The Empress made her wait for a while as an assertion of her power, but it was honestly a bit flimsy, so Omilaena wasn't bothered. Since they gave her a room that was a lot nicer than the ship she'd taken across the ocean, she remained in the Coiled Empire and enjoyed doing her research with the chakra of Rosemount around her.
When she was finally summoned, it wasn't to an audience at the throne room, which suited her fine. Instead Omilaena was led by nervous guards to a smaller garden off one wing of the palace, where she discovered the Empress of the Coiled Empire waiting for her. The lamia looked as massive as before, with all her regal accouterments, but her power wasn't so intimidating anymore.
"I do not appreciate being treated like this," the Empress told her. "No matter that you rendered me assistance, this is-"
"You'll appreciate what I'm about to tell you." Omilaena took a step closer, looking up into the elder lamia's eyes. "Have you heard about what happened on Deadwaste?"
"Some local matter. It interfered with trade, but trade with Deadwaste has always been insignificant to the Coiled Empire."
"There's a man who's going to land any day now, and he has a full defensive phase." Omilaena smirked as she saw the Empress flinch at that reference. "Not only that, he has an offensive phase as well. Now, if I tried to fight him, I would lose right now. But if you tried to fight him... I think it wouldn't go well for your reputation, would it?"
The Empress lashed her tail irritably. "Is this some charade of blackmail? Are you telling me that the human you were with is coming to attack me?"
"Hah! Kai has mastered phases too, but no, it's not him. I'm being entirely sincere in warning you about the invaders: they hit Deadwaste first, but some of them are coming to Rosemount next. I'm not trying to intimidate you, I'm here because I need allies. You and the great powers are some of the few who might be able to fight him, so I don't want you to go in unprepared."
"This seems absurd, but you've always been absurd." The Empress lowered herself closer to eye level, glaring at Omilaena. "Let's assume this threat of yours is real. If the danger is as substantial as you claim, you haven't come to me for protection, not at your strength. So what do you want?"
"Resources." Omilaena formed a chair metal and sat down, then summoned her pipe. "I'm close to a breakthrough that will let me fight the invader, but I could use some help."
It took a while for them to negotiate a deal, mostly due to the Empress's pride. For her part, Omilaena felt that she was actually understating the threat, and she was mildly irritated to suffer through this. But if Jonijix and other invaders landed and the Empress tried to fight them, they would destroy her fabled defense and possibly even rape her, which would be an atrocious start to their time on Rosemount.
If Omilaena got some resources out of warning them, well, that was a nice bonus. She negotiated to receive a number of the strongest poisons and metals in the entire Coiled Empire, promising to help them in their defenses. It wasn't even really a lie, since she would use her new power to beat the invaders... just not necessarily in time to save the Empire. Even with all the unknown variables remaining regarding her Physique, the math didn't look good.
There was one other term she was insistent on: contacting the Elven Expanse. The two powers were still on decent terms after they officially collaborated to defeat Matiavel and "generously" free the Commonwealth, so that wasn't so hard. If things could be arranged in time, that would make Omilaena's time on her home continent much easier.
She left the Empress and returned to her rooms, beginning to work with her new materials. The remnant of the Whispering Death she held was being slowly converted by the Prana Jewels, but that alone would take forever - it was an Insanity, after all. Somehow she needed poison chakra that she could absorb.
Days later, before Omilaena found any solution, she heard that she had a visitor. When she stepped out of her room, she saw a familiar elf.
"Ceryyn Sandflower," Omilaena said with a smile. "It's been a long time."
"Omilaena!" Ceryyn hugged her with surprising enthusiasm, then just as abruptly pulled back. "Wait, is it bad that you're alone? You didn't have a fight or something, did you? Because I was really rooting for the three of you t-"
"Nah, we're still fine, just working on separate continents. Look I'm not going to play the political game with you: I want to use you for your teleportation."
The plan had been to explain about the invaders and the threat to all Rosemount, but Ceryyn immediately gave a mocking salute. "Then call me a pack mule!"
"Wait, really? That easily?"
"You did the Elven Expanse a great service, and I feel we didn't properly repay you... though speaking of, how did you enjoy Darkmist Island?"
So Omilaena finished her elven negotiations much faster than she had anticipated, arranging for teleportation all across the continent. She explained everything to Ceryyn, from abbreviated events regarding Darkmist Island to the current threat. It was actually fun getting to talk to Ceryyn again, and Omilaena realized how much she'd missed Rosemount.
They were going to arrange a broader tour of the continent, but Ceryyn needed to inform the elven elders and make arrangements of her own. Omilaena waited patiently enough while she was gone, continuing her training slowly but surely.
And then, sadly few days later, she heard that Jonijix had landed. Fuck, out of time already.
.
..
.
Meeting with Kai, even briefly, had almost thrown Zae Zin Nim off her rhythm. It was difficult to focus purely on cultivation when thinking of her husband, and the visit made her miss her wife as well. Just trying to work for their sake wasn't sufficient to regain that singular focus she had managed before.
And yet, the distraction proved to be what she needed. Looking only at herself, considering cultivation solely from a single angle of "Brightwind purity" had blinded her to broader patterns. It seemed that, to attain inner understanding, she needed to look outward first. Some of the more mystical cultivation manuals, which she had discarded as crackpot, actually made more sense now.
So Zae Zin Nim began to examine members of the Brightwind Sect with her deeper spiritual senses, determining what she could about their underlying cultivation. She even volunteered to help deal with political problems caused by the ongoing changes at the center of the continent - not really for the Brightwind Sect, solely because she wanted to examine more cultivators.
She wasn't Omilaena, but years of being together had given Zae Zin Nim a reasonably strong understanding of the deeper theory of souls. The more she thought about it, the more she thought she understood the principles underneath the doctrines.
Many of the cultivators she saw were on inferior paths, obtaining less than the theoretical maximum of pure cultivation. But she had learned that purity was not necessarily the ideal - crystal cultivation was a purer use of qi, after all, and it was inferior to what she knew. And even her father had begun to delve into mana and chakra when he reached the limits of Sky Soul and needed more power. The best path of cultivation needed to touch on every part of the soul, which made it much more complex than the essentialized Brightwind cultivation.
If only she could examine Omilaena again... but she would have to work based on her memory of her wife, which was admittedly quite detailed. When Omilaena had become a cultivator, she had made it part of her soul in a different form, just as Zae Zin Nim had made a Goralian Class into the Coldfire Corona. As they had both proved, these alternative forms could be just as powerful as the originals.
Meanwhile, Kai was more of a mystery with his Gluttonous Cultivation, which looked completely normal to shallow spiritual sight, yet behaved somewhat differently in practice - especially given how much qi he required for each stage. Could that ultimately become something different?
If so, then she thought that she might be able to take another step of her own, higher than the next step on the map. The Blackblood Physique had been meant to be purged, but she had made it into something superior. She would still reach for Sky Soul, but it would be the truest form of Sky Soul, based on the ancient principles instead of merely following the rules of others.
To take either of those steps, she would need Kai to return from the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes. And when it came to that, all she could do was wait for news.
(Okay, people in the poll overall voted for no cliffhanger, so no chapter tomorrow. A sizable minority voted the other way and I can only ask for your patience. Soon enough after the holidays we'll be straight into increasingly climactic chapters.)