Chapter 15

We couldn't really date until we had a house sorted. We cuddled and kissed. Switch teased me by drawing circles on my belly when we were spooning at night, getting close to some naughty areas but never quite getting there. My confusion continued, unsure whether I wanted her to explore or not. May decided to move to the other mattress, sleeping alone, although sometimes joining us in the morning for a platonic cuddle.

Under a little pressure from me, Ice had gathered enough money for a deposit, although she hoped to have enough money to pay for the house entirely by the time we needed it, it gave us the opportunity to start looking. We quite quickly chose a house. It was near a power relay station with overhead power cables which meant it wasn't very popular, had been on the market for a long time and was going for a relatively cheap price. Probably harmful to people who didn't have an affinity for lightning. Switch thought she would be alright temporarily and we would start shielding the common rooms after we had access to the ring space. Being a cultivator probably meant that she would be immune to any detrimental effects. We did find it strange that the house had been built there in the first place. It wasn't that people didn't know that it was harmful, there had been numerous studies done already proving that.

Even with our offer accepted and being a cash buyer, it was still going to take three weeks for the legal elements to be completed. Enough time for Ice to gather funds and for me to work out what I needed to order in terms of both equipment and resources to be able to manufacture the energy gathering pill and the hair removing cream.

May had taken our sizes and was in charge of our wardrobe. She had done her research using magazines and was ordering lots of stuff from online shops. Switch was also ordering stuff but kept her stuff more secret. May was also insisting that, while keeping our end goal in sight, we spend time to enjoy ourselves. She talked about the socialisation that was mandatory at school and that we needed to follow the same principles. We needed the opportunity to meet others. There was no point in making close friendships bearing in mind that we would be leaving this realm and no one would be able to follow, but that didn't mean we couldn't be friendly.

We decided that once we were settled in the new house we would cultivate during the week and spend the weekends trying different things. There were a lot of things on offer in Guildford and London was not that far away.

I was getting used to this new body. I still felt more male than female. If I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't see anything and asked myself if I was male or female I would definitely say, male. In the light, it was very hard to argue with a female designation. I was all over the place in my thoughts about dating Switch. When she cuddled me and lightly touched my belly I knew she was thinking naughty thoughts and that scared and thrilled me in equal measure. In the end, excitement won. I was enjoying our kissing sessions, relaxing more into it as the anxiety faded and ready for the next step.

Switch, although insistent that she was going to have a short hairstyle, started joining May playing with my hair. We worked on different types of plaits and what could be done with a few bobby pins. I practised doing it on my own as well. It was ridiculously long and awkward to care for, but we all knew that when we ascended our hair would be this long again. We wouldn't immediately have access to a pair of scissors or a knife and if my prediction of each world having more elemental energy but less technology held true, we would be going to a relatively primitive world.

The other worry about a primitive world was that lightning energy would be significantly less concentrated. We could solve that once we could access the ring, but if we started on the Terra Realm the same way we started here, with no energy in our meridians, that could be a long way off. Switch would be unaffected, I would still have wind and water to draw from, but May would be limited to what was available from lightning strikes.

So while waiting for the house to go through, I was racking my brain, trying to think of a way to access the ring sooner and work out a way to do the same in the Terra Realm. The ring had to be activated with some kind of intelligence. I couldn't just attach a power source to the ring. The reason why I thought that is because I realised there were some inconsistencies. When I entered the ring space, what I was deliberately touching came in with me, but was I not also touching the floor? Air existed in the ring space but there was nothing to produce it. I could understand it not running out if there was no limit to the size involved, but if I was bringing the air with me, why did it not have any elemental energy? My overall conclusion was that my thoughts were influencing my use of the ring and the ring space itself. I didn't want to jinx it but my first ideas of creating a formation block and linking it to the ring wouldn't work because there was no energy in the ring space where I last left it to be gathered and there would be no intelligence guiding it.

I did think creating a formation block was feasible though and that could help with our cultivation. This world had primitive versions of fabricators called three-dimensional printers that could be used with salt crystals and water to make formation blocks.

My next idea was to inject elemental energy into the meridian that was close to the ring and then mentally direct it into the ring. There were numerous difficulties with that idea. My body would reject any energy that I was not in alignment with so I could only inject pure lightning, wind or water energy and separating them out was almost impossible. The only real possibility was lightning energy since we could deliberately produce it and when we did it would only be lightning energy.

I couldn't just use electrical energy as that creates damage, burns the tissues and achieves nothing. But what was the difference between electricity and lightning energy? I was pretty sure lightning energy could create lightning which was no different from electricity. Using electricity created an area rich in lightning energy.

Going back to my experiments with formations, I found using an electrical conductor pushed the electricity through too quickly and I needed to find a medium that would slow down the transfer of energy. I couldn't do any experiments until we moved into the new house and even then they were not my first priority. We needed to set ourselves up for the long haul which included creating a cultivating space and making the energy gathering pills. To better fit in I was also going to make the hair removal cream. I thought Switch was right, there was no way I was going to yank out all of my hairs. The youtube videos looked scary.

Chapter 16

May's POV

Aunty worried too much. I know her planning and experiments were really helpful, but we were missing out on enjoying the now. We had a whole new world to explore. I loved the new clothes and although I didn't like any of the work involved, I was thrilled with the process of making ourselves pretty. Aunty was going to have the permanent makeup option, I don't think Switch was going to bother, but I was experimenting with Ice's help with all the products available.

What amazed me was how different your face could look just by emphasising different features. Even Switch got excited then although she was more interested in disguises. Aunty didn't really need makeup to look beautiful, but a little bit of lipstick and eye shadow brought out the wow. I wasn't going to choose permanent makeup when I could change my look every day just by painting my face.

It was a little bit awkward with Aunty and Switch flirting so much and us all living in a tent, but I wanted them both to be happy so I tried to give them space. In the Mortal Realm, same-sex relationships were heavily discouraged. I have to admit that I was a little bit prejudiced but Aunty insisted that I approach Switch with an open mind and to my surprise, I found out she wasn't some weird sexual deviant like I had been taught.

Aunty explained that our culture was heavily influenced by our relatively rapid ageing, as compared to other realms, which meant our survival as a species depended on early heterosexual marriage followed shortly by children. Anything outside of that would not help society and would be frowned upon. People lived so much longer here in the Earth Realm that women often didn't start having children until they were in their thirties. Aunty also suggested that it would be even more common in the next realms although that might be mitigated by a more primitive male-dominated society.

Even though I know it is wrong, but being honest with myself I know I was a lot more accepting of Aunty's growing relationship with Switch because Aunty was originally Uncle. Despite his body physically changing he, or I guess she now, seemed to be the same person. It made sense that Uncle would find a woman attractive so I found it easy to see her, as Aunty, being interested in Switch. I didn't understand how it would physically work, but I wasn't interested in finding out either.

When we moved into the new house I chose the bedroom furthest away from the master. Switch nominally put some of her stuff into the third bedroom but slept every night in the master with Aunty. I'm guessing something happened to further their relationship as Aunty changed from looking nervous to happy. Switch always had a predator look about her, at least when she was looking at Aunty. After that happened I tried to not disturb them so much and if I felt the need for a cuddle I approached carefully, making sure I wasn't interrupting anything.

We spent a lot of time doing the EG kata and I could feel the difference cultivating near the power relay station. Still, it was going to take us quite some time to get to the stage where we could have enough energy in our systems to be able to mentally move it around. Those energy gathering pills made quite some difference.

Aunty attempted to make some of the pills using the herbs that she had ordered, glass measuring jugs and the ceramic stove. It turned into a mess so she ordered lots of complex glass apparatus and heating elements to replicate what we found on the bench in the ring space. In the meantime, she was experimenting with entering the ring space, which prompted another family meeting.

“Alright, I've got some good news and some not so good news,” Aunty told us.

“Lay it on, sister,” Switch replied.

Switch liked trying to use all these different expressions and especially liked to emphasise Aunty's new feminine form. Fortunately, Aunty didn't seem to mind and Ice was able to translate anything I didn't understand.

“I've managed to find a way to access the ring space, but I need your help and it can only be done is short bursts,” Aunty answered.

“That is wonderful, how did you manage that?” Switch responded.

I groaned but tried to keep it quiet. Switch should know by now that you didn't ask Aunty for explanations.

“Well, I filled these tubes with rock salt and a hint of water. Hooking them up with a car battery as the electrical generator and applying one to the meridian before the ring and one after the ring to create a circuit allows me to get a localised increased energy that I can divert into the ring,” Aunty explained.

“And when the battery runs out no more energy goes into the ring?” Switch asked.

“That would be true but, to be honest, that is not the limiting factor. The battery supplies electrical energy and the water energy is fine too, but there is earth energy in the rock salt which I am not compatible with so applying the energy hurts and does a bit of damage,” she responded.

“How much damage?” I asked nervously. There were lots of things I wanted that we had stored in the ring space, but I didn't want Aunty to hurt herself.

Aunty sighed. “That is hard to answer. I went into the ring space for a few seconds and the pain took about an hour to die down. I can't really move, but if you both came with me, it wouldn't take long to get the two things that we need; the pharmaceutical fabricator and the portable fabricator. I can assemble a suitable power transformer from local components and likewise, I can buy suitable reagents or resources.”

“Is it worth it?” I asked. “Yes, I want to see my mother again, but I haven't seen her for years, a few more won't matter. I don't want to put you through pain just to speed up the process.”

Aunty smiled at me in a very caring way. “Maybe I am being a little impatient. It's not just about speed, with the fabricator we can create armour and weapons. We will be a lot safer and for that, I am willing to sacrifice a bit of pain. With the pharmaceutical fabricator, you can get me some decent pain killers. I have to admit I didn't realise how much opening our secondary meridians would slow us down when I am not able to cheat with technology. I am even more worried about the next world. Lightning is a wonderful attribute to be attuned to when in a technological world, but if the world is more primitive the amount in the atmosphere is likely to be very weak compared to what we are used to. Without access to our ring space, cultivating could be very slow.”

“Only for me,” I remarked. “You still have wind and water affinities and Switch has three affinities that should be abundant in a primitive world. I have confidence that we would be alright if we ascended normally, but I expect you will develop a few tricks between now and then. You could consider opening our secondary meridians as a mistake, but you needed to do that to be healthy and if we hadn't then we wouldn't be able to ascend together.”

“Not only that,” Switch added, “with our secondary meridians opened we are more combat effective and if we ever learn techniques that utilize our chi energy, we would have a much larger pool to draw from. We will be able to punch much above our level.”