Altura

And there was, as usual, a problem. I did not in fact remember how to make a photovoltaic cell. Oh, I remembered some things, a high silica, (or was it polyester?) Was used as the most efficient material. But I could not remember how it converted light to electricity. And then there was electricity.

The thing needed wires and connections and a bloody industry to support it. And I didn’t have that. Ugh, what to do now. I… had failed. What to do, what to do… ok, back to the drawing board.

What could I do? I had thought of coal, something I was lacking and would run into the issue of electricity. Incantation was an option, but the cost for entire trains was hard to bear. I could barely afford to do it for an hour. And I had over a million Qi.

Incantation required too much power for a single person to afford, multiple had been tried. To no success. The incantation varied based on who cast it. And still cost far too much, suffering from the inherent restriction that it was only viable for high ranking cultivators.

Wait. The crystal, it stored Qi. And deployed it in the way of light. Now say a bunch of people poured Qi into the crystals, and then one person incanted… the combination might work. Did the Qi in the crystal except incants?

Qi, oh Qi in the crystal, lift the… book on the table for me.

I incanted, putting my will into it. But to no avail, the Qi did not respond. The Qi was no longer mine to command once it went into the crystal. Now what? Ugh… the light. The bloody light was energy. Qi was energy. And energy can be interconverted.

Light, oh light, turn to kinetic energy, pick this book for me.

And it worked. The book floated in the air as the light emanating from the crystal noticeably reduced. But not exhausted. Not remotely. The light had much more juice to give. But I was interested in another possibility. I could use the light produced by the crystal, what about the ambient light?

Light, oh light, in the air turn to kinetic energy and lift this table!

I incanted, excited to see the results. But it did not work. The light did not react. Why? I dived into the light emanating from the crystal, something I had only been able to do with Qi before.

The light, there was something about it. I dived into the crystal, intent on discovering the secret. I poured more Qi in, and watched it be converted to light. A small part of the Qi constantly leaked through the crystal, were those pores? The crystal was porous! The light wasn't being emanated, it was Qi leaking out though the pores!

The Qi passed through the crystal, but when it encountered its physical limit, it changed. The Qi appeared to cross some form of barrier and turn into light. Just light. The only difference was that I could sense it like my Qi. Though I couldn't quite manipulate it like Qi.

The barrier. The secret was that barrier, was it just the crystal ending? Was it something else? Qi continues to leak, and I watched it. The barrier was definitely there. But the conversion, it was incomplete. The Qi was trying to leave it, but it didn't succeed. The light wasn't light, not completely, it was part Qi, part light. Spirit light, I called it.

The barrier continued past the crystal, the Qi trying to exit only caused it to be visible to me. The crystal was a part of the barrier that was porous, letting Qi seep in and out. But no, if that was the case, then how could it be moved? Not unless… it was a fluid. A fluid. Wait a second.

I looked at the barrier more closely, observing it, the barrier was spirit. The thing that my spirit space was made of. And spirit was fluid. A fluid that flowed through the planet.

Suddenly, the gates of a new world appeared before me, the type of flowing world you saw in movies. Before me was a white space, With the occasional translucent Qi floating around. And then the view zoomed out.

I saw my spirit space, and others in the area. The spirit space, it was drawing Qi into it. Or at least trying to. I could feel a suction, one that was restricted by some force. The System. So this was how magic worked.

The spirit space had Qi in it. The seed instructed the Qi to do, or rather, I did it through the seed. The spirit space…was nothing but a denser collection of spirit that wasn't in motion. How interesting.

The view zoomed out again. I was now looking at the planet. A myriad of lights covered it. The river of spirit flowed through almost all of it. At a few spots, however, it didn't. The river curved around it, leaving the areas lacking in Qi. And then there was the giant tree. The core of the System, emanating a powerful force that regulated the flow of spirit.

The river was a solvent, the Qi a solute. And the river did not end here, it flowed out, to other planets, outside the solar system, outside the System's influence.

And then I was back in my body, staring at an unexpected notification.

Hello Royal Archduchess, greetings from the System.

The System extends hearty congratulations on your breakthrough, however troublesome it might be. The secret of spirit, the gateway to the level of Spirit Tree, is open to you now. The System can offer few awards that match the significance of what you have achieved, but here is what you receive.

The Qi required to level up to Tree stage.

A massive class Qi boost for your Arch duchy.

A special seed; the [Seed of loyalty]. Chose its wielder wisely.

Do well and grow, Royal Archduchess, the System has need of you.

Well, that wasn't ominous at all. The System, that powerful thing that was directing spirit across the planet, had 'need of me'.

But I had no time to think any more, I was before the hole again.

Archduchess, tell me a fun fact about Qi.

Oh, you hole. Are you begging for another list? But I am going to high key not going to nerf myself and give a semi important fact.

The Qi, is in essence neutral and unwieldable by normal methods. The seed and spirit space are what allow it to be wielded.

I answered, smiling.

A satisfactory answer, Archduchess, as expected of the girl who saw spirit at eleven years old. Do remember to brush up on your casting, however, that is where the next question will lay. I expect excellence and little else, your grace.

Uh oh. I had been neglecting my casting, hadn't I? But I could lament later, for now I would rejoice. I was a Tree! And experiment a bit too, the work was not done after all.

Kerrin

Kerrin shifted in and out of boredom as he waited for the Archduchess to start the meeting. The truth was that he was bored. Before returning to the Arch duchy he had felt separate from it, but he was separate even here.

The operation of the Arch duchy did not include him. Oh, he helped here and there, but at the core he was not needed. The Arch duchy would go on without him. And that was how it should be. But it still stung. The feeling of having nowhere to go, nothing that really mattered to him, burned within his mind.

And then the Archduchess had broken through to the Tree level. At eleven years old. And left him woefully behind. A few months ago he, had even caught up to her, but the gap had widened now. So, he had decided. The next new task the Archduchess set, and she would undoubtedly have one, he would take it. And try to do something, to figure out what he wanted to do in life.

The Archduchess entered, still dressed in her fancy dress celebrating her breakthrough.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to another meeting of Arch duchy heads! Now today we have a very special discovery on the agenda. I have found our power source” she began, taking out a glowing crystal.

“The light emanated by the crystal can be incanted upon and used as a power source. The incantation operates at fifty percent efficiency on an average, the efficiency decreasing with complexity and distance of the object but increasing with specificity of the instruction. And that brings us to a very important topic, who is going to the Gorge to get more of the crystals? "

And that, right there, was Kerrin's cue.