name that defines you. The one that you wish to tie to the Qi and weave into the tapestry of the multiverse.”
“Nil, sir.”
“Drop the ‘sir’ nonsense.” The man sighed. “I told you. I’m not one of the pretentious fools that run the Nexus Market schools.”
“Then who are you?”
“Just a humble cultivator willing to drill my master’s lessons into the next generation. You may call me…” The man’s voice trailed off. He stared past Nil, eyes glazing over. “Keeper of Knowledge. Maka Dee, the Cosmic Spider. Yggdrasil. Do these names mean anything to you, Nil?”
“None except Yggdrasil. That's the tree of life from Norse mythology, isn't it?”
“Mythology.” The man snorted. “Right. It's curious. They're all Cosmic entities who transcend life and death and have reach across countless dimensions, and your life is somehow entangled with several people that interest you. You're the common denominator between them. Most of these people wouldn't have come together if not for you, but no one has tagged you as anything special. Why do you think that is?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Nil shrugged. He continued to breathe in the ambient energy and circulated through himself. He didn't know how long he had left in the strange space and wished to make the most of it. Instead of getting easier, cultivation grew more challenging with every passing second. The energy within himself had thickened, turning viscous like honey. Instead of forcing it through his channels, Nil let it move at its own pace. Whenever there was a clog, he gave the Qi a little prod.
“I'm no one special,” Nil said. “I don't know which of my friends or associates you're on about, but they're all great people. We want to do good for our world and people and help the Nexus push back the Scourge and Void. I don't know about the others, but I've done nothing to reach out to multiversal entities.”
“Neither have the others, yet they draw interest,” the man said. “In my opinion, you're the most intriguing of them all, but no one has tagged you. I think it's strange, that's all.”
“So what shall I call you?”
“Watcher.”
“Are you related to Yggdrasil and the others?”
“No. I'm no one so grand. Just a curious old fool.”
“You don't work in the Nexus Market, and it's clear you’re not a Nexus agent.” Nil struggled to process everything he had just learned, trying to connect the strange alien names to his friends and acquaintances. “Are you from one of the Control Worlds?”
“No. My origin universe has long fallen.” Watcher approached Nil and poked his spine with his knobbly walking stick. The Qi flowing through his system loosened, and breathing became easier. “Now show me how you wield the energy that separates and connects universes. I’m curious.”
Nil’s instincts proved right. The old man was far more than he appeared. The air around him reminded him of the older Song sister. Immortality had made her presence overwhelming. Just her aura threatened to suffocate Nil. Watcher was similar but contained and restrained. The energy within him was purer than anything Nil had ever felt but faint and distant. A thick veil separated them and Nil lacked the ability and knowledge necessary to penetrate it. But he was sure of one fact.
It was ancient.
Not ancient in any metric Nil could express. He was just sure that Watcher was far older than his appearance suggested.
“Stop trying to pinch closed the hose,” Watcher said when Nil demonstrated his emission technique. “Working smarter is not the option. Go back to the beginning and take the necessary steps. Control the flow from the tap.”
“I thought I've been doing that all along,” Nil said through gritted teeth. Sweat soaked his hair and clothes. It felt like his insides were burning up. There was more energy flowing into him than he could circulate, contain, or release. “The pressure is too much.”
“If that were the Source, you'd be dead right now.” Watcher sighed. “Why are you special? Why do these people gravitate toward you? Tell me something about yourself.”
“I cook good food?”
“Ah. You're a nurturer. That makes a lot of sense.” He paused, pressing his cane against Nil's abdomen, just under his navel. “Qi needs a central gathering, mixing and filtration point. It needs a heart. The Schema was nice enough to create your energy channels and their nexus point, but you're just pushing the Qi through it.” Watcher sighed. “Think of the pathetic Source Sphere you projected and shaped during your match. Recreate it with Qi right here.”
Of course, he saw the match.
Nil suspected the man—or whatever Watcher was—had been watching him for a while. It was creepy, but he sensed nothing nefarious about him. He wished to analyze the entity and was sure it or they wanted to study him too.
“Isn't this cultivation? I'm here to study Qi techniques.”
“Your foundations need foundations. You must learn to tame the Source inside your body, or it will never bend to your will outside. Consider it a wild animal. You'll never break the beast, but perhaps you can convince it to assist you for a moment before it returns to the wild.”
The Source Sphere Nil had created wasn't just energy compacted into a ball but a vortex. The rotations pulling everything inward helped fight the Source’s desire to diffuse. As long as Nil held on to his shaped projection, the rotations maintained their speed and didn't falter. Unfortunately, the system rapidly lost its stability once out of his control. Nil hoped it wouldn't be the same in his body.
“Good,” Watcher said, taking a step back. “You're quick on the uptake. That's always good to see in a student.” He paused, chuckling. “Not that I’ve had many students before and have much experience teaching. You’ll just have to be a fun little experiment.”
“I'd rather not be if that's okay,” Nil said, fresh beads of sweat running down his forehead and temples as he struggled to contain the wobbling sphere within. “Why did you approach me, anyway?”
“As I said. I'm curious. You're much like the organization you serve. They're a Nexus point in the multiverse where the Control Worlds converge and work toward what they deem is for the good of life. Similarly, you've become a Nexus point of change in your own corner of the multiverse. Your purpose might be great, or it might just be to bring individuals and entities of importance together. No one can tell yet. But I wish to find out. I’ll share the little I know about energy and Qi. In exchange, you grant me a window into your life and world.”
“The Control Worlds aren't doing good?” Nil picked at the piece of information that intrigued him the most. “I thought fighting off the Void and Scourge is a positive thing?”
“It is, but the more one side tries to disrupt the balance of life and death, expansion and entropy, beginning and the end, the more the losing side pushes back. They work harder, go farther, and cross lines they didn't before. There is a reason the Scourge is currently winning, and the arena construct included them in the fold.”
“Which is?”
“Getting all the answers handed to you is no fun, Nil. Observe. Discover. Deduce. Watch the people and multiverse around you. Before seeking solutions, you must ask the correct questions.”