A New Star Chapter 1

****AN

I've been working on this for a while now and have a handful of chapters done. I thought I'd publish some of them just for the Patreon on Fridays and see what y'all think. I appreciate any and all feedback on these (And yes, I know this first chapter is a bit wordy with its long worldbuilding, but it does rapidly get better).

End AN***

I'm not dead? I remember it being my first thought. 

I need to return to them. I remember it being my second thought. 

I'm a baby. I remember it being my third thought. 

This poses a problem. I remember it being my fourth thought. 

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I remember it all.  

A life once lived, now lost.  

A life where I came from nothing, from dirt, and stood head and shoulders above all others.  

Gone now.  

All gone. 

I woke in my new mother's arms, in a body I didn't know, in a place I didn't know, surrounded by people I didn't know. They were not my people, those men and women I had remolded a planet alongside, conquered the stars alongside, struck down the evil that threatened us all alongside. They were new faces, strange faces, people I did not know. I took it all in as my new mother held me, thinking; thinking of all the things I should do.  

No. 

Of all those things I must do. It did not matter how far apart we were, separated by time and space, by a gulf so vast even the stars couldn't light it. I would find my way back to them once again. It is not arrogance on my part, but they were my people, and I was their guiding light. Their bright star in the midst of blackest night. For their sakes, for their protection, I would return to take up the mantle I had lost. 

I looked up at my new mother as she smiled down at me, sweaty and flushed and exhausted from a difficult birth. I did not know if I had stolen this chance from another, or if this new body was a gift, but as I closed my eyes, I swore I would seize this chance as I had latched onto nothing like it before. 

The attending doctor and nurses soon took me from my new mother, making absolutely certain I was clean and nicely clothed before moving me to a crib, where I promptly fell asleep. What was I supposed to do? I was a mere babe of a few hours old, and I was dreadfully tired after the whole…being born ordeal I had just undergone.  

I awoke in a strange room to a strange ceiling, reaching out for my wife by instinct before the sluggish and near unresponsive movements of my baby arm brought my new reality crashing back in. Even given who I had been before, I likely would have cried then and there had it not been for the centuries I had spent hardening my heart as the leader and, often to my chagrin, unequivocal ruler of my people. I sighed and turned my thoughts inward, as it would likely be a few months at minimum before I could even start moving about on my own in secret. 

Within, I found something that surprised and delighted me; qi. I should very briefly explain here; the world and, eventually, galaxy I had lived my former life in had been one mainly focused on technology, but basically everyone, of all species, had access to qi and mental energy. Gathering and cycling qi reinforced the body, while burning mental energy enhanced the mind and soul. I was deeply gratified to find I hadn't somehow come to a world or universe that was absent of qi or mental energy.  

I immediately, at the age of one (day), started my cultivation anew, focusing on gathering qi and cycling it throughout my body. I could feel it, very slowly and sparingly, entering into my flesh and cycling through my veins. Of course, I was a day old, and became tired long before one of my two nurses showed up for my first feeding of the day.  

"An eighth child, and at their age..." Zira, my half-elven maid, said before being shushed. 

"Ssh! Do not natter on about the Lord and Lady like that!" exclaimed Caroline, my wholly human maid. 

"I was just saying, it's rather incredible, especially considering their station as grand duke and grand duchess," Zira continued. 

"Zira, enough prattle! Make sure she's well-fed," Caroline commanded 

Zira began to nurse me, something that might have been embarrassing or disturbing had I not experienced so many of the vicissitudes of life. I nursed quickly and efficiently, perhaps surprising Zira, given her expression. When I was finished, I was returned to my crib. 

"The most powerful couple in all the Settled Lands! I still can't believe I get to work here," Zira commented as she tucked me in. 

"None of the other four nations of the Settled Lands have nobles so generous," Caroline agreed as she finished cleaning the room. "Now, before you get sent on an expedition to the Untamed Wilds, help me finish this cleaning!" 

The two bustled about for just another minute before heading out. I pondered what I had heard from them, about my parents being such high-status people in our current country, which was apparently one of five in these "Settled Lands." There was also something about the Untamed Wilds, but I would have to try to learn more about that over time. 

To refocus back on myself…not much was happening. I continued training for the first four or so weeks of my new life, feeling my body growing slightly stronger and slightly larger, though I was a baby and growth was to be expected. I had learned about my parents’ seven other children, three girls and four boys, and I briefly wondered if I had been some kind of effort to even out the numbers. I barely saw my parents as they only stuck their heads into my room a few times in that first month which, while I knew most babies wouldn't remember something like that, it did cause my opinion of them to markedly drop. 

Someone who my opinion of did not drop was third sister, who visited more than any save my maids. I had noticed several differences in her from the very beginning, starting with her eyes. Most people had what I would consider 'normal' eyes in this world, sclera that were white and pupils that were black, though the irises of many were much brighter and more reflective than I was used to. This included my maid Zira who, being half-elven, had rather distinct elven features even given her mixed ancestry, though her eyes appeared not at all different from any others.  

Not so for third sister, whose sclera were a bright, sky blue, her irises were a pure white, so devoid of any color or tinting that they seemed to shine, and her pupils were a bright red. Perhaps it was due to my long previous life, wherein my eyes had been greatly changed, as well as having those around me with different eyes, but I had never found third sister's, or Marianne, as was her name, eyes anything but beautiful.  

Her differences became clearer to me over the second month, likely also the reason she spent more time in my room than anyone else. I could only imagine what she had to go through due to those differences, likely much of it from our siblings, since who else would harass the daughter of the two most powerful nobles in the country? She not only had the eyes to draw attention to herself, but she had an air about her that I learned a little later was due to one of her affinities, though that drew less of the negative attention versus her looks. It was not just her eyes, but her incredible overall beauty coupled with the fact that she had both elven ears and the stubs of horns above her temples. To me, these only greatly enhanced her already immense beauty, but I could understand how others would see them as demerits. It was also rather strange and had led to talk of whose child third sister actually was, though it had been categorically proven she was directly the daughter of mother and father, the same as the rest of us. 

I bided my time for a while, but I did want to express to my sister that I was on her side. I figured that, with how little attention anyone else paid to me, even how little attention overall the maids paid to me (not that they were particularly neglectful), I would be able to get away with a few things a little earlier than I should. I began basic movements that I would hesitate to even describe as crawling at three months of age and began more complex movements at six months. As I was becoming a little more mobile, Marianne paid me more attention, spending more time in my room than even the maids.   

It was as I was becoming more mobile and impressing my third sister more that I made a move that would form the foundation of our deep relationship. Marianne had lifted me from my crib and carried me to an area of carpet to allow me to crawl around and 'play,' though I viewed it more as exercise, as I secretly stretched my muscles more than my slow speed would suggest. When I appeared rather tired, not far from the truth with how much I had done during that 'playtime,' she picked me up to return me to my crib. I reached to her eyes, producing a noticeable reaction as she flinched back from me, scared even of the castigation of an infant, but was arrested when I spoke to her for the first time. 

I did not use actual words, as I did not want to startle her too much, and my grasp of the new language of my life was still not as good as I would like. Instead, I uttered something much more nonsensical, but still one of those utterances that conveyed the meaning through syllable and intonation. It was very similar to "May may!" though it might have varied a little and was said as I touched the outer corners of her eyes just below her temples. She seemed entirely poleaxed by my evident delight before bursting into tears, weeping quite aggressively. 

I was never one much for comforting others, as I had always felt rather awkward when those around me displayed strong emotion, so I fell back upon one of my several tried-and-true tactics: sudden interruption. I lifted my chubby left fist from my sister's face before essentially punching her nose with all the righteous strength of a six-month-old. This immediately had the desired effect, as Marianne hiccupped and stared at me, rather startled until I cooed at her again, moving my offending hand back to her eye. She looked at me for some time, our eyes locked as I enjoyed the beauty of her orbs while she seemed unsure exactly what she should be doing or even thinking. Eventually, she pulled me into a hug, one which I reluctantly accepted (I had no choice), before moving me back to my crib and setting me down. 

All that exercise and emotion had left me exhausted and I promptly set about taking my afternoon nap, not seeing or feeling Marianne stay with me and hold my little hand for some time before she left. Obviously, the excited cooing of a baby didn't make the six-year-old's life any better, but she did seem to noticeably perk up for some time, which I would just have to count as a small victory. I felt confident enough in this victory that I moved more freely in her presence and, at just over nine months, she was the first person to see me walk. 

In my previous life, that would have been a rather big deal, but a baby's first step didn't seem the cause of joy here. It was likely a combination of factors, as well, as I was essentially not just an ultra-rich girl, but the daughter of high nobles who, at least in my last life before we left our home world, weren't known to pay the most attention to their children. I had seen my mother slightly more frequently after the first few months of her absence, though that seemed more to do with the fact that she was a new mother and the current level of technology on this world didn't have a very good way to deal with lactation other than feeding a baby.  

My pulling in and circulating of qi had continued unabated during these full nine months, though I was always very careful not to do it when anyone was nearby. I couldn't risk even my troubled sister noticing that I was quite a bit of a deviant in this regard, and so I was careful to listen and sense what was around me, and I never sank too deeply into the meditative forms. It was difficult for a baby to learn much, even with chatty maids, but I did learn that the peoples of this world, or this continent, at least, referred to the energy I was cycling as mana. They seemed to approach its use in an entirely different way as well, and I learned enough little bits that I had some small idea that the place had a truly entirely different system. 

It essentially worked like this; people were naturally born with a body type, and I don't mean someone being skinny or fat or some such. People could have all kinds of body types that did all kinds of things, though I further learned that almost opposite to my last life, body cultivation was highly neglected among the five countries. In my previous life, basically everyone was a body cultivator, this referring to the use of energies beyond the normal produced by muscles and the like to strengthen and re-forge the body. Though everyone in this world seemed born with a body ready for at least a small amount of cultivation already, this place focused far, far more on external strength. 

This external strength was the second great difference and fascinating new thing for me, as in my previous life the use of external arts with qi or mental energy was extremely difficult. Only those rare few with both superb aptitude as well as a body pre-disposed to external art usage could make any headway at all. Here, on this world, the whole production was entirely upended, as everyone was born with a natural predilection toward several external arts. External arts were called 'Affinities’ on this world, and they encompassed everything one could ever dream of, from simple elemental forms like fire or water or wind, to the most esoteric concepts such as electromagnetism or illusions.  

Each of these affinities was only a seed to start, and there were several methods to figure out what exactly one had a high compatibility with before one would then start training those affinities. For reasons not apparent to me at the time, it was considered standard to work on three affinities and that had become the established rule for measuring rank and progression in the Adventurers Guild, the largest non-aligned faction in the Settled Lands.  

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