I made judicious use of stealth, activating [Flux] to remain hidden as I waited for responses to the missives I’d sent. Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I should have waited before entering the rift, but I wanted to know what was on the other side. I rationalized my choice, explaining to Storm that it was safer if I spent the time waiting by exploring.

She chuffed in amusement, knowing full well that I was going to peek inside the rift no matter what. Her burst of mental laughter was something a younger sibling might share with a sister. Storm had been calling me Sister almost from the beginning, and now that her intelligence and ability to speak had increased, I understood exactly what she meant by that declaration.

Storm and I were bonded. We were tied by threads of fate and Qi. There was no way for us to lie to each other, and our connection would last until one of us died, or we ascended and entered the Heavenly Plane.

Her laughter was an affectation, a young sister’s delight at goading and needling her older stodgier sibling. And I loved her more fiercely because of it.

I didn’t travel far once I entered, barely darting inside to gauge the environment, but I did begin to scout out the area closest to the opening. Storm decided to remain outside to patrol, watching for any response to my missives as I satisfied my curiosity. She would be able to send me a message through our bond letting me know if anyone arrived, or if a missive had been sent.

She had noticed a few beasts in the area, a type we hadn’t encountered before, and she was eager to add a bit of hunting to her patrol. I would have to grill whatever she caught, she almost refused to eat raw meat anymore, not since I had mistakenly given her some of the jerkies I carried.

She was fast turning into a gourmand or would have if I was even a passable cook. Grilling was about the extent of my talents, and even that was testing my limits as the charred and blackened bits of burnt food proved.

I wouldn’t have to take the chance of a missive being missed or misrouted when I had entered the rift with Storm remaining outside. One of the enchantments when creating the paper had fail-safes in place. Missives that were enchanted, would seek and find an individual no matter where they were and could only be opened by the intended recipient. That enchantment worked in all cases but one. If an individual had passed through an aperture between worlds, the enchantment that controlled the missives was could be diverted. And Storm as my bonded companion was an acceptable replacement.

My bond with Storm could not be blocked. No matter where we were, no matter how far away from each other we were, the companion bond remained strong enough, vital enough, and available to be used even between worlds.

The rift opened to a similar environment on the other side with one difference. The nearby mountain had been worked, an opening formed widening into a cave that had been created not formed naturally. The cave had obvious signs of recent use. Wheel tracks in the compacted earth that entered the opening. Cloaked in [Flux], I darted inside.

The opening widened into a massive cave system. The first cavern containing features you would expect. Dripping water, stalagmites and stalactites, fungi and mushrooms growing in clusters, and a lack of light. But it also had worked rock formations that were obviously meant to be used as buildings.

It took me a while to identify the residents of the cave, they blended in so well with the rock formations because they were made of rocks themselves. But eventually, I spotted rock constructs moving. Their actions were cohesive, they were obviously people as I saw a few of them attempt tasks with synchronized movement. They looked more like snowmen than anything else, a few boulders stacked on top of each other, but the feeling I got from them when I examined them with my Qi perception was the same I got from any Elf.

They were alive, and because they were capable of construction, I had to assume at least an intelligence that might equal that of my people. I’m not sure what they called themselves, but I thought they were most likely Earth Elementals, my assumption was supported as I watched one of them use Qi as an appendage, moving and shaping things around it with as much dexterity and ease as I did with my hands.

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I listened as a few engaged in conversation. The noise they made, the sounds of the earth. The sound rocks make when they move against each other, the sound of crashing as a rockslide occurs, and the shattering sound of stone as it cracks and breaks. The noise of nature giving character and depth to the words that they formed, helping to punctuate the conversations I overheard with something unique and earthy.

The cave was large, about a third more the size of Xiwang city, but it was only a beginning, a stage for the branching tunnels that flowed downward, so many tunnels branching that they were too prolific for me to keep straight. I would need Storm’s mapping ability to make any real sense of this place, and that worried me.

The immediate area made flying possible, even the branching tunnels that I had located were constructed or had formed naturally large enough that she would be able to fly, but that might not be the case the deeper we ventured. I would have to experiment and see if she could use her mapping abilities on her surroundings if she was stored in my inner sea.

Theoretically, it should work.

I didn’t understand how a physical being could be transported and stored inside an astral space in the first place, but Storm was able to come and go as she pleased now. Her ability to access that astral space might mean that she had the same ability to act from inside as I did.

We both had Dharmic bodies that resided within my inner world. My use of Dharmic abilities and spells originated from that Dharmic body. If I could actualize my Dharmic abilities and have them impact the physical world, then Storm should be able to, also. She might even be able to enter the torc with her physical body and allow her Dharmic to take over the mapping function while she rested.

Even without the sound effects, the elementals were making when speaking, I wouldn’t be able to understand what they were saying. Their language was simply too alien. I was hoping Shade would come. As a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, his perception and mental influence might be high enough for him to grasp the meaning behind the sounds the elementals were making.

If not, we would have to find a way to bridge the gap between species, an enchantment or runic trinket that could translate what we were saying into something the elementals could understand, but it should be possible. Our people had used similar items to open and maintain a dialog with some of the more powerful beasts, those not so lost to instinct and rage that they couldn’t be reasoned with. The enchanted trinkets we used to communicate with the Hindel should be able to be modified.

The longer I observed, the more interesting the elementals became. What I had taken for a loose scattering of stones, turned out to be a nursery, as I discovered when a pair of larger elementals came close and the loose stones gained cohesion and stacked, forming into miniature elementals.

They were cute, each looking like a BB-8, the bottom stone providing movement as it rolled allowing the young to cluster and follow the adults like a flock of baby ducks. The young elementals were only able to stack two stones, but they had complete control of both stones. Their ability to keep their heads perfectly centered as the bottom stone moved was only made possible because of the Qi control even the youngest had mastered.

As I focused more of my perception on one of the smallest elementals, I was able to detect their core and the channels etched throughout the individual's body to allow Qi to flow. The addition of these enhancements was so similar to my own Dantian and meridian channels that I could only extrapolate that their young were born or created with the ability to cultivate.

I wasn’t certain how the elemental young were propagated. I could think of two methods, one where an elemental grew a type of stone seed that chipped off and gained sentience, the other where a type of cloning occurred, and a developed core and channel were copied into the stone giving life with an infusion of Qi.

Whatever method was used, it was obvious family groups existed. The larger two elementals that had arrived were acting as parents and guardians, and the flock of young elementals were happy to have bonded with the adult pair.

The area the young had been resting in was full of crushed rock of differing types. Bridgmanite was the most abundant, which was hard to believe. The mineral, while the most abundant on Shijie, was only found deep within the planet, part of the inner mantle.

It was possible the rift opened into a world with different properties but examining the cave and tunnels, I was beginning to believe the elementals had access to those deeper mantel layers. And they had gained access by digging those tunnels themselves.

I wondered if the type of elemental would change the closer the creatures got to the planet's core where gravity and heat would rise exponentially. I could envision fire and magma elementals evolving and prospering the lower one traveled.