She gestured to the last two stars in the cluster. “There’s the Tempering Star Volcanis, where you can train your physique—”

—A star that spat angry licks of red-white—

“And the Cultivation Star Pyronis, where you can submerge yourself in Stormfire essence to cultivate—”

—An immensity of deep-blue flecked white, churning slowly—

“—But those two are only open to Minor Gods and above. Then there’s Astra.”

She pointed to the last star of the seven.

It was the calmest of them all. Rays of ghostly light spread through its star system, flickering like the edges of a candle-flame, shrouding the place in moving auroras. Each was an expression of Stormfire, twinkling with unknown Laws… hails of asteroids shot through the stellar fog.

Zane could swear he heard it calling out to him. Winking at him.

“The meditation star. There you can know all the mysteries of Stormfire. The closer you get to the star, the stronger the Law… you'll find it's much easier comprehending there than anywhere else.”

She turned back to him, arms crossed.

“That’s all seven for you! You’ll only need to think about three right now. Ragnos, Astra, and Voltra. Skills training, Comprehension, and home. And that’s the tour done.”

“Thanks,” said Zane.

She turned, was about to go—then froze.

“Err,” said Lin Rai, looking awkward. “Right. Almost forgot—I suppose I should show you to your new home…this way.”

She waved him back through the portal. They beamed out into space.

Just a little jump this time, arching near ‘Voltra,’ the essence star—up close its purple was even more vivid, splotched with streaks of white, arcs of lightning crackling over the top like solar flares… he and Lin Rai were dropping down near one of its outer planets.

It was an orb of bright blues and deep purples. Vast splotches of land mapped the place, lit up with brilliant Stormfire lakes spanning hundreds of miles. Dark ranges ribbed it all over. Ash fell on the peaks instead of snow, and Stormfire filled the lakes, not water. It could have been some pre-historic Earth, color-shifted.

Sheets of clouds swirled all over, shot through with great electric arcs. Forests of hundred-foot-tall trees spanned big swathes of the continent, blue leaves sizzling lightning… dark clusters floated over them—wyverns? Phoenixes? Too far to tell.

They dropped even closer and saw lots of tents clustered together, mostly lining the edges of the lakes, though a few clusters pitched up in stretches of thunderstruck desert. Clusters of dots from this distance. He thought he could spot some fuzzy herd animals milling along.

“This is planet Stormhaven,” said Lin Rai absently. “It’s all yours now. Home to something like fifty million. Most live in tribes and practice forms of lesser Stormfire, mostly pseudo-Stormfire. You’ll find the elites here are around Core Formation, the peak around Nascent Soul—nothing like you, of course. These are common folk, but they do serve a vital role.”

She gestured to the rocky spires jutting out of the ground at regular intervals.

“They offer the energies they gather as sacrifices in exchange for living in Noughtfire’s realm. All that goes to us. To you now.”

They were dropping to the ground now.

“And this is your estate, Stormhaven Manor.”

It was a giant island floating over a giant lake of Stormfire. A gilded bridge ran up to it, some thousands of feet off the ground. Waterfalls of liquid Stormfire dropped off from high above. Jade lion-statues flanked the sides of the bridge where they led up to the island proper—and the compound on top.

It was all curving jade-tiled roofs, and clean-cut stone. There was a main hall, and a pavilion, and a courtyard with a giant lightning-leaf tree, and little watchtower pagodas rising around the perimeter. A quaint little place, like an old wood-carving come to life. But more colorful.

Jetstreams of Stormfire essence converged all over it, drenching it in the stuff. As Zane and Lin went up—especially when they set foot on the island—he felt it thick on his skin. He could see how you could Level just by walking around here. The ambient essence here was so dense it felt almost liquid.

The essence streamed in from afar, and from this height he could pinpoint where—distant altars cropping up all over the continent set glowing rivers of it his way.

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He saw, a few hundred miles off, a little cluster of dots burning something white and fuzzy at one of those altars. There was a flash, a strike of lightning, and yet more surged on through.

Lin Rai blew out a cheekful of air. “Well,” she said at last, a hand on her hip. “That’s that! One last thing—you should know how well you do here, from the Skills, to the Levels, to the Laws you gain—really how powerful you become—will depend on your own efforts. Noughtfire will gift you little, but reward you plentifully—don’t think you can coast by on your talents! Every one of his disciples is a generational talent. All that matters is what you make of it.”

“Sure,” said Zane.

“Oh—and I’m the most junior disciple here—besides you, now—and I’m a peak Minor God, and the #3-ranked Inner Faction disciple in all of Azure Flame. The rest are all old monsters. So don’t go running your mouth thinking you’re hot stuff!”

She paused, scratched her head again, and there was that awkward look again. “Actually… you don’t seem the type. It’s just what I did when I first came. But I learned pretty fast.”

Another pause.

“Well, anyway. The Sage—Noughtfire, that is—should be summoning you soon. Just settle in for now…Err. Suppose I'll see you around.”

“Okay,” said Zane, waving. “See you.”

She still looked puzzled. “You’re a strange one, Zane Walker.”

She stepped into the light, and was gone.

For a while he just stood there, looking up at the waterfalls—firefalls?—streaming off his new home, pouring ghostly flickering purple flames into the lake with a crackling, gurgling sound. It was pretty peaceful. He supposed he could see himself staying here a little while.

He examined the giant lake of Stormfire below.

The first thing he noticed here—all around him, really, but especially in that lake—was how dense the Stormfire essence was. He had to go to Mount Vesuvius to get a little flicker of it back on Earth. But here he was bombarded with it just standing there. He knew wading into that lake would be even more of an overload. He figured with a good few days dipping in there, he could get full Fusion without much trouble.

That would also fulfill one of Noughtfire’s incentives, come to think of it…

Still though, he figured he was better served waiting a bit. He would be summoned soon. It would take a few days to get that Law, and he got the feeling he’d be called up before then. He got the feeling he’d have plenty of chances anyway. There was so much opportunity dumped on him these past few hours he felt a bit dizzy.

Everywhere he looked, from the grounds to the lakes to his house, just streamed Stormfire. Even the skies had arcs of Stormfire lightning crackling across it, clouds of the stuff swirling all around, fiery asteroids floating in orbits near and far… the sky above looked like that one Van Gogh painting. Quite nice to look at. There was an ever-present crackling and roaring, a pleasant ever-present background noise, the hum of destruction.

He poked around his estate a bit for now. It felt like the kind of place built for an emperor. The richness of essence was a little much for him at first; for the first half an hour, it felt like he was wading through a sauna. He got used to it after that pretty quickly.

He figured he had a little time to Level. So he sat down.

Level up!

Essence Level 342 -> 343

Just a few hours had passed. The giant purple star, Voltra—the source of all this essence—was only halfway down the sky. He looked around at the outlines of the mountains and the lakes, the fuzzing of distant trees, the little dots of tribes shifting over it all, lighting purple torches to stave off the night…it was a nice planet. Maybe he’d take a walk as he waited.

***

The Storm Drake Tribe was one of the largest tribes on planet Stormhaven. They were nearly a million strong, spread across their branches. Even their main tribe, which held sway over the grounds nearest the Great Lake, numbered in the thousands—all proud Core warriors. A few were even Nascent Souls.

The strongest of them was a Nascent Soul man named Jawl. The Tribe’s Champion. A grizzled old bear of a man.

He stood at the edge of tribe territory, the lines of drakescale tents to his back, and took a deep breath.

He was dressed in fuzzy white furs. Furs harvested from the Storm Yak herds they kept year-round, whose furs got super-charged after the Everstorms, and were sheared off and sacrificed to the Sage—or worn as clothing, to fend off the worst of the gales. Nervously he adjusted his fuzzy cap.

The Shamans had given word. A new Stormhaven Lord was to come today—and how they got on might well determine the fate of his tribe.

Meanwhile—a few thousand strides off—a group of teens were camped out on a nearby rocky bluff. All Tribal princes and princesses, mostly Core, though the youngest, Rei, was just Foundation. They were wrestling for use of a spyglass—though the eldest, a strapping prince of sixteen named Drex, snatched it free.

“He’s here,” he said, putting the instrument very close to his face. He sounded almost giddy. “The new Lord’s just touched down!”

“Let me see,” cried his cousin, the princess Tali. She made a grab for it and missed.

“Hush,” said Drex. “Yea—that’s Zane Walker, it’s got to be!”

“How’d you know?” said his brother Nak, craning to get a look.

“He’s just got this air to him,” said Drex. “It’s a warrior thing. You wouldn’t get it.”

Drex was not himself an official tribe warrior yet, but he would be as soon as he turned seventeen and passed the Storm Rites. He was pretty much a warrior already anyway, he felt. Nak rolled his eyes.

“Why’s Uncle got to be his servant anyway?” grumbled chubby little Rei, almost seven. “Aren’t they both Nascent Souls? At least the last Lord was a God…”

Drex looked around in a three-sixty, as though afraid someone had heard. Then he flicked Rei in the head.

“Oww!” cried Rei, who felt this was quite unfair.

“It’s not the same at all,” said Drex, offended. “Uncle might be the strongest Nascent Soul on Stormhaven—but the new Lord comes from beyond the stars. He’s the #1 on the Rising Dragon ranking—do you know what that means?”

“No…” said Rei, who was rubbing his ear, still feeling quite sorry for himself.

“That right there,” said Drex, all hushed. “Is one of the strongest Nascent Souls ever.”

He looked back through the spyglass to see Zane plopping down by the side of the Great Lake. He tapped his Interspatial Ring. He started munching on a massive cookie—it was one of Evan’s. He wiped his mouth. His cookie slipped out of his hand; he grabbed for it, missed, and it fell into the Stormfire Lake.

He blinked at it for a few seconds, stunned.

Then he shrugged, got another cookie, and kept munching.

Rei was not convinced this big fellow was that impressive. At least Rei knew how to hold onto his cookies. But he still remembered that last flick, so he wisely kept quiet as Drex whispered, “Did you know he got Mid-Fusion while he was still at Core? I’ll get Mid-Fusion at Core too…”