AbyssalRoadTrip
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Abyssal Road Trip - 456 - Measure up
🕑 Added 2024-10-14 19:38:35 +0000 UTCAmdirlain’s PoV - Nepal Mountains
With their return to the suite, Klipyl fixed Amdirlain with a worried look. “I updated Ebusuku on what happened. She’s worried about you, so if you’ve got anything I can share with her that would be appreciated?”
“I’m closer to how Ori perceived things, but I’ve got some weird Primordial material squeezing around my Soul,” offered Amdirlain. “However, I do now have complete control over the pain, mental, physical or spiritual, that I experience. Not from the headband, but from a power evolving and consuming other skills and powers.”
Klipyl wrinkled her nose. “And not even in a friendly bearhug sort of way. Talk about rude.”
“No. It’s been the catalyst for a lot of progression, but the pain was intense,” allowed Amdirlain drily. “I’ll send her a Message with more details.”
Kadaklan snorted in disgust. “Coming from you, that’s not comforting. Since the Eldritch taking your legs was a flesh wound.”
“I could have bitten off its kneecaps,” quipped Amdirlain.
The flat look she received from Kadaklan set Klipyl giggling. “I only know parts of your banter, but the wordless looks Kadaklan gives you are so funny.”
“I think I need to set you and Jinfeng to work,” said Amdirlain.
Jinfeng claimed a chair away from the hearth. “What is it you need, Sifu?”
When Sarah opted for the couch near the hearth, Amdirlain sat beside her and took her hand, enjoying the comfort of their closeness.
“It’s not what I need. It’s what you and Klipyl need. Since she’s got a blank slate of classes and you’ve not made much progress level-wise hanging out with me.”
“Except for the jump from closing the Hell gate,” corrected Jinfeng. “How is that an issue?”
“I heard the evolution of your Immortal Spirit. Keep it up, and you’ll be a weak Immortal when that final breakthrough occurs,” advised Amdirlain. “With that in mind, I’d suggest you get some actual combat experience.”
Jinfeng shrugged. “I’ll be as strong as I am. It is more about the journey and the insights learned than my level of progress in a numerical exercise.”
“I can understand you see it that way but, since increasing in level will involve lots of combat, there will be opportunities for insights along with my numerical exercise,” said Amdirlain.
“While I understand your point Sifu, having offered my services as a guide I’ll see it through,” replied Jinfeng.
Amdirlain sighed in frustration. “Don’t make me take detours to go pick fights.”
Jinfeng smiled serenely.
“What to include in the journey is your choice, sis,” Klipyl laughed.
“Keep it up, and you’ll both find yourself assigned to miner protection detail in the trials,” grumbled Amdirlain playfully before her gaze narrowed. “That might be a good idea when studying at the West Wind’s Court.”
“Precognition?” asked Jinfeng.
Amdirlain smirked. “No, just being a smartarse. After all, Klipyl was learning how to pound metal. The various elemental creatures in deeper regions of the trials would make suitable foes to push your Ki abilities against.”
“I’ll set up something so you can hop back and forth accurately,” offered Sarah.
“Isn’t there another option for regular combat experience?” asked Jinfeng.
“Qil Tris is another place to gain combat experience if you want to teach Jul’iane and delve into the trials with them.”
“She prefers unarmed styles, but expanding Jul’iane’s knowledge of Ki between delves sounds more appealing. Her present knowledge in some fields is rudimentary and I can help her make significant gains,” replied Jinfeng, offering Amdirlain a smile. “You converted her from a dancer to a warrior.”
“That wasn’t intentional,” protested Amdirlain. “I mentioned that her traditional dance moves looked combative, and things progressed.”
Klipyl grinned mischievously. “You were just offering her choices, right?”
“Indeed, for Jul’iane, and for Jinfeng.”
“True,” admitted Jinfeng.
“Am just can’t help herself. If she met a struggling kid, she’d point some way forward for them.” Sarah noted lightly.
“For which I’m thrilled,” added Klipyl.
“Would I need to disguise myself?” asked Jinfeng.
“I could also give you items to keep in touch and enter the trials with them,” replied Amdirlain. “Or you could experience things from their perspective.”
“How so?”
Sarah nudged an elbow into her side. “They’d be on the lookout for shapeshifting after the three of us. I’m sure people will be more paranoid.”
Amdirlain wrinkled her nose. “Point. Scrub that idea. You could hop back and forth to the trials and, hopefully, your impact on their world might even net you an achievement or three.”
“How would my working with them get me one?” asked Jinfeng.
“By helping keep the trial zones in check and spreading the knowledge of using Ki further, you’d prevent disruptions to vital material supply. Without those materials, their cities and culture would probably implode. While the safe zones in the trials aren’t big enough for a self-sustaining economy, you could set up a teaching centre in one easily enough.”
Since the primary pantheon around Ki and Jade Court Affinity is tied to one world, I believe it might lift the restrictions if natives on other worlds progress enough. Being involved in that would likely net Jinfeng something.
Jinfeng spread her hands. “I’d need to know more about Qil Tris before I decide.”
Amdirlain summarized their Gods’ War and the impact of the curse on the survivors. Sarah and Kadaklan then offered their own observations from their time there before moving on to the events of their stay.
“Would they object to my presence in the trials?” asked Klipyl. “Disguised obviously.”
Jinfeng shrugged. “We don’t have to accompany their team. What are these ‘Fallen’ you recruited to help with the unmonitored graves?”
“You’ve tales of Shen losing their enlightenment and becoming demons?”
“Yes, the Jade Emperor banishes them to the Material Plane,” confirmed Jinfeng. “They normally exist as shamed exiles, though some are a recurring problem that the orders keep under control until they redeem themselves in the eyes of heaven.”
“The Fallen are in a similar situation, but they end up in the lower planes instead,” advised Amdirlain. “Have I overloaded you with information?”
“A bit. Let me think about what you told me. You didn’t ask why I stopped fighting Grandmaster Indra Ka.”
“He’s the current peak of their sect, and you had gained some insight,” proposed Amdirlain, deliberately only picking part of what she’d sensed. “Was there more to it?”
Jinfeng smiled. “The other part was that since I’d hurt him and then retired from the tournament, I denied him what he sought for his senior masters after witnessing Master Guang’s progress.”
“You’re right, that’s going to frustrate him,” said Amdirlain. “A victory from lowering your weapon.”
“But mostly, it was the insight I wanted to pursue, and he insulted you with his sect’s behaviour.”
Amdirlain gave her a warm smile. “Thank you for caring.”
“I’m not sure he’s right that it will break the patron structure,” said Sarah. “It will certainly put pressure on it since people can set up villages without the mana generator infrastructure and come to the cities to use the trials. The nomad packs prove enough are happy to live off the land.”
“You can discuss that while Master Cyrus and I see how my changes affect my fighting,” said Amdirlain.
Master Cyrus nodded. “I’m sure you can hide us, but let’s go where even Nazha won’t notice us.”
“Is his reach limited to the middle kingdoms?” asked Amdirlain.
“To my knowledge,” offered Cyrus.
“Do you want to check on the tunnels where I killed Black Wind Calamity? I’d like to know if we need an Exorcist to finish cleansing it.”
Though I can certainly pick up the energies, I won’t know if it’s something that will fade or return.
“I can do that, and if there isn’t an ongoing blizzard, we can find somewhere to spar,” confirmed Cyrus.
“Hover a bit. The tunnel is rough from the hot bath I gave it, so we’ll arrive mid-air,” advised Amdirlain.
When Cyrus’s feet left the floor, Amdirlain used the large chamber as their arrival point. Darkness and cold embraced them, but Cyrus was unfazed. “It’s frigid here but clean of corruption. Position yourself behind me as I turn.”
As Cyrus’s third eye swept across the scarred rock for the third time, its illumination showed the battle’s last moments. Amdirlain heard the temporal forces at work within his vision.
“I don’t think Black Wind Calamity expected the Dragon’s remains to be destroyed so easily,” noted Amdirlain. “Their attempt to possess it left them open to a world of hurt.”
“How many could perform such a feat?” asked Cyrus. “You did well in killing those forces and properly cleaned their corruption. I had to peer back through time to reveal the battle.”
The illumination from his third eye ended, and darkness returned.
“Do you need light?”
“I can make things out more clearly with some.”
“Hocus Pocus,” quipped Amdirlain.
A few audible notes coated the walls in bioluminescent fungi, and Cyrus regarded her closely. “You’ve set aside the limits you decided on?”
“Given the effect of the headband, it’s impossible to keep resonance off,” said Amdirlain. “Though it’s kind of beside the point, since I’m sure I misunderstood the poem’s nature.”
“Did you? Or did you understand based on what it meant to you then?” countered Cyrus. “That you’ve come to a new position doesn’t invalidate the meaning it had for you. My question is: are you the same person you were then?”
Amdirlain smiled sheepishly. “No.”
“Until recent events, are you glad you undertook your journey that way?”
“Yes.”
“Then might I propose your prior understanding of it was a needed step on your journey,” offered Cyrus. “The view from higher on the mountain differs from the valley. Just as being amidst, the valley gives other insights.”
“One still need to understand both to get a full picture.”
Cyrus raised an eyebrow but remained silent.
“Livia’s rubbed off on you,” noted Amdirlain.
“If that is what you believe.”
“Will I ever get a straight answer out of you?”
“What sort of Sifu would I be to deny you the exhilaration of self-discovery?”
Amdirlain smiled. “Shall we spar?”
“Do you expect the change to be significant?”
“I’ve changed considerably since we fought last,”
Cyrus nodded. “And I don’t have Silpar to distract you. Have you heard from the cloister members recently?”
“I know they’re still helping Sage fight against the undead, but nothing directly. I don’t normally wear the pendant issued by the plinth, so anyone trying to contact me using it is out of luck.”
“What if it’s Silpar?”
“Since he knows I put them in touch with Sage, he has a route to try,” clarified Amdirlain. “Why do you ask? I hope you didn’t have a vision.”
“I was just curious. They’re the only allies that might travel the deeper planes with you, yet you’ve cut them off.”
“Allies isn’t how I’d classify them.” Amdirlain bit the inside of her cheek. “Fellow inmates might be closer. They have goals, and I’ve had some trouble with them, so I’m keeping clear. Some want to ruin or force me into agreements that are not in my best interest.”
Cyrus winced. “Your path has been frequently rocky. I’m dismayed that this trip around the courts added such adversity to your journey,”
“There have been some significant short-term gains from Nazha’s gambit already, so my anger about it has cooled. It might well be that it’s helpful in more ways, but it’s another unwanted bond on me.”
“Very well, I’ll leave it at that. How do you want to spar, bare handed or with weapons?”
“Be gentle with me,” quipped Amdirlain.
Cyrus regarded her suspiciously. “Shouldn’t I be the one requesting that courtesy?”
Amdirlain fluttered her eyelashes and gave a theatrical sniff.
“You’re far more mischievous than you used to be,” noted Cyrus.
“Married life has been good for me,” replied Amdirlain. “Unarmed?”
Cyrus feinted for Amdirlain, but she was already beside him, her finger touching his cheek. The wind kicked from the speed of her motion, battered at his robes.
“How?”
“My new species gives me loads of attribute increases,” Amdirlain said casually. “I got faster.”
“Yet another massive understatement.” Cyrus took a step back and faced off against her again. “Then what do you need to achieve?”
“I’d like to work out the pace of my movements so I frustrate but not obliterate him,” stated Amdirlain. “Can we try some shadow play?”
Cyrus’s suspicion turned to curiosity. “Why Amdirlain?”
“You probably don’t care, but he spoke dismissively of you because your Dao isn’t that of a warrior, so I want to educate him.”
“Why should his words matter?” asked Cyrus. “I knew Indra Ka when he was a lowly student of another order. His Dao is not mine, yet he found enlightenment.”
“It’s not just his words. How he tried to manipulate me and escalated the match with Jinfeng showed arrogance and disregard for those he sees as lesser. He proposed a restriction at the start of their match, and when his skill proved insufficient, he moved faster than she could. He could have ended that match dozens of ways. Instead, he went for a possibly deadly injury.”
“That is true, given neither had Ki defences in place,” allowed Cyrus. “Yet she has the Immortal Spirit.”
“Why should that matter? Just because she could have discussed it with Judge Po doesn’t make it right to disregard a potential death. What if Judge Po gets annoyed and sends her to work off the death? Or makes her wait a few years?”
The explanation earned a sigh from Cyrus, and he motioned to her starting point. “Match your speed to mine.”
When she was ready, Cyrus started through moves that Amdirlain had never seen. She sought to echo the pace and energy within every movement, down to the timing of his breaths. Although the patterns of her Ki flows were comparatively rough and inefficient, she used his example and attempted to smooth their melodies. Their soothing patterns relaxed the tensions accumulated from days of enduring agony.
Ten hours in, Amdirlain sensed the energy gathering within Cyrus and reacted as he unleashed a Ki Blast wrapped in water. Cyrus’ focused wedge battered against an identical one from her, the spray from their mutual destruction turning into an underground ice storm in the sub-zero temperatures. She sensed him gather for the next and matched his attempt. Only when he stopped preparing more blasts did Amdirlain halt. A little giggle escaped her control, and a torrent followed until she had her head back roaring with laughter.
“Did that help?”
“I would never have pictured you indulging in a water fight,” snickered Amdirlain. “We’re both naughty children playing away from the others. Do you think we’ll get punished?”
“Do you have a proper punishment planned for Nazha?”
It figures that Cyrus knows me well enough to realise I’m not done with his piper’s bill.
“I’ve not yet decided,” admitted Amdirlain calmly. “You don’t see me dropping more on him as petty?”
“I see his prison warden role as a down payment. Please make the full punishment something fitting. He had no right to do that to you, and whether it ends up helping is completely beside the point. Since they decided they may inflict such pain, there should be consequences for both of them.”
Amdirlain nodded. “So many of the options I’ve come up with feel spiteful or petty, so I’ll take my time to think about it. Did you share what I told you about Ori to anyone in the Jade Court?”
“None of it, so I don’t know how Nazha knew of your title. You’re my student. You provided information in confidence so I could advise you properly, and that doesn’t include telling anyone,” declared Cyrus. “They’d have to break my Dao to get any information unwillingly from me.”
“What should I do with Indra Ka?”
“He made his choice by baiting you. A true warrior learns by rising from the ashes of defeat.”
“Burn.” Amdirlain crowed. “I’m going to be unpleasant to him and then teach him. To a more important topic, the radius of my aura is now controllable, so I’ll see which tricks I can perform with it.”
Primordial flames formed a narrow sheath around Amdirlain and then washed outwards; an attempt to change them to lightning netted her nothing. After a few fruitless attempts with different visualisations, she turned it off and started from scratch with Lightning. Azure bolts crackled around the pair, bending around them as they moved, but changing it post-activation proved impossible. Amdirlain kept clear of some of her affinities, but those she experimented with behaved.
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
Though they continued to attend the tournament to observe, it felt like a more academic exercise without Jinfeng’s participation. Amdirlain studied the sound of the varying techniques while she continued to sing through a concealed Gate. First among those she studied, even when he wasn’t fighting, were the flows of Ki within Indra Ka. In the evenings, she received delegations from various orders conversing about their issues and found potential alternatives to placing her financial scheme in the hands of the White Tiger’s Claw.
Timur fought through all the rounds only to be eliminated in the semi-finals, but his efforts earned him the eighth council seat.
The signal for the day’s last match chimed, and the Grandmaster exploded into motion, unleashing a flurry of blows that swamped his opponents’ defences. The entire ‘fight’ only lasted three seconds and sent the other man tumbling with his legs and arms shattered. Amdirlain caught the deliberateness of the force that hadn’t sent him across the ring’s boundary. Coughing blood, he didn’t stand; the man bowed his head and muttered his surrender through a broken jaw.
It might be their path, but Indra Ka still made his message clear: challenge me, and this happens. He’s manipulative and vicious, so I think I’ll pass on helping him. I think I’ll split the oversight of my micro-loan scheme between a few of the Enchanter sects; they’ve more reason to work with people and not just squeeze them.
The following day, the first people arriving for the exchange found Amdirlain already present on the edge of the circle, calmly sitting cross-legged in mid-air.
Indra Ka descended from his section and stopped across the circle from her. He gave a respectful bow before he spoke. “Lady Am.”
Amdirlain inclined her head slightly and waited a dozen heartbeats before she replied. “Grandmaster Indra Ka. How are you feeling this morning? Your last match was intense.”
For your victim.
“I’m not sure what you mean. It was an effortless victory.”
“Would you prefer unarmed or weapons?”
“Master Lu said you’d educate me in the former,” noted Indra Ka
“Yes, but how would you prefer the match to start?”
A short fighting spear with a broadhead appeared in Indra Ka’s grasp from a storage ring.
The yang enchantment wrapped around it brought forth a smile, and Amdirlain bowed. Her Ki Body blazed with a matching yang energy, and Indra Ka tensed. “I hope you don’t mind, but let’s put on a show.”
Since I admitted to using yin, he wasn’t expecting me to have control over yang.
“Are you planning to fight all out?” asked Indra Ka; lightning suddenly burst into life within the constraints of his flesh.
“No, as none of your students could tell what was happening. This is a teaching display, isn’t it?”
“An exchange of pointers should be instructive,” said Indra Ka. “But few novices can see much in the sparring of masters. An all-out match teaches them that clashing with foes beyond their abilities leads to a quick death.”
“If we’re fighting without restraints, let’s make a few adjustments.” Amdirlain flicked her fingers playfully at the boundary circle, and the ring vanished. The attendants standing beyond it found themselves in the stands, and a translucent dome encapsulated the arena. “I wouldn’t want any bystanders getting hurt.”
“Do you plan to make use of large Ki techniques?”
“I thought I’d allow you the option to try them,” replied Amdirlain. “I’m quite the novice with Ki techniques.”
Indra Ka displaced a whirlwind before him, but Amdirlain rode the wavefront, drifting like a feather on a turbulent updraft, just out of reach of a grasping child. Through the winds, Indra Ka sent a flurry of strikes, but Amdirlain tauntingly folded her arms behind her back and swayed from their path. As she better judged his full speed, she slowed her movements until the attacks brushed along her robes instead of missing completely.
A blast of yang flames met a blackness crackling with purple lightning, and destruction absorbed the strike. Amdirlain was beside him as the energy vanished, his shattered wrist within her grasp. Turning on her heel, she whipped him towards the arena’s wall. Though he reacted fast enough to start to slow, he still broke through the front panelling and squashed against the dome that shielded those behind. Indra Ka pulled himself from the cracked panelling and shook debris from his robes.
“You all need to work on your Ki Flight. Your reaction time isn’t fast enough when the unexpected happens,” stated Amdirlain. “And life is full of the unexpected.”
“This isn’t quite the instructive display I’d hoped.” Indra Ka wheezed.
Sensing his broken bones healing, Amdirlain remained at the arena’s central point.
“I’m not instructing most of the audience yet, only you and another. Let’s see who between you figures out the lessons.” As his last breaks healed, Amdirlain beckoned him to come at her.
An outthrust hand sent a blast of metal flechettes ripping through the air only to be met by raging white Primordial flames that vaporised the metal and Ki within.
Blasts of raw power lept towards her, and a smiling Amdirlain danced before them, letting them harmlessly strike the barrier on the arena’s far side. Waves of fire she split in twain, and rock walls crashed down to either side of her. She froze a massive jet of water and rammed it back into him, pinning him to the wall.
Amdirlain teleported Indra Ka before her. In a flurry of finger jabs, she broke his ribs and collapsed his Ki Body. The notes carried within her flesh caused his spiritual net to spasm. “Well?”
“I surrender.” gasped Indra Ka.
She leant close with a winsome smile; her words were for him alone. “You play games that include me again, and I will shatter your sect. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
“Did you figure out the lesson?”
“There is always someone stronger.”
“You learnt the wrong lesson. It’s good that I’m a simple creator and not a teacher. Master Cyrus would have done a much better job.”
“How was this creation?” Indra Ka rasped, his Ki energy pulling fragmented bones back together.
Amdirlain patted his cheek. “I’d hoped to create understanding in you. Here are some questions to contemplate. Did you enjoy the experience of being crushed by me? How many people retire to the ancestral ranks or leave, tired of being crushed by the Immortal looming over them? When was the last time you taught rather than ordered? Is a warrior stronger alone or with a martial fellow guarding his back?”
Golden Ki shone from her hand, repairing bones and flesh.
“Now, round two. Start with the most basic strikes and blocks. Though, reactivate your Ki defences, as you’ll need them.”
“Why?” gasped Indra Ka.
“Let’s teach your students. They’ll see what you see, and you might even find some insights yourself. You’ve spent days putting challengers in their place, so it’s time to teach.”
Indra Ka straightened and braced himself.
His first jab had a perfectly executed form, and Amdirlain blocked effortlessly, deflecting the blow by her cheek before she replied with one of her own. She broke his jaw. With each technique he performed, she countered and mirrored it; all the while, she circled him or drew back out of reach to keep him continually in motion. Once she’d duplicated every injury he’d inflicted upon the senior masters, she started to hold her blows. The complexity of the sequences grew, as did the pace of their execution, but it was nearly dinnertime before Indra Ka hit his full speed again. No one had left, caught up in witnessing the fight in real-time from Indra Ka’s mind.
They felt his insights blooming, but Amdirlain was amid her own as she absorbed the techniques of his various styles into her own.
When hunger gnawed at the newest students in the stands, Amdirlain signalled a stop. “Some students are hungry and need fluids, so we’ll end the lesson here.”
“Lord Nazha refers to you as Lady of the Dawn. Who are you?”
There is enough mass there now. Should I try the song I remember? Do I need to flex to warn Nazha?
Amdirlain’s mouth tightened. “In my first life, one of my titles was Lady of the Dawn. I’ve not earned anything so significant in this one.”
A Gate popped into existence, stretched out before the ranking board. The solid blackness of the void of space drank in the afternoon light. Nazha sat bolt upright, but ready for him, Amdirlain acted.
The complex music went unheard by the audience, but Amdirlain gave a dramatic finger snap. A sharp gravity pulse caused a momentary implosion within the stellar mass, and the fusion reaction ignited and swept outwards. The protective threshold of the Gate prevented the radiation from coming through, but from a position closer than Mercury’s orbit, the audience saw a new star roar to life.
Months of preparation for what was once achievable in a thought.
[Achievement: Star Light, Star Bright.
Details: Created a new star.
Reward: Insights
Note: Once it settles, it’ll be a blueish-white category B, as you called them, but congratulations on reaching a new threshold. Planets won’t naturally form around it, but you can fix that now.
True Song Genesis-Lord [G] (76->100)]
Yeah, I screwed up the ignition and mass, so it’s burning too hot. I half expected it to collapse on my first attempt.
“Well, look at that, a new star. Well, it’s too far away to be visible from here, but it’s a star.” Amdirlain stared at Indra Ka flatly. “My status or titles don’t validate or invalidate the questions I asked you.”
“That burning mass is a star?” gasped Indra Ka.
He thinks I just made it, but I won’t correct that misunderstanding.
“Yep,” replied Amdirlain. She looked up to catch Nazha’s gaze and saw the colour fade from his face. “I still have to work on its planets, but other things have distracted me lately. I’ll start on them soon, once the annoying, manipulative games of others are behind me. You know, the ones I told you to stop playing.”
Indra Ka blanched.
After a quick mental check with the others, she moved them to the suite, leaving a bloodied Indra Ka behind.
Klipyl dropped into an armchair, giggling manically.
“I’m surprised you didn’t create a planet on the spot.” Sarah settled on the couch and patted the spot beside her. “You staked the possibility of subtle out and fed it to the vultures.”
Amdirlain took the invitation and curled up next to her. “I wanted to send Nazha a message. He can move faster than me, but there are things I can still do better.”
While Cyrus and Kadaklan took their places around the table, Jinfeng stared at Amdirlain incredulously and started to ramble. “A Goddess is teaching me? Livia was Human, and she adopted you as her Móðir. Did she know you’re a Goddess when she did that…?”
“Former goddess, and Livia adopted me before I was—briefly—a Goddess,” clarified Amdirlain. “Very much formerly. Now I’m just a humble creator.”
“Humble? Sweetie, you crack me up,” Sarah snorted with amusement as Jinfeng collapsed into a chair, staring at Amdirlain in glassy-eyed shock.
“That was sarcasm,” Amdirlain sniffed playfully. The humour left her voice at the strain within Jinfeng. “Did I break you, Jinfeng?”
“And here I warned her not to ask,” said Kadaklan.
“Jinfeng will be fine. Give her a little while to restart her brain,” Klipyl said confidently, reaching out to pat her hand.
Kadaklan drew out his tea service and soon had a cup before Jinfeng. The others sat quietly until she took her first sip.
“I feel Nazha received your message that he handled you as gently as the beat down you gave Indra Ka,” offered Cyrus. “And that he had been too reckless in his behaviour with someone he didn’t know.”
Cyrus picked up on who else I was teaching, but I wonder if Indra Ka will be at a loss?
“Good, because I’m still cross with him. The tales mention he spent a long time as a disembodied spirit.”
Cyrus sighed. “Until his mother arranged a new body, which was a source of conflict between his parents.”
“That’s something to think about,” said Amdirlain. Feeling suddenly restless, she gently squeezed Sarah’s hand. “I’m going to go make a few things.”
“In need of some solitude to recharge?”
Amdirlain nodded.
“Let me know when you’re ready to return.” Sarah stole a kiss, and Amdirlain smiled before she vanished.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! I love it! The moments of carthathis in this story are strong indeed!
Glenn Wright
She makes an impression
James Skinner
Thanks for the chapter, got to love our subtle heroine lol. Kills -> skills
CringeWorthyStudios
That jackpot has to be completely ridiculous by now. She’s already pretty unpredictable and I imagine they have a *lot* of events to bet over with her involved.
Glenn Wright
Completely. Just imagine a big betting board between the aspects saying which way it will go pear-shaped. Gideon: Sorry, no one was betting on her creating a sun. The jackpot rolls to the next wager.
CringeWorthyStudios
Oh, totally fair, I just think it’s funny that every time she tries to be subtle she fails in more and more spectacular ways.
Glenn Wright
To be fair, a God arrived a few days before descending from the sky on wheels of flame. She didn't invite him and needed to be sure the unpredictable brat would take the fate of many souls seriously.
CringeWorthyStudios
Am: “I’m going to be subtle on this trip!” Also Am: *literally creates a fucking star in front of a massive audience to show off* Damn it, you broke Jinfeng! She’s pretty cool though, she’ll probably unbreak soon enough. Maybe she’ll join Am’s family of accidental deities. Thanks for the chapter!
buca117
That was satisfying. It's important to remind these people that every mortal is a potential peer, and that, as unlikely as it may be, they should be treated with the respect that potential warrants. As every villain in a monomyth story learns, doing otherwise inevitably creates your own nemesis.
Peter Gerganov
Yasss queeeen! Amdirlain maintains her winning streak against subtlety 100000 : 0
