Teachers

“There is a lot to consider,” the dragon, the Explorer’s Soul, said after Zach had finished filling him in on what happened with the yeti.

Zach and the others all sat on stone chairs in front of the dragon, arranged in a half circle before him. Zach and Naha sat on the right side, while Ryun, Nayra, and Ereclaw were on the left.

It was strange, he was pretty sure that there had been no stone chairs on the plateau when they had all arrived. But when the dragon invited them to sit, they were there. He even had a vague nagging thought in his mind that they had always been there. When he tried to remember their arrival, he remembered the stone circle being there. If he hadn’t spent such a long time in a Mind prison, if he didn’t have such a good grasp on that Essence, he probably wouldn’t even have noticed the disparity.

The Ethereal was a strange place, it changed based on will. The dragon willed the stone chair circle to be there, and it always had been. It interacted with Time too, though Zach was unsure just how exactly yet. He would figure it out eventually.

“What you describe suggests that he is following his old pattern again,” the dragon said. “Hunting for powerful individuals, harvesting for materials and insight. He had left a trail of dead spirits in his wake during his time in this Realm. Taking their power to fuel his creations.”

Zach looked the dragon in the eyes. “We’ve come, hoping that you can help us get stronger, so that we may stop him.”

The dragon leaned down, his eyes taking each of them in before settling on Zach. “I have taught you all that I knew of skills,” the Explorer said.

Zach gestured at the others. “And I have passed that on,” he said. “It wasn’t enough.”

The dragon turned his eyes to the sky, the great clouds above that turned gently in a circle with the top of the mountain at its center. The clouds were filled with all the colors imaginable, constantly shifting, but calm.

“It has been almost a century since the yeti left the Ethereal Realm. For me at least,” the dragon said. “Much has changed in this Realm since then.”

“A century?” Zach asked. He knew that the currents of the River of Time did not all move at the same speed, but Ethereal had always been a mystery to him. A hundred years seemed like a really big difference.

Then Naha stood quickly. “Wait, how much time passed in the Real Realm since we arrived?”

Zach reached out and grabbed her hand. “Don’t worry, our presence here has brought the flow of Time in sync with the Real Realm.” He could feel it, though he knew that it would not stay that way forever. The longer they stayed in the Ethereal, the more they would become part of it and the more Time would return to its wild flow. They all had protections that allowed them to stay in the Ethereal for longer without losing their minds and turning into shades, except for Ryun who said that he didn’t need such things, something about being able to walk everywhere.

“He is correct,” the Explorer told Naha. “You will not wake up tomorrow and find that a century has passed in the Real Realm.”

She glanced at Zach, worry still clear in her eyes, but she sat back down. He knew that she had experience with this from before, when they went after Hastur through the Ethereal. A trip of a few minutes took them three years. And he knew that she was worried about leaving Hiro alone for too long.

Zach was keeping an eye on Time, he had to return in two months time. He was meant to join Sigmund Otensson and Awirren Goldenfeather in their assault on a dome. His role would be that of support, standing in the background in case anything went wrong, but still it was his responsibility.

Though yeti was a priority as well. It was too much, too many things were happening and they had too few answers for them.

“I can teach anyone of you,” the dragon continued. “But my mastery is within this realm, and in the focus of skills. Mastering the ways willpower influenced the world. I cannot help you in any other way. I am, at the heart of me, an Explorer. That is where my talents lie.”

He looked around, taking all of them in again. “And while some of you do have great wills and tread the path of skills, few of you follow paths at all similar to mine.”

Zach closed his eyes. He had hoped that the dragon could help them. He was the only being that Zach knew was powerful enough to match the yeti.

“That does not mean that you cannot find what you are seeking here though,” the dragon added and Zach raised his head.

“What do you mean?”

“As I’ve said,” the Explorer continued. “Much has changed in the Ethereal Realm. The yeti escaped, and left turmoil in his wake. Most of the Grand Spirits cared little for the yeti, he was not their concern. But, the Grand Spirit of War disagreed. He saw the yeti shade as their responsibility. When the yeti found a way out of the Etheral, the Grand Spirit of War did not take it well. The Ethereal is a twisted reflection of the Real Realm, and your Realm had been waging war on a massive scale. It affected the Grand Spirit of War the most.”

“What happened?” The question came from Ereclaw.

The Explorer turned his eyes to the wolf. “What I feared would happen,” he sighed. “Fueled by the worst components of war, the Grand Spirit had changed. A schism between the Grand Spirits has taken place. The Grand Spirit of War and two others have split from the rest of the nine.”

Ereclaw grimaced, while the others looked on not really understanding. Zach spoke. “What does that mean? Why is it important?”

The dragon turned to look back at him as he answered. “The Grand Spirits are the pillars of the Ethereal Realm. They are the Ethereal Realm. They are no longer in balance, no longer in harmony. This is making the Ethereal Realm more chaotic, it is affecting the spirits and the relationship between territories.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Apologies,” Ryun said, speaking for the first time. “I do not see what this has to do with us, we are here to grow stronger in order to defeat the yeti.”

The dragon turned to look at him. “And the Grand Spirits are the way to get you stronger. They are each on the same level of power as myself and the yeti. And one side of their schism is on your side. I suggest you seek the spirits out, and ask for their assistance.”

Ryun tilted his head, and Zach frowned.

“Would they help us?” Zach asked.

“There are limits to what they can do,” the Explorer said. “They are bound by rules that not even I understand. If you can offer them something that they cannot gain on their own, they will give you aid.”

“What could we offer beings such as them?” Zach asked.

“As I’ve said, they are bound by their nature. They cannot act in ways that oppose it. You are free of such constraints. Seek them out, and ask.”

Zach sat on the ledge of the mountain top, the others had gone off to explore the surrounding. They were all thinking about the ways that they could gain strength. Zach had come here with the intention of finishing his Skill focus. He had hoped that the Explorer would be able to help him with that, but he understood why the dragon couldn’t. He was, as he had said, an explorer. There was little that he could teach Zach other than what he already had.

“There are nine Grand Spirits,” the dragon said from next to Zach. “The nine are: The Grand Spirit of the Elements, the Grand Spirit of Nature and Nurture, the Grand Spirit of Change, the Grand Spirit of Horror, the Grand Spirit of War, the Grand Spirit of Light, the Grand Spirit of Transition, the Grand Spirit of Mysteries, and the Grand Spirit of Knowledge. Each representing an integral part of the Ethereal Realm. They each command great power in their perspective fields. They each have their own views and ideals, though they all put the protection of the Ethereal Realm at the top of their priority. How they accomplish that, is what differs between them.”

“I don’t know which one to even approach,” Zach said.

“That would depend on what you want. Each of them holds great power, but just as I cannot help you grow in power any more than I have already, neither will all of them. They each have their own specialties, only some will have something to offer you.”

Zach nodded. “What are the two sides?”

“The Grand Spirit of War was followed by the Grand Spirit of Transition and Mysteries,” the dragon said. “They believe that they should follow the yeti into the Real Realm. Though they are constrained. Spirits cannot easily enter the Real Realm, it is even harder for Grand Spirits. There are few people in your world with great enough power to summon them. Only those who are at the ends of a summoner’s path.”

Zach glanced at the dragon. “You know a lot about the Real Realm for someone who has never been there.”

The dragon blinked, almost as if he caught himself. “Ah, I apologize. Sometimes I just… know things. Echoes of a dream I had lived. I do not remember most of the life I had in the Real Realm, only vistas of places I had visited and explored. It is the price I paid for this life. Though, at times I do have… moments where I find myself with the knowledge I should not have gained in this life.”

Zach turned to look down the mountain again. He knew a little something about that. The memories of his life before the prison had always been with him, they were just so faint that he could barely remember anything. Memory of an infant’s life.

He sighed. “The Grand Spirit of War would help me achieve what I want, to stop the yeti.”

The Explorer didn’t say anything.

But… Zach knew that it wasn’t what he was about. He had to look to the future, beyond the yeti, for what he wanted to accomplish with his life. To uplift the people that lived in the Infinite Realm, to teach them, to put them on the right path. And from his fight with the yeti, Zach knew that he had enough power to hurt him.

“Not War, I walk my own path,” he said finally. “Tell me where I can find the Grand Spirit of Knowledge.”