The Star 25

On his way to Tiamat Dusa, Orison reviewed all the choices he had made since becoming whole. He had changed. The dark edge and fire he had once lacked after parting with Piran had came back in spades after Sonny's brief and bitter life became the new spiritual center to his existence. It far from made him a better person but it would make him a better climber.

After carrying out a few vengeance murders and bald robberies with some help from Cole and Wade, it was clear that he wasn't nearly as squeamish about getting his hands dirty or dragging others into the mud with him. At no point had there been more than a small twinge of guilt or bruised sensibilities. Family photos or accidental uncovering of the private woes of his targets' lives still had the power to move him but not change his mind.

He reasoned that action had consequence. Reality and darker hearted folks had made him pay through the teeth in loss and pain. Doling it back out to others didn't make him feel delighted but he was tired of bottling the injustice to keep from adding to tragedy. It did make him wonder if he could have done things better, however

Out of some perverse need to pick at his decisions, to expose every little hypocrisy he'd embraced to quench his rage and frustration, he exercised the entanglement power. He wanted to see how different choices would have changed events over the last few months. The results shocked him.

He suddenly faced multiple versions of himself in varying degrees of misery and accomplishment. Each one had taken different paths, made different decisions while having access to the power of the obelisk. He could actually pick and choose because he was still technically under the power of the dark artifact. That also raised the terrifying price he had barely avoided paying when the ancient void walker stole the artifact from him.

The artifact was itself, a powerful outsider. Such a realization reminded Orison that the entities which lived beyond structured reality were laws unto themselves and needed make no sense of any particular definition for 'living'. The being would have burrowed into him and ate him from the inside out by getting Orison to become dependent on its power. Though it was for purely selfish reasons, the elder void walker had saved him by stealing it.

While playing mix and match with the outcomes of his unknown decisions while using the obelisk's power, the young mage mentally shook his head. What would have been a deadly parasite for him would be little more than a moderately useful tool for the tier seven elder. The difference wasn't just in ability between him and that greater being. Sheer personal power wasn't something he could particularly compare, even once he finally finished transitioning to tier five.

Finalizing his decisions, him and the other branch copies of himself paid their individual prices for using the obelisk and fed what remained to the individual that was most whole. The temporary quantum field he had created collapsed and merged with reality, sealing the process into an irreversible state. With one last whimsical thought on how long it might be before he could accomplish such a thing with his own power, Orison put the obelisk incident behind him.

"What a troublesome path I've chosen for myself," he lamented.

Near the verge of breaching into tier five, the trigger for a great deal many changes to what was and what would be, the young mage rushed to finish affairs on Tiamat Dusa. After finishing the process of settling his family in there and ensuring there wouldn't be any weird issues with enrollment, he took his little brother out for one last heart to heart.

"There's a third year here named Oliver Frey. He's going to look after you and mom as much as he can... This is the last time we'll meet. In this life, at least."

Neither of them really knowing what to say, Orison was about to take Vincent home when the teen said, "In the next life, I'm going to be an overbearing prick of a big brother to you! I'm going to do so many good things for you that you won't be able to say anything about it either!"

The young mage laughed and ignored his little brother's bitter expression as he replied, "Oh, you try. I'm one upped for the moment but far from being shut up."

He dropped the confused Vincent off before meeting up with Cole.

The feline man said, "This is awkward enough for me to say. So, I'm just going to lay it out. After we get to the next layer, I know a place were we can be safe for a few years. Will you-"

Orison cut him off. "It's not going to happen. We aren't going to meet up on the next layer because I'm not going to ascend there. Technically, I'm not going to ascend at all."

Ignoring Cole's bewildered and hurt expression, he continued, "I have to roll back to nearly the beginning somewhere else or my spiraling fractal domain is going to grow into itself and turn me into the absolute, most bat sh*t kind of outsider."

The feline assassin said, "I thought we had that fixed."

"No, we had that crippled. I would have gotten close to, but never became, tier six until I lost my marbles and turned into an outsider anyway," the young mage said.

"Would... If things had turned out the way they were supposed to, would you have..." Cole said, deflated and having exhausted his own courage to talk about things that made him nearly as uncomfortable as it made Orison to hear.

The young mage sighed. "In the unlikely event that you can find me or I run into you in the future, its still a possibility... Just so we're 110% clear, though. I'm surprised and touched by the depths of friendship you've shown me... friendship.

"I might be willing to, in a moment of sheer insanity, fire up the oven for a few months for you to put a bun in it. But, I'm not... NOT... going to entertain anything further... By the way, I know you remember things from other 'might-have-been's but so do I. I completely agree with your self assessment.

"I think male feline influenced folk might be like the opposite of dragons. They're awesome parents but crappy spouses as a whole. So, don't beat yourself up over that too much... If it's any consolation, you are the ONLY guy I know that I'd currently consider willingly making a kid with. I've seen a glimpse of what the results would be and... kind of makes me wish you were a girl, you know, on a theoretical level. I'd be down for a litter of that practical cuteness overdose."

Face clearing into a faint smile, Cole said, "Not even Garre-, er, Grant?"

"Dude, if you hadn't pulled that shady sh*t while we were reincarnating here, the thought wouldn't have even crossed his mind. There is one and only one woman, much less person, in the entirety of creation capable of moving his heart. And, most of the reason for that is because the things that happened to her ripped it to shreds," Orison explained with an echo of sympathy in his voice.

While they shared a dinner with Pete in the immortal mansion, Orison explained the imminent separation situation with the bull man as well. After a few semi-depressed but accepting sighs, Pete shrugged and went on as if it was business as usual. It belatedly dawned on the young mage that the bull man didn't really have a purpose or arching goal to push him. He may have been trying to find that purpose and a place to belong while he did by following Orison.

Recognizing his own desire to not feel any continued responsibility towards people who he'd already lent aid far beyond their emotional or practical value to himself, he said, "The only thing that will go with me is the snow globe, sort of. Anything else will either not make it or be wrecked beyond redemption trying to follow me. I gave the saucer to my little brother secretly. Pete, you get the mansion. And Cole, you get the lake house plus property."

Yue, who had been serving nearby, looked somewhat relieved. She didn't like the constant sense of threat Orison's space made her feel.

Frowning, Cole said, "The saucer should be able to follow you. Even if it was damaged, it would... fix itself back up."

The young mage smiled. "No, it's a destiny thing with that. Vincent is supposed to have it. If I took it, he'd end up getting it some other way."

Rubbing his head, Pete chimed in. "Was it even worth coming here? All the stuff in this place was given by so many people trying to show you how much they care. It's like they threw it away for me to pick up. It makes me feel like sh*t, for me and them."

Orison said, "There was very little that wasn't useful to me. I just needed the possibility of it. I theoretically ate, drank, spent and wore out almost all of it. All I'm going to say on that is obelisk boosted entanglement power is crazy.

"You guys get the windfall this time. There are limited resources that I've used nearly a dozen or MORE times beyond what it should have been capable of. Just because it was in 'what if' scenarios and still exists, doesn't diminish it in my eyes. No one's feelings or good intentions were wasted. That's especially true for you, this mansion, and especially Cole."

As if to emphasize the point, Orison's acknowledgment of Pete's usefulness instantly erased all the spiritual debt marks the bull man was carrying for others. In fact, whether Cole or Pete, the young mage's re-gifting of prized possessions balanced out debts that technically should have shifted against him.

The sudden look of pride and accomplishment on Cole's face and the bewildered amusement on Pete's put the issue to rest. It was a lot to process but both of the young mage's companions had a minor understanding of Orison's strange power. Sometimes a genuine willingness was all it took to get things done when he was involved.

Instinctively feeling that Orison's time was growing short, Cole said, "Are you going to be safe where you're going? Do you have back-up?"

The young mage chuckled. "A bit of the cop shining through all the thief and assassin?..."

Not lying but not being completely honest, he added, "Safe, what's that? I've taken as many measures as I can, I guess. But, as far as back-up? If I didn't need something, I wouldn't have drawn anyone there with me. So yeah, there is. But, I couldn't take more, even if I wanted to. And, I don't want to.

"It's a crippling trip. The person that's going to be drawn is technically already there. Anyone else would have to pay more than I'm willing to let someone I actually care about, do."

***

As Orison shot along a Greater Abyss connecting path through the Greater Void, known as a Darkened Road, he thought about all the things he could have told people. Ultimately, he couldn't. Not without losing far more on the trip. To keep from being corrupted by the highly concentrated demonic essence around him, it was necessary for him to make some sacrifices. And the greater the worth of those sacrifices, the less he would have to make.

It wasn't only that, however. He had gone through great lengths to sever and keep karmic ties low. Each one was like a drag parachute slowing down travel through the Darkened Road. If he had dared to share what he had uncovered, it would have not only made it less valuable as spiritual sacrifice, it would have created karmic ties with the person he shared them with.

He mentally moaned and inwardly cringed once it was time to take the shining sprite form. To maintain his integrity and accomplish the main goal of this grueling and costly trip, he had to start unraveling all the hard gained laws he had condensed. There was a method to the madness, however.

During the process of forceful integration he'd made several errors and forced as many spiritually scarring corrections as he could. That had left the newly forged spiraling fractal domain filled with flaws and structural weaknesses. Although, along his previous path to power, he had noticed that the most fundamental laws had fit into their spots effortlessly. They had grown naturally within the earliest moments of the spiral before flawed understanding and spiritual scars inhibited that growth. Each one of those laws had core concepts that were capable of being retained, even after he would be reduced beyond the capacity to sense law at all.

They were the concepts given birth by the four living laws that had once existed within his space back when he was still merged with Piran. Others who had existed as impressions for a time within him had left their own kernels of pure concepts behind as well. Cole, Amos, Tait; they had all left a little something behind that had the potential to root and grow naturally within the future spiral fractal. Once combined and the flawed understandings sacrificed to non-existence; Regen/ Corvinus, Daniel as Klein and Grant had left some usable ones behind as well.

Anyone capable of seeing what was left of Orison's concept structure as a symbolic visual would only see a random looking star field of multi-colored dots. But, if aligned a specific way, a Fibonacci Sequence spiral would connect the largest clusters. And those who were capable of seeing just slightly beyond three dimensional space would see an exquisite order stamped upon the seemingly random and chaotic collection.

There was another important thing he'd discovered during the what if scenarios the obelisk had accidentally revealed for him. Bigger was not better. His soul was like a super massive star. The bit of potential to catalyze it into primal origin soul granted by Vento's three small gifts was diluted so thoroughly, it couldn't take hold. The future condensing collapse of his soul, when he tried and failed to reach tier six, coated the motes of catalyst in inert spiritual essence. It was immediately pulled apart and returned to clusters of diluted soul crystals.

In a form of gallows humor, Orison weakly laughed at all the horrifying and terrible ways a climber could fail along their journey. Were it not for the near infinite amount of probability invested into Greater Realities, lofty beings springing forth from mortals in any way outside of becoming a god through worship would be the least funny of jokes. Even with the ridiculous amount of external aid he'd received, he was once again reducing himself to the beginning for a chance.

It dawned on him that his track record of failures was as much due to that external help as his survival had been dependent on it. It was a horrid catch twenty-two that he desperately hoped he had finally found a loophole out of. Only living through it would grant him the ability to find out. And that, was anything but assured.