Location: Starforge Nexus - Green's Garden Sanctuary | Luminari Artifact Dimensional Fold
Time: Post-Integration Discovery (Twelve Hours After Unsealing)
Jayde woke to silence.
Not the empty kind. The full kind—air thick with growing things, earth scent, and something that tasted vaguely like spring rain on her tongue.
Her head didn't hurt anymore. The golden text wasn't flooding her vision. Just gentle morning light—artificial, probably, but warm enough to feel real—filtering through what looked like...
(Are those trees? Inside the Pavilion?)
Dimensional pocket within a dimensional pocket. Nested reality. Interesting.
Jayde sat up carefully. The recovery bed was gone. Instead, she was lying on soft moss that glowed faintly blue-white, surrounded by vegetation that absolutely shouldn't exist in the same space. Ashwood trees with bark that smoldered gently. Crystalline ferns that chimed when wind—where was the wind coming from?—brushed through them. Flowers in colors that didn't have names, petals shifting between essences like they couldn't decide which reality to belong to.
"You're awake." Green's voice came from deeper in the garden. "Good. Come."
Not a request.
Jayde stood, bare feet sinking into moss that was somehow exactly body temperature. She wore a simple green robe—when had someone changed her clothes?—that felt like wearing water, cool and flowing against her skin.
Environmental scan: Unknown location. Multiple essence signatures are present simultaneously. No immediate threats detected.
(This is beautiful.) Jade's voice was soft with wonder. (I didn't know places like this existed.)
The garden stretched further than the Pavilion's dimensions should've allowed. Paths wound between plants that belonged to different worlds, different realms even. Torrent-aspected water lilies blooming next to Inferno-touched dragon grass. Verdant growth spiraling up Terracore stone pillars. Metallurge-infused soil supporting Galebreath wind-chimes that sang without touching.
Green stood at the garden's heart, beside a pond that reflected wrong—showed stars instead of sky, depths instead of surface.
She looked different here. Less harsh. The tyrannical perfectionist replaced by something older. Sadder. More human despite the Luminari artifact nature.
"This is my sanctuary," Green said softly. Her fractured emerald eyes tracked Jayde's approach. "The only place in the Pavilion where I'm allowed to keep remnants of what I was."
Past tense. Interesting.
"What you were?" Jayde stopped beside the pond. The reflection showed her standing alone—Green cast no image in the water. "Isha said you were a trainer. That you specialized in magical studies."
"I specialize in many things." Green knelt, trailed fingers through the pond. Where she touched, the water shifted essences—Radiance to Voidshadow to Torrent. "I was also, once, a Sovereign-tier cultivator. What your world would call Apexblight, nearly touching Eternalpyre."
Silence.
(That's... that's really high.) Jade's voice was awed. (Only hidden clan patriarchs and realm kings reach those tiers.)
And she gave it up. Or lost it. Hence, the past tense.
"I came from a realm not unlike Doha," Green continued. Her voice had gone distant. "We had the Emberforge Path, too. Sacrifice-based cultivation. I was... exceptional at it." Her laugh was bitter. "Do you know how many Aspects I burned to reach Sovereign-tier? How many memories I sacrificed? Emotions I erased?"
She looked up, met Jayde's eyes.
"All of them. Every soft thing. Every warm moment. Every piece of humanity that might've slowed my advancement." Green's hand clenched in the water. "By the time I reached near-godhood, I was powerful enough to reshape continents. And empty enough that I didn't care whether I did."
The garden seemed to hold its breath.
"My realm faced corruption. Voidshadow entities from beyond the dimensional barriers, consuming everything they touched. I was strong enough to fight them." Green's voice cracked. "But I'd burned away compassion. Empathy. The ability to care whether anyone else survived."
She stood, turned away from the pond.
"So I made a choice. The first real choice I'd made in centuries." Her shoulders were rigid. "I sacrificed my power. Not for more strength—for purpose. Burned away the cultivation tiers I'd spent millennia building. Reduced myself to barely above mortal. Used that energy to seal the corruption and save my realm."
Strategic resource reallocation. Noble, but tactically devastating.
(You gave up godhood to save people who probably never knew you existed.)
"Yes." Green's smile was sad. "And then I volunteered to serve the Luminari Artifact. To teach others. To try—probably futilely—to show contractors that power without purpose is just destruction wearing a prettier face."
Jayde processed that. "You think I can walk this path without becoming what you were."
"I think you have something I didn't." Green turned back, her fractured eyes intense. "You have two souls. Two perspectives. The Federation soldier who learned to sacrifice for others, and the child who remembers what it feels like to be powerless." She stepped closer. "That duality might save you. If you're smart. If you're careful."
"The Tome showed me—" Jayde's voice wavered. "It showed me I'd have to burn my mother's smile. Or Zhek's protection. Or—"
"The Tome showed you the standard path." Green's interruption was sharp. "The way most cultivators advance. But the Emberforge Path isn't inherently evil. It's a tool. How you use it determines whether you become a monster or a master."
She gestured at the garden.
"Every plant here came from different essence cultivation. I grew them using an alternative sacrifice methodology. Burning trauma instead of joy. Hate instead of love. Pain transformed into power, not happiness destroyed for strength."
(Wait—you can do that?)
If true, this changes the equation completely.
"Show me," Jayde said.
***
Green led her deeper into the garden, to a clearing where essence flows were visible—streams of colored light winding between trees like rivers in the air.
"Sit," Green commanded. She settled cross-legged on the moss. Jayde mirrored her position.
"The Emberforge Path requires Aspect sacrifice," Green began. Her voice had shifted to lecture mode—clinical, precise. "But which Aspects you burn is your choice. The system suggests burning precious things because they hold strong emotional weight. More weight means more energy release."
She traced a pattern in the air. Qi responded, forming glowing diagrams.
"But trauma also carries weight. Resentment. Hatred. Pain. These emotions are anchors—heavy, draining, taking up space in your core that could be used for cultivation." Her hand clenched, and the diagram pulsed. "What if, instead of destroying your few good memories, you burned away the ones that poison you?"
Tactical assessment: Convert liability to asset. Use emotional baggage as fuel.
(But wouldn't that change who we are? Make us forget why we're fighting?)
"No." Green's voice was firm. "You're not burning the knowledge. You're burning the emotional weight. The resentment, the hatred, the trauma response. You'll remember intellectually what happened—you just won't carry the poison anymore."
She looked at Jayde directly.
"You'll remember Saphira hurt you. You won't feel the hatred anymore. You'll remember the slave pits. You won't wake up shaking. You'll remember your mother's execution. But the grief won't cripple you." Green's smile was sad. "Freedom from pain isn't the same as forgetting the lesson."
Jayde's hands were shaking. "And this works? You've done this?"
"How do you think I function after burning away all my soft memories?" Green gestured at herself. "I used this methodology to reconstruct basic empathy. Burned away the callousness I'd cultivated, the sociopathy I'd developed. Reclaimed enough humanity to care about teaching."
She leaned forward.
"It's not perfect. It's not easy. And it's slow—you can't rush burning major traumas without risking Ash Hollow transformation. But it's possible. An ethical path through a system designed to make you inhuman."
Risk assessment: Unknown methodology. Higher failure rate. But maintains core identity.
(Can we really do this? Actually walk this path without becoming monsters?)
"We have to try," Jayde said out loud. "Because the alternative is..."
"Becoming me," Green finished. "As I was. Powerful and empty. Strong and soulless."
She stood, offering a hand.
"Let's begin."
***
The process was nothing like Jayde expected.
Green guided her through meditation—not the harsh, demanding style White used, but something gentler. Breathing in sync with the garden's pulse. Feeling essence flows in the air around them. Finding the new warmth in her Crucible Core, where Inferno now burned after the unsealing.
Ember Qi cycling through meridians. Unusual sensation. Not unpleasant. Heat spreading from core to limbs.
(It feels alive. Like there's fire inside us.)
"There is," Green said. She was sitting close enough that Jayde could feel the cool Qi radiating from her—Radiance essence, refined and controlled. "Your first lock is open. Inferno essence can flow now. Your Crucible Core is no longer dormant."
She placed a hand on Jayde's chest, just above the core's location.
"Now feel deeper. Past the warmth. Into the Aspects tangled around your core like thorns." Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Every trauma. Every resentment. Every moment of pain you've carried. They're there—visible to cultivators who know how to look."
Jayde focused inward.
And saw.
Gods, she saw.
Her Crucible Core was a small sun, glowing red-gold with newly-accessed Inferno essence. But around it—wrapped through it like poisoned vines—were darker things. Shadows. Weights. Emotional scars given form in the cultivation space of her mind.
Saphira's cruelty, heavy and black.
The slave pit guards' casual violence, thorned and barbed.
Za'thul's rejection, cold as ice, despite being her father.
Her mother's execution, a bleeding wound that never quite healed.
Lawrence's betrayal in the Federation, ancient and festering.
(There's so much.) Jade's voice was small. (How do we even start?)
"Small," Green said firmly. "We start small. Choose one Aspect. One memory. One piece of trauma that you're ready to release."
Tactical analysis: Start with a manageable target. Build proficiency before attempting major burns.
Jayde sorted through the thorned shadows. Found one that was sharp but not overwhelming—
Saphira's laughter.
Specifically: the day Saphira and Edvard had cornered her in the training yard, when Jade was twelve. They'd pushed her into the mud. Saphira had laughed—high and cruel—while Jade lay there, bruised and filthy and too weak to fight back.
That laugh haunted her. Echoed in nightmares. Made her flinch at sudden sounds.
"This one," Jayde said. Her voice was steady. "I want to burn this."
Green's eyes widened. "You're certain? It's a recent trauma. Strong emotional connection. The burning will hurt."
"Everything hurts." Jayde met her gaze. "At least this way, the hurt means something."
"Very well." Green shifted position, one hand still on Jayde's chest. "I'll guide you. Follow my instructions exactly. If you feel like you're losing control—if the burn spreads beyond the target memory—you stop immediately. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Then begin."
***
The process was fire.
Green's voice narrated each step—isolate the Aspect, pull it free from the tangle, draw it toward the Crucible Core—while Jayde's consciousness did the actual work.
Isolating target memory. Emotional weight is significant. Preparing for extraction.
(It doesn't want to let go. It's part of us.)
"All the more reason to burn it," Green said. "You're not your trauma. You're who you choose to be."
Jayde pulled the shadow-memory toward her core. It resisted. Dug barbs deeper. Saphira's laughter echoed through her mind, trying to make her relive it, trying to keep its hooks in her psyche—
Override emotional response. This is voluntary. We choose this.
The memory touched the Inferno essence in her core.
And burned.
Pain. Sharp. White-hot. Like someone was carving out a piece of her soul with a heated blade.
(It hurts it hurts it HURTS—)
Hold position. Do not abort. Pain is temporary. Freedom is permanent.
The memory dissolved. Piece by piece. Saphira's cruel laughter becoming ash. The emotional weight of humiliation burning away like morning fog in sunlight. The barbs that had hooked into Jade's psyche withering, crumbling, gone.
What remained was knowledge.
Cold. Clinical. Undeniable.
Saphira cornered us in the training yard. She pushed us into the mud. She laughed. This behavior indicates insecurity masked by cruelty. Tactical assessment: She's dangerous but predictable.
No hatred. No fear. No flinching at the memory.
Just... understanding.
And something else.
Power.
The burned Aspect became essence—raw, potent, surging through her meridians. Her Crucible Core pulsed, expanding fractionally. Inferno essence blazed brighter.
[ASPECT SACRIFICE COMPLETE]
[TRAUMA BURNED: SAPHIRA'S CRUELTY (MINOR)]
[ESSENCE GAINED: +1.2 INFERNO]
[EMOTIONAL WEIGHT RELEASED]
[CULTIVATION ADVANCEMENT DETECTED...]
[ASHBORN → SPARKFORGED (EARLY STAGE)]
[CONGRATULATIONS: FIRST TIER ADVANCEMENT]
Golden text scrolled across her vision—gentler this time, less overwhelming. Jayde gasped as the advancement settled into her body. Strength flowing into muscles. Enhanced perception sharpening her senses. The world becoming slightly more real, more tangible, like she'd been viewing it through fog before.
"Well done." Green's voice held genuine pride. "Your first cultivation tier. Earned through ethical sacrifice."
Jayde opened her eyes.
The garden looked different. Brighter. More detailed. She could see individual essence flows now—thin streams of colored light she'd only vaguely perceived before. Could feel the pulse of life in every plant. Could sense Green's Radiance essence like a cool star beside Jayde's burning sun.
Enhanced perception confirmed. Cultivation successful. No adverse effects detected.
(We did it.) Jade's voice was amazed. (We actually did it.)
"One Aspect burned," Green said. She removed her hand from Jayde's chest. "Ten thousand more to go."
Jayde blinked. "Ten thousand?"
"Give or take." Green's smile was wry. "You're carrying sixty years of Federation trauma plus fifteen years of Doha suffering. That's a lot of poisoned memories. Which means—" She gestured at the garden. "—you have a lot of fuel for ethical cultivation."
Strategic advantage identified. Trauma becomes a resource rather than a liability.
"How long will this take?"
"One year," Green said firmly. "Inside the Pavilion's time dilation, that's only sixty-one days external. Two months in Doha while you spend a full year here, carefully reconstructing your Crucible Core and burning trauma piece by piece."
She stood, brushing moss from her robes.
"Daily schedule: Four hours morning cultivation with me. Four hours of evening cultivation. Four hours of study—Tome knowledge accessed in small, controlled doses. Four hours of physical maintenance—you'll still train with White periodically. Eight hours of sleep. Four hours of personal time."
Twenty-four-hour cycle. Sustainable. No rest days mentioned.
"What about rest?" Jayde asked.
"Personal time." Green's expression was flat. "Rest when you're dead. Right now, you need to stabilize that core before attempting more complex techniques."
She began walking deeper into the garden. Jayde followed.
"Months one through three," Green continued, "core stabilization and basic circulation. You'll learn to cycle Ember Qi without strain. To maintain Inferno essence without burning yourself out. To burn small traumas safely."
They passed a grove of trees that sang—actual melodic tones when the wind touched their leaves.
"Months four through six, we advance your Inferno techniques. Sparkcasting mastery. Basic Runeinfusion. Understanding essence manipulation beyond just 'make fire appear.' You'll learn precision."
Tactical applications. Combat utility. Finally.
"Months seven through nine, we prepare your body for the second lock. Torrent essence requires emotional control and fluid adaptability. Very different from Inferno's straightforward power. The preparation is... extensive."
(What does Torrent feel like?)
"Like drowning," Green said. "But in a good way."
They emerged in another clearing, this one dominated by a massive tree whose trunk was made of crystallized essence—all eight types spiraling together in perfect harmony.
"Months ten through twelve," Green finished, "consolidation and combat integration. You'll learn to use your power in real scenarios. White will test you. Isha will evaluate your progress. And if you've done well—if you're stable enough—we'll discuss the Dark Forest."
She looked back at Jayde.
"White built your body. I'll forge your spirit. But the Dark Forest will test your soul."
Field experience. Practical application. Environmental challenges.
"That's where you'll prove whether this ethical path actually works," Green said. "Theory is easy. Practice is where most fail."
She gestured at the crystallized tree.
"This is what you're working toward. Mastery of all eight essences. Perfect balance. Power without becoming a monster." Her fractured emerald eyes held something that might've been hope. "You have a chance, Jayde. A real chance. Don't waste it."
Jayde looked at the tree. At the impossible beauty of eight essences existing in harmony. At what she could become if she walked this path carefully.
One year. Twelve months. Three hundred sixty-five days of ethical cultivation.
(We can do this,) Jade said. Her voice was stronger now. Certain. (We're survivors. We've already done impossible things.)
Agreed. Mission parameters updated: Become strong without losing humanity.
"When do we start?" Jayde asked.
Green's smile was sharp and approving.
"We already have."