Cultivation

"What do you mean he's missing?" Egidius found himself asking, turning to Logan, who had reported his absence. "Where the hell is he?"

Logan gave a dry laugh of uncertainty. "He left last night… said he wanted to check up on something, but he never returned." 

"Hells," said Egidius, nursing his growing headache. "Have you checked around town or the local brothel?" 

"Four Rivers doesn't have a brothel," said Logan mournfully. "And I've searched the town. No one has seen him since last night. The Watchmen at the gate said they saw him leave, a little before midnight, heading towards the east towards the river." 

Egidius billowed a soft sigh, massaging his temple. He lowered the piece of parchment and reluctantly stood to his feet. "Search the village again, just to be sure. We might have to stay in this god-forsaken place another month or so.' 

"Another Month?" Logan furrowed his brow. "What about our academics? I only took this mission because Professor Renly said it would be a favor to him. It was supposed to be a two-week mission at the most." 

"And now it isn't," Egidius said. "And it seems that it is not just Professor Renly who has grown interested. In a few days, an armed battalion from the Empire of Solaris will be arriving in a few weeks." 

Logan did not look pleased. "Who's the commander?" 

Egidius shrugged, placing a few letters into his bag. "Who knows with them. Come on, let's look for Livius." 

And for hours, they looked, from dawn to the hours of twilight. 

They found him on the morrow, hanging, his eyes, tongue, and skin being pecked on by crows and ravens while the lower half of his body seemed to be gnawed on by a wild bear or panther based on the entrails that stood sprawled about. But there had been no mistake that it was Livius, as his bloodstained robe still billowed in the winds. 

"Shit…" Egidius cursed, snapping his eyes to the spearmen, "Who did you say found him here!" he demanded. 

"One of our youngsters!" The spearman hurriedly said. "They like throwing rocks at the thieves and bandits we catch. We hang the bodies here as a warning to others." 

"And how many of you are Arcanists in the village!" Logan snapped, reaching into his robe to grab his wand, but Egidius snatched his wrist, stopping him. He looked him in the eye, shaking his head. 

"Not yet," He whispered to Logan, turning to the frightened spearman. "Gather your elders. We've much to discuss."

*** 

"That should be it," Zariel mused to himself, staring at the intricate Magical Circles that bore the Sigil of the Twelve Realms in a complex array of Runic Symbals and Glyphs that brought about a toothish smile to his lips. "With this, Aurelia and I ought to have the purest type of Arcana." He nodded again, admiring his work. "This might be one of my best. Twelve points of refinement are without a doubt unnecessary, but hey, I've never heard someone complain that their energy is too pure." 

And he'd be right. What lay before Zariel hadn't been a simple Cultivation Tool to aid in refinement. Crafted with the aid of the Weave, it was safe to say that what Zariel had created was the purest form of energy in all the Twelve Realms outside the Abyss. 

He thought for a moment, staring at the formula before making a slight adjustment, incorporating features that weren't necessary but would aid the user. He nodded, again frowned, before continuing to tinker, somehow feeling it wasn't perfect enough. 

For the next week, he continued to tinker, pulling at his hair until he wanted to weep. "I hate myself…" He groaned, looking at the formula once more, which was nearly unrecognizable from what it was a few days ago. "Now it's optimized to handle all energies. Not just Arcana. Ooooh!~ I forgot to account for body refinement. Stupid me. I guess I can add Dual Cultivation, too, right? Girls like sex, right?" He thought for a bit, recalling his elder brother and the many whores he brought home to Mother, and smiled when she'd kick them out with a furious expression. "Yeah, I'll add it. But I don't suppose it'll be all that useful to me. I guess Aurelia can use it."

And so he began again, spending the next few days until two larger bags hung beneath his eyes. "Now it's perfect…" He muttered, too scared to look at his formula lest he keep at it for the next year and a half. He gave his muscles a stretch and glanced down at Aurelia, still unconscious.

Soon, a soft moan sounded from the little girl's lips that lay on the cold, hard floors. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open as she clutched her chest, recalling the sword that had plunged through her heart. She gasped, scrambling away before she noticed there was no wound… no injury, no nothing. 

Suspicious, Aurelia looked to Zariel, but when she saw his gaunt expression, she nearly squealed. He looked so… thin… as if he hadn't eaten in days, if not weeks. 

"Big… I mean, Zariel." she corrected, feeling the name humm across her tongue. She liked it. "You look terrible."

"And you still look homeless, so I guess we're even." 

Aurelia puffed her cheeks with a glare, though her hands never left her chest where she could still recall the blade entering. It hadn't been painful… in fact, she couldn't even recall the sensation, and yet some part of her did.

She stood up, nearly tumbling face-first into the stones. 

"Neither you nor I have eaten in almost two weeks." He explained as she caught herself with her hands, closing his eyes, almost as if to sleep, and yet they opened as quickly as the grueling images returned. "And I haven't slept in… I can't even remember." he yawned, standing to his feet. 

Aurelia looked at him concerned. She could not ever recall ever seeing him sleep, much less nap. 

"Come, let's get something to eat. I— " Zariel stopped touching his nose, trickling with blood. "Well… that's not good." 

"You think!" Shouted Aurelia, practically lunging at him. 

Waving off her concerns, Zariel leaned his head back to stay the bleeding. He yawned again, reaching into his fur tunic. He pulled out a wooden flask filled with a cocktail of herbs and spices to help stop blood loss. 

The Redwoods had been packed with various types of herbs such as Crow's Eye, Coralie, Faded Mallow, Loxeda, and more. To Zariel, it was merely a matter of convenience in picking a few herbs to refine while they hunted. 

He pointed to the ground and said, "Sit and strip." 

Aurelia glared worriedly but still did as he asked. She watched him tend to his nosebleed and couldn't help but feel anxious. 

'Was he sick?' she wondered. 

When she had, at last, dropped the last of her furs, Zariel unsheathed his blade and placed the tip of his sword over her bare chest. He felt her shudder, but when his wrist flickered, Aurelia had no time to react, much less understand, as his sword seemed to dance through the surface layer of her skin like a blur. 

With the precision of a master sculpture and the poised calmness of a surgeon, he engraved into her skin his nameless cultivation formula. 

Aurelia felt merely tickled, and the unsettling sensation of a blade meant to kill crawling over her skin. She hadn't liked the feeling. But she trusted Zariel. 

For an entire hour, she stood there before he was done. Pale and weak, he squatted down, feeling his body weaker than normal. Nearly two weeks without food and water had been pushing the level of control he had over his body. 

"Go… Fetch… water,' Zariel rasped, falling to his back, gasping for air.

Beads of blood trickled from the young girl's naked body that seemed to cover every inch of her body, sparing her most sensitive areas. She stood up, rushing towards the half-complete cottage, and pulled a bucket of water to Zariel and fed him all he wanted until he could no more. 

He coughed, cursing the gods, somehow feeling like sleep might find him, and yet when Aurelia rested him over the trunk of a tree, the sensation slipped from out of his fingers. 

"I had wanted to eat first, but you'll have to do the hunting, " He said indifferently. "Now listen up. I'm going to teach you how to absorb the Arcana. I've created a tutorial system into the formula, so follow when you pull the arcana into you." 

Aurelia listened. 

"To absorb the Arcana or any type of energy, one needs to have the spirit to do so and the will to claim it," He said, cold and hard. "The Arcana will not just bend to kindness. It requires a Master, a ruler, to give it purpose. Remember this well, Aurelia Morningstar: Those who seek cultivation can never stand with the Heavens. Just as we steal from Heaven, so too are we punished for it." He closed his eyes. "And if you are presumed to be a true threat, Heaven and Earth will turn on you." 

'Just like me,' he wistfully thought. 'Bearly a babe, I was born crippled, and in turn… I lost nearly everyone close to me.' 

"How does one wield the spirit?" Aurelia asked with hopeful eyes; nearly forgetting how hungry and weak she was, she leaned towards him, beaming. 

"That's an answer; you must come up with yourself," Zariel told her, pushing her back a little too uncomfortable with how close she was. "For me… it came easy. I instinctively knew what to do. For others, it takes time, months, or years at a time. But if you've got the Heart of Rebellion in you. It should come easily." 

"A Heart of Rebellion." She muttered, touching her blood-stained chest, which no longer ached. 

Reaching deep into himself to where his spirit resided, silverly light billowed like the kindling of a flame around Zariel, so soft the light seemed nearly ephemeral. And yet, as the seconds ebbed, it shone bright as the stars over the fleeting skies. 

The Arcana appeared like nodes of shrieking light pulled upon by an intangible force. Entering through his pores, they raced about through his meridians, passing through the Twelve Gates of his Nameless Cultivation Formula. They twirled as if spinning within the Exalted Wheel, dwindling in size with each Gate that purified each node of Arcana, until the light shone a brilliance beyond the dawn, a radiance so bright anyone who glimpsed it was blinded entered his heart. 

The essence whirled, bent, and twisted like an endless weave of strings. They formed into a small orb the size of a grain blazed brighter than any star. 

Zariel opened his eyes with the shadow of a half smile. "It'll take about two years to create a Core and longer to generate your first star. So don't feel compelled to rush… we've all the time in the world."