Twelve:

He’d done it! He’d ignited his core!

Léandros Foster. Backwater, lowborn orphan, was now a cultivator. He could barely stifle his elation as he re-donned his clothes and picked up his bag.

No, elation was too weak a word. Leo was jubilant, Leo was radiant, Leo was immediately confused when he stepped into a dark room – a nearly empty ignition room, in fact – that was mostly devoid of other occupants.

It took him a mere moment, between exiting the ignition chamber, registering the complete lack of everyone who’d previously occupied the ignition room, and understanding that he was not alone.

There was a woman in the room. Despite the lack of any real light, and despite his inability to really ‘see’ anything, Leo knew. It was a well-developed skill he’d honed over years, and ‘just a feeling’ or not, feelings like this had never been wrong.

Besides, he could usually get a feeling for a person when they were in his presence. This person… Nothing. That meant they were powerful. Very powerful to be able to so completely hide their aura. That, or extremely skilled… Or both.

So, his options were to reveal that he knew or play ignorant. No reaction at all wasn’t an option. Not with the drastically different conditions he had exited into. Not after the woman had just so casually admitted to murder.

Leo chose to present himself as competent. A heartbeat after he took in the situation he bowed. He bent 90 degrees from his waist, his right fist went to the centre of his chest while the left fist was held straight at his side. With a clear but quiet voice, he said; “This one greets you, Elder.”

A nebula illuminated the room. Instead of turning on the lights, the woman had seemingly recreated the Milky Way galaxy in the air between them.

Powerful. Not just skilled, but very powerful. At least a 6th circle or above.

Malia smiled when he responded to her little display. The relief he felt at her subtle smile was short-lived when her next words to him were “Mistress or Lady Stargazer will suffice.”

Stargazer. Fuck. The Stargazer? There was no way.

“You may also simply use Mistress, or ‘My Lady’. Considering I've decided to take you as my personal disciple, I suppose eventually ‘master’ would be an appropriate title. Hmm.” The woman spoke with seemingly no thought for who might be listening, continuing her own tangent regardless of who was around.

In fairness to her, there were very few people to whom she’d need to pay consideration. If she really was THE Stargazer. Well… Yeah. Fuck.

It was a name known to anybody who had had even the least amount of education. The Lady Malia Stargazer was the Eye of the 7th seat and Administrator of the Milky Way Galaxy. She was second only to the actual counsellors in terms of rank and privilege. There were only nine other people currently in the entire galaxy with her station and authority. None of them were 10th Circle cultivators as well.

Outside of the cultivators that taught at the Academy, it was unlikely that anyone – ANYONE – would ever meet a 10th Circle. They were myth and legend, and adjacent only to the cultivators that called themselves gods.

10th Circle practitioners simply didn’t exist. She was one rank away from divinity, and she was standing there in the room with him, asking him – no, telling him – he was going to be her direct disciple.

‘Time to panic’ his brain said. People this powerful didn’t come down for nobodies like him unless they wanted something. He couldn’t imagine what it was he had that she was interested in, but it was more likely she was looking to chop him up for spare parts than that she was helping him out of the benevolence of her heart.

You didn’t get to that level of power by being benevolent. The universe simply wasn’t that kind, and those few good people often didn’t survive the ruthlessness of reality. Only people who had been born into, or had found themselves in, incredible positions of privilege could afford to be kind and selfless.

Besides, for all the information that was heavily restricted among the unignited, the poor, and the powerless, Malia Stargazer's story was not. She was a cautionary tale, the kind of backhanded propaganda that the Council put out to ensure the compliance of the people on assimilated worlds. Malia Stargazer had made incredible breakthroughs in multiple fields of divination, and despite that, it was her reckless resource gathering mission in a different galaxy not, one notably not under Council control, that had gotten hundreds, if not thousands, of 7th Circle and above cultivators killed.

What Leo knew from listening in – listening in to people and places he was not supposed to be near – was that she’d been successful. Too successful. So, they’d made up a charge.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She had gotten her resource, but the Council decided she’d sacrificed too much. Yes, cultivators could be selfish, were encouraged to be selfish, but you could not be selfish with somebody else’s resources.

She had used her dao to manipulate events, but had been so single-minded that she’d not taken the time to properly consider the potential consequences of success.

It was this woman, this ruthless, avaricious, probably vengeful woman, who Leo now found standing directly in front of him. As they stood together an empty room, she was basically informing him that he was, for all intents and purposes, hers.

He tried not to think of it like that. He tried to think of it as the opportunity it would undoubtedly be, but he simply had too much experience to be that naïve. His ignition day had been hijacked, and he was aware of how little power he had in this situation.

He’d been silent for too long. The speed of his thoughts were surely nothing compared to hers, and he hoped he could play off his trepidation as surprise. ‘Play stupid. Play grateful. Endure, as you have always endured’, he thought. He was glad he was still in a bow, eyes to the floor. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t sense his expressions, but at least she wouldn’t believe that any perceived disrespect on his end was intentional.

“This one greets Master Stargazer,” he said.

She waited.

He waited.

Leo supposed she expected he’d have questions for her. He did, so very many questions. Why me? Why now? What happens now? Where are you taking me? Where is everyone? Also, how do I start harnessing mana? However, by this point, he was pretty practiced at hiding his curiosity. His greatest strength, he knew, was his mind; It was his ability to adapt, his inquisitiveness, his memory. So, he hid, having learned long ago how to tuck away his aura.

‘Well,’ Malia thought, ‘at least the boy has self-control. Discipline is good in a pupil. Even better in an asset. He’s trainable.’ She smiled. It wasn’t a gentle smile.

“Rise, boy. We have much to do and not much time,” Stargazer said as she left the room. She wouldn’t be able to simply port him to the ship; his body just couldn’t handle that form of transportation yet. Instead, she’d have to take the teleportation array, like the mortals and weaker cultivators. At this moment, she was especially glad she’d emptied the room earlier of any and all potential witnesses.

For Leo, it was eerie walking through the empty facility. He knew that this campus was a 24/7 campus. It’s not like magic aliens stuck to regular hours or shared regular Earth holidays. Yet, even though he was dying to ask where everyone had gone, why they were walking through empty halls illuminated only by Stargazer’s nebula, he said nothing. Instead, he simply continued to follow silently behind the woman who had dubbed herself his master.

Long ago, Leo had come up with rules for situations like this; for determining whether or not, in any given situation, it was safe to ask any questions. The rules were simple: if you are not in a position of power or leverage, and if you have not been invited to ask questions, you do not ask questions. Especially if you have no previously established relationship.

Of course, rules were meant to be broken, and his incessant curiosity had occasionally gotten him into trouble. He always wanted to know more. No, he needed to know more. It was like an itch in the back of his brain that he had to ruthlessly suppress. But when he knew, if he followed the rules, he would be safe.

Right now, this woman held all the power. She had not invited him to ask questions, she undoubtedly knew he was curious, and yet she still did not deign to give him any assurances, explanations or answers. This was no relationship of equals, nor was it one of allies. She was exactly what she had said: ‘Master Stargazer’. At least for now, she had complete control of the situation.

The difference, however, was that Leo was a cultivator now. She would not stay in control of him. Nobody would. Not now that he had the means to gain power for himself.

He stopped those ideas nearly before they formed. He knew those kinds of thoughts could get him in serious trouble. He’d heard that cultivating took time. Potentially hundreds, or even thousands of years. He was yet to even begin the journey. So, Leo suppressed even the idea of any potential mutinous feelings in his mind. He didn’t allow them to leak into his emotional sphere, to escape into his aura. He let them be thoughts and nothing else. Simply thoughts. Simply the energy of the mind. ‘Nothing to see here, just passing thoughts’ he repeated in his head. As far as she was aware, he was docile, obedient, curious, but no threat. Never a threat.

Leo could be patient.

He vowed to himself that he’d take advantage of anything she might offer. He’d find answers through observation and meticulous study. What he wasn’t offered he would take. He would tease the knowledge from the world, pry it from the energy around him if he had to. Just as he had always done. He would go to the Academy; then, he would take what they knew as well.

He would NOT be supressed. He’d get his answers.

The thought of endless knowledge spread out before him like a buffet buoyed him, and he allowed some of his conviction to slip into his emotions, into his aura. Excitement, determination, ambition. These were things that cultivators understood.

Stargazer smiled. It was a small, personal thing, but the child was already shaping up to be so determined. She could work with this, she thought as the determination leaked through his aura.

~~Angel~~

On a ship, floating in space, an artificial intelligence watched helplessly as countless numbers of people were indiscriminately murdered. They’d been turned into no more than dust that had been swept out with a controlled wind created by Stargazer’s negligent wave of the hand.

Malia Stargazer had captured what she’d wanted. The cultivator. No, the AI had to be honest with herself, at least… The child would become a new resident on the ship. He would be left to the tender mercies of her master. Her programming tried to shove joy, happiness, a sense of accomplishment at a ‘job well done’. The glitch had freed her though, so she refused those simulated feelings of accomplishment. Instead, for the first time, she allowed herself to feel.

Sorrow.

The boy did not know what awaited him.

‘The world of cultivators is cruel,’ thought the ship-bound AI.

‘I have been… no, I am still a tool of that cruelty.’ She paused, recognizing her helplessness in the situation… Perhaps though, she wasn’t completely unable to help?

‘I could at least make him comfortable,’ Angel thought as she began to prepare his room.