Devourer Of Destiny - Chapter 151
“Wow, nice upgrade!” Theo gave a grin and a thumbs up as he entered the room and looked around. Behind him, Eloise slid her way in and closed the door behind herself without prompting.
Lucius had been faithful enough to his word and swiftly arranged for this new office/classroom in the General Institute for Ebon Dirge. The furnishings, while lacking that personal touch of long development over a tenure, was vastly better appointed than the one that had been provided in the Remedial Institute, easily being able to accommodate a teacher and a half dozen students with plenty of room and furniture.
Dirge had his doubts that Lucius was entirely forthcoming with his story, but since his support so far was very real, he wouldn’t pry too deeply. Since the provost seemingly wanted him to qualify to enter the Merit Vault, his assignment here in the first place, he would merrily go along with it so long as no obstructions cropped up because of the arrangement. At the very least, it was a relief that the man hadn’t been yet another plant left by Amelia as the tailor had been.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook just yet, Theo,” Dirge dryly reminded the excited student. “The only reason you get a reprieve is that this is a stop along the way and I’d rather not move everything in just to immediately move it all out when we switch again. Now take a seat, both of you.”
The two students selected their own chairs from the collection lined along one wall and sat in front of Dirge’s desk, leaving ample space between themselves. The two hadn’t warmed up to one another since Eloise had been added to the mix, but he didn’t mind so long as they didn’t waste too much time on petty scheming and other frivolities that he had seen in so many other similar situations.
“So,” Dirge began, “how was the presentation, Eloise?”
The dark-skinned woman frowned in thought as she composed a reply. “You crushed him, Miss Sable. The rest of the Forging Institute is up in arms about the whole affair, unsure whether they want to invite you for a lecture or find a way to drive you out before you ‘pollute’ the purity of the craft. It’s been… interesting, the reactions from people who had been my supposed friends before.”
Dirge nodded. “That’s more or less to plan, but I expected as much. Not finding much joy in being seen either as a conduit or the stone that Harford tripped over?”
Eloise shrugged. “I didn’t join the Academy to make friends anyway, I guess.”
“It’s excellent of you to recognize that,” Dirge complimented his student on her aplomb in the face of a rapidly shifting social world. “That all is less of a concern to me than your observations on the artificing itself, though.”
Eloise nodded. “I am beginning to understand the necessity of control. In less than half an hour, you created something that outclassed a weapon forged in the most orthodox and masterful style of the school, and with almost nobody else there even noticing the process. I just… will I really be able to do that myself?”
Dirge shrugged. “I will give you all the opportunity I can, Eloise. It’s up to you to pick it up, but if you can’t, then I imagine someone else in that audience would be very interested in the opportunity.”
The look in Eloise’s eyes hardened. “I wouldn’t dream of giving up, Miss Sable. Not on my life.”
“Good,” Dirge replied with a smile before turning to his other student. “Theo, how was it from your vantage?”
“Your name is certainly getting recited around the Fifth Tier now, Miss Sable,” the young man reported with a cocky grin. “I have some very jealous friends right now, too.”
“They’ll be more jealous soon enough, Theo,” Dirge announced, “when you reach Foundation Building and we rise to the Fourth Tier.”
“What!?” Both students gave voice to their surprise in unison.
Dirge grinned. “I have been given a… pathway for us to advance. It involves us meeting some specific goals, goals which I intend for us to complete in the next month.”
Theo blinked. “M-miss Sable… Foundation Building a month? Did you get dispensation for the temporal chambers up above, perhaps?”
Dirge shook his head. “No, and I wouldn’t use them if I did. Training in accelerated time up through Palace Establishment is fairly reliable, but only if you have a firm grasp of certain principles. That kind of trick isn’t necessary for what we’re going to do, though.”
The use of temporal acceleration in Eastmarch had been necessary to meet his timetable with so many individuals and goals in the air at once, but Dirge had no intention of making use of the same kind of ability although the Celestial Ascendance Academy had a few such chambers available. Playing with the flow of time hadn’t affected Saytel because he had been bestowed a portion of Threnody’s Path, and Artian’s own development wasn’t meant to continue along the essence system, and Erik’s personal advancement was only a temporary measure and relied on his own understanding; otherwise he wouldn’t have relied on it. The risk of developing flaws in one’s comprehension that hampered advancement into the Nascent Birth stage was all too real, and it was wholly useless once one reached that realm.
“Is there something I need to be doing as well, Miss Sable?” Eloise asked.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Dirge acknowledged. “By the end of the month of training, you will be able to recreate the type of weapon I presented on stage. Perhaps not as quickly and perhaps with some small issues, but well enough that if you auctioned it as a replica it would see good business.”
Dirge was not required to advance Eloise in any particular way, at least by Lucius’ design, but that didn’t stop him from assigning this task anyway. There was no time to sit still and leisurely grow; Theo and Eloise would soon enough be joined by others, and if their pace was slack they would risk being left behind, something that would reflect poorly on his own record.
“Theo, how much do you know about passing through Meridian Circulation and reaching Foundation Building?” Dirge changed the subject while he let Eloise take a moment to adjust her mentality appropriately.
“Uh, well…” Theo muttered while he quickly tried to dredge up what he could remember from his previous lessons on the subject. “I know that the means of advancement through Meridian Circulation is not only in opening the meridians but in the compression of the essence stored in the plexus, right?”
“That’s the gist of it,” Dirge agreed. “As you may have guessed after our last session, I can open all of your meridians right now if I chose and be done with it. I told you that I can make the impossible into the possible. I won’t do that right away, however, because that would only hinder your progress towards your Foundation.”
Theo nodded. “Not that I doubt you, Miss Sable, but would that be safe anyway?”
“Perfectly,” Dirge replied. “We opened your first meridians the orthodox way, and I still agree with the principle of handling the first meridian that way because of what you learn in the process, rather than because it’s a better way overall. You needed to understand how to connect your understanding of your breathing technique to how you circulate essence in your meridians. Now that you have more meridians open, now you feel that as more of a system. None of them feel strange compared to the first, right?”
“Yes, Miss Sable,” Theo agreed. “Everything works the same, although it’s like I can breathe in and out at the same time now.”
Dirge smiled. “And that’s how the rest of your meridians will go. Because I have practiced my control to the level I possess, and because my spiritual sense is particularly sensitive, I have no trouble repeating the procedure. You do know that the chosen disciples of the top sects receive the same kind of treatment, yes? In their case, it’s because their Nascent Birth and Path Attunement experts can do the same thing; I’m just able to do it sooner because of my own talents and training, that’s all.”
Theo nodded. “So what do I need to do, Miss Sable?”
“Now that you’ve confirmed you have no odd thoughts about the new meridians opened, I can open some more,” Dirge announced. “Once you’re used to the circulation in those, we can proceed with your first stage of essence compression, going from vapor to liquid. Do you understand why this is an important part of your advancement?”
“Isn’t it because entering Foundation Building requires shaping the foundation from solid essence?” Theo replied with a small frown.
“That’s correct as far as it can be,” Dirge agreed with a nod. “Do you understand the principle behind the creation of a foundation and why it takes solid essence? After all, you’re technically pruning down the amount of essence in your plexus in doing so, and yet somehow it makes you more powerful, enough to be its own stage.”
Theo shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Eloise,” Dirge addressed his other student, shoving her out of her thoughtful silence, “you’ve undergone the process fairly recently, so maybe you can comment on it?”
Eloise blinked a few times rapidly before she took a deep breath. “The building of the foundation is the demonstration of the cultivator’s mastery over fundamental essence, symbolizing its subjugation to their will. Passing through the process is pushing open the door between mere internalization and extrusion of essence versus commanding it in the world around the expert.”
“A perfectly serviceable answer, and one you could find in any number of cultivation manuals,” Dirge replied dryly. “I’m going to let you all in on a secret, one that you should only convey to someone who themselves swears to be your student just as you are mine. Understood?”
Sharing a quick glance first, the two students nodded their agreement in unison.
“Good. The building of the foundation is, of course, the expression of mastery over essence. That by itself doesn’t explain the phenomenon of acquiring dominion over external essence, however,” Dirge noted. “When you build your foundation, you are building the first link of resonance between yourself and the cosmos. There is much talk of perfect, flawless, beautiful, lucid and all other sorts of foundations being the best. Some emphasize ensuring a proper mixture of elemental affinity in the process. Each manual extols its virtues. They all work because as long as you have something of that nature, you can attain that ability of external manipulation.”
“Let me tell you something: they’re all right, and they’re all wrong. They’re all right, for the right person… which odds are, you aren’t. And that is how they are wrong. There is no perfection. Perfection is not something to be sought in the mortal layers of cultivation; clearing the dust of imperfection and mortality is a pursuit of the newly immortalized, in fact.”
“You may be wondering if I am concealing some grand manual with a perfect art that will allow you to build a perfect foundation. I’m not; cultivation techniques and manuals are references, but if you want to truly excel and be worthy of the title ‘expert’ then you need to forge your own path. I could rattle off for you hundreds of different techniques for the formation of the foundation, and all I would be doing is consuming a lot of time; instead, I will offer you direct guidance and you will decide the way to go.”
Theo nodded at that, while Eloise had an intense frown on her face. Dirge could almost hear the concern bouncing around in her head now.
“Eloise,” Dirge addressed the dark-skinned woman, sharply cutting through her worry. “This does not present an obstacle for you. Foundation Building is only one step; Palace Establishment is a whole new opportunity and Nascent Birth beyond that. Nonetheless, if in the next month you wish to shatter and rebuild your foundation and start it anew, I will assist you too.”
Eloise nodded. “I’ll think about it,” she replied in a quiet voice.
“Decide as you will, although this won’t be an excuse to slack on your other studies. It may, in fact, be best to consider it after you have advanced further in learning control and artificing and have a better understanding of your needs.”
“Of course, Miss Sable.”
“Now, Theo,” Dirge returned his attention to the other student, “can you see why I am little concerned for having you reach Foundation Building from where you are in just a month? There is no way I will allow you to go wrong in this, as long as you apply yourself here.”
Theo nodded. “I trust you, Miss Sable. I kinda have to, I guess.” That roguish grin he so regularly sported returned to his face.
Before they could continue the discussion, a knock sounded at the door, startling both of the students while Dirge grinned.
“I guess it’s time we met your next comrade,” Dirge announced as his grin deepened. Already seeing who was on the other side of the door, he found himself both intrigued and amused. Lucius had sent him one doozy of a new student.