Misbegotten Memories

He followed Purification out of the command center. The woman observed him from the corner of her eye as she led him towards the nearest section of wall. "What is it that you're doing with the miasma?"

"I'm not sure how you managed to spy on me," he said. The tiny quantities of miasma he worked with shouldn't be visible to anyone who wasn't right next to him.

"What you do is loud." She tapped her temple. "For me, at least. You're not quite purifying the miasma, but it's not far off, either. I'd be a lot less confused about the situation if you were anything other than a Xian. Your type usually have violent insights. Or maybe that's just the ones who come through here?"

Hector let out some of the tension he was holding. He'd intended to keep things quiet for a lot longer, but this Sage was doing him favors. "My insight is chaotic emergence into cosmic energy. Recently I discovered that miasma is just a different flavor of chaos. It's distorted in a weird way that lets it fight back, but I can overcome the resistance to some extent. I think the conceptual battle is what you're sensing."

Purification grunted. "I was hoping you had the Xian equivalent of a purification insight."

"Are you still willing to talk to Transit on my behalf?"

"Definitely. It's as I said before, I like what you're doing. Even if it doesn't bear fruit, I think it is good to experiment with new ways to combat the taint."

They climbed the rune wall and Purification bullied another Arahant out of a position, sending the confused man down the ladder to wait on the ground below instead of remaining at his post. Purification held out her hand. Hector sensed a vague pressure. It wasn't anywhere as noisy as what he felt on occasion from different Sages. He didn't know if that meant she was doing something subtler or if their insights didn't align as much as the woman assumed.

"Do you see what I'm doing?"

Hector shook his head. "You're holding out your hand. There's a little bit of conceptual pressure, but I can't identify what you're doing."

"Interesting. Your turn."

Hector stretched forth a cable and sucked in a tiny mote of miasma. Purification gasped beside him but otherwise didn't interrupt as he battled the caustic substance in his soul. It took him about fifteen minutes to vanquish his foe. Then he opened his eyes and turned to regard the Sage.

She shook her head. "I didn't expect you to bring it inside like that. Is it safe?"

Hector laughed. "Of course not."

"Right. Stupid question. Could you try it again? I want to see if I can help you."

"Sure. Give me a minute to recover first. It's exhausting."

Purification smiled. "I'd imagine it is. Your approach is inefficient."

When he felt ready, Hector drew in another mote of miasma. As he began the battle, Purification's influence washed over him, a powerful but comforting weight pressing on his soul. The tiny blot of miasma exploded into cosmic energy.

"Whoa. That was easy." Ridiculously easy. Hector had barely begun to fight when it was over.

"Next test, Hector. Let's do the same thing outside your soul."

He stretched his domain forth past the barrier created by the rune wall as Purification's conceptual weight descended. It took a moment for him to figure out how to force his intention to project through his domain into the external environment. But when he did….

It was like a flashbulb going off in their faces. Visual light and cosmic energy rushed from the site of their combined working. Hector stared at the aftermath. Purification's jaw had dropped. "Hector, I think we just became best friends."

"I think you're right, Purification."

Stolen novel; please report.

"You can call me Leah."

The two of them repeated their experiment several times to verify it was repeatable. And it was. Every time they coordinated their efforts, vast amounts of miasma exploded into cosmic energy. If he wasn't stretching his domain so far to get past the protective barrier of the run wall, it would be a veritable feast for him. As it was, his restoration rate was worse than cultivating the chaos within the Stronghold perimeter.

"Do you think we could try this outside?"

Leah grinned like a maniac. "You read my mind. We'll need an escort. I'm classified as a critical support asset, so I don't get to make unaccompanied field trips. Setting this up could take a few days."

"What about getting me permission to commute? I only have a week left here."

"Don't worry about that. I have the ear of Transit."

Within twenty-four hours, Hector was relieved of his normal duties and reassigned as a special asset under the command of the Sage of Purification. His new orders explicitly stated that he was permitted free travel between Union Central and Stronghold Gamma, with his duty schedule to be negotiated as necessary.

Hector and Leah walked the entire wall around the Stronghold, trailing false sunlight and stares as they went. The ambient cosmic energy level in the area rose noticeably, though not to such a degree that it would make a significant difference in cultivation rates. They finished their stroll full of optimism. It felt like they were breaking new ground.

The pressure Leah applied through resonance did the part that Hector found difficult, letting him bypass the battle of wills entirely. It was a matter of leverage, or perhaps attacking a weak point. He wasn't quite sure what Leah did yet. Their insights were not aligned, it turned out. He couldn't sense much of what she did and – when he limited himself to his insight – she could barely sense his contributions. Whatever they lacked in alignment they more than made up in compatibility.

Each of them provided something the other lacked in regards to the battle against miasma.

At dinner, they engaged in some theorizing around their differences.

"You say you're transforming chaos into cosmic energy, but those are just words to me. Sure, it's an easy energy source for you. I get that. But what does it mean to make one into the other?"

Hector shook his head emphatically. "The most important thing is understanding they are the same thing, just packaged differently. Chaos is jagged and random. Cosmic energy is smoothed down and made to be content. The process of getting from one state to the other… well, I can't put that into words. It's quite complicated. At the same time, if you look at it from a different perspective, it's the simplest thing in the world."

"That's universal with insights," Leah said. "They are glimpses of higher order reality. Think of them in their proper context and they're simple and obvious. Try to drag them down into our regular reality and it becomes real complicated."

He frowned. "So I'm never going to understand the details of how your purification insight lets you get past the evil intent of miasma?"

"You have got to stop saying 'evil intent' when you talk about this stuff. It makes it hard for me to take you seriously when you sound like a cheap melodrama." Leah used her spoon to transfer some of the gravy from her plate onto the table between them. "That doesn't belong there, right? Tables are supposed to be clean. So when I flex my realm…."

The splat of gravy thinned and vanished entirely.

"It goes away. The table is purified. What I'm doing is resonating to the idea that things have proper forms or modes of existence. Blemishes shouldn't be there. So they aren't."

Hector snorted. "As easy as that?"

Leah shrugged. "Why not? Our common reality isn't the immutable bedrock people take it to be. You've glimpsed ultimate reality, so it shouldn't be a surprise to you that something truer exists than this mundane world. For a Sage, it goes beyond that. Illusory energy is particularly good at resonance. So is legal energy, for that matter, but the Jinn don't resonate with ultimate reality. That lets them do the resonant equivalent of telling lies, which is convenient for them, but it also means they don't get to undergo a Confirmation."

He raised a brow.

"Let's not get sidetracked talking about Sage business," Leah said. "I think we might just need to accept that our synergy can't be replicated by either of us operating solo."

"That seems likely. When do we get to take a walk outside?"

"Tomorrow, maybe. They are worried about the high miasma levels."

Hector smacked the table. "Are you kidding me? That's what we want!"

Leah shrugged. "Welcome to the reality of being an essential asset. You're going to be protected from things that can't hurt you, whether you like it or not – and you never like it."

"Well, I'm going back to Union Central for the night. I have to let my friends know I am coming back here as a day job. It might be an awkward conversation."

"Tell them you're working for the benefit of everyone."

Hector couldn't tell if she was joking or serious. "I don't think most people think much of their obligation to other people."

"That's true enough. But they usually don't argue when you start speaking altruistically."

"Fair enough. See you tomorrow, boss."

Hector directed his transit sphere to appear in the lobby of Tian Tower.