The next day, Darian ate breakfast with his friends, his father, and Astra. The servants, including Ellen and Elliot, had already eaten and were going about their duties.
Yesterday, Darian had never been more grateful for the snake twins. They managed to get everyone settled in and taken care of, with little input from him. He would have to show them his gratitude, because otherwise things might have been a mess without their help.
The snake twins also ensured that the mortal servants were well taken care of, and able to focus on their duties. While the mortals had been wary of the snake twins, since they were spirit beasts, they were willing to give them a chance. Surprisingly, Bella had adjusted the quickest to the situation, while Cassandra had remained skittish.
Wyatt, in particular, appeared happy now that he had been reunited with his master. Darren had been surprised to see his manservant again, and chagrined that he had forgotten about him. The two had gone off on their own yesterday to have a talk, which sounded more like a lecture from what Darian had overheard.
Wyatt wasn't the only one in high spirits. Now that his friends were here, Vera in particular, Darian could begin the tort-…the intense physical training that would help speed up his cultivation today. He had confirmed it with Ellen last night, who had simply nodded and said that she was ready when he was. This had buoyed his mood.
He also made sure to confirm things with Vera, who said she was more than ready to begin earning her keep. She would come by after Ellen finished with Darian.
Darian's friends were happy to spend time in the secret realm, which would be a significant boon to their cultivation thanks to the constant exposure to high amounts of spirit energy. From what they had told him, their own immortal caves weren't as potent, and they could only use Darren's immortal cave thanks to Darian, which limited its usefulness to them.
As for Astra, who remained in her human form, she seemed happy about something, but didn't share what it was, even when asked.
Their meal was interrupted when another Astra barged into the dining room, this one in feline form
"Finally!" she exclaimed. "I'm finished!"
Darian's friends looked between the two Astras. Darren kept eating, as if nothing strange was going on.
"Congratulations, main body," the human Astra said with a smirk.
Cat Astra flopped onto the dining table in an inelegant pose.
"Done?" Darian asked. "Done with what? I thought you already finished remaking the entrance to this secret realm."
"That was me and the other clones," Human Astra said. "My main body was working on another project."
Cat Astra glared at Darian.
"I wouldn't have had to work so hard if your clan hadn't been so negligent. Honestly, what were they thinking?" She pointed a paw at Darian. "You better be grateful. I haven't worked this hard on someone else's behalf in centuries. Be prepared to shower me with praise!"
Darian looked between the two Astras with a sinking feeling in his heart. He suspected he knew what this was about.
"You two!" Cat Astra said, pointing at his friends. "Help me fix the boy!"
"What do you mean, Cultivator Astra?" Lucius said, giving the cat spirit beast a wary look.
Unlike Vera, who got along well with Astra, he remained distant with her; polite and civil, but distant.
"Is there something wrong with Darian?" Vera asked, giving Darian a concerned look.
Darian waved off her concern.
"It's not a big deal," he said. "Auntie is just blowing things out of proportion."
Both Astras ignored him and focused on his friends.
"My main body is upset with how…lopsided Darian's education is," Human Astra said. She put an elbow on the table and supported her chin in her hand. "She wants you two to help fix that. Since she knows that doing so will affect your own training, she's willing to compensate you for the trouble."
"Auntie, it's not that bad," Darian said. "You didn't need to go that far. It's fine."
"Lopsided how?" Vera asked, glancing at Darian.
Cat Astra shook her head in despair.
"He didn't know about the Shattering until a few days ago, when I told him about it." She looked at Darian's friends, and he swore he saw tears in her eyes. "He didn't even know that the continent we live on is called The Shattered Lands!"
Silence fell over the room. Almost as one, everyone looked at Darian, with varying degrees of disbelief on their faces. It was a rather unpleasant experience for Darian.
His father was the only one who didn't react, and continued eating breakfast.
"That's impossible," Lucius said. "When he wasn't training, Darian spent all of his time in the clan library."
"Yes, studying cultivation," Cat Astra said. "Almost to the exclusion of everything else."
"It seems that young Darian was rather focused," Human Astra said. Unlike her main body, she seemed amused by all this. "He neglected other areas of study, except on occasion."
Darian raised his hands in a defensive gesture.
"It's not that bad," he said, trying to defend himself. "I can always make up for it later."
"What's the name of the region to the south of the Myriad Rivers region?" Cat Astra demanded.
"What was the name of the Immortal Emperor of the Sky Throne Empire?" Human Astra asked.
Darian gave them both a blank look.
"Uh…" he said. "Well…" He slumped. "I don't know."
Once again, silence fell over the room. This time, however, looks of horror replaced the disbelief.
"Who was your tutor?" Vera asked, holding her hand to her mouth. "They should be whipped for their negligence."
"I didn't have one," Darian answered.
"No, that can't be possible," Lucius said with a frown. "As the Patriarch's grandson, you should have been assigned a tutor. Even if you hadn't been, you still should have attended classes. Our clan does have a school for our younger members."
Darian could only shrug at that.
"I never went to school. Everything I know I learned from the clan library." He frowned as he thought back on it. "Or I learned from Stella, now that I think about it."
"The fault is mine," his father said, finishing with his meal. "As your father, it was my responsibility to arrange things for you. Since I was indisposed most of the time, this never happened. I had assumed the rest of the clan would make up for it. I was mistaken. Your grandparents either didn't notice the problem, busy as they were with their own responsibilities, or they ignored the problem deliberately."
He said that last part with a grimace.
"Because of the deal with Master Nova?" Darian asked.
"It's possible."
"Deal?" Lucius asked. "What deal?"
Oh right, Darian still hadn't told his friends that Master Nova was his mother. In his defense, he was still coming to terms with it himself.
Cat Astra slapped a paw on the dining table. It let out an ominous crack.
"It doesn't matter how it came to be," she growled. "What matters is fixing it."
"Is that really necessary?" Darian asked. "I can take care of it myself."
"And risk you getting bored and stopping halfway?" Astra scoffed. "No. Unfortunately, I'm a poor scholar, so I'm going to have to leave things to the three of you. Darren already agreed to help."
She pointed at Lucius and Vera.
"In exchange for your aid, I can offer both of you access to high-tier spirit energy gathering formations, one each, with elemental stones appropriate to your cultivation. That should make up for any time lost on this endeavor."
At the mention of these spirit energy gathering formations, Lucius and Vera perked up.
"What kind of spirit energy gathering formation?" Lucius asked.
"One of my own making. I call it the Lesser Spiraling Vortex Formation."
"Why is it called Lesser Spiral Vortex Formation?" Vera asked. "Is there a regular one?"
Cat Astra nodded.
"Yes, but it's well above your current level. The Lesser Spiraling Vortex Formation is more than enough for you. What do you say?"
"Deal!" Lucius and Vera both said at the same time.
Darian watched all this happen with a sense of helplessness. Wasn't this supposed to be his secret realm?
"We'll need to come up with an appropriate curriculum for Darian," his father said, pinching his chin.
"It would help if we knew what Darian already knows," Lucius said, making the same gesture.
"We should test him then," Vera said, also pinching her chin.
The three of them all turned to Darian with predatory gazes. He felt a chill run down his spine.
"Oh, would you look at the time," he said, standing up. "I'm late for my training session with Ellen. We can talk about this later.
Darian made his escape, as his father and his friends began discussing the best way to make up for his lack of education.
"Your plan worked, main body," Human Astra said, just as he left the dining room.
***
Darian let out a sigh of relief as he managed to escape the dining room without anyone chasing him down and putting him through any kind of test. His grandmother had done something like that just before he left Mt. Wind Dance, and it had been an excruciating experience. He would really rather not go through something like that again.
Unfortunately for him, Darian didn't think his father and his friends would give up so easily. Based on their reactions, his lack of real education was a problem that needed to be fixed with extreme prejudice.
For now, however, Darian had the intense physical training session with Ellen. What did it say about him that he would rather endure literal torture than learn something he wasn't interested in?
He headed towards the part of the estate Ellen had told him to go to last night, when he had made the arrangements with her. However, when he neared the room she had told him about, Darian saw a flash and felt something strike him in several places. He lost control of his body and fell forward. Someone caught him, however, and lifted him onto their shoulder. From the outfit, he guessed it was Ellen.
Why had she attacked him? Was it a part of the training? He had already been on his way to the room she wanted him to go to. Couldn't she have waited until he arrived?
Darian could ask her none of these questions. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move any part of his body. This included his vocal cords. The only thing he could do was move his eyes to look around. That was it.
His senses still worked, including his sense of touch.
Ellen brought Darian to a room. He didn't get a good look at it, until she strapped his body to a rack. Ellen secured his arms and legs in manacles, leaving him spread out before her. The room they were in wasn't large. It was half the size of his bedroom, and had few furnishings. There was a table which held all kinds of cruel looking implements. Knives, hooks, and other tools that Darian had no name for. In a corner stood a brazier with a smokeless fire burning inside it. There were several pieces of red hot metal inside the flames.
A drain sat in the middle of the stone floor, covered by a metal grate.
For the first time, Darian felt a trickle of fear. Intellectually, he had understood that this form of training would include literal torture. However, this was the first time that he understood what that meant. Beforehand, he had only focused on the fact that it would speed up his cultivation.
His intuition told him that he had made a mistake.
Ellen gazed at him, a cold and inscrutable expression on her face. Her features looked less human and more reptilian than he was used to. It was uncanny, and Darian shuddered with instinctive revulsion.
"You have no idea how many times I've seen you like this, Young Master," Ellen said. Despite her expression, she sounded wistful and melancholic, as if reliving long gone cherished memories. "Bound and helpless before me, and completely at my mercy."
A serpentine tongue slithered out of her mouth as she tasted the air around his face.
"You're afraid, I can taste it," Ellen said. "Good. You should be, Young Master. This is the same training my first master put me through. There won't be any permanent damage, but the pain will be unlike anything you have ever felt before. I will break you in body, mind, and spirit."
She leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
"I just hope that you don't hate me too much when this is over," she said in a voice full of sorrow. "Use your mind sense to observe what I do to you, so this isn't for nothing."
With that, Ellen walked over to the table and picked up a wicked looking knife. Darian couldn't even scream as she began to carve into him.
Ellen was right, the pain was unlike anything Darian had ever felt before. She used every single one of those tools and instruments on him, hurting him in ways he didn't think were possible. She was creative about it too. Just as he thought that the pain could not get any worse, she found new ways to make him suffer.
She wasn't shy about using the red hot pieces of metal, either. His flesh sizzled and burned, filling the air with a smell that reminded him of cooking pork.
Darian wanted to vomit at the stench, but he couldn't. He couldn't move at all. All he could do was observe.
Neither could he scream, except in his own mind.
The worst part, however, was the way she looked at him. As she tortured him, Ellen gazed at Darian as if he were an insect, a bug, a specimen to be vivisected. She looked at him as if he wasn't even a person anymore, but a thing to be taken apart.
Somehow, he managed to use his mind sense to observe his own torture. He saw it all, every grisly detail. It was the only thing he could do, the only thing still within his power to do, so he put his all into it. He watched as Ellen broke his body down, bit by bit.
Things only worsened when Ellen finished with his body and started on his mind. Using forbidden techniques, she scoured his mind. It wasn't just one kind of pain either. Some were sharp. Some were dull. Some tore into him. Some made him feel like he was imploding. Ellen changed it every now and again, keeping him from getting used to it. Sometimes he endured these varying kinds of pain one at a time, and sometimes he endured them all at once.
Darian managed to hold onto a thread of sanity. The will strengthening training Astra had put him through helped with this. A part of him suspected Ellen spared that thread, to avoid breaking him entirely. The rest was too busy suffering at her hands.
Ellen also pulled up memories from his past, forcing him to live through them again, including everything he felt back then, both physical and emotional. In particular, she focused on the years after he learned he couldn't cultivate, but before he met Astra.
In one memory, he had gone to a friend's house to celebrate his birthday. Darian couldn't remember the boy's name. This was when he was fourteen, a few months after he had tried and failed to cultivate. A stone-faced servant had brought him to the room where everyone was celebrating. Darian tried to participate, but everyone ignored him. They acted as if he wasn't even there. No matter what he tried, they pretended he didn't exist. Even when he grabbed one of them, they just shrugged him off and continued to ignore him.
Surrounded by a crowd of people, yet completely isolated, that was when Darian learned what it meant to be alone.
In another memory, Darian had been running outside while it rained, though he didn't remember why. He slipped, and fell down a small incline, breaking his ankle. Due to his injury, he couldn't climb back up. At least he hadn't been far from the main road that wound its way up Mt. Wind Dance. Someone would find him if he kept shouting, someone would come, or so he had thought.
After what felt like hours, a group of his kin did pass by, all of them his age. He shouted for them to help, but they either just ignored him or sneered in his direction.
Not a single one of them helped, even though it would have been trivial for them to do so. After all, they were cultivators. Even for ones in the Foundation Establishment stage, it would have been easy. They left him there, injured and alone in the rain.
Thankfully, a servant came by not long after and helped him. A mortal servant, who almost slipped and fell himself.
Darian had never told his father or his friends about these incidents, and the few others like them. He wouldn't have been able to handle the looks of pity they would have given him.
Things became foggy for Darian after that. He came back to consciousness when he heard a voice speak. It took him a moment to realize that this entire time, Ellen had not said a single word.
Despite regaining consciousness, Darian kept his eyes closed. He didn't have the energy to open them.
"Darian!" the voice said. It sounded like Vera's. "By the ancestors, what have you done to him?"
"I did as the Young Master commanded," Ellen said in a monotone voice.
"He commanded you to torture him? I thought that this was supposed to be some kind of training!"
Darian felt a pair of hands touch him, and something coursed through him, washing away the pain. Before it could go far, however, the hands pulled away. The pain returned. Darian would have cried if he could.
"Let go of me!" Vera said.
"He must be conscious as you heal him," Ellen said. "He must be aware, and he must feel it. Otherwise, this would have been all for nothing. This is training for him."
They remained silent for several seconds. Darian attempted to open his eyes, but the effort exhausted him.
"Fine," Vera spat out.
The pair of hands touched him again. Instead of taking away the pain, however, Darian felt a foreign energy invade his body. It felt like the waters of the rushing river, running pure and clean. This energy began to mend Darian's body, while also providing it with the strength needed to heal itself. It wasn't just his body either. She healed the damage done to his mind.
It hurt, almost as much as the torture itself.
"Ancestors above," Vera whispered. "There's so much damage. You'll pay for putting me through this, Darian. If I had known that this was what you had in mind, I never would have agreed to help."
That was why Darian hadn't told her the details about his intense physical training. A part of him, the sane part, pointed out that he hadn't come up with a plan for afterwards, when she found out the truth.
Little by little, Vera put Darian back together. He used his mind sense to observe the process. It was the only thing he could do. It fascinated him, in a macabre way, to see his flesh knit back together after it had been torn apart.
After what felt like an eternity, Vera finished healing him and retracted her energy. Darian was whole again, but still unable to move. He didn't know if it was Ellen's doing, or a lack of energy.
"There," Vera said, her voice filled with exhaustion. "Done. Are you satisfied?"
Darian sensed that her words weren't directed at him.
"Yes, Cultivator Astra," Ellen said. "I will now take the Young Master to his quarters."
"No, I will. You've done enough."
Darian felt someone undo the manacles securing him in place. He almost fell, but someone caught his body and began to carry him.
"We are going to have a conversation about honesty when you wake up, Darian," Vera said with vehemence. "I am beyond furious with you."
If she said anything else, Darian didn't hear it, as he fell into a dreamless sleep.
***
Ellen cleaned her work room, using her spirit energy to direct a cleaning solution she had created herself. It rinsed away Young Master Darian's blood with ease, washing it down the drain, until no trace of it remained. She cleaned her tools by hand, however. It wasn't necessary, and it would have been faster to use spirit energy, but she preferred it this way. The routine helped center her.
Cleaning her working space and her tools right after use had been a habit ingrained into Ellen from a young age. Her first master, Nightshade, had stressed the importance of keeping one's tools and one's working space in order. A chaotic space was the sign of a chaotic mind, Nightshade had said. While the woman herself had been monstrous, she had been a good teacher to Ellen.
Ellen almost regretted killing her, if only because she hadn't finished her apprenticeship to Nightshade. Almost. It had been the right choice, but Ellen sometimes wished she had learned everything Nightshade knew first. That way, it wouldn't have been as much of a waste.
"Is everything all right?" Guardian Astra asked.
Ellen glanced at the entrance to her work space. Guardian Astra, still in her human form, leaned against the doorway. She looked at Ellen with concerned eyes. Ellen hadn't noticed her approach. Then again, it was hard to notice Guardian Astra when she didn't want to be noticed, given the difference in their strengths.
"Yes, Guardian Astra," Ellen said, speaking in the same monotone voice she had used earlier. It was the only way she could keep her emotions in check. "Cultivator Vera saw to Young Master Darian's wounds, and he is now resting. I believe today's session was a success."
Guardian Astra's gaze didn't let up. She remained concerned.
"Darian isn't the only one I'm worried about," she said. "While he is my primary concern, Senior Sister Nova did ask me to watch over you and your brother. I know a bit of your history, so I know doing some like this wasn't easy for you. So I ask again, is everything all right?"
That was where Guardian Astra was wrong. What she had done to Young Master Darian had been easy. While she didn't enjoy it, like some might, inflicting pain on others didn't bother Ellen, not anymore. She had killed that part of herself long ago.
The torture itself didn't bother Ellen. It was who she had tortured that disturbed her.
"I am fine, Guardian Astra," Ellen said, lying through her teeth.
Guardian Astra must have sensed this, but remained silent.
"Very well," she said. "I will go back to watching over Darian. I'm worried about him. Perhaps we did this too soon. He has only been cultivating for a few months, after all. Should I have allowed this?" Guardian Astra said this, almost to herself. "If Darian had been further along, closer to the Energy Gathering stage, then maybe he could've gone through a body tempering bath instead. The problem is, all the ones I know might kill him if he tried them now."
Ellen put down the tool she had been cleaning, picked up another one, and began cleaning that one.
"Young Master Darian is stronger than you think," she said. "A little pain like this won't stop him."
Guardian Astra gazed at her, an inscrutable expression on her face.
"You really care for him, don't you?" she asked. "That's why you keep teasing him. It's not just a game to you, is it?"
Ellen just nodded.
"Very well," Guardian Astra said, she turned to leave, but then stopped. "Oh, what do you think about our special guest? The rat? I assume you noticed her."
"She's good," Ellen said. "I almost didn't realize that she was a cultivator. She's not good enough, however. The telltale signs gave her away, however." She glanced at Guardian Astra. "I assume there is a reason that she still breathes."
Guardian Astra nodded.
"Her fate is up to Darian to decide. Senior Sister Nova put her under several mental compulsions, so she's not a threat to us. You don't have to worry about that. Elliot already knows about her, but I'll tell Darian about her when the time is right. He needs to know what it means to hold another person's life in his hands."
Ellen nodded. While Young Master Darian had killed before, that was a dire monster. Killing a person was something else altogether. More than that, killing in battle and killing in cold blood were two different matters. Ellen wished he could be spared this choice, but it wasn't up to her. The world was a dangerous place, and sometimes hard decisions had to be made. She hoped that he made the right choice for himself, whatever that might be.
With that, Guardian Astra left. She wasn't gone for long, however, when Ellen had another visitor. Her brother and twin, Elliot, joined her. Like Guardian Astra, he hovered around the doorway. Elliot had never liked this aspect of herself. It reminded of what he considered his greatest failure.
"Sister," Elliot said. "How are you doing?"
Ellen sighed. Why was everyone asking her that today?
"I'm fine, Brother," she said, smiling at Elliot.
"Liar," he said. "You're in pain. I can see it in your eyes."
Tsk. Her brother had always been too perceptive for Ellen's comfort. It made hiding things from him more difficult.
"Hurting others stopped bothering me a long time ago, Brother. You know this."
"That's what concerns me, but I won't retread old ground. We've had that conversation too many times to count." He shook his head. "It was hurting Young Master Darian that pained you, wasn't it?"
Ellen placed the tool she had been cleaning down. She didn't pick up another one. Keeping the truth from Guardian Astra was one thing, but this was Elliot. If she couldn't tell him how she felt, who could she tell?
"I'm afraid that he won't see me the same after this," Ellen whispered. "I'm afraid that he'll fear and hate me. He might even send me away."
While Ellen could endure that, she wanted to remain by Young Master Darian's side.
"You could have said no," Elliot pointed out. "You didn't need to do this."
Ellen shook her head.
"Yes, I did." She gestured to her tools and her work space. "All this is now in service to Young Master Darian. I will use my skills and my expertise for his sake, whether that means using them on his enemies, or helping him grow stronger."
Elliot shook his head, frustrated.
"Why? I thought you had given up that part of yourself. I know you're loyal to Master Nova, but isn't this going too far?"
Ellen smiled at her brother. She walked over and put a hand to his cheek.
"I never gave it up. I merely put it aside for a time. This is a part of who I am. I know you hate it, but it is the truth." She shook her head. "Besides, I don't do this out of loyalty to Master Nova. I do this for Young Master Darian's sake. He is important to me."
"Why?" Elliot asked again. He stared into her eyes, as if trying to drill into her mind and discover her secrets. "You were always more vigilant when it came to watching over Young Master Darian. Why are you so devoted to him? Is it because he's Master Nova's son?"
While Master Nova had kept Darian's lineage from Astra and Elliot, they had managed to figure it out in their own ways. Ellen, however, had known from the beginning. That wasn't something she could tell either of them, due to the circumstances around Young Master Darian's conception. She had made a promise, both to Master Nova and Young Master Darian, before he had become his current self.
"That's part of it," Ellen said. "As for the rest, I'll keep it to myself for now." She kissed her brother on the cheek. "I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine. Trust me."
Elliot returned the kiss and studied her for a brief moment, before nodding. He left.
Once he was gone, Ellen returned to cleaning her tools.
"One day, Little Demon," Ellen muttered. "I'll fulfill my promise to you. Until then, I'll help you grow stronger."