An incredible carpet of stars adorned the night sky over my head. There had to have been millions of them, all sparkling as though urging me to hear their stories.

Don't worry, little star, I thought, looking at a twinkling silver one that seemed particularly interested in being heard, I'll get there.

I definitely intended to as well. Hopefully I'd get to all of them, someday, and hear their stories. It seemed like there were too many for one lifetime, though, and even as I watched new ones would appear, and others would wink out.

But before I could get to that twinkling little star, I needed to figure out what was going on.

I was laying in an endless plane of water. It seemed to be more buoyant than normal water, and more than half of me floated up out of it. I got a vague feeling I could walk on it if I really desired to, but I was very tired.

Which was annoying impediment because I could tell that I had a lot to do. The moon representing my core had vanished, likely broken up into all these little stars. All the Motes had disappeared, which was a little concerning, to be sure.

A light panic was gripping my chest, although not too tightly. Probably a lack of handholds. That, and I was fairly certain I hadn't lost my power. Good ol' vibe check seemed to think it was still there, so it probably was. I couldn't access it though.

So either the rules changed or there was something special about the experience I was having that precluded it.

Taking stock, I still had the liquid of dubious providence at my back, the aggressively winking stars up above, and at least air to breath. No reason to get so wound up then.

You know what would be really nice though? A snack. I was fairly hungry. Maybe a piece of Gran's cream cheese pie. Probably not any good for me, but delicious enough to make up for its nutritional emptiness.

No sooner had I thought about it, then it appeared in the air about an arm's length in front of my face. I was utterly unprepared for magical desert, so it fell straight down to lightly clonk me in the face, decorating it with some crumbs and a dollop of the filling before tumbling off into the water surrounding me with a light and refreshing splash.

I lifted a hand and grabbed the filling, licking it off of my finger. It came clean pretty easily, so I didn't have to do much else other than roll over to allow all of the crumbs to fall away as well. What was weird is that the water didn't feel like water so much as it behaved like it. On my skin it felt closer to a refreshing breeze with a little more weight to it than normal. Hopefully this didn't do any damage to my ability to swim in it should the need arise.

For now though, the cheesecake had given me an idea. Well, the cake and Steeve, who similarly poofed various items into existence.

This was my soul, right? I should have at least that power - meaning I could construct whatever I wanted in here so long as I could visualize it. I mean, I'd done something similar in the real world just now, so how hard could it be?

Turns out, pretty hard. Especially when I didn't have my Nebula to brute force the approach for me. I was hoping to make an ice cream machine. We'd once been somewhere that had the magical confectionary maker and I'd always pined for that flavor ever since. Hadn't been back though. It was utter unobtanium without my fathers not-insignificant salary.

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Back then, we'd also had a better house, et cetera. I wasn't saying that treats like that were common - far from it - but rather that they weren't always out of reach.

I took some calming breaths, bringing my focus back to the matter at hand. Even without the Nebula, the breathing seemed to help out.

I'm guessing whatever my soul wanted from me, it probably wasn't delicious treats. Apparently my soul was a heathen, or something. Who doesn't like delicious treats?

Staring at the sky again, I noticed that the stars weren't exactly random. There was a sort of gradient from one side of the observable area to the other. A bit of organized subtlety among the stars that gave me an idea.

You see, there was a rough order to the stars, in that the colors seemed to come in bands across the breadth of the view. It was that sort sensible chaos that gave me an idea for what to do. I couldn't just warp everything into existence at the snap of my fingers - instead I had to give things a reason for existence.

I started with the water itself, populating it with tadpoles. As if to indicate I was on the right track, they burst into being as eggs, clustered up around various nodes. Nodes I quickly converted into lily pads, given the eggs both an anchor and a focal point beneath the white flower.

Next came some fish, gliding into being in a variety of colors I weren't sure existed outside of this space. Not that it mattered - this was what I wanted to see, not what reality had in store.

The water boiled in several places as roughly shaped black stones broke the surface, slowly pushing up out of the surface in a somehow majestic spray of foam. I'd created many different kinds, and each had its own flair to it, with no two repeating. They were just close enough that you could hop across them if you really wanted to.

Well, if you wanted to and you were a cultivator. I doubted a mundane person was going to make some of the longer ones unless they had a certain level of skill in acrobatics.

Shortly thereafter, winding trails made of marble popped up, flanked on each side by both trees and sand. It was as though someone had taken a brush and drawn a very strange island chain without once lifting it from it from the paper.

The trees were joined by dense a dense undergrowth of flowers and large-leaved bushes, given the whole thing an interesting vibe. I wasn't sure where the visualization came from, I was just applying what was in my head the second it popped into it. It was like this area was made for my method of 'creative task handling':

No think, just do!

I kept on this way, drawing out a veritable maze of paths, as well as adding more and more flora and fauna to my internal diorama, not once stopping even as what felt like hours stretched into what felt like days.

And then it was done. Well, almost. I held up a hand to create a final centerpiece. I then stepped back to admire my work.

There. Done!

As I finished, I looked up and was surprised to see that the sky was falling. Well maybe not literally, but hundreds of stars had started descending, which was a little nerve-wracking if I do say so myself.

It was as though most of the sky was descending towards me in anger.

I sure hope those aren't going to crush me.

I wash them fall, and they slowed upon getting closer, allowing me to realize that they were actually Motes! It turns out that most if not all of the 'stars' in the sky were Motes, and these had just been the boldest of those present - they were joining me first.

I held out my palm, and one of the falling Motes made a beeline forwards it, as if hurrying to fill me back up.

"Welcome, little one," I said to it, and it shook in response. I brought it over to a pool of water I'd created under a pavilion, thinking that it'd be a fun place to relax, almost like a bath. I didn't dare try to create a Qīwù clone to help me though - that was just too much.

As the first ones reached their positions, more floating downwards in a slow rain of lights. I looked up to the sky, and was startled to find that it looked the same - just a pure expanse of darkness with a bit of glitter scattered across it. It was just as beautiful as always.

With a thought, Steeve appeared. Even though my Nebula wasn't back, she didn't seem bothered in the slightest and had come the second I thought loudly enough about her.. I gave my number one soul companion some top-notch pats while she sighed, looking around with curious eyes.

Seems like I had really outdone myself this time.

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