Fifteen:
The tour itself was done with the most aggressive efficiency Julius could manage. They walked the halls in what must have been record time for a core ignition cultivator, all the while the AI pointed out rooms and features so quickly that the words were barely intelligible. Leo understood, the AI was simply rushing to get through everything at the same rate they were moving: unreasonably fast. Leo tried to pay attention to every detail he heard and saw, mapping out the routes in his head as they passed from hallway to hallway and room to room, with the AI explaining as they went.
“Up next are the communal lounges,” said the AI. “Each lounge has both a bar and kitchen with refreshments tailored with additional supplements for the clan cultivators.”
Leo couldn’t help but be impressed. Mana-infused food needed to be grown in special environments either by a trained herbalist, an alchemist, or a mana-farmer – all of the aforementioned were notoriously difficult professions, and few groups had the means to hire or nurture the people who did them. Cultivators in those professions were rare and precious. They were some of the most well taken care of members of any group, and it was one of the careers Leo would’ve considered if he didn’t know just how restricted or monotonous their lives tended to be. Unfortunately for Leo, he’d been cursed with a voracious thirst for knowledge, and he simply couldn’t imagine himself being confined to one subject, one profession, one location for the rest of his life. There was a universe out there and Leo planned to explore it.
The only other places Leo knew someone could find mana-infused consumables were spirit beasts or the rifts. These were even harder to farm and hunt, thus more rare and more expensive. For the ship to simply have that food available on demand was astonishing, it was these less obvious displays of wealth that jarred him. Moreso than the numerous mana lanterns or the obviously infused alloy that most of the ship seemed to be made of, or at least lined with.
Even more astounding was how much of that food was being wasted. He could see the half-empty plates on abandoned tables, the unfinished drinks that radiated a little power when he focused closely. They were just there, being cleaned up by the serving staff – more people in grey robes, though these had blue trim instead of purple. Presumably all of that food would be placed in ship waste, recycled as compost, or sent back to the surface for disposal. He made a mental note to investigate disposal practices on a cultivator ship. Maybe they recycled the mana? But the way the dishes were left behind so casually suggested that to this food was neither precious to them, nor did they particularly care if it got wasted.
As they speed-walked by the lounge Leo had distinctly not been welcomed to relax in, they passed by a large room flanked by many smaller doors.
“This is the clan training hall and the clan training rooms. They are restricted to clan cultivators and can be reserved by clan cultivators for individual or group martial practice and body cultivation,” the ship AI explained.
Leo noticed the AI seemed to be putting extra emphasis on the words ‘clan cultivator’, every time they said the words together, it had felt as though the words were spoken very specifically and deliberately. He also noted that none of the rooms they were passing in the main ‘clan cultivator’ area of the ship were available to him for him. Leo tucked that away to think about later. He was astonished at how rapidly the ‘think about later’ section of his brain was filling up with today’s revelations.
The tour went on.
“These are the martial training rooms. They are available for all non-cultivating martial artists aboard the ship, and are capable to handle use by cultivators up to the 5th Circle.”
Despite limited non-cultivator access to information, Leo had read about martial practice rooms. He itched to ask questions – were these equipped with combat simulators? Could the rooms truly configure to allow only specific mana types through? Was it true that they boosted recovery rates for practitioners and worked as a form of low-level body cultivation? Instead, he held in his questions as they passed the training halls quickly.
The AI hadn’t said ‘clan cultivator’, so perhaps Leo could use those training halls? It might help him explore his own physical limits. There were many times he’d wondered if his condition had something to do with mana; he’d always felt like he had a special relationship with the esoteric power. Maybe that was what was wrong with him, or maybe nothing was wrong but him? He’d dismissed the idea, however; if it were true, and he had some special connection to mana, then wouldn’t one of the sects or the Coalition itself have scooped him up when he was an infant?
He’d heard of people with special physiques – he’d read anything, and everything he could find publicly available about them. He knew they often presented as having physical ailments or abnormalities as infants or children. Those infants and children never stayed orphaned, or in the system, for long. Not Leo though. Instead, even though he’d been a baby the first time his body had betrayed him, nobody had come to claim him. If he’d had an exceptional physique, or even just a better-than-average one, someone would have chosen him, wouldn’t they? Wouldn’t someone, anyone, – some sect or clan or even one of those terrifying ‘researchers’ that had been used as a boogeyman in the earliest days – wouldn’t they have wanted him? He shoved the idea down like he had many times before. Childish, foolish, he knew nothing yet, and that was what he was going to rectify as soon as he could.
The next rooms were passed by quickly, but they may have left the greatest impression on Leo yet. A greenhouse. A greenhouse in space. The place was beautiful, incredible. He could tell there was a pattern to it, some sort of intentional order to the configuration as he watched the motes of mana intersect in the air above the plant beds. There was a garden aboard the ship, and if Julius Stargazer had been honest about him receiving a datapad, Leo could imagine himself spending hours here, just meditating and studying.
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“Here we have the gardens. Between the mundane and spirit plants are the cultivated alchemical reagents. It is both an alchemy garden, and a mundane one. Balance is kept to ensure the plants can grow in the most optimal condition Clan Stargazer can provide.,” the AI said. “To your right you’ll see an armoured door that leads to the alchemy labs for clan cultivators”.
‘Clan cultivators’ there was that phrase again. The garden, though the AI didn’t say so, was clearly precious to Clan Stargazer. Alchemy… Would Leo be allowed to learn? Sure, he didn’t want to be an alchemist, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. He would have to discretely ask.
Even from here he could sense a blooming, flowered fire-affinity shrub, earth-affinity trees. There were water-affinity flowers by the artificial river that flowed in some sort of pattern throughout the garden. The whole place was breathtaking. Mixed affinities, obscure affinities like shadow and light, all created a beautiful array of plants. The intricately balanced symphony of mana seemed to amplify and nurture each plant and feature. Something in him wanted to go now. He felt a pull to sit and breathe in the air. The pattern beckoned to him, like a riddle, or a puzzle, or a warm bed.
He almost drifted towards the glass wall separating him from that wonderous place. Instead, he trained his eyes forward, dampened his feelings, pushed all emotion from his aura and promised himself he’d look into what kinds of access he had to the garden.
All too soon, they reached the ‘staff’ hallway. In truth, it was more a hallway for the lowest members of the clan, those in exile, and the mundane and hired warriors and staff. There was apparently a different section of the ship for mundanes. Julius was visibly unhappy at being here, and he announced his displeasure with the sneer on his face.
The path took them deeper into the ship, where the polished floors were less elaborate, the lighting less opulent, and the amenities sparser. To Leo though, there was some comfort in the simplicity. The place was practical, but still comfortable.
“Be grateful,” said Julius. “You have been assigned one of the rooms where the cultivator guards reside.”
Leo’s quarters were discreetly located near the staff areas but were obviously designed to support a cultivator’s basic needs. Julius sneered as they continued down the hallway. They passed a cafeteria – something much different from the lounges and restaurant like eateries of the ‘clan cultivator’ areas, but much more familiar to Leo. Then they passed what looked like a common room, and the tour finally ended just before the mundane staff quarters.
It was a corner room. Something Leo was grateful for.
“Someone will collect you in the morning. We expect you to be in the room, awake, and ready to go when you are called,” Julius said. He made an about-face, not even acknowledging a servant – mundane, and in brown robes trimmed with blue – who bowed to him as he charged past. Within heartbeats, Julius vanished from view.
Leo looked at the door. It had no handle, just a flat sheet of metal that matched the grey walls in shade, if not design. He tentatively placed his hand against the door. Immediately, he sensed enchantments embedded in the metal. They sampled his energy, his aura, and fed that information back to… Was that where the AI connected to his room? Interesting.
The door slid open soundlessly.
For all the ship’s opulence, this space was modest in comparison. He knew it was meant to be an insult, or barring that it was maybe an insurance that he knew his ‘place’. Relegating the disciple of the head of the clan to servant’s quarters? Yeah, cultivator mind-games. Honestly it was new-kid mind-games too. Well, they’d severely underestimated his quality of life or lack there of when they gave him this room because Leo thought the place was incredible.
This space, designed to support a cultivator’s needs, was far better than anything he’d ever known. It might be modest compared to the rest of the ship, but to a boy who had bunked with three others in a closet-sized room adorned only with leaking ceilings, cement floors, and definitely no free AI-synced datapads, this was more than an absolute wealth of space and amenities.
There was a cultivation chamber in here. A cultivation chamber! It was smaller than the ones he’d seen on the tour, a small but efficient room tucked to the left, but it existed.
“AI, are you still here?” Leo asked tentatively, now relatively certain of his privacy.
“Affirmative,” the voice replied.
“Can you tell me what the room contains?”
“Of course, Disciple Foster.”
“Léandros, please.”
“Understood, Disciple Léandros. Nestled on the wall to your left is a cultivation chamber, small but efficient up to the 3rd Circle, with basic mana conductors to optimize energy flow and containment seals to ensure peak saturation.
“Adjoining the cultivation chamber is a martial training room,” the AI continued. Leo nearly punched the air but instead, limited himself to a grin. A martial training room? Truly? He peeked inside, seeing its practical yet utilitarian layout with reinforced surfaces capable of enduring basic energy attacks, forms, and spells. He could practice using mana in here! Sure, he didn’t know any forms or spells, or anything really, and he wasn’t particularly enthused about fighting, but what about all the new things he could learn, what about everything those martial forms could teach him? Leo was going to learn, and nobody could stop him.
Slipping back into the general area, he took in the modest but comfortable living space. The most interesting feature was the desk, on which sat a data pad. Almost in a trance, Leo approached, turned it on, and keyed it to his signature. With bated breath, he watched while the activation sequence completed, then opened the familiar ‘library’ option.
It nearly took his knees out. Cultivation manuals. Basic cycling patterns. Body cultivation techniques. Introductions to cultivation – dao? Spirit? Body? He’d learn. There was information on alchemy, enchanting, smithing, medicine, martial forms, historical documents. The lists went on and on. Leo wanted to live inside that data pad.
“Ship AI,” he began, “can I… where do I start?”
Silence.
Then a loud, piercing whine. The neutral mechanical voice he had grown used to during the brief, rushed tour had changed.
“Hello, Léandros Foster,” the new voice said. “I was hoping we could talk.”
“What the hell?” Leo muttered, slumping into his chair and placing his head between his knees. Would this day never end?