Epilogue

Po Sana – no, she was Di Sana now, she reminded herself, sat in the bath with her children, washing her son’s hair. She was reminded of the day, years ago now, when she had discovered Little Bug covered in filth. The memory was a surprisingly happy one, for all that she had been irate at the time. And she also recognized it now for what it was.

That had been Little Bug’s first step on the road of cultivation.

And now, he had guided his family on their own first step.

She felt the Qi flowing through her veins, the power that was suddenly within her grasp. She wondered how much stronger she was now, what stage she had reached. How much longer she would live, now that the impurities within her had been burnt away in the light that had emerged from the world and lasted for hours.

In that light, she had practiced the Peach Blossom Dream. Her son’s technique.

Her chest swelled with familiar emotions, amplified a thousandfold. Maternal pride.

“Mama, does this mean that we can follow Little Bug on his adventures now?” her son asked as she continued to scrub his hair.

“I don’t know what it means, Po Gisu,” she answered honestly. “But it means that things will be different. And that light, I think that it has changed the world, and not just our little family.”

“Oh,” the boy said, then he dunked his head under the water to get rid of the soap.

The door opened, and Di Tonilla stepped inside. Sana had to resist the urge to get up and bow to her new husband’s first wife, but instead simply nodded in greeting as the silver ranked matron undressed and joined them in the bath.

“You have reached the bronze path. Congratulations, Lady Sana.”

“I do not know of such things. I was simply following Little Bug’s instructions when the light shone,” she admitted. “Is this a rare accomplishment?”

“I’m not certain yet,” Tonilla admitted. “Many people who knew a bit about cultivation were able to exploit the opportunity that the light presented and advance. Those who were already cultivators advanced by a step or two, while those who were weaker advanced the most. However, with the nature of this world’s Qi itself changing and growing thicker, it will be interesting to see what sort of world we live in next year.”

“Little Bug caused all of this trouble?” Sana asked.

Tonilla laughed. “You might say that. Now come. Let your elder sister wash your hair. It stinks with impurities. You’ll feel better when they are washed away.”

Sana agreed, and for the first time since she was a child, allowed an older woman to wash her hair for her.

~~~~~~

Di Ram sat on the ramparts as the last of the reports came in. Little Bug was near by, as were the Peach Blossoms, though his junior cultivators were all asleep, their bodies being fussed over by mortal attendants who were worried about the wounds taken in battle.

He looked out over the dawn and he smiled sadly. So many had been lost to this corruption. But those who remained, they were forever changed. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse, it wasn’t his place to judge such things.

He turned to Little Bug, who knew his heart on this matter, and they exchanged nods. Performing a simple technique to make his voice carry, he spoke to his soldiers.

“We have done it. Comrades, friends, soldiers, we have stood against the corruption, the darkness that eats at man’s heart, and we have come through into the dawn,” Di Ram said. And the soldiers who were not too weary to cheer cheered. When they had calmed down, he continued.

“Now is the time for healing. While there are no dead to bury, there is much work to be done. Those of you who are injured will be sent home first, but rest assured that everyone who survived will be sent home as soon as the work of putting right what can be put right in the aftermath of this destruction. It will take days, not weeks, before I announce this army officially disbanded, and the Many Peaks Alliance’s first campaign a success.”

Again he paused as the cheers grew louder yet.

“Like many of you, I do not truly understand what transpired last night, save that a savior appeared in the hour of our greatest need and pushed away the dark of the darkest night. I heard the voice of my father, speaking of assistance from the heavens, but it was not the heavens which answered our need. The power that pushed back the darkness came from Atla itself. Of this I am certain.

“When you go home, carry your heads high. You are soldiers of the Many Peaks Alliance, the alliance that fought at the battle that marked the end of the world and the birth of a new one. We stood against the depths of despair and brought forth hope into a new world!”

The cheers were louder yet, and Di Ram decided to end it on a high note. Little Bug stepped up next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You worry that I will be angry that you did not execute my father’s murderer,” Little Bug said, and Di Ram tensed as one of his fears was called out on him.

“Yes,” Di Ram admitted. “I was constrained. I—”

“My father’s murderer died honorably in the defense of life on Atla. I do not know more than that, but it was a good death. A death with meaning. A death with both more and less dignity than what he gave my father,” Little Bug said. “I would know, for I was there. I burnt his body myself in the aftermath of the attack that claimed his life.”

Di Ram stood silent as he wondered what Little Bug’s verdict on his judgment would be.

“May you rule kindly and with grace, Di Ram,” Little Bug said. “But never let the crown upon your head grow light, and never let the burden you bear rest easy upon your shoulders.”

Little Bug turned and walked away.

Di Ram watched as the cultivator who had once been his student faded into the distance in the space of three steps. Then he sighed wearily and went to bed.

The reports on the rebuilding efforts could wait until he’d slept.

~~~~~~

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Hien Ro awoke in the infirmary, and he reached out to touch the others, relieved to find that the bonds of their collective were still there. Except for two stars which were missing from the constellation. Xol had journeyed the final journey, into the unknown shores of death. He grieved for the First Disciple, but he forced himself to move past his grief and think of other matters.

It was what Xol would have expected and wanted him to do.

Wincing, he stood up and walked over to where Yara, his wife, slept. He stroked her cheek, but she did not wake up. He smiled. He was married. They hadn’t had much time to celebrate, but--

“Congratulations on your wedding,” Little Bug said from the entryway into the infirmary.

“Thank you, Little Bug,” Hien Ro said. “I think that I shall be happier in this life than I was as Lucas. Or many of my other lives, which I only but glimpsed in that place you sent us.”

Little Bug grinned. “My masters who brought me into the sea of memories for the first time would be outraged that I abused that power the way that I did,” he confessed. “It was meant to be used for … something else.”

“Soul Cultivation,” Hien Ro said. “Will you teach me more?”

“Do not be in such a hurry,” Little Bug said. “Reflect on the lessons you learned in the sea for a year and a day. If you still wish to learn after that, then I will teach you how to reach the fifth step.”

“What about the sixth?”

“That will be for another lifetime, Hien Ro. But yes. We are bound together by chains that are unbreakable now. In this lifetime, or the next, I will find you and teach you how to cultivate your soul until you are ready to face the final tribulation. If that becomes your desire. But reflect on our journey, and know that I was suffering for most of it. I will not bar you from following me on the path that I walk, but I will try to talk you out of it from time to time.”

“If my conviction cannot stand your persuasion, then I deserve to be talked out of it,” Hien Ro said.

“I’m pleased you understand. Now then. Let’s talk about happier things. What do you plan on naming your child?”

“My child?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did Yara not tell you yet? Soon, we will both be fathers.”

~~~~~~

Lord Loshi sat silently as he stared in awe at the impossible sight. Atla, the world itself, had ascended. Where before it had been a stage four world, it had swiftly risen and was on the cusp of rising to stage twelve. It would be a jewel in Loshi’s crown. He only had one other world on that level, and it was a stage eleven. If Atla continued to rise, then … he didn’t know. Perhaps he’d be able to break through the bottleneck in his own cultivation.

And he had no idea how it had happened. It shouldn’t be possible. Whoever did this was a genius.

“This is where you tell me that I made a mistake,” he said to the silent cultivator who was his guest. “This is where you tell me that I was too hasty to write Atla off as a lost realm and burn its passageways. Without those passageways, I cannot easily answer how this was done. Without those passageways I—”

“Oooh, that’s shiny,” A new voice said, and Loshi’s jaw snapped shut as he looked from the magical display of Atla to the new arrival in the throne room of his nexus. Only a few beings could come and go uninvited in this place, and none of them were beings that he wanted to deal with right now.

“Omaia. I welcome you into my home,” he said, nodding at the avatar of a little girl.

The girl ignored him and bounced over to the representation of Atla. “Oh this was very well done! I wonder what it was like before? Do you have images from the past to compare it to?”

Loshi considered the request for a moment, then pulled up images from ten years and ten days ago to compare.

“Huh. That’s strange,” the girl said. “It was filled with corruption only a few days ago, and now it’s pure as can be. I wonder how that happened, but the image is all grainy. Why is it so grainy?”

Loshi was silent. He didn’t want to admit his failing before this being. Though she chose the visage of a little girl, this being was ancient and powerful. One of his peers.

“Oh fine, keep your secrets. But I know that you’re not the one who’s responsible for it.”

“What makes you so certain?” Lord Loshi asked.

“Because I wasn’t sent here to talk to you. I just stopped by because I was moving through your dimension and it would be rude not to say hello,” Omaia explained. “The Emerald Court of Xian has determined that a new Ascended Lord has been born in your realm. I have been selected as the messenger to invite them to send their avatar to attend court and discuss their place in the cosmos.”

“This Dimension is mine,” Loshi said. “If anyone rose to the level of—”

“Why did you burn out the connections to this world?” Omaia asked. “It makes things very inconvenient for me. I cannot travel the roads that you built, so I must make my own way to the home of the new Ascended one. Why, Lord Loshi, did you do that?”

Loshi cut himself off.

“Oooh, I sense a story here. Who is this young man? Is he a witness to what happened?” Omaia asked, turning to where Di Phon stood, staring at the world of his birth in silence. “Tell me, young man, what happened here? Why is this one world cut off from the others?”

Di Phon smiled, but he did not speak a single word.

Loshi held his breath waiting for the silence to end, or for Omaia to lose interest and leave. He prayed that Di Phon’s silence would continue forever.

~~~~~~

Even as I spoke to friends and family and many others, I also sat before Atla in a liminal space, helping the young world come to terms with its own existence.

“Father, these things are hurting those things,” the world said. “Should I stop them?”

“That is a panther,” I answered. “It is a predator. The animals that it is hunting are its prey. If you stop them, then the panther will die.”

“Is that wrong? The prey is dying because of the panther, so why shouldn’t—”

“If you stop the panther from eating, then the population of the prey species will explode. They will eat all of the food, and soon nothing will be left. They will starve, and you will have neither predator nor prey,” I explained.

“Oh.” The young world’s mind began examining the relationship again. “What about here? These are people like you, and they are hurting these other people. Should I stop them?”

“And how would you stop them, child?” I asked.

“I would burn them away.”

“But who would you burn? Have you investigated the cause of the conflict? Are you confident in your ability to pick out only the aggressors and instigators?”

“Oh,” the world said. “No, I do not know how the war started. But shouldn’t I do something?”

“Let us speak of the things that you can do, and the things that you should do, and the things that should not be done,” I answered. “It will take some time, but that is okay. I love you, Atla, and I will guide you as far along the path of wisdom as I can.”

“And how far is that?”

“Not very far. You see, Atla, your father is an idiot.”

The world was silent.

Then it began to laugh a childish laugh at the joke I had told.