The Star 23

Pete shared a lot of useful information. The fates of various family and friends interested the young mage but didn't consume his attention and worries as it might once have. In truth, most had moved on and Orison was merely a footnote in their lives. It was time for him to do the same.

Jammers was a mystery to all. The young mage was happy to hear that. His spiritual son had disappeared into the Great Void and none knew where to look. Orison himself didn't know and that wasn't an accident.

Past caught up, Pete addressed the here and now. With one son committed to following the natural path of souls and the other well on his way to surpassing his father, Pete had decided to stick around with Orison. A part of that reason was the unfortunate and somewhat embarrassing story between the bull man, Amy and his son, Suniir. Another part was lack of a safe way to return.

Garret planned on catching back up after giving his past regrets 'a proper life and burial'. Orison sympathized and supported the decision. He only half believed the parting was temporary, however. Despite their success, crossing the Great Void was something even tier sevens didn't do lightly. Unless there was some kind of opportunity to do so, Orison had no plans on doing it again any time soon and hoped that any looking to reunite with him would do so only if it was safe to.

As far as any other potential visitors or those interested in trying, there were some. But, the whens and hows were vague. It ended up sounding like good intentions with little guarantee.

Whether in gratitude or guilt, the ones who had benefited from Orison most greatly, sent one thing or another with Pete but none topped Venito. Among the gifts of the immortal mansion and the various goodies in its treasury and garden, the three radically different high dimension stones were specialized versions of the stuff the young mage called eternium. If all three were found naturally fused together, it was called chaos or origin marrow stone.

Fusing it artificially was considered nearly impossible save for select tier seven or beyond and finding natural origin marrow stone was even harder. A finite amount was naturally created at the beginning of a greater reality's existence. Only the very first creations of an existence even qualified to look for it where it formed. It was mostly found by later sentient beings as part of a fossilized primal spirit's burial place. Apparently, even those were thought to no longer exist unmolested.

Venito sent a tiny bit of the separated sources he had found in the hopes that Orison's strange soul could use them to 'make' some of the elusive origin marrow stone. It wasn't wrong to say that it worked but it was his actual soul that had became the 'marrow'.

The young mage would tell no one what the outcome was. Pete didn't even want to know. If somehow, he grew some of this stone at a later date, he'd try his best to get some to his big brother. That was assuming it didn't cripple him to give it away.

"What was that stuff you fed to me when my soul was collapsing?" Orison asked.

Pete said, "The red gelatin was ambrosia. Barely the real deal but at least enough to avoid mortal wound to body or soul for a few minutes. That was from Lily on the sly. I wouldn't read too much into that. I think she just feels bad about how much you tried to do for her only to get sh*t on by her sister.

"That bottle was a trash can punch of filtered dregs from a vat of soma, a barrel of nectar and a few drops of immortal elixir diluted in spirit water. I've got a bathtub's worth of it. Leftovers from when Vinny was teaching me some 'Mo' body cultivation."

Orison frowned. "Putting medicines together like that is dangerous, even diluted."

Pete waved his hand dismissively. "First off, pig slop from up there beats most medicine down here. Secondly, it's so diluted, it's practically vitamin water... vitamin spirit water... Last but not least, physical toxin build up is a joke to you and I'm a mixed method body refiner. Boil, baking and deep frying deadly levels of toxins out of my body is a weekly to monthly event."

A little flummoxed, the young mage tried a different approach. "Aren't you worried about fertility and... performance issues?"

Wistfully, the bull man said, "I've at least had a dozen kids, managed to half-a** be a father to two. I've stirred more pots and split more biscuits than a retired cafeteria cook. Both of my hot heads have got me in more trouble than I can count. Downshifting from overdrive to fourth gear has improved my life, to be honest."

Mentally throwing his hands up, the young mage sat in silence for a little before he said, "Oh, that reminds me. Are beast kin better than average at telling if a particular person out of a group of possible mates will give them healthier or more gifted offspring? It sounds like an exaggeration of the instinct driven guess work anybody can do if they're not ignoring the obvious."

Pete flipped his hand back and forth a couple times. "If we're talking about Osomo beast kin, then yeah, for the most part. Rabbits, rats and squirrels; not so much. My folk, centaurans and the Nunos deerfolk; we would have ceased to exist over the years if we couldn't tell which humans and elves would keep our traits from watering down too much. In our case, the women are a sight better than men at it. Might be that they just care more, though.

"Satyrs and Catkin are good enough at it that the best of them have been known to help match make for others with few complaints. Matter of fact, there was one of each on staff at the pleasure house you saved us from. The Moon Tribe catkin from Shadow Reach are so picky, they've been known to disown toms that father children with a defect because they're personally blamed for the child's suffering."

Seeing Orison's odd look, he said, "Hey, Osomo doesn't have fertility and OBGYN clinics. So, guess where people go. Adult entertainment workers don't carry the same kind of bad rap on Osomo that they do in other places because... no diseases. You'd be surprised how many came to places like where I was to do something a lot more serious than just have a good time."

The bull man hesitated for a moment and then sighed in resignation. "If you've got something strong to drink, this would be a good time to bust it out..."

Seeing him get serious, the young mage scanned through the cellar stock and picked something he could vaguely recognize.

Ordering it up and letting Pete take a few to lubricate 'story-time' before polishing off a couple himself, he gave the green light. "The floor is yours, senator."

Pete smirked momentarily before putting on a poker face. "I wasn't the only one who volunteered to be the 'gift bearer'. I was the only one the majority could agree on. Want to take a stab at why before I ruin the fun?"

Orison said, "No. And lord help me, I hope I'm wrong about the reason that popped into my head."

The bull man shrugged and said, "I'm not a mind reader and glad for it... We're all heading for tier five. Might be a few weeks to a few months but there it is. That's the bulk of your old team over there too. Even Duran and Medea broke their climb and fed themselves to the last clone you made of them for a fresh start with better potential. Their beef with Wick's a story for another day.

"Back on track... After a big leap of spiritual growth, there's this calm part after the storm settles. I've been through it once and now I'm going through the same one again. So, I can tell you from personal experience, that's when spiritual children are primed to be born... I'm telling you, most of the old monsters don't even see their other kids as really theirs. They ONLY count the ones made from their own souls.

"You just went through an... abnormally big growth. I'm sure you can feel yourself sailing through tier four at breakneck speeds now. If you weren't knitting your laws into a rug of crazy, you'd have a domain already.

"So, yeah.. lots of arguments. If that dragon lady from the undead empire hadn't punched that ticket for Edos and Arazmus already, people would have died. If Venito didn't have his hands full with personal problems, a LOT of people would have died for having the argument in the first place."

Feeling more than a little creeped out, Orison asked, "Who didn't... argue?"

Pete said, "That's not exactly a good question to ask. Several, myself included, entered the argument because we wanted to help, not because we wanted something else from you. It's not easy to tell who did what and why. Daniel helped me give my spiritual parenting potential to Little Pete in front of witnesses. That's why I was chosen."

The young mage sighed. "I still want to know. I have reasons."

Pete said, "I don't know them all personally but I'll do my best. Cray and Regen bowed out as soon as they were drawn to the Meeting Place, a space created by that artifact. No one knows why but they looked worried about something else. Besides them, we were there for a while but groups grew pretty segregated after the first couple of days.

"Gravat didn't want anything to do with anything or anyone there until he started seeing people arguing over who would get to go to you. He wanted to be part of the competition for its own sake, I think. Except, he kept saying something about Adeena 'would have wanted him to'... The group with the friendly outsiders in it took the whole thing as some kind of joke. They were more interested in helping the shelled octopus lake monster thing, wherever that came from.

He was about to launch into more obscure people when Orison cut him off. "We need to get back to the caldera. I hope they haven't shown up yet. I have questions I want to ask Benjamin or Zoe, either one."

The bull man nodded and said, "I'll need to stay in here. If this reality feels me, I could get booted and be separated from you guys."

Muttering to himself, the young mage complained about a Greater Reality that only had one super huge mid dimensional realm and nothing else.

Pete stopped him from stepping out. "It's not. This place is a lot older and a lot stronger than ours. It has layers instead of a collection of gumball realities. What you see is only what it allows you to see."

The young mage acknowledged he heard and stepped out of the mansion. Despite no longer having a pocket space in his head, the cultivator artifact rested within his spiritual seat, safely and without issue. For a moment, he felt lost because he didn't seem to have the saucer anymore. But then he remembered, he could feel laws again.

With an exercise of power, using a boosted Find Objective as the guider, he appeared at the caldera in less time than a thought but was immediately slammed into the ground under a strange suppression. Nearby, two sets of fat tentacles reached into the air like a fussy baby asking to be picked up. Following them to where they pointed, Orison saw a collection of mammary glands and dangling hair larger than the moon but much closer.

"Zoe, what are you doing!? At least let me open a summoning circle. You're going to get reality tickled at you," he shouted.

A random nonsense burst of sound returned something that vaguely resembled, "Buttered popcorn doesn't get cold in hell, pop tart! Squeeze your shoelaces after you lick eyeballs or no desert!"

"Impatient... It only takes fifturn nickles to rub a pizza," Orison shot back, annoyed.

Benjamin, who had just appeared, said, "Mom, Godfather, you shouldn't argue in front of this confused little spawnling. I'll ease the passage."

The young mage went to wave a patch of flowers growing on his fifth hand at Benjamin to let him know not to interfere with the line dance they were swanning and then remembered he wasn't made of cheese. He tried not thinking about big boobs but then... Zoe WAS made of them, literally. For lack of a better way to fix the warping he hadn't been prepared for, he relaxed his pattern and let everything reset itself to factory while he pointedly didn't look at the sky anymore.

Shuffling over, he helped Benjamin set up and muttered a thanks for not letting them go past a point that was already dangerous. The eternally youthful faced old one smirked but replied for Orison to think nothing of it. It took a few minutes to remember why he had even came to talk with them and they were almost finished lifting the large creature gently into Zoe's stringy hair arms.

"Ah, Ben. It seems my tolerance for outsider insanity radiation has gotten much worse. I forgot why I had originally came for a bit, there. Do you think you could spare a minute or two before you take off?" he asked.

Smirk reaching, up to but not quite past, the line of condescending, Benjamin said, "Time is meaningless and I'll listen. Knowledge and action may not be without price, however."

Orison looked at him sadly but there wasn't anything to complain about. Unlike most of his other friends, he hadn't really done much for them other than be a burden after his initial involvement. They were strong and self sufficient, constantly lending aid but never really receiving any.

Chuckling in a self deprecating manner the young mage said, "Lots of birthdays and Christmases without so much as a card... What should I expect?... I just wanted to know if I or someone I care about was still hot top of a certain mean spirited outsider's hit list?"

The 'young' old one said, "You never were. You're not that important. None of us are. If it seemed that way, it's only because you were a bug hopping around their activity zone. If you felt targeted and suppressed by that casual swat of a hand's worth of effort, consider what it would mean to actually have their full regard.

"Don't bother because you wouldn't exist long enough to finish the thought if you were. Against beings like that, you stay out of sight and send a meaningless prayer they get bored. No amount of power or courage allows for more than the chance to make yourself unamusing long enough for their attention to turn elsewhere. But, remember this. It could turn back to you at any time. It may never have left."

Maybe because he was still fritzed from staring at a Great Old One but he hugged Benjamin and said, "I'm regretful I let our connection grow so dim. I cared a great deal at one time. I might not have had anything of value to offer that I could do without but I could have let you know in some way that I thought of you fondly and hoped you were happy. My physical existence isn't strong enough to survive giving your mom a hug but I'm thinking it as hard as I can."

He returned it to the young mage stiffly. "A painfully warm and thoughtless manipulation... I accept."

A distant roar through the atmosphere that blurred the edges of coherent thought, let the two know that Zoe was paying attention. Her emotional state was impossible to discern through the alien mindset she had. But right after, she disappeared without unleashing a plague or grand, senseless destruction. That likely counted for something.

Before Benjamin joined her, Orison added, "I feel like I've forgotten people that are with you. For the sake of nostalgia, could you give them one last hug for me? Maybe tell them I'm sorry I forgot but ask them to forgive in the face of relentless time or entropy, if you prefer."

Benjamin shook his head slowly. "The ghosts that haunt the edges of your memory are no longer by my side, Godfather. Suffice it that I understand the sadness and feeling of loss keenly for having few within my small circle entirely eclipsed by your own."

"Are you striving to step beyond the bounds of structured existence more... permanently?" Orison asked.

The young old one nodded. "One day within meaningless time."

"Well, until you give up your membership card to Greater Realities for good, feel free to visit if you get bored or lonely. You are my godson, after all," the young mage said with a watery smile.

"Within strange eons, perhaps I will," Benjamin's fading voice echoed as he faded from view.