Ki'el spent longer than she would like think-ing about Chi-an's of-fer through the next few days. She was at the peak of Gold Qi long be-fore she had an an-swer, thanks to her pu-ri-fied qi cy-cle, and had even pressed her qi into sev-er-al parts of her hand and arm un-til they seemed ful-ly ac-cli-mat-ed to the pres-sure.

  She found her-self star-ing at her wrist as she, as del-i-cate-ly as she could, pres-sured qi into the tis-sues around it, and won-dered if in a way, the Less-er House was the same--a way to force peo-ple to adapt to the pres-sures of the sect. Is this the en-vi-ron-ment I need to pre-pare to live in for the next few years? Am I re-al-ly okay liv-ing like this, with-out... mu-tat-ing? And... wasn't it the case that peo-ple like Xan Bu and Otoma Mon-shu had mu-tat-ed, af-ter hav-ing been giv-en more pow-er than they were pre-pared for? They turn against the pur-pose of the sect, will-ful-ly, be-cause they be-lieved it would ben-e-fit them. Even if it end-ed up de-stroy-ing the sect--even if it forced the sect to de-stroy them--they pur-sued that course, and all be-cause... why? Be-cause they had been of-fered pow-er?

  Al-though the log-ic made no sense to Ki'el, nei-ther did it make sense that sim-ply giv-ing her body too much aether, or qi, might cause her to self de-struct. And yet, the one was hap-pen-ing around her, and the oth-er was told in many cau-tion-ary tales. Giv-en what Sobon had said, and what Ki'el had said to Chi-an--that aether was a force and con-cept that ex-ist-ed be-fore life it-self--was it sim-ply the case that on a fun-da-men-tal lev-el, some-thing could break, and there was noth-ing that mere willpow-er, mere in-sight, could do? That peo-ple re-al-ly must ac-cli-mate to pow-er slow-ly, no mat-ter how wise or men-tal-ly pre-pared?

  But if that weren't the case, wouldn't Sobon have sim-ply re-turned to his full pow-er as soon as he could?

  But it made Ki'el think, as she wait-ed for the pres-sure in her wrist to even out be-fore let-ting it re-lax. Is it tru-ly as sim-ple as hold-ing pow-er, in or-der to ac-cli-mate to it, or do you need to have a pur-pose for that pow-er? Should I be find-ing some-thing wor-thy to do with my pow-er while I'm here in the Less-er House? Be-yond sim-ply hav-ing pow-er, should I be-come used to hav-ing it and us-ing it to ac-com-plish things?

  { Most peo-ple at your lev-el can-not even use the pow-er that they have, } Kuli re-mind-ed her. { The sect, and the world, are ex-pect-ing you to be-gin us-ing your pow-er un-der the tute-lage of some-one more ex-pe-ri-enced. }

  Am I not? Ki'el's thought was point-ed at Kuli, but her aug-ment did not re-spond. So Ki'el thought about it, but... her mind sim-ply kept go-ing back, over and over, to the floor in the room that she shared with Mian and Xam. If... if she want-ed to re-pair that floor, she would need ex-per-tise that she did not have. Sim-ply know-ing aether and a lit-tle bit of qi did noth-ing for her. Wouldn't most tasks be the same? If she want-ed to help oth-er peo-ple, she need-ed to learn how to help peo-ple, how to teach them, how to heal them--what-ev-er spe-cif-ic task they need-ed as-sis-tance with.

  Was it the same with the bones, mus-cles, and nerves in her wrist? If they were un-pre-pared for pow-er, would they strive to right some wrong that she was not even aware of, and do harm in-stead?

  Ki'el let her-self med-i-tate on that for a long time, though in the end, the med-i-ta-tion was as much as any-thing about Chi-an, and the girl of-fer-ing Ki'el yet an-oth-er ad-van-tage--a spir-i-tu-al com-pan-ion that she had not earned, and did not know what to do with. If Chi-an said that it was wise and help-ful, Ki'el would trust that, but... was it go-ing to guide her to the right path, or en-cour-age her to stray off of it?

  Was there a thing as too much pow-er, even for some-one like her who had no in-ter-est or use for pow-er?

  When at last Ki'el had her fill of qui-et in-tro-spec-tion, but had time to her-self, she found her-self fi-nal-ly head-ed back to the Hall of Earth-en Recita-tion, where El-der Gol resided and kept the Sect Point ledgers. In truth, she could well have gone back soon-er--she had no idea how much Broth-er Du had paid her for im-press-ing the In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples. With-out doubt, it would be sub-stan-tial, but... what re-sources did she even need to pay for, now?

  The Hall was not so qui-et this time as last, ow-ing to the day or time per-haps; the many small work-sta-tions that filled the Hall were both more filled with crafts-men and far more filled with clients, or so she imag-ined from the many stand-ing or wait-ing near the booths as oth-ers la-bored with-in. Even many of the store rooms in the in-ner re-gion had peo-ple in them, whether sort-ing through the var-i-ous stored con-tain-ers or per-form-ing some form of work on the con-tents that she was, usu-al-ly, in no po-si-tion to ob-serve.

  It was no sur-prise, then, that the El-der him-self was busy, as was an as-sis-tant who looked less busy but far more har-ried than the old man him-self. When Ki'el ap-proached, she felt a gen-tle qi wave that pressed on her the im-pres-sion of a num-ber--not the amount of sect points that she had, but how many peo-ple were ahead of her in line. Ki'el ac-cept-ed it with a nod, look-ing around at those wait-ing, but they had large-ly formed groups that spoke qui-et-ly, or silent-ly and with in-tent alone. Of her own ac-quain-tances, she found none, and no one that stood wait-ing seemed to no-tice or take any in-ter-est in her.

  Ki'el, see-ing that many oth-ers al-lowed them-selves to be-come dis-tract-ed, also sat against a wall and med-i-tat-ed on pow-er and ac-clima-ti-za-tion, feed-ing her qi cy-cle but not tak-ing any oth-er sig-nif-i-cant ac-tion. In the end... a place like this left her feel-ing out of her depth. In truth, she was un-cer-tain what she would do with the two hun-dred Sect Points she al-ready knew that she had--much less what-ev-er else she had gained in the mean-time.

  A flick-er of qi caught Ki'el's at-ten-tion, but the ar-gu-ment that might have sparked it was si-lenced im-me-di-ate-ly by a sin-gle glance from the El-der, and all she saw was two cowed Out-er Sect dis-ci-ples bow-ing and then re-treat-ing. She con-sid-ered that for a few mo-ments, but then re-turned to her pre-vi-ous thoughts.

  When at last she felt El-der Gol's at-ten-tion shift to her, and re-ceived an im-pres-sion that she was next, Ki'el sprung up rest-less-ly, al-ready un-sure what she would do here aside from find out what mon-ey she had and re-lease the reser-va-tions for things she did not need or want.

  "Xoi Doua Ki'el," the El-der said qui-et-ly as she ap-proached. "You have not been back re-cent-ly. Your Sect Point bal-ance has been ad-just-ed as fol-lows." [ For com-mon tasks, twen-ty-sev-en points. From In-ner Sect Dis-ci-ple Du, for an in-sight-ful dis-cus-sion, five hun-dred points. From Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple Abi, rep-re-sent-ing your share of a for-fei-ture, fifty points. In to-tal, sev-en hun-dred and six-ty-eight sec points. Ad-di-tion-al-ly, the con-tents of the space ring for-feit-ed by Xan Bu which have not been con-fis-cat-ed have been placed in es-crow and may be ob-tained at your dis-cre-tion. At your dis-cre-tion, you may trade your space ring for the one for-feit-ed by Xan Bu, or keep the one you have. They are of sim-i-lar qual-i-ty. ]

  Ki'el swal-lowed at the quan-ti-ty, and be-fore she for-got it, spoke fum-bled only slight-ly with her in-tent. [ I would like re-lease reser-va-tion for pills and herbs, and for spir-it gems. ]

  The El-der raised an eye-brow, slight-ly, but what-ev-er need-ed to be done to achieve that seemed to ex-ist pure-ly with-in his head. [ Done. The to-tal cost of those reser-va-tions was 182 sect points. With a 10% penal-ty for re-turn-ing your reser-va-tions, that is 164 points. You cur-rent-ly have nine hun-dred and thir-ty two points. ]

  Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed. [ Will take for-feit-ed items. Will keep my ring. ]

  The el-der nod-ded. "One mo-ment." He turned and once more en-tered through the seal in the floor, dis-ap-pear-ing from sight. Ki'el thought she heard a sigh from be-hind her, but when she turned and re-gard-ed the sev-er-al peo-ple wait-ing for the El-der's time, there were far too many peo-ple giv-ing her looks for her to have any guess who had been more vo-cal about the ex-tra time.

  Had she even no-ticed more peo-ple ar-riv-ing be-hind her? She had been dim-ly aware, but was not keep-ing care-ful track.

  When the El-der re-turned, it was with a space ring on a tray, a tray that seemed to be en-graved. "Place your own ring on the oth-er cir-cle," he said as he ap-proached, and Ki'el re-moved her ring, plac-ing it down. Al-though she sensed a fluc-tu-at-ing qi for a mo-ment, when El-der Gol said, "You may take your ring," she felt that noth-ing had changed.

  Though when she put the space ring on and felt its con-tents, she could tell that was not the case. She swal-lowed, but forced her eyes to re-fo-cus on the El-der who stood wait-ing. She bowed. "Thank you, El-der. That will be all." She des-per-ate-ly want-ed to ask him more ques-tions--but they were not ques-tions fit for an el-der, es-pe-cial-ly not with so many peo-ple wait-ing for his time.

  El-der Gol sim-ply nod-ded and turned back to-wards the seal in the floor, as Ki'el re-treat-ed, con-sid-er-ing the con-tents of her space ring. This was, she re-al-ized, a time when her less-er space ring showed its weak-ness--she was aware that it con-tained a num-ber of items, but could only bare-ly count them, let alone iden-ti-fy them. I need a qui-et place to re-move every-thing and dis-cov-er what I now have, she re-al-ized, but her mind drift-ed, as well. I also need to dis-cov-er what can be done with the Sect Points that I have. Most like-ly, get-ting in-struc-tion from those in the Out-er Sect re-lat-ed to things that I wish to do.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  In the end, she wait-ed un-til she was able to get back to the is-land of the Less-er House, al-though she found her way to an un-used area near the cliff over-look-ing the edge of the is-land, where she still liked to med-i-tate when she felt safe about it. There, she dumped out the whole con-tents of her space ring, ex-am-in-ing the re-sults. Tak-ing away her bar-ri-er stones and sword, which she re-turned to her space ring, there were sev-er-al herbs--most-ly of one type, but to-talling three dif-fer-ent types, as far as she could tell--some crys-tals that might have been ei-ther Spir-it Crys-tals or Spir-it Gems, and a va-ri-ety of what she most-ly as-sumed to be per-son-al ef-fects.

  Among those per-son-al ef-fects were let-ters and clothes--but, al-though Ki'el couldn't say she un-der-stood, the clothes in-clud-ed... the per-son-al ef-fects of women. She not-ed them with some dis-be-lief, un-sure of what that said about Xan Bu's lifestyle, and ul-ti-mate-ly dis-missed them, set-ting all of the cloth-ing re-lat-ed items aside and plan-ning to burn or dis-card them lat-er. But... also among the clothes were a few items with qi wo-ven through them. Most-ly, a bracelet, and a pair of rings.

  Her mind slipped back to the bracelet with pro-tec-tion scripts that Sobon had bought her at Lai Shi Po's shop, but that bracelet had been de-stroyed when the Mofu fam-i-ly had at-tacked--part-ly, if she were hon-est, shield-ing her from the back-lash of Sobon's own can-non tech-nique, though most of the dam-age had been done stop-ping a blow from the Ti-ta-ni-um qi war-rior. Sobon, she thought, had not even no-ticed; she was hes-i-tant to say any-thing, and had sim-ply been grate-ful that she'd had the bracelet at all. Now... she won-dered, giv-en how things were go-ing at the sect, if she would be miss-ing that ex-tra pro-tec-tion.

  That said noth-ing about what the bracelet, and the rings, ac-tu-al-ly were, but sim-ply ex-am-in-ing them would gain her noth-ing, and so she put them and the herbs back in the space ring. The crys-tals she stud-ied, pick-ing one up and clos-ing her eyes as she felt at the qi it con-tained. If... if there was sup-posed to be any in-tent in the crys-tals, she couldn't de-tect it; and yet, if it was sup-posed to be pu-ri-fied qi with-out any in-tent, it wasn't that pure. It also wasn't such a sig-nif-i-cant amount of qi that she felt it was in-her-ent-ly valu-able; she could re-fine a sim-i-lar quan-ti-ty of pu-ri-fied qi in a day or so, and while it might have been nice to have that qi with-out the ef-fort, she would only think of ab-sorb-ing it af-ter pu-ri-fy-ing it first.

  Ki'el was sit-ting on a stone, with that crys-tal in her hand, when she heard a noise.

  Look-ing back, Ki'el did have a mo-ment of pan-ic, but it was in-suf-fi-cient. She had turned in place, spot-ting a fig-ure only a mo-ment be-fore a force of wind plucked her up from the stone and flung her away. Her mind ac-cel-er-at-ed, Kuli link-ing with her even be-fore it ful-ly reg-is-tered to Ki'el that she would not land on the edge of the is-land.

  Aether flowed through her spir-it in-stinc-tu-al-ly, but that aether was not suf-fi-cient to halt or re-verse her mo-men-tum, and one mo-ment af-ter the next, she no-ticed the edge of the is-land com-ing up from be-hind and be-neath her... and then slip-ping away.

  { Give me qi. } The thought from Kuli was not an or-der, nor a sug-ges-tion. It was not a com-mand, or a guess. It was an of-fer, and Ki'el didn't even need to con-sid-er it for a mo-ment be-fore ac-cept-ing. Her dant-ian and her qi cy-cle both opened, and her qi flood-ed her whole spir-it in a mo-ment.

  Kuli, in only a mo-ment, con-veyed a sin-gle con-cept, one that Ki'el had even heard be-fore. As she watched the edge of the is-land come lev-el with her eyes, and then slow-ly sink up-wards, some part of her re-called sit-ting with Sobon in the auc-tion house, as rich peo-ple bid on a Star-beast Core as-so-ci-at-ed with a con-cept called [Thrust Qi], a qi ded-i-cat-ed to mov-ing an en-tire body with-out ap-ply-ing strain.

  It had seemed fas-ci-nat-ing. In this mo-ment, she did not find it so.

  Ki'el fo-cused her qi, charg-ing it with the in-tent of [Thrust], and drew her sword from her space ring, trig-ger-ing the blade with-out con-scious ef-fort. Al-though it felt strange--un-nat-ur-al, even--she didn't even feel a need to swing her sword in the direction she wished to go, as she fell, instead sim-ply gath-er-ing the Thrust Qi into and around her, and in-tend-ing to go just be-yond that cliff edge, just once more.

  "[Thrust]," Ki'el said, and some-how, she thought that the world heard her.

  The snap change in her move-ment was so un-nat-ur-al that it near-ly dis-tract-ed her. She could also feel a tin-gling in her blade, as she had when she faced Otoma Mon-shu. But this time, she did not con-vey to her sword some ab-stract con-cept, like fire. She did not con-vey to the sword the con-cept of thrust. In-stinc-tive-ly, when she felt the sword ques-tion-ing her, Ki'el had only one an-swer.

  [ I am a blade. ]

  As Ki'el's mo-men-tum brought her up to the edge of the is-land, she saw someone ex-am-in-ing the cloth-ing she had dis-card-ed. She saw him turn-ing to her in sur-prise. And she un-der-stood that she had not spent all the qi that she had on her first use of Thrust Qi. And when she un-der-stood that, and re-al-ized that her mo-men-tum was still car-ry-ing her up, many things fell into line, one af-ter the oth-er.

  "[Thrust]," Ki'el re-peat-ed, as she swung her Aether Sword at the man who had tried to kill her. And her Aether Sword seemed to con-sid-er, in the strange mo-ments that fol-lowed, in be-tween her throw-ing her-self at her foe and ac-tu-al-ly land-ing a blow, whether or not her in-tent was cor-rect.

  Was she a blade?

  Ki'el was blind-ed a mo-ment lat-er by blood and dirt, as her mo-men-tum car-ried her en-tire-ly through the name-less man who had at-tacked her. Whether there was re-sis-tance to her blade or not, Ki'el would only dis-cov-er lat-er, as her feet failed to catch her and she tum-bled to the ground, rolling and near-ly los-ing her grip on her sword. But some-how, un-til the mo-ment when she slammed her head into a tree, the blade re-mained in her hand.

  And then she knew only dark-ness.

  Ki'el woke with a start in the heal-er's build-ing, and this time, she did not feel whole. Her body shiv-ered and her head ached, her eyes swam and her breath tore. She was mo-men-tar-i-ly un-sure what was go-ing on, or where she was, but--

  But there was a fig-ure there, stand-ing calm-ly be-fore her. She had to blink sev-er-al times to be sure of it, but it was Broth-er Du. And he stood there, look-ing at her, with-out re-act-ing to her awak-en-ing or con-fu-sion. She stared at him as her breath start-ed to catch up with her. What was go-ing on? What was the last thing that had hap-pened? Even with-out the help of Kuli, her mind caught up a mo-ment lat-er. The cliff-side. Be-ing pushed off of the cliff. Falling.

  "Thrust," Ki'el whis-pered, but al-though she had in-tent when she spoke it, she didn't put even a shred of qi into it, and the word didn't res-onate at all.

  "I had won-dered if that was you," Broth-er Du said. "It seemed like it could have been no oth-er, and yet, for all the strange things that have oc-curred around you, Sis-ter Ki'el, this seemed too much."

  Ki'el felt her body shiv-er-ing again, and she wasn't sure why. Was she sick? Was it some for-eign in-tent? She all but begged Kuli to tell her--and at the same time, she didn't ask Kuli any-thing. It was only a burn-ing need, not a ques-tion.

  She knew Kuli could hear it, and yet, the aug-ment did not re-spond.

  "We are in-ves-ti-gat-ing the cir-cum-stances, Sis-ter Ki'el," said Broth-er Du, and Ki'el looked at him, un-sure of what ex-act-ly he meant. "I trust that you un-der-stand."

  Ki'el, with some ef-fort, shook her head.

  "No?" Broth-er Du tilt-ed his head slight-ly. "Strange. You are aware you just slew a mem-ber of the Out-er Sect, are you not?"

  Ki'el shiv-ered, but shook her head. It had been her in-tent. Did she know that she had ac-com-plished it? No. And... what was a mem-ber of the Out-er Sect do-ing there? Why would a mem-ber of the Out-er Sect at-tempt to kill her? Had it been Otoma Mon-shu... or some-one else? But she could bare-ly think, and she could not speak.

  "I see." Broth-er Du stepped one step clos-er, and Ki'el felt the chill that was over-rid-ing her en-tire be-ing in-ten-si-fy. He stepped for-ward again, and she felt only cold-er. "I have nev-er known you to lie, Ki'el, so I will ask this plain-ly. Did you mur-der Sect Broth-er Kem Jee Sai?"

  Ki'el looked up at him, feel-ing like she was fi-nal-ly per-mit-ted to speak, and she found her words with dif-fi-cul-ty. "I... have no idea... who that is. Was... pushed off the is-land. Re-turned... blade." Her throughts were be-com-ing con-fused. "I... was a blade. I struck at the one who struck me. That is... the con-se-quence of strik-ing a blade."

  The ab-solute chill that must have some-how been ra-di-at-ing from Se-nior Broth-er Du did not stop for a long time. Ki'el could only close her eyes and fo-cus on try-ing to steady her-self in spite of the spir-i-tu-al pres-sure, not even able to breathe with-out ex-ert-ing ef-fort to push through the op-pres-sion.

  Un-til at last, the pres-sure eased.

  "You have been told that while you re-main in the Less-er House, you do not have rights to harm oth-ers. If this was an un-pro-voked at-tack on you, killing some-one in re-tal-i-a-tion is... un-der-stand-able. Not ac-cept-able, but a for-giv-able of-fense. How-ev-er, Sis-ter Ki'el... was that tru-ly nec-es-sary?"

  Ki'el looked at him, suck-ing in greedy lung-fuls of air now that it no longer hurt to do so. "Was killing him nec-es-sary? I don't know," she said, be-tween breaths. "I was an-gry. I don't know."

  "I don't mean killing him," Broth-er Du said, and Ki'el felt her face pinch in ir-ri-ta-tion.

  "I do not un-der-stand," she said, and Broth-er Du's head turned slight-ly, as the man changed the way he looked at her, in a way that she could not fath-om.

  There was more si-lence be-tween them for a long mo-ment.

  "I am be-gin-ning to think that you re-al-ly do not un-der-stand, Sis-ter Ki'el," Broth-er Du said. "And that will be a sig-nif-i-cant prob-lem for you go-ing for-ward."

  She looked at him, but Broth-er Du stepped away from her, his op-pres-sive aura dim-ming un-til she could no longer de-tect it, though with how numb and con-fused she was, it might have been ei-ther com-plete-ly gone or still sim-mer-ing--so long as it was not cur-rent-ly crush-ing her, she didn't care which. But for whichev-er rea-son, Broth-er Du did not pro-vide more an-swers, and turned and walked away, not show-ing con-cern for her well-be-ing nor even telling her what to ex-pect in the fu-ture.

  As the last shiv-ers from the chill passed through her, Ki'el felt the voice of Kuli, now dimmed, in-side of her. { They took the sword, and your ring. You... may have done more dam-age than you meant to. }

  Ki'el didn't have the en-er-gy to tru-ly un-der-stand those thoughts be-fore she fell back-wards into her bed again and passed out.