Lessing sat back in his chair, as if he had just finished tasting an ordinary snack.
"You and your friend have been searching the world for these stones, haven't you?" he said.
Columbina nodded, involuntarily glancing at the crates of Moonstones.
Lessing's voice suddenly grew heavy. "Your Authority is incomplete."
Columbina whipped her head back, looking at him in astonishment.
"Your Authority is 'Space'," Lessing said slowly. "There are at least four ways to utilize Space: creation, destruction, modification, and traversal.
But right now, you can only achieve 'traversal,' which is teleportation. Is that not so?"
Columbina stared at him intently, focused on hearing every word.
Lessing leaned forward slightly. "Your Authority is missing at least seventy percent. It should have been whole, but it was torn apart by some powerful existence. That seventy percent is now in that entity's hands."
"Who?" Columbina asked instantly.
Lessing unhurriedly spat out the name: "'The Lord of Primordial Fire,' Xiuhcoatl."
Columbina shook her head. "I haven't heard of him."
"It doesn't matter if you don't know." Lessing waved his hand. "You only need to know that this existence is extremely powerful, stronger than many Archons. He also rules over a vast draconic civilization. This means that trying to retrieve that portion of your Authority from his hands will be as difficult as ascending to the heavens."
Without waiting for Columbina to respond, he changed the subject. "But we can help you. The Kingdom of Khaenri'ah can help you. We can not only help you retrieve your complete Authority, but also help you return to the Frost Moon beyond the False Sky."
He paused deliberately. "As long as you do us a favor."
Hearing the words "Frost Moon," Columbina could no longer sit still. She scooted forward slightly. "What?!"
"We want to conduct an experiment." Lessing's gaze deepened. "In ancient times, there was a powerful nation named Hyperborea. That civilization invented a technology that could utilize the power of the Rainbow Moon, the Eternal Moon, and the Frost Moon to break through the False Sky and access the true starry sky."
He looked at the stunned Columbina and added, "This information is absolutely authentic. You are the Moon God of the Frost Moon; surely you understand how powerful your own strength is."
"As long as we can use the power of the Three Moons to maintain a passage to the true starry sky," Lessing's voice carried a bewitching steadiness, "you will be able to use it to go to the Frost Moon.
"Of course, a single experiment may not necessarily create a passage that can be stably maintained, so we need to conduct it several times to ensure nothing goes wrong.
Once we have fully mastered this technology, you will be able to use a stable passage to travel between the earth and the Frost Moon at any time.
"With the help of this passage, we can also obtain power from beyond the world to help you seize back your complete Authority from the hands of the 'Lord of Primordial Fire'."
Columbina's fingers unconsciously gripped the quilt tight, her breathing beginning to accelerate.
"Beyond the world"... this phrase, where had she heard it before? But the moment this thought emerged, it was drowned out by the immense desire to return to the moon. She did not delve into where that vague sense of familiarity came from.
"Alright. I won't go out," Columbina said quickly.
Lessing smiled and nodded.
"But my Authority is unusable right now," Columbina remembered the key issue. "I can't help you. It was that person..."
"I know." Lessing took over the conversation. "Ikhtiyar used some restrictions on you to suppress your Authority of Space."
"Can you ask her to remove these restrictions for me?"
"I will send someone to notify her to come and lift the restrictions for you right away." Lessing stood up. "However, Ikhtiyar has her own duties and is not here at the moment. This will require waiting a few more days. By the time the experiments begin in a few days, she should be here."
"Okay," Columbina agreed.
Lessing moved the chair back to the table, turned, and walked toward the iron door. He knocked on it again—this time, two short knocks, followed by two long ones.
The iron door opened in response. He walked out, and the door slowly closed behind him.
Silence returned to the room, leaving only the aroma of the food and the tempting, faint glow emitting from the crates of Moonstones.
A while after Lessing left, hunger and exhaustion returned like a tide.
Columbina dragged her weak and weary body off the bed and sat on the chair.
She picked up a clean spoon, scooped up a spoonful of food, and sent it into her mouth.
...
Lessing turned around as the iron door closed behind him, cutting off the scent and light from the room.
He walked forward along a deep, dark underground passage. The walls were made of rough rock, and at intervals, luminescent minerals embedded in the walls provided dim, unstable lighting. His footsteps produced a slight echo in the enclosed space.
After walking for some distance, a small fork appeared on one side of the passage, where some sundries and wooden crates were piled.
Ikhtiyar was sitting on one of the wooden crates, leaning her back against the cold rock wall, one leg bent with her foot resting on the edge of the crate. Hearing footsteps, she turned her head, her red pupils looking like two unextinguished embers in the dim light.
Seeing Lessing, she slid off the crate, stood up straight, and approached him in a few steps.
"Your method is too much trouble." She flicked the white hair hanging over her forehead. "If you ask me, why not just kill her, make her into Moon Marrow, and use that? Wouldn't it be more convenient?"
Lessing stopped, his gaze landing calmly on her face.
"No." His voice held no fluctuation. "Her Authority has already shattered into several pieces, and too many parts are missing. With an incomplete core, her state after death is unpredictable. Whether she can stably form Moon Marrow is an unknown variable."
Ikhtiyar curled her lip but did not refute this reasoning. She crossed her arms, her body turning slightly toward the depths of the passage—the direction of Columbina's room.
"Fine." She paused, then turned her head back. "But I just stabbed them. Will she believe your words?"
A trace of a smile slowly surfaced on Lessing's face. The smile was shallow and elusive.
Ikhtiyar stared at his face, raising an eyebrow. "You really bluffed her?"
"Of course." Lessing's smile deepened slightly. "Because everything I said is the truth."
____
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