Samantha didn’t know exactly how far away Centra was, but even with [Rift Walk] it wouldn’t be a quick journey. The Delvers’ resupply boats supposedly took weeks to make it out this far–though, admittedly, they did stop briefly at multiple outposts along the way. Luckily, no one was in any particular rush to reach the big city, and there was something she’d wanted to take care of during the ample downtime anyway.
After making a 50 mile jump upriver the group settled in for Samantha’s qi pool to refill.
“Harold, I’ll be meditating until it’s time to move again. If an emergency comes up and you can’t get through to me with the [Liaison] connection for whatever reason, talk to Silas.”
He laughed. “So we can play that horrible game of spirit-beast translator again? I might prefer to take my chances with the emergency.”
She smiled. “It wasn’t that bad. We figured it out. And, to be fair, Silas is a little more ‘fluent’ than Sandy is.”
“I’ll continue hoping it doesn’t come to that.” Harold turned on his heel and resumed his search for a suitable place to sit.
Less picky about the available options, Samantha chose the nearest tree and entered the lotus position. Silas hopped over to her and laid in the cradle of her crossed legs.
“Finally going to try it?” he asked.
“I’ve been running out of reasons to keep putting it off,” she answered with a sad chuckle.
Silas rested his chin on her thigh. “It’ll be okay. I’m here for you no matter what.”
She reached down and stroked the fur on his head gently. “Thank you. Will you call for me if I lose track of time?”
Silas nodded and she leaned over to give him a hug that was more akin to wrapping her entire body around him. He returned the show of affection by snuggling deeper into her embrace.
When she’d first learned of the possibility to ‘return’ to the first floor to visit her family after ascension, she couldn’t wait for the opportunity to try it. As the years passed and she found herself becoming more and more different from the ‘Samantha’ her family remembered, fears and doubt began to creep in. From their perspective she was only gone for around four months, but for her, it felt like lifetimes. It wasn’t a question of if their relationship would change once they met up again, but how. And that was if she could even manage to find them in the first place. They’d left her a letter with their planned travel route, but there was no guarantee they were able to keep to that plan. There wasn’t even a guarantee that both of them survived the trip. Still, she’d never forgive herself if she never even tried to look for them. With a larger group present to watch the immediate area while she was indisposed, and nothing much else to do, there was arguably no better time to begin the search than now.
She closed her eyes and visualized the place she once called home. Drawing on her mind meridian for the clearest image possible, she recalled Yivesh in all its imperfection. The river that ran through its center. The wheel-spoke-esque streets that served as the main thoroughfares of travel. The various districts that sheltered thousands of cultivators and mortals alike. The Lord’s Palace with the Ascension Obelisk. Then, she activated [Spectral Projection].
There was a slight strain on her soul as she seemed to traverse a vast distance in an instant, but the minor discomfort was forgotten as soon as she opened her eyes. The familiar, circular city far below her was abuzz with activity. The roads were filled with people racing to and fro, and she couldn’t help but compare the sight to trails of ants. Unable to help herself, she flew down to get a closer look before heading off in search of her family. It was only then that she realized why the city seemed so busy. Everyone was moving strangely… fast.
She was concerned for a moment that there was some danger that was causing evacuations, but it didn’t take long to discover that wasn’t the case. No one looked afraid, and for most people it seemed they were speed walking rather than running. The best she could describe it, life was just moving at twice its normal pace.
But, if that’s truly the case…
Her stomach sank as countless explanations and possibilities sprung up in her mind. She’d already experienced time compression in the rift, so it wasn’t a stretch to apply the same concept to time between floors. But, that still left a lot of open questions. Was it only the second floor that was slower than the first? Were there floors that were even slower than that? Had Theora purposefully kept this information from her? Or, was it just something she didn’t think to mention since most ascendants didn’t return to previous floors? The more she thought about it, the more turbulent her emotions became.
“Is everything okay?”
She clamped down tight on her roiling spirit. “Sorry Silas, I didn’t mean to get so worked up just now.”
“That’s not an answer,” he pointed out.
“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll let you know once I do.”
He must’ve been satisfied by this response because she felt his attention on her recede.
Though she doubted she could fully put her newest concerns aside, she also didn’t want to be unproductive by agonizing over things she couldn’t change. In times like these, there was really only one method she’d found that gave her the best of both worlds. ‘Brooding on the go’, she liked to call it. She mentally pulled up the contents of her parents’ letter and started following their route while freely permitting the unhappy thoughts to rankle at the back of her mind. Once she felt she’d allowed herself a suitable amount of time to mope about things, she’d make a concerted effort to either accept or change it.
Her parent’s mentioned their goal was to reach a city North of Yivesh called Sophras. Depending on how things went the trek could take 6 months or more. If time passed twice as quickly here compared to the second floor it’d have actually been eight months since her ascension. This meant that there was a decent chance that her parents were already in Sophras. However, having never been far from Yivesh during her time on the first floor, she couldn’t just start there. On the bright side of things, on the off chance they hadn’t reached the city yet she may still run into them on the road.
With the birds-eye view gained by flying overhead it wasn’t overly difficult to locate the various settlements mentioned in the letter. It was, however, challenging to find consistent traveling routes between them. While clusters of nearby towns and villages often had well-worn roads between them, larger cities like Yivesh were relatively isolated. Long stretches of forest were too dangerous to be crossed by mortals without extensive security or the aid of cultivators, meaning only the most established traveling merchants or caravans made the trip. Not nearly enough to maintain a clear trail the entire distance. Most commonly there was a reasonably distinct road for a mile or two outside the city limits before travelers found themselves deep in the wilderness.
“Samantha, it’s time to move again,” Silas reminded her.
“Ah, you’re right. I’ll be back in a moment, thanks.”
She soaked in the view of the latest settlement she’d reached to ensure she’d be able to project directly here next time. Then she returned to her body to continue her own voyage through the wilderness.
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On average they moved 150 miles a day. How far they traveled in reality was dependent on if they ran into spirit beasts they needed to fight off and Samantha’s personal condition. Each time the group waited for her qi to regenerate she would return to the first floor to search for her family, and she’d noticed that feeling spiritually tired was directly correlated to how much time was spent projecting there. In combination with repeatedly expending large amounts of her qi pool at once, it sometimes left her cultivation base feeling sore–for lack of a better descriptor. Given the time differential between the first and second floors, she was much more willing to open fewer rifts or take entire days off than to project less. She’d explained the situation to Harold as general exhaustion from [Rift Walk], which he was content enough to accept at face value. To him, they were already covering significant ground with virtually no effort, so it made little sense to fuss about the occasional rest day for her or pry for more information. It was also nice to spend a short time in one spot rather than setting up and tearing down camp every day.
As for her exploration of the first floor, it didn’t take her long to reach Sophras after the first day. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), she didn’t see any sign of her family along the way. Thus, the only thing to do was search the city for where they’d moved in.
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Sophras was different from Yivesh in many ways. For one, the city was about twice as large. It was also built using a grid-like system, with each square acting in a similar capacity to Yivesh’s districts. She only knew this because, in order to aid in her search, she’d briefly manifested a physical body on multiple occasions to speak with the locals and get directions. She’d needed to nab appropriate coverings to conceal her body’s transparency (an oversized cloak and scarf combination did the trick), and it was awkward at first to match her ‘speed’ to everyone else’s, but she’d managed it somehow. Thankfully the speed difference wasn’t so great that her Agility couldn’t compensate for it, and things even started to feel normal after a handful of visits.
Though the city was large and had decent amounts of traffic in and out of city entrances, new people moving into Sophras was somewhat uncommon. Speaking with Sophras’s version of Yivesh’s Enforcers, she eventually met a gate guard who recalled a caravan matching Samantha’s description coming through months ago. He directed her to a government office which they would’ve had to visit to apply for a permanent city residence. She’d been given quite the run-around by the workers there, but cutting through layers of bureaucracy was child’s play compared to needing to lead an entire war effort. Though, there were moments when she wished she could leverage her killing intent in this form just a tiny bit. After heading over to the specified city quadrant and block, she’d asked around until she finally got a lead from a particularly gossip prone, elderly woman about a new family who’d just moved in. That lead ended up not panning out, but she did find another lead which in turn led her to yet even more leads.
After over a week of visits in 3-4 hour bursts, she now found herself in front of the house she believed was her parents’. Unlike her childhood home which consisted of a shop on the lower floor and a residence on the upper, this single-story, rectangular building was purely domestic. It looked similar in construction to the houses around it, with a simple, dark-tiled roof, prominent wooden support beams, and smooth white walls. The flowerbeds in front needed weeding and were a little overgrown, and the home wasn’t a new construction, but by no means did it look run down or in poor condition. If her parents did live here, she wouldn’t feel guilty that this is where they ended up.
She stepped up to the front door, raised her fist, and knocked. Her heartbeat quickened as the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder. She almost didn’t dare to hope for anything for fear of the disappointment that could follow. Not to mention she still hadn’t resolved her complicated feelings regarding meeting them after so long. How would she even explain how she was here? If they asked her what she’d been up to all this time, what was she willing to tell them?
The doorknob turned, and she had to fight back the irrational urge to dismiss her physical form entirely. She berated herself for feeling anxious at all, frustrated that she felt anything other than joy at the possibility of a long-awaited reunion.
The door opened and her mind went completely blank. There stood her mother, Martha Cray, in casual, tan robes. She was slightly thinner than the last time Samantha had seen her, and perhaps had a few more gray strands sprinkled into her black hair, but otherwise seemed healthy. Martha looked confused for a moment at the unexpected visitor on her doorstep, but smiled warmly anyway. As she did, the small wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth bunched up. It was one of the most beautiful sights Samantha had laid eyes on in years.
“Hello, dear. Can I help you with something?”
Samantha struggled silently to hold back from immediately crying, and couldn’t muster the words to reply right away.
Martha’s deep brown eyes shone with concern as the inside of her eyebrows scrunched together. “Do you happen to be looking for the previous residents, the Pewitts? We’ve just moved in, you see.”
Samantha shook her head and wiped at her watering eyes. Fearing her voice would continue to fail her, she pulled back the hood of her cloak and began to unwrap the long scarf around her head. She didn’t even manage to fully reveal her face before her mother pulled her into a fierce hug that rivaled the strength of any cultivator.
“I knew you’d come back!” Martha managed to say between sobs.
Pushed over the edge by her mother’s own display of emotion, Samantha gave up on maintaining any semblance of maturity or dignity. She leaned into the embrace and wept into her mother’s shoulder. “I missed you.”
Drawn by the commotion, her father Aldon rounded the corner. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
Both women were in such a state that neither could properly answer. Samantha raised her head from her mother’s shoulder to look at her father, and she could’ve sworn he joined the group hug faster than even [Whirlwind] would’ve made possible. Before she knew it, Samantha had been pulled fully into the house and the door had been closed behind them.
It took everyone many long minutes to compose themselves enough to speak, but in time the three of them had migrated to the kitchen and sat around the dining table. Anyone looking in from the outside would’ve probably guessed the three of them were inconsolably miserable based on their puffy, tear-streaked faces, but they wouldn’t have been more wrong. None of them had been so happy in recent memory.
“I can’t believe you’re really here!” Aldon said. “I keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
Martha teasingly slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t even joke about that.”
Samantha smiled sadly. “It doesn’t feel real yet to me either. I just wish I could stay longer.”
“Do you need to go soon?” Martha asked, disappointed. “You just got here.”
“Not necessarily,” Samantha hedged. “But my visits are currently limited to a few hours at a time.”
Aldon’s eyes lit up at her words. “But you can come back another time?”
She nodded. “I plan to whenever there’s a good opportunity. Though, a good time for me might not always be a good time for you.”
Both of her parents were quick to dismiss the concern.
“We will make time for you whenever you visit. Any time,” Aldon asserted and Martha enthusiastically agreed.
“I won’t be interrupting your work, or anything?”
“I convinced your father to give the retired life a try! We’ve got all the time in the world for you.”
Samantha chuckled. “Really? How are you liking that, dad?”
“Oh! It was dreadful,” he complained. “But if it means I can see you, I can see myself growing to love it.”
“He’s exaggerating, of course. You wouldn’t believe how much he’s been sleeping in. But enough about us! Please, tell us how you’ve been doing? We have so many questions about what you’ve been up to since ascending.”
She let out a long breath.
“That bad, huh?” her father asked.
“I honestly don’t know where to begin or what to tell you.”
Her mother reached out and held one of her hands comfortingly. “Whatever you want to share with us, we’ll happily listen to.”
She looked at her parents earnestly. “Even if what I have to tell you isn’t happy?”
Her parents turned to each other, looking worried.
“Sorry, I realize that’s a bit of a heavy question for a long-awaited reunion,” she said with a nervous laugh. “To answer you, mom, every day since ascending has been full of new experiences. Did you know most of the second floor is barren desert? Imagine the hottest day you can remember, but the heat is amplified by a veritable sea of golden and red sand as far as the eye can see. Luckily, there are these huge canyons that offer relief from the sun, and in their depths are dense, humid forests. And in these woods are spirit beasts of size and strength I’ve never seen here on the first floor! You both would absolutely love the materials you can get from them…”
Samantha went on to regale them with a fantastical tale of foreign landscapes and creatures. She detailed the different types of spirit beasts she’d encountered and the people she was traveling with. All the while, she carefully glossed over the ugliest parts of her misadventures–the parts that didn’t make for fun, lighthearted stories. When she told them about meting out deserved justice to raiders, she didn’t mention that she literally killed herself for the chance at finding something that would allow everyone to survive the encounter. When she spoke on finding civilization for the first time at the Delver’s Outpost, she omitted the fact that she was treated as an outcast and extorted. When she mentioned conquering the rift and advancing to Silver, she didn’t tell them it cost her over a decade of her life and a majority of her sanity. None of it was a lie, exactly. And, at the same time, all of it was.
“Samantha, it’s time,” Silas checked in with her.
She paused her retelling for a moment to respond. “Got it. Be back soon, thanks.”
“Something the matter?” her father asked.
“No, I just need to head back briefly to help my group move. If all goes well I should be back within the hour. If there’s a bit of trouble, it could be a day or so. It’s hard to say.”
“What kind of trouble?” her mother pressed, concerned.
Samantha shrugged. “Spirit beasts, usually. There’s not many people as far out in the wilderness as we are. I can’t say there’s no danger at all, but try not to worry too much either. This has been my life for a while now, and I have others who will fight alongside me.” She’d hoped her nonchalance towards the situation would help put her parents at ease, but they grew somber and slightly sad, instead.
Both of them stood to embrace her before she departed. “Alright honey. We love you! Stay safe out there and come back whenever you can. We’ll see if we can get Thomas, Tiny, and Felix to come by next time too!”
She gave them one final squeeze before stepping back and waving goodbye. “I love you both, too. See you soon.”
Letting her control over the ability relax, her manifested body disappeared and her projection was pulled back into her body. Dusting herself off, she stood and stretched. Even without her specifically announcing anything, everyone else had come to understand that this familiar movement only meant one thing. Following suit, they all gathered into one spot to make crossing through the next rift faster.
“Last jump of the day, or do you think you have one more in you?” Harold inquired.
Wanting to spend more time with her family, she went with the former option. As she funneled qi into the art and the rift began to form, she spoke. “Last one for me. I was also thinking we could take a break for a day or two at the next camp if that’s alright with everyone?”
Mercer, Harold, and Tobias all looked between each other wordlessly until Mercer turned to her and answered for the group. “No objections here, Samantha!”
The rift snapped open.
“Well then,” she gestured to the open portal. “After you, gentlemen.”