Mingtian— Mingtian the cultivator, Mingtian Daoist Bright Sky, Mingtian the sovereign of boundless radiance stepped out of sunlight and sat heavily on the peak of some nameless mountain, rocky and barren but for a few hardy tufts of high-altitude heather between the ice. It was brisk, even for him— but from his perch atop the world he could see the rugged landscape spread out beneath him, and further beyond that the whole wide expanse of Saffron lake, the enormous silvery whole of it that seemed to stretch as wide as the world itself. It was a grand and glorious sight.

It was, compared to his

vast experience, so very mortal. To someone who had walked between universes and crossed the vastest voids, who had spent ages alone amidst the vicious Chaos Sea currents of the Celestial Realm…

It was an odd inbetween, betwixt that far flung pinnacle existence and the mortal life he had built for himself in East Saffron. Apart from both of them, and yet separated from neither. Bound together inextricably by the one thing he could never divorce himself from— himself.

He summoned the Hei clan jade he’d been given to his hands with a thought, turning over the rectangle in his hands— the jade cool against his skin. It was in some respects thoroughly and completely mortal. In others… it carried with itself a meaning intangibly, ephemerally and enormously

greater than the sum of its parts. From lines and figures carved onto jade rose a meaning— friendship.

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Miles and miles on the other side of Saffron Lake, East Saffron was celebrating the Spring Festival. Avyr was probably about to advance to the second step… Opening, in this realm. Everything was coming together nicely, for them… impermanent as it was.

He sighed, and held the jade of a friendship he didn’t… couldn’t reject, despite the vast difference between them… and wondered.

It was real, he knew that. He had felt that, strange as it was.

He didn’t really know what to think about it. He’d been alone in the Celestial Realm for so long… so, with a sigh, still holding that jade, he sat on that icy peak for a little while longer, and wondered amidst the uncertain wonder of it all.