After Courtney grilled Peter a little more the group splits up for the night. Jason goes to his bed and with a yawn, lays back and logs off. Out in his pod, he rubs his eyes and stretches out. In the back of his head the question of if he should have just gone to sleep tries to take hold, but he doesn’t let it.

Up and out of his pod, Jason heads into the restroom and takes a shower. That wakes him up right quick and he goes through a proper stretching routine instead of letting himself get away with a couple shoddy arm stretches. Joints properly loosened, he heads out into the living room and settles in to cultivate.

Not much happens during the time he had set aside for it. The corrupting energies are still staying away, and he grows ever closer to the first step on his journey. Though as he wraps up the very fact nothing has happened causes Jason some worries. While cultivation isn’t actually going against the heavens as some claimed, it definitely causes a reaction. If the so-called heavens existed then it was very much a believer in tough love.

As Jason lies back down in his pod, he takes his time to consider what he has discovered so far. First is that his world as it currently exists has too many types of energy, some of it even feels like it comes from his past. Second is that corrupting energy which despite how virulent it seemed the stuff hadn’t taken over yet. Lastly, he could cultivate and that experience can translate over into NeoRealm.

Taken together with the general sense of reality around NeoRealm just raises even more questions. Questions which he will have to shelve for later. Whatever secrets the world and NeoRealm have, they can wait. With half the night left Jason plans to spend a quarter of it cultivating some more while trying to combine more of what he has discovered irl.

Or that was the plan. And it doesn’t survive long when he realizes he still needs to dig deeper into his body’s lines. Though as mentioned this wasn’t his original intention but his body pressed the issue. At his pinky, the lines had frayed where he had been experimenting. Just the barest hint of fuzziness, but there it was. Plain as day now that he was looking. Worse yet, it was fraying at a level he couldn’t work with yet.

Jason didn’t know what the results would be if he left it alone, and he wasn’t going to take chances. He dives right in to try and halt the spread. With his own cultivation wrapped around the strings, it feels like the process is if not stopped than significantly slowed. But he can’t leave it at that.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Back up the string Jason goes until he notices a juncture. Unseen from outside, there was a hard crystalline form right at the point that the strings from his fingers meet up. There he can feel a sense of pain coming from his pinky. Not much he can do at the juncture though, so he ties some of his cultivation around the point just before where the pinky’s strings meet with the rest.

Jason returns to the pinky and dives into the strings. Down to the point from last time and further he presses. Not able to see what is happening yet still going smaller by feel alone. With a sense of urgency hounding him and the fraying itself as a guide, he breaks through. His inner vision sharpens and is refined as he forces it to observe the strings within strings even closer.

His visualization of the situation becomes more exact until Jason can see lines the size of his own cultivation that make up the strings. There might be a deeper layer, but this is enough for now. This level of magnification is where the fraying is happening. He can see the threads unwinding from one another. His prior attempts having released the tension that they had been under.

Now that he can see it, he can do something about the fraying. Grabbing all the loose threads, Jason pulls it back together. With each one he gives it a twist and after they are gathered spins the string tight again. Then he repeats this with all the strings until once again his pinky’s lines are back in place.

Problem is this solution won’t hold forever. Jason has taken a peek at his other pinky. While he did a good job, his twist was nowhere near as tight as the natural strings. For now, though, it will have to do. There is still some night left but he knows to quit when ahead and so just goes to sleep.

Next morning he takes a moment to check on his pinky and the repair seems to hold. Though he can already see the end has loosened some. Jason shakes his head. Tomorrow night he will have to do more about it, but for now there are cats to kill.

Downstairs, he meets up with the others for breakfast. A savory dish made with some kind of root vegetable they had set under some meat that was being slow cooked for tonight. The cook had to cut off over half of the root because it had burned, but what was left tasted decent. The drippings from the meat had imparted a deeper flavor that complemented the roots already earthy taste.

Finished with breakfast, they head over to the gate. Once there though, Peter stops the group. “This is where we split up for the moment. Jason and Courtney? You two stay here for about ten minutes, then you can head out to catch up with us. I plan to give Rosha here a bit of a crash course on what to look for to determine when you’re near settlements and such. An important thing to know not only because it can lead you towards civilization if you get lost but also point out wild tribes.”

Peter claps his hands and nods before walking off. Rosha stands still for a moment but is quick to catch up with him while the other two just stand there like lumps on a log. Jason turns to Courtney and shrugs, “so, you have anything to spend the time on?”