I was quite stunned by the abrupt message, plus the seemingly unnecessary visual effects that accompanied it. I would probably have worried that I was losing my mind if I wasn’t already soooooo far beyond that, what with having been reincarnated and everything… If I was insane, then the train to crazy-town had long since departed, and there were no stops in sight.

Alright… so according to the message, there were paths that would lead to power - and those paths could be cultivated? Which handily reinforced my theory that 'cultivation' was something people could do in more than the vegetation-growing sense. Although perhaps they were one and the same; I mean, why not be able to cultivate yourself like a garden? Actually, on second thought, that did sound rather silly, more like what a hippie from the 60s would say.

Either way, if the term was good enough with the Celestial, I would do my best to adopt it. Since my parents would still be asleep for a few more hours, I decided to see if I could figure out what the 'gift' of the Celestial was, or if I could figure out how to 'cultivate the garden of my soul' somehow. But without the garden... the last thing I wanted was a carrot growing in my brain.

Also... that message had clearly been written as if intended for more than one recipient: It was time to check the soul-link!

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came a message as soon as I arrived.

I replied.

Mark sent a sense of laughter and relief, surprising me with the clarity of the sensations I felt from him (he was definitely a lot better at using the soul-link than me),

I couldn’t help but smile in my head, and I tried to send a sense of amusement and relief like Mark had. The next few minutes consisted of me explaining briefly what had happened, and how I had been meditating and focusing on the book when it occurred. I hadn’t mentioned the kung-fu-powers yet, or that I had been imagining electricity flowing through my body. I didn't really understand what the Celestial meant about 'paths' yet, but his obscure warning about not working together still made me hesitant.

Then I asked Mark, I sent an image of Jaws and Purple-hair along the soul-link, trying my best to include a sense of who they were.

of course that would be the first thing he sent back… He then sent me a moving image of a richly dressed man and woman standing above a crib while looking down – the woman with a complicated expression, the man with a dignified frown. The majority of the man’s exposed skin, except for his face and his palms, was covered in a short dark orange fur, while the rest of his skin was covered in light grey overlapping scales (patterned like mine, but bigger and thicker). The woman looked like Hollywood's version of an insect lady, with large eyes and a pair of distinctly insectoid antennae sticking out of her hair. She was pretty, in a way, but the antenna made her look a lot more alien than I would have thought… especially because they were moving around constantly, waving purposefully through the air. Eeek!

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I sent back, still ‘watching’ the video of her feeling out air currents or something. I frankly wasn't comfortable with this whole 'your mom is hot' conversation, but I didn't want to shut Mark down too quickly after finally reconnecting.

he replied with a mental smirk, He seemed calmer about the whole reincarnation thing than I had expected, but I had a feeling it might be part of how he was coping with this whole experience. He continued,

I blanked for a fraction of a second. Did he just call the Celestial 'God'? I… didn’t think I liked that,

Mark sent with a laugh.

Millions of years? I didn't recall that number being thrown around, but a lot had happened since then, it made me wonder if other 'gods' existed, like the Zeus and Odin.

Mark replied,

I waited.

He continued after a moment, he asked me.

I thought about it for a moment, I asked.

Mark sent.

I wasn’t sure what to think, but I felt like we were walking on thin ice. Maybe it’s good the Celestial thought to put a warning protocol in with whatever he made for us.

I sent. I hadn’t looked into what the ‘gift’ was yet, so I honestly had no idea what was going on. I was pretty excited to check it out myself.

We ended up chatting for a while, and we carefully shared as much as we could, relying on the warnings to keep us on track. I didn't even end up triggering any, but maybe that is because I had a better idea of what the Celestial meant, so it was easier for me to avoid taboo topics. Plus... Mark was always a little more chaotic than I was (an uncharitable soul might say 'careless').

I told him, trying to send an impression about how important this next part was.

I filled him in about everything: The Merrik, the red-armored soldiers, gravity-fire-guy, lightning-ninja-girl, and the giant wolf (Mark was amazed when I told him about the Soul-Rope, and wanted to practice it right away). He actually took it surprisingly well, but then again he hadn't been there in person. To him these were distant awesome events; to me it had been a crap-your-pants fright fest.

Mark and I chatted for a while longer, catching up and sharing experiences throughout most of the night, and, eventually, we agreed to look into the Celestials 'gift' independently while keeping in touch via soul-mail (his term for the soul-link). It was a weird name for such a mystical ability, but I lacked a more suitable alternative and dawn was fast approaching. We agreed to chat regularly, checking for messages over soul-mail (ugg, it just sounded so wrong) every night, while using it to schedule regular meetings.

Then I returned to my body and attempted to drift off into sleep, a contented smile on my face.