In the Book of Creation there were eighteen arrays, and a section on the fundamentals of array crafting. Of the eighteen, six were for combat and the other twelve were utility based. These eighteen arrays were useful beyond a doubt, and Laurence would not have been able to create the box he gave Jonas without them, but by the time he and Sleepy had explored half the ship he had seen over a hundred utility arrays he had never come across, and only three he knew. He was happy there was so much to learn, but this was the first time Laurence had ever found the Book lacking.
By the time night fell, the two were firm friends. Sleepy was about to show Laurence the engine room when her brother caught up with them both.
“Dunwu, could you go to the bridge? Yannis smashed one of the markers when we encountered that patch of turbulence earlier. He fell right on it.”
“Again? I swear he breaks them on purpose. We lose at least one every trip because of him.” Sleepy muttered. “Well, he's called Zoo for a reason. The man is clumsier than a damn elephant and he wonders why I reject the flowers he gets me every time we arrive at port. I'll come up now. Do you want to wait for me, Laurence? I'll only be half hour.”
“Nah, It's okay.” Said Laurence. “I need to catch up on my training for today, but I would love to see the engine tomorrow.” His eyes shone with a light of reverence. Sleepy could be very hard on herself, but she was good company and not engaged in things Laurence could not understand half the time. “I will call on you once I finish my morning studies, if that's alright with you?”
“Sure, but I might not be awake.”
With that they parted ways. Sleepy moved off to the bridge with her brother, and Laurence returned to the room he was sharing with Yun and Louisa. He was almost knocked over by a shock wave when he opened the door, as Louisa sat on the floor and glowed with the light of mana flooding her skin and bones.
He watched on in shock while her body began shifting, changing so that the woman lost her features that made her noticeably one of the Vermilion clan. Her feathers and beak shifted into hair and a human face, ears grew and her wings became arms. At the end of the bizarre transformation there was a young woman left sitting on the floor with short blue hair, falcon-like eyes and pale skin. One would not describe her as beautiful, but rather striking or stunning. She stood up with bird-like grace and began laughing. “I succeeded!” She yelled. “I actually became a Saint of Physical Ascension. I can't believe it.” She choked out as she began to cry. “I can't believe it.”
Dancing round the room, the light footed woman yelled in joy at her new form. She lay down on Yun’s bed and beamed with happiness until she felt a creeping realisation that she was no longer covered by the feathers that kept her warm and covered her modesty. Her face turned beet-red and she quickly covered her body with the duvet Yun had been given.
“Can someone get me some clothes? I don't have any.”
“I could find Sleepy, she might have some?” Said Laurence, not really understanding why the woman was so frantic to cover herself. Both Laurence and Yun had seen her with no clothes on before, so he could not work out why it bothered her so much now.
“Who's Sleepy, brother?” Said Yun.
“She's the engineer of the ship. Jonas is her brother. I met her today and she gave me the full tour of the ship today; it was really interesting.”
“The girl who looks like an exotic dancer? I'm not going to fit into any of her clothes, I'm proportioned all wrong for it.” She sighed and then grinned mischievously. Fluttering her eyelashes she said, “Yun, will you make some clothes for me? Don't you think I deserve a prize?”
The wolf growled and looked at his brother, pleading for his help. “I could give you a couple of bolts of cloth if you would like. Blue or Green?” Said Laurence, quickly pulling out two large rolls of low quality silk. Yun looked at Laurence then Louisa and sighed, grabbing the bolts of cloth and beginning work.
“So how does Physical Ascension even work? I can understand the process of the tower, tempering you with the mana of the tower until your body and spirit are eternal, and invulnerable to time and entropy. I have to know the books, strengthening you through knowledge and through skill. I don't get how your path works at all.” Said Laurence. “How did you change a ‘divine skill’ into a path to immortality?”
“It was difficult, but because divine animals take a step in the path every time they reach a stage of immortality my family worked out they might be able to copy those steps. First to change the form, then the pigment, third the spirit, and finally the memory.”
“So how does that work? Does your soul take a shape like mine and Yun’s? Do you have to reach maximum understanding to keep going? Why those steps?” Laurence bubbled.
“Calm down, Laurence. My soul does take shape. It takes the shape of my current body, and is how I can shift into anything I want but never lose my form amongst those shifts. As for understanding, I originally thought it was about that. It turns out I was wrong though. Physical ascension is the ability to change everything about yourself, so to progress you need to learn control over your entire body. If you can gain control over your shape you take the first step, then the second step is gaining control over your cells to the point where you can change their colour to change the way the pigment in your skin or hair looks. If you achieve that then supposedly it is possible to change the cells so breathing through the mouth is unnecessary and eating just becomes standing in the sun for fifteen minutes.
“If you can get to the third stage, then you gain complete control over your spirit, or aura, and can change that as well. At that point you become the ultimate spy, undetectable through anything other than skill tests. Even that becomes useless at the fourth stage. At the fourth stage you can control the casual ties between you and another person as long as that person is not stronger than you spiritually. If Physical Ascension Immortals are considered the greatest spies, then Ascendant Immortals are considered far and away the most insidious life invaders. They can come and go while you choose to let them in and forget they were ever there. You could be fighting them to the death one second and be their best friend the next. Truly, the only way to stop a Ascendant Immortal of my clan is to have a stronger spirit. I guess luckily for you the Ascension path that we take means that our strongest cannot compare to even a single Immortal from one of the Book clans. Whether it be for will or inner strength, your crucible is far more rigorous than ours.”
“That sounds incredible!” Said Laurence, his eyes as wide as saucers. They continued to discuss the comparative nature of their chosen paths while Yun sewed, talking well into the night. As Yun finished sewing the beautiful dress that was more reminiscent of the sea than the sky, an array marker crackled into life and Jonas’ voice came out. The sound was as if he was in the room, so clear that all three of the room's occupants turned to the door and expected to see him there.
“Attention all, this is the captain speaking.” He began. “Are you sure this is going to work, Sis? What do you mean they can still hear me? Oh! Yes. Umm, ignore that. Just announcing to the ship that we are about to be slipping out of the current stream and through free air for a few days. It should be fine, but there will be some turbulence while Sleepy shifts over from the gliding array to the propulsion array. Captain out.” Jonas paused for a second before continuing, “Glad that's over. I don't understand half the arrays you've installed on the ship, but they work well. They won't do much good if a maelstrom snake shows up though. That's the only thing I worry about in free air. If they are going to show up, it will be there.” There was another pause. “What do you mean I shouldn't be continuing to hold the array marker? It doesn't make sound unless... Oh shi-.”
Silence rolled over the ship as everyone processed what they had accidentally heard. Some worried, some cried, some even prayed to any god that would take them. Laurence laughed at the chance to come across the creature that put fear into the hearts of so many men. The night trembled on as the airship drove twenty-three men and women to their fates.
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