Elder Cultivator

Bags were being carefully and calmly packed in Namrata’s quarters. Everything was fine. Sure, someone had gone and basically ignored her instructions despite her being the only one to achieve any results. Who cares how long it had been since it last happened? There was no trouble in the meantime. And then they went and put two people with swords on the same ship. Honestly, Namrata didn’t understand why that would be a problem. In theory, those guys had good battle synergy. But she didn’t have to understand, she just had to know.

Now she had to go. Staying would somehow result in her death, even though nobody listened to her. Maybe because nobody listened to her. And leaving… would not. Which meant the Trigold Quadrant wouldn’t be expending the resources to hunt her down in the near future. Or the Unseen Eyes. Maybe they could discern she had no intention to betray their secrets. Or perhaps there was some master diviner already working against her, luring her into an inescapable trap she didn’t deserve.

But everything was fine. She was on track to leave and her near future had her alive. She had no idea what would happen with the fleet, except for calamity. Or maybe it had already happened? When did they go out? Were they supposed to be back soon? Namrata shook her head. Thinking about such things wouldn’t help. She just had to survive. Otherwise, there was no point. Unlike sometimes, the futures were very clear. Like that time she’d almost died. She was unsure what sort of weird chain reaction would have led to her death for just seeing a future, but she was glad that she got the counter-future first.

She tried, desperately, to not think about the small chance that she had her probabilities backwards and that this was the choice with an overwhelming chance of death. But she couldn’t second guess herself because if she did there was no point in even having those abilities. She also couldn’t stop herself, because she’d repacked her bags ten times and it really didn’t matter because she was just going to shove everything into a storage bag in the end.

Then it was time to go. Namrata traced a specific path through the compound, a completely normal and not at all circuitous and suspicious route. There she found a hauler removing the last of the supplies. “Excuse me. Before you close that up, there’s a return shipment that has to go back with you,” Namrata smiled her best smile. The man looked at her.

“There aren’t return shipments.”

“Of course there are,” she said, holding out a bag to him. He opened up the drawstring of a bag which held just enough materials to propel the man from the Foundation Phase into Essence Collection or perhaps even Life Transformation if he was lucky. Technically, not all of those were things that Namrata was supposed to have distributed to her, but she’d made a few requisition orders. It was frustrating how she’d only had two days to do it, though. Way too many interactions where things could go completely wrong.

She continued walking towards the ship, where she walked into the hold and huddled into a corner. Nobody stopped her or pulled her out, though it would be simple to catch her. Anyone important walking near the hangar could notice. If anyone checked the ships at all she would be compromised. Namrata almost turned and ran out, certain that she’d gotten things backward. What could harm her here? Except, of course, her superiors. And that… one particular divination that revealed only her death.

So she stayed. The ship’s hold was closed, and within ten minutes they were back in the air, the crew not even getting a day on the ground before being shipped back off. Not that the compound had much in the way of entertainment, but they could at least relax at the bar or something.

Once they were out of the atmosphere and soon thereafter leaving the system, Namrata relaxed. From here on out, all reasonable futures led to her being alive. Except if she did something stupid like walk up onto deck where the crew could see her.

She got up, stretched, and began to walk around the hold.

“What are you doing here?” A voice said next to her. She turned her head towards the familiar voice she’d never heard. Oh no. She’d gotten it backwards, hadn’t she?

-----

“I, u-uh,” the woman in front of Velvet stammered. “I’m not supposed to be here either so turning you in would get me in trouble! So even if nobody knows I’m here, killing me wouldn’t do you any good.”

“But also nobody would miss you,” Velvet pointed out.

“Thaaats not truuuue,” the woman said as her eyes searched for something that might sound true- but would clearly not be. “Tons of people will look for me. Important people.”

“I would have expected you to avoid this place, you know,” Velvet said. “Aren’t you a diviner?” she pressed her dagger up against the woman’s neck, just enough to draw a drop of blood. “Is this a trap?”

“Y-yes! You’ve fallen into my clever trap and there’s no way to escape unless you run right now!”

This woman was either the best manipulator Velvet had ever seen or she’d never learned how to talk to people. Having seen her smoothly get onto the ship Velvet considered the former. Yes, she might be up to something right now.

“Tell me what it is,” Velvet said. “You have three seconds. I know nobody can get here before then.”

“Iliedandthere’snotrapIwassupposedtolivethiswaybutIgotitbackwards!” the woman said all at once.

“What about my companion?” Velvet asked. “The one with the axe? You knew he’d be here?”

The woman looked around the empty hold. “I don’t uh…” she closed both eyes for half a moment, but didn’t have the courage to gather energy. She was lucky Velvet had seen it before. “Is he hiding here somewhere? I don’t know, I swear! This ship isn’t even important enough for me to show up here! Uh, normally.”

Velvet looked down at her communication device. “Really? But it is important enough for your boss to come after it.”

“What?” the woman looked truly shocked. “That can’t- how would he know?” she slumped to the floor. “I got everything wrong.”

The dagger dangled in front of her face. “Tell me what happens to him,” Velvet said.

“I don’t… I don’t know,” the woman admitted.

“Then find out,” Velvet said. “You can’t hurt me, so go ahead and do your divination thing.”

“Really?” the woman said. “Okay, fine. But I can’t guarantee it will work. If uh… if something happens after my death… the probability drops…”

Velvet wasn’t sure if that was true, but she was willing to believe it for the moment.

The woman closed her eyes, then upper energy gathered to her head. Velvet watched carefully, but couldn’t really pick out what was going on. Did it require some sort of innate ability?

The woman grimaced. “I’m not… quite sure. It’s uh… either him or the ship he’s on gets cut in half?” she tilted her head. “Does that make sense?”

“Are you sure it’s not both?” Velvet asked.

“I uh… it seems pretty well split between the two.”

“Maybe he’s standing off center, then,” Velvet said.

“Uh… what?”

“What’s your name anyway?”

“Namrata,” the woman said.

“Alright then Namrata, do you want to live?”

“Yes!” she said. “I mean… of course. Who wouldn’t?”

“Then… don’t do anything stupid.” Velvet wrapped an arm around the woman.

When she began to open the hatch at the rear of the ship, Namrata began to squirm. “If you’re going to kill me I’m not going to just sit here and take it!”

“If I was going to kill you,” Velvet said, “You’d be dead.” Then she wrapped her energy around herself and her companion. Life Transformation or not, it didn’t seem this woman was capable of surviving in space alone.

The hatch opened easily enough, and the ship even held in all the air so there wasn’t any crazy decompression.

Another pulse to her communication device. “Looks like we missed it,” Velvet sighed. “I kinda wanted to see it.” She pushed off from the rear of the ship, causing them to slowly drift away. “Oh well, I’ll have them pick us up here. You’re much more interesting than the flight pattern of a single cargo ship.”

Ten minutes later, two halves of a ship drifted past them- or perhaps they were merely two pieces, inexact in their symmetry. “How… how did this happen?” said Namrata.

“Aren’t you the diviner?” Velvet asked.

“There was no sensible path to this!” she shook her head. “How does sending a few extras instead of leaving things the same lead to this?”

“Well,” Velvet shrugged, “Maybe Chikere was unhappy with needing two swings the first time. And she did fight a couple strong guys.”

-----

Namrata was now a captive, which she supposed was technically alive. Perhaps she should have been more exacting with her standards, as if that was even possible in the short time frame she had. It was either be alive, or not.

And, aside from the tiny prick in her neck she was not really on a track to dying. People had a lot of questions for her. Most of which… she could not answer.

“Is it possible to create a world devouring formation?” some other strong woman asked. Catarina, maybe?

“Why would I know that? I’m not a formation master!”

“But I am,” Catarina said. “I think it would take about a decade. Would I succeed?”

“I don’t know!” Namrata shook her head. “Things like that… it’s way too complicated! Also why?”

“I just wanted to know if I could,” Catarina shrugged. “Seems like a big waste of time for something I wouldn’t ever use, but it would be nice to know if I could do it.”

“Well I don’t know.” This woman was crazy. All of them were.

“What about the Trigold Cluster?” Catarina asked. “Do they have any world devouring formations?”

“No! Of course… not…” Namrata frowned. “At least, I haven’t heard of any.”

“So they might.”

“... Sometimes planets are removed. But I don’t know if formations are involved in any meaningful fashion.”

“And you lived there?” Catarina asked.

“Where else was I going to go, huh?” Namrata grimaced. “They don’t just let Unseen Eyes leave the sect. And don’t say I should have chosen another path in life! I’d be in Essence Collection at best if my divinatory abilities hadn’t been revealed!” Namrata probably shouldn’t be shouting at her captors, but so far it hadn’t had any consequences and she was having a bad week.

“So it is an inborn talent thing?” Catarina asked. “How does that work?”

“During Spirit Building, if Insight, Spiritual Connection and Earthly Connection combine just right…” Namrata shook her head. “Well, it’s something they sort of nudge people towards, but I wasn’t important enough to learn the inner secrets.”

“Yet you’re quite good at it. You hit an invisible ship by giving instructions to another ship ahead of time. Why are you all the way out here?”

“... Maybe because I prioritized not dying over the ‘best’ results?” Namrata frowned. “They didn’t really say.”

“Didn’t you say to Velvet that your divinations become less reliable past your ‘death’?”

“Exactly!” Namrata nodded. “So they really just want inaccurate prophecies that might be better for this or that sect. And the Unseen Eyes would get paid big either way.”

“You seem quite effective, then,” Catarina said. “Why shouldn’t we get rid of you?”

“Uh…” Namrata was kind of taking for granted her feeling that she would be alive. But there it was, coming up again. Her death. Would she actually just not know her actual death? Could she inaccurately depict being alive after that? How bothersome. “I can be really helpful if I’m not in situations where I might die.”

“Do you have to be close to what you’re predicting? Physically, temporally?”

“Not always,” Namrata shook her head.

“Then… if you can help us get the Trigold to be moderately excessive with their attacks on the lower realms, we might be able to help you.”

“... What do you have against the lower realms?”

“Nothing,” Catarina said.

The weird part was that Namrata thought it was true. And what did moderately excessive even mean?