Elder Cultivator

Two weeks later, the ship that Ji-Eun was ‘piloting’ suddenly dropped out of subspace. Or rose into normal space? She wasn’t qualified to comment on interstellar travel.

They were just outside any war zone, she thought. She didn’t completely know, but that fit with what she’d heard. However, she had hoped to go further. That the ship would last longer.

At least it hadn’t dropped them out in between systems. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing if they could last years in this ship. Especially because she knew they couldn’t. It was already packed full- over full, perhaps.

Something drew her towards a particular planet. She probably would have chosen it as their destination regardless as the most inhabitable world in the system, but she could feel something drawing her towards it. It wasn’t terrifying, though. Instead, it was the same force that had brought all the karmic luck she’d experienced to stumble across the ship to begin with. And to meet up with the village.

She had learned that most of the people at the village hadn’t actually been members. Hwan- the old man who was the village chief- had been surprised when people began to show up without any forewarning, but he’d been happy to accept them regardless.

“Somehow,” he said. “We knew you were coming. Or that someone was coming.”

Ji-Eun nodded. “Somehow, I knew I was supposed to go to you.” It was a risk, taking people she didn’t know with her. But she might not have been able to manage without their help- and their supplies. If they hadn’t packed up all the food they had, she would be close to starvation. A Spirit Building cultivator could only go so far. “It’s strange, isn’t it? I feel like I should be afraid of being guided by an unknown source but…”

“It feels like we came to an agreement,” Village Chief Hwan commented. “Without even saying anything, I took guidance.”

“It was exactly that, I think,” Ji-Eun admitted.

It seemed like a decent place to live. Except… “We’re not supposed to stay here, are we?” Ji-Eun asked.

“I was thinking we needed to collect food,” Hwan said. “For another journey, perhaps. That’s what I’d do anyway.”

“I need to get… something,” she shook her head. “Maybe energy for the ship?”

Whether it was a run of extreme luck following disaster or someone guiding her, Ji-Eun felt it was too easy. What she found to power the ship wasn’t exactly what she recognized, but a different sort of crystals also seemed to fit the ship. Stronger, maybe.

Perhaps the most amazing part was that there were no conflicts, except a few people who wanted to stay behind on this new planet. But the village head managed to convince them.

-----

Another few weeks of travel, and they somehow ended up at the border. This was as far as they could go. It wasn’t possible to enter the lower realms without the Tides of the World. Surprisingly, the planet was quite lively. The villagers immediately commented on the fertility of the soil, and they and some of the stronger cultivators set about planting what they had. With natural food sources, they should be able to stretch their resources until the harvest.

Ji-Eun could still remember the feeling of battle, just a month behind her. The power she could never hope to match. But she was safe here, if she stayed.

That was what confused her most, because she knew that. And yet, having no idea what she was doing, she found another path. Everything told her that she should stay here and be safe. But she saw the ship every day. And there was another path, aside from farming and building shelters. She wandered too far from their new little village and noticed another path, guiding her. She could return, or she could follow her curiosity.

A buried cache of crystals- mostly broken, but powerful enough to help her make a return trip. For who…? Another group like this village, she was certain. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she did know she was going to go back.

-----

Anton nodded. “That one’s a good egg,” he said. “We should have more people like her.”

“I agree,” Aerona said. “Do you think one planet will be enough…?”

Aerona couldn’t feel everything Anton did, just what he passed along for the sake of making use of her empathic ties. “Most people are fleeing to the north, and they did so some time ago,” Anton explained. “So we only have to deal with a small portion of the population.”

Left unsaid was that they would be dealing with only those who were left. They hadn’t anticipated such a swift start to the war, so they were some months delayed and trying to aid people dozens of lightyears distant. Anton had to push himself to pick out even small opportunities for people to follow.

Aerona did her part to find those who would actually function together, which meant that some people would inevitably not fit into their plans. Along with those who were already dead or deemed unreachable… one planet’s worth was about what they got.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Anton didn’t think that would be too bad. They had numerous ships making the journey, routed through various systems so as to lead people to appropriate rest points along the way. Some people had better ships than Ji-Eun, and could make it in one long jump. She only sort of understood how to fly the one she had, but she was willing to go again. That was good enough.

Devon watched the two of them work. Unless they needed someone neutralized, there was little point in including his abilities into their workings. However, he was still interested in the work. He could also contribute some of his energy to assist Aerona, as she would tire more quickly than Anton.

“What do we do when we’re done?” Devon asked. “When there’s just a planet full of refugees sitting on the border?”

“I hope that the great powers will have the wisdom to leave them alone,” Anton said. Because he would be shooting anyone who attacked Bounty. Let them try to come get him in the lower realms. “But if they have no wisdom, I hope they will have apathy. A large number of poor and weak individuals don’t have anything worth their time.”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Except the ships,” Devon suggested.

“If that’s what they want, perhaps we let them have them. Once we’re done.” Coordinating that with the locals would be more difficult. Guiding them to do things they wanted to do, to head towards safety, would be much easier than explaining an actual plan that just seemed like stranding them on the planet. Anton shook his head. “But we’ll hope to avoid it.”

“Bounty is decent,” Devon commented. “But it’s not an optimal place for these people.”

“We can get somewhere around a few hundred across the border in a month,” Anton said. “That’s a greater throughput than even most large ships we could send to drift through the border. And I doubt people would do well with twenty years of drifting. But it would also take forever to get everyone. Possibly literally, as the birth rates might surpass that rate over the years.”

Devon nodded slowly. “How much power can you use?”

“Where? How?” Anton asked.

“Could you make an artificial star?”

“For more than a millisecond?” Anton asked. “No.”

“I’m thinking about heating up a planet,” Devon clarified.

“Is there some icy planet that would be a better home with a bit of work?” Anton pondered. He didn’t remember anything like that near the border.

Devon clearly had some plan, but Anton couldn’t quite figure it out. “Could you do it? Heat a whole planet?”

“In the upper realms? Not for very long,” Anton said. “Even just across the border. The energy there would be quite unfriendly to me.”

“Let’s say at that distance,” Devon said. “But without factoring in the negative effects of upper energy for your case. How long would you last?”

“A few months, maybe,” Anton frowned. “If I was fully rested.”

Devon sighed. “Oh well. It was a bit of a long shot anyway.”

“Oh, but now I’m curious,” Anton insisted. “You can’t just leave me like this. I’m going to make up all sorts of crazy theories.”

“I just thought… well, we’ve moved planets before, right?”

“Sure,” Anton said. “Slightly.”

“One of the Unified Sector planets wanted to change its relative orbital location,” Devon said. “There were a whole bunch of calculations, and I helped move it.” Anton waited. “I can technically go to the upper realms like this. I didn’t practice Fleeting Youth like you did. I could probably get a planet moving at least two-thirds the speed of light. Once I got it out of the system. But that would mean thirty years without being near a star. That's about… a hundred years off of your estimate.”

“Oh, I see,” Anton said. “That is a long shot.”

“Right?” Devon said.

“I wouldn’t have to heat the planet twenty-four hours a day, though,” Anton pursed his lips. “Twelve would do. And it would be getting closer the whole time. I think I’d find it difficult to do time zones, though. It would be easier to rain sunlight down on the planet from all angles half the day and rest the other half, especially for a long-term project like this. Sounds like a basis for ecological instability. I’d have to speak with a number of experts.”

“Aren’t you one?”

“It’s always better to hear what others have to say,” Anton said.

“Still,” Devon said. “Six months or a year isn’t much better.”

“I could do more,” Anton said. “Without constant output, I could do far better. But I’d still need some help. Having reached Unity… it’s still not enough on my own. But if everyone helped, I might actually be able to do it.”

“I can start talking to people,” Aerona said.

Anton shook his head. “I don’t mean like that. Though you could ask if anyone can help Devon push that planet a little bit faster. Safely. Meanwhile, I’ll be seeing if all of the citizens of my stars are in agreement that we should try something crazy like this.”

“I actually should do something about this,” Aerona said. “If I begin a campaign presenting the idea to people, they can be familiarized with it. Then they’re more likely to think positively on the idea. The simple agreement should be what you need to draw that kind of power, right?”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve ever done anything exactly like this,” Anton said. “I’d hold off on mentioning it to too many people until we are more certain it would be possible. But I’d be willing to try. And I think this is a far better use of such power than joining the war.”

-----

The idea first went out to Enrichment cultivators. Lev didn’t think he could do much of use- if he had a few decades to plant some enormous trees on the planet, perhaps, but otherwise he was limited in that regard. Anishka had reached Enrichment, and while she could create fire she wasn’t much good for proper sunlight. However, she might be useful for balancing temperatures. She wouldn’t be able to constantly remain with the planet since she wouldn't be able to balance her own energy usage. All of the Enrichment cultivators ran on ‘lower energy’ after all, so they’d suffer similar restrictions as invaders from the upper realms coming down.

The final piece of the puzzle was somewhat of a surprise, even though in retrospect it seemed perfectly natural. Erin of the Island Tenders was also an Enrichment cultivator, and she shared the information with Paradise. No sooner than she had done so than Paradise turned towards the upper realms. They really did have to leave as soon as possible if they were going to do it, but Erin really thought they should have properly canceled all their appearances.

But obviously Paradise didn’t care about any of that. She at least managed to get him to agree to a flight path that would optimize his recovery time between systems.