Chapter 492: Kael

Kael shivered—he had only seen a glimpse before Stella turned her attention toward the shopkeeper, but that was all he had needed.

As a Rift Born, born into captivity, he was considered a dreg of society by the others stuck here in the Tessellate Citadel. So he had experienced bloodlust more times than he could count while stealing. That's why he knew this was different. Whatever had overtaken Stella's eyes carried the same fear as weaponized bloodlust, but it was something else—something incomprehensible. Almost as if she were a monster wearing human skin.

The shopkeeper, a man who was in the Star Core Realm if the waves of pressure radiating from him were anything to go by, stopped dead in his tracks. Frozen in place, he stood there, wide-eyed and staring at Stella.

The blonde-haired girl casually walked up to the shopkeeper with the decorum of someone who knew they were in total control and paused before him. Her black cloak, adorned with golden stitching of an eye, was oddly form-fitting, showing her slender proportions compared to the more traditional oversized cloak that the bald-headed shopkeeper was wearing. While still a head shorter than the shopkeeper, Kael was surprised at Stella's height. While the loose cloaks made it hard to tell, he knew most people in the Citadel were shorter than cultivators on the sixth layer typically were due to the spatial fluctuations suppressing natural growth.

"What are you—" the shopkeeper began, only to be silenced.

"Hush," she said, reaching out to place her finger on the shopkeeper's neck while maintaining eye contact. At her touch, the man trembled like a leaf and didn't utter another word.

"Kael," she called out.

"Uh—yeah?" he replied quickly.

"Can I really not kill him?" she said casually, as if talking about the weather.

The shopkeeper stiffened.

"No, please don't," Kael said, shaking his head. Remembering that Stella had arrived here only a minute ago, he quickly added, "The Citadel is a carefully controlled environment. The Tessellate Council can track down any disruptions in the spatial plane. You will be hunted down and killed."

"That's not a problem," she said, tracing her nail along the shopkeeper's neck. "My Qi is untraceable."

Kael went to refute that claim but shut his mouth. It was true, he had thought Stella was a mortal at first—a person without a hint of Qi. Yet clearly, she was far more powerful than she was letting on if she could make a Star Core Realm cower in fear from a mere glance.

"Still..." he trailed off, exchanging a look with the shopkeeper and feeling bad for him. "Killing is wrong, you know?"

Stella scoffed, as if that were the most naive thing she had ever heard.

"It really is," Kael insisted. He had never seen someone outright kill another person in cold blood before. Stealing, kidnapping, and violence—he had seen plenty of that in the Rift Born wards. But outright killing was not tolerated by the Tessellate Council because anyone in here was considered their property. So killing another was the equivalent of robbing from the Tessellate Family, one of the most powerful families with operations spanning over the middle layers.

"Killing is wrong," Stella repeated, as if testing how the words sounded. "What an amusing view," she chuckled, slowly withdrawing her hand from the shopkeeper's neck. "I wonder how all those who have tried to kill me would react if I told them that? Laugh in my face at my naivety? Torture me for fun? But fine, I'll play by your rules."

Kael felt relief but knew they weren't out of the woods just yet. This girl was unlike anyone he had dealt with before. Her mental state seemed more unstable than the spatial storm crackling overhead and keeping them all trapped on this drifting rock.

"What do you want in exchange for forgetting about all this?" she questioned the terrified shopkeeper—he, as expected, didn't offer a response. Stella gestured for Kael to come over, so he cautiously approached. "Kael, what should I give him as compensation?"

"Uhm, money?" Kael said, unsure why that was even a question. He kept his eyes on the floor, not daring to meet her gaze.

Stella opened her hand with her palm facing upwards, and that's when Kael noticed the many silver rings adorning her fingers. Metals untainted by spatial Qi were scarce and precious on the Citadel, usually kept as heirlooms and passed down. Yet she had so many?

One of them flashed with silver light, and a small pile of stones appeared in her palm. "Will this suffice? I know it's not much, but it was only a wall we broke."

We? You were dumbly standing still in the street, not letting off any Qi signature, so how was I supposed to know you were standing there? This is hardly my fault, he thought, but didn't voice his thoughts. It's not like she was asking him to pay, but these were just rocks. Was this a joke?

He picked one up and felt the Qi inside.

His eyes widened. "What is this?!"

"Keep your voice down," Stella hissed.

"Right, sorry," he said quietly. Holding up the rock, he asked again, "What are these?"

"High-grade spirit stones?" Stella said, as if it were obvious. "Why the fuss? I have thousands of these."

Kael looked up in shock, the absurdity of the situation making him forget about the efforts he had taken to avoid Stella's gaze. Yet instead of swirling abysses, he met her slightly crazed pink eyes. Something about her gaze deeply unsettled him.

He gulped and focused on the topic at hand. "You have thousands of these?"

Stella's eyes narrowed. "Tell me—why the reaction?"

"These spirit stones contain untamed Qi."

"Yeah, so?" Stella said impatiently.

"I didn't even know spirit stones could form with untamed Qi," he said, a hint of awe in his tone as he inspected the rock in his hand. "The Citadel has many spirit stones, as the whole island is constantly absorbing spatial Qi from the surrounding storm. But I've never seen one so untainted. A spirit stone like this would be immensely valuable here for making arrays."

He carefully handed it back to Stella. "I don't think the shopkeeper would even want something so precious. It would only invite trouble from the Tessellate Council."

The shopkeeper nodded, his senses slowly returning.

"What about pills?" Stella said, bringing out a pungent pill that smelled strongly of nature. Or at least what Kael thought nature would smell like, only the wealthiest people on the Citadel had gardens or the capabilities to grow trees. He only knew towering buildings constructed out of spatially treated metal, as that's all that could withstand the constantly warping environment.

"Put that away," Kael begged, pushing Stella's hand down.

"Why?" Stella pouted.

"Are you crazy?! Something like that will get us killed."

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"It's just a pill—"

"Look around," Kael said, gesturing at the buildings. "Where would someone get the ingredients to make a pill? We don't have any pills here except for the scarce few the Tessellate Council brings in from the outside and sells."

Stella's eyes glinted.

Kael felt worried. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing much."

"I've known you for like a minute and can tell that's a lie."

"I just thought of a business opportunity, is all," Stella said, making the spirit stones and pills vanish.

A business opportunity? Kael thought, confused. There's no such thing here, unless you want to compete with the Tessellate Council. Wait, she doesn't think she can, right? Surely not...

"Sorry, shopkeeper, it seems everything I have is too precious to repay you," she said, turning to the man.

"It's f-fine," the shopkeeper stuttered.

"Once I get some local coin, I'll come pay you back. How about that?"

The shopkeeper backed up, shaking his head. "Stay away from me."

"You sure?"

The distance glyphs embedded into the alleyway flashed, and the shopkeeper retreated in a blur without offering a reply.

"What a rude guy," Stella said, crossing her arms.

Kael was more focused on inspecting the glyphs and the spatial Qi radiating from them. "Whoa, he used the 9x glyphs. He really was in a hurry to get away."

"9x glyphs?" Stella questioned.

Kael stared at her blankly. "You really know nothing."

"I told you, I got here minutes ago," Stella frowned. "Are you going to explain to me or not?"

Kael appraised Stella for a moment, wondering if he should abuse his knowledge of the glyphs to also flee like the shopkeeper. While this girl did interest him greatly, she was no doubt incredibly dangerous to be associated with. They were more hidden in this random alley, but if she had brought out that pill in a public space? They would have been imprisoned, questioned, and disposed of by sundown.

Yet, when had he not lived life dangerously? Still clutched under his arm was the package—a bomb designed to take out one of the Anchor Pylons that kept the Citadel eternally trapped inside the spatial storm.

Perhaps Stella could be his people's answer to freedom, or the source of their downfall and his gruesome death at the hands of the Tessellate Council.

Fuck it. I've always wanted to make a deal with a demon.

He smiled to himself as he gestured to the glyphs embedded in the walls and offered a quick explanation.

"To keep the buildings from being torn apart by the ever-shifting spatial plane, they are imbued with these glyphs, which connect together to create localized pockets of stable space. The chaotic spatial Qi is pushed into the streets, creating tunnels of compressed space." He paused, checking to see if she was following. To his surprise, she didn't seem confused and nodded for him to continue. "Erm, it's nearly impossible to control yourself when traveling through these chaotic spatial channels, so people rely on the distance glyphs to move at incredible speeds without being torn apart. There are three types: the 3x, 6x, and 9x, with each one requiring different amounts of your own Qi and control to use."

"Huh, so it's like Tree's roots," Stella muttered to herself as she inspected the glyphs. "These help to fold space, making distances shorter, right? How interesting."

"I have no idea what tree roots you're talking about, but we should leave here as quickly as possible, in case the shopkeeper reports us," Kael suggested, glancing down the empty alley where the man had vanished.

"Where should we go?"

"My place? Though I have to warn you, it's not well kept."

"Sure," Stella said, surprisingly unbothered. Her focus was entirely on the glyphs, and he swore he saw her crazed gaze soften into a tranquil state. Her fingers traced the glyphs, and she kept muttering to herself.

"Okay, I figured them out," she said, not even a minute later.

Kael blinked. "You have? How? You haven't even used them yet."

"I deciphered their design," Stella said as if that were something easy. "Trust me. Lead the way, and I'll follow."

"I'll start with 3x, and we can work our way up—"

"No, 9x is fine. Actually, I think I can override the glyphs and push them to 12x," Stella said smugly.

Kael shook his head and felt a headache forming. "Let's not do that."

"If you say so," she shrugged.

Deciding he really did need to get her away from the public eye, he looked down the corridor, and his Star Core called out to the glphys. Wanting to actually test Stella's arrogance, he used the 9x straightaway. The world blurred around him as he shot forward, space folding to make the distance nine times shorter. At this speed, he had to use Qi to speed up his brain and reaction times to avoid being pulverized by missing a turn and face-planting into a building.

"So this is how the shopkeeper was able to catch up to me so fast," Stella mused while easily keeping up with him. "I'd steal this idea and bring it home, but the amount of spatial Qi needed to power the array is otherworldly."

"Well, if there's one thing we have an abundance of, it's spatial Qi," Kael grumbled.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," Stella said. Sensing his raised brow, she added, "A phrase I read in a book once. It seems to apply here, as I would kill to have this much spatial Qi on hand. But I also like using pills, and you said they are rare here, so..."

"Where are you from anyway?" Kael had to ask to sate his growing curiosity, as there were too many strange things about this girl.

"I'm just a runaway princess who likes to travel the stars," she said with a playful smirk.

"And you have never heard of the Tessellate family?"

"No. Should I have? Are they important?"

"Yeah... they are one of the ruling families from the 6th layer."

"Ah. Well, I don't visit the 6th layer that often, so it makes sense I've never heard of them."

Kael fell silent as he looked ahead. He had overheard from drunken members of the Tessellate Council that the era of ascension had yet to be initiated, making moving between the layers of creation nearly impossible. The Tessellate Family had branches based on the 4th, 5th, and 6th layers of creation, and they were annoyed at being cut off. But compared to the ancient families that ruled the upper layers, they could be considered bugs. After all, the higher one went up the layers of creation, the easier it got to cultivate and the higher realms that were possible to reach.

Supposedly, ancient monsters from the first layer could wipe out a noble family like the Tessellate with a Qi-empowered fart.

He glanced at Stella again.

Is she a princess of one of those families? She said she traveled the stars. Did that mean she had a way to travel between the layers of creation despite there being no era of ascension? If so, maybe she really can help me break out of this hell.

"You asked if I was a drop point," Stella said, breaking him from his thoughts. "What does that mean?"

Kael was confused for a second, but then remembered the entire reason he had been heading down Main Street in the first place. "I thought the reason you stepped out into the street to stop me was because you were the drop point. I'm supposed to be handing this bomb—err, I mean device—to a cultivator."

"What are you trying to blow up?" Stella said, her eyes glinting with interest.

Kael debated for a moment whether telling this crazy person so much was a good idea, but eventually gave up. With a sigh, he directed them down a different route so they would pass by one of the targets.

"You see that?" he asked, pointing to the left.

"The giant black obelisk thing piercing the sky?"

He nodded. "They are what prevent the spatial storm from destroying the Citadel. We call them Anchor Pylons."

Stella analyzed the Anchor Pylons. "If that keeps you alive, why would you destroy it?"

Kael smiled. "We aren't the only ones stuck here. Members of the Tessellate family live here too, and there's no way the family would let them die if the Anchor Pylons were to fail."

"I thought you said nobody can get in or out of here?"

"For us normal people, that's true. But the Tessellate can escape. They have white flames—like you. At first, I thought you were one of them, but you are far too clueless to be."

"So the Tessellate can use aether Qi," Stella muttered, a flash of interest passing over her features. "I'll have to pay them a visit soon."

Kael shook his head and said nothing. He had to focus on directing them through the tighter roads while maintaining a speed of 9x. Stella made it look so effortless; his pride wouldn't let him ask if they could drop down to 6x.

***

"This is it," he said, almost out of breath and with a headache. "My humble abode."

Opening the door to the one-story shack made of rusted metal and half-decayed glyphs, it screeched on its hinges, revealing the gloomy interior. It was simple because he had no money to make it interesting. At least that meant it was relatively clean.

He hadn't received a guest in a long time.

Stella walked past him. "I'll take the couch, and can I use a table?"

"Uh, sure? Just don't do anything weird," he said, following her inside and firmly closing and deadbolting the door behind him. He still had the bomb on him and wanted to hide it in the other room. "I'll be right back."

He swiftly made his way into the bedroom and located a good spot to hide the package. He would go find the drop point first thing tomorrow morning, after dealing with his new houseguest.

Straightening up, he glanced at himself in a polished slab of metal he had stolen. It worked as a mirror. He got closer, frowning at his messed-up hair from the journey.

Fixing it, he caught himself. "Who are you trying to impress?" he muttered to himself. "She's a princess, possibly from the first layer." He pointed at himself accusingly. "Didn't you see her perfect features as if she were crafted by the heavens? Give up, you fool." He messed up his hair again and pushed out any lingering thoughts. He kicked some piles of clothes under his bed—totally because they were in the way, and not because he feared she would see how messy he was. Grumbling to himself, he opened the door and returned to the living room.

That's where he paused, unsure how to process the scene.

His desk had been transformed into a makeshift pill-making station, with a cauldron brewing, filling the room with a pungent stench. At the center of it all was Stella, her cloak slightly lifted, exposing her abs. They were terribly bruised, bordering on purple. She was applying some kind of green-tinged balm to the wound and wincing as she did so.

Kael stood there, unsure if he should make his presence known or retreat.

Stella finished applying the medicine and dropped her cloak. Looking satisfied, she slowly glanced up and met his gaze.

He froze.