The rumors spread quickly.
Lootwell was planning to build a new intercontinental teleportation array, one that would connect all five continents.
Along with that rumor ca another detail.
Lootwell would need to survey leyline stability and old spatial pressure points across all continents before construction could begin.
Most people focused on the array.
Many cheered.
rchants imagined shorter routes. Students imagined visiting academies in other continents. People who had made friends through Lootwell’s communication devices began calculating whether visits across the world might one day beco ordinary.
So dismissed it as exaggeration.
The old intercontinental teleportation array had been difficult enough to repair. Creating an entirely new one sounded even more absurd.
But Lootwell had already done too many absurd things.
So even those who doubted it did not dare dismiss it completely.
And then there was the minority.
They did not panic at first. They waited. They listened.
Then, as the rumors spread from branch to branch, so factions finally beca unsettled.
It’s not because of the teleportation array.
It’s because of the leyline survey.
That was exactly what Lucien wanted.
•••
A few days later, the recorders delivered a thick stack of reports.
Lucien sat inside the Origin Core Shrine and read them one by one.
So reports were useless.
So were ordinary.
So were amusing.
A few were exactly what he had been waiting for.
The suspicious Origin Core fragnt bearers had begun sending ssages to each other.
The recorders had not understood the full aning behind those ssages, but they had marked the timing, and sudden topic changes exactly as ordered.
Lucien read the first exchange.
[Should we act?]
[No. Do not rush. It is only a rumor. Lootwell has not made an official announcent.]
[Besides, creating another intercontinental teleportation array from scratch is impossible.]
[No. It might be possible for Lootwell. How else did they appear in all five continents without anyone seeing them cross the sea?]
Lucien’s lips curved slightly.
That was better than denial.
Fear had entered their reasoning.
He moved to the next report.
Then the next.
Most conversations followed the sa pattern.
Doubt. Suspicion. Comforting lies. Then fear returning under a different na.
Finally, Lucien found sothing more useful.
[Then what if it is true? The Great Ones’ plans will crumble.]
[If they find out about the leylines...]
[Stop. Do not speak of great things in this channel.]
The conversation ended there.
Lucien leaned back.
"The Great Ones."
The words were vague. Too vague.
But vague words were still better than silence.
They had confird three things.
They knew about the leylines.
They feared Lootwell’s survey.
And above them, there was sothing or soone they called Great Ones.
Lucien placed that report aside.
His amusent faded.
The hidden array was no longer rely a possibility.
Soone was maintaining it.
Soone cared enough to panic.
Soone had plans tied to it.
That was enough.
•••
Lucien did not move yet.
The rumors had not peaked.
The first reaction had appeared, but it was still shallow. They were frightened, but not desperate. They were still waiting for confirmation. They still believed silence could protect them.
That was fine.
Lucien wanted them to wait.
Waiting made people listen harder.
Listening made them repeat rumors.
Repeating rumors made them wonder who else knew.
Eventually, soone would decide that doing nothing was more dangerous than moving.
That was when their hidden allies would appear.
Lucien wanted to see them leave their caves, estates, shrines, and false identities. He wanted ssengers to travel. He wanted old nodes to be checked. He wanted secret routes to open.
He wanted the enemy’s shape.
The whole body.
Until then, he let the rumor grow.
He let Reaper and Eldran continue their work.
He let the recorders continue marking ssages.
He let fear ripen.
The hidden bearers had been too comfortable for too long.
Now that pressure had appeared, they would eventually make mistakes.
Lucien only had to be patient enough to catch them.
•••
While the rumor spread, Lucien turned his attention to his own people.
A dozen Fruits of Creation had ripened.
They hung from the Tree of Creation like small suns. Each fruit carried a different rhythm, as if it was not rely a treasure but a future waiting for soone suitable to receive it.
Lucien stood beneath the tree and looked up for a long ti.
He already knew who would receive the first batch.
His parents ca first. Luke and Cienna. Then Virel and Aniel.
Then Cielius. Then Vivian. Then Seraphine. Then Marie, Kaia, Sylra, and Marina. Then Sebas.
These were people Lucien trusted near the center of the world he was building.
They needed strength that could survive the next disaster.
For so of them, the Fruits of Creation might help their Laws branch away from old Primordial shadows.
Marie, Kaia, Sylra, and Marina especially needed that possibility. The Primordials of the four elents existed. If those source-holders one day descended their will upon the elental Laws, then ordinary elental paths might beco chains.
The Fruit of Creation could help turn a Law into sothing personal.
Luke and Cienna were different.
Their Laws were new. The Law of Skill. The Law of Magic.
As far as Lucien knew, no Primordial currently embodied either.
That ant their paths might not need to branch away from anyone.
They might already be roads without crowns.
Perhaps the fruits would not change their Laws in the sa way.
Perhaps the fruits would refine their bodies, deepen compatibility, widen their futures, or make their Laws more alive.
Lucien did not know.
But he was certain of one thing.
The fruits would help.
And if his parents had the chance to stand higher, then they would receive that chance before anyone else.
•••
Lucien gathered them quietly.
There was no dramatic proclamation.
The fewer people knew about the Fruits of Creation, the better.
When they arrived, the fruits had already been placed inside sealed jade cases. Even through the seals, faint light moved beneath the lids like breathing dawn.
The mont everyone sensed them, the room fell silent.
They did not need Lucien to explain that these were precious.
Their instincts already knew.
Lucien gave them the explanation anyway. Briefly and carefully.
The fruits could transform the body, deepen compatibility with Law, and possibly help one’s path evolve into a more personal direction. The effect would depend on the person.
They were not to waste the essence.
They were not to treat the process casually.
Lilith and Eirene had already taken theirs way before because of special circumstances.
That made the others understand the weight more clearly.
For a mont, no one reached for the jade cases.
Then Luke looked at Lucien.
His expression softened.
Cienna’s eyes also changed.
The others understood as well.
Lucien had gained sothing extraordinary.
And his first instinct had been to give it to them.
That ant more than the treasure itself.
No one made a grand speech.
They only accepted the fruits carefully.
That was enough.
•••
Lucien did not let them consu the fruits in the main territory.
The Tree of Creation was hidden, but the results might not be.
A dozen people transforming at once could create too much movent.
Lootwell had too many guests now.
So Lucien chose the Void.
It was vast enough to swallow excess resonance and isolated enough to prevent outsiders from noticing. With the Void Disc, the group could travel safely to a prepared zone and return afterward.
The others agreed.
No one wanted their transformation to accidentally shake half the territory and create three new rumors before breakfast.
The Void Disc opened.
Space folded.
One by one, they entered. The light closed after them.
Finally, Lucien remained alone.
The room beca quiet.
For a while, he simply stood there.
Then he smiled.
Outside, his enemies were beginning to move because of a rumor.
Inside the Void, his people were about to change because of creation.
Both things were necessary.
One would reveal danger.
The other would build strength.
When they returned, they would not be the sa.
Lucien looked toward the five-continent map hovering nearby.
The suspicious nodes still pulsed faintly in silence.
He did not look away.
"Move slowly if you want," he said quietly.
His smile deepened.
"I have other pieces to strengthen while I wait."
Far beyond the world, the Void Disc carried twelve lights into darkness.
And beneath the continents, several hidden fragnts pulsed again, as if sothing sleeping had begun to listen more carefully.
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