Chapter 299 Interlude - Blindspots In Omniscience

Since her advancement, and gaining her version of the Heavenly Eye, Marie had spent every waking hour (which, for the record, could span multiple days given the sparse sleep cycles of Mages) exploring her power. She wanted to know its quirks, weaknesses and limitations down to the minutiae. This proved to be difficult because magic was, to some extent, open to interpretation.

What was "fire"? It was the result of combustion. That was the classical definition. However, there were also other ways to create fire. Oxidation of Magnesium results in a fire too. Regardless of the many ways through which fire can be made, they are all codified and repeatable. The meaning of fire and how to create it does not vary from person to person. But when magic is involved, that doesn't always remain true.

This is because cultivation is drawn from the insights of a mage, and insights are what the mage understands the world around them to be. A man born in a cave strapped to a chair, forever cursed to observe the shadows dancing on the wall in front of him, will have his entire worldview biased based on what he sees on that wall. A chicken to him will be the sound and the smell of the bird, but the sight of its shadow.

Sensory biases, conformational biases, misinterpretations, all of these fallacies can mar the accuracy of a mage's cultivation (with respect to the actual 'true' world as Mister Larks always says).

Marie wasn't sure if the quirks, weaknesses and limitations of her powers were a result of her limited understanding of the topic or her inbuilt biases that may have contributed to the way her cultivation was formed. Unfortunately, the world did not check your work for you. Even if your insights and cultivations are faulty and biased, they can still result in a stable core. As long as the cultivator strongly believes and can justify those beliefs, their cultivation will react strongly.

Her powers worked. Marie was certain of that much after confirming the impact of her actions with her Master. However, there were certain gaps in between that she was unable to fill. Why did the model of the world mesh with the Heavenly Eye's mana? It made sense to Marie - in some instinctual way. But scientific rigour was lacking! Without a formalisation of her breakthrough, it could not be repeated. Her successor would have to muck about just like her. Furthermore, they wouldn't be able to improve on her method either, meaning that any progress made would remain stagnant. But then Marie remembered two key details from her education under her Master and Mister Larks.

"Fate is one of the most fundamental phenomena in the world. It governs everything," her Master would say.

"Mathematics is the language of the universe!" Mister Larks once said.

"Kind of makes sense that the two can correlate," Marie concluded. "The only way to describe something that is the most fundamental building block of the universe is to use a language that can define the breadth of that knowledge. Ancient Tongue may be forbidden, but Mathematics isn't."

Marie was certain that she had only scratched the surface of mathematics, and she just couldn't wait to learn more. Because the more maths she knew, the more she could understand about the Heavenly Eye.

For one, Marie realised that she could actually see into people's past with her powers, and it was infinitesimally easier and far more accurate to do so as compared to looking into the future. This wasn't something her Master could do with his Heavenly Eye. Essentially, Marie had nigh omniscience within her grasp.

"This is voyeurism," her Master said with a scoff, clearly trying to hide his envy.

"I do not derive any pleasure from this," Marie clarified.

"Be that as it may," he shot back. "What you're doing is a gross intrusion of others' privacy!"

"As if you aren't doing it already," Marie mumbled. "Your mana domain can envelop multiple cities if I'm not mistaken. How many bedrooms have you intruded with your powers?"

"I don't derive any pleasure from seeing mortals copulating if that is what you're implying," her Master whipped back.

"So admit it! You're just jealous that I can do something YOU can't," Marie jokingly mocked.

"It makes no sense... How can the Heavenly Eye show what has already happened?"

"That's because the Heavenly Eye by itself isn't enough," Marie surmised. "Something was missing all along!"

"No kidding... Who knew that taking a step further from knowing one's sums and times tables could revitalise a primordial cultivation method?" Her Master evoked with impressed surprise. "Back to our earlier topic, though. I worry that you might be growing addicted to the power. I've seen you doing this every day."

"I'm only experimenting," Marie reasoned. "I'm trying to test my limits."

"You sound exactly like a sober person 'experimenting' with drugs to test their limits," her Master said with a snort that was tinged with worry. "If you get lost in the past and future, you will forget the present."

Marie wanted to shoot back with a quick-witted retort, but she noticed that her Master was showing sincere concern and decided to swallow her words. After thinking about it a little bit, she understood where he was coming from. And maybe, he was correct to a degree (Marie was only ready to concede that much!). She had been intoxicated by the ability to see absolutely everything. This sight went beyond what mana sensing could grasp. It was literally like being a fly on the wall of someone else's life, at every step they took.

She first used it to look into Markus' past. She wanted to know what exactly he had been through during his time at the Academy. What she saw angered her thoroughly. She immensely regretted sending him there without any support. She regretted that he had no one to depend on over there, all by himself. She was also enraged by the disregard shown by those in administerial positions when it came to handling such blatant acts of violence and bullying. Hearing about it all from a person's mouth wasn't the same as actually being there and experiencing it first-hand. It hurt to watch. And it hurt even more that she could do nothing about it.

After that depressing journey, Marie decided to explore her other siblings' pasts. Unfortunately, Dora and Kano lacked an accurate enough date of birth. Through some rigorous interpolation and statistical analysis, she narrowed down the scope. Though this did cause some haziness in her prediction and observations of the past. She tried asking her Master for his estimation of their actual ages, which he could pinpoint through magical means, but he refused to do so saying that it isn't something necessary at the moment. Marie also realised that Matron Reva's date of birth was incorrect. Even interpolation failed to produce a viable bandwidth. Working up from the upper limit didn't work either (that is to take the lowest year obtainable through interpolation and working towards the most recent year). This meant that Matron Reva was older - much older...

The oddities didn't stop there, either. In trying to divine Mister Lark's past and future, she was met with another kind of opposition. It was all garbled nonsense. The Heavenly Eye just refused to activate. Even her Master admitted that he could not apply his Heavenly Eye on Mister Larks. Was Mister Larks an exception or a pattern?

"I would say he is an exception," her Master concluded. "His life is not chart-able by the Heavenly Eye. There have been no records of such an entity existing."

"I can't even see his past!" Marie complained. "For a minute, I thought I'd made a mistake with my cultivation."

"I've learned that with Guy, you will have to divine his past and future using the people he keeps around him," her Master suggested. "It may not always be accurate, since his actions directly influence fate's sequence."

"If Mister Larks can control fate, shouldn't he also have some affinity with the Heavenly Eye?" Marie inquired.

"That's not how it works," Krish denied with a wave of his hand.

"How DOES it work?"

"Stop pestering me, child. Look, a friend of yours has come to bid us farewell," Krish redirected as he looked towards the door. Today was the day, the duo planned to leave the Mystic Celestial Sect. They had achieved everything they'd sought when arriving here, and it was now time to return home to the True World Sect.

Within seconds, a series of knocks sounded on the door, which swung open automatically with a quirk from her Master's finger.

"So this is where you've been hiding the entire time?" Rianna Maddi said with a genial smile. "Heard that you're leaving today? Were you going to bounce without saying goodbye?"

Marie returned an equally warm smile and embraced the woman with a friendly hug. "How could I forget my moneymaker?"

"Betting on spars is strictly controlled, you know that? The Law-Enforcement Department has initiated an investigation on the sudden outflux of funds from circulation," Rianna warned with a hushed tone.

"Right! Sect Leader told me to tell Mage Nara that the request to use one of our teleportation formations has been approved by the Council of Elders," she said directly to her Master. "He also handed me this updated token."

After retrieving a newer token from her jacket pocket she raised it with both hands in her Master's direction. "This allows a one-time teleportation straight to the Sect should Mage Nara feel like visiting ever again."

The token levitated into the gaping mouth of her Master's mundane-looking sack. He then returned a light nod of approval and left the room without another word.

"I should probably get going too," Marie said, decoding the intent behind her Master's silence.

"Let me take you there," Rianna offered. Marie probed Rianna's updated romantic life, which the woman shared unabashedly. Going into detail about how she and her lover explored every nook and cranny of their bodies.

"He's still young and starry-eyed. Once they start matching your strength, they lose that sense of wonder. They stop trying too," Rianna said with a melancholic sigh.

"It can't all just be about sex, right?"

"What else? Love? Pah!" Rianna scoffed. "There is no place for love in a mage's world. Love is the second leading cause of death in mages. And I intend to live for a very, very long time."

"Doesn't it get lonely?"

"Of course. But you know what they say: better to be lonely and breathing, than drowning in love and, well- actually drowning," Rianna joked.

Marie wanted to disagree, but she held her tongue. She wasn't experienced enough in this to have the right to say anything. A faint smile did flash past her face as Rianna's jocular and cynical approach to personal connections matched with another face.

'I wonder how they're adapting? I did have to tweak Markus' itinerary a little. But it should work out well, hopefully,' she thought to herself.

By this time, she had arrived at the teleportation platforms and saw her Master standing beside the fifth one from the end. Marie quickly gave Rianna another hug and rushed up to her Master.

"Are we ready?"

"Everything's packed and double-checked. Let's go home," Marie affirmed. Then, with a quick flash of light, the duo disappeared from the platform and, at the same time, were deposited many kilometres away near a riverbank in the middle of a forest.

"We're close to Radiant City. It is fifty kilometres due Northeast," her Master ignored her discombobulated state after the quick teleportation and started to walk in his defined direction.

"W-Wait uuuUUURP-"

"*sigh* Don't run right after your first teleportation. You will get disoriented."

"Why didn't you tell me befoooOOORRRP-"