Aimless Ascension

"Get your hands on our new Fatewatch and never miss a single moment of your life. Fatewatch, Series 1. Your time in your hand."

Maya had a peculiar expression on her face as she watched him.

Kelash finished and waited for her to be star-struck at the brilliance of his pitch and the product, but unfortunately, none of that happened. She simply looked at him for once and returned to examining the item.

"I knew my delivery is bad," Kelash grumbled. "Gale used it so efficiently that he even convinced me to build this product that I might have frowned upon if someone else pitched the idea. Practitioner, worried about time? They spend day after day in sequestered closer door cycling. What's worth time for them?"

"So that's why the paintings," Maya intoned. "But none of them showing the silhouettes were measuring time looking at the sun. It's more like they are enjoying it."

Kelash groaned. "Tell me about it."

Maya chuckled. "Well, at least the products look good," she said. "Other than the time, it can measure one's progress in spirit arts, heart rate, blood pressure and many other small features. I can already see aspiring practitioners comparing themselves with this device."

"We could have put a lot more features," Kelash said again, getting back his pride after his half-assed delivery. "Gale planned to make it something greater, quoting him, "One device to rule them all". He was giving really a menacing vibe when he said that. Thankfully, we hardly have the technology or fund to be successful in his vision.

"However, we could have put in the new way of visual recording function, which is a thousand times more easily accessible than a recording crystal, then there was the close distance chat feature and a few useless stuff."

"Wait, did you just say you guys have found a better way of recording visuals?"

"That we did, however, Gale said our world isn't ready for it," Kelash said, high on enthusiasm. "That's why we refrained from popularising it this time."

Maya frowned, contemplating. "That was probably for the best," she said. "Anyway, although your product is impressive, and I wish you success, though I would ask for you to go a different route in advertising. I really don't want to see copies of my paintings all over the realm once this gets popularised."

A brilliant idea dawned on Kelash as he heard her. "Well, perhaps you can solve the issue," he said hesitatingly, "I'm sure an artist of your caliber can deliver what these half-baked wannabes cannot."

"Hold on a second," Maya said, arching her eyebrow. "Did I hear that right? Did you just suggest that I make the art for the advertisement? Do you know how many kings I rejected when they decided to give me royal acclimation? Do you know how many grandmasters and sages wanted to make their portraits and how many I rejected?"

Kelash flustered too easily.

"Good, you don't have my junior brother's shamelessness at the very least," Dawn chuckled at the new moment, breaking out of her serious persona. "Anyway, I would have helped you out of your dilemma if I had time and knew better about this topic. Only one person I know was good at this kind of business idea, and I'm here to discuss something about him."

"That I know the moment I saw you." Kelash coughed. "So how can this lowly Artificer help the Brilliant Maya of the Dawn?"

"Lowly?" Maya arched an eyebrow. "If I didn't know better, I would have accepted that, Kelash, but I know what you're cooking up with my junior brother. It may seem like some lowly scribing work in the beginning, but I can easily grasp where you're going with this."

"Hopefully, we won't fail," Kelash acknowledged her claim with a little fear in his heart. He was merely the brain behind the work while Gale was for executing them to the market. But since the outworlder disappeared, he had to take care of everything. Kelash was sure he wasn't doing a great job of it.

Their plan was to erect an empire and make life better for the masses. Kelash was hardly up for anything that isn't related to scripting, to be honest.

Gale had the experience of another world where the tech revolution happened. He knew how to deal with people, but Kalesh didn't. He was simply an artificer who wasn't even good at orthodox spirit arts.

"So, is there any news of him?" Kelash asked, sounding hopeful. "You know, his brute subjects came to visit me a couple of times. They have been getting anxious about their Al'Caizer."

"That is the reason I'm here," Maya said, deliberately slowing her tone. "Gale, before he disappeared, he came to meet you. Is that correct?"

"Of course, he questioned me for hours, mostly related to our view and progress in the business," Kelash said. "I guess I didn't understand why he was asking all that, but now it made sense. He wanted to see if we're going in the direction he envisioned for our little company."

Gale put a lot of effort into building his company. He seriously wanted it to flourish, even when he wasn't there to look after it.

"Apart from that," Maya asked again. "Did he talk about something very specific, like where he would like to visit? Or where he was heading after you?"

Kelash frowned, considering how to answer this. The problem was nothing specific came to his mind.

"Kelash, this is very serious," Maya said. "If you know about Gale's injury, you better tell me all about it. His life and death and many others depend on it. And I absolutely need to find him before the Sindhi folks do. You don't know what is at stake. I need to find him as soon as possible before he does something he might regret all his life."

Kelash wasn't good at reading people, but he knew there were a few people Gale trusted with his life, and this woman before him stood right at the top of the list.

Besides, it wasn't like he had concrete information to offer her.

Kelash considered and refreshed his memory. Thankfully, that was his strong suit, as most Master Artisans had a near-perfect memory.

"He didn't talk about anything specific, save for the places he would like to visit at least once in his life. Like he mentioned the places of myth and legends he stumbled upon, and asked me if I knew anything about the First House of Spirit arts."

"First house of spirit arts," Maya repeated. "Yes, he wanted to visit there, and I promised to lead him there one day."

"Well, I showed him all the information our organisation had on the first house," Kelash continued. "Like their way of close cultivation, why it is so hard to find their location, about their oracle, and their prediction of the calamity."

"The Oracle," Maya said, her voice jolting with excitement. "Why haven't I made the connection? Yes, this makes sense now."

"What makes sense now?"

Maya lifted her head to look at him. "Thank you, Kelash. Good luck with whatever you're planning."

And with that, she disappeared from his sight.

"I guess I'll fire these lots of wannabes," he muttered, coming for the artists.

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