"I thought I'd find you here," a voice comments from my left. "Deep in books as you attempt to research something."

When I look over, I find myself looking into the face of a guy who looks around my age, his skin light and fair, his hair a deep, leafy green, and his eyes a gentle lavender. He's dressed in a pair of brown shorts and a green sleeveless shirt with matching sneakers. On his left ear is a metal earcuff with a simple band shape patterned with a leaf etched in gold.

Ash doesn't often come into a library or bookstore, generally claiming he holds more than enough knowledge to not need it. He seems to know quite a lot but I prefer not to go to him if I can help it as I don't want to bother him too much. I could probably have asked him about Celestials but since I found a resource on that, even if it's not completely accurate, I decided against it.

For my current research, however, I've become stumped and decided to text him about it as I continued looking. I suppose it's a big enough thing for him to actually come look for me rather call or wait until we see each other on Sunday.

"Good evening," I greet him. "You don't normally seek me out."

"You don't normally seem so exhausted," he says. "Nor do you normally have a Celestial pup tailing you."

I look to see if Aster showed up without my noticing but the pup isn't here.

"I've seen him in some of your pictures," Ash says when I give him an inquisitive look. "And noticed his presence a few times. He's been more excitable than normal lately, too."

"You know him?"

"For a long time," he confirms. "What has you looking so exhausted on a Friday evening? Aren't you normally at a club right now?"

There's something a little bit more important right now than socializing or hooking up. I'll probably head to the Starry Iris after this to get something to eat and do some socialization.

"I'm not tired," I tell him.

"Evan," he says. "I've known you a long time. I'm not referring to physical tiredness. Even a week of nonstop activity would be enough for that. It's mental exhaustion stemming from boredom, if I'm not mistaken. What've you been up to this week? Aster's not the one draining you, is he?"

I forgot how well he knows me. Picking up on that the mental exhaustion came from boredom probably isn't something just anyone could do, too. Either he has some degree of empathy magic or other mind magic or he knows me pretty well from my past lives and knows how to pick up little clues I might not be aware I'm giving off.

One of those possibilities is a little worrying, though I doubt he's actually in my head.

"No," I answer. "His king has been."

Ash raises his eyebrows in surprise. Unlike Ryan, I don't have much hesitation telling Ash about what's going on so I fill him in. Chances are good he's cast a spell to avoid us being overheard, so I don't need to bother with going somewhere else to explain what I mean.

Today was spent entirely working on the river and I gained 4 Levels for my efforts but that much work… I just want to take a good, long sleep. Maybe for a week or two. Never again am I going to do fourteen miles of slaying monsters in a single day. That was mind-numbingly boring and frustrating.

"So you remembered you're a Rift Wolf yesterday, huh?" He asks. "That's why you wanted to know if I knew anything about aether-type beasts?"

"Yeah."

"You won't find anything on them here," he tells me. "Aether-type beasts are practically nonexistent in mortal records. Your kind makes themselves known to mortals even less often than Celestials."

I can trust Ash about whether or not I can find information here. If he says there won't be any, then there won't be any. With no reason to keep looking in the library, I start to leave and head to the Starry Iris.

"But not yours?" I ask as we walk.

"Not mine," he confirms. "But regarding Rift Wolves… I honestly don't know much about them. You emit a small aura of aether which affects the energy flows around you, though 'small' is relative when talking about how much aether you really hold. Your reincarnation doesn't possess nearly that much but will gain more capacity as your Level goes up. The System performs a permanent and fundamental alteration to your body when it boosts your stats and my best guess is that your capacity for aether is dependent on how resilient your body is to harm. That, or there's some other factor at play I've never managed to figure out."

"That's all you know?"

"No," he shrugs. "But it's not helpful. Rift Wolves come from 'the Aether', you told me, but you never elaborated on what that was and I never felt it important to ask further of you or the others I know. You're the only species capable of directly interacting with energy flows and you, personally, are still considered a child among them."

Even after reincarnating at least nearly nine hundred times, I'm still a baby to my real species. Something tells me it's not based on mental maturity but some other factor.

"Anything else you can tell me about my species?"

"No," he shrugs. "None of the Rift Wolves I've met have been very open about your species. The most the others have told me is the same as I told you: you come from the Aether and are the only species able to directly interact with energy flows. I only know about the leak because I'm quite sensitive to energies due to my origins."

"Your origins?"

"I used to be a tree."

Unlike some of my friends, whether demigod or not, Ash tends to be more on the serious and direct side. Jokes aren't really his thing.

Trees are known for being sensitive to some of the natural energies of the world, so whatever he is now, it must have expanded on those sensitivities enough that he can sense leaking aether.

"I'm guessing an ash tree?" I ask.

"A type of ash," he confirms. "Though not from Earth. Not even from the universe. There are multiple universes out there and I originate from another. The laws of magic and all that are the same between them, though, and there tends to be some similarities. The planet Earth exists in all in some form, for example."

His hair shifts as he speak, its tips turning a pinkish-purple color.

"This is my normal spring look," he gives me a soft smile. "But I use my power to alter my form further. I was nearing the end of my tree life when I transcended. But not via mana, via soul. The occurrence was rather accidental as while I had a soul, I didn't really have a mind. Not a conscious one that could deliberately transcend, at any rate. It turned me into a spirit beast, which greatly influenced me. Extended my life span immensely, gave me some additional powers, and altered my mind."

"Some of the demigods I know mentioned they don't know of other transcendent beings," I tell him.

"The Lazy Celestial implemented something into the soul cycle so that reincarnated transcended beings won't remember certain types of beings," he tells me. "Any form of transcendent other than their own is one of those restricted things. Why he chose to do that, I don't know. Never bothered to ask."

Rather than "His Majesty" or "the King of the Celestials", he went with "the Lazy Celestial". His view of the big boy must be pretty different from that of the Celestials I've spoken with about him so far.

What he said also matches up with one of the things I remembered from before this life, which is that my brother can influence the soul cycle and how it functions. Celestials are clearly one of the things he decided demigods don't need to know about for whatever reason.

"Would he tell you if you did?" I ask.

"Probably," he shrugs. "He knows I like collecting information."

"Ah," I say. "So transcendent beings can travel between universes?"

"Not all," he shakes his head. "Whether you can or not depends on a few things. Gods are limited to their own universe, but mythical beasts can travel through special pathways to go between them. Well, those technically aren't transcendent beings but I'm including them here anyway. Celestials are immune to the void, and Rift Wolves, well… you're a different beast entirely and not a type of transcendent. A Celestial needs to actually travel through the void but a Rift Wolf can simply open a rift between two universes and pass through. Sort of like opening a gate and walking through."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He scratches the back of his head as he thinks for a moment. At the same time, his hair returns to its normal green without a trace of pink.

"It's a little unfair," he says. "I often have to guess as to where you'll be because of that."

"You look for me?" I ask.

"Sometimes," he shrugs. "We do hang out fairly often. You're my oldest friend."

"Is that why you turned me down when I asked you out?" I ask "Because we know each other from before this life but I don't remember?"

A dark purple cat with green eyes teleports onto the sidewalk in front of us and meows. She's probably asking for food as she likes to beg from people who are on this sidewalk, though I don't have anything for her.

"Sorry," I say. "I don't have something for you."

She meows in annoyance before teleporting off.

"She didn't even bother asking you," I chuckle.

"She won't," Ash responds. "The one and only time she asked me for something to eat, I teleported her to a mouse. She wasn't very impressed."

"I'm sure she wasn't," I snort again. "So what lets you go between universes, then? Being a spirit beast?"

"No," he answers. "I'm also a Celestial, so I can travel through nothingness. Becoming a Celestial came later."

"You were a tree who became a spirit beast, then a Celestial?" I ask. "How do Celestials come to be? They aren't born?"

I'd thought they came to be that way but that's apparently wrong.

"We originate as mortal creatures," he says. "But transcend via aether. It's typically a long process that requires first developing an affinity for aether by using a small amount of it regularly over an extremely long amount of time. Enough that you build up some resistance to its effects on your body and develop skill with it. Then you transcend through it much like beings transcend into gods through mana. I've heard it's a lot more painful than transcending into a god."

"You've heard?" I ask. "So there are some Celestials which did both?"

"Correct," he answers. "You're not locked out of one method of transcendence just because you did another, it simply becomes more diffiuclt. The fourth Celestial became a god before he became a Celestial."

"Ryan mentioned that using aether is extremely painful," I say. "Causes long-lasting damage, even to gods."

"It does," he nods. "That's why it generally takes a long time. As long as or even longer than the lifespan of a planet. Gods are only technically immortal. Their bodies can be destroyed and they'll reincarnate, yes, but their souls are also vulnerable and can be destroyed. Being immortal also gets old fast for most. Celestials and Rift Wolves don't seem to have that issue, but it's why gods tend to reincarnate, to give themselves something new to do and to experience life for the first time again and again. Many also eventually decide to give up their immortality and become mortal again."

"That can happen?" I was under the impression that transcendence is permanent.

"Technically, no," Ash answers. "His Laziness is just… built different, as some mortals would say. When a transcendent one wishes to return to the soul cycle as a normal soul, he somehow manages to erase their transcendence. There's no trace of it left in their soul, and it's something he can do for any type of transcendence – they all affect the soul in some way."

Something he said reminded me of something Ryan and Nick told me.

"Speaking of souls," I say. "I was told Celestials don't have souls by Ryan and Nick, and Ryan's met two now and hasn't changed his statement. But if you transcended via the soul as your first transcendence…"

"When something transcends via aether and thus becomes a Celestial," he tells me. "Their soul changes in a massive way. It loses all traces of its former mortal self, which also makes it incompatible with the soul cycle on a fundamental level. Rather than a life energy soul, it's an aether soul. That's also why we can't reincarnate."

It also explains why Ryan can't sense them in Celestials. They probably have a completely different feeling to life energy souls.

"Ah."

"He probably said elementals don't have souls, either," Ash says.

"I'm guessing they do?"

"They do," he confirms. "They have elemental souls rather than life energy souls. Much like Celestials, they can't enter the soul cycle… though their souls can be destroyed by mortals and gods and other beings, unlike those of a Celestial. But the nature of our souls also makes us unchanging, which is why our personalities don't change much. It can take longer than the lifespan of a planet or star for us to change, in some cases."

"Like pulling the young-minded ones out of their shells?" I ask.

"Like pulling the young-minded ones out of their shells," he confirms.

"How do they transcend, if they're so young?" I ask.

"Depends on which one it is," he shrugs. "But it's generally through pure luck for them. The saplings tend to be withdrawn at first as they have what's called PTSD here on Earth because of the immense pain it causes, too."

That answers most of my questions for now, but I do have one more thing I want to ask before the current discussion is done.

"Okay," I say. "Changing the topic a little, but purple eyes are a sign of an affinity for aether, which you can build up to even if you're not born with, right?"

"Right," he says. "It's the only affinity which directly affects your body, so there's an immediate change when you gain it, said change being your eyes turning purple. I think it's as a result of the aether itself that's flowing through them as the affinity also causes you to start producing it."

"So Celstials have purple eyes because they have an affinity for aether," I say. "Not because they're Celestials."

"Correct," he answers. "Unlike the gold of a god's eyes or the silver of a mythical beast's eyes, purple isn't limited to just one type of being so even a mortal can have it. And to answer a question you haven't asked – the reason it seems there's only one Celestial of each type is because it's both rare to happen and because transcendence also affects the body a little. When it's via aether… that change has some more pronounced effects. I'm not sure what Aster was before he became a Celestial, but you've met Aurora, right? I noticed her near your place the other day."

"Yeah," I nod. "She's stopped by a couple of times."

"She was a type of light leopard before she became a Celestial," he informs me. "Her pelt changed to that more aurora-like effect you know now from its original green glow when she transcended."

"From what you've heard or were you there?"

"I knew her before she transcended," he says. "She'd come nap in my branches every now and then while trying to if I was in her area. I wasn't there when it happened, though."

"Ah," I say. "So you're older than Aurora?"

"Significantly," he confirms. "I'm the third-eldest Celestial, Aster is the second, and His Laziness is the eldest of them all. I roughly know how each other Celestial transcended, but not how Aster or His Laziness did. Aster's also the only one whose original species I don't know. His Laziness is easy since Rift Wolves are already influenced by aether enough that his body didn't have a visible difference. He looks like every other Rift Wolf I've ever met."

So he's met more than two of us, though if he's as old as he's claiming, I suppose that's understandable.

"The reason you turned me down when I asked you out," I say. "It's because you know me from before?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Though I wasn't entirely surprised by you asking. I've topped you plenty of times over the eras. Even bottomed a few times, once you were certain you weren't going to break me in half."

"I… what?" I ask, causing Ash to let out the first real laugh I've ever heard him do.

As he does, the trees near the sidewalk and down the center of the road shift and rustle despite the lack of a wind. A strong scent of wood, earth, and fruit fills the air in the few seconds as he laughs, as if we're in an ancient fruit grove.

All of the plants around us grow a little in the few seconds of his laugh, the grass going from less than 2" to almost 8" in seconds, flowers swelling up in size and spreading, and even the bushes and trees around gain a few feet of height.

Then Ash clears his throat and returns to his more neutral expression. The sudden plant growth ceases, though the scent remains in the air.

"Sorry," he says. "I try to keep my emotions in check as it tends to influence nature around me if I don't. To explain why I laughed – you've transcended before. Remember how I said that transcendence affects one's soul?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I transcended? In what way?"

"There are more than a dozen ways to transcend," he tells me. "All of them affect your soul and body in some form. That effect on your soul affects any future reincarnations as well."

"Like the eyes."

"Like the eyes," he says. "You transcended via body a long time ago, and it's why you don't feel as physically tired as a mortal might in normal circumstances. Why you don't need to eat as often even though you can, and why your body is so efficient at processing what you consume that you never have to go to the bathroom. These were adjustments made by the soul cycle when you reincarnated as they're necessary for your soul to be able to be hosted. The stronger a soul is, the more it needs in a body and the less likely it'll find that naturally."

Because the effects from the transcendence occur after we're formed and born, later on in life. They're not "natural" features of bodies.

"I transcended via body," I say. "And those are the influences on reincarnations, but that's not all. It makes us extremely strong."

"If you had your real strength," he tells me. "Your Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Dexterity stats would have the infinity symbol. You don't actually have infinite strength, but those who transcend via body might as well. They're the physical version to the magical nature of gods. When you return to your real form, you'll have that essentially-limitless strength and nearly-indestructible body back."

He thinks for a few moments.

"You probably have some hesitations being in charge in your reincarnated form as a result," he adds. "You're used to being so strong you need the other one to take the lead. That probably stuck with your soul. It wasn't until I transcended via body that you'd willingly take charge. And the reason I transcended via body was boredom more than anything. With how long my life was and me not being a Celestial yet, I needed something to pass the time."

Transcending out of boredom sounds both wrong and amusing.

"That's three transcendence for you?" I ask. "Or more than that?

"Only three," he answers. "Each one you do make all future ones more difficult. The only time I've known a being to transcend more than three times, they went from a god to a Celestial, so I think that transition isn't affected as much as other transcendence methods by the difficulty increase. At the very least, their soul only comes off as being a thrice-transcended being."

"Was it me?" I ask.

"No," he says. "But you know him – it's Griffin, from the place we're going to now. When he's pretending to be human, he likes doing stuff like running a club-type place on some world or other. His current interest is on Earth, though my favorite was when he ran a club for fairies. That was back before this universe formed."

Our topic changes away from the stuff I'd been asking about, my curiosities sated for now. As we finish the walk to the Starry Iris, Ash tells me about the fairy club Griffin once ran and some of the wild stories from that time.

It seems some fairy types really know how to party.