Chapter 269 - An Irrational Quality

Nilya cradled the hollow ember firmly, feeling the intense heat radiating out of the smouldering egg. He backed up until his back once again hit the wall of the nest.

“Master—“ His voice quivered as he called out to the guru-chi who was using some special ability to hide within his body, “Master what do I do?”

There was no response.

Trapped on a tiny nest in the middle of a cliff, surrounded by giant birds of prey with no way out… He couldn’t think of any way to escape.

Nilya didn’t have a chance to come up with a plan as the larger female hawk screeched and charged at him.

He screamed as he flung himself to the side, rolling on the ground before catching his footing and running past the hawk. Once again he dodged, spinning past the male whose talons just missed him.

Instinctively he felt that the attacks of the two hawks were dulled, quickly realizing that they weren’t striking at him with their full intensity, for fear of damaging the precious egg in his arms.

He fled to the edge of the crystal nest, running along a crystal that jutted out into the sky. 

There was nowhere to run! Just a void of air below which a darkened valley lay. He turned around, glancing up at the cliffs above, seeing an almost vertical cliff with no path or handholds to climb. Even with handholds it would have been impossible with both his arms occupied carrying the egg.

The male hawk turned and craned its neck out of the neck, snapping at Nilya, who could only jump straight up in panic.

He landed on the hawk’s head, then jumped once more, reaching the stone cliff face above the overhang which concealed the nest.

 

He was acting completely off instinct as his foot found the tiniest ledge on the stone cliff and propelled himself up.

Before he knew it he was running up the vertical side of the cliff!

“Ahhhhhh!!!” He screamed, not daring to look down, not daring to drop the egg, not daring even to wonder how this was possible.

The shrill cries of the hawks rang out below him as they launched from their nests in pursuit.

After three hundred meters of vertical running he ran into a natural cleft in the cliff. The terrain became less extreme as he took off down the natural contours of the rock, leaping from step to step as his footing became more and more confident.

For the next three hundred meters he navigated the tricky terrain while dodging the frantic attacks of the hawks, performing athletic feats and jumping at heights that would normally be considered impossible.

Nilya’s thoughts raced as he made the mad dash up the next vertical cliff, feeling like the rules of gravity no longer applied to him as his feet found the tiniest, most improbable footholds to allow him to continue fleeing upward. 

He felt like there were wings on his feet, like his legs were being guided by a divine force that was propelling him to safety.

But the truth was that Yuzu hadn’t touched the strings since the moment he had landed in the nest.

Watching the strings from afar, Yuzu could only shake her head in amused disbelief. Even though she had seen this happen in the threads, she still couldn’t believe her eyes as Nilya ran straight up the mountain.

The top of the cliffs were obscured by the thick fog of the misty forest. Nilya didn’t have an option to stop as he launched himself up the final step, barely escaping a final swipe from the female hawk as he tumbled into the woods.

The crunch of snow cushioned his footsteps as he raced past numerous tall, black tree trunks, never feeling happier to see the world turn grey as he fled into the fog. 

The angry cries of the hawks faded into the distance as they desperately tried to give chase, but lost track of him. As silence filled his surroundings Nilya finally slowed down.

He trudged over to a tree trunk and leaned his back against it, raising his gaping mouth to the sky as his haggard breaths rose in the chilly air in puffs of mist.

He slid down against the rough bark, splaying his legs out.

He half expected to hear the guru-chi’s dry chuckle in his ear as he recovered, but the silence persisted even after his breathing had stabilized and his mind was calm.

At some point even his flesh had returned to normal, the stone skin granted by the guru-chi fading without any fanfare.

Watching the strings from afar, Yuzu could only shake her head in amused disbelief. Even though she had seen this happen in the threads, even though she saw it happen in real time, she still couldn’t believe what she had seen.

It reminded her of the stories of legendary monks who were so fleet of foot they could run across lakes and through the canopies of forests. Only the image was much more ridiculous because Nilya ran the entire length while holding onto a massive black egg.

Even if Nilya was chosen by prophecy, as far as Yuzu knew prophecy could not accomplish the impossible. In her own experience, Yuzu couldn’t make strings do whatever she wanted - the more she tried to force strings to do something unreasonable, the more resistance she encountered, and at a certain point the strings might even counter her efforts directly. 

Therefore, unless the Domain of Fate was truly so ridiculous that it could warp the laws of reality, there had to be some semblance of reason, some explanation for such a feat to occur.

After some contemplation she came to three realizations.

First, Nilya was an Exalted with bolstered strength and agility that came from his attunement to the Domain of Body. This explained quite a bit of his ability to jump high and perform these feats.

Second, Nilya was currently in the spiritual world, not the physical world. In the physical world, a person’s strength was based on the strength of their physical body. In the spirit world, a person’s strength relied on the strength of their spirit body. From the guru-chi’s teachings she knew that all the pathways in the Kingdom of Humanity were connected to the spirit plane.

Third… The edge of Yuzu’s lip curved up in quiet admiration as she came to a final realization. The third factor is Nilya himself. Even in such a chaotic and helpless situation, he never gave in to fear or hopelessness. He found the smallest chance to escape and forced his way to success.

Perhaps half the reason why he was able to run up the mountain was because when he realized that it was the only way to escape, he didn’t let logic stop him from trying. He only saw what he needed to do, and then put his entire effort into accomplishing it.

In the aetheric plane Yuzu had the ability to fly. It followed then that the spiritual plane would also have its own set of differences from the physical plane. Then again, the guru-chi hadn’t said anything about any special qualities about the spiritual plane. 

In the same situation Yuzu might have used her experiences to attempt such a feat, but there was no way for Nilya to know such things were possible.

It was Nilya’s own personality and outlook on life that let him readily accept the existence of the Exalted world, that saw him through harsh training and a deadly trial without complaint.

He accepted the world at face value, and kept his mind on the task at hand.

This was in contrast to Yuzu’s own cynical and methodical outlook. 

Over the past three weeks Yuzu had constantly criticized Nilya’s naive acceptance of his new role, while taking advantage of the situation for her own benefit. She felt he was too earnest, too easy to take advantage of, and that if she were in the same situation she would be far more careful.

In other words, she felt superior.

But seeing the boy recover in the snow, a relieved smile on his face as he rested the back of his head against the tree trunk, she felt pride and even admiration for this ten year old village boy.

If she were in the same situation, would she have been able to escape? 

Or would she have simply given up?

Nilya had something that Yuzu didn’t have.

That was simply, an unquenchable, irrational will to survive.

~

In the physical world, Yuzu was seated in a cushion in the main room of the abandoned house on the outskirts of the village. Her legs were cramped from sitting for so long, her body felt heavy and tired.

It had been a long night. Nilya had used up more than half the time figuring out how to leave the misty forest the first time, and most of the remainder in the journey through the cliffside ruins. 

Yuzu took a moment to stretch her legs, walking to the shuttered window and peeking outside at the still pitch-black night. 

Despite the delays there was still a good hour or two before dawn. Nilya had plenty of time to bring the hollow ember back to the guide and complete the trial.

After a moment Yuzu sat back down and reached back out to the strings to watch the trial’s completion. As she reached out, her brows furrowed gently as she noticed something strange.

If Nilya is about to finish the trial, why don’t I see his fate strings returning from the spirit world and merging back with his physical body?

She had been so focused on following the events within the trial that she hadn’t noticed the changes that had occurred to the strings outside.

A look of alarm crossed her face as she noticed the changes that had occurred in the tapestry of fate.