Me and Betsy were trucking…. Or was it wagoning? Anyway.... Along the next morning. After the brief incident the night before, we just rode away to the next clearing and re-set up our little camp and spent the night. Now, I sat on my bench and looked at the folded up note I had written to Niku. I had written a couple of these since we had left the town and the others I could send back to Sunjin.

  None of them said much besides telling her where I was and how I was doing. I didn’t know why I was so drawn to her, other than simple attraction. There was something about her, though. Maybe it was just because she was the one who helped me when I first woke up here? Bah. I had to stop thinking all the time. Once I got on a train of thought, I never really let it go. Still, there was something about her, and whatever it was that I couldn’t explain, I was smitten.

  This one, I wasn’t sure how I’d get it to her unless we passed through a village, and judging by the map, there weren’t a ton of villages along this main road until we got to the capital. I sighed and folded the note up and stuffed it in one of the many pockets I had in my robes.

  The problem was that I hadn’t heard back from her. I supposed that made sense, since I was always moving. It’d be hard to send me a letter since I didn’t exactly have a permanent address. Just as I pushed all those thoughts from my head and concentrate on the day, a glittering deep green butterfly flew over towards me.

  It wasn’t a solid butterfly, but it was in the shape of one. Outlined with sparkly bits of glitter. I breathed in deeply, wondering what it was, and I reached out to poke it as it floated through the air towards me. It exploded in a burst of light in a miniature display of glitter that looked like a small fireworks display.

  If it was possible, I inhaled even deeper as the glittering bits spelled out words:

  Maikeru, I’m glad to hear you’re doing well and having fun on the road. Moritoshi complains when he finds the letters from you. You should try to find a messaging crystal so you can message me like this. I’m kind of interested to see what shape and color your message would come in. Please keep writing to me either way. You’re right, there is something there. I look forward to your next letter!

  Niku

  I grinned like an idiot and read the note she sent. The glittering words dissipated almost as soon as the last word of the note popped up. I frowned a little and wished I could have kept the note up all day next to me. A slight frown creased my face, and I wondered about the messaging crystal she was talking about. I’d have to try to get my hands on one. The last thing I wanted is that dork Moritoshi stopping my letters from getting to her.

  We didn’t get that far from our little parking area until we found some new shenanigans afoot. As we rode along, there was a tall, lithe man who stepped out from a wagon parked along the side of the road and waved his hands at us. The man was clearly waving us down for help and I imagined the wagon having its blinkers on like cars did when they broke down. I grinned and gently pulled on the reins until Betsy stopped beside him.

  I noticed immediately the man didn’t have any horses or oxen or anything hooked up to his wagon. He wore cultivator robes that were a blue green. The inner was more green while the outer was more blue. I blinked and smiled at him. He was a younger guy who still hadn’t been able to grow his hair long enough to make the topknot. Grease held his slicked-back hair.

  “Thank you for stopping. I had some trouble with bandits last night and I’ve been stuck,” he said and crossed his arms.

  “They stole your horses?” I asked as I climbed down and wondered if they were the same bandits I had problems with the night before.

  He nodded. “Unfortunately. They were magnificent horses, too. At least they left my goods, though, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “The bandits have been getting bad around this stretch of road.”

  His wagon was a lot more plain than mine was and didn’t have the covering to keep things dry. Judging from what I saw, it would be easy for us to load his stuff up onto my wagon. “Yeah, I had a run-in with them last night myself.”

  The man frowned when he saw me inspecting his stuff, and then I heard Betsy give a low bellow. It was only a moment later when I felt that familiar cold wave pass through my body and I frowned at him.

  “Isn’t that considered rude?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow and a slight grin.

  His eyes went wide, and he looked away while he tried to play innocent. “Uh, yes, sorry. I just wanted to see who I was dealing with. Someone who could fight away bandits and keep their stuff. Your ox seems powerful.”

  I nod and wave it away. “Where are you heading? We’re going to Yoshino. If you’re heading there or somewhere along the way, I’d be happy to give you a lift. Just hop up and we’ll load your stuff from your wagon to mine.”

  The man went wide eyed and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! I mean, not exactly. My sect is between here and the capital off the main road. I can get word to them though to meet me at the exit I’d take,” he said as he moved to and climbed up to the back of the wagon.

  Without prompting, Betsy moved forward a little so the back of my wagon was even with where most of the man’s crates seemed to be.

  “Aren’t you a cultivator? How did some bandits rob you that bad?” I asked once he handed down the crates and boxes.

  He didn’t have much, so it only took a few minutes to transfer everything. He didn’t answer me until I was in the wagon securing stuff with rope.

  “Oh, I’m still in the very early stages. I’ve just formed my core not too long ago. If I didn’t have my skill with runes and carving, I wouldn’t have gotten into the Cove Garden Retreat,” he said and smiled, not even trying to hide more than a small amount of pride.

  “Oh,” I said as I climbed down from the wagon and looked back at him. His smile faltered, and I opened my eyes, faking realization. “Oh! Of course. They’re the ones…”

  “Who only allows people who are already in the spiritual realm of their cultivation, yes,” he said as the smile plastered itself back on his face. He spoke in a refined sort of voice. Like he came from money and was more of an academic than anything else.

  “But you’re good with runes and stuff?” I asked as we both walked back up to the front of the wagon. “What do you want to do with the wagon itself?” I asked and pointed at it before I climbed up onto the bench.

  He shrugged and followed me up. “Once I get back, I’ll be able to get some horses and come and retrieve the cart, and yes, I was a student of an arcanist who had a notable reputation. He died, though, in the Heavenly Tribulation. He thought he’d be the first to become immortal. So the sect grabbed me up in hopes to bring them some amount of prestige and knowledge to them,” he explained.

  I nodded my head, somewhat impressed. “Nice. Sorry about your old master though,” I frowned and grabbed the reins and gave them a small whip.

  He sighed and lowered his head with a shrug. “Way of the world, unfortunately, with cultivators. Though, I think if anyone survived, it would have been him. He was powerful…” The cultivator trailed off and looked out at the road as we went along for a moment, lost in memory.

  I stayed silent and let the man have his moment.

  “Anyway, my name is Soga. Thank you so much for helping me. I’m surprised they haven’t sent out a search party or something for me yet. If you ever need anything crafted, find me at the sect and I’ll be able to do it,” he said, beaming at me.

  “Good to meet you Soga, I’m Maikeru.” I didn’t bother giving the man my real name. Whenever I told someone my name was Michael, they instantly just called me Maikeru, anyway.

  “That would actually be great. I have some ideas for the wagon.” I reached down and grabbed the rolled-up map wrapped in the leather and handed it to him. “Mark where your sect is on the map. I can’t stop now cause I have this delivery to make, but maybe after that,” I said with a firm nod. I’d have to try to draw up my plans for the wagon.

  “So uh, sorry for my rudeness,” Soga started and looked at me with a cocked brow. “You are a cultivator, right? Your core is so…” a pause. “...odd.”

  I lowered my head and sighed a little with a shrug.

  “Oh, nevermind. Sorry I brought it up,” he said quickly when I lowered my head.

  “Huh?” I raised my head and looked over at him. “No, no, you’re fine. I just don’t really know what I have going on. I’m new to all this, and just kind of had all this thrust upon me. The other night I went to the Lying Lily and the..”

  “Wait, what?” Soga interrupted me.

  I stared at him. “I had all of this thrust…” I started, but he shook his head.

  “No, no, you went to the Lying Lily?”

  “Is that bad? We were lost, and we happened upon,” I shrugged.

  “No, it’s outstanding. Do you not know the stories of the Lying Lily?”

  I stared at him with a blank expression. He just smirked in response.

  “The inn materializes when the downtrodden are lost and need help.” You must be more powerful than I originally thought. It’s said the owner is a creature of myth and legend from one of the islands. I can’t remember, a dhu? Do you have a way to hide your cultivation? Open up, let me see,” Soga said excitedly. Before he finished talking, I felt that cold wave flow through my body once more and I shivered.

  “Stop that,” I said with a slight nervous chuckle before I finally shrugged. “I dunno, man, we were wandering around and it popped up. While I was there, I had a strange dream about meeting a skeleton.” I was just as much asking Soga about it as telling him.

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  “He was powerful, I think, and told me…” I drifted off and blinked as I tried to remember what the skeleton told me. “I think he was a god?”

  He blinked. “Well, it could be any number of skeletons. Who knows, really the kind of people who show up at the fabled Lying Lily, but…” he trailed off in thought and looked down the road as we traveled.

  “He said he was a kami,” I offered.

  This made him put his head in his hand with a grunt. “Minoru?! Minoru came to you at the Lily?!” He lifted his head and stared at me incredulously.

  “Uh… okay,” I said with a shrug. “I told you I think it was a dream.”

  He stared at me. “You don’t know about the kami?”

  I shook my head. “Man, I’m going to be nothing but honest with you. I don’t know anything about anything. The gods, or kami, or whatever you call them, cultivation, anything.”

  “But you’re in the spiritual realm of cultivation, aren’t you? That’s how you feel,” he asked me and I just shrugged.

  “I told you, man, this was all suddenly forced upon me. Cultivation isn’t a thing where I come from. I have some manuals in the back there that I’ve been trying to read and figure out, but I guess I need a master or something,” I said and pointed behind the bench to my little living area.

  “Do you mind if I…”

  Before he could finish, I nodded my head, and he climbed over the bench and into my bunk.

  “Just don’t get mud or anything on my bed,” I told him. A moment later, he threw canvas shoes into the driver’s area, landing them next to my feet on the floor.

  I heard him shuffling around and looking through the various books and things. “Some of these manuals are incredible, but you’re right. These won’t help you. These all focus on an element that you cultivate in order to gain power and maybe achieve immortality.”

  “So I don’t have an element?” I ask and look back at him.

  “Well, I don’t know if I’d say that. It’s just…” Soga paused and lifted the light blue crystal that I think used to be my phone. “Oh, nice, you have a messenger crystal.”

  I cocked my brow and looked back at him and what he’s holding. “Wait, I do?”

  “Yeah, it’s something you can use to send messages through the aether,” he explains. “They’re pretty rare. How’d you get it?”

  I ignored the question and asked one of my own. “The aether?”

  Soga nodded his head and climbed back onto the bench to sit next to me. “Yes. The aether is what makes cultivation possible. It encompasses everything. Aether creates everything, and that’s how we cultivate.”

  So… it’s the For…. Wait, nope, I don’t need the mouse coming after me. I just nod in understanding.

  “Do you mind if I use it? I can send a message to my sect and you can see how it works,” he explains.

  I just nodded in reply.

  I watched Soga stare at the crystal and concentrate. A moment later, he lifted the crystal to his mouth, and he whispered something I couldn’t hear. In the time it took me to blink, a slightly transparent blue butterfly seemed to flow out from the crystal. I gaped and watched the butterfly flutter about. It then flew around Soga’s head and then mine before it fluttered off. The butterfly was visible for quite a while, until it seemed to dissolve in the air.

  “Then it rejoins the aether and goes where it’s sent to deliver the message,” Soga smiled when I looked over at him.

  “That’s awesome.”

  He laughed and nodded his head. “It is quite amazing, but be careful. You only have so many messages you can send with it.”

  “Now there should be someone from my sect waiting for me at the exit so you can go about your business,” Soga said with a confident nod.

  “That’s neat. Do you know how far we are?” I asked him. I still wanted to dig for more information from the man.

  Soga looked around a little and then down at the map. “Um, maybe like an hour? Your ox is fast, though, so it could be quicker.”

  I nod and smile as I look at Betsy. “Yeah, she’s a lightning beast,” I tell him.

  He nodded. “Yes, I felt that. It’s interesting you have such a powerful spirit beast pulling your wagon. Yet you don’t…”

  “Yes, I want more information about that. I don’t have a traditional element?”

  He nodded his head. “Correct. There are those that believe, though, that you don’t need an element to advance and reach immortality. Though, if you gained one, it’d give you more power. There are those, like the Moon Lotus Pavilion…”

  I interrupted him. “The Moon Lotus Pavilion?”

  “Yes, it’s a rather unorthodox sect with their beliefs. They all have elements, but they believe that if they find their specific path in the universe, that is to say, what they’re meant to be doing, they’ll progress and find immortality,” Soga explained to me.

  I furrowed my brow and looked down at my belly. “So, if I believe I’ve found what I’m supposed to be doing…” I trailed off.

  “Well, it isn’t proven. It’s just one theory. There isn’t anyone that we know of who has reached the pinnacle of cultivation. We call them Celestials. We’re all just going about hoping someone can do it,” he explained as we rode along.

  I frowned. “So, should I get an element?”

  Soga shrugged. “It would help in fighting, and it might make some things easier, but I don’t know that you need to. The Mother’s don’t have an element. They can just read into fate, but they’re still considered cultivators.. Well, sort of.”

  I cocked my brow. “The Mothers?”

  “Yes, they’re Oracles, soothsayers, future tellers, whatever you want to call them. They have the ability to look into fate and read Daichi’s book, as they say,” he explained.

  “Da -”

  But he answered the question before I could ask. “The god of fate is the only one unrelated to any element.”

  I nodded my head and just took in the information he gave. I looked up at the sky and smiled to myself. This man was exactly what I needed. It was always funny when the main character in a story just happened upon something right when they needed it. I never quite believed it happened that way, but sometimes I guess you have good karma.

  We rode in silence for a while until we were about three quarters of the way to the spot where we were supposed to meet his sect. “So, how do you cultivate?” I looked over and asked Soga.

  “Well,” he started, and then lowered his head. “In your case, I think cultivating would be easy. To grow your power, just do what you do, you know? Go about your path and meditate on it. If you had an element, it’s a little more involved. You have to meditate and feel the aura, and, well, it’s hard to explain without you doing it.”

  I nodded my head as I listened to him.

  “Though, I suppose, even if you don’t have an element, maybe there are things you’d be able to do that aren’t traditionally known,” Soga said and then sat back in his seat.

  “I’ve heard about this chef who has the ability to imbue mana in his cooking and give the food he cooks special magical properties. Since I haven’t personally met him or tasted his cooking, I’m unsure of the statement’s truth. I guess he and his wife just wander around the empire in a cart like yours and serve food.”

  I smirk. A Fantasyland food truck sounded like the exact thing I needed to find. Still, it made me think. I wondered what sort of things I’d be able to do with this mystery core I had. If I was already a powerful cultivator, but I didn’t have a traditional element, what did I have? Could it be trucking? Or well… transporting? Could it be that simple?

  “Oh look, that must be them.” Soga elbowed me and pulled me from my thoughts a while later. We had been riding in silence as I thought about what Soga told me and how it related to my situation and how I could progress down this path of mine.

  I nodded my head and didn’t give Betsy any direction. She knows what to do. She started slowing and pulled us off to the side of the road. I noticed two men standing there with their arms crossed against their chests and glaring at us. I cocked my brow and looked over at Soga.

  He gave me a reassuring nod and just smiled before he turned and waved at them.

  Once Betsy came to a full stop, he climbed down and before he could greet the men, one of them laid into him.

  “You’re supposed to be representing us, and you lose horses to some mortal bandits?” The older one spits out at him. His hair was graying, and he had a beard typical of old masters in the kung fu movies I always liked to watch.

  The other man was younger and had a firmer jaw. He had a more placid look about him, and his hair was still jet black and in a topknot. “Simmer brother. Soga here is still new to the sect and only developed his core not too long ago.” He put his hand on the older man’s shoulder.

  Soga, while the two talked, bowed towards them both with his hands clasped in front of him. “I’m sorry Elders.”

  The older man pulled away from the younger and looked up at me. “So you’re the one who saved him, huh? Should have left him on the side of the road. He could have carried the supplies back.” Then he rounded on the younger looking man that had been waiting with him. “And how many times do I have to tell you to not call me that? Just because they appointed you an elder…” the older man stopped his tirade and visibly calmed himself.

  I just sat there with a cocked eyebrow and tried to remember what the name of this sect was. It seemed like it had a sort of peaceful name to it.

  Soga and the younger elder were going behind the wagon and I climbed through the help unwrap the rope so they could get their things. “It wasn’t any trouble at all, Elder. I just picked him up, and we went on our way. I’m just on my way to the capital,” I said and offered a smile at the older man when he popped up at the rear to help.

  “Well, you should. He’s a member of a noteworthy sect and you’re just some…” he paused and I felt the ever familiar icy shiver pass through my body once more. I was growing to really not like the sensation. Maybe if it was hotter out, it might feel kinda good. Get your buddy to sense your spirit on a nice hot day to cool you down.

  “Oh, I guess you aren’t just some mortal, are you?” He eyed me as he reconsidered my place in his mind.

  I just gave a smile and a little finger wave. “I’m just a guy who transports goods, Elder. This time, those goods happened to be your junior sect member.”

  The old man sniffed and looked at Soga. “I suppose he said we’d repay you as well, didn’t he?”

  Soga just walked back from carrying one crate to their wagon, and he saved me from having to answer. “I told him if he needed any runes or anything done he could come see me,” Soga informed the old elder.

  “I have some plans to upgrade my wagon. When I come back through, I’m hoping to see Soga here and maybe get some things done,” I told the elder with a wide smile.

  The elder narrowed his eyes at Soga, but oddly, he didn’t direct any of that anger towards me. He didn’t say anything. He just shook his head and walked off to his own cart. “Come on, you guys got the last two. Let’s get back to the sect. There’s work to do.”

  The younger elder looked at me with a grin and shrugged a little. “He’s one of the founding members of the sect. Come see us whenever you’re ready and we’ll see what we can do for you. Ask for me, Elder Hisai. Even if you don’t want any work done, we have some beautiful land. Good little spot to relax,” he informed me with a wide smile.

  I bet it’s relaxing. It sounds like one of those hippie retreats where you go eat magic mushrooms and trip balls.

  I nod my head and smile at him. “Thank you Elder, I’m Maikeru. I look forward to visiting. Soga marked the area where your sect is on my map, so I won’t have any trouble finding you.”

  He gave a weird look at Soga, but a moment later, he smiled back at me. “Maybe then you can fill us in on that weird core of yours,” he knocked on the last crate before he picked it up and followed Soga back to their own cart.

  Yeah, I’ll be sure to fill you in once I figure it out for myself, I thought.

  I shook my head and sighed as I climbed back through and got back on my driver’s bench. One last wave at the three sect cultivators as they maneuvered their horses around and did a u-turn to get themselves headed toward their own sect.

  A few moments after they were gone, Betsy gave a low bellow and then I felt the wagon rolling along the path once more. I reached down and grabbed the map and unrolled it in my lap.

  “How long do you think you’ll be able to pull us for Betsy?” I asked as I trailed my finger along the line towards Yoshino.

  “Shit!” I yelled when I just realized something and patted my pocket. “I should have asked them if they could send my letter. God dammit. Or wait, is it God’s dammit here? Or Kami’s dammit?” I shook my head, more than a little irritated with myself.

  I wouldn’t swear by it, but I was almost positive I heard Betsy laugh at me. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I have that messenger thing. A butterfly can deliver a message to her from me. “I’ll send one before I go to sleep.”

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