OtH 1.15 - The Burning Garden

Sorry for a bit of delay. Lots of family stuff was happening with the 4th of July. Lit off some fireworks and had barbeque, it was all very nice.

Emerging from the stairway, Aarick found himself on a wide pathway of the same snowy stone.

Does Lurona really like white? I didn’t see too much of that in the interior. Something symbolic about having a building made of pure white stone then?

He sighed. Not like he had enough information to make anything but guesses.

A short wall, not quite to his waist, was at the edge. He could see the shape of the building from up here. The lower layers were below him now, and he could see the curving lines.

The building was like nothing he had ever seen.

It was roughly triangular, but instead of straight lines the building was made of three convex lines, causing the corners to be sharply angled. The bottom layer was the largest, while he stood on top of the second layer now. The corners, and the overall structure of the building was not straight up and down, either. A curve was evident on each wall, the walls bending inward so the entire building was more like a convex pyramid.

However, the pattern didn’t continue in a simple layer cake design. The third layer was Lurona’s tower, and he could see it now. Like the second layer in relation to the bottom, it was substantially recessed from top of the second. And it formed a long delicate tower. It was the same convex design, the convex pyramidal design expressed to completion in flawless stone. Though the sharp edges were clearly visible, it appeared to be a single block of stone soaring elegantly toward the sky. Whether some method was used to fuse the stone together, or it was merely more illusion, he couldn’t tell. The inward curves of each side eventually met into a single gleaming point hundreds of feet overhead.

Could we even build this on Earth? Certainly not out of stone, I think. Where the tower gets really thin we would probably need to make it out of metal. Otherwise, the swaying of the structure in the wind might destroy the stone. Either an unnaturally strong material was used, they really can fuse stone into a single piece, and or some magical bullshit is strengthening it.

Perhaps it was silly that he was so effected this way. It didn’t feel like his brain was forced to reboot again, or anything. Rather, this was more personal. He had been studying engineering. He understood the forces that made a building work. He knew the strength of materials and what to expect.

This was less an earth shattering revelation, and more a quiet but powerful proof of the magic of the world.

Sure, give me illusions and I just accept it. Build me an impossible building, and I’ll stop and stare.

He shook his head. This wasn’t even what he was up here for.

That sight, was captivating in its own right.

A multitude of plants were clearly visible at the base of the tower.

The same geometric design was evident here, the entire garden forming a perfect circular edge as the outer layer. Entrances to the garden extended from each triangular edge, as well as the middle sections, meaning that their ought to be six entrances in total.

The plants themselves were beautifully alien.

Some were close to what he was expecting, plants with shades of red, yellow, and orange leaves. However, others were shimmering shades of blues, greens, purples, the leaves glimmering with waves of heat. Other plants were and ashy charcoal, with ember bright spots of red, or red veins that glowed like cracks of burning wood within their ashy shells.

Right. Not all fire is red and orange. Depends on the temperature and the fuel.

It hadn’t been that long since his chemistry classes. Not his favorite, but they were basic requirements for any of the hard sciences.

Small clouds of smoke emerged from various plants, while others burned ceaselessly with nothing to show for it. Farther into the garden, other clouds of smoke in various colors raised into the air. None of them reached very far before they faded away.

Is that a natural effect, or is there a formation cleaning up the smoke?

Personally, he thought a multicolored cloud of smoke winding around the main tower would be quite striking, but it wasn’t his home. No doubt the tower had features which were invisible, too.

Wouldn’t want the smoke to block a window or something.

He approached the garden, staying on the outside for the moment. He could feel a… pressure as he approached. It was like trying to hold his breathe at the bottom of a deep pool, or muggy air on a hot day. It wasn’t actually a physical sensation, but on some level he could feel a resistance.

His qi familiarity grew as he came closer. Not an increase in ability, but, rather, an ease of transmission. He hadn’t felt it before, but now he could feel that his sense had a harder time propagating when the qi was less dense. And so, his reach stretched slightly farther, extending a few more inches.

Not the most significant change with my current abilities, but it could potentially matter when my familiarity has substantially improved. Of course, I already know the real issue will be managing the data properly.

He already had that problem, after all. It wasn’t like humans paid attention to every sensation they could potentially feel. He was already tuning out the extemporaneous sensations that his new sense was giving him, just as he did with his normal sense of touch.

I’m not sure how my mind will improve with cultivation, though. Reodan can move insanely fast, which means he must have some way to deal with that speed. That implies that his thoughts are massively accelerated. Not sure if that is a permanent condition, or something that he does when he needs to move quickly.

For a moment Aarick imagined what a city might be like in a qi dense area. Millions or billions of individuals traveling in blurs as they performed various tasks. The entire city looking like a time-lapse as tasks were achieved at monumental speed.

An amusing thought. If it is actually anything like that, the cultivators might eat more often simply out of boredom. If an hour feels like a day, then boredom becomes one of the major enemies. Of course… with so many people living for so long, staving off boredom must be its own issue.

He could imagine a great many activities that he would enjoy learning and mastering. However, with enough time, he should be able to manage all of them, no matter how little talent he had in a particular task. However… with such a large population, new novels and other forms of entertainment should also be created faster than they could be consumed. Even with people able to experience time more quickly, that should be true.

We had already hit that point on Earth. Most of that was due to technology, but I don’t really know what tech is like in the higher qi areas. And the much higher population should help.

He stopped dwelling on it for the moment. He would either learn more from books, his tutors, or eventually experience it himself.

He walked right up to the edge of garden, the soft leather soles of his shoes slapping gently against the stone pathway. Reodan, silent as ever, remained just behind him.

The pressure grew. He felt something inside him strain under the pressure. He stopped and breathed for a moment. He could feel the qi in the air, on his breath, in the stone. He could feel it pushing up against his skin, eager to enter, wanting to push past some barrier. He didn’t know what kept it out. His spirit, his will, his soul, or something more physical?

He didn’t know, but he could feel a faint power radiating out from himself too. His qi familiarity reaching out to commune with the world.

If the pressure grew too much more, it could prove dangerous. He had no desire to feel the cold burning pain of qi pushing its way into him, unregulated and uncontrolled. Pain, such a mild word, for the torture he had experienced.

The qi though… he could feel it. Feel the world through it.

Reodan hadn’t said much, but Aarick could infer something regardless. The qi familiarity should be able to help with the pressure somehow.

What if I just… ask?

Could the answer be that simple?

He could feel the world, feel it talk to him. What if he talked back?

He tried it, reaching out through the qi that he was linked to.

He didn’t try to communicate much, just a simple request for the pressure to ease. A desire to be given some room, some relief.

Nothing happened at first, and he thought it wasn’t working, but, then, slowly, he could feel the pressure start to ease. It continued to push backwards from him.

The density was still somewhat stifling, but it had grown substantially better.

There was no feedback, no sense of greater communion, or any great epiphany, merely the world responding to his will.

Merely?

He smiled, allowing himself a moment to laugh internally at his own nonchalance. The enlightenments, and his new senses, were amazing but in some fashion they hadn’t felt as magical as the world he found himself in.

And yet, this was the first magic he had performed for himself. He had spoken to the world and it answered. It was a tiny, almost insignificant magic (regardless of what they would call it here), and he had done it.

And yet he was disappointed that there had been no vast signs, no sudden awakening.

What was I expecting? Pillars of light descending from the sky declaring that I am the chosen one? A flash of lightning? Already saw plenty of that today, and will get to experience that on my own later.

Ruefully, he stepped into the garden.

The pressure grew, though it still remained less than it was before. He could feel a faint ache. It was almost like a headache as it started to form.

Well I asked for some kind of feedback. This is what I get for asking.

There was an aspect of concentration to his request, and it grew as he went deeper, even as the air grew hot with residual heat.

The plants were increasingly beautiful and strange. Ink black plants absorbed the light, even as they burned with colored flames. A small tree with a straight trunk had wide ribbons of fire in place of any normal branches or leaves, the fire was dense in some way he didn’t understand. Another small grassier shrub was a vivid blue, with matching blue flames replacing the leaves of the lower portions.

The garden continued deeper in, and he walked the paths, absorbed in the strange beauty, even as he felt the pressure in his head grow.

My head is starting to burn more than the plants.

It may have been a slight exaggeration, but the pressure in his head had transitioned from pressure to pain, and then from pain to a burning ache.

Is this like a muscle? If I push it will it get stronger? Or is this more like an injury?

He turned another corner, the garden a maze of perfectly maintained paths in perfectly geometrical patterns.

Ahead, he could see more plants, but these seemed different in some fashion.

The plants around him were obviously fiery, but they also resonated on some level with his concept of what fire was.

This probably goes back to qi being able to embody ideas.

The plants ahead of him were not just fire. They burned with a golden fire that reminded him of only a few experiences in his old life.

The deep peace of standing in the redwood forest. Hearing a Gregorian chant performed in an ancient cathedral, the sounds reverberating across the stone in a resonant cascade of music.

It was the feeling of something sacred.

How would that even work? What does it mean for something to be sacred, to be holy? Divine fire was certainly a concept from religions in my old world, but what does that even mean?

Fire… I understand.

It’s a simple chemical reaction. Oxidation that produces heat and therefore triggers more oxidation in a runaway cascade reaction. Most commonly fires in nature involve hydrocarbons. As long as there is fuel and fresh oxygen, the reaction keeps going.

Different reactants can produce different colors. Copper usually makes blue, for example. Though a hot enough fire would go through the different colors on its own.

He paused for a moment, looking at the golden fire.

Apparently, the universe had been waiting for this, because he felt a connection to the fire reverberate through out his being… and promptly lost his concentration.

Qi slammed against him and he creaked against the strain.

The world blurred for a moment and he was outside the garden, Reodan carefully setting him back onto his feet.