Jerome got back after a long time searching for Csala. His search yielded no fruit and it made him feel as though he just lost another friend. Nyx had said she’ll be back but he couldn’t help the feeling that she was gone for good. He had spent almost all day searching for her in futility.

The dark forest was a really big place and even after more than forty hours of searching, he was unable to find her. It wasn’t until the cold of the dark forest became unbearable and the siphoning of his essence became too much that he decided to head back to the void world.

The moment he entered the void world, the warmth from the sun embraced him and refreshed his tired muscles.

An explosion rocked the world the next instant causing him to guard himself. What was going on? Were they under attack? Jerome looked around but found no battle. The floating mountain, on the other hand, was losing giant rocks like debris that came tumbling into the water. What the fuck?!

“You have to stop her, Jerome!” Selene’s voice reached him.

Boom! Another explosion rocked the world and more rocks fell from the floating mountain.

Jerome looked to his side to see Selene flying toward him.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking confused.

Selene landed in front of him, looking uneasy. “The lady you brought. She’s the one doing that.”

“Huh?”

“She came back a while after you both left, looking gloomy, and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Then she started doing that.” Selene pointed to the mountain.

“She was looking gloomy?”

“Was that you, Jerome?” Selene asked, pinning him with a glare. “I know the look on the face of a woman who has been hurt by a man.”

“How… Why did you suddenly come to that conclusion?” he asked, almost in irritation. “You know what, where is she?”

Selene pointed toward the pool. Of course, that was where she’d be. He thought about what to discuss with her but came up with nothing. Maybe he’d just apologize. He just hoped he wouldn’t end up making her angrier. He flew into the air and toward the pool, stopping when he spotted her a few yards away from the bank of the pool. Nyx was lying in a bloom of flowers, surrounded by wildflowers. It was a picturesque scene and he couldn’t take his eyes off her for a while. That was until she flicked a tiny pebble with her fingers at the mountain hovering in the sky.

Boom!

Another explosion rocked the void world. Huh. So that’s the source of the explosion. Jerome couldn’t help but think what would happen to him if she flicked that thing in his direction. He’d probably burst like a watermelon. And it’d destroy everything immediately behind him.

“I’m sorry, Nyx,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said what I said back then.”

Jerome didn’t know whether to go close to her or not. If she turned her anger back on him…

“Come sit with me, Jerome,” she said.

He wasn’t expecting that. Seriously, he was expecting her to ignore him. Like Csala would. But then he reminded himself that Nyx wasn’t Csala, and she was probably way older than both of them combined. But what was she getting at? He hesitated for a moment and she turned to look at him. Cold eyes met his, causing him to freeze in place.

“Now, love. Are you going to make me wait too?” Warmth replaced the cold in her gaze almost instantly.

He took a deep breath and walked toward her, sitting beside her to keep her company. They sat there for a while. Nyx played with the flowers and Jerome watched her hands, grateful that the explosions had stopped.

“How did you do that?” he asked when the silence became too much. He wasn’t sure why she wasn’t angry at him and her silence made him very uncomfortable.

Nyx smiled. “Couldn’t wait any longer, could you?”

Jerome exhaled a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding. “I — It’s fascinating… and dangerous too. I must admit.”

Studies back on Earth had suggested that small meteoroids needed to be at speeds of up to twenty-five kilometers per second to create a crater. If he was to hazard a guess — his nanites went to work, bringing the last memory of Nyx flicking her fingers at the hovering mountain. The image slowed considerably in his mind’s eye until… Jerome’s jaw dropped.

Nyx was launching those pebbles with so much force in her fingers that their initial speeds were in the range of a thousand kilometers per second! He looked at Nyx in a new light, suddenly very respectful of her.

Nyx sat up and took position behind him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, panic almost ceasing him.

“Calm down, love. I want to give you a haircut. Your hair is too—”

“Err, you don’t have to do that,” Jerome blurted out. Nyx ignored him, combing his long tresses with her fingers.

“Shh, shh. I’m not mad at you, Jerome.”

“You’re not?” That was a relief.

“No,” she said, almost motherly. “I’m not.” The way she said it reminded him of Ms. Tara.

He felt the extremes of his hair fall off. “Thanks,” he said.

“The strands of your hair are very strong. Even for someone in your Realm.”

“Thanks,” he said again, not knowing what to say to her. There was silence again as she took her time to cut his hair.

“Where do you want its length? I can tell you like your hair long.”

Jerome searched her voice to find anything that would lead him to evidence that she was still angry with him, or pretending to care and take her revenge when his guard was down. She could do very nasty things with his hair but that would be petty. And petty just didn’t fit with his description of her. No. Nyx would take revenge like a dragon would — with the wrath of fire and brimstone.

But nothing. She sounded like she was just happy he was there.

“I do like it long. But I’ll leave it up to you to decide what length is best.”

Nyx chuckled. “Okay, Jerome. If you say so.”

Strange. What was going on?

“Why aren’t you angry, Nyx?”

“I wasn’t angry with you, Jerome,” she said with a sigh. “I just… took my anger out on you. I’m sorry about that.”

Jerome wasn’t sure what to say to that. If this was Csala, she’d never admit to taking her anger out on him. Heck, she’d be angry with him for offending her. And maybe she might be right. Then again, Csala was just trying to protect herself. He knew everything was an act. But he wouldn’t be played with. He wouldn’t be manipulated. This though, he didn’t know how to deal with.

“Well, I’m glad you are calm now. I don’t know how much that mountain can take.”

Jerome felt the other sacred artists enter the edge of his senses and he turned to see all of them coming.

The Feis came up to them first, looking all prim and proper. They had taken off their armor, and had on robes he could only consider as official — very patterned and beautiful robes featuring dragons and phoenixes.

Their eyes flitted between him and Nyx from time to time. They looked at her as if she was going to pounce on them at any moment.

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“Ahem,” Lang coughed, nudging the Fei heir forward. Whatever they wanted from him, she wasn’t all for it.

Fei stepped forward and began. “We thank you, disciple Jerome of the Royal Family, for bringing us with you to the Waters of Irithiya. We also thank you for saving two of our own.”

The two Sprouts in question bowed to him — slightly. He had even forgotten their faces at this point. Their bow, however, caught his attention. A fist-palm salute. The rest of the team joined them and even Fei Lin did. Which surprised him. Should she be doing that?

“Thank you, but the bow—”

Trudhorn quickly signaled to him not to reject their gesture. Thankfully, he understood. Jerome coughed.

“Graciously accepted,” he said with a bow of his own, Vorthean style; with his right fist to his chest. He didn’t know if doing the fist-palm salute would come as an insult if he did it. “That said, does anyone know how we can take the water with us?”

The Feis looked at him with a mixture of surprise and hope.

“Our predecessors have tried and failed for years,” Fei Lin said. “Containers never work, and those who came before us never had enough time like we have now.”

“The water is different from normal,” Jerome said, nodding in thought. “Unique.”

Selene’s group walked up to him next. “Hope you’re not thinking we’ll do that too?” she said, implying that she and her team wouldn’t be bowing to him. Jerome cringed playfully at her.

Ajax elbowed her in the ribs before speaking. “Do you have any ideas on how to contain the water without, you know…?” He handed him the head of a spear.

Jerome took it and immediately realized it was the spear he left with the group when he flew off with the ladies. The spearhead was a little misshapen now.

“Without it losing its efficacy?” Jerome completed for him and shucked the spearhead into his void space. “I’ll need to take a look at the water in detail first.”

“For someone who’s spent not even five summers as a disciple, you’re quite knowledgeable,” Lang said, and everyone’s gaze shifted to him accusingly. He shrugged. The man knew no one could talk back to him, except maybe Jerome. And Jerome wasn’t offended by his statement. He knew Lang was curious is all. But everyone else was now being careful around him.

“I had a really good master,” Jerome said and started toward the pool. But he stopped… and looked back at Lang.

“What?” the older Sprout asked.

“You’re different… somehow… Ah!” he said, seeing the ‘difference’ in the Sprout.

“What is it?” Lang asked again.

“Do you not sense it?” Jerome asked with a frown.

Lang looked at everyone else around as if he could get his answer from them. Surprisingly, Nyx walked toward Jerome. Everyone parted to give her room to walk. They all fell silent as she approached him, their earlier discussion forgotten.

“His body is ready for advancement,” she said, and gasps resounded everywhere. “That’s what you sensed, Jerome.”

She pulled him away from the gossip, walking to the pool. Jerome was thankful for that. If not he would have unknowingly gawked at the older Sprout like he was seeing a relic… or a monument. Ms. Tara and Sheela followed them. Jerome turned her words in his head for a while, surprised his senses had improved that much. He had sensed that something was different with Lang but not what. The older Sprout had felt different to his senses. He’d thought that being ready for advancement meant being ‘fuller’.

Ms. Tara held onto his arm, caressing him lovingly. She said nothing, just wanting to comfort him.

“He doesn’t need mothering, you know?” Sheela said.

“Shush, Sheela. Jerome needs company right now,” Ms. Tara said. Sheela rolled her eyes but smiled lovingly at her. “I can see it in his eyes. He misses his succubus.”

Jerome looked at her, surprised. He’d almost forgotten that women talked. She must have gotten the gist from Selene or Nia. But he was grateful that she understood his state of mind. Nyx gave him a coy smile but he ignored her, which earned him a pout.

Ms. Tara chuckled. “Don’t worry. Her secret is safe with us.”

He nodded and peeled himself off her before jumping into the pool. The first time was the charm. A second swim would do nothing to improve him. He cupped his hands to hold up the water as he floated at the top of the pool.

“Vision,” he said, and his sight became sharper. Every mote of vital aura in the water became visible to him and he stretched his sight to see the microbial habitat of the water.

Gasps sounded around him and Jerome looked up to find out what was going on.

“Jerome, your eyes,” Selene said. “They’re red…like Csala’s… and glowing.”

“Really?” Jerome asked in surprise.

“Yes, Jerome,” Nyx said. “I noticed it under the water too. How are you doing it?”

Jerome noticed her question wasn’t really a question. He could hear the sarcasm in her voice and see the slight smile on her face. Others heard it too and many of them chose to look away, not wanting to get involved in whatever was going on between the two of them. But the situation, and the way everyone was acting made him feel self-conscious. He knew what they were thinking, and it wasn’t so. He almost told them all to get their minds out of the gutter.

Jerome couldn’t say he knew why his eyes turned red. He had his suspicions though. It could probably be linked to what Rihal said about those born with the blood of Vorthe. Everybody seemed to have different colors in their eyes, it seemed. The Sovereign’s were gold, Rihal’s were green, and Elder Duten Vorthe’s were purple.

His were red, but why red? He knew the answer to that thought the moment it came to him, and his mind automatically wanted to push the answer away.

“It’s a technique of sorts,” he said, and a representation of blood, blood that I’ll most likely feed on in the near future, he thought, unsettled. He shifted his concentration back to the water and noticed the changes almost instantly.

The Waters of Irithiya couldn’t be carried away from the pools without it losing its efficacy. The bonds that held every molecule together were magically tied to this void world. In fact, they went beyond the physical and into the metaphysical. Jerome sighed. Nothing was impossible though. All he needed to do was find a way to preserve its efficacy for as long as possible.

“First I’ll need containers,” he said.

Everyone started to dig into their storage rings, bringing out whatever container they had with them. Jerome observed that the Feis were a lot more prepared. They had come with a lot of polished wooden lacquerware made from redwood. Pots the size of full-grown men. It was almost comical to see them take these things out.

“Really?” Jerome asked.

“We’ve been trying to do just this for generations. We weren’t going to stop,” Fei Lin said. She was looking very proud of the pots her team brought. Jerome didn’t mind. It was only surprising.

The Itakars on the other hand, weren’t prepared for something like this.

He walked up to the wooden lacquer pots and studied them for some time. After a while, he shook his head. “This wouldn’t work for what I have in mind,” he said.

Fei Lin’s expression turned to one of shock and annoyance. “These are made from the Baelors redwood tree from the West of Vorthe. They are of the best quality and the most expensive wooden wares you can find anywhere in Vorthe. If you can’t use this, I don’t know what else you can use.”

Jerome gestured toward the huge trees growing around them. “Those would do fine. They absorb the light from the sun here. A sun that never sets, if I might add.” The trees were few and far in-between, but they only needed maybe three.

“I wonder why that is,” Selene said. “And how do you even know about it? You’ve been here for what, two breaths?” She was fishing for information. Jerome wasn’t going to take the bait though.

He pointed at the floating mountain with a thumb over his shoulder. “That… is at the exact spot we’d call North. You can’t go North anymore than that. So there is no zenith or horizon for the sun. Let’s get to cutting, shall we? The trees aren’t gonna cut themselves.”

~~~

“I can’t go on for much longer, Jerome!” Lang said as he strained his muscles to pull and push the saw on the other end of Jerome.

“Just a few more, Lang. Just a few more!” The saw was almost through the trunk.

They had spent the better part of their second day here cutting down one tree. The wood of these trees was alive, so to speak. They were as tough as steel and always began visibly healing in as little as ten breaths. And this was the first one they would successfully cut — if they could last a little bit longer.

Charybdis was also the only weapon that was effective against it. As such, Jerome had transformed it into a large saw with a handle on both ends. He held one end and Lang held the other. Jerome had to morph Suzie into a set of gloves that Lang could use to protect his bare hands and thereby his vitality from the devouring weapon.

Thankfully, they were cutting diagonally. And the broadness of the blade prevented the line they had cut through from sealing shut. This way, the tree would fall by itself. But they had to do it before the side they had already cut through healed completely.

They both groaned, speeding up the pace of their back-and-forth movement. Jerome could sense Lang cycling to send essence to his muscles to heal his fatigue and strengthen himself. He was doing the same too, but he wasn’t as desperate as the older Sprout. He just hoped they would be able to get this one.

At long last, the saw cut through the trunk and the tree groaned. The others quickly went to the side and pushed with all their strength. The tree came down with a loud bang. Everyone sat down almost immediately, tired from the day’s exercise.

“Why are you all resting?” Jerome asked, breathing hard. “I and Lang did all the work.”

“We’ve not exactly been idle, Jerome. We’ve been trying to cut through another tree. And it’s impossible,” Selene answered. “Your lady friend could have at least stuck around to help.”

“Huh?” he looked around, searching for Nyx. “The sneaky minx. When the hell did she disappear?”

“Let’s rest for a bit,” Lang said, sitting down cross-legged. “We’ll need all of our strength to cut down another—”

“No way, I’m cutting another of that,” Jerome interrupted. “At least not yet. We’ll make do with this one. But it’s already losing its vitality as we speak. Everyone should be able to cut out of it now.”

Trudhorn was the first to dash towards the crown of the downed tree. Sheela raced after him. The trunk was so long that it took them at least ten breaths to get there. Ajax appeared out of thin air holding an axe in hand.

They began to chop with all their might.