"Enough of your kowtowing," Celistar, who had appeared in front of me, said to the Sect Master. So that's what that was called. I felt like I should have known that… or did know that? It was very confusing.

The resident Moon Fairy had jumped to my defense against the Sect Master, who apparently had a really short temper and a very fragile ego. Both of which he knew better than to display in front of her, as she was evidently the 'Ancient One' that the various disciples would invoke as a sort of blessing, as I'd heard being one several times prior.

Celistar turned to me, and I expected her to have some negative words for me, but instead she gave me a deep and sincere bow.

"This one acknowledges the debt she owes you, Benefactor, for all you have done." she said, using the weird illeism that seemed common around here. The Sect Master's eyes about fell out of his head, and he put his forehead to the ground again. As did everyone else still present in the Grand Hall. I'd have felt flattered, but the whole thing made me want to crawl out of my skin and go and find István to stuff in the husk of it, since he'd be better suited for managing this whole thing.

"A favor returned through your guidance in saving my people," I said, returning the bow, but not as deeply, as I felt as though I shouldn't be as deferent as Celistar was, for some reason.

Celistar's eyes glimmered as she looked at me. She turned around to face the Sect Master again. "Péng Fēng, how is it that you can both Exalt the bird and simultaneously ignore how obviously entranced it is with your new guest? Being in the Circle doesn't mean the space between your ears should be comprised of only wind. I'm pretty sure I've taught you at least that much."

As someone with more than a little sass myself, game could only recognize game at this point as Celistar tore into the man verbally. I raised a sleeve to cover my grin in a very obvious fashion, and even Steeve joined in with a kee kee kee that was the most laugher-sounding noise I'd heard her make yet.

And that was saying something considering how most of her noises sounded. Little goof even raised her paw in front of her snoot, just to drive the point home.

Celistar finally had enough, and turned back to me. "Come, Benefactor, we have much to catch up on."

No hint exaggeration there, that's for sure.

Celistar had led us into the room bird-Char had been using.

Turns out it had a name, Yuèyīng, that it had given itself. It couldn't tell anyone that though, so I only learned it once Celistar told me.

We were waiting for refreshments to arrive so we could have a private conversation, as the the sect disciples insisted that their 'Ancient One' receive – at the minimum – something to 'soothe her throat', presumably due to having to use her voice so much to lambast the Sect Master.

It took me a few moments upon hearing this to realize that it was actually a form of slight against him. It was clear now that he wasn't very popular. Taking a sip of the offered tea, Celistar gave a gentle wave to exclude everyone from the room, and then the door shut.

Snapping her fingers, I felt the space change as she 'locked' it up somehow. She turned back to me, staring into my eyes, and suddenly everything went dark.

I was momentarily alarmed, before I realized that she'd drawn us both into my soul space. There were even more Motes here than last time. It was starting to feel vaguely crowded. For her part, Celistar seemed noticeably more relaxed here.

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"From what I can gather, Péng Fēng got his position due to his cultivation," Celistar started out with, before I could even ask her about the whole soul thing. It made me wonder if the look of disgust on my face from before was enough to read my mind. Then I remembered all the things I 'knew' but shouldn't have and something clicked.

"Were you helping me with the whole 'Venerable One' thing?"

Celistar took set the tea cup she'd somehow brought in here down on her knee and put a finger on her chin, bracing her elbow with the other arm. Her thinking pose was adorable. It was times like this when I recalled just how much of a spirit she really was. My brain brought out the good ol' Celistar wings and mentally attached them to her back. There, that was the perfect picture of cuteness.

I was startled dozens of Motes rushed towards her, disturbing her thoughts as she looked around startled, before a pair of dazzling gossamer wings burst into being on her back, their appearance causing ripples to go throughout the space. I just stared.

"Oops," I said. "Sorry about that."

She looked at them, fluttering their thin, iridescent width gently, as if testing them. "Not bad…" she commented with a little 'meh' movement of her mouth.

"As you can see," she said, carrying on like someone had gifted her a scarf, "We're intrinsically tied, just like you are with the fox and the bird." She pointed up, and for the first time I realized that Steeve was chasing Yuèyīng across sky like a dog chasing a ball. The bird seemed very confused that the fox was running upside down behind her as she flapped her wings to escape, occasionally jumping short distances in bursts of flame. Not that this stopped Steeve, as she'd just teleport before the phoenix even reappeared, closing the distance each time.

Poor thing, you can't outfox the fox.

I looked back at Celistar as she continued: "So, yes, I was feeding you what I knew about the culture here though your soul. Just bits and pieces, as you needed them. Along with a little nudge here and there to your phrasing."

"Why not just join me then?" I asked about the bit that gave me the most consternation.

"Despite how it looked, I can't stay out there or really do a ton at the moment. I gave up something important and intrinsic to myself in order to come meet you where I did, in that cave."

"So why not just come with me when I left?"

"That… wasn't really possible." Celistar said, "I would have preferred it, for what it's worth." She somehow looked… wistful?

"Why come at all?" I asked, cognizant that I might step on her toes a little by questioning her judgement in this way. It was clear that she knew more about all of this than I did.

"What befell your world isn't unique, and a similar fate awaited mine." She said. "It had been abandoned and was doomed to fall into ruin."

"How did you know?" I asked, curious what I had missed in our world.

Celistar resumed her thinking pose, and damn, those wings really did help the cuteness. I inwardly patted myself on the back for making them… however the hell it was I did that.

"There are signs, stagnation. It's not really something we can discuss in depth right now, at your cultivation."

There it was again.

"So, this cultivation thing. What is it?"

"It's a form of continual self-improvement," she explained, "The way it worked in your world and this one differ, but in general, there are stages you obtain. Here we have them all done up with fancy names and rigid methodologies to obtain them, but suffice to say you'd be on the third of those or so. Someone like the 'Sect Master' would be on the fifth.

"So he really was going to swat me like a fly just then, wasn't he."

Celistar giggled at my phrasing. I'd missed that light and airy sound, I now realized. It healed the heart, somehow, to hear her happy. Hopefully I could hear it more in the future.

"Well, no," she explained, once she'd calmed herself. "If you were a normal disciple of the sect, a normal cultivator, that would definitely be the case. I know I've explained it before, but you have far more 'Nebula' than anyone should at your apparent cultivation. Your Core shouldn't even normally be condensed at this level, and yet you somehow have both an immense Soul Sea and a Core, two things that aren't traditionally compatible. You somehow formed Streams after forming a Soul Sea, which is backwards to how it works here. Your companions are also unusual. They both have Motes, and the inklings of a Core, but no Soul Sea to speak of. I'm honestly a little worried for them."

She paused, thinking again. Her stating she was 'worried' about István and Viktor made me worried in turn. We'd probably want to work that out.

"And," she pointed to the wings on her back, "You have the beginnings of Actualization. That's a feature of realms far higher than your own. You did all of this while hosting not just one, but multiple companion spirits without any apparent issue or drain."

"So," I said, my head spinning from all the new terminology, "What you're saying is that I'm really weird."

"Yes," she said, giggling again, "Really weird."

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