Sunlight reflected off of the waters into Three Squeak’s eyes. The travelers had been given permission to stay with the Heavenly Lake for a time. There was no intent to join them in the long term, but Three Squeaks very much wanted to study them.

He found Slick was quite willing to talk with him, though he preferred to be in the water more often than not so Three Squeaks either had to sit on the shore or swim. At least the newt was willing to come to the surface, because it was difficult to talk underwater.

“So how big is your territory?” Three Squeaks asked.

“We control the lake, and a small area around it.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Three Squeaks nodded. “You don’t have many people who would want to go far from the lake. Though there are some chipmunks a half day thataway you might want to offer to join you.”

Slick shook his head. “We are not interested. What we have works perfectly well for us. Why should we seek to add to our numbers?”

“Well, it would be good for them. They don’t seem to understand proper cultivation at all.”

“So?”

“... I’m sure they’d be useful eventually,” Three Squeaks said.

“Perhaps. But why not spend that effort to develop what we already have? The others and I can spend our time comprehending the heavens.”

Well, he supposed they didn’t have to care about others. Choosing to keep what they had was reasonable enough, and it wasn’t like they were going around killing people. “What about other ways?”

“Other ways of what?”

“Cultivation,” Three Squeaks said.

Slick shook his head. “We have hardly developed this path. Why should we waste our time with others?”

“Not everyone is suited for the same thing,” Three Squeaks said. “Though there are basic refinements everyone can undergo. Being intentional about strengthening every part of the body and mind results in much smoother progression and balanced strength.”

“Each part?” Slick asked.

“Inside and outside, every organ, at least as a group, bones, skin, and things like that. Maybe newts have things meerkats don’t, but it’s more effective than letting natural energy settle inside of you on its own. It’s inefficient.”

“Perhaps we will have some youths try these things.”

“Oh, a warning. Tell them to be careful with delicate parts. Like the brain. You definitely don’t want to force things anywhere, but especially there.”

“We have had some who would try to strengthen parts of them, but they often sustained crippling injuries later.”

“Because their body was unbalanced. If your muscles and tendons are strong but your bones are not, you can break them.”

“That does seem to match our experience,” Slick admitted. “What else? The mind?”

“Well, we’ve picked out various aspects we think encompass most things,” Three Squeaks explained the basic parts of Spirit Building, though without the insights tuned for the One Hundred Stars. “It’s easy to forget about your body, with all the natural energy you’ll have, but you shouldn’t.”

“Yes,” Slick nodded. “I lost a leg because of such a mistake.”

Three Squeaks furrowed his brow. “... Did you have five legs?”

“Of course not. That would be absurd. It grew back, as is natural.”

“Is it…?”

“For a newt. Sadly, the frogs have a hard time with it.”

“A hard time…?” Three Squeaks asked. “Is it even possible for them?”

“Only one or two have succeeded ever. But it is.”

“That’s something I’d like to hear about, if I can.”

“Unfortunately, it has little that can be explained. You would have to see it in action properly, and I have no intention to spend the effort on such an activity.”

“Well, that’s alright,” Three Squeaks said. Better to not hurt anyone. “So how did you develop your cultivation to begin with?”

“Slowly,” Slick said. “I was fortunate to glimpse the heavens, and their reflection in the lake. So, too, I came to understand I could reflect the heavens in myself.” At that moment, Three Squeaks saw the skin of the newt changing to a blue and white pattern. He radiated a powerful energy, before returning to normal. “It was a long journey of hundreds of seasons.”

“Hundreds?” Three Squeaks had his eyes wide.

“Yes. More than one hundred, at least. At some point, I lost track. But I have seen many generations of growth here, with some having more success along the path than others.”

Amazing. Though with all of that time, Three Squeaks didn’t find the Heavenly Lake as impressive. He understood that the Coalition had it easy with outside guidance, but aside from turning the lake into a safe space for themselves, they hadn’t really seemed to make it more than it was.

-----

The Heavenly Lake was boring. That was Half Oink’s expert opinion. Not a single one of these amphibians or fishes used a sword. That was disappointing, because she had heard Ty mention sword-fish before. Clearly, they were living in a different lake.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She did manage to convince a few to spar with her, but they were boring. All mirages and reflections and the like, and she couldn’t even get serious with her attacks or she would cut them in two. Perhaps Slick would have been a worthwhile fight, but he was uninterested and she couldn’t force it. Not without getting in trouble with her own friends, at least.

The archer fish were at least a little bit interesting. They used the water as a weapon, but sadly they chose one of the boring ones like Three Squeaks. Real weapons were meant to be used up close and personal.

-----

“This… one… called?” Meep pestered a frog for details.

“Watercress.”

“What… kind?”

“I don’t know. Green?” the frog shook her head.

“This… reed…?”

“That’s a, uh, tall… poof… reed? Tallpoof reed. Yes.”

“This?”

“Water… lakegrass.”

“What… is… lake… grass… used… for?”

“... decoration?” the frog surmised. “And like… little fishes swim in it. Tadpoles, before we came up with better ways to corral them.”

“This… one?”

“Isn’t that just the lake grass?”

Meep slowly shook his head. “It… is… different.” He began to slowly explain how it was different, from the thickness of the blades to the root structure. The frog was tempted to attempt running again, but this old thing was fast. Better to humor him. They were only staying a few days. Though it felt like it had been weeks already.

-----

“Let me go!” Fearsome Mandibles wriggled. “I need to make sure they’re not up to anything sinister!”

“No, you don’t,” Crossed Antennae said. “You need to rest. Snack on the local natural energy, and let your body heal.”

“You can’t make me rest!”

“I can, actually,” Crossed Antennae pointed out. Much of their conversation happened through pheromones, mostly telling each other to stop interfering. But they still used their sign language, as it was a good extension of natural communication.

In general, Fearsome Mandibles was stronger than her sister. There was a reason she’d chosen her name, after all. But at the moment, she was kind of concerned that resisting too much would snap her limbs again. The chitin was still thin where they had broken before, and while the actual changes were small it took a significant amount of natural energy to heal things perfectly. If not, she’d walk around with stiff legs, at best. In short, she couldn’t do much. But once she healed, she’d definitely be stronger, and then nobody could stop her!

-----

Devon was just about ready to move on from Vrelt to check out Nidec, only a handful of systems away. There was a reason the two had been discovered at a similar time, after all, but there were no known connections besides physical closeness, on the scale of the explored lower realms at least.

It was about that time Aerona came to him with the news. “Have you heard?”

“If it’s something worth bringing to my attention and recent… then I don’t believe so,” Devon said. “What is it?”

“They were doing some preliminary scans of Nidec, preparing for the next step. And… they stumbled upon something.”

“That thing would be…?” Devon prompted her as he was aware she wanted.

“The Exalted Quadrant,” Aerona said with flair. “What do you think about that, huh?”

“... Sounds terrible. Awful and unfortunate. Why can’t any world have their own problems, huh?”

“Because the upper realms have been working very hard for untold millennia making things bad for us,” Aerona said.

“Yeah but besides that.” Aerona just shrugged. “So, how bad is it?”

“That’s the thing… the factions are both known to the planet and somewhat sympathetic. I heard that Ceretos… well, you befriended some of your local factions, at least.”

“True, but the ultimate consequences went beyond just here in the lower realms. I can’t say I don’t want to sway them to our side, but…” Devon shook his head. “The connection would be from each of these isolated groups to those in the upper realms, not between each other. Then again, I’d like to hear what they think. If they even have anyone associated with who we know.”

“I believe the names of the Worthy Shore Society and the Hardened Crown Sect came up.”

“Really? What are the chances of that?” Devon frowned, “Actually, quite high I would suppose. If they’re the type to send people to dwell in the lower realms, it would make sense they did it more than once. This means we’ll have to get in contact with Syrinx, to see if ‘our’ part of the Hardened Crown is even interested. Their former sect head yelling at them from the upper realms opened up diplomacy with them again, but…” Devon shrugged. “It’s a bit much to ask for them to convince another part of them to join our cause.”

“That’s what people like me are for,” Aerona said. “Official policy will have to be discussed, of course, but I think we should angle for that connection. Much better than unrelated people showing up and effectively threatening them.”

“It sounds like a delicate process. One which might not concern me directly. But… I don’t mind going along with someone who has a plan.”

“Plan is a big word,” Aerona said. “I just want our borders to be secure and our people happy and prosperous. Udre was just as lucky to be found by the Alliance as I was to find you.”

“Pretty sure I was the one who went to Udre…” Devon grinned.

“Yes, but if we’d relied on you we would have missed out on… us,” Aerona said.

Devon shrugged, “I can’t really deny that. I’d long moved past the desire to look for a partner. Your ability to change my mind on that is part of the reason we do so well together.” Devon scratched his head. “So for now, we have to wait around for decisions to be made, I suppose.”

“You can always push things one way or another,” Aerona pointed out. “But yes.”

“To think, this could all have been resolved a long time ago…”

“Could it have?” Aerona asked. “If I recall correctly, the connection to the former Hardened Crown sect head in the upper realms came about some time after our systems came in contact. So if you had rushed into things, you might have begun hopeless negotiations with Nidec.”

“But we could have also completely prevented the transmission of information about Anchoring, I imagine,” Devon said. “But this is a problem faced perpetually. Speed and caution are at odds with one another, unless one is powerful enough. Even then… there can always be harm to others. My grandfather has to deal with that, even though he himself is pretty much untouchable here.”

“And you too, soon enough,” Aerona said.

“Perhaps,” Devon said. “Though in such a case I would wonder if we might come across another group of similar power. Someone has to be the first to rise to a certain level of power, but we can’t guarantee it was us.”

“That’s why you should always stick your best diplomatic foot forward,” Aerona said. “We look friendly but not weak. Then it doesn’t matter if others are weak or strong, an appropriate response can be prepared.” Aerona paused for a moment, “This means I do need to focus on my personal cultivation, at least for appearances. But as you’ve said, time will solve that.”

Devon nodded. Indeed it would. And as far as he was aware, they did still have a good amount of that, and it was best to make proper use of it.