Elder Cultivator

“Are ya crazy, or just dumb?”

Clearly, Suraya did not like Abder’s suggestions. “Well I’m-”

“My fingers already hurt plenty, thank you very much. I already know how exercise works and it’s far too late for that to help me.”

“It’s more than that,” Abder commented. Though he did believe that proper light movements could actually help her out, if she was willing to commit to a plan. “Infusing natural energy into the body can produce greater results with a faster recovery.”

It took him more than another week to convince her, but she eventually gave up as there was nothing else for him to do around the house other than bother her- and she couldn’t get him to just go away and leave her alone. Even if she had said it, Abder knew enough to understand that she wouldn’t want that. She desired company as much as anyone else.

Of course, he couldn’t spend all his time around her. He had his own training to do, duties to The Gathering, and so on. The city was also busy recuperating from the aftermath of the attempted coup. Finally, Abder apportioned some of his time to finding people like Suraya who should have had access to aid but for some reason chose not to ask for or accept it.

Sometimes, that would take getting to know people, to convince them that people actually wanted to help. Finding such people was the hardest part, though. Abder knew where those who were like him tended to find themselves, but those who appeared to be in a stable state but were actually struggling were harder to track down. That, he thought, was going to be a long project.

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The way he finally managed to get Suraya to finally want to train was simply to display his own handwriting… while slightly exaggerating the flaws. He hadn’t ever bothered to become particularly good at writing once he surpassed basic proficiency. If he just got a little lazy with his hand control, his writing looked quite terrible.

Suraya attempted to correct him, and while her calligraphy was certainly superior to Abder’s own, her hands were old and weak. Even he could pick out flaws which she was no doubt doubly aware of. All he had to do to inspire her was to give her an opportunity- and provide ink and paper. Those weren’t cheap for someone with effectively no income. Not many people wanted to buy mushrooms that anyone could easily grow. And with no offense meant to Suraya, her crop of basement fungus wasn’t particularly exceptional- she wasn’t a fungal cultivator after all, so there were limits to what she could do.

Finger exercises didn’t look like much. Suraya didn’t exactly know what she needed to do- just how she needed to move, and where she was having trouble. Fortunately, Abder was more than qualified to help out there. He knew every muscle and bone in the body and how they interacted. He had decades of study on that particular topic, and practical experience to boot.

Coming up with a plan that suited her needs was simple, though her ability to sense natural energy was still in question. Even without that she could grow stronger due to the energy directly infused in food she ate. Anton hadn’t sounded particularly impressed by Moturn’s state in that regard, but Abder thought he was just picky about such things. Abder had seen how much the world had grown from the bottom, after all.

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Anton was currently locked in a staring contest with a star, and he thought he might be winning. There was the slight problem that Maheg didn’t have eyes, but he felt he could get past that.

“You don’t have to rush on my account,” Prospero commented. “I would much rather hear about your success from a distance than personally witness a failure caused by rushing.”

Anton shook his head. “That’s exactly why you need to be here. Keep me motivated to succeed, instead of getting sloppy.”

“I doubt you would, considering the potential consequences.”

Nobody quite knew how bad things might get if Anton failed a critical advancement- though those who knew him would bet that he would try to take the consequences entirely upon himself. Most likely, that would result in his complete annihilation, since he would be dealing with star-scale backlash.

Maheg was ready to try to form the bond as well. Alternatively, the star could probably wait another thousand years and barely notice. From its perspective, Anton had only recently come into view- but he was also its oldest and closest friend, as much as such things were possible. Generations of plants upon the little moon were their legacy.

This wouldn’t be the one to put him over the edge. Even if Anton didn’t strictly stick to prime star numbers, he knew he certainly needed to bind more stars before attempting his stage advancement, whenever he got around to that. Timothy and Catarina got a little boost through adversity, but Anton was trying to carve out what he hoped would be a consistent path for those with the aptitude. Binding with a sapient star wasn’t on the normal list, but there were certainly oddities to look into.

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Anton reached out, the movement of energy at first looking like the typical ‘handshake’. He needed to be certain that their entwined energies would be stable before accepting it into himself. Cutting off a connection wasn’t something he would do lightly, especially not in the moments it was supposed to be forming.

It shouldn’t take long. He’d been slowly building up a sort of bond the whole time- even if it wasn’t the same as his attunement to other stars. He had the groundwork laid, and he would have help from the other side.

Maheg’s energy carefully wrapped around his. That connection, even if it was one human and one star, was far more solid than it would appear on the surface. Since had come this far, Anton wasn’t going to hesitate. Sometimes, being slow was worse than planned haste. He needed to take the dunk, except instead of the chill of water it would be the fire of a star. ꭆ

There was an intensity to it that he hadn’t quite expected. The control Maheg had on the surface was real and extended deep into the star, but that was the point. Control. The star had transitioned between life stages before awakening sapience, annihilating life on its local planets. Now, it was consciously holding back the negative parts of itself.

Flames spread throughout Anton’s body, but they were no more likely to hurt him than his own energy or that of his other bound stars. Maheg did not sleep, and that meant constant practice. Once it had realized it damaged the planet, that had been its life until new people appeared. Anton had merely taught fine-tuned control instead of star-wide control on the scale of a million kilometers.

Before he even realized, it was over. However, just because the bond was finished didn’t mean that would be the end of things. Anton could feel the changes in Maheg more strongly than the other stars. Slow changes, likely to mold over decades or centuries, but changes nonetheless. That was connected to him, and it would remain that way. If Maheg got into a bad state, it would affect him. The same was true with other stars, but usually they were more stable in the way that only massive spheres of plasma that were basically endless explosions could be.

Anton pulled on a bit of Maheg’s energy, and it flowed into him. The star pushed a bit more, and Anton soon found himself overflowing with energy. It was too much all at once, and Anton knew he had to release it. It flew directly back into the source, splashing into Maheg.

The slightest twinge of apology came to Anton through the connection- or at least that was how Anton had come to interpret what the star could display. Maheg had tried to be helpful, but clearly they needed to do some work on tuning the draw.

“Now it’s your turn,” Anton said. Normally, his stars didn’t draw upon him. At best, he would feel his power and that of others into a star himself. But also normally, they didn’t have intent. He might have ascribed certain personality traits to them like humans were wont to do, but the others weren’t actually temperamental or stoic or whatever he imagined them to be. Maheg was, at least a little.

Anton emphasized his intent through his energy, which the star should have felt- he wanted it to try to call upon him, though just a little. There was a careful pull- careful like an elephant tugging with its trunk, but regardless of power it was indeed careful- and Anton felt energy flowing out of him naturally, as if he had called upon it himself. And not just out of him, but from the source inside of his dantian that connected to nearly two hundred stars.

The energy flickered into a shape in front of Anton, taking the form of a smiling sphere about a meter across. A star- in fact an almost cartoonish one. Anton wondered where Maheg had come across such aesthetics, but perhaps it was simply natural to exaggerate lines and features so they stood out. A simple pair of eyes, dots for nostrils, and a line for a mouth. No ears, but they would have looked out of place regardless.

The image’s ‘eyes’ looked around randomly. Perhaps Maheg didn’t realize how eyes worked, just that they existed. Likewise, the mouth opened and let out a sound- projected through energy so that it could extend through space. As for what the sound was, it sounded like speech. Or at least, what someone who didn’t really understand speech might think it was. Rising and falling tones, pauses for words. A bit of rhythm, but little more.

“Hello to you too, Maheg,” Anton said, smiling and projecting happiness in return. Even if the star didn’t understand, that didn’t matter. Anton held out his hand, and the mini-star formed arms in return. The fingers weren’t perfect, but Anton grasped the hand. This time, they performed a real handshake, which was much more satisfying between beings at the same scale.

The face turned towards Prospero next, and the other man didn’t hesitate. Anton would have warned him if it were dangerous, after all. The form produced wasn’t quite solid, but Maheg seemed to have some understanding of how it should be. Hoyt also shook the hand of the star as well… then the energy reached the end of its cohesiveness.

Anton could have used the same energy for a much more enduring projection, but Maheg had focused all its efforts on farming- not interaction. The fact that it was able to not burn everything it touched on their little moon was already amazing enough. Being efficient with energy was probably never something Maheg had previously needed to consider, considering it was nothing less than a great mass of energy itself.

“That went splendidly, I think,” Anton said. “What about you two?”

“What’s it like?” Prospero asked.

“Hmm. Like a big, powerful child,” Anton said. “Let’s hope this guy isn’t going to undergo his terrible two thousands anytime soon. Though if he does, I’ll be here to help him out.”

He had already taken on responsibility for various stars, and in this case he merely had a greater ability to handle any difficulties. There would always be risk he took onto himself when helping people- even if that risk was usually quite small.

It hadn’t taken nearly as long as Anton had thought for him to be ready to form the bond. Now he would be free to move around again… though of course he intended to stay with Maheg for a while still, just to make sure everything was stable. Only after that would Anton move away and experiment with how that bond felt at a distance.

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