‘’How are you feeling, Su’en?’’ High Queen asked. She reached out with her brown hands to his own, grasped them tight and tugged to help him stand up. He looked in wonder at the woman, at her now grayish hair and brows, at the wrinkles beneath and above her eyes. Ages did not do justice to her.

‘’...Worse.’’ He felt worse than before. Or...’’I don’t feel anything. This- it is too disturbing.’’ He looked down to his hands, at the long slender bones and joints, where a yellowish liquid gathered like a ball to connect them to each other. Bones? He, frantic, darted his eyes around the place. He didn’t forget to note the weary expression of the High Queen.

Scots and Scotch pines rose into the air like the clasped palms of a priest. Although there were no close distance between each, and plenty of grass, long ones, and bamboos filled the blank stops, the scots pines’ branches and leaves stretched to touch the others, and to scotch pines, like a circle. A few oak saplings also hid behind the, for now, huge trunks of their half-brother trees, and their eventual growth into a fitting one seemed a long time from now on. A bit away from their gathering of green was a lake, where the winds blew and leaves rustled inside the air stream, and the dense blue surface gleamed with sunlight towards Su’en through the gaps of the branches.

Ignoring the twitters of scarlet tanagers, he leaped down the square stone platform he laid and rushed to the body of water. The mixed smell of pine and vanilla rushed through his nostrils and his heaving chest calmed down a little. After another two large steps Su’en was right at the edge of the lake, where he froze at the reflection. He fell on his knees, his real knees that bore no muscle or skin. All bones.

The swaying waters of the lake showed him the monstrosity he was. A large skeleton, nothing more. There was a small red light in his left eye-socket and yellow lines through his left arm, yet other than that his body was nothing but a milky white walking dead. He still felt the connection to the Buyuh, he could still gather that power, and he could also control it perfectly fine.

But there was no sensation. The connection to the energy of life wasn’t physical, it was mental. He didn’t know whether it could be considered a feeling. But other than that, he found nothing. He didn’t know how he could smell, or even see, and a faint taste of medicine lingered around his non-existent tongue. His hearing was also fine- but no touch. The grass he slumped on felt no soft or hard. The water he dipped his hand didn’t feel sluggish or smooth. It was just he knew he touched something, but there was nothing more.

Su’en stopped moving. His gaze stood locked on the figure reflected on the lake. The stillness, the faint chirping background, and a huge snoring above him. He ignored them all, but most the snoring.

The owner, however, didn’t appreciate Su’en getting lost in the thoughts.

The shadow of a long tail rose from his behind and whipped down to his skull. Su’en only sighed and moved his open palm above him, and the tail struck like lightning. Yet the power didn’t leak out a bit. No explosive sound nor effect appeared from the force that could crush hills and small mountains. A small ripple spread through the surface of the lake from the crash and it kept going on and on, until it disappeared from sight.

Not giving him a chance, the tail coiled around him in a lovely matter. It squirmed and squished, then lifted him above. Su’en turned around to look at the scaled green serpent, and his eye sockets met with its golden slits.

‘’Put me down.’’ He said. From his left eye, something sparkled.

Suddenly, the serpent looked terrified enough and released Su’en from its grasp and dove head down into the earth. It meshed up with the grass and disappeared into the Garden Of Life, out of his sight, but Su’en had instincts strong enough to know the poor thing eyed him from afar.

He didn’t want to scare it, but this wasn’t the time for greetings and merry reunions.

He walked back to the High Queen, she still stood with her hands clasped, back straight, eyes tired.

‘’Is it painful?’’ She asked.

‘’It is. It is frustrating, too.’’ He admitted.

‘’Are you reconsidering what you did?’’

‘’I do,’’ He admitted again and pointed to his left eye-socket.’’I don’t think the eye of an overseer is worth thousands of years of body refining.’’

‘’It might be, Su’en. But this is what we had to do.’’ She sighed. Her back bent a bit. ‘’I’m also tired of this, trying again and again. Yet, you did it at last.’’ Now she smiled. ‘’Feza says they are ready to clash at the Glorious Portal and my...son seems to be going back to my mother.’’

‘’How long will it take?’’

‘’A bit over three weeks, she said. And the overseer can’t act before next summer. We have almost half a year ahead of us to prepare him.’’

Su’en nodded. He got accustomed to the lack of sensation a tiny bit now, and it seemed that sitting was still better than standing. He slumped onto the corner of the square platform, gave his back to its surface, then turned to look at High Queen.

‘’And when should I depart to meet your son?’’

‘’Now would be the best.’’ She seemed embarrassed. ‘’I haven’t seen him since he was one year old and my mother has grown too affectionate over him. She won’t let me know how he looks...or how he sounds like. So the sooner you go, the sooner I will get to know my son.’’

‘’...affectionate?’’ Su’en ignored the other statements. ‘’She is fond of him? Isn’t this the first time she loved a grandson of her?’’

‘’It is.’’ High Queen said. ‘’She is tired of sending her own blood to die, too. This is the fourth child...and my husband passed away too.’’ Su’en frowned on that.

‘’So you fear she will hold him back if he faces danger?’’ She didn’t respond. Losing one child was enough, and she lost both her husband and three children over seventy years. The emotional toll of that wasn’t something Su’en could understand, and he didn’t try to, as he had no family of his own. But he knew that it wasn’t healthy to poke into a situation like this.

‘’Forget it.’’ Su’en shook his head and stood up. ‘’I will work on creating a fleshly body for myself. Only then I will get prepared to go.’’

‘’Thank you.’’ She said. After she helped him stand upright again, he remembered something useful.

‘’Where do you hold that bastard’s arm?’’

*********

‘’Senior brother, I’m going out to meet master.’’ Ubel called out to Gaobun, but he didn’t receive any answer. He wished at least he talked to him once. ‘’Then see you later.’’

He pushed open the door and left Gaobun’s estate. Since he would leave the sect in a month, and he actually didn’t have much of anything worth, Ubel didn’t bother with going to disciple hall to get a house of his own. It was also the most sensible choice, Quan said, as he had many things to attend other than teaching him, hence he couldn’t look after Gaobun. Not that he taught him anything these past two days, he seemed busy with reports and meetings with the sect elders.

Watching over Gaobun though...

Ubel walked through the hurried swarms of disciples in the streets of the borough five, making his way to the Star Library, as he tried to listen to the new gossip he didn’t hear. There were a few topics interesting enough; Calls of disciples from even the furthest vassals and other sects, gatherings of weapons and supplies branded with sect’s manufacturers, demoting of several Cindersnow members in the courts of empires beyond the ocean. He saw the sight with his own eyes, too, as the platforms at the outer-mountain were filled to the brim with people donning robes of other factions and crates and carts of materials .

But the most interesting, and the saddest one, was the death of Elder Windblade and his new disciple...Ubel’s senior brother Boris. They died under the ambush of a forsaken at a mission assigned by the Elder Cinder, with their remains destroyed beyond recovering. The funeral was held a week before they arrived, with the ashes of their remaining possessions like clothing and jewelry. Although it was a huge blow to the reputation of the sect, it seemed the sorrow of the situation wasn’t worth talking about for disciples. No one looked quite interested in the matter once it slid from the impacts of their deaths on the sect to the effect on their loved ones..

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He...himself didn’t know how to feel about it. It indeed saddened him to hear the death of his senior brother but...he didn’t want to grieve over it. The pain was just like the sting of a bee, one that would hurt a little then pass after a while.

Was he guilty about that? Yes, he was a little. But he had no choice over how he felt over something, did he? And there was the opposite of him, Gaobun, who locked himself in to mourn. He didn’t look devastated, he seemed desolate, and Quan feared he would do something irrational. Ubel couldn’t guess what that was. Perhaps he was still too young to know about the relationship between a master and a disciple and how it could affect one.

Shaking his head, Ubel decided to forget about the matter for now. He walked down the slope leading the Star Library and came before the half an adult’s size gates. He passed through the entrance and wandered towards the desk of the attendants. He cast a quick glance and to his disappointment, Alim wasn’t there.

What a shame.

So he ignored them and walked to the tidy wooden chair and table sets beside the bookshelves. He grasped a random book while passing by and slipped into one of the seats, laid his back, and opened the cover. He was unlucky, as what he picked turned out to be a children's story.

What does a children’s story do here, though? The ancestors and past elders surely didn’t put them here themselves, right?

It was an intriguing question, but he couldn’t answer before Quan arrived beside him. There were no signs of his coming or appearing, it was like how one turned on the lights of a room. An instant and he was here.

‘’Wait here...or not.’’ Quan said. ‘’Follow me, I’ll need to gather some books and scrolls.’’ And he pointed at Ubel’s feet. ‘’And could you jump once?’’

‘’Jump?’’

‘’Jump.’’ Quan repeated. Ubel looked around once, then at his feet. Bizarre, but alright. With a small push from his feet, he rose into the air for a moment. At the same instance, a bright white beam of light shot out of Quan’s palm and turned into a bubble. It rushed over and under him, swirled like a ball, then enveloped both him and Quan inside.

‘’What is this?’’ Ubel fell down. He waved his hand and touched the surface, it was tough. Moving his feet was also strange, It felt like he walked on the same place again and again.

‘’Sound barrier, but hardened to reflect people spying on us.’’

‘’And why would we need that?’’

‘’Because I don’t want others to learn my teachings. You are my disciple, Ubel, not them.’’

‘’Oh...I forgot about that.’’ Ubel scratched the back of his hair. ‘’Sorry, master.’’

‘’...It doesn’t feel good. Just call me senior master again.’’ Quan seemed quite irritated and Ubel had no clue why. Though he also felt strange calling Quan master. But the man said it himself, he would teach him things(That he would learn now) and so, they would be considered half-student half-master.

‘’Then senior master, what do you need me to learn.’’

‘’First, history.’’ Quan started to explain and moved. It turns out Ubel didn’t even had to walk. The bubble around them started to rotate like a ball and rolled towards their destination. ‘’There are some pieces of knowledge about the sect, vassals, and the forsakens I have to teach you, so as to ensure you know what is happening around you.’’

‘’Around me? Why would I have any other relation with these three again after going back?’’

‘’You might not want to tangle with them, Ubel, but they will desire to do so.’’ Quan looked a bit angrier, now that Ubel inspected him. ‘’Orabura forest is rich in Qi and large enough to cover three or four normal sized forests. The beasts in there are high on nutrition and the woods from there are both resilient and burn longer.’’

‘’I didn’t know about them being better.’’ Well, he had lived only in three places now and he only used wood to warm himself back at his home. The residential buildings of the sect and the one provided at the Yadratafos were always at a lukewarm temperature, for the building materials were good at heat insulation. Though there was the work of Qi in the construction that only affected it by a small margin.

‘’Understandable. Your home was quite close to the shore, you said?’’

‘’About three and a half hour on foot.’’

‘’So you don’t know about the fishing town near it? I also heard there were lumber mills and villages scattered around the border of the forest.’’

Ubel sighed. ‘’I always stood around the periphery of my house. The animals of the forest are quite abundant and once one died, another one claimed the former’s territory. So I didn’t have to get far away for food. There was also work to tend the farm, care for my grandmother, gather salt from a nearby mine to keep the meat fresh.’’

‘’There is a salt mine around there?’’

‘’There is, senior master. Is it strange?’’

‘’Hmm.’’ Quan hummed whilst thinking. ‘’No,’’ He said. ‘’It isn’t. I’m only surprised that no one informed the sect about it. Salt is quite expensive around the western shores and Sheng Empire’s desert since there is no source nearby for them to gather it.’’

‘’No one comes deep into the forest, so it should be normal.’’

‘’It should be.’’ Quan stopped in front of a bookshelf. ‘’So, back to my point, Orabura is a great source of income and food. It borders two different empires, too, so in case the sect lets go of its influence on the continent, they both will lay claims on it.’’

‘’A mere forest- wait, senior master, in case you say? What happened.’’

‘’Not something you deserve to know.’’ That choice of words hurt. Deserve?

‘’Related to forsakens?’’

‘’I won’t repeat, Ubel.’’ Quan turned to look at him. ‘’Alright?’’

‘’I...understand.’’ Ubel conceded defeat. After averting his eyes, he gazed at Quan, who now started to pick some books from the shelves. ‘’Then, why knowing the history will help me understand what is happening, why it is bad they are laying claims on the forest?’’

‘’First question, because knowing what happened will let your moral values decide which side you will pick. Second question, considering the efficiency of private guilds and the court of the two empires, it will take no more than a decade for them to clear up the whole forest.’’

‘’A decade...it is pretty long.’’ Did it really matter that the forest would cease to exist after then years? The only thing he cared about in the forest was the grave of his father and his grandmother, and the latter herself was perhaps...at the end of her lifespan. A decade was a long time for things to happen and Ubel knew he could provide a new home for himself and his grandma even if they were forced out of their home.

But then came picking sides. Why would he have to pick sides, couldn’t he depart the place without alarming anyone once things neared to the end?

‘’Not that long for an empire.’’ Quan said. ‘’Or for two of them. Still, I see this as an requirement to progress our lessons. For now, let me get over a few things.’’

‘’I’m listening.’’

‘’The events leading to this point at the history are always biased and controlled by the sect.’’ Quan started. ‘’All accounts are written by either imperial historians or masters of the sect. And since both groups are under strict supervision, it isn’t easy to tell the truth without getting caught.’’

Surprising? Or is it interesting? Ubel didn’t know which one it was, or maybe it was both. ‘’So there are some that managed to tell what really happened?’’

‘’If there wasn’t, how could we and the elders of the sect know about the past? You surely don’t expect the centuries old monsters to believe that sect is all powerful and righteous?’’ Perhaps sound barrier was there to keep Quan’s insults from leaking out, but Ubel didn’t dare to comment on that.

After assembling a dozen books, Quan plopped down to the ground and sat cross legged. Ubel followed the suit and let Quan open the cover of a random one amidst the pile.

‘’For instance,’’ He said. ‘’This encyclopedia covers the events from the God’s Nation’s rise to its golden age.’’ God’s Nation? Wasn’t it the place that voice talked about? Ubel pricked his ears to listen more carefully. ‘’Reading it the normal way will only tell you about a chronological order of the events and their summaries.’’

‘’But-’’ Quan put his hand over the words, ‘’-since these were written before the sect invented one of their own alphabets, the ciphered messages of the author still keeps its legitimacy.’’

‘’Sorry, senior master, but I don’t understand.’’ He really didn’t. Didn’t sect had its own groups of archaea immortals, historians, and tomb raiders? Most of these three groups had to have some grasp on the language itself to translate the material. ‘’If the sect is, as you say, controlling the information of the past, then the translators must also been people proficient in secret codes and messages. How could it be preserved, then?’’ And there is why the original author put secret messages in the first place.

‘’If you use easy methods like changing the words to a similar word, switching the letters from one a few blocks further, or jumble the alphabet into scrambled words of course it will be found out.’’ Quan opened both his palms and the air started to shake around them. ‘’But if you hide them with a only Qi generated ancient pictogram, not many can find out.’’

The Qi covering his hands spread over the surface of the open page and the words started to flash with golden light. Above the book, another page resembling the former appeared with strange symbols, each addressing a random word in the book. ‘’Then there is a simpler answer.’’

‘’Sect allows it, so the information can go down either way.’’

‘’That sounds stupid.’’

‘’Indeed, it sounds moronic.’’ Quan agreed. ‘’But it works, and will hopefully continue to do so.’’ Quan moved his hands on the golden page above and moved them into different places. Soon, a set of symbols brightened again and transformed into a sentence.

‘’Letters To A Brighter Future, From Yuwen Xi Mang of Fourth Army?’’ Ubel read aloud. ‘’So this is a collection of messages?’’

‘’It is, and I assume you have questions about other things as well. But first, let me teach you how to create several pictograms and code wheels, so you will be able to study yourself.’’

‘’Good idea.’’ Ubel smiled. ‘’But I am crippled, right?’’

‘’Being crippled doesn’t affect your control over Qi, Ubel, and I will teach you why as well.’’ Quan, too, smiled.

‘’So don’t dare to mock me.’’

Ubel gulped.