The Tower of Emnu

Aaron walked past Sylus cell and past an empty one. A man sat in the next cell, in the middle of what looked like the most intricate floor painting he had ever seen. He was spindly thin and balding. But his face had the same youthful shine that all cultivators had. He idly wondered why the man had bald hair, as he passed. The man totally ignored him and continued to scribble on the floor with a long stick that had paint on the end of it.

After the man's cell Aaron came to a cell with a moderate amount of bright light barriers that shimmered in a light blue. A woman that sat behind the shields cross legged on the ground, her eyes closed. She had a really weird outfit that looked like someone had stitched together two halves of different colored robes and called it fashion. Her left side was a blue robe made out of cool blue silk, while the right side was a fiery deep red. There seemed to be some sort of enchantment going on, because the left side of her body wafted cool air and had small snow crystals that appeared and melted away instantly, while the right, red side, had flames licking on her sleeves. Overall she made quite the impression on Aaron, because even her hair followed the same color scheme. Her left side was straight slick and dark blueish black in color, while her right was a curly fiery red. It looked so contradictory and weird that it almost felt like someone had taken two women and fused them together.

Aaron cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”

The woman opened her eyes and Aaron was not that surprised to see she had heterochromia. Her left eye was a deep crystal blue and her right eye was a deep reddish brown that looked almost like a dimly glowing coal.

“Are you Illyria?” Aaron asked and peered at the row of empty prison cells that followed after hers.

“That’s me.” she said cheerily and gave him a friendly wave that made her right sleeve puff up flames like she had a small dragon in there, breathing fire. She waved the flames away and eyed him with interest.

“You are the new Aspirant huh, nice to meet ya.”

“Likewise, would you mind getting rid of something for me? I just broke through and you know…” he showed her the remains of his clothes slathered with the gunk from his breakthrough. Illyria laughed and pointed to the side.

“Sure thing, but don’t let that become a habit. I am not your resident garbage disposal gall. You hear me?”

“No worries, if I can help it I will break through inside of a bathtub next time.” Aaron said and he still felt some of the sticky gunk in his hair. He shuddered slightly. Illyria had pointed him to a small box to the side of the cell. The contraption vaguely reminded him of what tellers had when they were behind bullet proof glass. It was a box that only opened to one side. So if he tilted the box towards him, it would be shut towards the inside and visa versa.

“So, I just put the stuff in there?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Emnu is kinda scared of me.” She proclaimed proudly. “Cause I can control all ice and fire in a pretty large radius, even if it is a spell. So they locked me in there without me ever being able to get out.” She gave Aaron a little pout and he smiled back politely. He had not expected the woman to be so forthcoming and bubbly. But his main concern for now was to get rid of this stuff. He deposited the ruined clothes in the box and could actually see the enchantments inside of it glowing in an eerily similar blue glow like the light screens. Then he closed the box on his side, making it pop up on Illyria’s side.

The woman wrinkled her nose and gave him an exasperated look, when she looked into the box. But then she waved with her left hand and the ball of clothes rose out of the box, frozen to a lump.

“You should be happy frozen stuff does not smell. Or I would be really cross with you. What was your name again?”

“Aaron.”

“Yeah, that. Disposing of stuff like that is still disgusting you know.”

“Sorry.” Aaron said, still a bit taken aback by the way the girl talked, while he tried to rub his hands of on his pants, desperately trying to get the Impurities off himself without looking too weird while doing so.

Illyria gave him a pout and then with a wave of her right hand the ball of iced over clothes burst into bright red flames that burned hot enough to vaporize the entire thing in an instant. She gestured with her left hand again and the smoke that rose from the ball of intense fire started to freeze and fall back into the fire to be vaporized as well. The heat of the fire was so intense, Aaron had to shield himself from the outside and take a step back. After 10 seconds or so nothing was left of the remains. The fire puffed away as suddenly as it had come and Illyria grinned at him.

“What do you think about my fire? Pretty great, right?”

“Yeah, that was...impressive.” the woman preened and puffed out her chest a bit nodding along.

“Right? Ever since I got this primordial fire in my chest” she tapped the top of her right breast almost provocatively, but she did not seem to notice as she continued with a bright smile.”no fire came even close to this. Its such a beautiful flame and where it goes all flames follow. It’s really neat. With it I can burn down cities or extinguish a forest fire with a single thought. Of course my primordial ice is just as powerful. Would be no balance otherwise. I am still a woman after all and not some flame sprite. I can freeze so pretty sculptures out of people. Its really fun! When they still tried to test our powers I froze a whole battalion of them like a chess board! And when they tried to throw fireballs at me I burned them all to a crisp, not even ashes remained. They were so horrified.” she laughed a full belly laugh and grinned brightly at Aaron, who was not sure if it was normal to speak of mass murder with such a happy face. But then again, who was he to judge?

“So you like my fire right?”

“Er...yeah…” but before Aaron could say anything else she continued.

“I would love to teach you some techniques, but the great master has forbidden it.” she pouted and put her arms on her hips. “I know he is some big shot and could literally change a planet with a single sentence or whatever, but I am bored.” She studied Aaron intently and sighed.

“Not that you look like you have much talent with fire or ice. Have you ever burned someone alive?” she asked with the purest innocence in her eyes. Aaron paused and shook his head.

“Only bodies.”

“A shame. If the fire is hot enough there isn’t even any smell, you just see how they melt away. Its quite beautiful really and the soul leaves the body quickly. Less time to lament. Death is always instant when I do it unless they have annoyed me of course. But I don’t think you have much talent for my art. Not that I could give you what you need to start to begin with. You know my first flame was given to me by my dad, bless his soul, it was the tiniest happiest little thing. Mom could not be outdone and gave me a piece of never-ice. I was so proud and happy and they were sooo surprised when I accepted both and was actually able to cultivate them both.”

“Right, well I have something else for you.” Aaron managed to squeeze in between her breaths and held up a manastone, before he stepped back to the box.

“Ohh, a manastone. Gimme, gimme, gimme pleaaase. Its been so long since I have had one of those. You see I can’t really die while primordial fire runs in my veins and my physical appearance can’t change because its literally frozen in time by the primordial ice. But its so boring to just sit there and maintain myself. With this I can have some fun, freeze some air into some statues, maybe make myself some furniture.”

Aaron put the manastone in the box and opened it towards her end. Illyria happily floated the stone out with a wave of her fingers and the manastone started to freeze and burn at the same time in a weird display of conflicting might. One side of the manastone was freezing the other melting, but the sides seemed to rotate around the stone and the fire and ice fed on the manastone equally.

“Can you bring me someone to burn alive next time?” she asked with a cute smile full of total innocence, that made even Aaron feel a slight shiver go down his back.

"That might be difficult to do…”

“How about water, like a lot of water?”

“Water? Er..yeah I can bring you a waterskin I suppose.”

“Awesome, bring it to me next time yeah? I can make some pretty furniture with water. I have had this whole cell filled with ice sculptures before. But I was bored and I burned it all down. I am feeling a new style for this room. Maybe Kantharen, lots of big columns and drapes?”

“Sure...erm… I got to give out the rest of my manastones to the other prisoners. But it was nice to meet you Illyria.”

“Oh, yeah, right. I am babbling! Sorry about that. Come by often, yeah? See you.”

Aaron quickly stepped away from the cell and breathed out in relief. He had not known he had a limit to his social battery, but this woman had reached it instantly. Her flood of babble and the sprinkled in graphic depictions of freezing or burning people alive were weird even to Aaron, who was not sure if she was right in the head. Or if that was just her personality, or if cultivation of two conflicting elements had some sort of effect on her making her that way. Either way she seemed happy at least. But man was she weird.

He knocked on the bars of the next cell and the man who was intensely scribbling on the ground looked up.

“Who are you?” he asked and blinked as if he had woken from a long trance.

“Oh, ohhh, you are the new Aspirant. My name is Nemueses, but you can call me Nemu, most people do. I am a Formation master.”

“Nice to meet you Nemu, my name is Aaron. I come to introduce myself and give you the manastone as to my agreement with the great master.” Aaron was not sure if this guy felt as chatty as the last girl, but he wanted to get to the point as interesting it was to chat, there were a dozen of cells he had to visit. Nemu looked at least far less sociable than Illyria. Up close the man looked surprisingly old, not just because he was balding, but because he had a gaunt thin face with honest to god wrinkles and laugh lines around the corners of his mouth. How that worked while having the complexion of a 18 year old, Aaron did not know. The man's gray robes looked like they had a lot of room, even though he was sitting down, giving Nemu even more of an old gaunt man look.

“Yes, I know, I have been hard at work to create a suitable formation for the mana from the stone that will sustain me for almost 6 months!” Nemu answered with almost the same amount of passion that Illyria had shown for burning people to death.

“6 months? That is...Impressive?”

“It sure is, you probably don’t know what a formation master is, so here a quick overview before I continue to work. I study Qi and how it moves. A long time ago cultivators noticed that certain forms and buildings, certain shapes in short, created different effects when Qi was flowing through it. So they experimented and started to find out the basic methodology that Qi follows and how to use it to our advantage. The simplest Formation is a Qi gathering formation. One of the oldest and most widely used Formations in the history of Cultivation itself. It just does what it says, it gathers Qi. Its usually the center piece of any more complex Formations that you want to run on their own.

To summarize, I am a Qi scientist, that is what you Summoned people call it when people use their brains and call it a profession, right?”

“I suppose so. So...since there is no Qi in the tower...how are you doing anything?” Aaron asked and blinked at the complicated pattern on the floor of the prison cell. It was like all of them quite spacious, but almost every inch of it was painted with flowing lines that did not look handmade at all. There was a giant, perfectly even, circle in the center of the cell and Aaron could barely look at it, it was so complicated and multicolored. At a second glance he realized the central patterned circle was actually carved into the stone floor not just painted on it. The floor where the man stood was painted in bright red and gold and it was another circle, but much less intricate.

“Indeed, in the tower there is no Qi at all. But that is what makes it so fascinating! An entirely new energy form to categorize and analyze. I can basically feel the breakthroughs I will have in my work once I return to a proper environment. But please, hand me that manastone.”

Aaron nodded and reached into the cell with one hand and let the manastone fall into the man's open palm. This cell had no light screens at all, which was strange and Aaron guessed it had something to do with how 'dangerous' they were.

“Excellent. This manastone will do nicely.” Nemu said after inspecting the manastone critically. Then he reached over the drawing of the red circle and dropped the manastone directly in the center of it.

“The fascinating thing about mana is that it is a boundary effect of Qi, so it shares some similarities with Qi. Both are energies, but mana behaves totally different. But since they are related you can do this if you understand the subject matter a bit more in depth.” He pointed at the manastone and Aaron gave him a strange look when nothing happened. But then he felt it. The mana in the stone was leaking out in a spiral. It felt strangely similar to a spell impression, but at the same time it had nothing to do with it. This felt more like the mana that had come off the wall on the first floor. Like a waterfall. No actually it felt even more natural, almost primal. It felt like seeing the true nature of mana for the first time.

Then the mana started to seep back into the manastone and when the energy emerged again it felt different, it felt like very, very weak Qi. Aaron blinked and pointed at the circle.

“Did you just create Qi?”

“Yup. Fascinating isn’t it? Its actually a very complicated formation inside of a Qi Gathering Formation to keep the end result contained and not have it dissipate or mix with anything. I won’t bother telling you how that worked. It would take me years to just teach you the basics of it and you would not be able to practice my art in the tower anyway. So it is a waste. But if you want to help me with my research, bring me enchanted items. Those are fascinating.”

“Psst.” Aaron turned around to Illyria that stood at the edge of her prison behind the light screens waving him closer.

“Don’t give him any good stuff, Nemu has a terrible track record with enchanted items. They all break.”

“They are supposed to break, girl.” Nemu said exasperated. “I need to understand the method of keeping an enchantment on an item if I want to understand the next step. Just imagine the Array possibilities on a simple rock. Sadly that idiot of an Artificer will not let me in on his secret how he managed to create artifacts in this environment. Such an irritating, petty man.”

“Mortag is okay old man, he knows the secret of fire so he is good in my book.” Illyria said with her hands on her hips.

“Pyromaniacs and idiots.” Nemu muttered under his breath. “Pearls before swine.”

“Heyyy, I heard that. Go back into your time chamber, I like you more when you are frozen.”

“Excuse me?!”

Aaron cleared his throat and interrupted the two. But he had to ask.

“Time chamber?”

“Ah, well, the central formation in this cell of mine is my personal masterwork. I have some minor achievements in the Dao of Time, nothing overwhelming, but I am more than capable of slowing down or accelerating time inside of the circle.” He pointed at the central cycle carved into the floor, which gave Aaron a slight headache whenever he looked at it, but before Aaron could say anything, Nemu continued.

”Unlike some people I have not been given everything with a silver spoon. I had to work, learn how the universe works. Not just inhale ice and fire like some primordial trash can!“

“Pah, you are just jealous because you are aging.”

“I will have you know that I could simply step into that formation and activate it on the highest setting. By the time I would have counted to 10 the tower would have crumbled around me and millions of millennia will have passed and I would be able to leave out of the ruin that is left. I am not trapped here unlike you! I am merely here to satisfy my curiosity that is all.”

“Hm, my mother told me never to pick a fight with a formation master, but you suck old man.”

Nemu spluttered in outrage, but caught himself when Aaron stifled a smirk.

“You are like trice my age! I will not take this any longer. Young man if you could bring me some enchanted items and some blank paper and writing utensils, I am sure I can find something to trade for it. You don’t need to bring me more manastones for a few months so that should be enough to start with, yes?”

Aaron hesitated, he did not know how easy it would be to find paper of all things, but he still nodded. He could try, but he would not promise anything.

“Sure, I will see what I can do, no promises though.”

“Fair enough, I will return to my work, until then.” The man said and stepped into the central circle. At first Aaron thought the man had simply vanished, but then he realized that the man had accelerated and was moving faster than he had thought possible. Aaron watched for a few moments with fascination how the man sped through the circle, walked around in more than super sonic speed. It looked like he was teleporting from one spot to the next before he sat down in the center and began cultivating.

“Annoying old man, but dangerous anywhere but in this tower. He is basically impossible to beat if he has time to prepare. Really irks me to be next to him, but I suppose they had to find some way to put me down a notch or the rest of the prisoners would look just sad.” Illyria said, her words spluttering forth like from a waterfall and Aaron smiled at her and cleared his throat.

“Yeah, well on to the next, I will have to get going.”

“Don’t forget to throw a manastone to the old ghost.” she shouted after Aaron, who had turned around and was walking away at a moderately brisk pace.

“You mean the great master?” Aaron asked over his shoulder.

“No, no the old ghost. He is in that prison next to you.”

Aaron looked at the empty prison cell that had no light screens whatsoever and raised an eyebrow.

“Greetings.” an old voice said and Aaron flinched and looked back to the cell that was not empty anymore. An old man sat cross legged right next to the metal bars. If Nemu had been aging this man was old. Ancient. His gaunt features looked weathered and old, his skin leathery as if he had spent his whole life outside or on board of a ship. His medium length hair and beard were both gray and whitened at the tips. But the man’s blue eyes eyes were awake and alive and Aaron could feel the man’s gaze on him like a lead weight on his shoulders.

“My tribute please.” the man said in the same calm emotionless voice he had greeted Aaron with.

“H-how did you do that?” Aaron managed to ask, but the old man looked unperturbed.

“I am a master of the deep shadows and the soul. Perception is an illusion and you are too young to see through it. I have nothing to teach you or to trade for. You do not have the disposition for my arts. If you are truly interest return when you have reached Golden Core.” The man said calmly and then vanished right in front of Aaron’s eyes. He had not blinked or looked away. He had not been distracted. The old man had just vanished like a ghost. The cell looked entirely deserted and empty now and Aaron frowned, picked one of his manastones and set it down inside of the cell, before he stepped away carefully.

The manastone vanished while he looked at it and Aaron’s spine tingled as he shuddered involuntarily. He backed off until he hit the cage behind him. Sylus sat in his cage with a smirk as he leaned closer to Aaron.

“I see you have made acquaintance with the old Ghost. Don’t worry about him. If you would have had the disposition for his arts we would have made you his student. He and the great master are the only ones who have a track record of teaching students who have left the tower.”

“There have been cultivators who have left the tower?”

“Oh yeah, but they don’t have the strength or will to defy Emnu so far. Still the old ghosts techniques are no joke, he basically can’t be found unless he wants to be found.

But enough of that, we have some business my student!”

Aaron turned around to face Sylus and nodded. The man looked compared to the other Cultivators positively bland. His most defining features were his thick eyebrows, his youth and how relaxed he always seemed. He did not look that muscular or strong, but Aaron could guess that Sylus was quite powerful, at least vastly more powerful than himself.

“Business?” he asked and fished out another manastone and presented it to him.

“Not that, but yes, give it here. I am talking about my offer. Give me three beast cores and I will inscribe the first triplet of the Heavenly kata on them. It will be a perfect version of each that you can follow while doing the kata. I will teach you how to use them, but what do you say?”

“Yeah that would be amazing.” Aaron had wondered if he had done the Kata perfectly, the effect had been there but to have it like a video he could look up would help a lot. Not that he knew how it would work at all, he just remembered Sylus telling him about the possibility of a recording of some sort for his benefit? Either way he had a feeling it would be worth it.

“Good, go over to Mortag, he will change the beast cores so they can take on memories. I can’t do that myself sadly. When you come back, demonstrate the Rejuvenating Fist kata for me and then we can see if you are ready for the second kata.”

“I have been using it quite a lot, but well, I was not comfortable using my fists as my primary weapon. A nice enchanted dagger does a much better job.”

Sylus snorted and flexed his left arm, the punch snapping the air with an audible crack.

“Patience, once you have Qi to spare you can learn some simple Qi reinforcement of your body that will protect and amplify your ability to dish out damage. That said, the real offensive capabilities of the first triplet are on the third technique, the Piercing Finger Kata. But you are not ready for that yet. I can tell.”

“If you say so.” Aaron muttered and flipped a manastone to the Prisoner. Sylus caught it effortlessly out of the air and nodded to him, before he tucked it in one of his pant pockets.

“Go on, you still have more people to meet.” Aaron nodded and walked off to find the next Prisoner in line.