The convention center was bustling with spirits, especially as more people arrived to get a taste of what Gnomon was offering. There weren't any kids here, this was mainly for young adults closer to her age than the kiddos and munchkins she had seen elsewhere. 

The spirits were attracted to the energies of the convention, spirits of Joy, of Knowledge, there were even a few Feast spirits lingering around the various small food shops set up for the convention and around local restaurants. There was even a ‘spirit of the joy of educating others’ twisting in and around clusters of people, laying a trail of fairy lights along the ground. 

“So are you here alone?” Tess asked her new companion, the tall alien trailing at her side. Xinji seemed rather confident, preening whenever some of the younger kids looked at her like she was a dragon. 

Xinji blinked at her question. “We are both adults are we not? Or did I mistake your age? It’s hard to tell sometimes.”  

Tess wiggled slightly, smiling awkwardly. “Oh. I'm almost eighteen, my birthday is in September.” She quickly realized that she much enjoyed Xinji’s company. She was boastful and proud, and a little formal from time to time. But that was because they were still strangers. 

“Eighteen… that would translate to twenty and a half of our years. You would be an adult by our standards as well.” 

“How long does it take you guys to uhh… mature?” Tess turned on her heels to avoid a six-year-old being gently pulled by his parents. 

Xinji’s ears flipped up and down. So cute, was her unspoken thought.  

“We reach physical maturity in seven human years,” Xinji lowered one of her hands down to her ankle. “We start as seedlings, shoot up quickly on a diet of milk and meal mush, then reach breeding age at between thirteen to fifteen years old. Our brains will continue to develop for seven to eight years on top of that.” 

“I guess… humans aren't too different, but we tend to regulate things based on mental maturity.” Tess really hoped she wouldn't have to explain why because that was too intense for a casual first meeting. 

“I get it, our laws are similar. Having sprouts in charge would… not end well.” Xinji sounded horrified and it made her wonder why. 

The convention had been a boon to her mental health. For Tess the energy was overwhelming, but her excitement kept her anxiety from surfacing. Her small town had maybe a dozen people with powers including her family and the Azul. But none of them had the right knowledge and expertise to help with her condition.

“What kind of channeling do your people perform?” But she had more important things to ask, like asking about the powers an alien race had access to. Directly from the horse’s mouth. 

Xinji’s chittered, silver eyes sparkling with haughty pride. “My grove has taught me the art of channeling the energies of the soul, of cultivating and reinforcing our body, to infuse it with might and power. To send chi outward as raw force into reality.”

Tess lit up and bounced happily at the statement. She had heard that was possible, and that most people did it subconsciously to a lesser extent. Xinji looked uncomfortable and she took a step back with a shaky grin. 

“Sorry if I got close,” Tess apologized to her new potential friend. “But it's exciting, Emanation Manipulation on Terre was always more focused on internal alchemy than directly sending it out as a force!” 

Xinji blinked in an odd sequence, head tilting in confusion. “Emanation Manipulation? A human term…” she trailed off with a hitched whistle.

Tess was genuinely excited to answer, carried by the energy of the convention. “Emanation Manipulation relates to the direct manipulation of rūh or chi for your people. Technically it's the most basic application of the soul, the root of every form of channeling.” She eagerly patted Xinji as she explained, the alien guiding her through the crowd they had been allowed to wander in. “Elemental Manipulation is merely the ability to use our rūh to interact with our environment, Nous Manipulation is projecting our energies to connect with other minds, to tap into the ties that bind across time and space.” 

Tess glanced over to the entry lobby of the convention center, with long rows of prefab tables. Many were advertising the school systems connected to Gnomon College, with four lines. Her parents were waving to them, and she dragged a surprised Xinji by the hand with a skip in her step. 

“Oh, please allow me.” Tess turned back and then squawked when Xinji picked her up like a sack of potatoes and leaped. Two dozen feet passed them by in a single lazy bound, and she had to spit hair out of her mouth as the wind buffeted her.

The lobby advertised all kinds of events, presentations both political and scientific, displays of power, and departments of xenobiology, orgonotronics, dark energy and quintessence theory, and transmundane reality theory. There was a power in the air, it swept her up into a current and dazzled her. 

 Tess was happy and nervous and anxious all at the same time, Gnomon College was at the center of it all with a half-century-long history, born from the aftermath of first contact. The eyes of the known universe were on this place, on her.

She barely noticed Xinji setting her down, and there was barely any line with her parents.

She blinked and squared her shoulders, deciding it was probably for the best that she be the one talking with the man behind the reception desk. Tess was going to be a college student now, and it was going to be a well-needed adjustment. She glanced at the man behind the desk, a tall but cute guy with a warm smile.

“Welcome to the Gnomon Convention, I see we’re looking at a potential new student here. Two even.” His eyebrows raised, scanning Xinji with a skeptical but curious look. “Who here is a channeler?” 

“I am.” Xinji offered, standing tall at two fucking meters. 

“Me.” she pressed her fingertips together, trying to keep a polite tone.

“So am I. My wife is not.”  Yaga added from her left, and the man nodded. 

“So three channelers and one non-channeler, is that right?” He asked with a charming smile. At their nods, he tapped his wrist-mounted holo-caster and created a screen for himself. “Names?”

“Theresa Hoshino, Yaga Hoshino, and Aitana Hoshino.” She glanced at them for approval, the two nodded and she sighed in relief. 

“Anataya Xinji.” The receptionist wrote down the information on his holo-caster, and with a flick of his finger transmitted a digital ID to their devices. Xinji lifted her arm, bobbing her head as she read the illegible scribing on her holo-caster.

“Good, enjoy the Gnomon Convention! And feel free to talk to people at any of the booths or enjoy the presentations and lectures.” The man bobbed his head, wavy hair bouncing with the motion. 

Tess directed them to the food court, orbiting around a bemused Xinji. Yaga leaned forward with a twinkle in her eye. “So, what kind of food does a big girl like you like to eat?“

Xinji’s ears flipped back and forth. “My people are omnivores, and we can consume even foreign organic matter due to our… very adaptive biology.” 

That wasn't surprising, life on Xinji’s planet had very complicated genetics because of how their cells could steal genes, and because they had access to hundreds of amino acids rather than just twenty like on Terre. Their digestive enzymes could break down organic matter without suffering from complications unless it has the opposite chirality. Sometimes.

Being TNA-based thankfully kept plagues from happening since they didn't have access to polymerases that could copy genetic information back and forth between DNA and TNA. They didn't have the same protection from other aliens since most known life used DNA and RNA. Cross-species diseases were a lot easier when you shared genetic code.

Tess released a puff of air, she needed to get back on track. “So it’s decided, we’ll get a quick bite to eat before we move on to the booths.”

Xinji cracked an avian smile. “Oh? And who decided that?” She loomed with a sharp gleam in her four eyes. 

Tess stretched her back with a scowl. “I did! Now hush!”

---

Xinji shifted from foot to foot, gazing at the crowds of humans. Her new human friend had run off with one of her mothers in tow. How does that work exactly? 

While she didn't want to throw a stone through glasshouses with the biology of her species, humans had two biological sexes, the female capable of bearing children and the male capable of inseminating the female egg. From a biological standpoint, and that ignored several genetic, physiological, and psychological conditions that made science more… of a spectrum. She didn't mind, of course, it's not like her own kind had a perfectly regular system.

Real-life didn't tend to like fitting itself into neat squares.  

Xinji had a lot to say about humans, especially with the human who was keeping an eye on her. Aitana Hoshino was… soft and rounded like a zucchini bear, with nice pretty UV stripes. But there was a depth to her dark eyes, a predatory aura that left her on edge despite the woman being a hundred fifty pounds sopping wet. 

“You said you were from the… Anataya Grove correct?” her tones were sickly sweet, almost purposely grating to her senses. It promised violence and death, and it reminded her that appearances could be deceiving.

“Yes. Why?” Xinji asked, lightly shifting her weight as tried to analyze the alien body language of Aitana.

“Then you would share blood ties with the Butcher?” 

Unbridled rage nearly overwhelmed her. “SHE IS NO KIN OF MINE!” She shut her beak at the stares of the humans around them. Her ears picked up sound from every direction, and her voice split three-ways out of stress.

Aitana smiled, cocking a hip “I thought so, you have her eyes… but they’re so much gentler.” Xinji had not expected any of this when she had decided to travel across space to expand her education. She had her own reasons, she wanted to clear the shame cast down upon their Grove because of the disgusting actions of her mother. Then the human’s words registered.

“You knew my mother?” Xinji asked quietly, the older human’s face was tight with restrained emotions, dark well-kept curly hair draped over her head. How was that possible?

“It was before my daughter was born, I had a run-in of sorts and I'm intimately aware of the kind of person she was.” Xinji grimaced, claws flexing nervously as she became far warier. 

“I—” She was cut off when the woman patted her arm.

“You're nothing like her, keep my daughter safe won't you?” Her voice was far warmer.

Aitana turned on her heels when her wife and daughter popped up, grabbing onto her spouse and turning a 180 in her mood. Movement caught Xinji’s eye, and she noticed the nervous energy of the crowd. There was a lightness to their steps, a fearful shadow behind their gazes. These people were afraid, and in a way, this woman wanted to protect her daughter.

“Understood…” She murmured. 

By the spirits were humans all a bunch of weirdos? Or had the world spirit decided she would be saddled with oddballs?

---

Tess walked up to one of the booths, following the advice of a lone fire spirit. The booth was out of the way, and she looked at the sign that said ‘Metaphysical Biology: Your Soul and You.’ 

She looked around but didn't find anyone manning the booth at the moment. But she swore she had seen someone there when she had spotted it from a distance. Flames flickered to life as she had waved her hand, why did I—

She felt the stirrings of a few thoughts, wholesale connections reaching not so much into her head but more a mental request. A knock on the door if you would.

Tess accepted, mentally preparing herself. The connections unfolded, like an unzipped mental file. She blinked when an image was sent, and she started in shock at what she received. 

It was the image of an alien, one she hadn't expected to see outside traveling two thousand light-years. She had never seen a kanaloaa outside of videos and documentaries. They evolved from mollusks, right?

He had a long cuttlefish-like mantle propped up on four grey limbs, closer to legs than tentacles, with flat nubs for feet. Four grey tentacled limbs, one pair with six long fingers, the other pair were like flexible spears. Tess could see his odd eyes and pedipalps shadowed by his shell, segmented into four parts. An elongated dome above the head, a triangular crest directly behind it, and two wing-tusks where his pedipalps were. He looked… oddly cute.

There was a deluge of delight, a grandfatherly flicker of affection. Those humbling thoughts were directed at her. <Curious. To see a young channeler so readily sense my presence.> His thoughts were oddly bubbly, octarine. Her head hurt trying to decipher fluorescent greenish-yellow-purple. 

Who are you? Tess thought as hard as she could, still keeping the picture of the kanaloaa in her head.

<Greetings, I am One Thousand Scholarly Cadences of the Winter Winds. You may call me Scholarly Cadences if that is too long for you.> 

“Scholarly Cadences huh?” Tess had a feeling on where the alien was and stabbed into the air with her finger. It bounced off a squishy surface and the kanaloaa flickered into existence. “Invisibility?” How the fuck?

He laughed psionically. <An optical cloak, a hard light field projects a false scene. I like using new projects now and then to surprise students.> 

“From your colleagues? I uhh… know who you are.” Tess was starstruck, vibrating in place. 

Scholarly Cadences was an expert in the field of Applied Metaphysics and Metaphysical Biology. He had multiple doctorates and was one of the few kanaloaa willing to engage with other races outside the Kanaloaa Integrate. Not after the Verge Wars five hundred years ago. 

He was famous for his humanitarian work as a xenobiologist and as a Metaphysician. Tess felt giddy and… and desperate. If there was anyone in the entire galaxy who could help her, it would be Scholarly Cadences. She glanced around to see the other booths, it was organized chaos, prospective students were allowed to see what awaited them at Gnomon. 

She wanted help.

The spirits circled her, a flurry of spiritual energies attuned to her mind. She breathed in and there was a sense of spirit, a gentle orchestra as old as time itself. Everywhere around her she saw them, calling out to her, trying to guide her with what they knew of the planes of spirit. 

<Are you alright?> She snapped out of her fugue, pulling back from the concerned aura of Scholarly Cadences. The sheer concentration of people was messing with her, and she still didn't know what to do about the spirits. She wasn't a trained shaman and her parents didn't possess direct talents or contacts that could help her. She was left exposed.

She swallowed her words. “I…” The professor projected denial, and gestures to her with a six-fingered tentacle.

<I understand, you are an untrained shaman, barely a cuttlet even. And yet you can see and understand the spirits so clearly.> There was a note of fascination to his song, an unearthly pattern of music that tasted like sun yellow and shined like strobing lights. But it changed to a more empathetic tone, wind chimes and rustling leaves expressing concern. <But you have not learned how to invoke them, how to ask them for their power.>

“Do you… can you teach me?” Tess asked.

He shook his body in a human-like motion, tapping a device on his arm. “No. I can not, I am not a shaman. I may be able to explain shamanistic practice but that won't tell you how to channel the spirits.” The pressure of his telepathy on her head was gone, Tess subconsciously relaxing as the psychic song receded into the ambient orchestra of the universe. The voice was… fairly human but clearly, machine synthesized with an odd echoed pitch. “Gnomon is willing to accept people from all walks of life, no matter their race or creed, regardless of the color or their blood or the nature of their soul. I believe you’ll be a fitting addition if that’s what you want.”

It wasn't a guarantee or a promise, not that Tess would accept one. Doctors in the past had made promises they couldn't keep before. She didn't hate them because of it, since it wasn't their fault her condition was so opaque and complex. He was a leader in his field, so there was a chance there was at least some way to mitigate her issues.

She opened her mouth to talk when a chime sounded from the convention center’s loudspeakers.

“‘Channelers In Today’s Galaxy’, presented by Gnomon College speaker Adam Arama, will be starting in fifteen minutes in the west ballroom.” The loudspeaker repeated itself three times before cutting off. 

“We can speak more when you become a student, miss Hoshino.” Scholarly Cadences lightly tipped his body, and she nodded absently. 

Then she was startled. “Wait I never told you my name—” He was gone like the wind, and the spirits whirled in agitation at the silence he left behind. She shrugged, she had heard the rumors about the professor, he was eccentric but kind and warm-hearted. Times three. Literally.

She giggled and slid between the crowds. It was easy to avoid people when you had a natural compass for connections, the little strings that tie everyone together. The way the spirits reacted between, flowing and shifting in the Outer Sphere and beyond. 

 She tapped Aitana’s shoulder, and she reached out to the connection without hesitation to bask in her mother’s love. Tess knew her mother was frustrated, that she wanted so much for her to choose another path.

But her mother would let her go because she loved her, even if she suspected Aitana had a little chat with Xinji. At least she won't be around to terrify all my friends at college. 

“It’s time, I'm sure the presentation will be fun.” Her mother’s gaze was sharp, analytical even for a split second before turning neutral. “Just relax, okay? For me?” 

“Of course.” 

The two moved quickly after that, though her mother kept them out of eyesight from photographers and their drones. 

I should probably keep mama from wrecking their shit, was Tess’ last thought as they ducked into the crowd.

---

Compendium Entry: (Technology) VOID RAIL

Void Rails are advanced technology used to bridge the vast gap between star systems in an instant. Their functioning is a well-known technology, and a fundamental requirement in using them is understanding their link to the Spirit World. Every planet for example has its own unique and independent Spirit World with distinct patterns of behavior, rules, rituals, and spiritual ecology. Some are hostile as on Chukan or abnormally beneficial as on Mara. However, every Spirit World shares a connection, the Long Paths or the Spirit Roads bridge the worlds together across infinite space.

Featureless planes, often of mud and dirt or bare stone, which can, in turn, give away to crossroads connecting different Spirit Roads or to free-floating Spirit Bubbles, worlds without a mortal counterpart. The Connected Realms are the explanation for the sheer transit speed of Void Rail travel. They use sophisticated manipulation of Orgonium-based cores to open a fissure into the Spirit. Without this technology, most races would have fragmented even with the use of FTL drives. 

The Ahamkara are the initial architects of what would become the Rail Network before their eventual defeat at the hands of the astarans and the panadim twelve hundred years ago. Their establishment of the network allowed the races of the Orion Bubble to massively expand, acting as canals for interstellar empires.

The Rail Network links thousands of star systems across ten thousand light-years and operates omnidirectionally. A ship can dial to link up with other Rails as needed, instantly teleporting across star clusters. There are three current classes of Rails, each of them separated by size and range. Omega Rails are small-scale gates, large enough to transport individual people and shuttlecraft. Their size is between twenty and one hundred meters in diameter. Beta Rails are mid-scale, large enough to transport dozens of ships at once, between one and two kilometers in diameter. Alpha Rails have the greatest range and size, with the longest recorded jump at forty thousand light-years and the greatest diameter at sixteen kilometers respectively. 

The Rail Network has largely been commandeered from Ahamkara structures that have been subverted and had hardware and software replaced with native technology. Creating Void Rails is an expensive and difficult project for interstellar infrastructure, and most species are only able to construct Omega and Beta Rails. Thus Void Rails, especially the rarer and usually Ahamkara-sourced Alpha Rails, are a key strategic resource for the Great Powers.