"Listen, Gordon, you can't tell the Starfire Alliance about my connection to the rebellion."
As the words dropped a sense of loss descended upon him. This was his chance to show a trump card and potentially save his life. It was his chance to survive. Angelica wouldn't kill him for the low level Philos family secrets if she knew that Jessica was a member of the rebellion, right? There was potential for an even deeper collaboration.
Emotions warred on Gordon's face as he fought himself inside a little bit. Having lived two lives he felt like he had a good understanding of life. Gordon briefly wanted to rebel, he definitely didn't want to listen to this seventeen year old diva. Pride and anger vied for dominance within him as he considered that she was playing with his very life. Was this what it meant to be a 'have'? Did 'haves' all come installed with the sheer pride and power it would take to play with people's lives?
Instead of moving on or continuing to try to convince Gordon, Jessica just stayed still and met his eyes. Or at least she stood there resolute as he couldn't maintain her stare. Looking to the side and down he eventually swallowed his pride and anger.
Despite being this girl's senior three times over at least he knew from all those years of experience that he didn't have mastery of every field of understanding. Especially of human social interactions. In this one topic, above all others he was not able to deal well. Let alone mastery he lacked even the barest insight. On the contrary Jessica had demonstrated her fluency and ability in navigating the social world numerous times.
Bowing his head Gordon just nodded.
When he did Jessica first wrinkled her forehead a little, the insides of her brow rose, a look of concern maybe even shock at his acquiescence brush across her features. But it was gone in less than a second and then tension that neither one of them noticed in her shoulders released and she relaxed a bit. Her normal gentle smile suddenly broke out into one of her truly bright smiles. It was as if all the world's cares suddenly vanished allowing light and love to emerge tender and sweet.
"Good. Come on, let's head to the temple ruins. What time is it outside? We have to be there before sundown. I can't tell time well here in this world of varying shades of darkness."
It was true this pocket dimension didn't have a sun. Instead the moon and stars provided the only illumination. And with the moon's silvery presence absent from the sky half the time the darkness was one continual round. Even when the moon was up its gentle evanescence could only add a bit of comfort and homeliness.
Over the next hour they slowly went around and said goodbye to all the denizens of the forest. Really it was the bunny who was weeping and hugging her friends as if she was never going to see them again. Gordon tried to reassure her that they would be able to come back to this realm often and frequently, but the rabbit was inconsolable.
"Let Rosy say her goodbyes, this is important for her development. She must appropriately deal with her emotions before she will be able to move on psychologically."
When Jessica saw that Gordon was becoming impatient she put a hand on his shoulder and explained to him what she wanted for her bonded partner. And as always he just shrugged and waited patiently for the tears and hugging to resolve eventually.
While Jessica and Rosy were moving through the forest escorted by her behemoth's and the two Rocs, Gordon went back to the clearing and sat down to wait out the time.
After a little while, surprisingly, Jult came up to him while he was enjoying star gazing, trying to figure out constellations of stars. Ren gurgled around him playing in the dirt forming all kinds of fantastical shapes.
"How is your new contracted elemental doing?"
Jult asked.
Zoning out for a moment Gordon considered the lichen. He could tell that massive changes had happened similar to when Portensa formed a mutual symbiote out of the cultivation book. He hadn't pulled Portensa out yet though because he could tell that the merger was still solidifying. It had required a lot of healing. As the unnatural symbiotic relationship with not only the cultivation book, but the elemental now required a lot of time to fully merge. The allotment's nurturing ability was the best thing for Portensa at this moment. However, the worst was over and it felt solid and even beaming with happiness.
"It is doing really well."
"Good, I wanted to talk to you about the elemental you contracted."
Suddenly Jult's tone seemed to become a little serious.
"Sure, no problem."
Shrugging Gordon welcomed more information about elementals in general. He definitely needed more information in order to create a tentative cultivation path for Ren. As for Portensa, he doubted that the lichen would follow anything close to a normal elemental development path.
"There was a reason that that elemental was serving as a stand in the temple. How should I say this?"
Jult paused before going on.
"... Don't be surprised if your elemental doesn't speak, let alone have any cognition, and, well, if it can only take that one form..."
Suddenly Gordon had an understanding. He was wondering how it was that a elemental could bond with a lichen. How could a sapient entity willingly become subservient to an unthinking lichen. With the book it had made more sense. While the book had an AI, that AI was entirely entrained to stimulate and facilitate mana circulation. As a servant itself the book's primary function fit perfectly with the lichen. Actually the book was designed to fit in with everyone and anything by design.
An elemental was completely different, or more specifically, normally an elemental would be sheer personality and completely opposed to being enslaved to something else. Yet now the earthen stand elemental seemed to actually fit in very nicely with Portensa. Could this actually be a very good thing?
Starting to look forward to looking at Portensa's system status screen even more Gordon nodded easily to Jult.
"Alright, no problem."
"On the bright side while your elemental lacks in some areas, it makes up for in constitution it is very strong. Even up to the green bronze rank in defense."
And Gordon had a flash of understanding for why Portensa had been able to evolve again. Looking even more forward to looking up her details Gordon decided to wait until they were on their way back to the temple. He would have a lot of time to review and test out any new skills.
Right this second he wanted to be ready to head back to the temple. When Rosy was done saying goodbye to everyone, it would be pretty awkward if they came back and he was still stuck in some kind of skill based chi cultivation or something. So now with Jult joining him, they just talked about life and their experiences.
The time passed quickly and soon after Rosy was standing in the clearing quivering, but resolute in facing this new part of her life.
Gordon pulled something from his system space. Having received Renier's token controlling the pocket dimension he reviewed it quietly and realized that the simplest function of entering and exiting was easily triggered. Interacting with the sigil Gordon, Jessica, and all her summoned beasts appeared in the main world. Gordon's pet, the reindeer lichen was still stowed in one allotted beast space.
Seeing that there was a function to lock the pocket dimension, Gordon thanked Renier in his mind and specifically secured it so that no intruders could sneak in. While he was doing so Jessica was communicating with one of her Behemoths.
"Gareth, take us back."
Jessica commanded the broad shouldered, silver maned man among her contracts who took a few steps away and transformed into his behemoth form. It was up to them to climb up his shoulders, but his broad back had plenty of room. The two rocs eschewed the ride offered by the behemoth, though and directly rose up into the air through the might of their wings.
Gusts of cold mountain air disturbed their clothes and blew Jessica's hair in the wind. But she didn't mind one bit and made it to the top of the behemoth's shoulders in a trice. Her athleticism beating his completely.
"The ride should be smooth, let's cultivate!"
As soon as she reached Gareth's back Jessica sat down and began cultivating.
Realizing that is was pretty sad that Ren didn't have a friend to play with Gordan offered her some food, a few rocks he had saved from the night before, and she began sucking and munching right away. Then taking Jessica as an example Gordon also sat down to the side, pulled out Portensa, and also began to pretend to cultivate. Really he had no need to cultivate since Portensa had entrained his cultivation and immediately called up the information on Portensa.