The dreaming prince, now a black bear, waved a paw, causing portions of the first diagram to light up
“Okay, so here’s my plan. We will be combining four different methods. I will be making a framework for combining them, but you will need to find the pieces.”
“So we need to qualify for four separate heritages?” Elluvian asked, thoughtfully.
“Yes. You will need four heritages, four aspects, and ideally four axioms.”
“Well. That’s not going to be an easy task,” Dev said, “What elements are we looking for? When the sun god trial scanned me, it said that I have a high anima affinity, and medium affinities for fire, life, and runes.”
“As you may have realized, those are not your true affinities. As you know, measuring soul-related stuff is incredibly difficult without an expert. Lucky you, I am such an expert.”
He pointed to Dev. “Perfect Anima Affinity.”
Elluvian. “High Life Affinity.”
Justin. “High Fire Affinity.”
And Tae. “High Rune Affinity.”
“Elluvian, Justin, and Tae, you will each be using something primarily based on the lunar eclipse method, imprinting yourselves on the meridians, using techniques suited to your affinities.”
“So should we be getting Apollo’s techniques for Justin?” Dev asked.
He winced. “You could. But you should probably keep that under wraps. You do not want to be known as an inheritor of Apollo in the empire.”
“Why not?” Justin asked, “Is Apollo evil or something? Why would he be allowed to place an inheritance on the islands if it was bad?”
“He’s not evil, per se. He just has a long-lasting reputation. I’ll just say that his title as the god of diseases had nothing to do with divinity, and everything to do with the bedroom. And that reputation has stuck around.”
“Oh. So he got around?” Justin asked, pulling a face at that.
“Yeah, you can say he got around. Don’t get me wrong, they’re excellent techniques but if you start claiming any connection to Apollo, you’ll be very unpopular in bars in the empire.”
“Not like that’s a good idea for us to begin with,” Tae said.
Dev looked at him, confused.
“What?” he said defensively. “You can’t think that such a thing could ever work out for us, can you? We will be forever four people who can’t reveal that fact. There’s no way that that could work out.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Oh,” Dev said, reeling from the implications.
“Oh, my goodness. Bathroom breaks! How are we going to handle that?” Justin said, sounding like he was almost hyperventilating.
“You’ll figure something out,” the Dreaming Prince said calmly. “But right now, I believe we are in something of a time crunch.”
Dev took a deep breath, saying, “Fair enough. Proceed.”
“Okay, so the other three will use the lunar eclipse technique as their primaries. I have something different in mind for you.”
“Why should I do it like this,” Dev asked inquisitively. “Why not have me do like the others are doing, to restrict and enkindle in four parts rather than three?”
“As an anima expert, imprinting yourself upon your meridians would bring only minimal benefits. Instead, what I want to do is—” the bear waved a paw, causing a tricolor meridian map to float over “—use a modified bilunar solar eclipse model. This is a method where two refine one. There is no reason why three can’t refine one, though. People just don’t usually have that many elements.”
“So, what, the other three’s elements would empower any anima techniques I used?”
“Precisely! This technique even benefits from them imprinting their meridians with their souls. It’s actually incredibly convenient,” he hesitated, then said, “One issue, you will have to wait and build your meridians after the others. Otherwise, You won’t be able to use build it properly, as it is meant for direct interaction with each other.”
Dev frowned. “There’s no other option? Also. why aren’t you having all of us do one or the other?”
“You certainly can’t build it all on your own. That’s the reason I’m only having one of you use this technique. Otherwise, you would have to wait until you four complete meridian maps, then work together to build four sets of meridians simultaneously, leaving little room for error.”
“So we need to build it in a way that they don’t interfere with each other.”
“Exactly so. The final detail to make this all work will be something for Justin, Tae, and Elluvian to work on. You three will need elements of an interlunar eclipse integrated into your meridians so that they can pass each other without interference.”
“So you’re having us combine three separate meridian types and four separate meridian paths for this?”
“Yes. This should allow you to conceal your nature so long as you are careful. On that note, you will need to be extremely careful around anyone with anima senses, like your friends from my temple. They will likely have some inkling that things have changed when you change who is doing something. I’d suggest coming up with a suitable explanation.”
“Are they safe?” Dev asked. “Did they go back?”
“They’re fine,” the Dreaming prince answered, now a tabby cat. They hid out for a couple days, but now returned to the temple. They seem to be gathering something of a following, too.”
“That’s good,” Dev said, relieved. “Anything else?”
“I wouldn’t recommend doing anything more than building your meridians while on the islands. Do not completely fill them with essence. This method will likely provoke a heavenly and earthly tribulation.”
“Heavenly and earthly tribulation?” Justin asked.
“The earth tests the heavens, and the heavens test the earth. When you advance your body, you experience a heavenly tribulation. When you advance your soul, you experience an earthly tribulation. As a confluence of the two, high-quality meridians can provoke both. The empire has resources to handle this, but you will not have access to them on the isles. Do not do anything more than build your meridians, even if you find instructions on higher tier cultivation.”
“Okay, it’s time for you to go back. Remember, when you wake up, you’ll be sharing a body again.”
