Sen and Josh finished everything on the table. Including the little pinch-dish of sea salt Gaia had put out for them. Sen kept licking his finger, dipping it in the bowl, and then putting it in his mouth when he thought Josh wasn’t looking.
Lifting the last of the nuts to his mouth while watching Sen out of the corner of his eye, Josh mumbled as he chewed, “For a guy who was an Immortal until two days ago... you’re like a kid, you know that?”
Cheeks turning red at being discovered, Sen couldn’t help but admit, “That’s... that’s not far from the mark, in truth, Joshua. In many ways, the things that we are encountering are much newer to me than you. Eating! Wow! Who would have thought so much delight came from something that outwardly seemed so banal?” He patted his full belly in contentment.
Smiling, not in an altogether kind way, Josh replied, “Heh, true... but the surprises aren’t over quite yet. You’ll see the banal side tomorrow.” Josh winked. “Look forward to it.”
Sen narrowed his eyes, wheels turning, obviously using his Essence to track his digestive system. His eyes widened with a brief look of abject horror. Josh could tell through their Karmic Bond that Sen had understood Josh’s comment and stalked his alimentary tract to its prosaic end.
“I had forgotten about that...” Sen said almost to himself with eyes narrowed.
Josh chuckled. “Yeah, I can see you got it now... Listen, I’m going to start cycling the Essence we picked up this morning. Give me two hours, then rouse me so that you can cycle. We can stair-step until we both finish. I trust Gaia… She’s a bit… extra. And casual on some serious topics, not the least of which is her own imprisonment and torture. Still, I don’t think she’s going to stab us in the back or anything.” Josh looked over his shoulder in the direction the Star Child had walked off to after leaving them with their meal. “… But if that specter comes back or has friends that come to check on him, it would be best to have a lookout, right?”
“Agreed, Joshua.”
Josh settled in to cycle the remainder of the cannibal Essence he had collected the morning before. When Sen gently shook his shoulder, he had reached what he thought was about 95 percent conversion, the approximation being necessary as there were no numbers for this yet. Supposedly the interface was going to advance with them.
Josh blinked and nodded that he was back from cultivation land. It had seemed like only fifteen minutes for him. But he could tell from the candles on the table that much more time had passed. He also felt restored and fresh-minded. Like he had received a restful night’s sleep. He shared his experience, including a few small things he’d realized during the cultivation process that made things a bit smoother and quicker, though it was nothing groundbreaking and then let Sen repeat the process.
Josh checked his interface as Sen was cycling. His health had fully restored during the cycling session. He checked his shoulder and leg through his shredded clothing and noted intact skin and a full active range of motion for abduction, adduction, forward flexion, and extension... Stop the science jargon in your own head, Josh... your shoulder is fine!
Josh darkly chuckled. If Sen could put things inside his head, why did he turn me into a Farmer’s Almanac instead of John Wick? If it came up, he would have to ask. But Josh was suspicious that there was no minimum safe amount of information to shove in someone’s brain. Sen had likely taken the chance of decohesion of Josh’s cortex even if they had only given him the CPR info.
Josh noted even on autopilot, his core converted 1 percent of the remaining unpurified Essence every fifteen minutes. He couldn’t identify any foreign Essence remaining in his meridians after about 1.5 hours. He also had instinctively converted the excess free Essence into his core. The numeric indicator read 49 percent, and his free Essence bar seemed full. Like breathing and digesting his food, some aspects of cultivation were now a part of him and would, seemingly, function on their own.
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Two hours later, and after some serious self-reflection time, Josh had some questions he was ready to ask when he roused Sen. They did their typical quick debrief to confirm consistent Essence processing experiences, and then Josh asked one of the questions he thought would help him kind of figure out his place in things and where they were going.
Sen was all ears, ready and open.
“I know that all this mortal-level stuff–” Josh opened his hands and pointed at the both of them, “…Our cultivation… is just as new to you as it is to me. But check my thinking. We–” Josh again pointed at Sen and himself with his waving hand. “--We function with a mortal Essence core that apparently runs on unpurified Essence which we have to purify ourselves in order for our bodies to properly use?”
Josh looked at Sen with widened eyes to confirm that that was a question, and Sen nodded in the affirmative, knowing Josh wanted to continue. And Josh did, “... Instead of mortal Essence, what you used to use for your Immortal core and cultivation was– Immortal Ka.” Josh amplified his voice like a prize fight announcer to parody how much greater and mysterious Ka seemed to him than the Essence they were using.” Sen smiled faintly at the small joke and nodded again. With the basics out of the way, Josh moved on. “…Which I guess is ultra-purified and perfected Essence of some sort?” Josh raised his brows and left the question hanging for Sen to clarify.
Suddenly humbled by being reminded that he was no longer Immortal, Sen nodded his head in agreement. “...That is a good way to think about it… The process takes …well millions and millions of your Earth years to raise mortal Essence to Immortal Ka… but no matter is level of purification, both are the iteration energy and forces of unification that hold everything with meaning together–”
Seeing that he was on the right track, Josh’s face animated, and he interjected his old legal courtroom habits of asking leading questions to get where he thought he should. “— But Immortal Ka and mortal level Essence are like crude oil vs. refined jet fuel. While they both come from the same place… they are not interchangeable without a lot of effort and time. Correct?”
Not exactly sure where Joshua was going, but still in agreement with the overall issues, Sen blankly nodded affirmative. “Correct Joshua–”
“--Ok… So why was Hantal so interested in mortal Essence when it wouldn’t do anything for him in the short run? It doesn’t make any sense to me that he would be trying to get something that wouldn’t really help him in the here and now?”
Sen nodded in a kind and knowing manner as he loosely pointed with his fingers to the iteration around them. “Understand that whether we are talking about mortal Essence or Immortal Ka, we are still talking about the immense power of multiversal iterations– To use an example from weapons of your era– A stick of dynamite is a small detonation compared to the explosive forces of atomic fission and fusion in atomic and hydrogen bombs… but it can kill you just the same. In fact, nuclear weapons are rated in how many tons of dynamite they mimic, in the kilo and megaton denominations.”
Sen, obviously more comfortable using weapons as an analogy, continued. “Why exactly Hantal was down in the mortal realms farming mortal Essence that he would have to purify instead of working on his Immortal cultivation directly, is a question only he could have answered–” Sen looked to the side as he was going to spit and get a bad taste out of his mouth. “--Though I doubt the reprobate would ever say anything truthful for any reason.” Sen straightened and got back on track and pointed a loosely fisted index straight up. “... Regardless… He was collecting power.”
Sen’s expression grew distant as if he was remembering something. Given the gap, Josh moved to ask another question. But Sen held up his hand and spoke what he had remembered. “When my grandfather ended Brundox’s adharmic path by separating him from his cores. There was an Immortal core– which I thought could only be manifested and destroyed in an Immortal iteration– and the physical cultivation core that all Immortal physical avatars obviously need to use in any physical matter iteration.” Sen looked to Josh, clearly attempting to determine if he was still following the conversation.
Reading the audience and not wanting Sen to stop his train of thought, Josh prodded with positive reinforcement. “Ahh… ya… obviously.”
Sensing through their Bond Josh’s mild confusion about the differing cores and his overwhelming eagerness to hear Sen’s thoughts, Sen waved his hand in a dismissive manner. “...The Immortal metaphysics of physical matter avatars aren’t terribly important to us at this stage in our mortal cultivations…” Sen rolled his eyes at his own mortal condition. “What is important is that the briefest glimpse that I got of the cores my grandfather yanked out of him… I saw some kind of spiritual connection between the two cores that I know I don’t have— err didn’t have between mine– when I had them.” Sen looked sheepish again at the reminder of his current mortality.
Josh again opened his mouth to interrupt, and again, Sen cut him off. “Did Brundox have some way to directly use mortal Essence as fuel for his Immortal core? I don’t know…It wouldn’t surprise me if his greed for power was so great as to allow himself to believe that such a shortcut to growth would be beneficial.” Sen screwed up his face at the lunacy of the very idea. “Even I know that such a choice will ultimately cost more than would be gained.”
Josh was nodding his head as he thought he understood. “... Like a man dying of thirst making the decision to drink seawater. Your thirst would be abated … but the greater salt concentration will dehydrate you even further… and will ultimately kill you.”
Sen pursed his lips, mulling over Josh’s statement. “...I suspect that is a very apt analogy of the situation. But regardless… Hantal Brundox, the genocidal harvester, is gone. Believe me, Joshua. My grandfather doesn’t do things in half measures. We will never see his like again.” Sen turned away as if what he had just said was more absolute than the four gospels wrapped in the US Constitution.
Josh couldn’t argue. Just thinking of his own interactions with the Clone, which was supposedly an identical duplicate of everything that made Zenyak Marztanak, Zenyak, Josh could only nod his head in agreement. The guy didn’t mess around!
With some questions answered, but perhaps even more questions now needing ponderance before he would open discussion again, they were ready to head down for the Attunement crystal.