Abyssal Road Trip - 666 - Let's Make A Deal (Patreon)

Amdirlain’s PoV - Golden Maze Sect Compound - Constructed Space

Just after dawn on the second day, Amdirlain sat on the porch of their new residence. The layout loosely mirrored the training yard Amdirlain had in the Outlands. A U-shaped building, with a gate at the open end. This time the sides and flat base contained general-purpose rooms instead of three training halls. The gap between arms had a raised awning following the building, with three sets of stairs between the flagstone courtyard.

Alongside her, Sarah sat cross-legged on the woven mat, facing that courtyard as she cycled dual aspects of qi into manifestations. Wind and metal qi coiled through her meridians as a line of zephyrs formed a procession across the stonework, picking up a day’s accumulation of dust and detritus. The overloaded ones fell back and delivered their cargo through the metal hatch of a bin, also under Sarah’s control.

“I know you’re snickering,” Sarah grumbled. “Here I’ve got magical powers, and I’m cleaning in such a meticulous fashion.”

“It’s an exercise in control. I’m just picturing a dyed blue-haired granny in a pink-and-green floral dressing gown sweeping leaves off her driveway and front lawn. Is it someone I should remember?”

“That sounds like Mrs Williams, who lived next to your folks. She didn’t have OCD, but it’s how she coped with the stress of her husband’s decline into Alzheimer’s. She spent time in the yard to focus on something she could control.”

The amusement died in her chest. “He’d gotten bad, then had a lucid day and killed himself.”

“Yeah,” Sarah breathed.

“There is a sense like she’s important to me,” Amdirlain said. “She didn’t outlive him long.”

“Mrs Williams was a nice old duck, but she influenced your relearning of compartmentalisation as Julia. She’d come out in the yard and lock all her problems away. Used to tell you to push it down and move on. That emotions don’t do anyone any good. That sort of stuff. Looking back, it’s clear that the messages weren’t helpful and were a short-term coping mechanism for someone who hadn’t had an easy life.”

“But I was just a kid,” Amdirlain said.

“Yeah, and she was the adult, so you took her messages to heart when you got sick. Do you remember cutting your hair?”

With an electric hum, the image formed: the clippers buzzing, another hand holding them. The cool brush of oiled clippers against her scalp, and brunette locks falling away into the sink. The grim face of a dark-haired girl doing the cutting, and another holding the cord out of the way but looking like she wanted to be sick. Eyes darting toward the front door.

“Yes, I wanted control. Wanted mum to…” Amdirlain stopped. The thought fragmented, slipping from her grasp. “Lost it. Rachel looked like she wanted to barf more than me.”

Shards of memories shifted and drew closer, still forming an incomplete image.

“That was when your mum got home. Worse, the clippers had jammed because I’d tried to cut too much at once.” Sarah laughed. “Made a horrible noise, just as the key rattled in the front door.”

Sarah’s presence sliced through Ori’s habitual mask, letting emotions stir and twitch across Amdirlain’s face.

“I can’t see her come in,” Amdirlain whispered. “There is just a sinkhole.”

“Then see it in my memories. Maybe it will help you find matching pieces within your soul.”

A bright babble of voices from Sarah’s mind had Amdirlain’s hands pressing against her thighs. Among them was a brunette woman, keys in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other, her worry lines easing with the moment’s laughter. Her words were almost inaudible, fighting through her laughter.

“What are you three doing? Sarah, that lamb looks half-sheared.”

“Bah!” Julia managed, fighting down nausea. The bathroom tiles seemed ice-cold beneath her feet.

Sarah’s hand on her shoulder, its usual warmth cool against Julia’s heated skin. “The clippers seem jammed, Mrs E.”

The coolness of both helped ease the churning in Julia’s stomach.

Plastic rustled. Odd bottles and boxes thumped as the shopping bag settled on the carpet.

“Her hair was too long to start with those clippers. Use the side lever to shift the teeth. If that doesn’t work, we’ll cut those strands free and sort it out,” Mum said. “Rachel, can you ask Mal to bring in the groceries?”

“I’ll handle it, Mrs E. He’s probably partway through something,” Rachel replied, slipping towards the front door.

“No, get him to do it. I told him not to work on his car while I was gone. The disruption can be his punishment.”

The words tied together a magnetic latticework over the hole; jagged pieces and tiny slivers rose from the gulf, some finer than powdered glass. Each drawn to the words, and the unshed tears of laughter in her mother’s eyes. Their energies differed from the tears of worry and denial.

“I remember her face, and the feel of her arms around me,” Amdirlain breathed, as happy tears spilled across her cheeks. “That restored slabs of memory, turned powdered glass into proper moments. I can get them back.”

Sarah leaned forward to plant a kiss, then drew her into a hug. “Shall we see if we can retrieve more?”

Amdirlain gave her a radiant smile through her continued tears.

The time Sarah spent around Julia’s home brought up more sources. Over hours, more memory shards rose, incomplete pieces related to Julia’s mother. Some dissociated from the particular moment Sarah had shared. Amdirlain savoured each reassembled moment, sharing her perspective with Sarah.

They were still going when a translucent songbird appeared beside Amdirlain’s shoulder. Though only Amdirlain could hear the voice, the wing’s shift snapped Sarah’s gaze to it.

In a deferential hush, Pán Shí issued forth from the manifestation. “Lady Amdirlain, I hope this morning finds you well. My wife’s family and I would like to accept your generous offer to start anew. In addition, I should report that the commander put the onus on me to pay the feast’s bill, but the innkeeper did not betray your generosity.”

“Thank you, Pán Shí. I’ll visit again before dinner this evening to collect anyone who wishes to come along. You can extend it beyond her family if you have particular friends,” Amdirlain replied out loud for Sarah’s benefit before another songbird took back her return message.

“You have your first recruits?”

“Yes, we’ll see how big her family is when I get there. Though we’ll need a lot more to build anything close to a proper community. The people I know are all busy tending to other education efforts I created for them, so I’ll need experienced cultivators from somewhere.”

“Have you thought about offering spots to those wandering cultivators you told me about?” Sarah asked. “Since you can hear the music within someone, you can avoid those with twisted foundations.”

“I know of one core-ranked fellow, but I’ve not really been looking for wanderers. If I can get some cultivators in the body, foundation, and energy ranks, then they can help teach Kliypl, Gail, Rainith, and Jinfeng the fundamentals while you and Livia experiment. Pán Shí is an experienced body cultivator, though he hit a blockage trying to make it through to the foundation.”

“Klipyl’s reaction yesterday was that a breakthrough?”

“No, just a physical reaction to her body adjusting. The cultivation spirals when a breakthrough happens are obvious as the person draws in a lot of energy. Think of it like a bank of capacitors suddenly coming online, and the body’s response is to charge them.”

“Who are you going to try next?”

“An experienced alchemist I helped relocate here. I hadn’t planned to expand the sect then, but he’s a decent fellow in early core rank.”

“Since this realm uses alchemy to enchant some items, I’d be interested in learning.” Sarah grinned at Amdirlain. “The proper way.”

Amdirlain huffed and lifted her nose. “I need to practise my primordial will more than stirring herbs and beast stones in a giant cauldron.”

A bright peal of laughter erupted from Sarah. “Cheater, cheater, dirty rotten cheater.”

“How childish!”

“True, but I love your brand of chaos, sweetie.” Sarah caressed Amdirlain’s cheek, then paused as her own breathing quickened. “You’d better go recruit your pot stirrer; stay much longer, and you won’t get to leave today. I’d get no practice.”

“There might be a slight issue there. Last time I met him, I was using Jinfeng’s appearance.”

“Why?”

“She blends in with the locals.”

“The locals are all Asiatic in appearance?”

“All the humans I’ve met have been, but there are also some beast-kin who possess a range of animal traits,” Amdirlain replied.

“They have cat girls?”

“With a single set of ears,” Amdirlain huffed.

Sarah laughed. “That was a pet peeve of yours.”

“Yep, that one I didn’t forget about.” Amdirlain laughed.

“I’m glad that this realm’s creator has sense. Have you learnt who controls this place yet?” Sarah asked.

Amdirlain smiled warily. “A deity with a familiar name, but this realm’s version of him seems very different.”

“Why are you being so cagey?”

“It doesn’t impact the work you have ahead of you.”

“Sweetie?” Sarah rapped her fingers against the porch stones. “Just tell me.”

“Like there are different shards of Nüwa around, this realm’s creator is a version of Sun Wukong.”

“Have you spoken to him at all?”

“A few times; he provided me some advice and apologies. Said he’d prefer it if I didn’t reincarnate in this realm,” Amdirlain said. “He is a touch concerned that when I get free, I might do something to his realm. However, I’ve got no grudge against him. The rule that kept me here was part of a defence strategy he put in place because of events that led to his last realm being destroyed.”

“Ouch. Other shards of beings we know?”

“The four winds and some others died protecting their path of retreat,” Amdirlain's lips pressed into a thin line, the thought of losing people rubbing raw wounds after drawing out memories. “I ran into a scale of Xuan Wu, and it carried a tune almost identical to the fellow in our home realm. Not that my hearing is the most accurate at present, but the major themes are the same.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Sarah murmured.

“Not a straightforward situation.” Amdirlain stretched out along the porch and rested her head in Sarah’s lap. It was nearly mid-afternoon before she stirred and, after a heated kiss headed on her way.

The jump from their home to near her recruitment target put her on a stone road that Drakon had created, connecting villages. A lazy breeze that played with Amdirlain’s hair carried the pleasant aroma of sun-warmed grasses and exposed earth

Where it was positioned, the alchemist’s building stood out among the long grasses and other foliage. Along the road beside it, someone had scythed back an acre of grass and staked out rows, but had yet to plant anything. Yao Hóng’s aura was a controlled presence within his shop. While the glass-topped counter and shelves survived their relocation unharmed, they now contained only a small collection of hand-drawn plant pictures, each marked with a price in copper taels.

Though she’d used Jinfeng’s appearance when they’d met earlier, this time Amdirlain left her silver hair and luminescent skin visible, though she restrained her aura somewhat.

She rapped sharply on the doorframe before letting herself into the shop. The lines across Yao Hóng’s round face had deepened since Amdirlain had last seen him. A host of new strained notes rang through his theme, but the sour set of his mouth had eased. He looked up from a sheet of paper that contained a drawing of a bush and a close-up of a cluster of fan-shaped leaves.

“Is your relocation proving a challenge, Yao Hóng?” Amdirlain asked.

His brown-and-grey robes rustled as Hóng stiffened behind the counter. He carefully set aside his brush, then bowed as low as his stomach would allow; his jowls bounced slightly from the haste. “Settling in always has its own challenges, esteemed one. My apologies, but while your sect robes are familiar, I didn’t get your colleague’s name or sect.”

“Amdirlain of the Golden Maze Sect. I was in disguise when we first met,” Amdirlain said.

Hóng bowed again. “Then I’m honoured to meet you again, Lady Amdirlain. You have a heaven-blessed gift; the way you aided me to distill insights from previous experiments.”

“I’ll hope this isn’t rude, but how is it you aren’t a member of a sect?”

He slapped his stomach with both hands and burst out laughing. “I was in my youth; however, I failed to adhere to their expected martial standards. Now, someone is kind if they merely refer to me as rotund. Fortunately, after I left them, my talent let me keep progressing for a time. I’ve had offers since but turned them down. Even those polite enquiries were a fatality of the situation with Toko.”

“Could I entice you to consider an offer from our small sect?”

Hóng coughed in surprise as the strained notes within him evaporated. “What could I offer one such as you?”

“My brother only founded the Golden Maze Sect recently. I’m looking for capable people to teach recruits. I know very little about alchemy, which is why I first came to speak to you about Toko.”

“To join one such as you.” Suddenly, weak-kneed Hóng dropped onto a stool behind the counter. “My impulse is to say yes, but I feel in fairness it requires discussion. I had a very mixed experience last time I was part of a sect.”

“What concerns you most?” Amdirlain asked.

“Being held to a standard that has nothing to do with alchemy.” Hóng laughed.

“I need an alchemy teacher. If you can teach people that, I’ll help you grow faster. The aid I gave you before wasn’t a fluke.”

Hóng clicked his mouth shut and coughed into his hand, then continued. “How far away is your sect? I made a commitment to the nearby villages, and they’ve already started to prepare a field here.”

“We’re closer to the sea along this river,” Amdirlain said. “If you wish to base yourself here, I can arrange a gate to allow you to step between your shop and the compound I just constructed. Would helping you tend to customers be a useful training exercise?”

A smile flickered, briefly lightening Hóng’s expression. “How old is your sect?”

“My brother created it in the last decade while I meditated. Consider us an open cooperative group for advancement, not a martial sect.”

“While you have treated me most generously, might I meet with him and learn more before I decide?”

If I’m not upfront, he might resent it, and it's not like I’ve kept my situation a secret from Silver Wall Sect and others.

“You can’t at present. I’ll understand if that is a blocker, but Drakon is currently refining his aura. Though if you merely wished to do so to determine his strength, he is also in nascent soul rank.” Amdirlain hummed. “I’ll be upfront with you. Our sect is in an odd spot. Until a few days ago, only Drakon, his apprentice, and I were members. While I’ve had other people ask to join, I declined them.”

“Then I feel as if the realm should tremble with you planning to grow your sect. Three of you overturned nations. Is it the refugees that caused you to grow, or something else?”

“Actually, some friends joined us from our original realm. They’re having to relearn how to utilise their different strengths. They’re at a range of strengths, and since we’d have to plan to teach them from the basics, I felt it was an opportunity to set up to teach others.”

“You’re from another realm?!” Hóng clutched at the counter. “That’s something I’ve only heard of in the oldest tales.”

He pressed trembling hands together before him; his hastened breathing eased off, and the pulse jumping in his neck calmed

“Fear? My apologies for being so casual with the announcement; that wasn’t the reaction I expected,” Amdirlain said.

“Invaders came in and destroyed Sun Wukong’s last realm.”

“The invaders who did that, I also hunted in my last realm,” Amdirlain said. “They seek to devour and rip apart anything not of the chaos that lies between realms. I’m sure you’ll have interesting tales to share if you agree to join us, but fighting the Eldritch won’t be among them. I can tell you’re bubbling with questions. Ask them freely.”

“What oath would I have to swear?”

“I’m not binding anyone by oath. If our sect isn’t a place they want to stay, they’re free to go. If someone causes problems or hurts others, they’ll find themselves asked to leave. As a member, I want people to look out for their fellow sect members. I expect members to respect another’s experience and time, but I have no tolerance for bullies, nor those who leech off another.”

“No ascetic vows, or physical trials to remain?” Hóng’s hand twitched towards his lower ribs. “No criticism about my food?”

“No. Though we currently don’t have a cook,” Amdirlain advised.

“Oh, I can handle whatever cooking I desire.”

Her brow lifted inquisitively. “Do you find food more beneficial than being sustained by pills?”

“It’s more that I find it quite soothing to cook after the stress of refining pills, to find the right balance of texture and aroma to enhance the palate. Indeed, the intermingling of dishes and the flavours within each, especially with qi-infused ingredients, is an art in itself.”

“I’ve heard it put that way before,” Amdirlain said. “The food and the process of preparation are sources of enjoyment for you.”

“Yes. With long days of brewing, I’ve often flipped between fasting and feasting, which…” Hóng smiled sheepishly and patted his belly again. “Resulted in more of me as the years went by.”

“Well, as a sect, we can ensure that your kitchen and lab remain stocked with at least the fundamentals. Those required for lessons and private projects in return for your time. We can set up a contribution point system so that you can post jobs for other exotic materials. That way, its fulfilment can grow as we do,” Amdirlain said.

“This is all so enticing. What would my standing be?”

“Given your advancement, you’d be one of the senior members. Particularly as the experience of the others is in energies that aren’t an exact match to qi.”

Hóng’s eyes widened, and notes skipped in his theme. “That would be an odd learning curve. How quickly do you intend to grow?”

“I plan to recruit a few specialists, but then grow through a small influx of novices each year. Do you have any thoughts on that approach?”

His bouncing tones firmed.

“If you could find me a few alchemists around the energy rank.” Hóng patted the counter. “They could both help tend villages and novice requests, and make my time more productive in teaching.”

“You sound like you’ve committed,” Amdirlain noted.

“Yes.” Hóng laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “After all my questions, I forgot the formalities. It would be my greatest honour to join the Golden Maze Sect, Lady Amdirlain. I appreciate your patience in answering my questions today.”

I haven't heard the pendant connection form when it's enchanted, and Drakon has the spares.

“Welcome, Elder Yao Hóng. I’ll look into recruiting some staff for you, and sort out sect pendants shortly,” Amdirlain said. “Would you have concerns if I approach the former Lady Han?”

“Not at all. She had no part in what I suffered,” Hóng said. “Do you have any sect rules written yet for us to follow?”

“As three people, we had no need,” Amdirlain replied. “If something seems odd or troublesome, come talk to my brother or me. We both have things to learn about running a sect. While we might not always agree, we’ll find a sustainable, fair approach. There will be things to fine-tune, and something will change as we grow.”

“Elder Yao. I didn’t even ask what ranks you use.”

“The only titles my brother used were just Master and Apprentice. We’ll go with Master, Elder, Senior, and Apprentice when formality absolutely requires them, but names alone are fine with me.”

Different from other sects.

“I have one administrative matter for consideration.”

“What is that?”

“When I was with my last sect, there never seemed to be a good balance between contribution points,” Hóng explained. “For example, you want to keep the cost of lessons low, but with only a few people gathering, I’ll have to pay more for materials for private projects.”

“To offset that, I can pay those who join to teach a stipend each month. Though, if someone stops actively teaching enough hours, they’ll have to contribute in other ways.”

Hóng sighed in relief. “Do the newcomers to the realm have experience with any crafting or brewing?”

“Only two of them, but they’ll need to relearn, and I’ve some experience as a smith,” Amdirlain replied. “Are you knowledgeable in crafting outside of alchemy?”

“No, and unfortunately, all my contacts are among artisans at First Peak. I’ve yet to speak to the Silver Wall Sect, so I don’t know how long it would take to get even a single teaching lab set up for us.”

“Then please provide me with a list of the items and materials you’d need for a teaching area and initial lessons,” Amdirlain said. “I’ll start getting things set up. Should the building’s layout match your basement lab?”

He thumbed his chin. “I can give you a list of common herbs required for basic lessons. The more advanced ones would depend on what the students want to focus on.”

“In what regard?”

“Well, someone learning alchemy for enchanting spirit blades or cloth versus pills and elixirs for consumption requires very different materials, even if there are techniques in common.” 

“I’ll acquire extra materials once you know more.” Amdirlain glided close to the counter. “Can you advise on the set-up for a teaching and practice hall?”

A drawer under the counter rattled and clanked as he opened it. His gaze went briefly unfocused before he set a murky green jade slip on the counter. “If you can acquire all those, it will give a starting point to set up a teaching chamber. I’ve also included the layout for a standard teaching room, including the benches, a list of cauldron sizes, materials, and other basic equipment. However, while I can manage one room in isolation, you’ll need a formation master to establish a number tightly placed in a single building.”

Amdirlain nodded politely, collected it, then reached out with her will.

“I’ve created a free-standing doorway beside the rear door of your residence. It will deliver you to a matching one within the walls of our compound.”

I’ll acquire these, then get some texts on sect rules and contribution points. Or should I perhaps speak to the former Lady Han next? She’s been setting up formations; perhaps she has the expertise Hóng needs. I could create another gateway between the shrine and the compound.

He contained his surprise to a loud swallow. “You move so quickly once you decide.”

“It’s the way I am. It’s tuned to allow only you passage. When I find you some assistants, I’ll add them to it,” Amdirlain replied. After another polite nod, she vanished.