Sulia had hoped that the bad feeling that she’d been struggling with for the past week would prove to be just a figment of her imagination, a symptom of missing her son.
But as her grandmother spoke, that hope turned to ashes. She recalled the coded messages she’d received from Grandmother, explaining what had happened two years earlier when her connection to Joram had suddenly been severed. At that time, they’d at least been reassured that Joram was being taken care of by the Clan, and especially Grandmother.
This time?
They couldn’t even find him.
The only thing they knew for certain was that an extremely powerful wave of energy had flooded the Network before it had once again dropped. Her grandmother went on to explain that Joram had been using a cultivation room that had recently been built for him, but preferred to cultivate in an extradimensional pocket he could make.
That nearly blew her mind; the thought that Joram was capable of making an extradimensional space so casually. But what really hit her was the possibility that something had gone wrong when he’d made that space, and he was somehow lost between dimensions or something.
“As you know, I am able to sense the Law of Space, yet I haven’t detected anything that would indicate a tearing of the fabric of space had occurred,” Grandmother explained calmly.
Burn calm! I want my son! Sulia silently raged, but then was distracted by Ivaryn’s touch.
“Then we shall trust in your investigation, Tatia,” he said, his stress only evident in his calling Grandmother by her first name.
“He’s a remarkably resourceful child; I’m sure that he’ll surprise us with something equally ridiculous when he shows up again,” Grandmother said, a faint smile on her face. “Let me show you what he had left for the Clan,” she said as sat at the family table, a few brown topazes appearing in her hand.
Sulia knew what Grandmother was trying to do, but went along with it anyway. No amount of stressing out would help the situation along, so she sat beside her grandmother and leaned over to get a closer look at the beautifully cut gems.
They were in a cut that she was unfamiliar with, being in the shape of a drop of water, or a tear, but flat on one side. Grandmother handed her one, then Ivaryn another. Both looked at the gem, a bit puzzled. Yes, it was of exquisite quality and clarity, but what made it so special?
“As you know,” Grandmother said, activating her privacy ward that encompassed them at the table. Sulia was surprised to see that Tillia had also joined them there. “Joram is… accomplished in Mental Strength, Psionics as he calls it. Almost half a year ago he presented me with these gems along with instructions on how to use them.”
Sulia listened, her jaw slowly dropping. She knew that Joram could heal people with mental energy alone, but to be able to make such a life-saving item was on the ridiculous side of far-fetched.
“In short, he left twenty gems with me to use as I see fit,” she explained, waving a hand as she summoned the rest of them from her storage ring to lay on the table in front of her. “I haven’t given any out yet, mostly because I haven’t thought of an appropriate cover story. That said, most people can’t detect the ‘enchantment’ place on it, so I was thinking of giving them out to clan members heading out on dangerous missions.”
Both Sulia and Ivaryn nodded at that, having such a life-saving item would mean that the chances of losing clan members on dangerous missions would drop significantly. At the same time, if they knew what the gem did, the chance that they would take even more risks knowing that they had such a thing would also go up. It was, quite frankly, a double-edged sword.
Sulia took in another breath, exhaled, then a deeper one. This was all fine and good- amazing even!- but she couldn’t forget that Joram was currently in an unknown state of health, in an unknown location. Even these gems didn’t have the impact on her that they would have if he’d been there with them. Heck, even if Joram still had these gems on him, they were likely not enough to have kept him healthy enough to return to them.
What had happened? Grandmother had told them of this previous cultivation accident, and that was a fascinating subject for future study, but had he somehow managed to make his situation worse? Had he made a mistake when trying to create new pathways in his body to accommodate the new location of his Core? She knew that it was extremely dangerous to attempt to path new energy conduits in the body, even for people well-versed in the subject. For Joram?
By his own admission, he was unfamiliar with their methods of cultivation. So as she saw it, he was all the more likely to have had an accident while he worked on his body. Was he as proficient in working with the Spirit as he was with the Mind and Body? Because new energy conduits were as much a spiritual thing as they were a physical thing in the body. You had to change yourself as you cultivated, as you drew in more and more mana into your body and spirit to accommodate the mana.
Did he know that? Was he only changing his body without knowing that that was only half of the equation?
“Sulia,” she heard her grandmother say at the same time that she felt her hand on her arm. “I know your worried, but there is nothing we can do until he shows up again. When that time comes, we need to be at our best so that we can help him in any way that he might need.”
“Thank you, Grandmother,” she said with a faint smile. “It’s just that Joram is our first….” She trailed off as she finally noticed the dark circles under Tillia’s eyes.
“How are you keeping up, Tillia?” She asked, going into helpful mode to help distract herself.
“As well as can be expected, thank you,” she said meekly, head bowing.
Sulia shared a look with Ivaryn, not quite sure what was up with Tillia. Yes, she’d been responsible for Joram’s safety and general care during their absence, but she couldn’t possibly think that it was her fault. Maybe she did? There were some very protective people out there, so maybe Tillia was one of them?
“I’m just worried about him; don’t mind me too much,” Tillia clarified, seeming to stir up a bit more energy to make her tone of voice a bit stronger. She still sounded wrung-out though.
“I’m glad that Joram has someone like you to watch over him,” Ivaryn said with a reassuring smile. “I’m sure that he’d have gotten into a lot more trouble if you hadn’t been around.”
Sulia noted the Look her grandmother and Tillia shared before they both burst into… giggles.
What?
* * * * *
After having the site of the old villa cleaned up, Avi set the droids to rebuilding the place, though with a few modifications. Like built-in forcefield emitters to help mitigate future damage to the building.
In the meantime, Joram was resting in a newly built lab- er, observation room, uh, convalescence room specially made for his unique situation. Not only had she needed to account for ridiculous amounts of voltage and amperage coming off him, but also random bursts of heat. Heat sufficient to melt steel, nevermind incinerating anything nearby.
As for his situation, she still didn’t really know. It had been difficult enough to get the room set-up, nevermind making sure that the heat and electricity coming off him didn’t disrupt her “body”. It had taken several layers of protection to just get close to him, let alone pick him up.
When she’d finally been able to do so, she was struck with how his body felt. Not in a weird way. No, it was almost like lifting a block of metal. His normally elastic skin didn’t so much as dimple under her touch, but was still smooth as a baby’s behind. Well, he was still what she’d call a baby, physically, but it had still surprised her.
She had also managed to get a few readings with her omni-tool. There were… confusing, to say the least. It was likely because the sensors hadn’t been calibrated, or made, to detect what she needed them to. So, all she got back was a mass of… mass. They didn’t have enough data on the new elements of this world for them to calibrate sensors to with any measure of accuracy. Hence: “mass”. Well, “unknown mass”, to be accurate.
Yes, she was able to get various energy readings from him, including psionic energy emanations, which gave her hope that he wasn’t brain dead.
She’d checked on his [Astral Seed] to make sure that his soul hadn’t just transferred there due to the trauma he’d gone through, but it had remained dormant this entire time, much to her relief. She hadn’t gotten to the source of his unusual… rebirth, but currently didn’t have time to do any research on the subject.
Anyway, back to Joram.
He was still bald as could be. No eyebrows. No eyelashes. Nothing. She really hoped that he wouldn’t wind up being a baldy, as she really liked his hair. Also, he’d be a reflective hazard with any strong light sources present.
She sighed, emulating the motion with her non-organic body. Sure, her body wasn’t strictly a hologram, but made of whisps of ectoplasm drawn from the Astral Plane, but she certainly wasn’t an organic being at the moment.
Then she had a thought. She had access to Altaea’s genetic data, as well as a wealth of other genetic data, and she did have access to technology far more advanced than what Joram was used to on Earth….
“New project!” She exclaimed, punching the air above her head with one arm, then wilted.
She’d feel bad if Joram suddenly needed her, but was too distracted to help him. After a few minutes of contemplation and planning, she set a few droids to start a few new projects.
“Multitasking!”
* * * * *
*1343.05.22*
Tillia was worn out. The stress of not knowing if Joram was OK, let alone alive, was really getting to her. She found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on her cultivation, finding her mind wandering to her young, and troublesome, ward.
Yes, he was a Reincarnator, but he also seemed to act his physical age more than she thought he would, given what he was.
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Then there were the… visions.
Well, that might have been too strong a word for what was happening, but it seemed… appropriate to call them that.
Every now and then when she was looking at someone, she’d see them… older. That was it. No visions of future accomplishments, no clues as to anything they’d become or do. Just, older. What confused her the most was that it was mostly children.
In adults, it was mostly seeing them younger versions of themselves, but she’d occasionally catch a glimpse of someone looking older than what they should.
It was unnerving, to say the least.
And it wasn’t like she’d see a toddler as an adult, but only a few years older than they currently were. She’d tried staring into a mirror to see if it happened while she was staring at herself, but nothing ever came of it.
She’d debated telling the Matriarch about it, but was hesitant because she mostly thought it a symptom of her stress. Seeing things that weren’t there. Classic sleep deprivation, right there. Also, who wanted to distract important people with something as trivial as sleep deprivation induced hallucinations?
Joram’s parents were due to leave the next day, having already stayed as long as they could. Her heart went out to them for having to leave once again without knowing what had happened to their only son. She could only imagine the heartache they were going through. Her own was bad enough.
In a sense, she was a bit glad for the space apart with Joram. Not that she was in any way glad that he’d mysteriously disappeared! No, but it had allowed her to think without distraction.
Her issues with seeing… things, hadn’t just started happening after he’d vanished. It had first happened when she’d awoken on the floor after having passed out. Seeing an older version of Joram leaning over her had been… shocking. She’d initially written it off as her mind playing tricks on her after having woken up. But that hadn’t been the only time it had happened.
Every now and then when she was watching him do something, that image would come back. And, unfortunately, it would somehow coincide with Joram looking up at her, giving her one of his weird smiles, usually causing her to get a bit frazzled as the image would also give that same smile, which was definitely more fetching on an older face than a child.
Was the stress of their situation to blame for it? After the clan found out about his… disability, things had gotten increasingly more stressful for her, if not for Joram. He seemed to not care what people said about him, but she couldn’t help but care.
She knew just how special he was, if not to the full extent. It was frustrating watching narrowminded people deride, demean, and denounce him. Where once they’d been practically fawning over him, a good deal of people had now turned their backs on him.
Tillia was glad that Aloralla and Ailmar were much more understanding than those others. It might have been due to Aloralla having nursed Joram that their relationship was much better than others’, or it might have been that their children were engaged that did it. But still, she was glad.
But what did that mean for Joram’s declaration of Tillia being his woman? She was long used to children developing a crush on her, so had mostly dismissed it as a childhood crush. But then those visions kept popping up, reminding her that he was also an adult in a child’s body. Which meant that the likelihood that his declaration wasn’t just something a child ignorantly declared, was high.
Well, she’d let time do its thing. If he still pursued her when he was a grown man, she’d see then. Now that she was progressing in her cultivation, she’d at least not be an old woman by the time he grew up. But then, maybe he would forget about his crush if she did wind up looking like an old woman?
That was something to think about.
- - - - -
It was painful to watch as Sulia and Ivaryn prepared to leave the next day. The Matriarch was, of course, present to send them off. She suspected that the Matriarch was still feeling guilty over not having been able to find any clues as to Joram’s whereabouts, causing their faint hope that he’d survived to grow even fainter.
But for some reason, she didn’t feel that Joram was lost to them. She couldn’t put her thumb on it, it was just a feeling. Perhaps it was due to the many visions she’d had of Joram as a young adult, but the feeling nevertheless stuck with her.
Tillia watched as the last of their luggage was stored away in Ivaryn’s storage ring, still amazed at how easy rich people had it when needing to transport things. Whenever she had taken the children she’d care for out for an outside activity at a park or something, she had needed to stuff a large backpack full of the various necessities they’d need while out and about for a few hours’ time, practically looking like a travelling peddler so weighed down was she.
Now, whoosh!, all packed!
She straightened to attention when Sulia came over to speak with her, her nerves now deciding it was time to make themselves known.
“Thank you again for watching out for Joram all this time,” she said, a faint trace of sadness in her eyes. “Please, feel free to stay here as long as you need. The place shouldn’t be left empty.” She finished, absently waving a hand at the almost empty apartments.
“I’m sure he’ll return soon,” Tillia said with as much confidence as she could muster, plastering on a confident smile while she was at it.
Both Sulia and Ivaryn gave her a sad smile, but was still filled with warmth. Sulia leaned in and gave her a hug, Ivaryn joining in to make it a group hug.
The moment was gone all too soon, then they all left, leaving Tillia to the empty rooms all by lonesome. She wandered over to Joram’s room and hesitated, hand hovering in front of the door. Then her hand fell as she turned to her own room and settled down on her meditation mat, eyes closing upon shimmering eyes.
* * * * *
Tatia watched as Sulia and Ivaryn stepped onto their ancient teleportation platform and vanished a moment later. It was a “lost” magic, having been left behind by their clan founder. It was all they could do to maintain its function over the past few thousand years, as the attainments of the clan members in the Law of Space hadn’t been sufficient to create any new platforms. No, even her attainments only allowed her to maintain or fix what was already there.
With a sigh so slight that only she knew she’d let one out, Tatia turned back to the clan. The teleportation area was deep inside the Library, hidden beside the entrance to the Heavenly Archive. That, too, had been arranged by the Founder. Well, that was the story anyways.
Only the Matriarchs of the clan knew that the Heavenly Archive had been left behind by Altaea, the true creator of their clan. Even after having studied the Archive for over one hundred years, she’d still only touched the surface of the Law of Space, she was sure. Elsewise, how could she explain her limited understanding of that Law?
Shaking her head, she made her way to Joram’s cultivation room to once again study the extradimensional space he’d left behind. She wasn’t quite sure, but she had the impression that it would have soon dissipated if Joram had truly perished. She knew that Tillia also believed that Joram was still alive, but like her, couldn’t explain why.
Though, Tatia was sure that Tillia was hiding something, but was also sure that it wasn’t anything pertaining to Joram’s whereabouts or wellbeing as she would have shared anything of the sort. She was a good child that way.
But, like her, Tillia seemed to have a hunch, something that continued to lead her to believe that Joram would return to them. And that was what partially moved Tatia to pursue her own hunch, her intuition. Yes, it could have been their imagination running wild, but….
So it was that Tatia sat upon the cultivation mat in Joram’s cultivation room and prepared to cultivate the Law of Space.
*1343.09.04*
In a small room beside a small bed surrounded by shimmering walls of force, lay a boy with short purple hair. On a chair just off to the side, much like how a modern hospital would have been set up, sat a young woman going over a holographic- a true hologram this time- display in front of her. On her lap was what appeared to be the base of a laptop, but without the top portion, the screen. Instead, there was a slot where the screen would have been, which so happened to be where the display was projected from.
Avi “tapped” away at the display, occasionally using the keyboard build into the surface of the “laptop”.
“Reconstruction and modification of the villa compete. Good-good. Cultivation chambers also complete. Excellent…” she murmured to herself as she read then signed off on various progress reports. She was pleased with the progress. It had been a bit harder to organize everything that she wanted without Joram, M2, or M3 there to assist.
But, now she had an experimental growth chamber ready. Well, a few; you never knew when something unexpected could happen that resulted in catastrophic failure.
There were two kinds of chambers that she’d prepared. One was for Joram, one for her.
The first was an attempt to allow for easier reconstruction of his body should his [Astral Seed] be activated. It provided a, well, growing tank where the seed would be able to draw in all of the necessary building block for a new body. She had placed Joram’s [Astral Seed] in that tank, suspended in place with a minor mass effect field.
It wasn’t just a “tank” though. No, it resembled a bacta tank from the Star Wars universe and could act as a long-term healing or hibernating chamber if it was needed as such.
The second chamber was similar in design, however differed in a few ways.
The main difference was that it was built to grow bodies. Specifically, hers. Over the last several months, she’d managed to suss out how the cloning tech, that Altaea had left behind in her mind, worked. It had taken some doing, mostly acquiring the necessary materials, but she’d gotten there. The other half of the battle had been working with the software needed to run the whole operation.
One of the major hurtles that she’d run across was the issue of inhabiting the body she’d created. She was fundamentally tied to Joram, being a part of his being. Or, rather, depending on his being to survive. She was a bit like a parasite that way. Or maybe a flattering way of looking at it would be that she was like unto a branch grafted onto the tree that was Joram. If she was removed from him, she would likely die. Which caused no end of issues when trying to develop an organic body that she could use.
Going with the grafting analogy, she’d worked on creating a “blank” brain for her to try and latch onto. If her guess was correct, she could use [Data Transfer] to copy herself over to the new body, leaving her psicrystal self in storage, in case of an emergency. Doing so would be somewhat disorienting, and cause a bit of “transfer sickness”, but should ultimately get her where she wanted to be.
The best part was that should her organic body die, her “self” would just transfer back to the waiting psicrystal. Sure, she’d still suffer a bit from the transfer sickness, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as the first time.
“Hmm, good plan,” she mumbled as her finger continued moving across the holographic keyboard. “Yes, just need an adjustment here, another one there…”
At least her issue was mostly dealt with. She looked up and Joram’s unconscious form, glad that his hair had finally started growing again after she’d found a way to add a significant amount of fire and electricity resistance to a pair of rings that he now wore. It did not, however, solve the issue of those two elements leaking out of him constantly. If it weren’tfor the specially made bed and containment field, she’s have had to keep him in a remote field far from anything remotely useful as everything in his environs would eventually be burned to ash.
As sure as sure as she was that Joram was in a vegetative state, she wasn’t entirely sure. Normally, a powerful psion like Joram would still be able to do various things while unconscious. He even mastered [Unconscious Power] which allowed him to manifest a power even if he’d been rendered unconscious. The fact that she hadn’t felt any psionic emanations from him this entire time worried her.
What confused her most was the unknown energy radiating off him, not unlike sitting outside on a sunny day and feeling the sun’s rays on your face. It was gentle, but had the great potential to harm. It also scared her.
So, there were many things that not only confused her about his condition, but also scared her.
A few hours later, Avi put away her laptop and leaned back in her chair, sliding the lap desk to rest beside her chair.
Eventually she sighed, saying “I guess I’m just fated to wait for him,” then closed her eyes as she tilted her head back to rest on the back of the chair.
* * * * *
A small figure dashed across the darkened hallway, keeping to the shadows. The figure looked this way and that, checking to see if they’d been seen. After a moment, the figure dashed to a closed door down the hall, slid the door open, then disappeared inside, the door closing without a sound.
The figure looked around again once inside, noting the lack of lighting, but also the lack of anyone about.
With a nod, the figure made its way to a door off to the side, a plaque hanging from a nail in the door saying, “Do not Disturb!”. They paused a moment, staring at the bold lettering before shrugging, opening the door, then sliding in.
This room, too, was in the dark; no one having bothered lighting an oil lamp, or turning on a glow lamp.
To the shadowy figure’s great disappointment, the room was vacant.
The figure slowly dragged its feet over to the small bed off to the side, then hopped onto it and laid down.
“Where’s Joram?” Xixi asked, tears coming to her eyes as she lay there staring up at the ceiling. It was eventually too much for her to keep it all in, so the tears came harder and hotter, accompanied at first by soft sobs, then more heart-wrenching cries.
* * * * *
Tillia watched Xixi from outside the window, having been alerted that someone had opened Joram’s door. Her disappointment fled as she saw little Xixi crying her heart out on Joram’s bed, letting it all out.
She was terribly conflicted then, not sure if she should go and comfort the young girl, or just let her cry it out on her own.
Then the thought came to mind that she’d appreciate someone being there for her, so she slid back into the apartments and made her way to Joram’s door. She hesitated again as she was about to open the door, but then firmed her resolve and slipped into the room, quiet as a shadow.
She made her was to the bed where Xixi was still bawling her eyes out, using Joram’s blanket to try and muffle her crying. As she sat down beside Xixi, she felt her jump in surprise. Tillia saw her wide and puffy eyes for a moment before she took Xixi into her arms and held her tight, murmuring quiet words of comfort.
As Xixi continued shedding her tears, she missed the tears silently rolling down Tillia’s face.