As the meeting came to a close, several of the students took a few moments to shake hands with her and express their admiration for what she had accomplished, to which Lysette replied with polite thanks and a few words of encouragement to each. Lysette did her best to remember the faces of the group members, people who were her earliest followers, but only picked up a couple of other names beyond the ones who’d participated in the discussions, most notably a pair of twin second-year Wind Cultivators named Kara and Kyle.

Gerald stayed for a few minutes longer, continuing his conversation with Mirae about the alleged efficacy of Lysette’s bargain. Despite Lysette’s attempts to intercede, the two continued on and on to the point where Lysette was a little surprised that she hadn’t gotten a headache from how circular the arguments had gotten, or even if she was capable of getting one short of blunt force trauma.

After fifteen minutes of getting nowhere, Lysette proposed a simple solution. She would offer her Cultivation training to Mirae specifically, and let their progress serve as the metric for the underlying efficacy of what Lysette had promised. Although she did feel a bit miffed regarding the insinuation that she was lying, she agreed that a demonstration was justified. And she had already requested Mirae stick around to do exactly that.

After Gerald grabbed his belongings and left, Lysette and Mirae took a few moments to clean up the room. Once they had done so, they took seats on the opposite side of one of the eight table desks strewn about, sitting close enough together that it was somewhat difficult to avoid their knees buckling against each other.

“Are you sure about this, Lyse?” Mirae asked.

“I am. Even before the conversation with Gerald, I asked you to stick around to do exactly this.” Lysette pulled out the second Essence crystal she had after her trip to the auction house the previous morning. “I trust you know how to use this?”

“It’s– it’s so big. Are you sure it’s okay to be giving me this?”

“I am, Mirae. We’re going to each take half and then once we’ve gotten ourselves situated, we’ll work on our Cultivation in parallel.”

In theory, everything should be just the same as every other time Lysette had Cultivated. It would just happen side-by-side with Mirae, and give her an opportunity to watch the effects of another’s Cultivation in real-time.

Mirae looked away for a moment before they finally turned to face Lysette. They placed one hand on top of the Essence crystal, and Lysette placed her hand on theirs. With a single, mutually shared thought, the two closed their eyes in tandem and began pulling the Essence out of its storage, evenly distributing it between the two Cultivators. Before long, the crystal was completely devoid of all stored Essence, and the two released their shared grip, each entering their own Cultivation realm.

Lysette immediately got to work, channeling the accumulated Essence from her spiritual self into the Divine Tree in the center of her garden. And for a time, she was content to watch her garden, staring at her Star high above. It was just a bit brighter, the colors shifting ever so slightly from a full orange to a shade filled with the barest touches of yellow.

For a time, Lysette simply watched and waited, absorbing traces of ambient Essence flowing through the air around her as she waited for Mirae before beginning her own Cultivation. And for a time, nothing occurred either within her subconscious realm nor in the outside world save for Mirae’s slow, rhythmic breathing which grew softer and more relaxed with each passing moment. As their breaths slowed yet further, a soft chill filled the air. Lysette knew that her disciple— ‘disciple’ felt right, even if she was still getting used to the idea— was deep in Cultivation, and she was watching her garden in the meantime, waiting for the first signs of newly burgeoning life within it.

One of the larger plants in her field, other than the two belonging to her friends, began to shake violently, writhing in a manner that didn’t seem quite natural as the plant began to sprout with an alacrity unimaginable for plants back in the physical world. Mirae was undoubtedly making great use of the accumulated Essence, shaping their own realm to meet their needs, and Lysette prepared to do her part.

She began by twisting and bending the space of her realm, pulling Mirae’s plant away from the others to give it the added space it would sorely need as the plant’s stalk thickened and it began to spiral upward, not unlike a helix. New branches burst forward along the winding stalk, filled with numerous bluish-green leaves that looked as though they were covered in frost. With a wave of her hand, she drew a small bit of Essence from her Tree and willed it into the shape of a support column for the ivy vines to climb upon.

She wasn’t sure that something like that would work, but after Creating her cloak the last couple of days, the act of Creating such a mundane item within her metaphysical realm proved utterly trivial. Staking the rod into the ground proved equally trivial; the ground bent and contorted to her will, seemingly all too happy to oblige. And as she then twisted the vines of Mirae’s plant around the support beam and supported its ascent, a smile came over her face, one of genuine enjoyment at watching their growth as a Cultivator occurring right before their eyes.

Lysette closed her eyes, and with another thought, a glob of saplike fluid about as big as both her fists emerged out of her Divine Tree a few dozen paces away, slowly floating toward her. Although some parts of her Cultivation technique were better done by her own hand, particularly those involving complicated and intricate movements, she was getting increasingly acclimated to moving her realm around with nothing but her mind. The realm was her mind, after all, or at least a part of it, and therefore it was subject to her will. She simply had to master doing so first.

With another thought, the mass of resinous compound seeped into the ground, where Mirae’s plant greedily gobbled it up, absorbing it through the increasingly thick and interconnected lattice of roots that dug into first few inches of the seemingly endless void below, tethering itself more tightly to what would have been the dirt and soil beneath itself, if there ever would be any in her realm. Still something to figure out.

For what could have been fifteen minutes or an hour— Lysette knew full well how easily time could slip by— she simply watched and waited as Mirae’s plant grew yet further. Taller and higher and thicker, with roots that dug slightly deeper and more and more budding leaves eagerly reaching up toward the light of Lysette’s star, a desire which Lysette happily facilitated by altering the branches and support structure just so.

And before long, a small bud near the top of the plant developed and, a couple minutes or so later, began to bloom. The flower was composed of petals a deep blue somewhere in the neighborhood of sapphires, deeper and darker in shade than any rose or lily Lysette had ever known. And within the center of the plant emerged a crystal the size of Lysette’s thumb, one which chilled the air in its vicinity and was cold enough even to induce frostbite in the hands of one unfortunate enough to touch it without proper protection. Even Lysette felt uncomfortable handling it directly, making a note to only do so mentally going forward.

After taking a couple moments to admire its beauty, she turned her attention downward, manipulating the vines and pruning a couple stalks which had become too tangled and could no longer grow properly. She crushed the detritus in her hands, dissolving it into a thick slurry which she fed back into her Tree. It was only fair, after all, that she should gain something for herself after all this.

Just by a glance at the plant as it finished its growth spurt, Mirae was now noticeably more powerful than before, probably twice as capable of a Cultivator as they were before they began their Cultivation session. And as Lysette shifted her focus from her internal Cultivation realm to her aurasight, she confirmed that the concentration of energy now coursing through Mirae’s body was now significantly higher than before.

With nothing left to do, Lysette let the fathomless void slip further and further away, allowing her senses to return to physical reality as she watched and waited for Mirae to finish their session. She did not have to wait long, as her disciple roused from their stupored state and looked around after scarcely more than a minute had passed.

“How are you, Mirae?” Lysette asked.

“I– I’m in utter awe, Lady Lyse.”

“Please, no ‘Lady’. The last thing I want is to be associated with those snooty, good-for-nothing nobles.”

Mirae laughed. “Of course, Lyse. The experience was unlike any I have ever experienced before. For a good while, everything was just as it normally was when I Cultivate. I took the Essence, far more than I’m used to handling, and directed it into shards of ice that eventually formed a new room of my internal realm.”

They raised their index finger and launched a silvery blue beam which hit the wall, leaving a trail of ice and snow fluttering to the ground in its wake. “A new ranged technique seemed most appropriate to work on. But then, soon after I finished, my entire castle began to shift. All the foundational cracks and imperfections were smoothed over, the rough surfaces were polished to a shine, and everything just looked and felt fuller, sturdier, and stronger than ever before.

“After that I felt even more power welling through me, power which I willed into this.”

Mirae stood up and closed their eyes, exhaling a glacial chill that caused the vapor in the air to desublimate into crystals of ice which then quickly congregated together into the shape of a thick broadsword. They swung their frigid blade around a few times, each time sending a boreal squall in its wake, the combination of strikes cold enough that even Lysette felt a bit uncomfortable by the sudden drop in temperature.

“And even now,” they continued, allowing their weapon to sublime back into the air, “I feel… I don’t know how to describe it, Lyse. Stronger, more focused, more certain about myself. More confident, maybe? But even that isn’t quite right.”

“A greater sense of purpose?” Lysette asked.

“Yes, that’s exactly it! A sense of purpose. I feel now that I need to continue to support you, to repay you somehow for what you’ve now given me.” Mirae stopped for a second and looked away. “I want to keep spreading the word about you, but I–”

Lysette took a deep breath and beckoned Mirae to sit back down, and she followed suit just after. “As I mentioned before, I am not going to try to tell you what to do. I’m not going to tell you to keep… evangelizing, I suppose? But I also won’t tell you not to, either.

“However, if you are certain that you want to support me in my own objectives, I could use your help. How do you feel about cutting class?”

“I do not understand, Lyse. First you ask us to study and devote ourselves to Cultivation, and now you wish for me to cut class?”

“Please don’t misunderstand. I plan to go to the surface tomorrow and see about that Hunter’s Guild that Gerald mentioned earlier. It will be a good opportunity to test our skills and, if everything goes well, get the funds we need for more of these crystals or other tools we’ll need. And don’t worry about paying for the carriage down to the surface; I can take care of it.”

“Of– Of course, Lyse. If you feel I might be of service to you, I would be all too happy to join you.” Mirae yawned. “Though, I am getting tired. Do you mind finishing up the cleanup so I can be ready first thing in the morning?” Mirae stood up and bowed with a look of jittery panic on their face, their eyes darting toward the door.

“Of course. See you tomorrow, Mirae.” And I, for one, look forward to the start of this arrangement, my new disciple. May it bear fruit for the both of us.