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”So how exactly are we supposed to locate your friend?” Anaire asked with a frown. “For all we know, she could be on this very world and we wouldn’t know.” She was feeling a lot better now that she had proper clothes. She still couldn’t wear elven attire, and the togas used by the Naga were a little airy, but it went a long way towards returning some of her confidence.
Karna and Tsumi looked at each other and frowned as they both considered the problem. “There are certain spells that could help, but I have to be honest. Divination isn’t my specialty.” Tsumi admitted. “We always lived under the shadow of the Starlight Tower and I frankly have very little respect for seers. Their field does have certain uses though.”
"Hmm, there is a way, though it's not exactly foolproof," Karna mentioned. "When a proper artisan creates something, there will always be a little bit of the artisan in that item. With a proper spell, I could try to scry for the items I’ve made. It won’t reveal her exact location, but at least we’ll know if we’re on the right world. The problem is, Mayumi only had a handful of items made by me, and this assumes she still has them.”
“She could’ve lost her spatial ring just like me.” Anaire agreed with a nod. “Or the items could’ve even been taken from her.” That possibility was much worse.
“Well, even if that is the case, we’ll at least know where she had been if we find those items in someone else’s possession.” Tsumi pointed out.
“Right. Let's start with that one." Karna closed her eyes and muttered the incantation that went with the spell. She had to use a relatively high-ranked divination spell just to cover the entire world they were on, which would leave her quite exhausted. Once the spell was complete, she tried to sense any echoes coming off from any items she had created and came up empty-handed. Not that she'd expected a response on this world.
“Nothing?” Tsumi asked to confirm when Karna opened her eyes.
“Zilch.” Karna shook her head. “I might as well contact Arjuna as well. Get the ship ready to go in the meantime.”
Tsumi and Anaire wandered off to make preparations while Karna drew a fairly small but complicated magical circle on the ground with some of the materials they had acquired. There was a reason she’d sent Tsumi away. The spell she was going to use was soul magic not practiced in this universe. It would also reveal just how powerful her soul truly was while she was casting it, and that little tidbit might be too much information even for her master. Karna had revealed many things over the years and hinted at a lot more, but certain things she still kept a secret. Only Arjuna had any idea about the strength of her soul and that was because this wasn’t the first time she used a soul magic spell.
As the casting was finished, Karna found her soul in a large empty courtyard. The building beside the courtyard was something that she had pulled out from her memories as it seemed appropriate. It was a relatively nondescript castle made of grey stone that you could find anywhere. Next to her appeared the tiny form of Arjuna. 'It's not that Arjuna is small, but that I'm big.' Karna thought idly. She was keeping her own size in check and still Arjuna was short enough to not even reach her shin.
“Karna. It’s good to see you again.” Arjuna said with a relieved voice. “What took you so long?”
“Didn’t have the materials for the spell. Tsumi found us and she’s one of the few people that carry around sand that has time properties.” Karna sat down on the even ground and placed her hand flat next to her so that Arjuna could step on it and be brought up to eye-level.
“Your Titan form will be stupendously large in the future.” Arjuna shook his head again. That’s how Karna had explained things. That the space they were in would show her future shape. “You said ‘us’. Who else is with you?”
“Princess Anaire and Tsumi like I mentioned. Master just found us a few hours ago. I heard from her that Duskclaw was injured. How is she?” Karna was genuinely worried.
Arjuna sighed. “She’s not well. She’ll live but she did some things she really shouldn’t have. It’ll take her a long time to recover. She’s not in any danger, but this will slow her cultivation. It might affect her potential if we don’t deal with it thoroughly. I have some of the healers from the old Holy Kingdom looking after her though, so the situation is improving. They know what they’re doing. Where are you?”
Karna mentioned the name of the planet. “We actually crashed on a sandy planet called Palaven. A dreary place but the people were nice. Ran into some Netherworld forces and got here on a trader ship.”
“Ah, the Scourge groups have actually been trailing the trader ships around, so the major worlds have considered banning inter-world trade until the situation is resolved. Too little too late though. When will you be back? Are you coming straight back?” Arjuna asked.
“No. From what I hear, Mayumi’s still missing, and I’m going to keep looking. With Tsumi here, I should be fine. We’ll need to keep in contact though. If either of us finds her, then the other one could waste a lot of time looking for someone who’s no longer lost.” Karna explained quickly.
“Well, it’s not like I have much choice in the matter. Just keep safe.” Arjuna was right. He had no choice when it came to Karna’s decision. Just knowing she was safe was enough for now though. He had known she would be, but it was nice getting a confirmation.
“Where did you find the others? Maybe we could narrow down the search area.” Karna suggested.
“We’re way ahead of you there. So far all of you have been found in the south-eastern segment of our plane. You two were thrown the furthest out so far. You were traveling south while the spatial disturbance seems to have originated from the west, throwing everyone eastwards.” It wasn’t quite that simple of course. There were no cardinal directions like that between the worlds in the first place, and the cardinal directions Arjuna had mentioned had been decided based on where each world was on the magical formation that unified all the worlds and planes. The directions were only general guidelines though, and in some cases could be extremely misleading. In some ways, traveling between planes could actually be easier than travel between worlds. Especially in places where the borders between planes grew thin. On the other hand, in some places it was almost impossible.
“That does narrow it down, although we shouldn’t rely on it too heavily.” Karna nodded.
Arjuna took a long look at his daughter. “Are you fine, really? I know I shouldn’t, but I worry.”
She smiled in response. It was endearing. “I truly am fine. Concerned about Duskclaw, but other than that I’m fine.”
"Make sure that you stay that way," Arjuna ordered in a stern voice before disappearing. The spell was great but not very long-lasting, and Arjuna knew it burdened Karna to cast something out of her league like this.
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Unlike Prince Cendirion’s yacht, Tsumi’s vessel was built for one thing and one thing only. Speed. It had the flying V shape that became so popular in many science-based universes, and it even had three huge gravity stones at its aft in a way that almost made them look like engine thrusters. “Master, who designed your ship?” Karna asked with a frown. She’d seen the vessel Tsumi used in day to day travel and that one looked more like a fat duck.
“Hmm? Oh, this is a design originally made by the Witch of the Starlight Tower. We’ve improved on it since, but the general outline is still the same.” Tsumi responded without worries.
“I see.” Karna nodded. This cast a very special kind of suspicion on the enigmatic witch. Clearly the design had been inspired by knowledge from outside this universe.
The insides of the ship were barely large enough to hold the three of them comfortably. They had the space of a small-ish one-room apartment in addition to the cockpit, which didn't really bear any resemblance to modern design, as this vessel was not piloted the same way. Karna touched the control crystal and felt like she was becoming one with the ship itself, and the instructions of her mind guided the ship along. A very peculiar feeling had she not been used to such control schemes for her previous lives.
“Aaaand I see you don’t really require any instructions on how to fly.” Karna almost sensed Tsumi’s voice more than heard it. The ship had already lifted into the air and she went through small maneuvers to get used to what the ship could do and how it responded to her inputs.
Once she had gotten a handle on the ship, the air around the ship was suddenly sucked inwards as the ship simply disappeared, transferring into the great in-between that separated the worlds. Karna’s mind reached far and wide as she got a handle on their location and where they needed to go. This was where she could finally utilize her soul to its fullest by extending her senses further out than anyone else was capable of doing, and the ship even amplified those senses. She could finally allow her senses to range far and wide without worry of being detected or accidentally hurting someone. The ship itself protected those inside as the magical runes on the hull glowed a telltale purple hue.
She could feel the space holding the universe together struggling. It was like it was in pain. Not because of the recent disturbance. That had been a tiny ripple in a huge pond. No, that ripple had in fact been the space releasing some of the stress it had been under. It wasn’t until now that Karna realized truly how heavily the space was stressed. It was a wonder the earlier disturbance had been as mild, or that it had been the first. She’d experienced several Expansions before, so this sort of stress was not new to her, but there was definitely something strange going on. This Expansion was going to be much larger than she or anyone else had anticipated.
“This isn’t just the birth of a new world or even a new plane.” She muttered, spooking the other two inside the cockpit wondering at the turbulent space around the ship. “This is…something new.”
Tsumi’s eyes narrowed. “Are you certain?” She asked. She didn’t ask how Karna knew, as she was already used to her disciple’s reticence towards explaining such things. She had learned not to care about the origins of such tidbits of info. What mattered was how reliable it was.
“Completely. And I don't think the Divines will be prepared either. We already got a small hint of what will happen, but I'm almost certain that the Scourges will be free to flood into the new…whatever is created, just as easily as we will." Karna tried to put her vague impressions into words. And she somehow had a feeling that the whole thing was tied to the recent influx of reincarnators. Something big was coming.
“So we won’t be fighting just other worlds and planes for the new worlds and resources.” Tsumi made her own conclusions. “We need to prepare. I’ll have to get a word back.”
“We’ll relay the message once we reach the next world.” Karna agreed. She then allowed her senses to reach towards certain types of channels in the turbulent maelstrom of energies and used the ship's engines to push. Space twisted around them and bent to her will. Reluctantly for now, but it did. She would need to change that. Luckily that was exactly what she had in mind.
A bout of sudden nausea almost caused Tsumi and Anaire to hurl. "Whoa. That's not how this usually goes." Anaire had her hand covering her mouth, just in case. Not that she was really thinking vomiting on her hand would make things any better.
“Yeah, you’ll get used to it. My disciple rarely does things the way most people prefer to do them.” Tsumi couldn’t help but giggle. Most pilots would follow the currents of this weird space to their destination. Only spatial mages and some people like Karna would think of bending the space around them instead, bringing the destination to them, instead of the other way around. She also recognized that Karna was actually doing a bit of both, which required double the effort and concentration.
“Where are we?” Anaire asked when the twisting feeling ended. “We’re not on another world yet, are we?” She looked outside and saw nothing but huge streams of flowing energy. It looked like stars were twinkling around them, but that could’ve just been her mind trying to make sense of her surroundings.
“We’re near the formation. Next to a juncture point in fact.” Karna explained curtly.
“Which formation?” Tsumi asked suspicions rising.
“The formation," Karna stated firmly. She was referring to the formation that combined all the planes and the worlds. They were only tiny specks when compared to the formation, so their eyes and minds couldn’t comprehend it. It was like a tiny ant looking at and trying to understand a pack of river-dancing dragobears.
“So. You did want to find a very special place for your Awakening after all.” Tsumi realized.
“Well…” Karna was prepared to say something quippy but decided to just let it go and accept that her master was right.
“You said you had something to discuss before going through this?” Tsumi prompted.
“I…have a decision to make. The Awakenings aren’t all equal. The Awakenings you first go through of course form the foundation of everything. And those done at ranks ten and thirteen are also special. As is the one I’m currently going to undertake, though this one is significantly less so. I’m not certain which path I should take, and I have a few options.” Karna tried to explain without revealing too much. She mostly needed a sounding board for her own thoughts.
“It’s rather cute that you’re so certain that you’ll reach rank thirteen someday. I won’t even ask how you know all this. Alright, lay it on me. What’s the issue?” Tsumi realized her role in all this. To the surprise of Anaire and Tsumi, Gem suddenly materialized as well in the form of a tiny Faerie Dragon, ready to give her input as well.
“I have a…handful of options but I’m not certain which order to choose them in. I have one option that I know is very powerful and significant. It would also make our travels easier and give me a significant boost of power in the short term. However, that option would be even stronger if I saved it until the later Awakenings I mentioned. The second option is a rather plain one when it comes to power, but it comes with a really handy slate of smaller abilities, and it would be especially useful for our current spatial problem. However, as I said, the increase in power would be minor at best. The third option…I'm not sure about. I have a hunch that it could be extremely significant, but I have no idea beyond that. It might provide all the answers we need right now, or it might be a total bust. It would be the safer option to test now when the loss would be smaller than when I'm at rank ten or Divines forbid thirteen, but the potential gains are also smaller.” Karna had slight difficulties wording her worries correctly.
“Ok, let me try to get this straight. You have three options that you will all take at some point, but you’re not sure of the order?” Anaire asked for clarification.
“In a nutshell, yes.” Karna nodded.
“The other two options are a potentially awesome mystery option three and a guaranteed great option one that you’d rather save for the future. And you have a hunch that the mystery will be significant at some point?” Tsumi reiterated.
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
“You know what to do," Gem spoke in a squeaky voice. It wasn’t the first time Tsumi heard the spirit speak, but it was rare. "You don't jeopardize future potential for a short term gain now. That's why you spent so much time on your foundation. Option one will be much better saved for the future."
“I agree with the…spirit?” Anaire’s voice was a little questioning. “I think the choice is obvious. Option two now. Option one when you reach immortality. That’s when you need the power most. Option three when and if you ever reach rank thirteen. Why take a risk that you might not have to ever take?”
“I agree with those two, except I’d consider flipping the first and third option around.” Tsumi also nodded.
Karna nodded. “I had similar thoughts, I just needed to work the problem out.”
As soon as she had said the words, she appeared outside the ship. Instead of drawing just on the surrounding spatial forces, she also tapped straight into the great formation. There was no need to try and gather as much power as possible this time. In fact, she had to be very precise so that she wouldn't draw too much and kill herself in the process. That's why she finished attuning to the space element before starting the real Awakening. She’d absorbed nearly all of the essences the spirits had provided her, so she really needed to start dealing with her own part of the deal. She’d saved a couple just for maximum effect but the attunement to the elements was almost finished.
This time there were no grand apparitions or flashy heavenly tribulations. The same had held true for her previous Awakening as a vampire, although even then there had been a disturbance as she’d basically created a new vampiric bloodline. Rain of blood and other such minor details that should really be ignored. The form she was taking on this time was not one that would draw the ire of the universe, although that was a horrible oversight on the heaven’s part. That was part of what made it so great. Karna had always found this particular bloodline a borderline broken one. That’s why she had picked it for one of the more significant Awakenings.
Although the heavens didn't strike at her, that didn't mean this Awakening was any easier than the others. In fact, it was significantly harder. Absorbing the power from the formation without being overwhelmed was agonizingly painful. Her mana channels burned and were recreated just as fast as they were being destroyed. Luckily the process was rather quick, and the whole thing took less than five minutes. With a small puff of smoke, she slumped back inside the ship in her new form.
“Oh, Divines!” Tsumi gave an exasperated exhale and covered her eyes with her hand.
Anaire on the other hand clapped her hands and released a girlish squeal. “Daaaww! So adorable!” She tried to scoop Karna up into her hands.
“Get off. Let me get some rest first.” The tiny blueish-white kitten deftly floated away while flapping what looked like butterfly wings that were three times larger than her body.