A few small plants grew in planters scattered around the room, and Aarick’s eyes absently stared at one while Lurona prepared tea. He would have started talking earlier, but Lurona had instructed him to wait until after the tea was served.

Unknown to Aarick, this was, in fact, a room specifically meant for serving tea, whether enjoyed alone by Lurona or for honored guests. The various plants growing around the room either had no flowers, or had been carefully bred to remove all scent. Nothing would be allowed to interfere with the natural flavor of the tea.

Aarick began to speak after Lurona poured them both tea. There wasn’t any sugar, but there was honey, which he used liberally.

Shortly after that he tried, and failed, to explain the strangeness of the place he had been sucked through to arrive here, and then his sudden arrival. Lurona interrupted him.

“You started to feel a connection to it, that you could understand it?” she asked.

“Yeah, uh, yeah, like it was waiting for me to connect. It felt like if I reached out it would connect back. Thinking about it, here, I don’t think I would want to connect to it, especially not with it surrounding me. At the time, it was all around me; it messed up what I was thinking. It wasn’t really a place that… I can’t even call it insane. It felt like each… vision I had of it was a tiny piece. A small part of the logic of something vaster. However, I feel like connecting to that would be dangerous.”

“And you would likely be right.” Lurona said. “Most who are drawn through the Eldritch do not survive. At least not as themselves. Ironically, your resistance also means that you might have the eventual capacity to work with it. Since that is the case… you will need a bit more information.”

She sighed, sipped her tea, and continued.

“The Eldritch doesn’t operate like the physical world. It doesn’t even operate like the spiritual or dream worlds. As you discovered, it defies description. I will share a little about it, but honestly you probably have a better sense of it than I do. Me, and all of the cultists in the room you were summoned to, were rendered temporarily catatonic by being exposed to the outside of the Eldritch. Only for a moment, and while the exposure lasted, but this is considered to be a normal response.

“You, didn’t go unconscious even when it surrounded you. You also have no cultivation, and based on where you come from, I assume you have never had any cultivation.”

He prepared himself to speak, but he was cut off.

“Don’t interrupt,” she said. “Like I said before, we will deal with questions later. If I have made any incorrect assumptions, then correct them when I tell you to talk again.

“I am at a substantially higher cultivation than any of the cultists, so I recovered faster. For now, you should know that increasing cultivation is one of the ways to protect from exposure. It strengthens the soul, and that is what shields someone from the Eldritch. However, while you were unconscious, I had the doctor look you over completely. You have no cultivation, or traces of cultivation. The doctor doesn’t have the expertise to examine your soul in any depth, but what little he could see showed the opposite of health. In fact, it is rather starved, deprived of sufficient energy.

“Ultimately, that means you have an affinity for the Eldritch. While the part of the array that survived didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t be surprised if some part of it specified that the person drawn through should be resistant to the Eldritch. Or, it could be that you are incredibly lucky.

“If you are wondering what you could possibly be connected to in that insanity… well. It has other names, too. The Hall of Doors, the Space Between, The Edge That Touches All, The Gap Between Dreams and Reality, and many others. It is what exists between the other realities. It keeps all the individual worlds separated, so that the spiritual realm, and dreams, and the physical world don’t become mixed up with each other.”

“I have been told that those who do get glimpses of it, are seeing everything. All the possible futures and pasts, as well as the impossibilities of dreams, and the souls of everything alive.

“Be aware. The only reason I am telling you this, is that it is standard policy. Once someone has actually traveled through that space, they are more connected to it; they are more likely to have it influence their lives. Being aware of it may help you control any incidents with it.”

She paused for a moment. She set her teacup to the side and her body went perfectly still as she stared him directly in the eyes.

Her voice was deadly serious as she resumed.

“I need to make this perfectly clear. The Eldritch is powerful, and learning to control the power it represents is the best solution. However, if at any time, you overstep your abilities you will trigger arrays that will warn of the danger. You will be killed if that happens, unless everything is completely under control by the time I or another Imperial Agent arrives.

“The danger of an uncontrolled breach into the Eldritch… is not to be underestimated.

“Entire cities have been destroyed and then quarantined for hundreds or thousands of years after an incident. The only reason that the Empire doesn’t kill people who have been exposed to the Eldritch, is because they are some of the few people who have the potential to prevent worse incidents. However, if you lose control, you will be killed to prevent the problem from spreading.”

Well that’s not particularly comforting.

She waved toward him.

“You may continue your story from after you left the Eldritch,” she said.

“One moment, please,” he said, lifting a finger.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts. He was… oddly, not that terrified? It made sense, at least. He had the potential to unleash a horrible plague, but he was also resistant to it. If he was only able to spread the plague, then it would make sense to kill or contain him. It wasn’t kind, but it made sense on the scale of a nation. However, with his resistance, he could help fight it.

The perspective on what the Eldritch actually was, also allowed him to contextualize his experience in a new light. He remembered seeing thousands of versions of himself and the cacophony of advice. Could those be future versions of himself? Maybe, but based on what Lurona had said about the place, they were more likely from versions that would never be. At least, not for this version of him. How likely was it, that he would actually get pulled here? He didn’t know; for all he knew those were versions that got pulled to a different world entirely, or…

Well, he really didn’t know.

Based on the description, Aarick thought the most fitting name was Liminal Space. It existed as the boundary, not just between physical, and apparently the nonphysical, spaces, but also between possibility and reality. That made it the thin edge between everything. It was no wonder that it was insane, it touched everything. And it wasn’t a physical space…

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Though, it had felt like a physical space while he was there. He had even felt like it had no physical dimension, and yet he had maintained his physical state there. Was that because he was there; did he carry some of the rules of the universe with him? That thin barrier, just over his skin, was it a real thing?

Lurona watched unnoticed as Aarick drifted off into thought. First she was patient, then amused and slowly sipping her tea, but her patience and time was limited.

“I am sure your thoughts are fascinating,” She interrupted, voice dry, “but you seem to have gotten lost in them.”

“Huh, oh!” Aarick startled. “Yes, sorry.”

He went on to describe arriving, and the tiny glimpse he got before being overwhelmed with pain. He described the pain, the fire and ice, and the odd physical sensation of feeling everything around him before he actually touched it.

He trailed off as she tapped her lips with one of her long fingers.

“More tea?” she asked.

“Uh,” he looked down at his teacup. It was empty, he couldn’t say that he had even remembered drinking it.

“Yes, thank you.”

With an easy grace, she poured the tea, lifting the teapot up as she poured and then back down. In the end, she didn’t spill a single drop, the deep amber fluid steaming gently into the air. Absentmindedly, he added a large glob of honey and stirred.

She waited politely until he had taken a sip. For the first time he noticed the flavor. Hints of flowers, citrus, cinnamon, and a faint bitterness beneath it all.

“You,” she said briskly, “represent a political problem. If you were to blame I would wash my hands of you and hang you out to dry. However,” here she sighed before continuing, “none of this is your fault. You are, truly, the equivalent of an innocent bystander. You are the victim, and I believe it is the Empire’s duty to help you. The Empire was the most likely target of the cultists, in the end. They were rebelling against its authority to perform the ritual, even if that wasn’t the case. In fact, you are the most harmless possible result we could possibly have gotten. If an eldritch being, demon, or a powerful and hostile cultivator had come through, the Empire would have been responsible for the clean up.

“However, you don’t even know why you are a potential problem, which means it is up to me to educate you.”

There was a brief pause as she looked at a painting on the wall, her eyes staring past it.

“The first problem is the nobles. You are an Outsider. They are rare, and you don’t need anything more than that to be special. Someone, would want to collect you, just to say they had you. It would be a comfortable life, but you would be controlled and shown off.

“Is that something you would want?”

It took him a moment to find his voice, his throat dry.

“No, no… I don’t think I would like that,” he said.

She gave him a tight lipped smile.

“Fair, I certainly would hate it, but I didn’t want to do you the disservice of not even asking,” Lurona said. “Based on what you told me, there is another possibility. By the standards of the Empire,” she looked him up and down, “you are a cripple. You have no foundation at all, not even a dantian. And at your age, if you are capable of cultivation at all, you should be well past that.

“If you never create your dantian, and never progress any further, then you will be stuck here in the creche. This area, like all of the creches, is strictly off limits to the nobles. They could try to woo you away with offers, but they would only be offers. As you wouldn’t outlive my tenure here in that case, I would make sure of it.

“If, at some point, you find yourself unable to progress further, that might actually be the best outcome for you. Make a deal with a noble so you get... whatever it is that you want. Women, men, wine, trinkets, access to whatever hobbies you like, and so on.

“Or, if you are truly a cripple, maybe negotiate for the help of an expert in dantian formation to finally create one. They can be forged artificially, but the process is both expensive and produces a mediocre result. If someone isn’t crippled, they generally form one before the age of ten.

“If you manage to advance on your own, then you will eventually need to leave the creche. Well, no… you could choose to stay here, but if you actually wish to grow and become stronger then you would need to leave.

“The role of an Imperial Agent is a desired one, but few actually want an assignment to watch over a creche.” She paused for a moment, a soft smile on her face, looking satisfied with herself. “I volunteered for this role. Additional qi stones are shipped out regularly so to help maintain my cultivation and continue my progress. Of course, I did it because I don’t like politics.”

She fixed him with a wry expression, her lips pursed and one eyebrow arching up over her enormous iris.

“It will likely still take some time,” she continued, “before you reach that decision, but it would come naturally. However, I can offer a small bit of help.

“Time.

“The physician who has seen you is the only one who might know where you are actually from. Without lying, I carefully misled him. He thinks the cultists sacrificed your previous cultivation and memories. I have also placed the incident under an Imperial Seal, but that is only so effective at dealing with rumors. However, as a victim, you become less interesting.

“Also, it has the potential to act as better cover than I had suspected it might.”

She paused, her expression shifting and looking more speculative.

“It is hard to tell if it was just the circumstances, since they were so extreme, but you almost experienced two enlightenments in the space of as many minutes. That makes it… unlikely you are a cripple.

“Enlightenments are not uncommon. Every cultivator ends up attuning to something. However, you almost attuned with two of the major aspects.

“And… you partially succeeded with your second one, unlocking qi familiarity. It is the new sense you unlocked. I don’t recall anyone ever unlocking it before forming their dantian. Or, if some noble house has managed it, they are keeping their advantage well hidden.”

She trailed off for a moment.

“Honestly, I give it even odds that at least one noble house has managed it.”

She flashed a brief grin at him and raised a finger, pointing at the ceiling.

“However, if your attunement was not fluke, and you have talent, the story can act as cover. We can display you, not as a genius, but merely someone who is recovering their original cultivation after they were attacked. Your original knowledge would merely be, seeping through, to help you recover.

“However, this facade has a time limit. Reports to the Imperial Throne have to be filed at least every fifty years. Since this incident was not urgent, I can wait until I file my next one in ten years. After that it will go through the Imperial Bureaucracy. The process is slow, but inevitable. Eventually it will become public knowledge.”

That… isn’t the worst timing.

Ten years seemed like a long time to him, but he didn’t actually know much about the world. He had far too many questions. For the moment, and with great difficulty, he was patient.

“If you accept, I will arrange for you to be tutored. And, once you have formed your dantian, you will be placed with a group of some of the slower children from the creche. They will all have just formed their own dantian. From there you can progress at whatever pace you can manage. Then, once you have progressed far enough, I can transfer you out of the creche and to a proper training school.

“As long as you continue to progress at a reasonable rate, even if word comes out about you being an Outsider, you will have some protections as a student. The Empire takes the future seriously. If you are talented, you will gain additional protections.

“Despite my displeasure with politics,” she gave a little smile, “I do have some connections. If it comes down to it, I could probably arrange for a more lenient arrangement with a noble family.

She muttered something he probably wasn’t supposed to hear, “My family, if necessary.” Then continued in her normal voice.

“The more personal power and connections you have by that point, the better.

“Ultimately, you will reach a point where you cannot go any further. That is natural. If you are talented, and lucky, you will have progressed far enough that a noble would be willing to see you as an equal. Then a marriage or being brought into a noble house by adoption would be acceptable. This would give you far more freedom and rights. Nobles usually do that sort of thing to bring in new talent. New talented blood, from another world entirely, would be tempting.

“If you get far enough, The Empire will let you found your own noble house. This is the best case scenario, period. You will gain considerable protections as a new family, and they will last a very long time. Then you can form your own strong position and not rely on others.

“I won’t sugar coat it, however. That last option, is negligible. I... cannot even say what the odds are, exactly. Less than one in a hundred million, almost certainly.”

Lurona sighed.

“Even with everything I have just told you, it is only the barest fraction of what you need to know. You will need to rely on tutors for most of it. However, I can answer some things. I am sure you have some questions already. You may begin.”