The Aether God: Chapter 16 - A Day In The Life

To walk is by a thought to go;

To move in spirit to and fro

Caladrius School South District: Residence Hall 5, Dorm 31

Cerulean’s eyes slowly parted, once again. He had spent the night sleeping on the floor of his dorm, having given up his bed for Latia. As he awoke though, he felt a weight on top of his left shoulder. Furthermore, it was snoring loudly.

“I’m glad she’s comfortable now… she’s going to be holed up in here for who knows how long… A concealment technique wouldn’t be reliable enough for such a long time, so I’ll have to go and pick up some blood to make her a transfiguration artifact or something… I’m also going to have to tell her about my memories before she gets too attached…”

Cerulean nudged Latia’s shoulder, and soon afterward, she awoke.

“...Good morning…” She rested her head back onto his shoulder and closed her eyes again.

Cerulean almost laughed as he shook his head, and put two of his fingertips directly under her nostrils. A bit of harmless Welkinean Ether started trailing out of them.

“I’M AWAKE I’M AWAKE!” She jumped straight up and started sneezing. Cerulean sat up afterward and yawned as he stretched. She folded her arms and started making something of a slight pouty face as he did so. After a moment, she sat on the bed. As Cerulean stood up, he began to speak.

“I’ll go and pick up some food for you from the Market District. I haven’t stored any in my abyssal vault up to this point, sadly. I’ll get some snacks and other things for you, as well as new clothes… Sorry that I have to hole you up in here for a while.”

Latia’s expression displayed a bit of sadness. Not because of her situation, but rather because Cerulean was apologizing despite all that he was doing for her. She smiled though.

“Thank you, and don’t worry… I already feel more at home here than I ever did on the mountain.”

“Hahah, great! Now… once I get back, I’ll have to head out immediately afterward as I still have to attend lectures. I’ll leave you a stack of manuscripts to study. You can sit and absorb and such. Your constitution is particularly powerful, so you’ll probably find yourself ascending the ranks quite fast. Just be careful of the bends that I mentioned last night.”

Latia nodded, but still displayed something of a sorrowful expression. Cerulean had already reassured her a number of times, but she still felt to be something of a burden to him. Soon though, she felt his hand press on the top of her head.

“This is the least that I can do. Trust me… it’s truly nothing. None of the sects even know of my existence. I’m the last person they’d suspect, and they don’t even know about the void element. I’ve been extremely careful… hopefully. I also have everything to set up a concealment barrier over the room once I leave, so even your… that old man won’t be able to sense you.”

“Why do you even go to lectures? Isn’t that just a fat waste of time for you? You should just stay here for today.” Latia leaned forward and hugged Cerulean who was standing in front of her. She held him for a little over a minute. Cerulean looked down while opening his mouth to speak, but before he could even get a sound out, she shook her head against his stomach.

“Nuh uh.”

…………………

The Great Valley had never been so enthralled by a single topic. A palpable tension hung heavy in every district, as talk of the unthinkable echoed through every corner. The once lively streets and bustling markets now buzzed with intensity, fueled by gossip and disbelief. Many were angry or upset, others were just happy that something exciting was going on - there were few things more exciting than watching drama play out. The Legendary Sects were treated as if they were royalty, and as such their members each had a public presence akin to that of a celebrity. Yesterday, the most dramatic event in most of the resident’s lives had taken place: the kidnapping of Latia Aurora, the daughter of Aurelius Aurora. It occurred on the day of her own wedding no less, just moments before she was married. Furthermore, it wasn’t just a private occurrence, about which word had gotten out. Millions had actually witnessed it! Some spun together dramatic explanations of what happened, others were confused and didn’t get a good look. It sent shockwaves rippling through the hearts and minds of millions. From the grand halls of the legendary sects to the darkest of alleys in the valley, it was the one topic on every tongue.

Caladrius School East District: Court 12, Lecture Hall 34

“Somebody’s going to die.”

“No, it was somebody from the Blackwood Sect.”

“No way. Not even Sectmaster Blackwood could hide from the entire Aurora Sect.”

“Yeah, but he’s a lord with three attributes!”

“Still though, the Aurora Sect also has a ton of lords!”

“The Sectmaster is on the warpath.”

“Didn’t Latia have a slave collar on?”

“No way I watched her come down from the sky! Her neck was clear.”

“Duh, nobody saw it until it fell off.”

“The Aurora Sect said that was just a conspiracy though.”

“So many people saw it… And you think they’d admit that?!”

The lecture hall was swirling in a whirlpool of gossip. Nobody was silent… except for four boys in the back of the room. As they sat in their usual manner, three were donning quite hilarious, teasing expressions. Cerulean, though, had just sat in the middle of the group, trying not to smile as he walked over. His lips would pucker ever so slightly to avoid letting his cheeks ball up into a grin. He would lick his lips now and then, as if hiding trying to hide a smirk. Reed smiled and then spoke to the group.

“Somebody looks a little tired.” Reed spoke out, as if not even directed at the group.

“Hey, give the man a break. Purifying nexuses all night takes a lot out of a guy…”

As soon as the words left Triton’s mouth, the boys all started shaking. They were restraining themselves from loudly giggling. Their noses were letting out violent gusts of air, and soon they began letting out restrained laughter. The gusts of air were shooting out from their lips along with other funny noises. Cerulean shook his head, resigned, and embarrassedly held his head down. They soon calmed though, and began to converse as normal.

“Doesn’t Elder Roshi look a little different today?” Cedar looked toward the group.

“Yeah, his aura’s also changed. He feels more powerful…” Reed turned his head toward Cedar. As soon as their eyes met, they stared at one another for just a moment before their eyes slowly drifted to the sides of Cerulean’s head. He was staring, suppressing a smirk, at the back of Triton’s head. However, to his chagrin, Triton slowly turned his body around, hanging his elbow over his chair, toward Cerulean. He had the most hilarious expression on his face. Cerulean burst out laughing, and it lasted for almost half of a minute. Triton shook his head while looking at Cerulean.

“Bro… What even are you?” Despite having gone along with all of his whims and plans, they wanted desperately to understand how Cerulean knew all that he did. Reed’s question was not merely child’s play. Cerulean was not only the most mysterious person they knew - he was legitimately the most mysterious character in the entire Great Valley. He even kidnapped Aurelius’s daughter in the middle of her wedding, and got away with it! It was inexplicably astounding. Nobody would have even suspected him but the three - not even the peers of the abyss knew as much as they did. Cleansing nexuses, making thousands of assorted manuscripts… He was the most incredible person.

“I’ve been asking myself that same question for a long time…” While Cerulean spoke, Elder Roshi began pouring Welkinean Sand into the chalice on his desk, as usual.

………………………

Elixir Alliance Market Pagoda

The lecture ended rather quickly. Afterwards, Cerulean stopped by Nora’s office once again. Whenever he faced her, she had to ignore Edith’s mischievous stare and eyebrow waggles. Nora had quickly ascended to the three-star master rank within a single day, using the techniques Cerulean had gifted to her. It was quite impressive in his eyes. She would now be able to battle easily with most of the lord artists within the valley. She once again had a large number of coins for him. Furthermore, she had for him a large amount of bottles containing a mysterious liquid. They were void elixirs. Many of the sects that sent parties outside of the valley had found them in a number of places, and sold them for almost nothing as ‘expired’ elixirs. They assumed that after many millenia, the brews had lost their ethereal qualities, but could still be used somehow. Though they had been studied and questioned, they hadn’t a single time been ‘comprehended’ in the manner which was required. Cerulean had, a few days prior, asked her to procure them for his little army. He still hadn’t yet found enough time to start seriously brewing. Furthermore, making Aetherial Elixirs was quite difficult. He was almost done stashing the elixirs as he spoke.

“Before we wrap up… I want to tell you more about phase two of my plan.”

“Of course!” Nora nodded.

“First… Let me ask you a question. Do you know why two techniques can do the same thing, but one can be better than the other? Don’t say rank.”

“Because of their grades?” she asked.

“Exactly. I luckily know how to control the grades.”

Nora’s eyes widened. It was a well known phenomena, but no Ethologist had ever figured out exactly what caused grades. Furthermore, nobody really cared about it. Many would find that their manuscripts all looked the same, but some were slightly weaker than others. While they also referred to them as the ‘grade’ of the manuscript, none could fully explain it. Thus they only cared about ranks.

He continued

“As I mentioned before, I want to slowly increase the amounts of the items being pushed out to the Great Valley. So long as we slowly push the line, the sects will have a harder time taking heavy, concrete action. The reason we have the upper hand is because they won’t really notice much if we just secretly and slowly raise the grades of techniques, especially those of absorption, that Celestia and Solene are putting out. The true purpose of the R5 auction was to make them totally forget about grades… it seems to have done a good job”

Nora raised her eyebrows. She had already spent many hours pondering what kind of extraordinarily powerful person would be able to overthrow the Legendary Sects… But to be this meticulous? Every time that she thought he had laid out all his cards he had another one up his sleeve. This boy was something of a monster of sorts… Was he actually just a normal kid?

“But… because of that, people will start ascending faster, and requiring more elixirs. I’m even planning on putting out a purification technique at some point… We need to get the other guilds involved in selling the lower rank trade goods, while you and the twins dominate the R4 field, and once a lot more people ascend, I’ll keep you three a rank above all the other guilds… We’ll talk it over on another day though. We have to figure out how to get them the formulations and such without it seeming like our own doing…” Cerulean was talking away from Nora, almost as if pondering to himself.

Nora nodded. However, there was a part of her that had started to begin feeling ashamed in a way. She felt that she was becoming one of the richest people in the entire valley by merits not of her own. While it was exciting, she couldn’t help but internally laugh at herself. Cerulean was practically the entire mind behind everything, and while she was grateful for him, felt like she couldn’t do much more than be a lackey. She looked downward slightly as her mind began to drift off. Cerulean keenly sensed this though. He had to suppress quite a mischievous grin.

“Showtime!”

“Alrighty… That'll do it…” Cerulean pretended to yawn loudly as he turned away and walked toward the door. He was restraining himself from smiling, wearing a nonchalant expression. Edith was standing there with an equally blank expression, though she truly felt a great deal of empathy for Nora. She planned to share some words of kindness and reassurance with her after Cerulean left. Nora though, was nodding off, her mind still spiraling in self-doubt.

Cerulean continued walking, but the moment before reaching the door, he stopped.

“Nora.” Cerulean called out her name, in an over-the-top endearing, but masculine manner.

Hearing her name, Nora was immediately drawn out of her episode. As soon as she processed the manner in which her name was said, she immediately started blushing. But before she could respond, Cerulean had turned his head to the side and continued speaking.

“You acted on behalf of your guild with incomparable decisiveness and courage. You may feel small as an alchemist right now, but you are a most spectacular guildmaster.”

As soon as he finished speaking he turned his head, making his typical exit.

…………………

Edith was standing in the same place that she had been before Cerulean left, but her glasses had long since fallen off of her face. She was as if a childhood bully, pointing and laughing hysterically at Nora - who was sitting on the couch to the side with a pillow held over her face. It was a familiar situation.

 

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