Chapter 443: The Sovereign’s Gamble

"Five hundred thousand artifacts every standard UNI-Year for one hundred years," Roo repeated. The open shock upon his pale-golden features gradually receded, although his hand remained suspended above the white-stone desk. "Fifty million willforce-recovery artifacts in total, each sold at ten percent below the official price established by the Origin Sect."

"Those are the terms I am offering," Adrian confirmed.

Roo finally lowered his hand and regarded Adrian with renewed attention. The ten-percent discount carried obvious value when multiplied across fifty million artifacts, but that was not the truly exceptional portion of the proposal. For an Upper Major Sect, wealth alone was rarely the limiting factor when purchasing something valuable. Availability was. If Adrian's claims regarding the artifacts were genuine, public demand would inevitably exceed production, and no amount of wealth could purchase an artifact that simply did not exist in sufficient quantities. A protected allocation of five hundred thousand units every year therefore possessed a value that could not be reduced to the discount written beside its price.

"The offer sounds good," Roo said. "However, you are asking me to accept a century-long obligation from a sect whose existence I cannot verify. Fifty million artifacts require more than an extraordinary spell and a few talented inscribers. They require materials, production facilities, distribution routes, quality control, and the ability to preserve all of them through whatever changes the next hundred UNI-Years bring."

"If the Origin Sect intends to assume an obligation of this scale, then we should establish the agreement through the UNI-Contract System. The terms need not be public, but UNI must identify the authority accepting the obligation and enforce the agreement if either sect fails to honor it."

Adrian had anticipated this. Any ordinary sect would have welcomed the authority of the UNI-Sect behind a commercial agreement, particularly when the promised exchange extended across a century. For Origin, the same protection would create a chain leading directly into the system from which Adrian had deliberately removed it.

"I cannot involve the Origin Sect in a UNI-Contract," Adrian replied.

"Then what protection are you offering in place of a contract?" Roo asked. "An agreement of this scale cannot rest solely on the word of a traveler."

"Measurable performance rather than advance trust," Adrian answered. "The first allocation of five hundred thousand artifacts will be delivered within two standard UNI-Years, and the one-hundred-year supply term will begin when Kaalatva accepts that allocation. You may inspect every artifact before payment. Anything that fails to reproduce the recovery effect you have personally verified will not count, and the same condition will apply to every later delivery."

"My promise alone will not discharge the debt. Every completed allocation will settle one year of Origin's obligation, and the debt will remain until all one hundred deliveries have been fulfilled. If Origin fails to provide them, Kaalatva will not have paid for undelivered artifacts, and I will not claim that an offer made inside this office repaid what I received."

"That certainly protects our wealth," Roo acknowledged. "If you fail to deliver, the Kaalatva Sect suffers no financial loss. But it does not protect the value of the inheritance you will carry away today. You have already received Advanced Galactic Kaalatva. If you leave this room and never return, we cannot reclaim the comprehension."

"No," Adrian acknowledged, offering no excuses. He knew the reality of the trade. Once comprehension was given, it could not be undone.

Roo leaned back slightly. "Then answer me without speaking as the founder of some vast organization whose existence I must take on faith. Why should I trust you, Aeon?"

Adrian remained silent.

"You entered my trial through a lawful path, immediately admitted the remaining debt after refusing our discipleship, and proposed terms generous enough to make refusal difficult. That conduct may indeed reflect a rare honor. Or... it may simply be the most convenient performance available to someone currently standing inside the heart of an Upper Major Sect." Roo continued. "Instead of attempting an impossible escape from a stronghold governed by Astral Stage sovereigns, you behave reasonably and offer treasures until I permit you to leave."

The ancient Sect Leader leaned forward, his golden-energy eyes holding Adrian's gaze with absolute focus. "Once you depart Kaalatva's territory, you could easily discard the name Aeon, permanently abandon the Origin Sect, and disappear into a universe far too vast for my people to ever search."

"The Origin Sect may indeed possess the manufacturing infrastructure you describe, or it may be nothing more than a beautiful lie constructed by one exceptionally talented cultivator." Roo's hand gestured toward the empty air between them. "Without a UNI-Contract, I cannot verify its capacity, locate the organization responsible for the debt, or compel a single delivery after you leave this room. What, precisely, can the Kaalatva Sect do if you disappear?"

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Adrian did not answer immediately.

He considered the problem from every angle available to him, but none produced an assurance that satisfied Roo's requirement without exposing something Adrian was unwilling to reveal. He could not register Origin through UNI. He could not provide the location of the Virelith or Andromeda Galaxy. He could not offer another institution as guarantor without creating the same problem in a different form.

Eventually, Adrian accepted that there was no elegant solution.

"I understand the assurance you require," he said. "But I cannot provide it at present."

Roo remained motionless behind the desk, while beyond the broad window, distant mountain ranges rested beneath layers of motionless golden mist. Adrian waited across from him without attempting to weaken his answer. He had offered everything he was currently willing to place on the table. If Roo demanded another form of repayment or rejected the proposal entirely, Adrian would deal with that decision when it came.

"Very well," Roo said at last. "I agree."

Adrian's brows rose faintly before he could conceal his surprise. Nothing about Roo's preceding questions had suggested that he would accept an unenforceable century-long commitment, and Adrian had offered no final assurance capable of resolving the problem.

"May I ask what changed your decision?" Adrian asked.

Roo turned his gaze toward the distant mountains. "Kaalatva has guided me since I was young. Long before I possessed the strength to lead this sect, following its currents led me toward inheritances I did not know I needed, away from disasters I could not yet perceive, and into decisions whose purpose became clear only ages later. Everything I possess, including the position from which I question you now, exists because I learned when to trust that guidance even when I could not understand it."

His attention returned to Adrian. "One of the seven keys I forged vanished beyond every path I could trace. Millions of years later, you returned it and reached final verification of the Advanced Galactic Stage. You then survived the Epoch Crucible in a manner absent from every record of this sect, refused discipleship, and remained to acknowledge a debt you might have attempted to deny."

"I cannot prove that Kaalatva directed any part of your journey. Perhaps your arrival is no more than an impossible coincidence. Perhaps the Origin Sect is nothing but a constructed name, and I will receive no artifact when the two years have passed."

"Nevertheless, I have trusted patterns within Kaalatva that I understood even less than this one. I will gamble upon what I believe it has placed in my path once again."

Adrian inclined his head. "I will ensure that you do not regret that choice."

"Do not answer too quickly," Roo said. He straightened behind the desk. "If everything you have told me is true, then the agreement between Kaalatva and Origin is commercial. It is not an alliance, a declaration of friendship, or an acceptance of responsibility for whatever enemies your hidden sect has accumulated."

"I understand the distinction," Adrian replied.

"Kaalatva will not act as Origin's protector." Roo continued, "You will not present this sect as your backer, imply that our sovereigns stand behind your public release, or use this transaction to discourage another power from investigating you. Our name will provide no shield for yours."

"Origin will not claim Kaalatva's protection or present this agreement as anything beyond the exchange settled here," Adrian replied.

Roo held his gaze for another moment before rising from behind the desk. Adrian stood with him. Although Roo's body consisted entirely of pale-golden energy, his movement disturbed neither the surrounding mana nor the rules woven through the office. He extended one hand across the desk.

"Then Kaalatva accepts your terms," Roo said. "The first allocation will arrive no later than two standard UNI-Years from today. The supply term will begin when that allocation passes inspection, and only the completion of all one hundred annual deliveries will discharge your debt. Until then, your obligation remains recorded between us."

Adrian clasped the offered hand. The energy beneath his fingers possessed the firmness of living flesh. "Then the agreement is settled."

The handshake lasted only an instant. When Roo released him, dense golden light gathered behind Adrian and unfolded into a doorway identical to the one through which he had entered.

"You may leave, Sect Leader Aeon," Roo said. "Kaalatva will await proof that its gamble was well placed."

"You will receive it." Adrian inclined his head to the ancient Sect Leader, then turned and stepped into the golden doorway. The surrounding spatial rules folded around him, and his figure vanished with the closing light.

Roo remained standing behind the desk after the doorway disappeared. His gaze rested upon the empty space Adrian had occupied, while the currents of the willforce-recovery spell continued their slow rotation around his consciousness.

"Origin Sect," Roo murmured.

He still could not determine whether the name belonged to a hidden power genuinely capable of manufacturing fifty million willforce-recovery artifacts or to a fiction created by one impossible cultivator.

However, if Aeon had spoken the truth, the coming public release would accomplish far more than merely strengthen Kaalatva.

For ages, the Celestial Cognition Sect had guarded its willforce-recovery artifacts within its own walls, allowing the wider universe to know that such treasures existed while refusing to release any meaningful quantity beyond the hands of its own disciples. The rarity had become one more privilege through which that sect reminded everyone else of the superiority of its inheritance.

A slow smirk spread across Roo's pale-golden face as he imagined their elders confronting a public market suddenly filled with artifacts reproducing a benefit they had treated as their private domain.

The advantage to Kaalatva alone already justified the gamble, but the possibility of finally silencing those arrogant bastards made Roo hope that Aeon had understated what was coming.