“Can’t say I like what you’ve done with the place,” Hudson said. Purple lightning flickered over the empty desert of Sal’s mindscape.

He started walking forward towards one of the petrified trees he had seen, looking around for signs of sigils. Sal floated along behind him.

The petrified tree was actually bigger than it had first appeared; distances were difficult to judge in this space. Its branches were bare of any leaves, and clawed towards the pitch-black sky as if to escape the hellish landscape. The bark’s ridges curled in and over itself in a hypnotic pattern.

“Sigils?” Hudson asked, turning towards Sal.

“In front of you, if you have the eyes to see them…” Sal replied.

“You showed me sigils before. I saw the signs in the challenge area; those were sigils too. There’s nothing like that around here. Just a dead, lifeless tree.”

“Ah, yes. Well. We empowered the sigils we showed you previously, so that you could understand their true value.”

Getting the right information out of Sal was a constant battle. Hudson sighed.

“... So can you empower them?” he asked.

“That wasn’t part of our deal, was it,” Sal tinkled maliciously.

Hudson growled in frustration. A sigil was in front of him, but it needed to be powered.

He took out a piece of Sal’s broken crystal body, and waved it around in front of him. There was a reflection from the bark on the tree, and a slight rippling. He stepped closer, and pressed the crystal to the tree of the bark.

The crystal stuck fast to the tree and slowly melted into the bark, disappearing after a few seconds. The bark shivered and glowed slightly, the hypnotic swirls and patterns in the bark converging into a pattern on the trunk.

Hudson stared at the pattern, and immediately began to feel drowsy. The effect was not near as close to or as powerful as the sigils that Sal had drawn for him, but it was still a recognizable effect.

“The dao of Drowsiness. Quite quotidian, but useful in the hands of a patient hunter. You feel its effects, yes? Imagine – casting your will upon your enemies and they fall asleep, all around you, forgetting their own way and bowing to the dreamless, eternal slumber of your own… Is that not attractive?”

It was not attractive. Not at all.

It was a good thing Hudson had a lot of pieces of glowing, crystallized qi; he might need quite a few to find a sigil that he liked. He peered through the flashes of lightning, and set off for a cluster of figures in the distance that included some humanoid forms.

Distances were indeed difficult to measure and highly subjective. The horizon has a curious tilt to it as well. It was hard to tell with the sand blowing into dunes, and the general lack of visibility, but the horizon didn’t curve down. It curved upwards before disappearing – which didn’t make sense, but he couldn’t deny his perceptions.

After only a few steps that each seemed to cross hundreds of yards, he arrived at a group of trees, large boulders, and two humanoid figures hunched over, arms curled around their bodies. Their faces were featureless, scoured smooth by time and sand.

Hudson took out a piece of crystal and held it up in front of him. The large lumps of stone did not appear to react in any way, even when he placed the crystal directly on them. The tree shivered and rippled, and gradually grew translucent as it absorbed qi from the crystalline fragment. Traces of lines appeared on its surface, but nothing as clear as what Sal had previously drawn. This tree could possibly show a sigil related to invisibility, but it would take more to fully draw it out.

He nervously approached the humanoid figures and drew a crystal out of his bucket. There were a lot of crystal fragments, but there was not an infinite number. If he ran out, he still had the jar of lemonade – that was glowing, similarly to the crystals, and so that might work as well to power the remains in Sal’s mindscape.

He pressed the crystal against the head of the first humanoid figure, and it immediately disappeared, melting into the gray stone. Tendrils of flames burst from the petrified human, scorching Hudson’s fingers in their heat. The heat felt very similar to the Eternal Flame sigil that Sal had previously shown him.

“Is that –” Hudson began to ask.

“Yes. The Eternal Flame. Powerful, yet surprisingly common amongst your kind. We say surprisingly, because only creatures enamored of such powerful self-destructive instincts would seek out that which chars their flesh, boils their blood and bakes their bones. Do you want it now?”

“If I did, how would I actually go about taking it? There are faint patterns in the flames, but it’s hard to make out.”

Sal laughed his gravelly laugh. The sound of small stones rustling against each other was starting to grate on Hudson’s nerves.

“You take by taking.”

“By taking? By… picking it up and carrying it back to my mindscape?” Hudson asked.

The sound of Sal’s annoying laugh was the only confirmation he received.

Hudson reached out to the humanoid figure. The flames had all died down by now, but the stone was still warm to the touch. Very gently, he levered his shoulder as a fulcrum and tried lifting the stone figure. It came up smoothly out of the sand, and was surprisingly light. Carrying it back to his mindscape wouldn’t be a problem.

“An excellent, if consistently unwise choice for your species. Now why we went through all of this rigmarole –” Sal was interrupted when Hudson gently rested the stone figure back in the sand.

“Nope. Wasn’t feeling it, I guess,” Hudson shrugged. “On to the next one. Where are you hiding the good stuff?”

The only reply from Sal was an indignant huff. They probably were hiding the good stuff… No, there was no ‘probably.’ Of course they were hiding the best away from Hudson’s prying eyes. The question was where.

A quick check with another piece of crystal revealed the second humanoid figure also carried the same Flame.

He peered around him and into the distance, trying to think like a silicate. Where would he hide the best loot? Staring at the horizon for too long eventually caused his eyes to start to water. The strange geometry of the space made the ground appear to curve up and into itself.

It was also very dry and dusty, so Hudson pulled out the jar of lemonade and screwed off the cap. As soon as he did, there was an immediate effect – the air around him grew moist and patches of air began to glow with a faint fog; a sweet citrus scent filled the air. The petrified tree and the humanoid figures also reacted to the change in the atmosphere, both resonating mutely with their respective daos.

Hudson took a sip and smacked his lips appreciatively. Maybe he could use this source of power more efficiently than the stones in his bucket.

“Sure you don’t want some?” Hudson asked.

“No, thank you,” Sal replied, with a hint of nervousness in his voice. There was definitely something there, something that Sal was hiding, but Hudson had powerful sigils to find first.

He put his lemonade back in the bucket and set off purposefully for a large clump of figures he’d seen close to the horizon. The simplest answer to where Sal would hide the things he didn’t want Hudson to see was “as far away as possible,” and sometimes the simplest answers were the best.

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The strange geometry of the place took over, and while the dense group of figures had appeared far away, he arrived after what seemed like a quick walk down the block. A large group of petrified trees had created a small copse, with other figures, humanoid and animal-shaped, nestled within the stone forest.

He carefully opened his jar of lemonade and began walking amongst the trees. The qi wafting out from his jar created a glowing cloud floating around him, gently empowering each of the figures within its radius.

The first tree shook with an angry rage; the second was a similarly dark emotion but more alien in nature. An animalistic figure with four legs – what could have been a lion or a tiger, if a lion or tiger had wings – gave off a fiercely proud aura. One of supremacy, or might – it was difficult to understand precisely, with the minimal effect he was having on them.

The signs in the challenge area, or the sigils that Sal had written, those sigils had burned their meanings into his mind with the force of the power behind them. A hint of power escaping from his unscrewed lemonade jar was just enough for these relics to whisper their secrets in his ear.

Most of the tree figures had similar daos: drowsiness, resentment or anger, an alien emotion Hudson was interpreting as “sun/contentment,” and a wiry, flexible kind of strength. He was tempted by that last one – a squat, stout tree with thick and gnarled branches curving in and around themselves in complex knots. He could feel that such a sigil would make his body almost impervious to swords, spears and even bullets.

He could already push his cultivation technique to extreme limits – but if his body itself was stronger? Right now the limiting factor was his physical body. Even at the peak of Qi Gathering stage, his body purified by constantly pumping qi through his muscles, organs, and viscera, he could still feel the pores of his skin coming apart if he pushed his technique too hard.

But if he could somehow strengthen his body with a sigil of Rooted Strength? He didn’t know what his limits would be then.

As Hudson wondered about the possibilities of a body stronger than steel, he almost missed seeing a small figure, tucked into the roots between several petrified trees grown close together.

“What’s that?” Hudson asked, mostly to himself. Sal floated behind him, unspeaking.

It looked like a rabbit, if a rabbit had four ears and horns on the side of its head. Or maybe two of the ears were wings – it was difficult to tell, with the weathering and lack of detail. The long cuspids extending out of its mouth like a saber-tooth tiger were still clear, however.

The petrified creature vibrated softly with a dao understanding that Hudson was having difficulty making out. It wasn’t based on any emotion, or physical understanding of the world… it was almost as if… the petrified creature wasn’t actually there, but somewhere else.

He took one of the crystal fragments and touched it to the figure. The sense of it simply not existing grew stronger, until, when the fragment was completely absorbed, it actually did disappear.

Hudson put his hand through where the stone figure had been. It passed through thin air. There was nothing there.

“Where did it go?” Hudson asked, puzzled.

He hustled around the tiny copse, and finally found it again on the edge of the petrified woods, partially submerged in the sand.

“What’s this creature called? And its sigil?” Hudson asked Sal.

“Ah yes, the humble jackalope,” Sal muttered under his breath. “Not worth your time. These vicious creatures are best at running and hiding, even though this one ultimately failed at that.”

“And how does run and hide?” Hudson asked.

“This particular jackalope thought it was quite clever,” Sal continued muttering. “Confident in its understanding of space-time. Arrogant even. All the way up until we consumed it, trapped, unable to teleport past our reach.”

Hudson did a double-take. “This creature could teleport? And if I took it, I could learn to do the same?”

Sal sniffed. “Possibly. Humans have difficulty intuitively understanding the dao of Liminality. It’s not as simple as just flipping the ‘teleport’ button.”

The strange emanations that Hudson couldn’t place before now made a lot more sense. They felt like ripples in reality, if reality was a pond that he’d thrown a rock into

Hudson hadn’t been looking for very long, and he already felt like he had two much better options than what Sal had shown him previously. He took his clock out of his pocket to check on the time – he still had a lot of areas to explore.

He frowned as he looked at the display on his clock. That couldn’t be right.

“Sal – how much time do I have left?”

“You have spent over 70% of your available time. Better get a move on!”

“How? Barely a few minutes have passed, if that.”

“Tut, tut. Time – and space – pass differently in my mind. Why should you expect the same as your own mind? But we can’t expect too much of a moist ground-pounder like yourself, can we? Mmmhmm.”

Of course – there’s always a catch. Hudson didn’t let his frustration get to him, though. He still had an excellent opportunity, and multiple good options.

He reached down, picked up the jackalope, and trotted back towards the squat and gnarled tree exuding strength that he had seen earlier. Picking the tree up out of the ground was a bit trickier, especially with the tree branch bucket he was already carrying. He wasn’t sure how it was going to be possible – it would be just like Sal to conveniently not mention how most of the sigils in their mind couldn’t be taken out by Hudson.

To his surprise, the tree trunk lifted easily out of the sand, enormous roots and all. Most of the length of the stone tree was in its roots. As he lifted, though, it shrank in size, until it was only as long as Hudson was tall. He could easily rest it on his shoulder in one hand, and carry the bucket and jackalope in the other. The oak tree branch from his mind was tucked into one armpit.

“We must remind you that you can only take one. That was the agreement!” Sal said angrily.

“I’d say shut your mouth, but you don’t have one. So maybe close your rock hole?” Hudson said. “I haven’t decided yet, ok? And since I apparently don’t have as much time left as I thought I would, I’m taking these with me to keep my options open.”

Now on a time crunch, Hudson hustled out of the petrified area he had already explored, and looked around for the next area to head towards. In the distance there was a large mountain, with what looked like an even larger forest of petrified trees.

Hudson took off towards that forest, but he had not gone more than a few steps when the terrain shifted beneath his feet and he found himself facing the entrance, with his own mindscape faintly visible through a white fog.

“Time’s up!” Sal crowed belligerently. “The oak branch and remains of my avatar are mine – hand them over.”

Hudson ground his teeth slightly in frustration. He’d not understood how time could pass so differently in the silicate’s mind.

“OK, ok. A deal is a deal,” Hudson said in defeat.

Hudson set down the bucket, the petrified tree and jackalope, and took the oak branch in one hand. Picking a random spot on the ground, he used his other hand to dig a shallow hole in the sand, as deep as he could make it.

He placed the oak branch in this hole, pushing it deep into the sand. He then dumped the remaining crystals out of his bucket and into the hole around the oak branch.

“Are you planting the tree branch?” Sal scoffed. “It will not grow. We will simply consume this branch as soon as you leave. Dainty bite by dainty bite… slowly, savoring the taste. But please continue… your pointless efforts amuse us.”

Hudson covered up the stone crystals and packed sand around the tree branch. Nodding to himself, he grabbed his jar of lemonade to see better by and walked a few circles around the newly planted tree branch, tamping the sand down in a few places with his foot.

“Now choose your sigil, and begone from here,” Sal said. His form hovered close over the oak branch, his roots twitching in anticipation.

Hudson cracked open his jar of lemonade and took a sip. Sal drifted backwards, out of the reach of the cloud that expanded from his jar. He thought about his options – he could always tell Sal he wanted one of the three he had initially offered: the Eternal Flame, the Invevitable Hammer, or Vengeance.

Most of the daos he had touched upon were similar and more suited to the lifeforms they had been taken from – that is to say, trees. The jackalope, with its strange teleporting dao of Liminality seemed to have an entirely different potential than any other he had seen, or even thought of before.

He wasn’t attracted to human remains he had seen, petrified in hunched positions, exuding dark flames. Seeing those remains like that had removed any thought of pursuing that path from his mind.

The Hammer option might have been a good pick, but overall, he kept coming back to the fact that his cultivation technique seemed to synergize best with the Rooted Strength option. It appealed to his stubborn side as well. S.E.C.T., its young masters, and anyone else for that matter, could try to move him and fail against his physical strength, rooted in anger and obstinacy.

His mind made up, Hudson turned one last time to the oak branch he had sacrificed to gain a sigil of the dao. He hoped his bargain with an enemy of humanity, an almost literal devil’s bargain, wouldn’t come back to haunt him later. As he squatted next to the oak branch, he silently gave his thanks and gave his farewells by tipping out a few drops of his lemonade on the oak branch, watering the tree he had firmly planted in the soil of an alien mind.

“Nooooo!” Sal’s overlapping voices screamed and screeched, overlapping with each other as the drops of liquid struck the oak branch. “What have you done?”