In Karma's former suite, he, Lance, and Lorenzö sat on a newly-minted carpet.

Karma, sneakily peeking under its corner, cringed upon finding a bevy of scorch marks painting the floor beneath.

I forgot about that ...

"Why?" Lance asked sternly.

Dropping the carpet with a plop, Karma asked innocently, "Why what?"

Lance clutched his forehead in an open palm.

"You protected me from the Mahāyāna Order, showed zero inclination toward taking the Nihility fragment, and even invited me to stay with you in your sect—all in exchange for enlisting my services. Why?"

Squinting, Karma drawled, "You're a merchant, yes?"

"Yes ..."

"Why do people hire merchants?"

"To sell merchandise, but—"

"Yup, you got it! I knew I chose the right man for the job." Deftly hopping up onto the bed, Karma continued, "I'm interested in entering the information brokerage market. However, given my limited experience, I would likely bungle the affair—screwing myself in the process."

Exhaling deeply through his nose, Lance spoke measuredly, "That's it?"

"Correct again! Genius, right?"

"Let me get this straight: You've acted adversarially against a supreme Buddhist faction and ignored the allure of an—by your own account—invaluable treasure, all to hire a business manager?"

Karma nodded jubilantly.

"You. Are. An. Idiot."

Maintaining his giddiness, Karma replied, "Maybe. You've misunderstood one itsy bitsy detail, however."

"Which is?"

"I own you." Karma met Lance's stare with disdain. "And, by proxy, I own the Nihility fragment—not that I care, mind you. To you and many others, it might be valuable. To me?"

Lance was the first to blink.

"Worthless."

...

Clapping, Karma announced, "Great! Now that we're all on the same page, we can start drafting our next steps. First on the docket: our company name. Suggestions?"

"I've got one," chirped Lorenzö, doing his best to ignore Lance's piercing gaze. "How about, Chroniclers of Obscurity?"

"Hmm," said Karma, "I like it. Wonderful first entry, Lorenzö. Here's mine: Prowlers of Enigma."

As one, their inquiring eyes swiveled to Lance's prickly facade.

Lance sighed. "No, and no. A name must be clear above all else."

He looked to Lorenzö.

"Your proposal would be construed as a raunchy bookstore."

Then to Karma.

"And yours quite literally makes no sense."

With pursed lips, Karma tsked, "If it's so easy, why don't you come up with a name?"

"Fine. Our name will be Information Kiosk—Ask, and We Shall Answer. Then, in subscript: Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back."

Karma and Lorenzö gasped.

"That's ..." began Karma, "the most uninspired thing I've ever heard! It's—it's perfect!"

Arms crossed above his chest, Lorenzö nodded sagely. "Direct, shamelessly boastful, and even somewhat poetic. It's more than a name. It's art."

Lance held his chin aloft, refusing to speak as he accepted Karma and Lorenzö's incessant praise.

...

"Oh, I forgot to mention, I'll be participating in Schrödinger's Crucible for two weeks starting tomorrow."

Disregarding Lance and Lorenzö's envious frowns, Karma waved his hand, summoning a mountain of spiritual stone fragments. "Here's roughly 20,000 SSF. While I'm gone, I want you to lay the foundation for our new business.

"Get in touch with the Perennial O' clan for advertising—tell them the author of Ornamental Lists sent you."

"With the money you stole from my father," added Lance.

Karma snapped his fingers. "Your acumen continues to impress. So, can I count on you to accomplish what I've asked?"

"For as long as the Mahāyāna Order remains at bay—sure."

"Excellent!"

**

A flock of cranes rode the early morning currents, inking a shadowy V across a courtyard teeming with activity. Their rattling, bugle calls mixed with the rumbunctious chatter among green-robed youths in a lively cacophony, fanning the flames of Karma's grogginess.

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Karma, rubbing his eyes, murmured, "Can they keep it down? Some people"—yawn—"might not have gotten enough sleep."

"Ai, Junior Brother, many of these fellow disciples have waited upward of half a year for this moment. Naturally, they'll be a bit rowdy," rang a lark-like voice.

Karma lazily turned to the speaker—a lovely young woman with lush, flowing black hair and perpetually narrowed eyes. "Exactly—they've waited half a year, what's an incense stick more?"

"Junior Brother is right," chimed the ever-heroic-looking Senior Brother Lione, wading past stray limbs to join his sister at her side. "It's like they've purposefully spurned my headache. The gall!"

"As you rightfully deserve," chided Senior Sister Tang, "Mr. Just One more Shot, I'll Be Fine."

"Hmph. Maybe one too many—"

"Five."

"Shit! I had five—"

"So, Junior Brother, have you chosen your Request?"

"Mhm," said Karma. "You?"

"Of course. Don't take this lightly, Junior Brother," reproved Senior Sister Tang. "You can't just choose willy-nilly. Remember, the more profound the Request, the more challenging the Promise."

"Yes, mam," yawned Karma.

Ignoring the perfunctory response, she continued, "Furthermore, if you choose an overly potent affinity, your very existence could unravel. I'm serious: you musn't overreach. I'm sure your relative has already—"

"Welcome, disciples," boomed an overpowering pitch, "to the inaugural opening of Schrödinger's Crucible!"

Rapturous cheers subsumed the festive atmosphere as a burly male Daoist flashed overhead.

He gestured for silence with a downturned hand. "Myself, Elder Li, and a dozen of our hardworking administrators are actively engaging the mystic realm teleportation array. Prepare yourselves!"

Whirling, silver-white runes stampeded atop the courtyard, pulsing with esoteric splendor.

Vrr-vrr-vrr.

"Good luck, Junior Brother!" shouted Senior Sister Tang.

Karma offered her a thumbs up.

WHOOM.

**

Karma heard nothing.

Felt nothing.

Saw nothing.

Became nothing.

Then, piece by piece, reality erected around him.

First sound.

Fwoosh.

Then touch.

I feel ... warm?

Then sight.

Ornate, brass pyres encircled a pallid sky.

Last?

Karma.

**

A confounding synthesis of meaning and expression blared in Karma's consciousness: "Forge your Request."

Karma acted on instinct—driven by a primal will that gifted his thoughts an alien fluidity. His mind felt like a paintbrush of inspiration dancing upon a frictionless canvas.

"My affinity must be a harbinger—a tunnel through which my causal manipulation can enforce its dominion over reality."

A double-ended, phantom black tunnel manifested at the braziers' center.

"Reality comprises three key ingredients: space, time, and matter. However, causality is fundamentally abstract; how can it manipulate its polar opposite, matter?

"Using the properties of transitivity. If I cannot control matter, I'll control everything besides matter—namely, space and time."

Time and space surged through the incorporeal tunnel, characterized by a pair of intertwining streams. One was invisible, its speed an everchanging enigma. The other siphoned the concept of color itself, its movements paradoxically stagnant.

"A tunnel, time, and space represent three distinct entities. They need a bonding agent: something to catalyze the transformation from few to singular."

A matrix of infinite golden threads blossomed around the incomplete Request, tightening akin to a noose about its victim's neck.

"Only one may bear the mantle of these four sovereign principles. The ferry of cause and effect across the perilous mire of spacetime."

The bundle overhead transitioned from constricting to melding—as if succumbing to the Crucible's scalding heat.

"My Request is the eternal fulcrum between action and reaction."

RUMBLE.

Karma could no longer make out the vista above. It had transcended the limits of perception, evolving into something experienced rather than perceived.

"My Request is linearity!"

Request approved.

Promise dispensed.

**

Karma, eyelids drearily fluttering open, found himself lying face-up atop sparse, yellowed grass beneath a turquoise expanse. Hoary obelisks stretched the foreign landscape, their craggy ranks bleeding into a sunless horizon.

Fifth realm of Qi Formation and ... my Promise: a brick-sized wedge of Temporal Ore?

Hoisting himself up to a standing position, Karma jolted. Wait! There's something more.

Karma abruptly crouched, peering upward to admire an enormous battle-axe as it whistled by.

So linearity manifests as phantom black threads, just like the tunnel from before!

Following an unearthly grunt, the brutish blade arced into a downward cleave.

Incredible!

Karma lunged forward, sundered earth erupting at his flank.

With only 1/5 of my Request granted, I can track cause and effect through spacetime. But ...

"You chose air-resistance as your affinity? Why?"

Can I do more?

His assailant, who Karma now knew was a bulky, bare-chested man with his hair tied into a bun, pivoted his attack with impossible quickness.

"None," a gleaming axe-head enlarged in Karma's vision, "of your business!" The swing met no resistance as it ripped through Karma's skull.

...

Correction, the afterimage of Karma's skull.

"Huh?" The belligerent stranger spun in a circle yet failed to glimpse Karma's figure.

"Up."

His next snapped back, putting him face-to-face with Karma's upside-down visage.

And a volatile sphere of flame.

BOOM.

**

"Oh?" said Karma, righting himself above the—unexpectedly—not burning carcass of his opponent. "And who might you be?"

A half-melted, illusory spear impaled an adjacent obelisk, lasting a handful of breaths before it shattered like glass.

Good news: I can accelerate the transient state connecting cause and effect. Oh, and the Euclidian Anchor is the epitome of awesomeness.

Bad news: this interloper has golden threads with thickness beyond anything I've ever seen. It's probably best I take my leave ...

"Ilmiri," declared a baritone timbre, its towering owner blurring into view. Unlike his companion, the newcomer's muscular physique was condensed in a slim frame, crowned by a head of short, alabaster hair. Veins reminiscent of molten steel lined their robust forearms and were faintly visible beneath their sleeveless, indigo robes.

Aping Ilmiri's tonality, Karma intoned, "Well met, Ilmiri. I am Imastell, surnamed Theekat."

Silence.

"You were moments away from incinerating Junior Brother Josiah; why?"

"He ambushed me. Naturally, I must defend myself."

"I see." Ilmiri glared at his junior brother—who had been frozen in terror following his narrowly avoided demise. "Apologize to Brother Theekat!"

Body riddled with tremors, Josiah dropped to his knees. "S-sorry."

Ilmiri refocused on Karma. "Is there anything else?"

"No. That will be all," said Karma, surreptitiously injecting a quarter of his spiritual energy into a protruding black thread and another quarter into Penelope's final gift—her crimson speed enhancement. "Until next time."

He vanished.

**

Ilmiri looked to his collapsed sect mate.

"That Abyssal Crow disciple, Imastell Theekat, was extremely powerful. There was no shame in your defeat, Junior Brother Josiah."

"Umm, Senior Brother—"

"Hush, there's no need for excuses. I understand and empathize with your circumstances. It's going to be okay."

Brandishing his arms, Junior Brother Josiah exclaimed, "It's not that. It's about that name ..."

"Imastell Theekat?"

"Stop—don't repeat it, Senior Brother. The name he gave you was a fake!"

"How can you tell? It sounds perfectly legitimate to me. Imastell Theekat, Imastell Theekat."

Facepalming, Junior Brother Josiah's lips parted when—

"Bahahaha! What did you just say, Senior Brother Ilmiri? You're a stealthy cat?"

...

"I retract my earlier statement. You should be ashamed of your defeat—I most definitely am."