IV

"Gard? Isn't that what my grandpa seeded?"

"Yeah, kinda makes you special for them." Teased Erot.

As Gaiya rolled her eyes at Erot.

"You better stay away from the weirdos." Nyx retorted.

"Why?"

"They are obsessed with recalling nether and growing soul strength. Not just with diving in, but attempting to recall memories after reincarnating."

"Well, I can understand taking daily training and studying up a few notches, but they can't really get much feedback from a baby, how much one can really remember after few years learning basics? You can't even remember a dream in great detail for long." Gaiya mused. "Reincarnation growth is more of a soul's growing intuition of behavior instead of remembering past."

"They are attempting to come back as grown kids." Nyx said with contempt.

"What?"

"Yeah, those that want, can prepare a clone before choosing death, with intent of coming back into a similar shell that your soul is already familiar with. So while the soul ascends and seeks knowledge, the clone grows for few years. If your soul remembers it's previous intents and chooses the body to re-awaken in it is considered a success. If it forgets, or is send back earlier or later by the greater design, than the kid is well taken care of anyway. There is a trust that the donor sets up ahead of time, since the kid can't legally claim previous identity anyway the trust takes care of everything, even if you need to learn everything from scratch." Erot kindly provided more details.

"That's a bit extreme..." Gaiya let out.

Gaiya was so absorbed in the news that her tilted toast had enough time to send a sticky stream of honey down her arm. Erot promptly got on cleaning duty after she took the last bite.

"They do a bunch of prompts and tests to jog kids memories, but only a handful remembered anything from the nether or previous life, and its pricey as hell. Elitist crap." Nyx was oozing contempt.

"Well, its hard to conceptualize higher dimensions to begin with, if a two dimensional being visited us, and was trying to explain a cube to their peers, they would be stuck with descriptions of a square, line, point, the only things that get in touch with a two dimensional sheet; there would be great difficulty conveying the entire thing." Gaya rationalized.

"Just stay away from the zealots." Nyx insisted.

"Is it you or Kali who is talking now?" Erot smirked.

"Why her?"

"Oh, she's from Ra." Erot clued in, while trailing honey on her arm with kisses.

"Wasn't Ra last planet to join the council?"

"It's second to last now, keep up baby." Erot teased, he circled back to the wrist enjoying himself.

Oh, Gard grew so fast in it's collective consciousness, even got a seat on the greater council, and they are intent on growing even more. Ra citizens might feel like standing still in comparison, they could be getting a slight inferiority complex. Not good.

"Well, they are way too obsessed with manicuring their DNA, cleaning up any imperfections, how's the soul to evolve?" Nyx wasn't backing down.

"I heard Kali recently got majestic blue skin, 'elites' on Ra are even sporting elaborate patterns, how's vanity DNA shenanigans any better?" Not an argument Gaiya expected to hear from him. "Nothing's wrong with seeking perfection, I find Gard fun."

"The real question is how Gard finds you." Gaiya joked.

"Ohh, they love me, because they love perfection, and since I am the most perfect, everything is perfectly splendid!" Erot exaggerated, while Nix snorted.

"Sounds like a society perfectly made just for you." Gaiya played along.

"On that note, I'm going, Kali's probably waiting, either way I need sleep. Orion, call me a hooverseat." Nyx was bailing.

"Really? You should get into flying, zooming through skies is something else." Erot poked at her.

"..." Too tired to bicker Nix ignored him.

"You really love thrills." Gaiya poked at him.

"Always."

An egg shaped crystal capsule arrived with a single seat inside. An opening appeared and Nyx got in while saying "take me home." The shell closed and the capsule hovered over the balcony railing and out of sight.

"If I didn't know, I'd think it was magic..." she thought out loud.

"Not as magical as flying..." he teased "anyway, someone needs a proper cleaning..."

"Orion, draw a bath."