A Hand-Woven Universe 131 130. When I was one...

Even after months of travel, Noone did not grow tired of the green trees and forest creatures. Before being forced to come to the surface he could have never imagined a world so colorful or full of life.

His thoughts drifted back to his home. Like a regret which lurked in the back of his mind, his memories of his Tapestry never left him. Sometimes they would offer him a short respite and float to the back of his thoughts, but without fail when the world grew silent, they would always bubble to the surface. They reminded him that there was still work left to be done.

And for that work, Noone needed to get stronger. His body relaxed and even the memories of home eventually disintegrated into nothing as his rhythmic breathing deepened.

One after the next, Noone spotted and plucked the threads of universe energy from the space around him.

His divine sense could stretch a full six meters, so his collection speed was incomparable to what it had been when he first began cultivating. Despite this, it seemed to Noone that his next level was still far away. The amount of energy he needed to advance increased with each advancement.

Before, spending a few days cultivating at the blessed temple in Ardglass was enough to push him to the edge of the third level of qi condensation.

Now though… Even though the quality of the universe laws at the temple in Pinepass was a bit higher, cultivating for a full day and night resulted in filling up barely a fifth of what he needed.

"If I can find more places teeming with universe energy… it would help my cultivation immensely…" Noone thought. But he knew that he had no way of searching those places out right now. And even if he could, it wasn't like he could ask around for such a thing.

"Hopefully… I'll figure it out with time."

All he could do now was patiently cultivate.

Unbeknownst to Noone, nearby a small figure watched him with bright eyes and a curious smile.

The night passed quietly with no disturbances. The entire caravan rested with the exception of the adventurers which took shifts keeping a lookout for any bandits or beasts.

Noone instinctively knew when the sun was close to the horizon, and quietly made his way back to the caravan as though he had been there all night.

Tobias noticed Noone's arrival but said nothing. He knew that Noone liked having his own space, and as long as he didn't run off, Tobias was more than happy to let him have it.

Sarah stirred nearby, resting on a sleeping mat after taking first watch.

Soon the sun rose, and the sounds of breakfast being prepared stirred the entire caravan into awareness.

For the majority of the people there, they were used to such a little-sleep schedule and had no problems falling back into the rhythm after a few days of normal rest in Pinepass.

There were a few though, who stirred groggily and had a grumpy air about them. For those not used to it, not getting enough sleep was one of the harshest tortures to be suffered. After the first week, these people would either adapt, or break.

Feylin woke Anette, noticing that she still hadn't arisen by the time the sun was mounting the eastern horizon. She stirred and mumbled before finally sitting up, her bedhead matting her curled blonde hair.

After speaking with one of the caravan leads, and listening to Feylin speak of the western edge, of the epoch tribesman, and of a mysterious being named Noone, her entire party were filled with energy and a lust for adventure.

This caused them to stay up well into the night, and getting very little sleep because of it.
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The physically fit fighter, and the well-disciplined and tanned monk Feylin saw yesterday handled it the best out of her party, but Feylin could tell they were running on adrenaline. He offered a few words of advice he and Sarah had received when they began traveling with the group from Burian, but otherwise left them to their own devices.

"Hey Rae? Those goodberry's that you had a while back, where do find them?" Feylin approached Raelith who walked next to one of the carts while the caravan moved slowly down the road. She was humming a song Feylin had never heard, walking happily on her toes.

"That's easy." She said smoothly. "Any ranger or druid can make them. It's a first level spell, but it requires mistletoe." Without missing a beat Raelith pulled a sprig of mistletoe out of her pack, closed her hand around it, and when she opened her hand ten red berries could be seen.

Feylin's jaw dropped as he looked at Rae.

"I used to be a ranger. Kind of. Once upon a time." Rae explained nonchalantly. Feylin nodded, noticing Raelith not speaking any more. He had a feeling there was more to that than what she said, but he didn't have time to ask before she handed the entire handful to him, shooing him off with a knowing smile.

Feylin walked back towards his cart, unable to take his eyes off the bright red and perfectly round berries in his hand.

"Anette." The young cleric was walking with a slouch, dragging her feet a bit as she rubbed the persistent sleep from her eyes. Dark circles could be seen under her eyelids, impressively large dark circles considering this was her first night of rough sleep.

Anette looked up at Feylin and put on a pitiful smile as though she was the most unfortunate soul in the world. Feylin didn't know whether to laugh or cry and handed her the entire mound of goodberries.

"These are goodberries. They will take away your sleepiness and give you energy. There's enough there for two days for your entire party." Or more if you keep them for yourself, he thought as he observed her pitiful experience.

The young woman looked at them carefully, their perfectly round redness reflecting a warped image of herself.

Without any more hesitation, she looked at Feylin and popped one of the berries into her mouth.

Instantly - like magic - the dark circles under her eyes disappeared and a deep breath escaped her lungs as though releasing all of the bad air she had accumulated over the past night.

"Wow!" Astonished, her eyes were wide and she looked at Feylin like some kind of savior. Feylin chuckled.

"According to the person I got them from, it's a first level ranger or druid spell. It only requires a sprig of mistletoe." Feylin chuckled, telling her what Rae told him. The girl nodded enthusiastically saying her thanks before sprinting off to go find the rest of her party.

Feylin watched her run and couldn't help but chuckle.

The caravan continued on like this for many weeks. Noone continued to cultivate diligently, and Sarah, Tobias, and him all continued to practice their battle technique for a few hours most nights.

The gnome, Alaviv, also continued to seek Noone out daily, undiscouraged by Noone's apathy to him.

One night, Noone saw the gnome approach and closed his eyes, planning to ignore the weird being until he left him alone. However what Noone failed to notice was the mischievous smile which tainted Alaviv's otherwise normal pleasant grin.

Suddenly, much to Noone's surprise, Alaviv sat down next to Noone, crossing his legs and mimicking Noone's breathing.

Noone opened his eyes for a moment to see what he would do next, but the gnome did nothing.

Tobias, who had noticed the Alaviv's interest in Noone by this point had been meaning to talk with Noone about gnomes… but… eventually he just smiled and looked away, wanting no part in the proceedings.

Suddenly, Noone heard the sound of someone taking a deep breath. It wasn't out loud though, it was in his own head. The gnome was transmitting directly into Noone's mind again.

"On the day I was born my mother, oh what a fine woman she is, always had a fondness for the colors red, and blue, and pink, and purple, and gold, well she was so overjoyed that she refused to let my father hold me, and he kicked up a fuss he did, but she said 'no way' and continued to coddle me, it wasn't for a few weeks she finally let me out of her sight and with my pops, he was a great man too, an inventor, he would watch the sun every day and night, endlessly, and eventually he created a large machine that we put into the middle of town to tell the time, amongst gnomes and humans and every race he was lauded as magnificent, oh but anyways, when I was one years old I began to tinker with my parent's old toys from when they were young, gnome quality craftmanship is made to last for centuries after all, when they don't explode that is, oh but my mom had a knack for healing magic she did so if I ever did get hurt as a youngin' she would heal me up right away, well anyways at one I began learning how to read and I was mighty quick at it too, no not words I was too young to begin reading words, but blueprints, they make much more sense than words do anyways, well anyways when I was two..." Noone's eyebrows lowered, but he continued to say nothing.

A few hours passed

"And when I was three..." Noone could no longer maintain his breathing and he opened his eyes which had turned red in annoyance. A few more hours had escaped him.

"This carried over to when I turned four..." Another set of hours. Noone began to wonder if it was worth attempting to kill the little gnome. He couldn't be that strong right?

"Oh, would you look at the time, sun's about to rise." The gnome said, smiling to himself. Noone was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the gnome continued. "We can finish this tomorrow." The gnome smiled, and in this moment Noone knew this was not the smile of a kind man. He had managed to hold off from responding all night, but at what cost?

That day Tobias took one look at Noone's bloodshot eyes and couldn't help but laugh. He realized immediately what had occurred.

"I'm sorry Noone. Gnomes… well, they're a bit funny, I suppose." Tobias chuckled. For the first time in a long time, Noone's cool composure broke and he released a night's worth of frustration on Tobias in the form of long repressed glare. Initially he had been saving it for the gnome, but he realized that it might only spur the gnome on further.

Tobias only laughed harder when he saw this.

"Listen Noone. Just give Alaviv whatever he wants. Gnomes live for thousands of years, they can outlast your determination, I promise. They can outlast some of the gods too. But they don't ever mean harm - not really, anyways. They're a breed of creators and discoverers. You have piqued his interest is all." Tobias managed to say after stifling his own chuckles.

Noone's frowned deepened even further after hearing this. Thousands of years? What kind of ridiculous lifespan is that!?

The next night, Alaviv returned. This time he came bearing stories of his fifth and sixth years. Each year, the stories would become longer and more detailed as Alaviv remembered more details. Tobias's warning rang out in his own mind… 'Thousands of years…'

Noone quickly grew exasperated by the gnome's incessant talking.

"Look. Just what do you want?" Noone finally asked. The gnome seemed startled for a moment, being drawn out of his own story.

"Why do you talk like that?" The gnome asked. He had been talking into Noone's mind so insistently that he did not expect Noone to answer out loud.

"Because I can't talk into your mind." Noone said, annoyed. Was this gnome an idiot, just a powerful one?

Alaviv frowned, as he looked at Noone.

Finally, after a few moments passed the older gnome responded again.

"Yes… you can. With your magic sense."

Chapter end