Samantha’s projection flew towards the location the Informant’s Guild had told her about. Allegedly, the obelisk was somewhat near the area where she’d first arrived on the floor… but that wasn’t saying much. It was still in the middle of the desert and several hundred miles away from anything even remotely familiar to her. Navigating to the correct area with very few landmarks to reference was a challenge, even in spectral form. However, this also meant that when she did recognize a landmark, she was encouraged that she was headed the right direction.
There should be an oasis around here. If I can just find that, then… aha! There!
She spotted what looked to be a body of water surrounded by buildings and flew down for a closer look.
This oasis was larger than the one that she’d encountered in the rift scenario, but it seemed that it had only recently been settled by humans. Either that, or it was undergoing a sudden burst of rapid expansion. The three largest buildings had the telltale appearance of utility-art-shaped stone–such as the walls being oddly smooth in texture–but most of the structures looked to be crafted by sand spiders. Dozens of sand domes were dotted around the oasis’s edge, and a quick glance beneath the sands revealed that a network of tunnels were in the process of being dug out. On the outermost edges of the partial ring of completed sand domes were a number of in-progress constructions, along with tents which looked to be giving shade to everything from crates, to resting cultivators and spirit beasts. When she noticed several people she recognized, she internally sighed.
The three Braxand brothers and Eileen? That must mean Lord Braxand is nearby, too.
She hadn’t given the old man much thought in years. With everything going on, him and his family had been the least of her worries. Seeing them again in this situation made her suspicious that she was being led into some elaborate trap, but the longer she observed them, the more she questioned if that was really the case.
The first oddity she noticed was that there genuinely was an ascension obelisk here, just as the Informant’s Guild had told her. And, judging by how the obelisk positively shone in her spiritual sight, there was no doubt of its legitimacy. The large, black structure was located less than a mile from the oasis. Only its top–a small dark pyramid–peeked up from above the sands to serve as a visual clue to its location. It was easy to imagine how, in the vastness of the desert, this oasis or obelisk could’ve gone overlooked by the floor’s residents. There was little else around to entice someone out this way. It appeared the Braxands were actively tunneling towards the entrance at the obelisk’s base, which led her to believe they intended to ascend or open the way for others to do so.
The second ‘item’ that gave her pause didn’t arrive until an hour into her observations. A group of sand spider riders came back to the oasis with a bewildered-looking High Copper in tow. These riders were not members of the Braxand family, and the foreign-looking garb that the High Copper was wearing indicated that she had recently ascended. There were too many layers, and the materials were too warm, to be something that a person who knew they were coming to the desert would wear. When the woman dismounted, the riders handed over her belongings–which had been tied to a sand spider’s abdomen–and directed her to wait in a tent with ‘the others’. The tent in question was furnished with a long wooden table and two matching benches. In the center of the table was a small container filled with drinkable water and some cups. When the High Copper woman sat on the bench, she found herself amongst six other newly ascended.
Urging her Mind Meridian to remember back to when she’d spied on the Braxands shortly after her escape from the butte, Samantha recalled Ol’ Man Whisper’s intent to take over a safehouse owned by the local raiders. Perhaps he’d done more than that in the four or so months he’d spent on this floor. If he’d gotten some of the raiders under his control, that would explain the heavy utilization of sand spiders, as well as the multitude of unfamiliar faces around the oasis.
The third thing that made her question if this was a trap was when Lord Braxand came to welcome the seven cultivators waiting in the tent. The High Bronze family-head emerged from one of the large, stone buildings standing tall and striding confidently. His neatly tied hair and manicured beard gave him a distinguished appearance, and his clothes were of good quality without appearing too rich. He occasionally gave orders to those he walked past, but mostly people just showed him proper deference by moving out of his way and bowing briefly to acknowledge his higher rank. When he arrived at the tent, he addressed everyone waiting for him with a smile.
“Welcome, my fellow ascendants, to ‘Gateway’!” Lord Braxand announced grandly. “It may not look like much yet, but I have big plans for this little slice of paradise… and you all too, of course.”
Some looked at him with curiosity, and others with apprehension, but everyone gave him their full attention.
“I’m sure you all have questions–I know I did, when I was in your position–but I expect that what I have to say will answer many of them. First, a little information about this floor itself. As you may have noticed, as far as the eye can see there is nothing but heat, sand, and dangerous spirit beasts.” He gestured vaguely to the surrounding area. “The only respite from the desert can be found at oases such as this, or down in a web of deep canyons that the locals know as ‘The Great Gulfs’. I’m sorry to tell you that the nearest entry point to these canyons is over 100 miles away.”
Many of the ascendants turned to each other with concern or started murmuring amongst themselves, but a chastising pulse of Lord Braxand’s aura quickly silenced the chatter.
“Having encountered my own set of challenges immediately after ascending, and after speaking to multiple locals, I realized that there was a need for a place where ascendants could get their bearings. A place where, if desired, they could just as easily settle down as move on to the next floor. That is how Gateway–or at least the ideals behind it–came to be. To that end, my people and I are currently uncovering the entrance to a nearby ascension obelisk. You may use it once it’s opened. Or, should you find yourself inspired by the goals of Gateway, you can join me in making a mark on this floor’s history.”
“What do you want in return?” a Mid Bronze man questioned. The tone was not quite accusatory, but it was certainly filled with suspicion. By the way everyone looked between him and Lord Braxand with anticipation, it seemed to be a question they had been wondering about as well.
“All I ask is that while staying in Gateway you would treat me as you would a Ruler on the first floor. That is to say, I expect you to follow my laws, obey my commands, and work for the betterment of this burgeoning city. Regardless of if you plan to leave as soon as the ascension obelisk is available or live here long term, you will need to make meaningful contributions for the duration of your stay.”
“And what if we refuse?” the same man asked.
Lord Braxand gave him a confused look. “Well… this is a refuge, not a charity. If you won’t contribute or ascend, then you can’t stay. You’ll have a long and difficult journey ahead of you, but the Great Gulfs are that way.”
Samantha was somewhat surprised to see that Lord Braxand was actually pointing the man in the right direction.
“...That’s it? You’ll just… let us go?”
Lord Braxand laughed. “What good would keeping unwilling people in my city do? Besides, it would be hard for other ascendants to learn about Gateway or its mission if no one ever leaves here.”
The man eyed Lord Braxand warily as he stood up and grabbed his things, but the older man simply nodded to him. The Mid Bronze walked past Lord Braxand slowly at first, as if worried moving too quickly would prompt an attack, but after nothing bad happened he began moving at a more normal pace. When he got several steps past the High Bronze, he stopped. Lord Braxand turned his head to look at the ascendant out of the corner of his eye curiously.
“Gateway is not for me, but if you speak the truth… for many of us it will be,” the Mid Bronze said, bowing deeply at the waist. “If I meet other ascendants I will tell them about it.”
“I look forward to having more visitors soon, then.”
When the man left the area without coming to harm, a few other individuals were emboldened to bid Gateway farewell too. When all who wanted to leave had done so, there were only three cultivators left. Lord Braxand waited patiently for the disturbance from the exodus to settle down before resuming his address.
“Now, I’ll tell you a bit more about what to expect while staying here…”
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He went on to describe the current state of Gateway as well as work that needed to be done. He assigned jobs to the ascendants depending on their skillset, and told them where to stay and where they could go to receive daily allotments of food and water. Again, Samantha found herself surprised that he was not only being honest with the ascendants, but he was treating them fairly. She was having a difficult time reconciling the calculating and manipulative image of the man she held in her mind from years past with the person she was seeing now. She wondered if he’d had some change of heart recently, or if this newest approach he was taking was simply a means to some end she couldn’t yet identify. His qi held no obvious malice as he interacted with the ascendants, but that did not necessarily mean he had purely good intentions. Players rarely held animosity towards the game pieces they intended to sacrifice or make use of, after all.
None of her various observations completely absolved her misgivings about the information she purchased, but it did give her much to consider. At a minimum, she didn’t believe her stumbling across this intel was purely a trap for her. However, even if this did happen to be some odd coincidence–and not a clever bid by Lord Braxand to pursue multiple objectives at once–it didn’t mean that she could freely use this obelisk. He might have no idea that she purchased his information and planned to travel here, but he could very well try to exact vengeance the second he saw her approaching.
She wasn’t fearful of coming to blows with the High Bronze–not anymore–but even as a Low Silver she didn’t know if she could take down a small town’s worth of cultivators unscathed. Unlike this floor’s residents, many of the people in Gateway probably had more access to arts and wouldn’t be relying on flimsy casters to take her down. The very real possibility of a fight breaking out caused even more questions to bubble up. For example, if Braxand’s intentions with Gateway were genuine, would she be in the wrong for still trying to go to Gateway just to avoid some price gouging? Lord Braxand’s proclaimed goal of attempting to make a place for fellow ascendants to live or ascend was noble. Even non-ascendants could benefit if Lord Braxand intended to reject standard participation in the guild system. If her arrival resulted in his death or wide scale destruction in Gateway, that aspiration could be lost to history. Alternatively, if his outwardly magnanimous actions were hiding darker aims, was it her responsibility to end his scheming for good since she was the one who ‘brought’ him here? Would it be her responsibility simply because she knew his plans and had the power to stop him? Would only his death be enough, or would she need to destroy his entire family? The entire town?
Well… there is one way to find out for certain where he stands.
She tried to talk herself out of the terrible idea as she waited for an opportunity to present itself, but before she’d managed it the time had come. As Lord Braxand entered the privacy of his office and shut the doors, Samantha manifested a physical body in the room.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Ol’ Man Whisper?”
Lord Braxand whirled towards the sound of her voice. Shock and anger were evident in his glare when he caught sight of her, but to his credit he didn’t immediately attack. “Not nearly long enough for you to be this bold, Miss Cray. You’ve decided to play a very dangerous game.” Any sign of his usual, eccentric persona was absent.
She sat in a plush armchair and let herself sink into it to emphasize her lack of concern. “Maybe. But that’s what I’m here to confirm. Care to sit? I think that you and I are overdue for a proper conversation.”
He scrutinized her coldly for several long moments before sitting on the couch across from her. “You’ve changed. And I don’t just mean the new art you’re clearly using to appear here. I’ll humor you this time, if only to satisfy my own inquisitiveness. What has brought you before me this fine evening, Miss Cray?”
“Inquisitiveness of my own, I guess you could say. I’ve been observing Gateway, and it seems you’ve changed your way of doing things as well.”
“Oh? Do enlighten me.”
“Less subjugation, more collaboration? I was surprised to see you being so benevolent.”
“I’ve always done whatever gets me results. This is no different.”
“So when you were head of the Big Three, intimidation was just the easiest way to get things done?” She was able to ask the question clinically, and without judgment. Most of the negative emotions surrounding her conflicts with the Braxand family had faded by this point.
The corner of his mouth quirked up in amusement. “It is rare that I ever solely rely on such tactics, but I suppose you aren’t wrong. And, on this floor where I find myself lacking both reputation and influence, simple consideration and fair treatment serve me better than domination.”
“So if you regain a semblance of your past power, you will return to your old methods of influence?”
He laughed. “You must think very highly of me to ask that. Perhaps I should be flattered.”
“I’ll take your lack of direct answer as a ‘yes’.”
He shrugged. “Who’s to say? How many years would it take to reach that point? Would I even be alive, then? Perhaps Centra will destroy Gateway before it can truly flourish. Perhaps maintaining the public’s perception of me as a generous Ruler would be more valuable to me than using underhanded methods to get what I want. ”
“And, what do you want?”
He frowned at her. “Come on, now. It hasn’t been that long since you forced me to confess everything with a [Geas]. I still want what I wanted then.” A bit of his outlandish persona emerged as he spoke. “If you tell me you weren’t even listening, you’ll hurt my feelings.”
“You said you were tired of the City Lord’s restrictive policies against arts and practices that could’ve made all cultivators stronger and increased our cultivation rate. I don’t see how that has anything to do with founding Gateway.”
He looked at her thoughtfully and tapped at his chin. “How about a trade, hm? Honest answers for honest answers. I’ll even go first, as a show of good faith! And, since I already know you’re going to ask, my questions are related to this floor. You seem to have explored more than my people have, and I can only get so much perspective from interrogating former raiders.”
Seeing no real downsides to the deal, she agreed.
The Ol’ Man Whisper persona dropped away in an instant, and the room seemed to chill with the intensity of his gaze on her. “If you can’t see the connection between my desire for more and stronger cultivators and the founding of Gateway, then you aren’t thinking big enough.”
She shivered under the sharpness of his stare.
His words started low and quiet, as if he was confessing something shameful. “Unlike Yivesh’s general populace, the City Lord and Heads of the Big Three have known the true purpose of the World Spire from the start. Such knowledge used to be commonplace. It was only in recent Yiveshian history that spreading that information to anyone other than new City Lords or Heads of House was forbidden.” His voice gained in volume and passion as he continued to speak. “Look at the result! Widespread mediocrity, complacency, and lack of innovation. What need was there to apprentice under masters now when they’d be there for decades longer? What need was there to become a cultivator at all when there were already enough to protect us from spirit beasts?” His expression grew dark. “Had I known what was at stake when I got my vortex mark as a youth… had I known that ascension was not a death sentence… how much more could I have become? What if my contributions to the war would have helped to save humanity?”
She looked at him in silence, unsure what to think or how to respond.
“The City Lord would neither step down nor change his policies, and none of the other Heads supported my requests to make information about ascension public knowledge again, so replacing him was my only option. So what if a few hundred or even a few thousand would die in the process when the cost of inaction might just be the death of us all? I may no longer be able to help Yivesh due to your interference with my affairs, but I can try to do something on this floor. Perhaps Gateway is just an old man’s last attempt to stroke a wounded ego and leave his mark on history. Or, maybe, just maybe… this broken cultivator can still make a contribution to save humanity, after all.”
In the quiet that followed his speech, he looked at her seriously. “So, you have my answer. It’s time for you to give me yours. First, I'll ask again: Why are you here now, Miss Cray? And, do keep in mind, you promised me honesty.”
This entire conversation she’d been keeping an eye on his qi, and as far as she could tell, he had held up his end of the bargain. Though his energy was undoubtedly agitated by her presence, he didn’t appear to be trying to deceive or trick her. She decided she’d give him the same courtesy.
“Much like you, I too want to play my part in the conflict outside the Spire. Knowing that we all may be on borrowed time, how could I do anything other than seek to get stronger and ascend? In my search for an ascension obelisk I was led to this oasis. Given our history, I thought coming here would certainly end in disaster. However, seeing you interact with the newly ascended made me wonder if that was really true. Even now, I wonder if revealing myself to you like this was a mistake. I was hoping this conversation would help me figure it out.” She tactfully left out the part where, depending on how things went, she may or may not decide to kill him. “You tried to prevent my ascension once before in the name of recouping a loss I caused you, despite the ideals you’re claiming. So, I find it hard to believe that you would let me ascend peacefully after everything. Undoubtedly the losses I’ve caused you now don’t compare to that of a single alchemical elixir, rare as it was.”
Lord Braxand replied to the unspoken question confidently. “The cunning and luck you possess are not enough to ascend the World Spire–true strength is required. I caught a glimpse of what that looked like, once, the first time my third eye opened. I didn’t see it in you, so it was better to make use of you rather than let you die vainly reaching for the unachievable.” He looked her in the eyes, seemingly searching for some truth inside of them. “You’ve proven yourself effective at ruining my plans, but what of humanity’s enemies? Stripping a family head of status is one thing, but can you cause the downfall of a god? You ask if I will relinquish my personal vendetta to allow you to ascend uncontested? I ask you: are you willing to prove you have the power necessary to claw your way to the bitter end? If you do, I swear on what remains of my cultivation base that I will do more than just allow you to use the obelisk–I will aid you in your ascension.”