Fates Parallel Chapter 56 - Creation

Lee Jia wished she could still communicate mentally with Eui as the atmosphere became tense around them. Instead, she stood back nervously and allowed Eui to speak for herself. Whatever Eui chose, Jia would support her.

Eui scowled at Dae, narrowing her eyes at him as he sat back and waited patiently for an answer. His face was an expressionless mask as Eui took a few steps towards him, but Jia could only imagine that he must be feeling very nervous indeed—Eui was very good at being menacing.

Jia became a bit nervous herself as Eui reached towards him, but relaxed when she picked up one of the volumes piled on the table next to Dae.

“This one says I’m a demon.”

Her voice was matter-of-fact as she spoke. She tossed the book aside and picked up a delicate looking scroll.

“This one would say that I’m not.”

Jia winced as the fragile document got the same rough treatment as the larger volume before it. Eui continued going through documents, tossing each on aside.

“This one is contradictory—depending on which part you read, I might or might not be a demon—this one would classify Jia as a demon. Oh, hey! You’ve even got this one! ‘On Spiritual Degeneracy: An Historical Account of the Great Schism’. Jia, you’d love this one, it says that all half-spirits are demons.”

Jia blinked in confusion and looked back and forth between Eui’s smug expression and Dae’s pained grimace. She’d known, of course, that Eui had been doing her own research—as had she—but she was surprised at just how well read Eui was.

Dae let out a sigh of resignation and shook his head.

“My apologies, Miss An. To clarify, the question I should have asked is—”

“Yes, I do have a demonic core. Jia and I accidentally formed it when we were trying to fight off my ki deviation.”

Dae’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Back then? Then you and Miss Lee—”

Eui scoffed as she pulled out a chair and sat, crossing her arms irritably.

“Tsk, don’t pretend as if you didn’t already know about that part. Yes, we practice joint cultivation. No, not the sexy kind. When are you going to get to the point?”

Jia blushed a bit as she followed Eui’s example and took her own seat. Dae adjusted his glasses and continued.

“I am guessing, then, that your cultivation bottleneck is related to your joint cultivation method and Miss An’s demonic core. No doubt, the core has been aggressively absorbing energy from Miss Lee when you attempt to cultivate, yes?”

Jia was a little bit surprised that he had guessed so accurately, even if she had asked him to look up demonic vampirism. Eui gave Jia a questioning glance, and Jia nodded affirmatively. Eui sighed as she responded.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much right. Did you find a solution to that?”

Dae shook his head ruefully.

“I’m afraid not, Miss An. In fact, I called you here so urgently to warn you not to keep attempting it. From what I have read, a demonic dual cultivator is invariably predatory. A demonic core will absorb all foreign energy to fuel itself, and the process is entirely automatic—this is how magical beasts are able to cultivate without minds or souls.”

Eui and Jia both shared an uncomfortable glance as they frowned at the news—that had not been what they wanted to hear. Eui leaned her chin on her palm and tapped the table impatiently with her other hand.

“That doesn’t make any sense, though—I mean it does, it’s just that we had been able to cultivate just fine until—”

Eui cut herself off and glanced at Jia. Dae seemed to have misunderstood her as he smiled sympathetically.

“I’m afraid that there’s no way around it, short of excising the core—which would almost certainly kill you. Perhaps you might have simply stuck to joint cultivation in mental and spiritual disciplines, but with your uniquely unified cultivation, I doubt even that would be safe.”

He was right—they had used a qi meditation technique last time, and Jia had still been drained. Jia frowned deeply as she realized that Dae was missing a crucial part of the puzzle, but it was not her secret alone to divulge. She reached across the table and placed her hand on Eui’s to get her attention.

“Eui, should we tell him about—uh, Yoshika?”

Dae looked askance at Jia, but she ignored it as Eui frowned, considering the question.

“Are you sure? That’s a pretty big secret to be giving away. Can we trust him?”

“I think so. Dae’s trying to help, and after seeing how hard he’s worked on it for us, I’d feel terrible about not giving him all the important details. I trust him.”

“You trusted Yan Yue, too.”

Jia winced, but she had no retort. Eui sighed and shook her head.

“Fine. Hyeong, what we’re about to tell you is in absolute confidence. If you repeat it to anybody—if you so much as say it out loud in private—I will kill you. That’s not hyperbole.”

Dae gulped audibly but nodded his head in acquiescence.

“Of course, Miss An! I swear not to tell a soul.”

He even went as far as to use his own talisman to set up a privacy field as the girls explained, listening intently. Dae was silent through their explanation, nodding along. At one point he habitually moved to take down some notes, but stopped when Eui reached for a knife.

The girls described everything that had happened since their breakthrough as a gestalt entity—their unique cultivation method, their connected domains, and their ability to sense each other’s thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. Finally, they described, in brief, the way that the connection had been roughly severed.

Dae had a puzzled expression on his face as he processed what they had told him.

“So any time you cultivated together your minds would merge into this—Yoshika? Why a Yamato name?”

Eui and Jia both blushed, knowing that Rika would be laughing at their expense if she had been there for the conversation. Jia scratched her cheek as she explained.

“It was a silly nickname that Rika gave us, since we’re together all the time.”

Dae’s eyes darted back and forth for a moment, as if reading some invisible document before he made a face of realization.

“Ah! Eui and Jia, I see. A slightly odd spelling, but I suppose it works.”

Jia was glad that she didn’t have to explain the simplistic reasoning behind the nickname, even if she wasn’t surprised.

“Anyway, it’s not just our minds, Yoshika was—is both of us. Mind, body, and soul. When we cultivated together before, it was like—I could feel Eui’s arm, and move it around like it was mine, but it was still hers. That wasn’t true after we broke through.”

“I see. I think I understand. In that case, I suppose the core simply didn’t react because Miss Lee’s essence was no longer considered foreign. If the problem only began when the connection was severed, then restoring it seems as likely a solution as any.”

Eui scowled at Dae, scoffing irritably.

“We already knew that! The problem is that we don’t know how! Trying to reform the connection the same way we made it in the first place ended up nearly killing Jia thanks to this stupid core!”

Dae hummed thoughtfully, glancing between Jia and Eui.

“Hmm, come to think of it, why didn’t the core react when you formed the connection the first time?”

That was a good question. Jia thought about it carefully, listing off in her head the things that had changed since then. They had been in the first stage, Eui’s core was only recently formed, Jianmo’s domain had been suppressing them, and there was also that strange bit of energy that he had sent into Eui—could that have stopped it from reacting somehow?

There were too many possibilities, and Jia wasn’t sure that any of them led to a solution. Jianmo had claimed that Eui would be able to find him if she looked, but Jia really didn’t like the idea of seeking him out—especially with the group from Qin breathing down their necks.

“I don’t think we’ll get anywhere thinking about it. It reacts now, and there’s nothing we can do about it, which means that we need to reform it without joint cultivation.”

“I suppose so, Miss Lee. I’ll continue my research, then. Perhaps I can find something if I cross-reference joint cultivation with domains—though, I suspect that you two are something of a unique—”

Jia held up a hand and shook her head.

“No, Dae. I appreciate the help, but you’ve done enough for now. Go home and get some rest. Your roommate is probably wondering where you ran off to.”

Dae shrugged and chuckled.

“Hehe, I’m sure Tae In-Su can handle—wait, did you say I’ve been here for three days? Oh ancestors! Master’s first lesson is today and I was meant to be his aide. He wouldn’t interrupt my research, which means—oh no! Poor Tae!”

Dae quickly gathered up his things and bowed.

“I have to go. I’ll do as you asked, and get some rest, Miss Lee. However, I would be happy to continue aiding you in your future research. Thank you for trusting me.”

Jia waved goodbye after him as he rushed out before letting out a heavy sigh. Eui glanced sidelong at her and frowned.

“Well that was a waste of time. I’ve already read half the books he had in that stack myself. Though, I guess I didn’t know about the vampirism thing.”

Jia shrugged.

“Dae’s nothing if not thorough. I don’t think I could stop him from looking further into it if I tried. Besides, I’m willing to take all the help I can get on this.”

Eui nodded slowly, reaching up idly to touch the spot on her chest where her demonic core was buried, right next to her heart.

“Do you think we should try to contact—uh, him?”

Eui chose her words carefully, looking at the dull gray film of mana that formed the privacy field—Dae had neglected to dispel it, but it would fade on its own. Jia understood her caution, and knew that she was talking about Jianmo, who had given them a vague offer of tutelage, should they seek him out.

“I don’t know, Eui—I don’t like it. He was a bit too casual about taking lives. He murdered Zhihao in cold blood for being annoying, and nearly killed the rest of us as a favor. I think that’s a...very last resort.”

Eui nodded in agreement, and the two of them left the library to go back to working on their crafting project.

---

Their progress was painfully slow, both in the crafting project and in Jia’s spiritual resistance training. After over a week of daily practice, Jia had only barely learned how to sense the effects of Eunae’s gaze before it took hold of her. She had been surprised to find that it seemed to be a form of domain, though she wasn’t able to figure out much more than that—once it took hold of her mind she forgot it entirely, and it was only through careful meditation that she could painstakingly analyze her memory of the attempt.

She recalled a conversation she had shared with Dae about the differences between subjective and objective memory, and how the latter required exponentially greater mental capacity. She wondered if the advancements in her domain would be enough for her to attempt it—even if she only managed to get a few moments, it would be extremely beneficial to be able to remember things as they happened, instead of how she experienced them.

Normally, even third-stage mages found it difficult to perfectly recall an experience objectively, but normal third-stage mages didn’t have domains, either. Lee Jia didn’t want to get too arrogant, so she reminded herself that Magus Hwang had described the benefits of her unique cultivation style as a ‘half-stage’ advantage. Still, even if it was just for a tiny moment, she felt compelled to make the attempt.

That would have to come later, though—at the moment, she was busy trying to figure out leatherworking. She and Eui had stitched together and thrown out dozens of attempts each at making simple little things for practice—and wasted a small fortune in materials doing it.

They had three problems—First, they really had no idea what they were doing, learning all the crafting techniques from scratch without a teacher. Second, they wanted to try creating something together, but weren’t really sure how two people working on a single artistic expression would even work. And last, they weren’t really sure how to translate their introspection into a physical object.

Eui presented a possible solution to Jia.

“You’re thinking too much. Obviously, actually understanding yourself will require some deep thought and meditation, but the creation part should be intuitive. We have our domains, right? They’re supposed to be an extension of ourselves, so if we focus on them and just create whatever comes to mind, it should be fine.”

Jia eyed Eui skeptically.

“I’ve relied on my intuition for a lot of things, but I don’t see how that’s going to work here. Shouldn’t we at least have some kind of basic idea of what we’re trying to make?”

“No, I don’t think so. That’s what everyone else did—they immediately decided what would represent them and set out to make that. But I think this is as much about self-discovery as it is about self-expression. Part of the point is that we’re not supposed to know what we’re going to make until we make it.”

It sounded pretty strange to Jia. It was complicated, esoteric, and pretty much exactly the kind of thing she had come to expect from the world of cultivation—nothing was ever straightforward. With a long-suffering sigh, Jia agreed to try it Eui’s way.

Their progress wasn’t much better, but it wasn’t as bad as Jia expected. She ended up making a few semi-practical items like leather bracers, an apron, and even a rather poorly made whip. None of it felt right, though, and she ended up discarding them.

One day, while working alongside Eui and trying to focus on her domain, Jia had a sudden flash of insight.

“Eui, I just had an idea! We wanted to work together on one thing, right?”

Eui set down her work and stretched, giving Jia her full attention.

“Yeah, why? Did you have something in mind?”

“Rather than both of us making one thing, what if we made a set? Two items that go together!”

“Hmm, yeah that makes sense—kind of obvious, actually, now that you mention it. One to represent each of us?”

Jia shook her head excitedly, she felt like she was really onto something.

“No! Both items should represent both of us in some way. Two parts of a whole that aren’t entirely separate, but not entirely the same either.”

A smile slowly grew on Eui’s face as she thought about it.

“I like that. Alright, let’s try it!”

For the next few days, Jia and Eui were completely engrossed in their work, even turning Eunae away when she showed up for their scheduled training. As she worked, Jia focused on who she was, who she had been when she arrived at the academy, and how she had grown as a person since then.

At the same time, she thought about the influence her friends had on her life, but especially Eui. When she arrived, she had been lost, scared, and alone. Eui hadn’t trusted her at first, but chose to look out for her anyway. Despite her adversarial attitude towards the rest of the students, it was Eui who had shown Jia that she could rely on other people instead of just herself.

Through her trials, Jia had learned to be more confident in herself, and in others. It had burned her when she had been overly trusting of Yan Yue, but Jia didn’t regret trusting Dae, Eunae, or Rika at all—those were all friendships which had enriched her life, and she hoped that she had in some way managed to enrich theirs as well. Idly, she promised herself that she would do more to repay her most trusted friends and allies.

As she worked, Jia felt a strange sort of resonance with Eui. Their domains remained separate, but she could feel them mingling at the edges—hardly the cohesive connection they had shared before, but it was a start. Through that overlap, Jia was able to sense some of the things that defined Eui.

Eui was strong, stubborn, and decisive to a fault at times. Once she set her mind to something, it was done. The mistakes of her past haunted her, and yet Jia knew that Eui didn’t truly regret any of her actions. She had always acted decisively on what she felt was right, and even if she sometimes regretted the outcome, she would still make the same decision again.

Jia didn’t know how long they had spent just working away, while thinking about what it was that defined themselves and each other. The work was almost meditative, in a way, and she found herself getting lost in it the same way she did with meditation. Eventually, her hands stopped, and she realized with a start that she was done.

She blinked down at the object that she had created. It was a single glove, mostly white with threads of blue streaking through it in a lightning-bolt pattern. Each fingertip was adorned with a sturdy black claw—actually fangs that they had recovered from the obsidian wolves—with splashes of red painted to resemble drops of blood.

There were a few loose threads, and the claws weren’t properly sharpened, leaving the glove functional, but clearly unfinished. Yet somehow, Jia knew that this was what it was meant to be—as incomplete as she was, with room yet to continue to grow and improve.

Turning towards Eui, Jia saw her examining her own creation. Predictably, it was another glove, to complete the pair. This one was black, with sharply angled red lines that resembled the dark veins that would appear when Eui channelled the destruction element. The glove was fingerless, and the knuckles were adorned with shiny silver studs.

As a pair, the gloves were...a bit odd. They didn’t seem to fit together at all, really, and Jia had half-expected them to both be right-handed. They weren’t artifacts by any stretch of the imagination, but as Jia and Eui looked at the pair of gloves that they had made, they both felt that they really had captured themselves and each other.

After a few moments of silent admiration, Eui spoke up.

“Now what?”

Jia giggled a bit, then shrugged.

“I’m not sure. I guess we show them to Murayoshi? I’m a little disappointed, to be honest. I was really hoping that this experience would help reform our domains.”

“I think it did, a bit. I definitely felt something towards the end, there.”

Remembering the experience, Jia nodded her agreement. There had definitely been something, even if it wasn’t quite what she had hoped for. Jia frowned down at the glove that she had made, then looked between it and her own clawed hands, before her gaze finally settled on Eui’s fingerless glove.

She met Eui’s gaze, and the slightly amused smirk betrayed that Eui had already guessed what she was thinking. She decided to say it anyway.

“Hey, Eui?”

“Yes, Jia?”

“Do you want to trade?”