I usually give a once over to what I write, but I'm too tired to do that for this one. Still, it was fun to write so hopefully it'll be fun to read as well.
@Kaboomatic it's your turn to be tagged.
Emmanuel 3
An AEE Omake
To the gods above
Both mortal and immortal
Are equally small
The soup was sweet and refreshing.
The first feeling you had was like drinking cool water on a hot day. It was as if impurities steamed out like heat left your body and you could feel the featureless qi of the environment be drawn into you, easily being colored by your own aura.
The next effect was the sweetness. It didn't spread across your body. It crawled into the back of your mind and took the place of all the emotions you didn't need. It removed your doubts and left you oddly confident.
You didn't know how much time had passed but once you came out of your meditation, you estimated that the soup had given you over a day of progress in what you think was a couple of hours. It wasn't revolutionary but you could see how richer cultivators could maintain rapid progress with their resources.
You considered what to do next. You could just leave but maybe it would be a good idea to check on Ariadne and Eleanora first? At the very least you should thank them for all the help.
With that thought, you left your room taking a moment to glance across the hall. It was empty now and there was no one in sight. Then you went up to the room where Ariadne had been and knocked. There was no response. Maybe you should have left it at that but part of you was curious. You glanced around once more and when no one came, you lightly pushed open the door to look inside.
The first thing you felt was the aura. It filled the room and though it had no visual effect, it seemed to tint the room in an oppressive shade. Lady Ariadne was seated with her eyes closed and with her hands on her lap. Her face was empty of emotion but her eyes moved constantly under her eyelids as if she fought an invisible battle. For a second, you thought her lips twitched to say something but then nothing happened.
You slowly closed the door. "That's very rude, you know."You froze at the voice and then turned to see Eleanora leaning against the wall and watching you. She had an eyebrow raised but she seemed more amused than offended. "You shouldn't look into someone's room when they are cultivating."
You nodded sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't realise that." You told her. "I'll be more careful from now on."
"Don't worry about it," She replied, smiling. "Honestly, I did the same thing the first time I was here."
"Were you here with Ariadne?" You asked her, tilting your head curiously.
"Yeah, some time after we first met." She replied, glancing at Araidne's door. "That was the first actual social outing we did together."
You consider that sentence. "Okay, I have to know," You said, and she looks back at you."How did you two meet?"
"Looong story," She replied, grinning. "But in short: we fought together and I saved her life."
"Huh, I can see why you'd be close." You glance at Ariadne's door for a moment and then back at her. "Were you using a private room as well?"
"Kinda," She thinks for a moment. "I wasn't cultivating but there is a room I like to eat in."
"What room is that?" You asked, raising an eyebrow.
She shrugged. "It's not part of the usual rooms and the owner only lets me use it because I did him a favor or two. I'm blanking on how to explain it though."
"Show me?" You asked her and she pauses to think.
"Sure," She pushed off the wall and pointed down the hall. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" You asked her as she began walking and you find yourself trailing behind her.
"It'll be much easier to show you if you are coming anyway," She answered and you realise you've reached the entrance hall. It was much emptier now but there were still staff present. There, he holds a hand up for you to wait and goes and talks to one of the staff.
You wait patiently at a distance and watch her point to you mid-conversation. Finally, the staff member nods and she comes back to you. "What happened?" You asked her.
"Just wanted to let them know." She replied. "Come on." She didn't go inside the building, but outside and you followed her curiously.
Finally, you stood at the gate looking up at the sign that said "The Imperial Soup". "I don't see what..." She grinned and pointed higher.
You looked up and followed the tower you had seen earlier. It rose higher than the surrounding buildings then suddenly narrowed into a chimney with smoke flowing out. Near the very end, before the narrowing began there seemed to be a room that you could see only if you squinted.
Your eyebrows rose as you looked at her. "You went up there?"
"I like it there." She replied and glanced back at you. "You can't make it up there?"
"Nope," You admitted readily enough. With your speed you were certain you'd run out of qi half-way, and with the smooth tower you'd practically fell to your death. "Bloodline slows speed, remember?"
She nodded and then frowned. "Oh and I just got permission to let you come up there. It has a great view."
You looked at her, thinking it over. "Carry me." You told her.
She blinked at that. "You want me to carry you?" She repeated.
"You are at the seventh heavenstage," You explained, laying out your reasoning. "So you should be able to carry me and it shouldn't affect you too much I
think."
She just stared at you as you explained. But then she considered it. "I- I guess I could do that?" She looked up at the tower and then back at you looking bemused. "Now I want to try it."
You smile and hold out your hand. "May I?" You ask her politely.
She looks at your hand for a second and then nods. She turns around and crouches, her legs coiling ready to jump and eyes towards the tower. Then she tilts her head back towards you. "Well?"
You consider how to do this and place your hands on her shoulders. You blink as bronze wires extend from her trying to secure you and you end up with your hands around her neck and your legs secured by her hand.
Suddenly, you have second thoughts. You look around for a moment, considering how this would look. You were a large man with bronzed skin on the back of a woman with a far smaller build. To anyone looking it must be absolutely absurd.
"Er.. wai-" But you felt qi traveling through her body and you feel her move, her legs uncoiling as power explodes from her legs. You try to reinforce your own body but you are too slow. As soon as the thought comes to you, she moves.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
And then you stop but the world keeps spinning. You force yourself to check if there is a solid floor beneath you and then you drop off of her. You close your eyes and steady yourself by holding what seems like a wall. You are aware of her hand on your shoulder but the rest of you is focused on riding out the sense of motion.
Then finally, you open your eyes and shake your head. Then you look around to see that you are on the top of the tower. There is a high parapet that seems to keep people from falling with several pillars holding up a roof. A cylindrical chimney takes up the center and goes from the floor and through the roof.
"You okay?" Eleanora asked with concern in her voice.
"I'm fine," You replied, nodding and then turned to look at her. "I'm really not used to moving that fast."
She takes a moment to examine you and then she nods. "Well, here's the view you came for." She said, stepping aside.
You look and the first thing you notice is the Great Crane lit by the dawn's light. It was the Immortality's End Spirit Mine and though you couldn't see it, you could see the rock formations next to it. Behind it is an ever present plume of steam in the horizon seeping forth from the Demonic Soup Pot as the dregs of all the soups are gathered and excised by Shimmering Soup Sect. And if you squint, perhaps you could see an airship flying through the air?
On the ground, the city spread out below you. It was easy to see where mortal homes ended and cultivator establishments began. The latter was far more intricate and greater in size with the biggest ones dwarfing even the walls that protected the city. Still, the sprawling homes of one million mortals were impressive in its own right.
You glanced at Eleanora. "It's beautiful." You tell her honestly. "Is this why you come up here?"
She nods. "When I saw it, I just had to get up here." She explains, leaning over next to you to take a look at the city below. "I had to go through a bunch of trouble to get access to it even though I don't think it has any use but once I got up here, it was worth it."
"What part do you like the most?" You asked her, smiling. Then you point. "I enjoyed looking at the steam of the Demonic Soup Pot. It gives me the cheerful image of an actual soup cooking in that pot. That'd be a sight to see."
She smiled at that image and pointed to the city. "I just enjoy looking at the people moving about," She told you. "You can only just see it, but with my arts I can easily follow the people going about their lives. I like to predict what they might be doing and see if that matches up with what they do as the day goes on."
"What do you see right now?" You ask her, smiling. "Let me guess… it's a man?"
"I'm not following anyone right now," She explains, rolling her eyes. "Besides, it's not that simple. It's hard to track one person while talking. If I even twitch, it's easy to lose them."
"I suppose all arts have quirks," You said, considering your own. Then you looked at her curiously. "That does make me wonder where you come from. Are you from one of our vassals?"
"Nah," She shakes her head. "I was just a wanderer. My mother was a cultivator, never knew my father and eventually I made my way to the golden devils."
"That's very different from my upbringing." You replied, looking outwards in thought. You noted the rising sun as you continued. "My father died when I was young and I never knew my mother. I was brought up by my older brothers and the notes my father left behind."
"You have older siblings?" Eleanora asked curiously. "Will I be meeting them too for when we'll be working together?"
You shake your head and smile sadly. "No, none of them were cultivators." You replied. "Most of them died and the second-youngest after me moved to start a family. I haven't been in touch with him for…" You pause and think back. Ah. "It's been two decades now. I don't even know if he's still alive."
"Oh." She looks at the city below for a few moments and then turns to you to say something. Then she looks back down and sighs. You consider trying to say something but then she turns and looks at you right in the eye. "Was it because of the trials?"
You consider her question. "It might be," You replied frowning. It wasn't something that had occurred to you before. "None of them said anything but they all lived through it. I decided to be a cultivator because his cultivation notes were how I knew him."
You closed your eyes and thought back. None of them said anything. Did they just not want to discourage you? "Maybe I would have chosen differently if I had experienced it." You finally said. The trials weren't something you looked forward to.
She nods at that. "It makes sense."
You glance at her. "Elaborate?"
"Cultivating is
hard." She replied, looking at you. "Do you remember the soup I took today?"
You blink at the question. "Uh… was it the… soul-severing venom?" Ah, as you remembered the name of the ingredient, you realised her point.
"It's a Nascent Soul cultivating aid," She begins and she raises a hand to stop the many, many questions arising in your mind. "As I understand it, it's meant to go to your leader. But sometimes there is a mistake in its preparation and it loses potency. It's still deadly to any lesser beings and needs to be thrown."
You nod as she continues, following closely as she continues. "The owners of this establishment found a use for it. They take a single drop of that soup and distill it with purifying waters. Then they sell it as feeling an echo of what the Archigetes feels. In my case, it was an echo of an echo of an echo but I still felt it."
"How was it?" You asked her, morbidly curious.
She considered that question for a moment. "It was… intense," She answered and then looked at you. "I could handle it and it wasn't that bad as a taste. But imagining that same feeling magnified? It's intimidating."
She pauses and looks away, overtaken by her own thoughts. You wait patiently for her to collect herself. "That's what awaits me if I succeed," She looks straight into your eyes as she continues. "I can't claim to understand the effect of the trials but a choice between all of that and a full mortal life backed by the wealth and security granted by being part of a cultivator's family? I can understand that temptation."
She stops after that and looks away. You simply stand and consider her words. "Thank you," You tell her finally and she looks back at you. "Thank you for sharing that with me. I don't think I would make the same choice but it helps me understand."
She nods in acceptance. "You know my mother always said 'Some arrows are more precious than others, but every arrow has it's worth'. I don't think she ever said what was more important."
"She sounds like a wise woman," You replied, smiling. "Maybe it's our own job to figure out what's more important."
She nods. "Maybe it is."
For a few moments, you share a silence as the sun rises.
Then you smile looking at the rays of the rising sun.
"Eleanora," You say her name. "I look forward to working with you."
