Side-Omake: The World In Your Eyes
Galatea Antonius would not describe herself as someone particularly special.
Sure, she was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, so statistically she was nearly one in ten thousand, but... it never felt particularly amazing to her, with the stories of amazing mighty elders she'd grown up reading. Centurions, as amazing as they seemed to their juniors, were nonetheless a common sight. They were normal people, who went to bars and mess halls, who fooled around with prostitutes and fought personally, out on the field of battle, frequently. Elders were different, they were big-picture types, who controlled millions of lives and only came out when necessary, political creatures whose plans could take centuries to bear fruit. That wasn't her, she was just... normal.
Still, Galatea was the strongest Cultivator the Antonius family had ever produced, which meant they were moving up in the world, which was nice. As a six-pillar Foundation Establishment, she tended to lead most military operations she was involved in, and she was pretty good at it. Her soldiers respected her, her record was quite positive, and life had in general been extremely kind to her for the last century.
Then the worst Trial in her or almost anyone else's life occurred, most of the Elders were killed in some freak accident that was classified even to her, and as a result the command structure became wildly understaffed. Galatea nowadays often found herself being tasked with command roles that would have been given to Elders. These jobs, naturally, were bigger, more complex and usually more boring than the field work she had become accustomed to. Suddenly, she was an Elder, if a fake one. Looking at situations from the widest possible scope, planning the movement of mind-boggling numbers of troops where hundreds or even thousands of deaths would be her fault if she screwed up once.
Things got a bit better with each passing decade though, as new Elders began to trickle in one at a time, the new councilmembers got accustomed to their jobs, and Guest Elders from the Golden Devils' vassal states were brought in to bridge the gap for the time being. It was this confluence of events, the overpromotion and the imported talent, that she met Liu Fei.
It was a joint mission to reinforce the Iron Basin, a particularly hot and desolate region which had been hit very hard during the Trial. The task had been assigned to the LVII, a small legion made up of just eight Centuria. Still, a massive undertaking by any measure, but none of the Clan's true Elders had been available to oversee the operations. Thus, Liu Fei had been assigned to oversee things, with Galatea as his second-in-command and the intermediary between him and the troops.
From the beginning he was a fascinating man. Just by looking at him, one could glimpse a sort of etherial quality to him, for which there weren't quite the right words. Every movement, every gesture, every strand of hair was deliberate, yet effortless. Indeed, the spark of heavenly genius which marked a true prodigy could be glimpsed in the eyes of Liu Fei, who had broken through to Core Formation at the age of 300 despite rising all the way to the Twelfth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation in his youth. Now he was at the Cloud Core stage, and everyone could tell he had much, much farther to advance from here.
She felt embarassed to even be standing beside this man. She, who was half a century older and still wasn't done building her seventh pillar. Still, the Hong Xuan Clan's military structure wasn't quite the same as the Golden Devils' so she often found herself acting as a translator and advisor of sorts, allowing everything to run smoothly. It was as if were a chain keeping Liu Fei tethered to the earth, stopping him from floating away like the weightless, timeless creature he appeared to be.
----
"I must say, I thought I had already eaten every part of an ox before, but the tail? Now that is quite a novelty" Liu Fei commented, curiously poking at a plate of oxtail with his fork. "What is the proper way to eat this, exactly?"
"It's simple, you just cut around the bone. The spinal fluid has already seeped into the meat; there's no cord anymore." Galatea explained, making the man's face light up in understanding. It was moments like these when she remembered that this Elder was younger than she was, and a bit childish besides. He was slow to try new things at all, be they new clothes, new food or even a different kind of bed. It had been delightful to push the mysterious Cultivator into trying new things, in part because she actually felt like his equal in those moments, but also because the way he flushed when embarassed was adorable.
"So, what is your take on the Blood Cannibals' recent espionage actions?" Liu Fei asked, pausing to take a sip of wine.
"That is certainly a big mystery, yes..." Galatea mused, dipping a heel of bread in a bit of extra sauce. "If I had to take a wild guess, I would postulate that they're setting up something big. Some kind of huge trap to win them big victories the second the war begins, so that they can get easy meals and grow stronger. That's all it ever is with those freaks."
This was nice, not being so overly stiff and concerned with rank. She knew the only reason she could eat and speak with Liu Fei like this was because of her own overpromotion and the man's own casual demeanor, so she would appreciate it while it lasted. Although, perhaps 'casual' was not the best way to describe this fascinating man; it was more like he was detached from such petty things as rank, radiating an aura of general benevolence to all those around him.
"It's a little odd, for you to give me the time of day like this." Galatea admitted with a wistful sigh. "It seems like I just caught you on the way out. You're destined for greater things and I've nearly hit my peak; With my aptitude I would almost certainly die if I tried to ascend. Soon I'll be just another face in the crowd to you."
Liu Fei seemed ready to dismiss such concerns with good humor, before realizing how seriously she was taking them. He reached up and scratched his head in consternation. "Is that really what you think?"
"It's not what I think, it's a fact. You're far better than me."
"Am I really? I'm not sure." Liu Fei shrugged. "Sometimes I feel like things just... worked out for me, at some point, and things lined up. Some sort of frame of mind or confluence of Feng Shue that put me on a fortunate path. I don't feel like a legend or a hero. And I can certiainly tell you, I wouldn't be here now if I hadn't-"
"Found that Moonsilver E-String in the Qigai Secret Realm, I know, you've told me." Galatea interrupted before Liu Fei could insult her with his humility any longer.
"What am I supposed to say, 'Tea?" He sighed, throwing up his hands. "I'm no one of importance, I just managed to make it here. And I don't intend to just forget about you; you've become so very important to me." He smiled, reaching across the table to hold her hand.
----
Galatea wasn't actually sure when the two of them became lovers, but it was the kind of thing you feel coming from a long ways off. An inexorable specter which approached the two at whatever speed it pleased. Perhaps it was the day the two led an attck on a massive Hundred Li Python which threatened to flatten the city of Diakos. When Liu Fei smashed the monster to pieces with a rain of falling stars, a mournful and beutiful song radiating from his guqin, perhaps that was the moment.
Or maybe it was when she had visited his family home in the Hong Xuan Clan and seen how wonderfully he treated his young great-nieces and great-nephews. Perhaps at that moment, something within Galatea wondered what it would be like to see this man play with her own children.
It could have even been at the Emporikipolis' centennial festival, when a botched confetti launcher shot a projectile of compressed paper right into Liu Fei's eye, and he had laughed and laughed while flush with embarassment, begging the vendor to stop kowtowing at his feet.
Or perhaps 'lovers' wasn't something they simply became all of a sudden. Maybe it had been there for a long time, and they had slowly admitted it to themselves and each other. Not with words, but in the rhythm of their qi, in nigh-imperceptible gestures and small, insignificant touches. Yes, that sounded about right.
As the years passed and their relationship deepened, Galatea learned more and more about Liu Fei's worries and doubts. There had been whispers in the Hong Xuan clan, he claimed, that he was being considered as a future Grand Elder, should his very impressive growth continue. The fact that there existed a bare sliver of a chance he might one day reach Nascent Soul meant that his life became everyone's business, something that her lover resented.
Despite Liu Fei's frustration, as the head of a family herself(if a young and irrelevant one) she understood the cold calculus at play. What was the happiness of one man, next to the chance to stand on equal footing with the Golden Devils, either in this generation or within a few? There was almost a timelessness to it; endless cycles of humans, moving in a great ebb and flow on the scale of tens of generations. It was a surreal, alienating image.
"It doesn't matter what happens." Her fiance had said to her once whilst practicing his music up on a mountaintop. No matter how the Devils and the Hong Xuan try to divide my loyalties, you'll always be my girl."
She leaned against Liu Fei's back and wrapped her arms around his midsection, feeling the vibrations of his song as they reverberated back through his bones each time he plucked a string. Yes, she could believe that. Finally, she allowed herself to look forward, to dream big again.
Just realized I forgot to post something yesterday, so here it is today. Hoping to also post that tier list tonight. Some more prequel stuff; I enjoy showing Liu Fei from an outside perspective, it allows me to build more character whilst further deepening the mystery around him. As you can see, neither of Gaius' parents were exactly average, Galatea just doesn't have much self-esteem.
