Kael placed a jar on the shelf and looked out of the clinic window. The line wasn't as long as it had been when he returned from the Depths the first time, but not because customers were lacking. Luke had become genuinely professional, reducing the waiting time significantly.
"Can't believe I bought too little bandages again." Luke murmured, wrapping a young man's arm.
Kael reached for another jar.
"To be expected. Even Luminaires have started coming here."
He was a little unsure what to do with the clinic now. His original intention had been to gain favour with mortals and use that to enter the political stage as their representative. But if what Aurelion had said was true and he now had a patron, the original purpose had been largely overtaken by events.
"We're closing early today."
Luke looked up, mildly confused.
"What? Why?"
"No reason. You deserve some time off I think, that's all."
Luke knew he should have tried to decline. God knows how much he wanted it though.
"Alright. That's an order, right?"
"Yep."
Kael nodded goodbye to Sylvia and Luke and made his way to the mote shop.
"Lumi." He said calmly.
She hopped down from the branch they had mounted on the wall and climbed up to him using her beak.
"Let's see here."
He raised his hand and a mote shaped like a pearl appeared in its true form.
His fingers moved as though pulling at invisible threads and small streams of his crimson Will began peeling away from it.
As the last traces of his crimson Will disappeared the mote rolled once more in his hand and went still. Kael shook it gently and it began to vibrate.
"Quicker than I thought."
Motes were the essence of the world. They came from it and would always return to it. The moment Kael retracted his Will the only thing remaining in its inner realm was Soul and Thoughts. An imbalance the heavens could never allow. So it had begun drawing in heaven's Will. By now a small golden river would be forming inside it.
It rolled in small circles on his palm as though searching for something.
Kael let some of his Will flow out, letting it engulf the mote.
The pearl began rolling in wider, more anxious circles. The longer it absorbed heaven's Will the more alive it seemed to become.
Eventually it was jumping around in full panic.
Kael grabbed Lumi and brought the two close together.
"Better go into Lumi's inner realm or I'll claim you myself."
Perhaps it became sentient for a fraction of a second. Because it listened. It floated upward and darted into Lumi's chest, disappearing with a few flickers of gold.
Kael flicked his Will toward Lumi and stepped into her inner realm.
He moved toward her river and pushed his hand in, waving it around.
There was no way he'd find it here, so all he could do was wait.
Lumi appeared beside him and sat down at his feet, settling into a remarkably good loaf.
An hour passed before the Sea Pearl mote rolled out from the river. It settled next to Lumi and burrowed itself under her wing.
Kael bent down and picked it up. By now, Lumi's Will had replaced half of it, creating a tranquil equilibrium.
"I'm not harming you, Lumi."
Crimson Will left his fingertips as he said it.
He replaced a third of her Will with his own and tossed it back into the river.
"Let's see if that works."
The Sea Pearl was a rank one mote he had purchased the week before. Not expensive by any means, but it had its uses. When activated it allowed two Luminaires to connect their senses. Some even suggested thoughts could bleed through in small ways. Traditionally it wasn't something Kael would have considered practical. There were too many risks involved in sharing senses with another human. But if this worked it would be with a Dreadborne instead, which was a considerably more reliable arrangement in his estimation.
Lumi had watched the entire thing without pecking at him once. Who knew. Maybe she had understood some of it.
Kael retracted his consciousness and stood up, folding his hands behind his back.
"Interesting."
True to what the texts described, Lumi's vision was superior to his natural eye. It had some way to go before comparing to the primordial eye, but that was an unfair standard to hold anything to.
His vision doubled, Lumi's perspective arriving as an extra layer over his own. It felt almost intoxicating where the two overlapped.
He studied himself from Lumi's perspective for a moment.
"You have some kind of sensory mote, don't you."
She tilted her head.
'She definitely has a sensory mote of some kind.'
Kael sat down and rubbed his eyes.
Now and then she would subconsciously focus on a distant sound and instantly locate its origin with a precision that implied something well beyond ordinary crow hearing.
That was an exceptional sensory mote. It was also something close to an information overload for Kael.
He took some time to adjust before opening his eyes.
"I think we're good to go."
Just as he was about to rise from the chair the door bell rang.
A man with his hands tucked into his sleeves walked in, radiating superiority.
He bent down and studied one of the Miniature Hammocks on display.
"You made this?"
"I did, yes."
The man's eyes flickered with... Excitement?
"Oh my. Oh my!"
He grabbed the jar and held it up to the light like he had found a pot of gold.
"This is incredible, and at your rank? Gods, how many hours did it take? How were you able to measure the ingredients? How did you even know what the ingredients were? How did—"
That was where Kael lost him.
No fewer than twenty questions arrived in under ten seconds.
"We're unfortunately closed, I'm afraid."
The man froze and looked at Kael as though he had seen a ghost.
Then a laugh came.
"Oh. Geez, do I look that different? Let's talk over some tea."
That was when it clicked.
It was Jian.
Kael watched him pour a cup he had insisted on making.
He sighed inwardly and took a sip
'He used water that was too hot again.'
Jian poured himself one and sat down across from him.
"I—" He started with a grin. "—Jian, am your patron."
Kael coughed.
"My what?"
Jian raised a finger as if making a point.
"I knew I made the right decision. I just knew down in the Depths there was something about you." He nodded, satisfied with himself. Then started preaching like no other.
Kael managed to follow but the amount of information he received that evening was not something any human should have to process in one sitting.
"So let me understand this correctly." Kael rested his chin in his palm. "A high council exists made up of seven departments that oversee the city, and you head one of them?"
"Mhm." Jian nodded as though it was barely worth mentioning.
Kael sat straighter and crossed his arms.
"Could you list them again?"
"Of course. There's the Department of Refinement, which I head. Then the Department of Trade, where Violet sits. The woman from the Depths, you remember her?"
Kael nodded.
"Good, good. Then we have the Department of Royal Guards, Mortals, Economy, Luminaires, Layers, International anddd—" He paused. "That's all I think."
"So what does it mean that you're my patron?"
"Yeah, that." Jian let out a groan. "They recently had the brilliant idea that we, the heads, should start taking someone under our wing to teach and hopefully develop them as a successor one day."
Kael's eyes flickered.
'Is that why you let me take the Asterite?'
He had always found Jian a little too accommodating about the detour to find it. Had he already been looking for a successor back then? And by killing the beetle, had he already been engineering a conflict between Kael and Violet? Ensuring Kael would have reason to align with him rather than her?
Jian continued.
"So there's no real pressure. You'll just follow along, sit in on relevant discussions, that sort of thing."
No pressure.
Kael wondered if Jian had any idea how absurd that sounded. Not only would he be in a layer he had no business being in as a rank one, the weight of rank five gazes alone would be enough to flatten a lesser person. And whatever Jian's approval was worth, there would be expectations attached to being a prospective successor to a department head of the high council that went considerably beyond sitting in on discussions.
"No other benefits?"
Jian laughed.
"Gods, yes. Ten thousand mindstones allowance per month to support cultivation. A private estate. A pendant that allows free movement between layers. A new crest sewn into your cape marking you as a high council affiliate." He raised his cup and almost took a sip before stopping abruptly. "OH. And best of all. Free top quality fruit at every meeting. You can even take some home."
Kael leaned back in his chair.
"And the catch?"
Jian let out a genuine sigh.
"The catch is they expect you to keep doing your work."
A stretch of silence followed.
Those words carried more weight in this context than they appeared to. As Kael had suspected, climbing that high in society meant inevitably learning things that were expected to remain unspoken. And by the time you became the head of a department like Jian, you had accumulated so much sensitive knowledge that letting you walk away simply wasn't an option anymore.
"I decline."
Jian looked at him with a deep expression, but there was no surprise in it.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice."
Kael gave him a flat look.
"I know you went north. We all know you went north. If you don't accept, you'll die."
"Why's that?"
"Because you didn't just enter the Depths. You're the reason hundreds of thousands of Pale Ones have entered the Depths and are actively consuming ancient ingredients as we speak." There was no humour in his voice. "I'm offering you a position as successor because I see genuine potential in your refinement, Kael."
Kael stood and walked to the window, rubbing his chin.
He had never wanted to enter the Depths that second time. He hadn't wanted to bathe in the Spring either. And yet somehow he had managed to do both against his will. It felt as though all his fortune had simply shifted his misfortune aside and stacked it on his shoulders all at once.
"Well... Then it was never really an offer, was it?"
"No it wasn't."