Supporting each other, Ebony and Ning Xin arrived at the house he prepared in the middle of the night. He didn’t need the shoulder to walk without legs but it was nice to have.
It was bustling around the entrance gate they used to enter Tidal but it quietened after they entered the central district.
Ebony noticed more foreigners than before, speaking Gia with each other. Some insulted the Elcrians for being uneducated while others marvelled at the Empire's specialities.
There was a bit of an unsettling aura brewing in the district but he couldn’t pick out the oddness. While the emotion-sensing woman was too disturbed with her mind running furiously and her heart pounding noisily.
Focusing on the wife he just won over, he discarded the distractions for the moment.
He introduced their new property.
The garden.
The state-of-the-art training field in their backyard although nowhere as impressive as the Infinite Variations.
The additional backyard pond that he made to resemble Aroma Alcove, ‘mini’ waterfall and misty environment and all that. He saw himself spending a lot of time here, reading and having tea breaks. He didn’t even have to worry about moist books.
The kitchen and herb garden was the main attraction.
General Life, the soil, was used for a potted frost plum tree. He missed frost plums and couldn’t have any other seed using up the small amount of General Life he had.
Elemental soil would’ve been better but he wouldn’t be able to source any that was better than General Life due to the large difference in quality. It already had a thin trunk a metre tall but not very leafy.
“Why is it so empty?” She pointed out the fact that the building was just an empty partitioned box.
“We can fill it up together. And I wasn’t sure if you wanted different layouts.”
“I want a smokehouse for smoking ingredients, something that can fit at least ten buffaloes. An outdoor oven too, this one is great but some animals are better baked whole and they can’t fit in this one. I like this massive counter the best!”
“You’ve always mentioned insufficient table space to work with.”
“I might place it differently though…ah.” She detached the counter, accidentally breaking the countertop off since it was one piece of granite block.
“Don’t worry, that was just a display.” The counter material itself was no different from the bricks the rest of the building was made of and was something that wouldn’t break unless they tossed around their spells with all their force behind it.
The piece of granite was something one of his clones found and ground smooth with vibrations.
Once he moved Dusk over, the defences of his home would skyrocket. As far as he could tell, no Elf or Domain mage had set their Will over this area.
They discussed the possible layouts of the house, the furniture and the decoration they wanted. He can’t believe that he forgot to leave holes for windows and they had a good laugh about that. Fortunately, the house being made of a material that included his mana made changes easy for him.
Before long, sunlight was coming back. They returned to their previous house to wash up before they went shopping.
He had been here so long but they’ve never actually been to Z&Z’s main branch in the Capital. It was one of the biggest buildings around but they never found any reason to go to the largest department store the continent had.
They didn’t plan it but they were both wearing the Xeng clothing they had made for them, pairing up rather well. The Xengs did have the Chinese qipaos but unlike what Kong Jing led them to believe, it was not for battle and obviously, it was supposed to be conservative when it came to exposed skin. The qipao were, however, for hotter weather while what they were wearing was rising in fashion in the last 5 centuries amongst the Xeng.
‘I bet someone went back to earth and watched some dramas and brought fashion back…’ He wasn’t too interested in that part of history.
“We should get some paint to-- Xin?” Ebony felt the arm around his elbow go stiff. There was no response.
His mana perception and mind raced to tell him the familiar feeling of the unmoving elemental mana that he couldn’t control changing.
“Different. All different.” Mutterings of a familiar voice entered his ears. He didn’t perceive any movement or mana change but a lean man in a worn frost-elven style mage robe was beside Dusk.
Once again, Ebony felt an overwhelming difference in mana purity and quantity but this time he felt it very clearly unlike when he didn’t even know what he was sensing. There was, however, an obvious difference, this blue-haired man wearing a cracked mask of the woman who had her arms around his was barely any taller than Ebony right now.
“Hello,” Ebony spoke up. This guy had something similar to Entity Evanesce because he was hard to look at and focus on.
“Is this the right place? I wouldn’t know. Xiao Ling, are you there?”
‘So he really can’t see or interact, just leaving messages. Who is Xiao Ling? There is no Xiao clan but there might be a Xiao amongst the second generation. Wait he swapped to Xenese, so…little Ling, Shi Ling maybe? But Shi Ling is older than me, another Ling? To begin with, is that supposed to be me?’ Ebony had thought so but what he was seeing was not a person talking to him.
This was a curveball, he had assumed this man was here to talk to him again.
Ebony took a double take above and around him.
Sky’s Edge was very likely still somewhere near Elcra. He did sense Shi Ling’s remnant mana around the valleys he proposed but those of the Shi weren’t people he could lock onto if they didn’t want him to know.
If Shi Ling was on the planet. he could assume she had a perception strong enough to hear this man. But his partner was stuck in place right now, unmoving or sensing,
Ebony tried to talk to Dusk and the tree responded with a yes, it was listening.
“Hear me Xiao Ling, radiant diamond bell’s key is not radiance, diamond or bell. It is ossification. Also, eat less pudding.”
Befuddled, Ebony gripped onto the softened arm around his when the man blinked out of his recognition. There was no soul-crushing roar this time.
‘What was that for?’ Getting completely ignored was something Ebony understood but to think he wasn’t even mentioned this time was odd to him. The message itself was just as confusing.
Before, he had a strong suspicion that man was a future version of him. There were many similarities and evidence that pointed to that. But with access to Eidolon, he knew that most Gods were well known for obvious reasons and wasn’t a secret, it was practically common knowledge to know the Gods of the universe.
For one, there was no information about the existence of a God of Time.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
For two, time travel was commonly believed to be an impossibility even in this world of magic. Eidolon was full of forums with numerous posts relevant to it.
After learning how to detect delayed strikes, he noticed that this man did not make any gravitational instability during his appearance and disappearance. It was completely different from what Ebony could do or what he had been learning from the Infinite Variations.
The mask was another point to note, it was cracked but does that mean Xin is or is going to be dead? It was hard to say. Why?
Because the mask doesn't even look the same now. Xin’s mask changed appearance long ago. But the cracks spread through the mask and it was hard to make out the features with all the grey…material covering it.
‘Another Xeng with a similar mask, and this guy is someone else? Feels off too. His first words were ‘different, all different’, is that something that’s supposed to be a message will say? I should ask someone. If Aunt Tao is watching she must have noticed. Hmm…I’m already calling her Aunt Tao even in my mind.’ Ebony couldn’t do anything about the random encounter right now and instead of contacting Shi Ling who wasn’t showing herself up, he decided to finish his shopping trip first.
The rings that he took out were unadorned, silver rings that were actually a gold alloy. Gold was cheap on Elva, not known to have many useful properties be it physical or magical. But that's beside the point for this gold alloy ring, it did what was necessary and won’t degrade over long periods measured in millions of years if not longer. He didn’t identify any other magical properties or abilities and he was fine with that.
As for the necklace chain, it disappeared again but it should be around his neck. He somehow forgot about it once more.
He was able to act as if nothing happened since what the man came to say wasn’t meant for him.
“It’s pretty far away, let’s take a fast ride.” He led them to the public flight mount rides that could leave the district without security checks. The main branch of the Z&Z was in the south district of Tidal after failing to thrive in the central district where people preferred specialised goods. There was more traffic in all the other districts too.
By the time they arrived by flight, it was well into the morning at about the 10th hour.
He hadn't even got them past the door before a pair of uniformed ladies stood in front of them. “Good morning dear customers, may we help you with what you’re here for today?”
Ebony glanced at Xin, “It’ll be faster.” she commented.
They were looking for many things so having the employees guide them would indeed be more efficient.
‘Sisters or twins, neither of them are Elcrians. A beastmen race that I’ve never seen, furred and black spotted but no claws, fangs or horns. Kings, about as strong as an average combatant King on Elcrain but they are both merchants. My gravitational perception shows a different height and frame…they are using illusions to look human but that is classified under mind magic and my resistance to mind magic makes my eyes see their real appearance instead.’ It was already habitual to sieve out information about strangers he met.
“We can take a look at furniture first, everything an empty house needs.”
“Sure can do!” Their hold of the language was pretty much perfect, not even an accent was left.
He was pretty sure he had his guard up, but in mere minutes, he had a list of furniture and things he never thought of buying that was written into his order. Curtains, windows, a sofa.
They were currently stuck on the mattresses. His partner hid her embarrassment at the thought of using the same bed but they quickly came across their first disagreement. He might never have disagreed with her as vehemently.
“The mattress has to be firm for good posture and back health.” Ebony would not back down on this, this was common sense.
“I might as well sleep on a rock! Beds have to be soft.”
“That’s terrible for one’s back. It can be padded for softness but it needs to be firm and not sink.”
“Every mattress here will sink with your mass.”
“Sirs, ma’am we have custom mattresses. We assure you we have the softest or firmest mattresses on the market. If your husband has a special constitution that makes him heavier, we can have a mount-ready custom-made mattress that will not sink up to 10 tovs and if you’re not in a rush we can meet your specifications!” The ape-like face of the lady merchant advertised.
‘10 tovs is 50,000 kg, there are huge land mounts and creatures that easily weigh past that so I’m not surprised they can make mattresses that can support that mass. Putting that aside, they have a very interesting skill set. I believe they knew how much money I have, their introductions are to the point and aimed at what we like. They know Xin is the one they need to focus on to get anything sold. And although I wasn’t actively saying no to their advertisements, they still affected me and got me to buy things we don’t need.’ Some of the things he didn’t think they needed was lighting, with their eyes, it was bright even on winter nights with the Elcrain moons turning dark. The only exception would be winter nights in Hoarfrost Glades which were darker than the city.
The twin merchants also had very good senses of danger and hid their fear quite well. They were nervous around the two of them, unlike the surrounding customers and employees.
The demure Xeng lady did not produce any sort of sharp or deadly aura, she was no different from any other housewife. He had little leakage of mana and his Will should be soothing to just about any creature.
Yet the twin merchants were stepping on needles around them.
He wondered which one of them the two merchants were wary about.
They went from custom order furniture to daily necessities to clothing to new goods they were stocking that were from other Worldcores. A self-cleaning mop and broom that was cheap to operate, in terms of mana consumption. Then, the merchants clutched onto their customers like hounds with fresh seasonal fruits that couldn’t be found on Elcra. Ning Xin was stuck here for a long time but he didn’t rush her.
The ape-like featured women completely skipped over equipment and magical items such as cloaks of lightness, swift boots, spell scrolls and potions.
There was one series of magical items Ebony was interested in.
Charms.
Those didn’t exist on Elcra but from what he could tell, the effect they could pull off was not much different from a spell scroll but most of them had passive effects.
Like the Charm of Warmth, it would keep the holder warm without any mana usage from the user.
The various charms were rising in popularity amongst the freelancers who travel a lot. Whether it was dungeons with very different environments or natural environments around Elva. There were charms to counter environmental effects. Charms had an effective time limit from days to years, that was the entire reason for their variable prices even for a charm of the same effect.
Ebony warned the merchants not to bring them to the egg or tamed mount section secretly with sound magic. The poor fertilised but temporarily sealed monster eggs and docile creatures might become his dinner if they went there.
The shopping trip took more than half a day and Ebony was thoroughly impressed when he was left with 10% of the mana ores he had. Sure, most of his money was in universal currency now but he was now sure that skills were being cast on them by the merchant. It was extremely subtle, and not invasive like Mr Guru.
‘Subtle tricks bypass mental defences more easily than aggressive invasion or it’s just a specific skill set with proper Fortifications.’ He highly doubted these merchants had mind magic more potent than Mr Guru the Telepath. They might have used combination mind magic to increase their effectiveness or their race has effective two-man spell casting.
There were many things on the schedule before he moved into their new home. He had to ask for Xin’s hand from her Grandmother since her parents’ situation was unknown to him.
Until he did so, the two of them were technically engaged after his successful bridal battle duel but not husband and wife yet. But it wasn’t like there were papers to sign so it was more of a social and cultural norm that he was more than willing to follow.
He wasn’t planning for a big wedding but it still seemed appropriate to have a wedding. He recalled attending a wedding once as a child with his parents. He didn’t know either the bride or the groom, friends or acquaintances of his parents.
He also remembered a head pat from his mother when she watched the bride and groom do their wedding vows. And how his father reassured her with, “If I can find you, I’m sure he can find someone too.”
“Qua will test her.”
‘Hmm…Qua. I don’t think she’s talking about a person. It’s not Aunt Tao. Is that mother’s spear name? She spoke Xenese here but I'm pretty sure Qua is not her spear name or full name. Does that mean I’m supposed to bring Xin to meet her spear? Well, that would be interesting too.’ Ebony was always up to go back to Sky’s Edge to visit his mother’s grave and her spear.
When it came to the wedding, he had to ask about Xin’s opinion too.
Outside of that, their new home wasn’t ready for moving in either.
If there were people he wanted to know about his life, the Thoyas came to mind.
‘I’ll drop by and if Veronica doesn’t come and stop me, the issue shouldn’t be that big…maybe not, she might not think that far.’ The Xengs were quite independent outside of their familial love.
They preferred when their kids did their things without restriction if possible.
‘Am I forgetting something? Right, Hector. He was watching our duel wasn’t he, did he just give us alone time? I can probe Shi Ling about the weird encounter with that man. Check the Frost Elves’ situation. Hire some people on the net to get updated information on Cinderash. Find out what happened with the Nebulians. Possibly plan for a honeymoon trip. Ask Sister Jing about what the necklace chain is for…reply to Aunt Tao’s messages.’
Ebony had quite a lot to do.
