“That… what?” I mumbled.
Lifespan wasn’t so tangible energy you could point at in the universe. It wasn’t like light, Force, or Gravity. It was just a limit until cells decided they were done. Even if Intent persisted beyond death, even if that lingering sothing could be called a soul… lifespan was separate from all of that.
“The persistence of a plane, and its inhabitants, depends on an energy,” Nova began in her monotone. But the smile stamped across her screen gave her excitent away, mouth animating as she spoke. “That energy is limited. Allotted. How it is asured, I lack sufficient data to determine at the mont. But… so portion must go to sustainnt, and the rest goes to those who unlock the power within them.”
“And… you got this information how?” I asked. I wasn’t calling them liars, but the explanation was full of holes.
“There were… let’s just say notes,” Serith replied. “On contact. With the Great Ancestor.”
If she’d pulled it from an enemy source, it might’ve been fake, but Serith would likely know that already. If I could see the risk, she certainly could. So I pushed for what mattered.
“You say I can’t live like you,” I said. “What does that an? Our lives—what kind of limit am I dealing with?”
Nova looked down. Her pixels rearranged into eyes angled toward the floor, sad in a simplified way, the mouth gone entirely. “It is difficult to determine, lack of—”
“Data,” I finished for her. “Got it. A guess is fine.”
“Not as long as ,” Serith said. “But it really is too hard to tell. Your lifespan has probably increased with what you’ve done.” Then she slowed. “But if I guess—” she stressed the word, “—then opening your World Seed shouldn’t increase it. Maybe even before this, you hadn’t increased it much if at all.”
“Oh. That’s all?” I asked, honestly surprised.
I glanced at Sia. She was already breathing easier, her gaze still locked on Elric, but without that earlier desperation now that survival had been promised.
“Sia,” I asked, “what’s the average lifespan on this world?”
She barely looked up. “It depends on the rank of the system,” she said softly, “but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone over a hundred. You’d have to ask my dad. He knew much higher-ranked people.”
I shook my head and looked back to Serith. “Thanks for telling . It’s… sothing to think about. But I’ve never thought too much about my lifespan.”
It wasn’t completely a lie. The thought had been there, surfacing now and then when mories of Janus and Asmund crawled up. But honestly, it was more of an uncomfortable pressure than anything.
So much had happened since I ca here. More than in my eight—no, nineteen years of life. Not in ti, but in weight. And sohow it felt worse when I tried to imagine hundreds of years ahead.
Another question ca. “What about my progress? Will I be stopped by this energy?”
Nova swayed side to side, her capsule body rocking. “The energy is required to extend life. Not increase power.”
Serith squinted. “But it’s much harder to rise in power once you’re at this level, Peter. To , a hundred years is nothing but a fraction of my life. And since evolving, I’ve only progressed to this level.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And that’s not a lot? You seed fine against Drema and the other guy. And, you still can train using my thods.”
“She is strong,” Nova agreed imdiately.
“There is another thing,” Serith said, ignoring us.
I looked to Elric. “We’ve been talking a while.”
She shook her head. “He will be fine. This is important too. Lucan, I haven’t been able to speak with him, or enter the capital.”
My eyes widened. “Is soone else—”
She cut it off with a sharp shake of her head. “No one should be able to enter this world without my or Ai’s say so. Not unless we violate our roles as Stewards.”
That hit a bit. “I figured that was already over.”
Serith shook her head again. “Both Ai and I were linked to this world long ago. So long as we don’t relinquish that power, or violate our role, then we remain in charge.”
Then she smiled, and placed a hand on Elric again. One last ti, she looked at . “Do—Can I help you with anything else?”
I wanted to say yes. I had a dozen things I could’ve thrown at her. But sothing in her expression deep down forced a different question out of . With what she’d said about her role, about boundaries, about what she could and couldn’t do…
“Can you afford to?” I asked.
“…Don’t change too much,” she said instead of answering, gaze drifting to the window. “I can respect what you’ll do for the people you care about, but there’s a reason others follow you. And it’s not because of power.”
“Not just,” I corrected.
She nodded once, not disagreeing. And in the next mont, a portal opened behind her.
Sia stood and stepped back as a thin beam of blue light slid out from Nova’s hand, touched Elric, then wrapped around him.
“Stay alive,” Serith said, stepping through. “Once he is healed, I’ll do my best to return.”
“You too,” I replied.
Nova and Serith vanished together, taking Elric with them.
One blink, blue light wrapped around him like a tether, and the next, the room was suddenly too quiet.
Sia stood near the window for a mont, staring out at the crowd. Then she turned to , eyes red but steadier than before.
“What now?”
I didn’t answer right away, taking a breath and tried to force my thoughts into order, and make the right response appear. But nothing ca.
Outside, through the glass, people were still gathered. Watching. Waiting. So of them were talking to each other, stealing glances during conversation. I could listen to them, but without context, their whispers were a little too confusing to make out. But I knew they were talking about .
Seeing that, I knew, I’d already made the decision. I’d already started pulling people in. Not just for the island. Not just for survival.
For sothing bigger.
I exhaled and looked at Sia. “You should go back.”
She opened her mouth, ready to argue, then stopped. Her jaw tightened, and she closed it again. She didn’t need to interrupt her with the obvious truth. She agreed. It was written all over her face.
Still, I gave my reason anyway.
“Lyra needs to know,” I said. “And… she’s the one who’s most familiar with healing.”
Sia nodded slowly, catching the implication. Healing was sothing we had to understand, to pull apart and rebuild until it could be replicated through Force.
“She’s also familiar with Animora,” Sia added. She wiped the corners of her eyes, her voice clearing more with each word, steadied by the act of doing sothing. “I’ll see if she can learn more about it too.”
“Good.” I nodded, then hesitated. “You… uh. You know the way back, right?”
Sia froze.
“Ummm.”
The word ca out almost guilty.
I stared at her for a second. Then I glanced past her, through the window, to where Thea lay outside. She might know, but I seriously doubt it.
I rubbed a hand over my face. My skin still felt stickier now than earlier; the conversation made sweat quite a bit.
“Okay,” I said, forcing my voice calm. “Then we can try taking a couple people from outside. They should know the way to the coast. Probably.”
Sia blinked, then nodded as if that solution had been sitting there the whole ti. “Yeah. They’re adults. They should know.”
I didn’t argue, even though the thought ford that we were technically adults too. And I doubted most people explored anything beyond where they were raised, trained, and assigned.
But I wasn’t going to say that out loud.
I took a few steps toward the door, trying to figure out how to ask without sounding completely clueless and exposing how much I was improvising now.
I opened it.
And stopped.
The captain stood right there, just at the bottom of the single step up to the building’s foundation, waiting.
His posture was straight, and face set rigidly. But his eyes are what caught . It was the way people would look at Elric. Like popular singers back on my world.
“You are chosen by the Guardian?” he asked.
I stared at him for a beat, not answering imdiately.
Then, I asked, “Why?”
His expression tightened, suspicion building in that look. “She is all over the capital. Her chosen is the strongest talent in the—”
Sia stepped out behind .
“You think she would appear,” she said, voice sharp, “talk so casually, if he was nothing to her?”
The captain faltered for a mont.
“That—” he started.
“You already know,” Sia continued, stepping past him without another glance. “Without asking.”
She went down the step and toward the gathered people without another word, leaving the implication there.
The captain’s eyes tracked her, then ca back to .
I didn’t move. “Why?” I repeated, quieter this ti.
He hesitated just long enough to show he was weighing sothing. Then he asked, “You plan on continuing this path?”
I didn’t bother hiding it. “That’s the plan. I don’t know how long. But for now—I will.”
His gaze narrowed. “Will you go to training camps?”
I stepped forward half a pace. “I answered you. Now, you answer .”
His jaw worked. “My son,” he said, “he is in one. A few days’ walk from here.”
“You want to co,” I said, not phrased like a question.
He didn’t deny it. “If you would allow .”
I studied him. If this was just about Serith, then fine. Right now, I wouldn’t look away from an escape to my problems. He knew his people. He was in charge of them. And, had information about the capital. Maybe not a lot, but in ti, I’d get as much as I could from him.
“I need soone to escort my friend to the shore,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Near the Shattered Expanse.”
His eyes flicked toward where Sia was. He nodded once, sharp and imdiate.
“And your na,” I added.
He dipped his head slightly. “Alrid.”
I repeated it once in my head so I forget lose it.
Alrid didn’t waste ti. He turned and barked, “Rent! Keen!”
Two n straightened out of habit. Their eyes were still on , nodding fast.
“Escort the chosen’s friend to the coast,” Alrid ordered. “She will explain. Her orders are his.”
Chosen?
Griffith had been manic before about Serith, but this was different. It was aid at , not her. And this was clear devotion. I really didn’t want religious fanaticism blooming around , or for people to follow because they thought I was divine.
But in that mont, with Elric gone and the battle still in my mind, I said nothing. Like with Griffith, the ones that dealt with directly would eventually loosen up.
I watched Rent and Keen fall into step with Sia.
And I heard that word again.
Chosen.
Maybe Serith could clear up her divinity later… It should be okay.
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