Elder Cultivator

Aerona took note of specific stated grievances, Devon took note of things that went unspoken, and Anton was only able to pick apart the overall feelings of Eret. His intuition told him that the locals were more strongly people of Eret than members of the Shining Cooperative. Even those who hadn’t been born on the planet found it was uniquely their home.

Anton wondered where the Shining Cooperative had failed. Certainly, their actions long in the past hadn’t helped their narrative but nobody was around to remember that. Just to be thorough, they spent some time examining the planet for dissidents who were intentionally raising strife… but while there were more prominently outspoken figures, they seemed to be voicing the general feelings of the populace. Enough to be considered in unity.

“Do you think there is any value in digging deeper?” Anton asked the other two.

Aerona shook her head. “I doubt it. At this point, the only peaceful solution is some form of separation from the Shining Cooperative… despite how impractical that would be.”

Devon pondered. “I supposed a single planet could be transplanted, but it doesn’t seem like a solution anyone would want. Better than remaining in territory they are hostile towards.”

“Would greater representation help somehow?” Anton suggested.

“I considered that,” Aerona said. “I think they might be content with a more regional government… but it would have to be distinct from the Shining Cooperative as a whole for it to be accepted. That’s not easy to pull off.”

Anton didn’t know if there were any good solutions to be had. “If they were able to become an independent system, would that be good for them? Their food supplies could certainly be handled locally- which is not something I would have expected from a surface view.”

“They export more than they import, which might be another sign,” Aerona said. “Nothing is wrong with that in theory, but it might make people feel like they aren’t gaining anything.”

Compared to the Ceretos of his birth, of course, Anton thought they were relatively high cultivation- but he saw the point. “What about ascension? Do we have statistics on that?”

“We could ask for some locally,” Aerona said. “And we could get approximate numbers from the upper realms. Rather quickly, even.”

Through Bear Hug, of course. They couldn’t get anything detailed.

Anton stroked his chin. “They do seem well inclined towards us. Perhaps the Alliance has been unintentionally poaching some of their more powerful members. Though, that’s yet another sign they felt they needed to not be part of this.”

“I would have expected more Worldbinding for loyalty to their planet,” Devon said. “But I suppose even we promote mobile options more these days. They might be interested in just Eret and nowhere else. Getting away from it all might be a greater show of loyalty, in some ways.”

They took some time to ask Jelena for information, as well as wrangling Bear Hug. They needed to ask precisely the right questions. If there were multiple planets named Eret, they’d have to get more specific. A computer system inquiry would just throw out the coordinates or a numerical indicator of some sort so that it was unambiguous, or use a photo match, but Bear Hug was limited by speech. And even replicating common language and spelling took some effort.

“E-r-e-t. There’s a bunch but only one cool ice planet with tunnels!”

Bear Hug had been told to contact Catarina or Uzun. Catarina was the one free… after dealing with Sudin, she’d taken some time to relax. She would be a defender for the Scarlet Alliance if their current operations in the upper realms provoked another war, but until then she didn’t need to push herself.

“Okay, over the duration of Eret’s time they’ve had… twenty-eight ascensions. Is that a lot? I feel like that’s a lot!”

“It isn’t,” Anton said. “Not for the amount of natural energy here, and the population. Plus, the time. That’s over multiple centuries, right?”

“Let me find out! … Yeah! Seven or eight of them!”

“One person every twenty-five years isn’t much. That might not even beat numbers from the times of suppression,” Anton explained. Ceretos had expected one success every few years- between all their continents. Eret had a much higher population. The old estimates for Ceretos might have missed some successes or miscategorized failures, but they shouldn’t have been off a full order of magnitude.

Devon had a suspicious frown. “Now I’m concerned about a whole other branch of things. We’ve been accepting Ascension cultivators from the Shining Cooperative since the beginning. I don’t think they are the issue, though. But we never thought to ask why they might make that choice… especially before there was hope of returning to the lower realms.”

They hadn’t shared their cross-realms ships technology with the Shining Cooperative, for example. Asking Catarina to look up more on the topic yielded little in the way of results. Many didn’t choose to keep any sort of association with former groups after ascension- except for becoming part of the Alliance. Nor did the inter-realm transfers log where people had been from. Still, there was enough information gathered for Catarina to filter through and guess that they might have sought a visit to the lower realms less frequently. Which really didn’t prove anything at all.

The biggest hit was that the numbers seemed to fit the Shining Cooperative as a broader category. Their ascension numbers weren’t that high, and they hadn’t often visited the lower realms afterwards.

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“I think we might be dealing with a broader phenomenon here,” Devon said. “Though I can’t expect that it applies to the whole region, right? If everyone felt the same, then we could only say that the Shining Cooperative was cursed. Otherwise, they could probably make things work for them."

“It’s actually quite a bit more difficult than it seems,” Aerona said. “Not everyone is brave enough to speak out, even if they would ultimately be supported. And with cultivators, long centuries of inaction can become habit. But even so, the fact that we have a number of systems that reacted immediately after the shift in the Tides tells us something. We must visit more of the known oddities.”

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Aerona figured out a way to tell Jelena that it wasn’t all about her and the people of Eret, and that they would return. They gave their best confirmation that the Shining Cooperative wasn’t intending to assault the planet in the near future… and Anton would hold them to it. If the Cooperative screwed up the diplomatic mission that he had been explicitly invited to, there were going to be some choice words. And maybe dead people, though he’d really prefer to avoid a potential war.

It didn’t matter that the Lower Realms Alliance would slaughter them. Any unnecessary losses were unacceptable.

For the moment, they just had to rely on the truth of the words that Ezhil and Kazimir spoke- that they wanted a peaceful resolution. Hopefully that would remain true even if things took a little bit longer. Then again, they shouldn’t exactly expect immediate results regardless.

Devon could chain up a planet and Anton could tell them he was going to shoot everyone who caused trouble when they left. It was highly likely they could get everyone to agree, and then when they left it would guarantee violence.

The only sticking point in the representatives of the Shining Cooperatives wanting peaceful resolution was that it wasn’t necessarily for the right reasons. It was possible to not care about the people, but only perception around the results. Perhaps if they had spent more time around the pair, they could have read more into their words.

Leaving behind Eret, they moved onto the next system. Tanewen had occupied all of their planets- including their moons. It was not a great many- they had no gas giants with tens of moons. Instead, they only had two small planetoids with pairs of equally tiny moons, and one icy planet with one smallish moon and one of a greater size- more than the other two main ‘planets’. Nine bodies in total, some of which were barely more than simple asteroids.

While they were still some distance from the closest destination, Anton had a comment.

“It seems they are bringing quite a large number of people to greet us.”

“That’s great!” Bear Hug commented. “Friendly is good!”

“With a large number of weapons,” Anton added.

“To keep us safe from… something?” Bear Hug asked. “Are there monsters here?”

Anton gave Bear Hug a good pat on the ‘head’. “I don’t think so. They’re probably just going to try to kill us.”

“Oh. Like Briar.”

It might be exactly like Briar. Or maybe they had better reasoning. Briar had been prickly from the beginning. Anton and the others were coming in at the behest of the government that Tanewen was effectively in rebellion against.

“Thoughts?” Anton asked the two others. “I say we should let them attack us.”

“I can suppress all of them,” Devon said. “And shield our vessel. So it’s not a danger. Politically, however…”

“It would be advantageous,” Aerona said. “Something to dangle over their head. We don’t have to tell anyone. But of course, we aren’t interested in securing their cooperation at all costs, so it might be unnecessary leverage.”

“Still,” Anton said. “We should give them the opportunity not to make a mistake.”

“It seems like a pretty serious one,” Devon said. “Do they really think they can kill two Unity cultivators with that lineup?”

“One and a half,” Anton said. “I don’t have a bound star here.”

“You could, though. If they were actually a threat, you wouldn’t bother with permission.”

“I would,” Anton agreed. He didn’t have terribly many ‘free’ stars, and he’d filled up all one hundred of his first stars. He mostly kept them around for a need. Besides, his cultivation was growing in a way where every individual star was only a miniscule increase in power but they were coming rather rapidly. Every decade or so, even though by now it could have slowed to a few times per century. That may have been influenced by Anton’s desires, however. If the total amount of accumulated power stayed somewhat consistent, how it was spread out didn’t have as many cultivation implications. “Let’s show general Milosh that he should pick his battles better.”

They could have learned the name beforehand, but Anton picked it out of the chatter on the ship. He did note that when they sent communications announcing their visit, they hadn’t technically been guaranteed safely. Just received an acknowledgement. Previous information indicated that Tanewen said they would shoot down any Shining Cooperative vessels to enter their system.

There was still time for them to make good decisions, even after Milosh gave the order to attack. It was a bit hard after the first shots were fired, however.

A sphere of chains crossing the skies grew outward, blocking the incoming fire as it moved while extending to cover the fleet. Devon was indeed able to suppress all of them at once- though it wasn’t a surprise as they had no Enrichment equivalents. Numbers simply didn’t matter at a certain level of power.

Anton waited patiently for them to receive a message. Their devices were compatible, after all. But Milosh was stubbornly insistent on finding a way to ‘restore control of their ships’. Maybe they really could wiggle out of Devon’s suppression with concerted effort.

“What do you think?” Anton asked. “The heart?”

“Ooh, are we appealing to their better nature?” Bear Hug asked.

“No. I’m going to shoot him. Only a little though.”

“In that case, I have no comment because I don’t have human anatomy! Pick somewhere scary but not fatal, maybe?”

“That was the plan,” Anton said.

“I thought you needed your heart?”

“I don’t have to shoot all the way through it. I just have to make him know I could.”

“Ooh, smart! It’s like wrestling!”noveldrama

It really wasn’t. Anton pulled back his bowstring, forming an Energy Arrow. He would need to be careful to disperse the energy quickly on the other end without letting it run wild. He’d done it before, so it would be embarrassing to mess it up. And Anton really didn’t want to kill anyone he didn’t think should be an enemy.

The arrow flew. Milosh twitched, but couldn’t otherwise react before it pierced through his breastplate and into his chest. That was what two stages of gap resulted in, though his Assimilation equivalent cultivation certainly wasn’t bad.