The sun had set by the time Kai was done viewing the remaining memories. What’s that? He breathed deep, filling his nostrils with the scent of savory pork and spices. Next to the illuminated lamp, he found a bamboo dish. Kai glanced around the cave, to his bedroll, then outside. It was unsettling how easily Odash could come and go without being seen.
He picked up the dish and pulled the lid free releasing steam into the cool cave air. Mixed into the smell of steamed dumplings was the warm, nutty, and slightly sweet smell of sticky rice. He smiled.
Kai sat down to eat without pretense. The first bite was heavenly. It was nothing fancy, but after long hours of using his spiritual energy, he was famished. He took another bite and then paused to ponder, “Why are they doing all this?” He glanced at the wooden bracelet, at each freshly marked bead. The memories had been of his first days at the Celestial Temple, his earlier childhood, and the whirlwind of activity after testing indicated his strong soulforging affinity.
A full third of the memories were of meetings with various sects, and factions, where he and his father received offers. His father was a good negotiator and had parleyed the best offers into what they finally accepted, the offer from the Celestial Temple. Kai left the very next day.
Another third of the memories were of his childhood. His father was a head of a small branch family, Lord Sun La; a lord with adequate cultivation. He held 200 quin of farmland, but income from his property was inconsistent due to the region they lived which was prone to flooding.
They were not a wealthy family, and his mother was in poor health. After the difficulty she had in birthing him, the two decided not to have other children. “I probably got my constitution from her,” he thought as he pulled the second layer of the dish off revealing the rice and cabbage below.
He judged them to be a decent hardworking sort of noble family and was saddened knowing how Sun La’s son had ended up.
“Well, I’ll try to play my part. That’s what all this was for wasn’t it? No need to bring them any more hardship.” He popped a whole dumpling in his mouth and chewed, filling his mouth with the savory juice.
In the course of the memories, it had become clear to him how rare soulforgers were. If a sect had one hundred disciples they would be fortunate to have one soulforger. Large sects like the Celestial Temple which routinely started each year with a thousand initiates only found two or three soul forgers per year.
Given this, it made sense to him why they would go through so much hassle to maintain one promising soul forger who might still be redeemable. He suspected that he would end up paying them back for all this help. He wasn’t looking forward to that.
He looked one more time at the bracelet, before relayering the dish, picking up the lamp, and setting off for deeper into the cave. Time to build a fire.
Though the cave was tall, it didn’t seem deep. He navigated around some stalagmites he’d seen when he first arrived, beyond which, the cave turned inward. The light of the lantern cast long shadows from the rock formations on the walls as he moved, obscuring half the cave in roaming gaps of utter darkness. What was illuminated was still hard to discern as the cave was shrouded in a palette of muted grays and earthy browns.
“Hello you,” He bent to inspect something. Near a stalagmite on the floor was a shallow pool of blue water no bigger than a rice bowl, others like it dotted the floor. Inside the pool swam tiny bright orange salamanders. The creatures were barely the size of his thumb.
“Sorry for disrupting your sleep, just looking for some twigs.” he carefully scooped up one of the orange creatures and held it in his palm. The creature just sat there without trying to move away. It had a wide mouth, with thistle-like teeth that might be best for straining out micro-organisms, his eye sockets held white sightless orbs, and his body was plump with tiny legs with even tinier fingers and delicate pads. He put it back in the pool carefully. It stayed put, floating peacefully in the water.
Kai shuffled further into the cave. The farther he went in, the larger the pools became. The larger the pools became the larger the salamanders grew. When they were reaching the size of the viper from earlier he decided that searching the cave for sticks at night was not a smart idea, and retreated to his bedroll.
He considered going out into the night for some kindling, but with today’s near-death experience fresh in his mind he turned in instead. After all, he was exhausted after using his spiritual energy on all those beads and the thought of trying to make progress with his soul space caused him to feel physically ill.
“I’m so weak and pathetic.” he sighed. “Am I even worth all this trouble?” Mustering some courage he withdrew the small wisp from the lamp, letting the cave go dark.
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Kai was awake and exercising when the first rays of the sun made their way inside the cave. He started with situps, then moved to squats, and finished with a jumping push-up combination movement. He didn’t last long, tiring easily. But that didn’t matter to him. He had decided he would get this body into shape; slowly if that’s what it took.
If you don’t like feeling weak then get stronger!
That was the thought that woke him up that morning. He quickly ate the rest of the meal from the night prior and darted out to find some twigs.
Now he's sat staring at a cone of twigs that sat on the cave floor and wracking his mind to remember what Master Lei had said about energy types. He said you could contain multiple energy types in your core.
Since he didn't know which type of energy he had. He planned to start with feeling for fire, then move on from there. He sensed the warmth in the center of his chest as before. But this time he tried to feel for the specific flavor of fire energy. After thinking about it last night, that was the best approach he could come up with.
He didn’t sense the flavor of fire, and now that he sat there trying to do so, he became unsure that was even a thing, and more convinced that trying to sense fire in your chest was not safe to experiment with.
“I have no idea what I'm doing.” he laughed at himself, still in good spirits. “But big sister Tast said something about my cultivated energy, she said it was a variation of light. I think. Maybe if I concentrate that energy and focus it on one spot…”
He started again feeling for his energy and moving it slowly down to his hand; this time he didn't stop at a wisp but continued to push more and more into his hand. When he had accumulated a bright golden ball of energy he moved a dry piece of hay into it. He refocused, concentrating the ball down smaller and smaller, trying to squeeze it. When he shrank it to the size of a pea a wisp of smoke appeared, a little smaller, and the hay caught. He tenderly moved the fledgling flame into the prepared kindling.
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When the pile was fully on fire he set the bead bracelet and note atop it and smiled. He watched the bracelet and note burn to ash. He knew it wasn't much, but it was a fire he started with his power. It felt satisfying. It also felt reassuring to destroy the evidence of him being a fake Sun Kai. His secret was safe and his family never need to know. Well, he reminded himself, Elder Tai and Odash know for sure, but otherwise, the secret is safe.
When it burned down to the ground he scattered the remaining embers and ashes out over the floor. Satisfied he turned and left the cave. Now it was time to get to work. Feeling the warm morning rays on his skin, and tasting the late summer air with a deep breath Kai felt refreshed and ready to cultivate.
Taking his place back on his lucky boulder, where he had his first breakthrough yesterday, Kai assumed the Blooming Lotus position and reviewed every clue big sister Tast had provided one last time. He'd been going over them all last night as he tossed in his sleep. Now he was ready.
He found the thread faster this time and began pulling himself away from his body. He found that he instinctively knew where his body was.
I only need to move away, down the thread.
Unsatisfied by his progress yesterday he began yanking himself down the thread as fast as he could before coasting to a near stop and starting again. With practice, his timing improved to where he was sliding along without much slowdown. As he traveled his awareness improved; he was able to see the golden prismatic thread going off into the distance and falling back behind him.
He traveled this way, gliding along the thread, for a few minutes before allowing himself to coast to a stop. He hovered there, over the thread, and considered this mode of travel. Why am I pulling? It's just my awareness traveling, my body isn't here. He considered the thread and experimented by moving along it, slowly at first, but when that proved productive, then even faster and faster until he easily exceeded the speed of the pulling method.
I see. He puzzled it out. I can only go as fast as I am aware is possible… But I know how possibly fast I can go. I am a space drive engineer after all. Kai accelerated again this time pushing beyond pure physical speed, straight into the hyperdrive speed range. The thread spooled out behind him, turning this way and that as he raced along it, at near-light speeds. It was exhilarating and reminded him of his former life.
He maintain this speed for what seemed like a long time. It was peaceful. There was no sound, only the advance and receding of the golden thread to remind him he was moving towards an objective. His soul space. Concern was growing, concerned he might miss his soul space or run into it at speed, or that he wouldn’t know what to do when he found it. Those concerns fell away when he noticed the approach of a great object.
Kai slowed. Out here he’d gotten used to the vast emptiness; an infinite expanse of nothing except the golden thread, but now a monumental round gate sat directly on the path of his thread. He slowed as he approached the gate, details forming as he neared; the outer rim of the round gate wall seemed to be a ring of heavy metal, etched with symbols. He couldn't read them but when he looked at them he felt himself becoming anxious.
“Is it a warning of some kind? Or is it a toll, or guard station? I don’t get it.”
Continuing closer, he soon lost sight of the outer ring. That’s how colossal the gate was; one couldn’t see the edge of it as one approached the center. It was larger than any structure Kai had seen before, easily planet-sized. half of his field of view, what had previously been a vast expanse of nothing, was now dominated by the heavy metal floating gate, making Kai feel insignificant beside it. Large swooping metal blades created from massive plates of steel and iron formed an aperture that stretched from the central iris toward the outer ring. It was closed tight, the center exactly where his golden thread emerged.
He moved closer still, right until the point where he saw his soul light disappear into the closed metal iris. He put his hand on the center, trying to cover the emitting light.
My hand? He looked down his whole body was there. He was no longer just an invisible awareness floating beside a thread.
He put his hand over where his soul light spilled out. It was warm, but he found himself unable to stem the flow, the light easily going through his hand. He noticed a hatch, not ten paces over. It seemed large enough to admit him.
What is going on here? What’s a soul space? I can’t believe I didn’t think to ask sister Tast that yesterday. I’m going in blind here.
Making his way to the hatch, he opened it and peered in. After a quick glimpse, he pulled back. He wasn’t sure what he expected a soul space to be like but this was not it. He ducked inside to take a better look. Hanging on the inside of his hatch he watched as a strong golden beam the same color as his soul light traveled straight off into the distance and terminated in another closed ring gate of similar design. The second gate was set into the second floor of a colossal pagoda. Kai pulled himself in, away from the hatch, along the glowing beam.
The ring gate, the largest structure he had ever seen previously, was dwarfed by the ornate pagoda. Though traditional in profile, the pagoda was anything but. The base was formed from massive metal cleats that seated themselves deep into the ruined planet’s crust where it clung. Above the cleats a more traditional layer, a solid wall protecting it from any kind of assault or approach, save for the long stair that let up to the second layer, where the great gate ring was surrounded by a flowing decorative roof that expanded over and out in large tiled upturned eaves, each adorned by a dozen large lanterns illuminating the carved motif for each corner, dragon, and phoenix, crane, and tiger.
Beyond the second layer, higher layers had similar details, with brass, copper, steel, and iron worked into the craftsmanship or showing in pipes, valves, and latches. Beveled colored glass windows decorated the illuminated levels giving the whole structure a lantern-like quality as it was set against the brilliant expanse of starscape behind it.
“What kind of creature needs a structure this large?” Kai looked at the nebulas arrayed around the pagoda trying to get a sense of familiarity from them but found nothing. “Where are we?”
He left the safety of the energy beam to land on the first illuminated level. There, he stood looking up, feeling no larger than dust. This place is ridiculously large. He looked out around the outer rail. There he saw a nebula of violet stars, and in that nebula, planets moved and comets darted. Beyond that system, a binary star system rotated, and farther still the horizon event for an emerging black hole. He stood wondering at this celestial display for minutes before turning.
Using the trick he learned on the way, he moved the vast distance he needed to enter the pagoda, practically teleporting to his destination. The grand outer hall was empty. Rather he observed there were no monsters, creatures, demon lords, or whatever might be the right size for a building this mammoth. He did notice the hall was filled with crates, boxes, and bins, some unopened, but most opened or ajar with some with their contents exposed. He could barely make out pipes and cables that arched over the open crates far above.
Beyond the outer hall, he spotted a brightly illuminated inner chamber. In this room, he could see some motion and hear…. Kai thought he recognized some words.
After a quick trip across the hall, he peered up into the room. Screens hung around a central hub, from his vantage on the floor he struggled to read any of the gargantuan words but the text seemed familiar. A large blue planet-sized orb hovered there, decorated with a silver ornate shell.
The orb swiveled faster than anything that massive should be able to move.
"Good news, the new containment chamber is working as designed, so imminent doom can be crossed off the list, at least for today."
"Ship? Is that you?" Kai asked.
The orb hummed and rotated towards him. "Indices Ahja! You made it. Oh…. why are you so small?"