Path of Stars, Ch 6: Time and Chaos (Patreon)

The Void was filled with tumbling currents that swept across Sam’s mind. They flowed around him like a breeze, pulling his attention one way only to distract him by pushing it another way a moment later. He spent a while drifting with it, walking to wherever the urge pushed him.

He wasn’t sure where was best, so he followed a low, drumming heartbeat that called him deeper into the Void, toward the heart of the Chaos Wild. With each passing hour, he could feel the pressure of the wild currents intensifying.

Time passed as he walked through the eddies of the Chaos Wild, but without other events to mark the duration and no feeling of fatigue, it was difficult to tell how long it had been. Hours felt like days, days like moments, and anything beyond the present was lost to unraveling paths of thought.

On his hand, the Titan Star shone brightly, a constant light that accompanied him through the dark. The only mark of his location was the presence of the border nearby and the intense currents of wild energy that came and went from the opposite direction.

This area felt like the shore of an ocean.

The barrier was the great breakwall that kept the tides of wild energy from crashing into the settled half of the galaxy. As the currents washed backwards, they created a calmer area of opposing forces where the energies spun off into spirals and found a unique balance.

Those were the Borderlands.

If the border had been smaller, perhaps the force of those clashing energies would have been more intense and made it impossible for people to live here, but it was so large that size had little meaning.

Instead, the energy currents formed a sort of weather system in the Void where they took the place of wind. The prevailing winds came from the west and met the barrier, which was like an impassable mountain range. Right in front of the barrier was the most intense impact area, but the Void a bit farther away was fairly calm.

Once he was some distance from the barrier, the breezes pushing on him became more regular, like a pleasant ocean warmth on his skin. From time to time, they changed, but the shift was slow, a transition that was measured in days or weeks, or perhaps longer.

He noted the shift, but he didn’t stop his journey. He was heading into the deeper Void where the currents were stronger. The intensity of energy there was more appealing and it drew him onward.

Now and then, more Void beasts appeared. They were widely scattered, but they seemed to be attracted to wherever the energy was dense, like animals in search of food. It gave him an easy way to find them, but he ignored most of them, especially those that were barely into the Second Evolution.

If they were directly in his path, he killed them and collected their materials, but he didn’t go out of his way to find more. He could feel that there were better challenges ahead.

Here and there, he saw more Darkscale Hunters, but few had the courage to attack him now that he was paying attention. Most were in small packs of two or three. There were also fiercer beasts, single hunters like tigers that stalked the edges of the currents to prey on weaker things.

Most of the beasts had some form of elemental attunement, showing their connection to the currents of energy, but the amount of life in the Void was a surprise.

He had always imagined that the reaches between the stars were dark and vast, empty of most life, but this area was different. It felt like things were flourishing, as if everything had just been born not long ago and life was abundant.

It might have been his essence making his imagination run wild, but the Borderlands here felt almost pastoral. Those spiky earth elementals with radiant golden hearts that were resting by the pool of elemental water could be sheep...and that pack of Darkscale Hunters off to the side were like wolves looking for an easy meal.

He decided to check with the Titan Star and its memories from the Path to see if he was just going crazy.

To a Titan, perhaps this does look like a calm pasture, the Titan Star said calmly. But do not forget about how the dimensional bag disintegrated. Although you find this area pleasant, it is far from that for others.

The younger races see this area as a dangerous wild full of monsters and elemental horrors. It is difficult for them to even set foot into it. They require shielding enchantments and a significant level of strength just to breathe here.

Those Golden Core Elementals that you think look like sheep are Level 215 and there are almost a hundred of them. One to one, they are capable of tearing apart a Darkscale Hunter. In a swarm of this size, they can devastate an area. It is why everything is leaving them alone.

Sam glanced at the sheep with a grumble, debating if it was worth fighting the entire group to see if they were really that dangerous. After a moment, however, he shook his head and continued on toward the deeper Void.

He’d already killed a dozen similar things that were closer to him, and he knew it wasn’t worth the effort. He might be able to make something from their materials, but the amount of experience and essence they had was limited, far less than their level suggested.

Analyze might say they were Level 215, but that had more to do with their strength than their experience. At best, each one might give him a few thousand experience. That was even more true of their essence. He was able to see it in them even at this distance, and it was only a few percent of what a Darkscale Hunter had.

Killing those elementals would be about as useful as killing an entire herd of sheep. He might get some wool and meat from it, but that was all.

He grumbled again as he pushed the idea away. If there was nothing else around, he would deal with them, but his time was better spent searching for enemies with more concentrated energy.

The Borderlands seemed to be a transition zone where essence and experience mingled, and essence was the rarer of the two. It was stronger in the predators like the Darkscale Hunters than in the regular beasts, but even in them it wasn’t as much as he would have thought.

Outsiders had far more.

The thought made him rub his chin in thought as he paused and really looked at the Borderlands. The comparison to a pasture, or at least a wild plains of some type, seemed fairly accurate. The area was calmer than he’d expected, which was probably why some of the younger races had decided to live here. They might have trouble surviving in the open Void like he was standing in now, but with the protection of a world, they should be fine.

Overall, this area felt domesticated, like a protected zone where life was easy, at least in terms of the Void.

The Darkscale Hunters had probably attacked him because his level seemed low and the density of his energy was extremely high, which made him a tempting target. The Will of the Path had said that few things used essence any longer, so he had to wonder if the hunters were even conscious of it or if they just gathered it passively, perhaps converting it into some sort of natural strength.

It looked like the remnants of essence here at the border were slowly fading, just a little later than in the stable half of the galaxy. Perhaps in time, this area would merge into the border. He glanced over at the massive swirling wall that marked the divide and then he shook his head.

Perhaps not.

It was hard to imagine that thing moving. It was just as likely that the beasts here had similarities of both sides. The energy here was probably already balanced, changing progressively into more wild essence as he got farther from the border.

Either way, this was no place for him to hunt. He didn’t mind eliminating things that attacked him, or collecting a certain material if he needed it, but the thought of killing everything here was off-putting. There was no gain in it.

It felt like an instinct, or perhaps just a reaction to the lack of essence in these beasts, but he couldn’t help but think that only a Vos’Rekan would kill everything here for the fragments of life that they contained.

With that thought on his mind, he turned his attention back to the open Void and headed deeper into the Chaos Wild. Without thinking about it, he stepped onto a shining silver thread that crossed his path and disappeared, flashing into the distance.

*****

His senses expanded, touching on the vast web of threads that connected the stars in the Void that resonated with a deep, vibrant song. Then he was suddenly somewhere else as he stepped away from the thread and reappeared. The area around him felt different, a bit wilder.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like it hadn’t been long. A few hours, maybe a day.

When he turned to look back at the barrier, he could tell that it was much farther away. There were a thousand small things in front of it now, including a field of stones that was spinning across his vision on the right and a wash of curling white ice that was twisting in a massive spiral to his left.

From this angle, he could see the Borderlands far more clearly. He wasn’t out of them yet, but this view gave him a certain perspective. His gaze traveled across the land, seeing everything in front of him. Distance meant nothing.

As soon as something caught his attention, unless something was blocking it, it sprang into his view. He’d never had the opportunity to test the limits of his vision on Aster Fall, but out here, it was clear that a Titan’s eyes were something special.

There were many things of interest as he looked across the Borderlands. Some features of the area also jumped out to him. That strip of tumbling rocks looked something like a river shore, while the current of Water energy rushing past it looked like an enormous river.

Giant slabs of stone that were each larger than the Western Reaches hung stretched out like a row of mountains, floating in a current of Earth energy that sustained them.

The swirl of Ice he’d noticed made the vortex to his left, while a similar but still liquid pool of Water sparkled in the distance like a lake. Flecks of smaller elemental chunks clung to them, adding texture and color, almost like leaves on the surface.

A twisting current of Fire in a dozen colors from deep blue to pink sapphire and bright gold passed across the horizon above his head, marking out a stripe that was almost like a horizon, and with that, the palette of the lands in front of him came together.

Crystalline Water rivers, Earthen mountains, the dark ocean of the Void behind him, a swathe of sparkling Wood elements creating an open plain of green under a burning sky...all of it made from interwoven elemental currents on a scale he’d never seen before except in his dreams.

It required a shift of perspective, and it wasn’t the same as being on a world, but once he began to think of the elemental patterns here as the major forces of the land, it worked. The powers here were like great rivers meeting, joining and parting again, and in the process they created wonders, including islands that stood out among the flows.

The Borderlands was a frozen swirl of colors where the great forces came together. It was here, in the balanced area between the deep wild and the barrier, that the powers of the Void slowed and became entwined into patterns of life.

Among those balanced areas were pockets where the energies were almost still, like the Water lake and the Ice vortex. He could sense that they hadn’t changed for thousands of years, and perhaps not for eons. They were like landmarks, things that were always here.

Around it all, the prevailing currents of energy from deeper in the Chaos Wild blew through like a weather system. Currently, that was mostly Water and Air elemental forces, which made him think of an ocean breeze, but it was just one version of the Void.

Eventually, it would change again.

Perhaps next month, it would be Fire and Earth, or Wood, Metal, and Lightning, or even something far more rare, like a wave of chaotic destruction that tore apart the elements into smaller chunks.

It reminded him of the Storm Plains.

Perhaps it was just his desire to return home, his imagination creating what he wanted to see, but the similarity was unmistakable, even if the scale here was so much larger that it staggered belief. It was like Aster Fall had created its own version of this place.

Or perhaps the builders of Aster Fall had done it, making a small version of what they knew best to remind themselves of their own home, and he just happened to have come from there.

Either way, it made this place feel a little more familiar.

Slowly, a map of this section of the Borderlands began to form in his mind, merging with the much larger map that the Will of the Path had given him. He knew he had been sent to one of the middle southern areas of the border, a bit to the galactic south of the center, but that hadn’t been of much help until he’d had more details to add.

He did his best to plot his exact location, filling in the details from what he could see around him. It wasn’t perfect, but he was able to align himself to some of the more massive stars behind him and the border itself. The astral threads extending from each of them cut across his vision, giving him straight lines to use.

After a little while, he turned his attention to the northeast, a little distance below the Fire horizon and just past the Water river. There was a field of stones blocking his view, but there should be a world in that direction. He’d crossed a great distance on the astral thread, which put him on the far side of it now,

According to the information in the map, it was supposed to be one of the free worlds that were abundant in the Borderlands, run by a collection of merchant guilds who were trying to gather wealth from the Chaos Wild’s resources. It had a fairly organized government to keep the peace and ensure trade continued to flow, but this one was also plagued by thieves and crime, enough that the Path had included some information about it.

He considered heading there, but eventually he shook his head. He would visit at some point, but he didn’t have a lot of things to trade right now. He also didn’t feel like dealing with a bunch of thieves. Most importantly, the deeper Wild was calling him.

He marked the location in his mind and then he turned away, looking again at the flows of energy that made such a unique section of the Void. He wanted to bring Altey here and show it to her.

“One day, perhaps I will,” he murmured. His voice echoed from the elemental currents, but the thread of astral energy that made it up kept it clear and bright. She would just need to be a lot stronger than she was currently, so that it was safe.

The thought of his sister sent a flare of impatience through him and he began walking again, heading for another astral thread that he could see in the distance. This time, he turned his attention to Crystal Passage as well, considering whether he could use it to speed up.

The clarity of his vision gave him an easy way to target the next location and a surge of essence and astral energy flared around him as he suddenly disappeared.

The Void echoed around him for a timeless instant, its song bright and dark at once.

He popped back into existence fairly close to the astral thread. When he saw where he was, a brief grin flashed across his features. He teleported again to close the rest of the distance and then he stepped onto the thread.

As soon as he touched it, he could feel his astral energy and essence harmonizing with the energy in the thread, as if they were reaching the same pitch. The moment stretched into one long, bright note that echoed across the Void.

Then he was standing beside the thread again, his location very different than before. He turned to look behind him, but the Ice vortex and Fire horizon were barely visible in the distance, just flecks of energy that he recognized from their unique signature.

The barrier was still as large as ever, but he could feel that he was on the edge of the Borderlands now. Things here felt darker, hotter, and more spread out, even as each energy signature he detected was more intense than before. Most importantly, the concentration of essence was higher here.

Traveling along the threads was almost an instinct, like walking. He barely had to pay attention to it. He could feel that a small amount of time passed while he was moving, but it was only a day or so again.

The Borderlands were huge if he thought of them in Aster Fall’s terms, but not that large at all if he measured them by the distance along the astral threads. He spent a few moments calculating the time and then he settled on a simple system to mark his travels.

He would mark distance here in terms of astral days.

Each astral day would be a day’s travel along the threads, based on his internal calculation of time. Anything smaller than that could be considered as astral hours or minutes.

By that measure, it took him about two astral days to cross the Borderlands. It really was a very narrow band next to the barrier. In practical terms, however, it was millions of times wider than Aster Fall. The amount of distance he’d just covered by following the threads was staggering.

The galaxy itself was so large as to be almost unimaginable.

For a moment, the desire to return to Aster Fall burned in his heart. Now, it seemed like a simpler home, a place that held the things that mattered. The Void still drew him onward with its promise of stars and endless distance, but it was like vast mountains stretching outward into the horizon, while behind him there was a small and warm cottage on the slopes.

He wanted to go forward and back at the same time.

He let the conflicting feelings wash over him as he closed his eyes, and then he let out a slow breath. Essence was roaring wildly through his spirit, like an arc of flame from a star that had just leapt out. As he continued to breathe, it began to calm down. He let it go without further comment, trying to think only about the present.

He turned his attention back to his measurement system and decided it would work well enough. Perhaps only another Titan would know exactly what he meant by it, but that was good enough.

Are you keeping track of the days? he asked the Titan Star with a mental nudge. The star had received a significant upgrade, but it still felt mostly the same to him.

Affirmative, the star agreed easily. It has been two months and seventeen days since the Path dropped you off here.

Wait...what? Sam’s eyebrows rose with incredulity as he heard the star’s announcement. How could it possibly have been that long?! Was it more than a day for the latest teleport along the thread?

It was indeed a day for you to walk the thread, the star agreed. Approximately 23 hours and 18 minutes in standard time, according to the Path. I still have a thin connection and can verify that. Your sense for travel is very accurate, but that is not where the majority of the time went.

You were studying the layout of the Borderlands for longer than you think, just over a week, and your walk through them when you were not on the threads also took a few weeks. Each time you stared off into space, you did so for days on end.

Sam listened to the star’s report with a frown, and then he shook his head. He thought he was focusing fairly well, but being in the Void seemed to be drawing out his concept of time. What felt quick to him was not so quick.

It was true that there had been a lot of things to look at, but he’d thought he only studied each elemental current for a few minutes, not a few days.

I’ll need you to keep me updated on how long it has been, he said as he revised his plans. A hundred years..that’s how long I’m going to give myself to balance my essence. It should break down to something like six months on Aster Fall. With the time needed to travel back, that’s a couple more months there.

Acknowledged, the star agreed. I will remind you of the timeline whenever you might deviate from it.

With the reminder that time was short lingering on his mind, Sam turned back to the Void, searching through it for one of the denser sources of essence. There was no astral thread leading in that direction, but he could get there the old fashioned way. Without any more delay, he focused on the path and disappeared in a flash of crystal flame.

*****

Days passed as he followed the trail. The pulse of the Chaos Wild was a thrumming resonance in his bones, like a drum that shook his chest and made him want to move. He was deeper in the Void now and waves of elemental energy crashed around him at nearly every moment.

Eventually, he reached a field of large red stars. Their hot energy was a blazing warmth in the dark that made him feel at home. Their influence was everywhere in this region, saturating it with Fire, but it wasn’t the only element present. The rest were here in smaller combinations, like crystals embedded in the dark.

The essence source he had sensed was just ahead now.

A few beasts called Ironclaw Wildlings and Fireshadow Stalkers had been unable to resist the allure of his energy and had summoned the courage to attack him as he followed the trail, but their ends were swift. They were stronger than the Darkscale Hunters, but not enough for him to pay attention. Their essence was limited, but his collection of auras and beast parts was growing.

Now that he was deeper into the Chaos Wild, he could tell hunting wasn’t the only way forward. The essence in the stars here was sinking into him, slowly changing the nature of the essence he already had to something else. It was calmer and older, like the waves beneath the ocean surface that hid their power in the depths.

Even if he only drifted here and slept, eventually his essence would balance. It would just take a while.

There was another reason for hunting, however, beyond it just being faster. He was an Astral Artificer and he needed to make the most of it, which meant he needed materials. He had been trapped on that platform for too long and there were a thousand ideas tumbling in his mind for how to make the most of his Second Evolution.

If he was going to reforge his bracers, he intended to do his best.

Time was slipping away from him and he didn’t know how long he walked through the field of red suns, but eventually, he found his target. He paused in the Void as he studied it, his hands clenching as he held back the urge to rush forward.

The beast was enormous.

It was lounging at the edge of a broad pool of Fire energy that was burning with a bright orange-red light, its massive jaw weaving back and forth as it searched through it. It looked like it had come to investigate it.

The pool wasn’t too large, only a few thousand feet across, but broken shards of stone or some type of crystal were floating in the middle. It was difficult to make out what they were with the beast in the way, but they seemed to be condensing the Fire energy around them to create the pool. They might be elemental crystals, but he could investigate them later.

The creature that was sniffing at them was easily twenty times the size of the Darkscale Hunters, and where they were thin and elongated, it was stocky and wide. It looked something like a giant lizard with wide-set, muscular legs. Overall, it was nearly as broad as it was long, which made it look a bit flat.

Its most notable features were two rows of shimmering red spikes that ran from the crown of its head down its back and tail. The tips of each spike radiated a rippling current of Fire that was sparking against the ambient energy, almost like it was trying to fight the elemental pool to see who was stronger.

Its head was a broad wedge that looked like it could be used as a ship’s ram, and there were two thick horns on its nose, one behind the other, which also shimmered with red light. The mouth below that was a triangular cavern of sharp fangs that was hanging open as it bit at something in the FIre pool. A brief Analysis told him its name.

Firesail Void Lizard. Level 320.

Its name as a “Void” lizard felt like a mark of status.

“Void” is a title given to some creatures at the Third Evolution. Almost instantly, the Titan Star answered his unspoken question. It signifies that it is attuned to one of the primary forces here, namely Fire, and that it has a high essence density. It will be stronger than an average beast of the same level.

For a moment, Sam had the stray idea of taming it as a mount, since it would be interesting to ride it around, but he pushed the thought away. Even as the thought crossed his mind, the beast swung its head in his direction.

He was miles away, but it still noticed him.

Its enormous maw opened as it released a loud roar that tore across the distance. It looked like it was angry that he was interrupting its search. When Sam didn’t leave immediately, the void lizard roared again.

This time, flecks of vivid, twisting flame flashed to life between its teeth and the red spikes along its back began to release ribbons of flame into the air around it that merged together into a broad sail.

Now, it was obvious where its name came from.

He wasn’t sure what the purpose of the sail was yet, but he could sense that the creature was stronger than the bellisagi chieftain on Aster Fall and far more dangerous than the Darkscale Hunters. He felt a rush of energy as his essence constellation began to rotate. Jagged arcs of energy sizzled across his fingertips.

Seeing it head on like this gave him a chance to really take in how large it was, and he felt a moment of doubt that hardened into resolve. If this thing had been on Aster Fall, it would have been three or four times larger than Elsanar, the sylphs’ Ice Drake ally.

Overall, the lizard was about two hundred feet long, almost as wide when its scaled legs were taken into account, and around fifty feet tall at the rise in its arched neck.

Even with Sam’s increased height, that much bulk was threatening to him. He was taller than he’d been before, but he still only came up to the thing’s shoulder. That drove home the fact that he was about forty-five feet tall now. His horns extended for several feet past that, making for a total that was just over fifty feet.

The lizard pawed at the current of Fire that was gathered near its feet, showing off its long, saber-like claws. For a moment, it seemed like it was only trying to threaten him away, but then its eyes narrowed as its attention fully locked onto him.

Its nostrils flared and the intensity of the flames along its spikes soared as its jaw opened. This time, the roar it released was one of hunger.

It had sensed his essence.

An astral blade flashed into existence in Sam’s hand as he prepared himself, his attention locked on the beast. Runes began to appear, rotating around his other hand. There was no need to chase it any longer.

Now that it had seen him, the beast’s own predatory instincts ensured that it would come straight for him.

The lizard’s muscles bunched, but instead of charging immediately, it turned its snout to the sky and let out a loud hissing scream that sounded like a saw blade shrieking against stone.

The horrible sound tore across the Void in a visible pulse, flashing as it faded into the distance behind the lizard. It was a long, red-tinged arc in Sam’s eyes. On one edge, it was heading toward the red stars and on the other it went toward the open Void to the right.

Sam held his blade ready as a sense of danger tingled across his nerves. It was nothing he could see yet, but everything was telling him that the beast hadn’t screamed for no reason.

Then he saw it.

At first, it was a speckle of distant fireflies, little red flecks against the darkness. Here and there among the stars, they began to appear. There were a handful near the large red stars that were just barely visible in the wash of light, and twice as many more scattered across the Void.

A few others appeared, flickering brightly as their colors intensified, until there were about twenty of them.

The lizard in front of Sam turned its attention back to him as it lowered its head, the bright red sail above its back flaring even higher. There was an almost smug look in its eyes as it let out another rattling hiss, its mouth opening wide until he could see down its throat.

Its teeth slammed together as if it were already taking a bite out of him, but now it held back. Instead of charging, the giant lizard lashed its tail and began slowly edging around to the side closest away from the suns as if it were trying to block him in.

That was when he put it together.

It was waiting.

Many things in the Void traveled in packs. Those red flecks in the distance were more Firesail Void Lizards coming this way. They must have been spread out across the region. The problem was that he had no idea what level they were.

This one lizard was a threat, but one he thought he could handle. An entire pack of the things, with some that might be at the Fourth Evolution, was not something he could handle.

Or at least not something he planned to deal with right now.

Sam’s eyes narrowed as he glanced around the area, looking for a quick escape, but there were no astral threads immediately nearby to jump on. Most of the ones here led to those red stars, and that looked like the home of the lizards. This one was already trying to box him in until the rest arrived from that direction.

Sam growled as he glanced down at his astral blade and then at the lizard, which still had that smug look on its face. Then he raised his other hand as he poured essence into the sphere of runes that was rotating there.

Burning light exploded across the Void.