[Archived Short Story] Watching The Kids

Vel giggled, this was going to be a splendid trick! He had gathered four of his friends, each with a special skill, and soon enough they’d be able to go out and explore a little. They planned to stay in the area where their parents were in charge of, but without all the extra fuss that normally came with such things.

That brought to mind one of Vel’s friends that was very much not invited! Heather seemed to think she was so adult now that she had turned twelve. Well, Vel was ten. In maybe a couple weeks, but that’s besides the point. He was ten enough and that meant almost as much of an adult as Heather so his plan wasn’t childish!

Corey and Jay had already arrived so they were just waiting on the girls, Ayla and Roe. Vel was tempted to start things early, but they needed the two to have any chance of success. There was only so much they could do on their own, after all. At least while in the house.

From what Heather has said, once outside you can do more. Not that he believed that. After all, when would she have gotten outside? Without a brilliant plan like the one he came up with, there’s no way to leave without all the pomp and circumstance.

Then the last two kids arrive and they really get down to planning. All the while a group of maids and butlers worry outside of the room. Those servants are all suddenly happy about how their young masters and mistresses have learned to ignore them and treat them as if they didn’t exist.

The strongest maid and butler keep order as they listen in on the plans, each new detail making them cringe even harder. Not only were they planning to descend to a lower realm, but they weren’t even planning to do it in the usual way! Vel and his attunement to Space allowing for a direct portal when combined with the others.

Some of the younger servants ask about informing someone further up the chain. Sunlight Dappling the New Grown Leaves, the strongest butler who has graciously allowed his fellow servants to refer to him as Dapple, shoots down that idea. “While that would solve our problems short term, it also is our head in the chopping block.

“As was already noted, we are thankfully able to listen in on this. That is only true because they can’t imagine us going against their orders if their parents haven’t already given an opposing order. While they haven’t technically ordered us not to tell their parents, we all know that is what they want.”

The strongest maid, Silver Moonlight On the Forgotten Oasis who has graciously allowed the others to refer to her as Oasis, nods. “At the moment, our orders are to keep our charges safe. Though like that of a mother beast watching her cub attempt their first hunt. We must stand back and react. To save them in danger and not prevent it.”

Dapple sighs, “Plus, if we tell on them, that means the next time they plan something like this, and there will be a next time, they will try and prevent us from listening in.”

After that, there isn’t much to say as the two had brought forward the biggest stumbling block. Not that they all hadn’t already thought of it. There wasn’t a single servant in the group who hadn’t been serving their current masters for at least ten thousand years, with Oasis having the longest record of over a million years of service. You don’t end up serving a truly important family’s young master or mistress without a proven record and unwavering loyalty.

Back in the room, Vel and his friends get everything worked out. Not that they have a plan so much as they finally peer pressured each other into all agreeing to go through with it.

So they do.

Of course, their fumbling doesn’t create a perfect portal, but it is enough and the five all pile into the tear in reality, only to pop out on a small lower realm. So small, they can actually expand their perception and detect the entire plane. Which happens to be one of the flat variety where it is so small the place has one down and the ground is literally built upon the “bottom” of the dimensional barrier.

The kids find this amusing because this shape causes the plane itself to flatten, becoming like a flattened sphere. One of them even pokes at the barrier, which causes a small hole that takes a moment to close. Though while it is doing so, all five of them take turns looking out into the raw void. A scene they’ve only been able to view with their parents as their home dimension is much too sturdy for them to even think of making such a hole.

Unbeknownst to them though, the hole isn’t healing naturally. While a plane like this can in theory heal a home in its dimensional barrier, the remnants of the kids power would have easily have held that home open. No, what was actually happening is that when they made the portal, Oasis, with her much higher cultivation, had taken control of the portal and allowed the various caretakers to sneak into the dimension ahead of the kids.

And it is those butlers and maids that are healing the barrier. With great care, they picked out each remnant of power the kid had left behind until the hole was able to close. Not that they left it to naturally seal. That might take too long and might tempt their charges to see what would happen if they poked a bigger hole or tried to go take a dip in the raw, unformed chaos of the void.

Much to their relief, the quick closing of the hole soon saw the kids attention shift to a more active form of entertainment. Their arrival wasn’t unnoticed and a handful of old (for the plane) cultivators had gathered. The kids didn’t know what they wanted and it isn’t like they spoke the same language and so after the locals tried talking and then shouting at them. Those old men, because of course it was a bunch of men, decided to get violent.

So they died.

Vel, Corey, and Jay all laugh at this, though Ayla and Roe feel a little bad. Not that they actually feel pity for the dead men, it was more along the lines of feeling bad about someone killing an ant. The specific ant doesn’t matter, but rather the cruelty of the person killing said ant.

So the kids decided to split up. Not that they had really planned to stay together in the first place, this was just quicker than expected. The boys headed off to a mountain range the spread across a third of the realm, so about the landmass you could get get from between two and three medium-sized planets in a higher realm where such things could form.

On the other hand, the girls wanted a more civilized experience. As far as they were concerned, the boys could have all the fun they wanted to with the barbarian tribes. That just meant they wouldn’t interfere with the girls while they played around in the flat plains where many of the more stable empires existed.

Of course, with this split, the servants also split. Dapple going after the boys while Oasis followed the girls. Not that they technically had to do so. This place was small enough that they could, in theory interfere with something happening on one side while they were on the other. It was just that they didn’t want to leave anything up to chance.

Later on, the two would both claim they had the harder task. The boys were simply causing chaos, but the girls were causing social chaos. Though once the two had a bit of quiet to themselves, they agreed it was one of those situations where you can’t really measure one against the other.

Of course, calling what the boys got up to “simply causing chaos” is a bit of an understatement, at least a lower rank plane. When a simple poke can literally pierce reality and even the strongest local cultivators die like ants, Dapples biggest worry isn’t danger to them, but the plane itself.

And not just on a physical level. The methods, techniques, and forms known by these deceptively young children are better than literal heavenly treasures. So, when the boys split up and make three castles out of mountains to play kings, some information is bound to leak to the locals.

Oh, and “castles out of mountains” doesn’t mean they took a mountain and carved it into a castle. Rather, each of the boys gathered a few mountain ranges worth of mountains and used them like building blocks to make their castles. So the fact that the locals ended up worshiping them was no surprise.

And because just sparring with each other would be boring and not really “kingly”, those new worshipers were put to work. And by work, I mean they were formed into armies and made to battle. This is how the leaks happened.

The boys obviously didn’t think much of the knowledge they spread. The common people of their home realm would consider most of it low tier. Though, as foundational knowledge, they were forced to learn it and now they would occasionally spread it to those that did well.

Dapple and the other butlers then would have to come in behind them and clean up the mess. Simple stuff such as making it so anyone that learned anything too advanced for the plane was soul bound to not share it. Oh, and while uprooting all those mountains didn’t really cause too much of a problem, one of the butlers that enjoyed gardening made sure to help the environment recover in a more natural fashion. You know, instead of just having horrendous monsters pop up to fill the gap until things settled.

On the other side of things, Oasis had to deal with subtler forms of local corruption. The two girls didn’t split up and weren’t passing out super techniques like they were candy. However, they were trying to play at being the “power behind the throne” as it were.

And they sucked at it. At least, the actual clandestine part. Though, sadly for the locals, they didn’t need to rely on just actual skill. Instead, they supplemented what was basically a kid trying to wheedle an extra cookie after dinner with karmic techniques.

The maids following the duo were in a near constant state of cringe. Not just because the girls’ honestly pitiful attempts at subterfuge, but because everyone from the lowest scullery maid, up to the thousand year old ancestor hidden away at the center of the emperor’s castle complex had to follow along. It was like the girls were playing with dolls and making a child’s idea of a cheesy romance novel play out.

All the while, Oasis and her fellow maids had to rush around and smooth things out. Oh, and curtail the spread. After all, it isn’t like this kind of effect would for some reason be limited to just a single empire.

No, the karmic influence spread outward and the maids had to make sure it stayed within a certain range or else the clean up would have truly been horrendous. And what clean up was this? Well, comparing the affected people to dolls isn’t wrong.

In a higher realm, the realm would stop the karmic spread itself and people who could resist it would pop up all over the place. Here? If even a single one of them was left, the entire realm would end up following “the story”. So they would need to kill everyone affected.

Because for someone like the girls to imprint their will on people so much lower? There could even be a debate made that they weren’t sapient anymore. Rather, just puppets playing out their role. And the saddest part? The girls didn’t even mean to do this. In their home realm, what they had done was the equivalent of puppy dog eyes. It is just that no one in this plane had even a ghost of a chance to resist.

And then time stopped.

[Vel De Aaslou MarrowCharm! What have you been up to? I allow you some time with your friends and this is how you use it?]

All five kids appear in front of <undecipherable> MarrowCharm, Vel’s grandfather. While maybe not a pillar of his family, he was certainly a core member and up for elder status once his cultivation at the <undecipherable> stage had settled.

Vel rolls his eyes, “We were just playing around. Not like you ever forbid us from going to lower realms or anything.”

The man shakes his head, [We don’t care about that. It was seen as inevitable once your Space attunement was revealed. No, our family and the families of your friends are disappointed in the fact you didn’t pay attention to your lessons!]

The man points to the mountain battleground, [What useless displays of childishness! None of you three did anything besides stack blocks. Why are there no floating castles, spatially expanded treasure rooms, or teleportation arrays? Back home you might have a problem setting them up, but half the reason we let you come down here was because those things would be possible. It would have been excellent practice!]

And the man turns to the girls, [And you two, what is this mess? At least the boys managed to set up a pretty self sustaining religion based around the three being at odds with one another. All you did was waste these mortal’s lives. Being a hidden power can be useful, but this was your chance to set up a following on one of the lowest planes. Back home there are people my age who would give their entire fortune for such a chance.]

The man sighs, [Well, maybe if Vel can figure out how to get around the spatial lock we’ll be putting in place, you all can try again later. And good news! You didn’t miss any of your lessons!]

Vel shakes his head, “We’ve been done here for ages! Like, at least a handful of months.”

The man laughs, [As if we would allow you to fritter away your valuable time like that. The second you entered this plane, your parents accelerated the time here so that you wouldn’t miss out on anything back home. Did you really think we would allow you to miss your lessons?]

Vel goes red in the face, “What!? That isn’t fair! I got out and that should mean I skipped those lessons! Our family is so important, why school? Just let me have fun!”

The man shakes his head and <undecipherable>

All of the kids and hidden servants are back home, leaving the plane to recover from their short, but terrifying visit.

Years pass and things get back to normal in the plains, though the sudden disappearance of an entire empire and many of those who lived in the area surrounding it had caused waves. However, the disappearance was put down as the empire having summoned something they shouldn’t have. Which while not true, was closer than would be expected for them to figure out.

On the other hand, deep in barbarian lands, three new cults rose up in power. While the boys hadn’t really done much to make a religion, the barbarians didn’t need much. Plus, those giant castles certainly helped. Though likely the most beneficial to their rise was a number of techniques passed down in each religion.

As while the butlers had cleared out all the unsuitable knowledge, that didn’t include everything. Though what was left behind would be seen as at best quality of life techniques in the boy’s home realm. That didn’t mean they were weak and in fact, represented how strong they were.

After all, a simple dusting spell meant to move small bits of earth around might not seem like much. However, that is earth from their home realm where everything is suffused with power, resisting such attempts to such a high degree that people from this lower plane wouldn’t even budge the dust in the air.

So when such a “dusting” spell is used on a lower plane? What was a small and localized effect turns into a spell that can move around stone like an avalanche. In fact, the three religions end up defined by the techniques they retained.

One was the cult of the Unending Avalanche, for they had the “dusting” spell and a technique to heal paper cuts and catch your breath. The second cult was of the Searing Sun, having retained a spell to dry clothes and tan. And finally, the cult devoted itself to the Silent Night, having picked up a pair of spells for a boy who wanted a quieter night’s sleep and to not wake up with the sun in his eyes.

Or as the cults knew them; the Avalanche spell, spell of Never Ending Life, spell of Instant Drought, Incineration, Impenetrable Silence, and the spell to Bring Night to the Daytime.