Location: Starforge Nexus - Green's Strategic Planning Chamber | Luminari Artifact Dimensional Fold
Time: Day 110 (Month Four, Week Three)
The chamber Green led her to wasn't the garden sanctuary—this was new. Smaller. More intimate. Walls lined with crystalline displays showing complex diagrams and flowing essence patterns. A circular table dominated the center, its surface covered in what looked like liquid starlight that shifted and reformed based on Green's gestures.
"Strategic cultivation planning," Green announced, gesturing for Jayde to sit. "Now that you're psychologically stable and mentally integrated, we can discuss something you weren't ready for before: the actual timeline of your progression."
Jayde sat. The chair molded itself to her body—Luminari technology that was equal parts comfortable and unsettling—and watched as Green waved a hand over the table.
Eight spheres appeared in the liquid starlight. Concentric circles, nested like Russian dolls. Each one a different color. Each one representing a lock on her Crucible Core.
Visual representation of the Divine Eightfold Lock. Long-term strategic planning commences.
"You've unlocked one," Green said, touching the outermost red sphere. It pulsed, then faded to show it was open. "Inferno. Took six weeks of foundation building plus the unsealing ritual. You're currently Flamewrought tier, late stage. Approximately two weeks from advancing to Inferno-tempered."
She touched the second sphere—blue, glowing softly.
"Torrent. The next lock. Question: When should you unlock it?"
(As soon as we reach Inferno-tempered?) Jade suggested. (Hit the next tier and immediately move to the next essence?)
Negative. Insufficient stabilization period. Core requires adaptation time between major structural changes.
"Wrong answer," Green confirmed. "Both of you. Let me explain why rushing kills cultivators."
She gestured, and the blue sphere expanded until it filled half the table. Intricate patterns swirled inside—water flowing in impossible directions, tides responding to invisible moons, currents colliding and merging.
"Each essence fundamentally changes your Crucible Core," Green said. "Inferno restructured your core to process fire. Your meridians are adapted to channel heat. Your body learned to tolerate temperatures that would cook normal humans. That adaptation took months—six weeks of foundation building, then twelve weeks of practice and stabilization."
Four and a half months total for the first essence foundation and mastery. Significant investment.
"Torrent will require the same. Longer, actually, because your core already has Inferno essence actively flowing. You'll need to create space for water essence without extinguishing the fire. Learn to balance opposing forces. Teach your body to handle both heat and cold simultaneously."
The blue sphere showed competing patterns—fire and water clashing, steam exploding outward, equilibrium failing catastrophically.
"Rush it," Green said flatly, "and your core cracks. The opposing essences war inside you. Your meridians rupture from thermal shock. You die screaming as your own power tears you apart from the inside."
(That's... graphic.)
But accurate. Cautionary note recorded: Minimum adaptation time between essence unlocks is mandatory for survival.
"How long?" Jayde asked. The unified voice came naturally now—both perspectives asking the question simultaneously.
"Minimum one year between major unlocks," Green said. "For you? I'd recommend two years minimum per essence. Possibly three for the more difficult ones."
She waved her hand, and the table displayed a timeline. Numbers and dates flowing across the liquid starlight like a river of time.
YEAR 1 (Current):
* Months 1-4: Foundation & Inferno unlock (COMPLETE)
* Months 5-12: Inferno mastery & stabilization
YEAR 2:
- Months 13-18: Torrent preparation
- Month 19: Torrent unlock
- Months 20-24: Torrent/Inferno balance training
YEAR 3:
- Months 25-30: Verdant preparation
- Month 31: Verdant unlock
- Months 32-36: Three-essence equilibrium
YEAR 4:
- Months 37-42: Terracore preparation
- Month 43: Terracore unlock
- Months 44-48: Four-essence integration
YEAR 5:
- Months 49-54: Metallurge preparation
- Month 55: Metallurge unlock
- Months 56-60: Five-essence mastery
YEAR 6:
- Months 61-66: Galebreath preparation
- Month 67: Galebreath unlock
- Months 68-72: Six-essence harmony
YEAR 7:
- Months 73-78: Radiance preparation
- Month 79: Radiance unlock
- Months 80-84: Seven-essence integration
YEARS 8-10:
Extended preparation for Voidshadow
- Months 96-108: Voidshadow unlock attempt
- Months 109-120: Full eight-essence mastery (if survived)
Jayde stared at the timeline. Ten years. A full decade of careful, methodical cultivation.
(That's... that's so long. We'll be twenty-five years old.)
And alive. Which is the critical factor. Dead cultivators advance zero tiers. Mission-oriented thinking: success requires surviving to completion.
"You're thinking it's too slow," Green observed. "That you should be able to rush through faster because you're special. Because you have Federation memories and tactical thinking and some undefined advantage that lets you break the rules."
Jayde started to protest, then stopped. Because yeah—part of her had been thinking exactly that.
Incorrect assumption identified. Cultivation physics don't care about Federation experience. Different operational environment, different constraints.
"Let me show you what happens to people who think they're special enough to rush cultivation."
Green gestured again. The timeline disappeared, replaced by images. Holographic projections showing cultivators at various stages of attempting rapid multi-essence advancement.
The first image showed a man—maybe thirty years old, handsome, confident expression—standing with three essence auras swirling around him. Fire, earth, metal. Impressive.
The second image showed the same man two months later, attempting to unlock his fourth essence.
His Crucible Core shattered mid-ritual.
The hologram didn't show the actual moment—Green had that much mercy—but it showed the aftermath. The man's body twisted, essence running wild through ruptured meridians. His face frozen in eternal agony. Eyes melted from internal heat. Skin cracked and bleeding from competing elemental forces tearing him apart.
He'd survived the rupture. Technically.
But he was an Ash Hollow now. Empty. Soulless. Vegetative. Less than human.
(Gods,) Jade whispered. (That's horrible.)
Cautionary example noted. Risk assessment: Rushing multi-essence cultivation results in core destruction. Patience is mandatory for survival.
"That was a genius," Green said quietly. "Top of his academy. Three-essence master by age twenty-eight. Everyone said he'd revolutionize cultivation. He thought he was ready for the fourth essence after only eight months of stabilization."
She dismissed the image.
"His clan keeps him alive as a warning. They wheel him out during ceremonies to show young cultivators what happens when you think you're too special to follow the rules."
Jayde swallowed. The Federation had taught her patience—campaigns spanning decades, operations requiring years of setup. But seeing the physical consequences of rushing made it visceral in a way tactical briefings never had.
"Point taken," she said quietly.
"Good." Green returned to the timeline. "Ten years. Maybe twelve if Voidshadow proves particularly difficult. That's the minimum safe timeline for what you're attempting. And before you ask—no, there are no shortcuts. No secret techniques. No clever Federation thinking that lets you bypass fundamental cultivation physics."
Long-term strategic planning is required. Cannot treat multi-essence mastery as a tactical sprint. Different rules, different constraints. Must adapt methodology.
(But ten years... Za'thul will be hunting us that whole time. The clan won't just forget we exist.)
"No," Green agreed. "They won't. Which brings us to the second part of strategic cultivation planning: surviving while you advance. But that's a discussion for—"
She paused, eyes distant for a moment.
"Actually, this conversation is getting long enough that we should break here. You need time to process the timeline. Accept that this is a decade-long commitment, not a few years of intense training."
Green stood, and the table's liquid starlight display faded.
"Think about it tonight. Really think about it. Ten years of patient advancement. One essence at a time. Can you commit to that? Both of you?"
Assessment in progress. Ten-year operational timeline is long by Federation standards, but not unprecedented. Colony development required longer commitments. The rebellion building took nine years of careful work. Methodology is familiar—just a different context.
(We can do it,) Jade said quietly. (We survived the slave pits. We survived Za'thul. We can survive ten years of training.)
"Then we'll continue tomorrow," Green said. "Next discussion: operational security while cultivating. How to stay hidden from a clan leader who wants you dead or controlled. How to gather resources without revealing your identity. How to survive for a decade while becoming powerful enough that survival is no longer the primary concern."
She looked at Jayde with something that might've been respect.
"You've come a long way from that broken child who entered this artifact four months ago. Now let's make sure you survive long enough to become the cultivator you're capable of being."
***
That night, Jayde reviewed the cultivation roadmap one more time.
Ten years.
One hundred twenty months.
Approximately three thousand six hundred days.
It seemed impossibly long when viewed as a whole. But broken down into individual steps, individual essences, individual milestones—
Manageable. Federation taught me to plan in decades. Multiple campaigns required generational thinking. This is the same methodology, different application.
(We can do this,) Jade said. Not questioning. Stating a fact. (One day at a time. One week at a time. One essence at a time.)
The Federation had taught her to think in decades. To plan campaigns spanning years. To understand that some victories required patience measured in generations.
Doha would teach her to execute those plans. To survive. To grow stronger, one careful step at a time, until she was powerful enough that no one could ever chain her again.
Ten years.
She could give it ten years.
Mission parameters accepted. Timeline: 10 years minimum. Objective: Eight-essence mastery. Constraint: Must survive to completion. Success probability: Calculating...
(Stop calculating,) Jade said. (We'll survive because we have to. Because there's no other option. Because giving up means Za'thul wins.)
Agreed. Emotional certainty combined with tactical patience equals an optimal approach. We proceed.
And then?
Then the Freehold Clan would learn what happened when you underestimated someone who refused to stay broken.
Someone who had sixty years of military experience combined with a fifteen-year-old's desperate will to survive.
Someone who had ten years to prepare for the moment when she stopped hiding and started hunting.
Ten years.
She could wait ten years.
The long game was the only game that mattered.