‘’A path has opened to a lower realm, the gates the Gaians have been using to come here seem to have opened wide for all to transverse through from either side.’’ Kolisa reports to his friend and leader who is supposed to be in meditative seclusion.

‘’Which ones?’’

‘’All of them.’’

[Mhm], he grunts with a frown, surprised, concerned. ‘’Have the other Families sent anyone through on the Gates on their lands?’’

‘’Our spies report nothing as of yet but who can know, there was no fanfare to the occurrence, it has gone unnoticed but most.’’

‘’Is it a permanent opening?’’

‘’We cannot say.’’

He thinks for a moment, ‘’send in our spies and surveyors through the gates on the other Family’s lands, I want to know where they lead and what resources they have. I assume you have already assembled a breaching party to go through the one Gate we have direct access to.’’

‘’Yes Lord, a team of five youths from the main branch leading a troop of 50 slaves are ready to secure the Gate as a beaching party.’’

‘’None of that Lord nonsense when we are alone Mki,’’ he says waving his hand dismissively. ‘’Send in a few Watchers after them to assess their progress, are any of them my scion?’’

‘’All but one are direct children of your loins my friend, the last is your great granddaughter’s son Luthando. The quiet one with the deficiency.’’

For the first time since Kolisa walked up this lonely mountain path to speak with his friend and lord he says something that causes Moyisi’s eyes to open slowly in surprise. He doesn’t make any other move from his crossed legged lotus position from which he has been sitting the last 30 years, but his surprise and pleasure is evident as he loses himself a split second in allowing the sensory input of sight inside himself for the first time in almost 9 years of his cultivation meditation.

‘’The boy has made something of himself?’’ he asks as though casually, but Kolisa has a knowing smile on his face as he nods.

‘’The boy is competent for his peers even with his disability, I’d even dare to say he is a cut above the rest,’’ Kolisa says proudly having personally found an Outlander mentor for the boy and protected him from political dangers all these years.

Moyisi grunts again and for the first time in years enjoys the sight of the view far below, the mist hanging over the forest of black wanut, red mangrove and vale pine trees soaking up the ambient mana producing crisp clean heavenly energies that make these lands the treasure throve they are for cultivation. He drinks in the play of colours, the opalescence created by the rising of Sirius chasing Pollux already shining radiantly above giving power to Omega and the tributary planets circling around the Prime World.

He watches in absentminded thought a small hawk swoops down silently with intent breaking the sound barrier chasing a pack of jackals already creating iridescent shields behind and above themselves as they flee through the field of whip stalks leaving the carcass of whatever they were feasting on for the vultures and bacteria to devour. A snail contending valiantly against the hairs of the cres leaf’s protective coat not seeing the small chameleon ready to crack its sticky tongue and feast on the bounty of the mana rich fair provided in the cycle of life and death.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He watches the branches twist and flow with the breeze, some resisting valiantly maintaining their leaf area index greedily drinking in the radiations of the two suns Pollux and Sirius. A few allowing themselves to be swayed by the erratic winds gaining energy from the motion as they subtly flow with the world around them like flaccid dough.

‘’Not yet at a breakthrough?’’ Kolisa asks watching his old friend gaze out into the distance wondering what it is he might be seeing and why it fascinates him so.

Moyisi smiles a little mysterious smile but says nothing in response, enjoying the hyperactive ambiance of the unique moment that can never again be recreated in anything but memory. To be honest it stopped being about reaching a breakthrough in his cultivation many years ago, now he just sits here like a boulder in a meditative trance just to enjoy the peace and chaos of being one with the world and elements around himself. Ironically since he stopped pursuing power so fervently it seems to have found him as he observes the world.

They stay like this a while, veterans of many struggles together, having dealt death and endured death together. Even now with the worlds vast and bountiful before them the Families of the Bantu-jin people of Valeria fight each other, competing for dominance yet always banding together to keep their little forgotten corner of Omega from the greater threats of the world.

Though the Bantu-jin have called Valeria home three thousand years that is as nothing to many of the creatures that call this world home. Even now many a world-changing power lies below the lands they call their own, sleeping or cultivating most if not all the time they’ve called these lands home. Creatures who when they turn in their slumber cause terrain shifting earthquakes or continental plate shifts that in the greater scheme of the Prime World are as themselves a drop in a vast ocean.

To find another potential dungeon, land or world to colonies and cultivate their young would be a great boon for even with the patronage of the Saiyans of Sadala life and death on Omega have no dividing line. A mutualistic relationship with the progenitors of our people that works only because of the endless bounty of the land that ensures providing tribute to not be an issue and the patience with which the Saiyans groom the mixed races they created so they can later test themselves against by fighting to extinction.

‘’Make sure you send a senior warrior with them in case they meet something truly beyond their capabilities, but ensure it knows not to interfere unless the situation is dire,’’ Moyisi says.

The need for new territories to claim is not immediately urgent for the Bantu are currently settled and one of the few races that have managed to remain largely undisturbed, only losing half their population twice in the last thousand years and gaining a reputation of being stalwart defenders worthy of a little corner for themselves on Omega. But a potential new world would be an alternative means of silently gaining strength, or if all else fails, run from the threats of the world. But most likely run from the patrons and progenitors of their race.

Kolisa nods, sensing the turbulent thoughts of his friend he turns and starts the trek down the miniature mountain. The walk down is as difficult as the walk up with how dense the atmosphere and hard the gravity is here. On his way down he passes within sensing vicinity of three other cultivators sitting in their respective trances like his old friend seeking to break through their own bottlenecks or find enlightenment, or both. The walk twists around the steep grassy hill that in any other world would be classified a mountain made from the remains of a decaying Titan. But on Omega all know that a true mountain is nay indestructible and even Titans need to at least scale in order to see beyond those barriers.

Once at the bottom he is released from the oppressive atmosphere of the place and takes flight towards home already sending out instructions to the relevant parties.