Location: Starforge Nexus - Green's Garden Sanctuary | Luminari Artifact Dimensional Fold
Time: Month Two, Week Four (Day 68 of Training)
Green dismissed Jayde early from the workshop.
That alone was unusual. The petite trainer never cut sessions short—if anything, she extended them, demanding one more perfect formation, one more flawless ritual, one more hour of sustained essence channeling until Jayde's Crucible Core felt wrung dry.
But today, after only two hours of Forgeweaving practice—
"Enough," Green said. "Clean up your workspace. Meet me in the garden sanctuary in ten minutes."
Deviation from training schedule. Significance: Unknown. Recommend compliance and observation.
(Did we mess something up?) Jade asked nervously. (The barrier formation held for forty-three minutes this time—)
"You did fine," Green said, already heading for the exit. "This is about something else. Something more important than ritual mechanics."
The door closed behind her.
Jayde cleaned her workspace methodically—chalk residue swept into bins, essence shards returned to storage, tools organized on their racks. The workshop returned to its pristine state, ready for tomorrow's practice.
Ten minutes. Move.
***
The garden sanctuary felt different today.
The crystallized essence tree glowed softly overhead, but Green had cleared the moss in the center, creating a perfect circle of bare earth. No chalk formations. No ritual materials. Just empty space and the trainer sitting cross-legged at its center.
"Sit," Green said. She gestured to the spot across from her, maintaining her usual careful distance. "We need to talk about something you've been ignoring."
Ominous opening. Prepare for a difficult conversation.
Jayde sat, legs crossed, hands on knees. "What did I—"
"You didn't do anything wrong," Green interrupted. "Your Forgeweaving progress is adequate. Better than adequate, actually—most contractors struggle to maintain barrier formations beyond twenty minutes in their first week. You're already at forty-three."
(Then what's wrong?)
"What's wrong," Green said, her fractured emerald eyes serious, "is that you're approaching a wall. Not a physical one. Not a magical one. A psychological one."
She leaned forward slightly.
"Tell me: Yesterday, when your formation collapsed at forty-three minutes, what happened?"
Jayde thought back. The barrier had been holding steady, essence flowing smoothly through the ritual pattern, then—
"My concentration broke," she admitted. "I was maintaining the channeling, tracking the essence flow, monitoring the formation stability, and then I heard leather creak—just White training in the arena above—and I flinched. Lost focus. Formation collapsed."
Conditioned trauma response. Leather sound triggered slave pit memories. Caused tactical failure.
"Exactly," Green said. "You flinched at a sound. Not because it was actually dangerous. Not because White was coming for you. But because ten years of conditioning taught your body that leather sounds mean pain."
She gestured at the empty space between them.
"That's going to kill you in the Dark Forest. Not your lack of physical strength—White's fixed that. Not your magical knowledge—I'm fixing that. But psychological triggers. Trauma responses. The moments when your past hijacks your present and makes you freeze, flinch, or flee when you should be fighting."
Tactical vulnerability identified. Requires remediation.
(She's right,) Jade whispered. (We flinch all the time. At raised voices. At sudden movements. At—)
"At everything that reminds you of the pits," Green finished, apparently reading Jayde's expression. "Which is a lot of things. And in real combat, you don't get second chances when trauma makes you hesitate."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Jayde asked. "I'm trying to override it. Sixty years of combat experience, tactical discipline, Federation training—and this body just doesn't listen."
Frustration evident. Adult consciousness is unable to override child-body's conditioning. Tactical failure.
(I'm sorry,) Jade whispered. (It's my fault. My body keeps—)
"No," Jayde said firmly, aloud. "It's not your fault. You survived ten years of hell. Your body learned to flinch because flinching kept you alive. That's not weakness—that's successful adaptation to impossible circumstances."
Correct assessment. Trauma conditioning served a survival function. Now obsolete but deeply rooted.
(But now it's making us fail. Making you fail. You wouldn't flinch if—)
"If I had my own body, I still wouldn't be here," Jayde interrupted, voice gentler. "I'd be dead. Antimatter vapor. You gave me a second chance. Your body's reactions aren't a flaw—they're just... outdated programming. That's what we're here to fix."
Green watched this internal dialogue play out with clinical interest. "Fascinating. The adult consciousness is trying to override childhood conditioning while the child consciousness takes responsibility for involuntary responses." She shook her head. "You're both wrong. And both right."
She stood, pacing slowly around the cleared circle.
"Jayde—you can't just 'override' ten years of neurological conditioning through willpower alone. The flinch response is hardwired into this body's nervous system. Trying to suppress it consciously just wastes mental energy. That's why your Forgeweaving concentration breaks—you're fighting two battles simultaneously."
Accurate diagnosis. Cannot maintain ritual focus while actively suppressing trauma responses.
"And Jade—" Green's voice softened fractionally. "—you're not 'making' anyone fail. Your survival adaptations were correct for the environment that created them. The problem isn't the adaptations. It's that the environment changed, but the body hasn't caught up yet."
(So what do we do?)
"We heal," Green said simply. "Not through suppression. Not through willpower. Through systematic trauma processing. Burning the Aspects that created those conditioned responses in the first place."
She sat back down.
"Forgeweaving requires sustained concentration. Forty minutes. An hour. Sometimes hours of continuous focus while maintaining complex essence patterns. You can't do that if you're using half your mental capacity to actively suppress flinch responses. You need those reactions gone—not controlled, not managed, but eliminated."
Correlation: Mental stability directly impacts cultivation capability. Psychological fortitude is not optional—it's fundamental.
"More than that," Green continued, "advanced cultivation pushes your mind as hard as your body. When you unlock your second essence, the Lock will test you. When you face Vanguard-tier beasts, they'll exploit fear. When you attempt a breakthrough to higher tiers, you'll confront every failure, every weakness, every moment you want to run—and if your psychological foundation is unstable, you'll fail."
She stopped pacing, met Jayde's eyes directly.
"Physical training builds your body. Magical training builds your power. But mental fortitude training builds your foundation. And foundations matter more than anything else. A weak foundation collapses under pressure, no matter how much power you stack on top of it."
(She's saying we need to be brave?)
She's saying we need to be stable. Brave is irrelevant. Functional under stress is critical.
"I'm saying," Green said, "that starting today, we split your training. Four hours of Forgeweaving in the mornings—you still need to master ritual mechanics. But four hours of psychological conditioning in the afternoons. Systematic trauma processing. Burning the Aspects that make you vulnerable."
She sat back down.
"You've burned minor irritations before. Saphira's cruelty. Small resentments. Surface wounds. But you've been avoiding the deep traumas. The slave pit memories. The helplessness. The shame. The terror that lives in your spine and makes you flinch at leather sounds."
Major Aspect sacrifice proposed. High-risk, high-reward. Required for advancement.
"We go after those now," Green said. "Not all at once—that would shatter you. But systematically. One major trauma per session. Burning them, processing them, transforming that accumulated suffering into cultivation power while eliminating the psychological vulnerabilities."
(That sounds... really painful.)
"It will be," Green said flatly. "Worse than anything White's done to you. He breaks your body—painful but recoverable. This breaks your psyche—painful and permanent. Once you burn a trauma, it's gone forever. You'll remember the events intellectually, but the emotional weight disappears. The fear, the shame, the helplessness—all of it burns away."
She traced patterns in the bare earth.
"Some cultivators argue we need our traumas. That pain makes us careful. That fear keeps us alive. I disagree. Lessons from painful experiences are valuable. The suffering itself is not. You can remember that slave overseers are dangerous without flinching every time you hear leather. You can understand tactical caution without being paralyzed by fear."
Retains strategic information, removes emotional burden. Theoretically optimal.
"And the power gain?" Jayde asked quietly. "You said burning major traumas creates essence."
"Substantial essence," Green confirmed. "Minor irritations give you one or two points. Major traumas? Fifteen, twenty, sometimes thirty points of pure Inferno essence per burn. Enough to advance cultivation tiers. Enough to make you actually powerful instead of just competent."
She leaned back slightly.
"But that's not why we're doing this. We're doing it because a cultivator with unprocessed trauma is a liability. In the Dark Forest, in the clan territories, in any real combat situation—psychological triggers get you killed. And I didn't spend nearly ten weeks rebuilding your body just to watch you die because leather creaking made you freeze at the wrong moment."
Tactical assessment confirms the necessity. Psychological vulnerabilities must be eliminated.
(Are we ready for this?) Jade asked. (Going after the... the really bad memories?)
Unknown. But staying as we are guarantees failure. Attempting improvement at least provides an opportunity for success.
"I'm ready," Jayde said aloud. "What do I do?"
Green's expression softened fractionally—the closest thing to approval the demanding trainer ever showed.
"First, understand what you're choosing. These aren't just memories. They're pieces of your identity. Parts of who you think you are. Burning them changes you fundamentally. You'll still remember the slave pits, but they won't define you anymore. You'll be someone who survived hell, not someone still trapped in it."
She placed one hand over her own chest, above her Crucible Core.
"Second, understand that I guide verbally. No physical contact unless you specifically request it. You've made clear you don't like being touched—I respect that. But it means you do the heavy lifting yourself. I'll walk you through the process, but you extract the Aspects, you drag them to your Core, you feed them to the fire."
(That's... actually better. Don't want hands on us during this.)
"Third," Green continued, "understand that we work systematically. One trauma per session. Two sessions per week maximum—your psyche needs recovery time between major burns. Push too fast and you risk permanent damage. Mental cultivation requires patience."
Sustainable training pace. Acceptable parameters.
"And finally," Green said, her voice dropping, "understand that once we start, we don't stop until you've processed all the major traumas. All of them. Mother's execution. Lawrence's betrayal. The reading ceremony. Every slave pit memory that cuts you. We're not leaving wounds half-healed—that's more dangerous than leaving them alone. Commit to the full process or don't start at all."
Jayde considered.
Eight weeks of White's physical torture had transformed her body. Made her strong, fast, capable.
How long would it take to transform her mind?
Unknown duration. High difficulty. Guaranteed pain. But necessary. Current psychological state is tactically unacceptable.
(If we do this... we won't be afraid anymore?)
We'll always assess threats rationally. But we won't be paralyzed by fear. Won't flinch at shadows. Won't freeze when action is required.
"I commit," Jayde said. "Full process. However long it takes."
Green nodded once. Sharp, satisfied.
"Then we begin today. Close your eyes. Look inward. Find the shadows wrapped around your Core."
***
The interior space was familiar from daily meditation practice. Past the warmth of Inferno essence. Past the glow of her Ember Qi pool. Down into the tangled darkness where traumas lived like thorned vines.
The major ones were immediately visible—heavy, dense, bleeding shadow.
Cataloging significant Aspects:
The Execution (Mother's death)
Lawrence's Betrayal (Federation)
The Reading Ceremony (Age five)
The First Beating (Already burned in Chapter 41)
The Degradation (Verbal abuse, dehumanization)
The Helplessness (Watching others suffer)
Garek's Whip (Physical conditioning through pain)
Zhek's Death (Loss of protector)
And dozens more. So many more.
(They're all so big. So heavy.)
Affirmative. Significant psychological damage. Each representing formative trauma.
"Start with shame," Green's voice filtered through the meditation. "The degradation. Ten years of being called 'aberrant,' 'Voidforge filth,' 'less than human.' That conditioning runs deepest. Affects how you see yourself even now."
Target located. The Aspect was substantial—not as massive as Mother's execution, but large enough to matter. Initiating extraction protocol.
"Remember the mechanics," Green said. "You're not erasing memories. You're burning emotional weight. You'll still know what happened, still understand the tactical lessons. But the shame—the visceral, crushing shame that makes you feel worthless—that burns away."
(What if I need it? What if feeling ashamed kept me alive?)
"It didn't," Green said flatly. "Caution kept you alive. Awareness of danger. Tactical thinking. The shame just made you suffer more while surviving. Burned off, you'll still recognize verbal abuse as a control tactic—you just won't internalize it anymore."
Accurate assessment. Shame serves no tactical function. Eliminate it.
"Reach for the Aspect," Green commanded. "Wrap your will around it. Tell it you're ready to let go."
Jayde reached into the shadows.
Touched the thorned memory.
***
Memory flooded back.
Age eight. Morning lineup in the slave pits. Overseer Thrane inspecting the work detail.
His eyes stopping on her. That look—disgust mixed with contempt.
"Voidforge filth." Loud enough for everyone to hear. "Aberrant. Mistake of nature. You know what you are, girl?"
She'd learned not to answer. Answers got you beaten.
"You're nothing. Less than the rats in the walls. At least rats can reproduce. You?" Spitting near her feet. "You're the end of a bloodline. A genetic dead-end. Your mother died ashamed of what she birthed."
The other slaves watching. Some with pity. Most just grateful it wasn't them.
The shame burning in her chest. Hot. Choking. Making her want to disappear.
And this wasn't just once. This was every day. Every inspection. Every assignment. Different guards, same message:
You are worthless.
You are broken.
You are less than human.
Ten years of it. Sinking into her bones. Becoming truth.
***
"Now pull," Green commanded. "Draw it to your Core. This trauma is a liar. It doesn't protect you—it weakens you. Remove it."
Extraction proceeding. Emotional weight: Substantial. Maintain focus.
Jayde grabbed the shadow-memory. Pulled.
It resisted. Dug barbs deeper. Wanted to stay rooted, wanted to keep telling her she was worthless, wanted to—
(NO!) Jade screamed. Not in fear—in fury. (I'm not worthless! I'm not broken! I SURVIVED!)
Correct. Trauma is propaganda. Remove the foreign element.
She pulled harder.
The Aspect tore free—and gods, it hurt. Not physical pain. Psychological. Like ripping out a piece of her identity. But she dragged it toward her Core anyway. Toward the blazing Inferno essence.
The moment they touched—
BURN
***
The shame caught fire.
Actually burning, dissolving in flames that were part essence and part pure will. The memory remained—Overseer Thrane's face, the words, the spit—but the emotional weight?
Gone.
Burning away like morning fog. The words became just... words. Sounds without power. She could remember them intellectually, recognize them as verbal abuse designed to control, but they didn't hurt anymore.
Didn't make her feel small.
Her Crucible Core surged.
Ember Qi flooded in—created from the Aspect's destruction. Foundation expanding, strengthening.
[ASPECT SACRIFICE COMPLETE]
[TRAUMA BURNED: THE DEGRADATION (MAJOR)]
[ESSENCE GAINED: +12.4 INFERNO]
[EMOTIONAL WEIGHT RELEASED]
[NEW STAT CATEGORIES DETECTED...]
[MENTAL RESILIENCE UNLOCKED]
[WILLPOWER UNLOCKED]
[FOCUS UNLOCKED]
[EMOTIONAL STABILITY UNLOCKED]
[CULTIVATION ADVANCEMENT: FLAMEWROUGHT (MID STAGE)]
Golden text scrolled across her inner vision. New categories appearing.
Jayde opened her eyes.
The garden looked sharper. More detailed. But the internal change was more significant.
Psychological burden reduced approximately 40%. Mental processing efficiency increased. Core self-concept recalibrating...
(I don't feel ashamed anymore,) Jade said, wonder in her voice. (They called me worthless and I just... I don't believe it.)
"Check your interface," Green said. Pride evident in her tone. "The Divine Tome's been tracking more than just physical stats."
***
╔═══════════════════════════════════════
║ STARFORGE NEXUS - CONTRACTOR INTERFACE
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ Name: Jayde (Jade Freehold)
║ Contractor Level: 1
║ Nexus Merits: 147.3
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ PHYSICAL STATUS:
║ - Strength: 28.2/100
║ - Agility: 31.4/100
║ - Endurance: 26.7/100
║ - Constitution: 29.1/100
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ MENTAL STATUS:[NEWLY UNLOCKED]
║ - Mental Resilience: 5.0/100
║ - Willpower: 6.2/100
║ - Focus: 4.8/100
║ - Emotional Stability: 3.9/100
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ CULTIVATION STATUS:
║ - Core: Flamewrought (Mid Stage)
║ - Tier Progress: 12% to Late Stage
║ - Essence Access: 1/8 (Inferno)
║ - Ember Qi Pool: 169/200
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ SKILLS STATUS:
║ - Sparkcasting: Proficient
║ - Runeinfusion: Adequate
║ - Forgeweaving: Basic
║ - Combat Integration: Advanced
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ SPELLS AVAILABLE:
║ - Flame Spark (4 Qi)
║ - Heat Palm (2 Qi/min)
║ - Ember Shield (12 Qi)
║ - Flame Lance (25 Qi)
╠═══════════════════════════════════════
║ NOTE: Mental stats reflect psychological
║ conditioning and trauma processing. These
║ directly impact combat effectiveness, decision-
║ making under stress, ritual concentration, and
║ cultivation stability.
╚═══════════════════════════════════════
"Your body's been measured from day one," Green said. "But the Tome's been watching your mind too. Every meditation session. Every moment of discipline. Every time you chose to keep going when you wanted to quit." She gestured at the interface. "Those numbers represent your psychological foundation. And they're pathetically low."
(Five out of a hundred?) Jade sounded insulted. (That's terrible!)
"That's realistic," Green corrected. "Fifteen years of accumulated trauma. Ten years in slave pits. You've been running on survival instinct and stubbornness. These numbers show how damaged you actually were—and how much room you have to improve."
Baseline established. One major trauma burned. Mental Resilience increased from approximately 2.5 to 5.0. Significant improvement potential identified.
"The connection to Forgeweaving is direct," Green continued. "Sustained concentration requires mental stability. That forty-three-minute barrier you held yesterday? With mental resilience at two-point-five, that was your absolute maximum. Now, at five-point-zero, you should be able to push sixty minutes. Maybe more."
She stood, brushing moss from her robes.
"Tomorrow, we test that theory. Back to the workshop—standard Forgeweaving practice. But in three days, we will do another psychological session. Next target: helplessness. The trauma of watching others suffer and being unable to intervene."
(That one's going to hurt worse, isn't it?)
"Probably," Green said with her usual brutal honesty. "Shame attacks self-worth. Helplessness attacks the agency. Both cut deep, but helplessness has more complicated roots. Guilt layers on top of fear layers on top of tactical impossibility—your child-mind couldn't separate 'I couldn't help' from 'I didn't help,' even though intervention would've been suicide."
Predicted difficulty: Higher than degradation burn. Preparation time required.
"Rest tonight," Green commanded. "Full recovery bath. Qi regeneration meditation. Your Crucible Core just absorbed substantial essence—let it integrate properly before tomorrow's ritual practice."
Sustainable training pace. Two major burns per week. Physical training continues. Magical education continues. Systematic psychological reconstruction overlaid on existing schedule.
Jayde stood slowly. Her body felt the same—same scars, same height, same build. But her posture was different. Shoulders back. Chin up. No unconscious defensive hunch.
She looked like someone who'd survived hell.
Not someone still trapped in it.
"Thank you," Jayde said quietly.
Green's expression softened fractionally. "Thank me when we're done. We've burned one major trauma. You have nine more—minimum. Each one will be harder than the last, because we're working deeper, older, more foundational." Her eyes were serious. "But each one also makes you stronger. More stable. More capable of everything cultivation demands."
Nine more sessions. Eighteen days minimum. Five weeks if spread properly. Mental fortitude training overlapped with Forgeweaving, Sparkcasting advancement, combat integration, eventual second essence preparation.
(We can do this,) Jade said. Confidence in her voice. (We're already stronger than we were an hour ago.)
Agreed. Progress is measurable. Trajectory is positive.
Jayde left the garden sanctuary.
Behind her, the crystallized essence tree glowed softly, branches swaying in impossible wind. Witness to transformation.
To healing.
To a slave becoming something more.
***
That night, in her quarters, Jayde reviewed the new mental stats one more time:
MENTAL STATUS:
Mental Resilience: 5.0/100
Willpower: 6.2/100
Focus: 4.8/100
Emotional Stability: 3.9/100
Still low. Still so much work ahead.
But incomparably better than the broken child who'd entered the artifact eight weeks ago.
One major trauma burned. Mental Resilience doubled. Shame eliminated. Self-worth recalibrated. Foundation strengthening.
(I'm not worthless,) Jade said. Like truth. Like fact. (I survived ten years of hell. That makes me strong.)
Correct assessment. Survival is victory. Everything else builds from that foundation.
Jayde closed her eyes.
And for the first time in years—
No nightmares of Overseer Thrane's voice.
No dreams of being called aberrant, filth, or mistake.
Just quiet.
Just peace.
Just the steady pulse of a Crucible Core that was finally, slowly, beginning to heal.