I rocked Mora back and forth.

“This is K’Three, honored Matriarch.” Nalaar said. “K’Three, this is the Grand Matriarch of the Broken Mountain Clan.”

The Matriarch leaned towards me. The qi around us shifted, as if in response to her body. Her body was on the other side of a room, yet she was able to shift until she was only a foot from me. She huffed out of her nose like Nalaar, but it pushed my hair back, hot and wet. Then a gigantic, black tongue licked at her face.

“I approve. His spirit is light. Though his hands are bloody. And he is from far away. Did he just break into the prison?”

Mora reached out of my waddle, making a grasping motion toward the Matriarch. The Matriarch stretched her head forward until the baby could grab on. She kicked out of the swaddle, impacting my chest. I oompfed. She had Nalaar’s cloven feet, and his kick too.

Mora giggled as she slowly kicked her way up the Matriarch’s head, which was easily the size of my body. The Matriarch leaned back, Mora sliding off her head, but the Matriarch caught her in a hand.

[Ask her what realm she’s in. It will be good information.]

“What Realm are you in?” I asked.

Nalaar’s head snapped about, looking at me wide-eyed.

“Um, I mean, if it pleases you, honored Matriarch.”

The Matriarch laughed.

“You are not a cultivator are you?” She asked. “You only show traces of a single refinement.”

I looked at Mora’s legs.

“Will using your cultivation technique make me grow goat legs?”

The Matriarch threw her head back and laughed, the noise a cross between a human laugh and Nalaar’s bleats. Each one seemed to vibrate through the air, as loud as the rumbles of Void Cannons firing.

Mora giggled as she slid down the Matriarch’s side.

“No one has dared be so candid with me in more than a century boy.”

Nalaar grabbed and shook me. I hadn’t even seen him running up.

“You must respect the Matriarch! Kneel and apologize!” He shouted in my ear.

The Matriarch lifted a forestalling hand, larger than we were. Nalaar’s ears pinned downwards, eyes wide.

“It’s alright, grandson. He is not from this world.”

Nalaar looked between the Matriarch and me.

“No, our cultivation technique will not make you grow goat legs. Though mentioning to anyone that you were able to replicate it so easily will cause… problems.” She said.

I nodded.

“Copyright magic. Got it.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Copyright?” The Matriarch asked. Her head tilted to the side, the motion an extremely fast flick. her ears moved curiously. She shook her head after a moment, the noise sending the dozens of charms she hung from her horns jingling.

“Do you guys all collect jewelry for your horns?” I asked.

“These are war trophies.” The Matriarch replied.

I squinted at them. While Nalaar and the other goats had small charms and mishappen chunks of metal, entire hilts from blades hung from the Matriarch’s massive, twisted horns. She had two pairs, one curling up and the other curling down. Nora was doing her best to climb the side to the bottom pair.

“But you have more important information to busy yourself with.” The Matriarch replied. “My cultivation is half way through the Fourth Realm.”

“Matriarch!” Nalaar shouted. She once again held up a forestalling hand.

“What… does that mean?” I asked. I felt Interface’s intense focus.

“Pay attention boy.” She said, leaning forward until she was close again. “In this world, if you want to survive, you must cultivate. The wild life outside the prison would tear you to pieces as you are, even with that foreign magic swirling inside you. And I can feel that running out.

“Qi is the underlining magic of this world, though if you move far enough through the Celestial Space, you may find others.” She shook the thought away.

“Like the one I brought with me.” I said, waving a hand through the hologram of a halo that Interface now resided in. “Will this magic be stable?” I asked.

“Yes.” The Matriarch replied. “Pay attention. Be quiet. I am only telling you this much since you have lent your aid to my descendant.”

I nodded.

“In the First Realm, each person must cultivate four techniques to assemble their core. They come in different varieties. Each one covers a different part of the body. When you have cultivated all four to completion, your body will bear their properties without expending internal energy. That is when you have reached the Second Realm.

“Our clan cultivates Scale the Mountain — the leg movement technique you’ve copied. It’s not a fitting technique for you — I can feel the element raging against the magic you brought. You will need to find something else. However, we have built a large repository of books. We may have a technique to grant you.”

“Matriarch!” Nalaar said, alarmed, stepping forward.

“Quiet.” she said, all six of her eyes turning in their sockets to face him.

Nalaar bleated a protest, but sat in the hall.

“In the second realm, you must accumulate internal energy until it suffuses your entire body. Only after completion of the First Realm will you be able to accumulate enough power to form a core without it breaking you. Typically. The device inside you may help you tolerate more power.”

Nalaar glanced askance at me, but didn’t ask any questions.

“It takes most people months to learn a single technique, though your talent is prodigious. Do not expect to be lucky enough to perform Scale the Mountain again so easily. However, if you join and aid our clan, I will offer you training and resources, along with techniques that match you more perfectly.” The Matriarch said.

[She’s lying. I can easily recast that ability. Does she know that?]

The Matriarch squinted, almost as if she could hear Interface talking.

“I will grant you a Head Mind technique suited to you for what you’ve done for Nalaar. That will help you cultivate the others, if you choose to aid us.”

Nalaar looked like he wanted to mention that I had a mind technique. I was thankful he didn’t.

“Alright.” I said. “I’ll take the technique… and…” I looked down. Then I looked up at Mora, and over at Nalaar. “What would working for you entail?”

“We have many needs. Guards, drill leaders… and Celestial hunters, for when the Bleeding comes. Every core you can carve out is a boon for our clan.”

“Celestials… like you?” I asked.

There was a moment of silence.

“K’Three!” Nalaar shouted.

The Matriarch laughed again.

“No, not like me. Much smaller. Diminutive.”

[Oh good. She’s scary. You shouldn’t fight her.]

“The greater the risk of the work, the greater the clan will reward you.” She said.

“I’ll think about it.” I replied.

The Matriarch nodded, then plucked Mora off her side. Mora laughed with delight as the Matriarch lifted her up and set her down in front of Nalaar. Nalaar scooped her up.

“Nalaar, take him and your daughter and go get washed. You smell disgusting. Then come back and mop the hallway.”

“Yes, Matriarch!” Nalaar said. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but stopped himself.

We started to walk away, and the qi began swirling back towards the Matriarch as I chewed over what she said. Then I stopped, turned around, and asked another question.

“Hey, you wouldn’t make me assassinate former employees if I worked for you, right?”