Abyssal Road Trip

Amdirlain’s PoV - Outlands - Outpost of the Monastery of the Western Reaches

When Amdirlain and Gilorn returned to the training hall, they found the place empty of life. Sarah was absent from the mountain while Klipyl and Dareios were using a room at the library for language lessons. Assorted mature adult metallic dragons in Human form, along with Morgana, now occupied manors newly constructed inside the inner wall. The man she’d heard come through the Dragon Gate was no longer within the Monastery, though the object he’d brought with him was now stored in a storage bag at Cyrus’ manor. The ancient Immortal sounded disconcerted for the first time Amdirlain could remember.

I hope Morgana was okay with me being absent from her arrival. Should I be more worried about that or about Cyrus being perturbed?

Gilorn picked a distant spot on the viewing platforms, and Amdirlain perched on the lip with her back against a pillar. Unexpectedly, the memory of Sarah pinning her against a pillar had her fighting down a blush.

Phoenix’s Rapture really does a good job of putting me into a living form. I still can’t believe that happened; she’ll make my brain catch fire with those kisses.

“I can tell your mind is elsewhere,” noted Gilorn.

“Guilty as charged,” coughed Amdirlain.

Gilorn’s riff blurted a disgruntled raspberry. “Hardly guilty.”

“I’m dealing with some mixed emotions but only from second-guessing myself. As a Succubus, I spent a long time ignoring my body’s urges about sex,” replied Amdirlain. “It’s adding to the oddity of the situation, no matter Sarah’s ability to get my heart racing.”

“Wasn’t she going to take it at your pace?” questioned Gilorn.

“I wasn’t saying no,” stated Amdirlain. “After spending all that time with her holding me and listening to her music, I enjoyed getting swept up in a moment of passion.”

Gilorn blurted a stern, resonating note, which quickly slipped and turned into a giggling run, a burbling brook of liquid sound.

“So much for your stern school mama persona,” huffed Amdirlain playfully.

“Would you like me to continue my lecture?” asked Gilorn. “Hopefully not, because for you to achieve even a small measure of happiness would please me no end.”

“Still, Sarah isn’t here at present, so let’s go over the places I could have improved the performance,” said Amdirlain, sitting up to avoid further distracting thoughts.

Gilorn presented parts of the composition in mid-air before Amdirlain. “When creating the threads, you should have alternated the starting point for their songs. Since you had the timing in perfect sync, you caused subtle distortion waves that you had to spend extra energy to subdue. Otherwise, you could have held an overtone throughout their intersections to generate a buffer between them and prevent their clash from causing distortion.”

As Gilorn’s review continued, Amdirlain mentally applied the suggested adjustments to other compositions.

♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

The morning lessons progressed along the same lines as previous days, with Amdirlain forcing the students to adapt and apply their skills to realistic simulations. She ensured that no opponent they fought against used the same moves or responded to their counters similarly. Throughout their training, she pressed each student to their limits and sometimes beyond, frequently healing overstressed bodies rather than slackening the pace.

The only spilled blood came from the edge of Amdirlain’s blade whenever Jinfeng failed to keep beyond its reach. When the chimes rang, Jinfeng regarded her warily and didn’t relax even slightly until she’d reached the sparring barrier away from Amdirlain’s blade.

Amdirlain had provided final feedback and adjusted more crystals when she heard Cyrus start their way.

“Thank you for the dancing instruction, Sifu,” said Jinfeng with a gracious bow. “We had an interesting set of guests arrive yesterday.”

“So I understand but, unfortunately, I was absent,” replied Amdirlain. “Did their arrival go smoothly?”

“They all project quite the presence,” said Jinfeng. “I’m uncertain if we have anyone dumb enough in the Monastery to risk provoking their ire. Would it be acceptable for me to bring some additional students tomorrow?”

“As many or as few as you like,” replied Amdirlain. “Is my allowing you to pick how many students to bring so hard to believe?”

Jinfeng lightly coughed. “One doesn’t presume to determine what is suitable for another Master’s lessons. I expected you to send most students away on the first day I brought them.”

“You brought a range of students, hoping that some would meet my criteria?” asked Amdirlain.

“Yes, Sifu.”

An opportunity to stretch my capabilities.

“Tomorrow, bring everyone from the Martial Pavilion who wishes to come along,” instructed Amdirlain.

“Will you be able to manage your simulations for all of them?” asked Jinfeng, leaning forward slightly in anticipation.

“Tell them I’ll ensure they get an opportunity to fight an equally proficient opponent,” replied Amdirlain with a slight smirk at Jinfeng’s eagerness. “And please let them know it might be the only time they get to come along.”

Jinfeng’s eyes shone, and she snapped a deep bow at Amdirlain. “I look forward to tomorrow already, Sifu. They find it hard to believe how hard you push us since we come back refreshed.”

Amdirlain smiled in amusement but returned the bow and sent them all off to eat.

As the students headed up to the viewing platform, Cyrus entered the training hall. Klipyl tapped Dareios’s arm and drew him off to one side to let the pair speak alone.

Though he strode directly to her, Cyrus waited until the others were clear before he greeted her. “Am.”

From the storage pouch at his waist, he drew the carved container Amdirlain had seen being delivered to him the other day.

His typically composed expression belied the nerves jumping within him.

“What’s got you upset?” questioned Amdirlain. “I didn’t think you worried about what life brought.”

“It’s not what life brings me that causes concern,” replied Cyrus, holding out the sphere of almost dark red-hued wood. Across its surface, thousands of bats swirled in the vortex; the artist had captured the energy of frantic flight within their stillness.

“Some people think it’s rude to re-gift presents,” quipped Amdirlain. “That only got delivered to you yesterday.”

“The courier brought it to me to pass along to you,” Cyrus advised. “He refused to stay to speak to you directly.”

Weird. Maybe he had orders to avoid me reading his mind.

Her fingers halted just short of her fringe, and Amdirlain sighed. “What’s the catch? You and the courier talked for quite some time yesterday, so I assume it’s not merely a dust gatherer.”

“We exchanged pleasantries for some time before he broached the subject of this invitation,” corrected Cyrus.

“Your tone says I’m not being invited over for tea,” noted Amdirlain.

“You’re not. I don’t know where the invitation leads you,” replied Cyrus. “Normally, the Jade Emperor gives someone a koan, yet he sent you this and a short poem by a courier who behaved strangely.”

“I’m partial to a nice poem,” offered Amdirlain.

Cyrus presented a scroll of delicate rice paper without a single crease or blemish, radiating a definite Celestial energy.

“Unfurl it for me, please,” Amdirlain requested. “It’s not a good idea for me to touch it.”

With a precise bow that Amdirlain felt was partly directed to the scroll, Cyrus unfurled it with a flourish and let the scroll unroll along his arm.

‘The wren

Earns his living

Noiselessly.’

The calligraphy looks to be in Japanese Kanji.

“My ability ruins the poetic symmetry, but it feels like a haiku,” noted Amdirlain.

“Indeed. According to his courier, it was written out by the Jade Emperor, though I believe it’s not an original work,” said Cyrus. “My understanding is that it is from Nippon’s Edo period.”

“Perhaps he merely sent me a different type of koan,” said Amdirlain. “A puzzle composed of pieces with the scroll, the layers of the sphere, and even perhaps the music within the parts. What should I do with it?”

“Solve it when you are ready,” answered Cyrus.

“There was no time frame provided?” questioned Amdirlain.

“No,” replied Cyrus.

“Why did you believe it’s an invitation?” asked Amdirlain, keeping her hands firmly by her sides to prevent them from digging into her scalp in frustration.

Just when I’m trying to get things sorted out, more comes in. Why is it always everything together?

“Though I feel it is an invitation, it was not said directly,” said Cyrus, and he gestured with the sphere again for her to take it.

Amdirlain lifted an eyebrow but made no move to take the container. “He’s got you all jumpy.”

“You do not take instructions well and frequently act before you are truly ready,” replied Cyrus.

“That’s fair,” replied Amdirlain. “What do you mean when you say it wasn’t said directly?”

“In the small talk, before addressing his reason for visiting, the courier discussed travelling in preference to other subjects,” explained Cyrus. “Though his trip here was no doubt direct since he came through a Dragon Gate.”

Because, yep get seven celestial dragons to open a protected passage is subtle.

“So an out-of-place conversation thread to deliver yet another message,” noted Amdirlain. “I am supposed to know that the Dragon Gate connected to the northern reaches of the Middle Kingdom, yet he was Persian, wearing a Nippon kimono instead of Persian garb.”

The gift itself covers the middle and the south.

“You caught all that?”

“And more,” Amdirlain frowned. “I’d like you to hang onto that for now.”

“I’d be more comfortable doing so only after you held and examined it,” replied Cyrus.

“Why?”

With a tight smile, Cyrus rumbled. “The courier gave me a koan.”

“And your understanding of it convinced you not to shield me?”

Cyrus nodded sharply.

Is the Jade Emperor getting Cyrus to not be protective or ensuring I get the invitation as directly as puzzles allow?

“I like him already,” Amdirlain laughed and took the sphere from Cyrus. When she took it, the smell of the wood tickled a memory, and she ran her fingers over the smoothly polished grains. She had no trouble finding the catch and twisting the sphere into two to reveal the white jade orb inside. Across the surface of the inner orb, dozens of salmon jumped rapids, following each other in a loop.

“I recognise the wood,” stated Amdirlain.

“I do not,” replied Cyrus. “Does it have significance to you?”

“It’s red ironbark, a wood native to Australia,” replied Amdirlain. “My parents had a table made from it.”

“In your home realm,” said Cyrus. “I don’t know how he would have acquired it then.”

“Anna’s orb mentioned a tree that reminded me of them, except it’s beyond the lands Kadaklan told me the South Wind’s court covers,” replied Amdirlain, her fingers tracing over the materials devoid of any energy but that native to the Material Plane. “Salmon swim home to lay eggs before they die.”

“A Phoenix is born of its egg and renewed,” countered Cyrus.

When her fingers found the catch in the jade carvings, she unsecured the lid and handed it to Cyrus. A sphere of glass and steel resonating Ki sat nestled in the hollow of the jade container. Within the sphere, a needle anchored in the middle by a Ki binding spun lazily about, its ends undulating, creating two sine waves on either side of the midpoint.

“I’ve not run into one of those previously.”

“It’s normally a compass for tracing ley lines,” Cyrus said. “If you attune it to a Dragon’s nest it will point towards the strongest ley line leaving it. As you follow the ley line, it will continue to orient itself along the path.”

“Useless in the Outlands since there aren’t any ley lines,” said Amdirlain.

“It is even more useless than you might believe. The binding is incomplete and flawed, so in the presence of Mana or Ki, it simply spins,” explained Cyrus.

An insult or part of the puzzle?

Is it meant to symbolise aimlessness or spinning around a centre? Centre? Is he referring to the Middle Kingdom itself? Maybe, yet the pattern its ends create is a sine wave, and that notation has implications within True Song. It indicates that a round needs to be sung repeatedly to strengthen the overall outcome of a composition.

Should I start from the outside and go in, or start from the middle and progress outwards? Kadaklan says understanding is taking in the whole, not using logic to pick it apart.

“I remember bats symbolise good fortune,” said Amdirlain.

“Good fortune, hope, positivity, and happiness, among other things,” acknowledged Cyrus. “It’s been that way since the Han period.”

“It’s pieces of a puzzle,” said Amdirlain, “Yet a puzzle that I’m not meant to break down logically simply understand.”

“The Jade Emperor is said to be able to foresee the future. It is likely he already knows the understanding you’ll acquire from them,” said Cyrus. “But the question is whether the right understanding is the one you have now, in ten years, or in a century.”

“What about the colour of the wood?” asked Amdirlain. “What is its meaning in Chinese culture?”

“That shade is close to crimson, so masculine yang energy, fire, and good fortune,” replied Cyrus.

“Metal is yin.”

“Was that a question?”

“Sometimes it helps to talk aloud,” replied Amdirlain, and she shrugged casually. “At least I’ve found it helps me think things over.”

Cyrus sighed. “Understanding doesn’t require thought, only acceptance.”

I’m not very good at simply accepting anything.

“I’m a singer. Vocalisation helps me feel things out, and feelings contribute to understanding. If he foresees the future, he already knows my approach,” said Amdirlain. She closed the jade and wood lids and held the sealed sphere out to Cyrus. “Thank you for bringing this to me.”

“Perhaps you should keep it with you,” replied Cyrus, making no move to take it.

“I could make you a few thousand in a second,” laughed Amdirlain. “I know more about it than you might expect. I could find the spot where the tree grew if I wanted. If I have it, I might be tempted to act before its time.”

“Very well,” said Cyrus. Hesitantly, he took it back from Amdirlain and stowed it away. “How did you find your lesson with Kadaklan?"

He didn’t seem pleased that I returned it, yet immediately changed the subject. Cyrus still sounds like something has thrown him off balance.

“I made progress in other skills, but not with my sigil,” huffed Amdirlain, sheepishly scratching behind her ear. “I’m not very good at simply being.”

“Yet you reinforced your sigil,” observed Cyrus.

Amdirlain frowned. “Someone just killed themselves in front of me to give me the chance.I don’t waste someone else’s pain even if I make light of my own..”

“The expansion is just a matter of getting the sigil to sit at the limits of your torso,” Cyrus advised.

“Just,” grumbled Amdirlain.

Cyrus smiled. “Yes.”

“It’s been kicking my butt with its erratic expansion,” said Amdirlain. “I can’t control all the areas of the sigil at the same time.”

“Many times, control is fiction, and only when you release it will you find that you have it,” stated Cyrus.

“That’s not correct in all cases,” responded Amdirlain. “True Song requires precise control, and isn’t each person’s path unique?”

“And it has no aspects where, if you relax, the insights flow faster?” questioned Cyrus.

Amdirlain smiled. “Music is a living thing, and you need flexibility to adapt, but not hitting notes precisely causes problems. I’m currently trying to improve the accuracy of my pitch. Are there other insights that you might offer about the gift?”

“It is not my place to say,” rebuffed Cyrus softly.

“Any insights in general then?”

The jitters within Cyrus’ theme stilled. “The path always requires one to be true to what’s important.”

“Important to them, not others,” Amdirlain nodded appreciatively and raised her hands before her chest, her right fist pressed to her left palm in the same salute Jinfeng had given her. “Thank you, Sifu.”

“Would you be open to moving my lesson with you to the second half of the morning?” asked Cyrus.

I’ll spend half the morning trying to expand my sigil and the other half trying to contract it. Oh boy, fun!

“I’ve no objections,” said Amdirlain. “I take it there is a purpose.”

“We might get you to relax through exhaustion,” replied Cyrus. “I’ll ensure the ladies can continue through the whole morning.”

“Dual sessions of practising psionics and singing simultaneously sounds like fun.”

“Singing, magic, Ki, and psionics,” agreed Cyrus before he motioned towards Klipyl, working with Dareios on draconic runes. “Along with the exercise in understanding Dareios’ Power.”

“Fine,” huffed Amdirlain. “Overload me with work.”

“It will be Gilorn that overloads you with singing,” advised Cyrus, and with that, he turned on his heel and left.

Yikes.

A slight adjustment made her aware of Morgana’s state, and with her wakefulness, Amdirlain dispatched a greeting and asked if they could meet after the noon meal.

The reply orb spun by her shoulder seconds later: “Greetings to you as well, Amdirlain. Livia told me you have morning training. Might I come along to observe?”

“You’re welcome to come by anytime, Morgana,” replied Amdirlain, the Message orb dashing away.

Yet another variation of the Message Spell. I’ll need to review the information and spell lists gathered by the songs in the bookcases.

Klipyl grinned when Amdirlain approached. “Did you and Sarah have more private time?”

“Kissing is one thing, but your suggestions make me nervous,” admitted Amdirlain.

“Nervous in a good way?” enquired Klipyl softly.

“Nervous as in a plain nervous way,” countered Amdirlain.

Her tone drew a nod, and Klipyl brushed her hair reassuringly. “Stick to massages with clothing on then. As much as I enjoy naked cuddling, the right time for each couple is different. Remember that intimate moments with someone you care about should be special. If they stop affecting you, then something has gone very wrong. For you, that build-up might always contain pre-moment jitters. At least neither of you have to worry about popping your load early. The three Cs are my rule.”

The melodies within Klipyl jumped about energetically despite her straight face.

I’m not sure I want to know.

Klipyl smirked as if expecting Amdirlain to take the bait, but she shook her head. “Naughty kitty.”

“Comfortable, cozy cuddling,” huffed Klipyl. “You’ve just got a dirty mind and misjudged me. My feelings are all hurt now. Kiss them better?”

With an exaggerated pout, Klipyl put her hands behind her lower back and fluttered her eyelashes.

True, I did.

Dareios shifted his weight at Klipyl’s casual mannerisms.

“Stop feeling up your own butt,” grumbled Amdirlain playfully.

“I wasn’t, and you know it,” laughed Klipyl.

Amdirlain patted Klipyl on the head like a little child, drawing howls of laughter from her.

“Incorrigible,” grumbled Amdirlain.

“Would you have me any other way?” sniffed Klipyl.

“How are your lessons going, Dareios?” asked Amdirlain, looking to change the subject for his comfort and hers.

“Draconic is very complex,” said Dareios. “I knew how to speak it and Celestial when I formed, but the runes are far harder than I had expected them to be. They feel like they’ll take me years to master.”

Sarah said she would make some tools to help them improve Mana Manipulation; I should see if she’s got something more complex for Mana Finesse.

A flare of music at the mountain’s base caught Amdirlain’s attention, and a Gate from Mechanus opened to allow Sarah and Aitherlar to cross over. This time, instead of a carved diamond body, she had a familial resemblance to Sarah but with deep red hair and sharper features. The loose green silk dress Aitherlar wore swished around mid-calf, hiding the bows that secured the long straps of her silvery sandals. They teleported to Livia’s long hall when they crossed the Domain’s boundary.

Should I head over or leave it until they come here? After all, Aitherlar is correctly paying a visit to Livia first.

Draconic manners: if I make her come to me inside someone else’s territory, I’m claiming superiority. Yet if I go to Livia’s, I’m interrupting her meeting and being rude. Darn it!

“Let’s take a walk around the mountain,” suggested Amdirlain.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, but there is an important visitor, and I don’t want to claim status by making her come to me,” explained Amdirlain. “If I’m out wandering and she finds me, then it’s just a casual meeting, and I can then offer to host her without implying anything.”

“Who is the visitor?” asked Klipyl. “I’ve not seen you play games for anyone beyond straightforward manners.”

I learned to play the games on Qil Tris.

“Sarah’s mother,” stated Amdirlain.

“Oh boy!” cheered Klipyl. “We get to meet her Dragon Mommie.”

I’ve no idea how long things will take. Should I free up my morning or my week? Or continue with my morning plans? Sarah knows my schedule, so I doubt Aitherlar will have come along to disrupt it. I’ll see what’s going on once breakfast ends.

Amdirlain extended a careful mental thread to Sarah. ‘How should I play this out? I planned to go for a walk and let her accidentally meet me.’

‘That works, but I don’t think she was planning to play status games,’ projected Sarah. ‘I told her of yesterday’s combined training session, and she wanted to witness it. That wasn’t what I was expecting when she wanted to talk.’

‘I’ll keep this link open and wander towards the Duty Pavilion,’ advised Amdirlain, and she felt Sarah project warm reassurance through the connection.

The sensation eased the sudden nervous tension Amdirlain felt, and she ushered the others towards the door.