"Closed-door cul-ti-va-tion?" Xam's face dark-ened just at the term, one which Ki'el un-der-stood but had not en-coun-tered. It must have showed in her face, be-cause the woman spoke again af-ter a mo-ment. "A no-ble need-ing that kind of seclu-sion... peo-ple shouldn't need that un-less they're try-ing to break through a bar-ri-er in the Gem phase of qi or high-er, or prepar-ing for a tier change. At low-est, that would put him at Mithril Qi, prepar-ing to ad-vance to the low-est Gem. And that's... way too much for us."

  "The Sect won't let some-one like that crush us, though. Right?" Mian looked at her, naked con-cern on his face. They were squat-ting at their usu-al camp-fire site, al-though it wasn't dark yet; Ki'el had also left a mes-sage with Sis-ter Futi, and with Sis-ter Be-nai, for Chi-an to meet her, but nei-ther would promise any-thing.

  "Rules are rules," Xam said, look-ing at her hus-band, "but there are al-ways ways of get-ting around rules. If you know that the worst con-se-quence is to be thrown off the is-land... sure-ly there are ways to en-sure some-one will land safe-ly, as long as they per-form you a ser-vice. That, and suf-fi-cient mon-ey to make up the dif-fer-ence..."

  Ki'el hadn't thought like that, and couldn't help the chill that swept through her at the thought. Was that what Kem Jee Sai had been of-fered? If he should be caught, he would not be in dan-ger? But what about his mas-ter? What about his space ring?

  "So it's an-oth-er case where the pow-er-ful just break the rules?" Mian's voice had an edge of... pan-ic? Ki'el couldn't quite iden-ti-fy the stress. "I shouldn't be sur-prised. It keeps hap-pen-ing over and over again..."

  "It was sug-gest-ed that I should use the points I have gained to pull us all out of the Less-er House," Ki'el fin-ished her sum-ma-ry. "Pur-chas-ing what-ev-er re-sources we need to en-sure it. And I have the as-sur-ances of an El-der that we will all be al-lowed to be-gin the ex-am-i-na-tion as soon as we are ready."

  "I can do it any-time," con-firmed Xam, with a firm nod of her head, but Ki'el was look-ing at Mian.

  The man hes-i-tat-ed, but shook his head. "I went a long time with-out re-ly-ing on oth-ers," he said, fi-nal-ly, "but I got nowhere. If sect med-i-cines or trea-sures can al-low me to catch up to you, at least in the short term... my pride's al-ready worth-less. Just tell me what I need to do."

  Ki'el nod-ded. "I don't know," she said, look-ing at Xam, who looked back, "but we should go to the Hall of Earth-en Recita-tion, to-geth-er."

  Xam sighed. "Hope-ful-ly they will tell us what we need to know about the med-i-cines," she said, not ris-ing, but turn-ing to look to-wards the path. "I've gone to ask for help sev-er-al times, but the El-der has not giv-en ad-vice on med-i-cines. He says it's be-cause there are dif-fer-ent ones for dif-fer-ent paths, but..." Xam left the rest of the sen-tence hang-ing.

  They sat in un-com-fort-able si-lence for a few mo-ments, but Ki'el caught a flash of move-ment in the dis-tance--move-ment and red. She turned, and raised a hand. "Sis-ter Chi-an!"

  "Kiel!" The oth-er girl's voice sound-ed edged with pan-ic. "I'm... I'm glad you're okay." She slowed to a stop a lit-tle ways away from the camp-fire. "Be-nai told me... that you were at-tacked. That there... is go-ing to be a lot of trou-ble from now on. That... I should prob-a-bly..."

  Ki'el might not have been as bold, if not for what the El-der had said. She... had, for a long time, felt more than com-fort-able sit-ting aside and let-ting the world turn with-out be-ing of-fend-ed when it left her be-hind. But... the el-der had said it so sim-ply. I bet you'd say the same about the Fox. This el-der, who bare-ly knew her, thought that she want-ed Da Chi-an to stay with her. And... Ki'el re-al-ized that she did.

  "Come with us," she said, al-though it felt to Ki'el, as she said it, that she was watch-ing her-self from the out-side.

  She saw Mian turn to look at her, saw Xam eye-ing her, but nei-ther said any-thing. Chi-an, though, seemed con-fused. "With you?"

  "We must ad-vance out of the Less-er House," Ki'el said, feel-ing like her thoughts were slow, con-fused, even as she spoke. "An El-der told me they will let us test out even be-fore our first month is com-plete, but we want to be sure we are ready. We will go to the Hall of Earth-ly Recita-tion to ask for med-i-cines... but we do not know quite what to get."

  "Ah..." Chi-an straight-ened. "There are a num-ber of things, but I think it's Be-nai who would have the most in-for-ma-tion. She's an ex-pert on rais-ing peo-ple out of Gold Qi..." her voice trailed off. "Ah... but most-ly, for..."

  "Peo-ple like you," Xam said, Ki'el thought a lit-tle cold-ly.

  "Yes," Chi-an said, not sound-ing both-ered. "But I imag-ine she knows more than enough about med-i-cines to help."

  "May we speak with her? Now?" Ki'el wasn't quite sure why she felt dis-tant... ex-cept that some part of her was lead-ing, and it was not what she was used to. Was that wrong? Wouldn't Kuli tell her if it was?

  "Of course," Chi-an said, straight-en-ing slight-ly. "She's usu-al-ly med-i-tat-ing in her room, un-less the Sect makes her take a task."

  "Then let's go." Ki'el felt her heart pound-ing as she stood, and with a men-tal twist, she pushed a lit-tle Right-eous aether into her spir-it... but it did lit-tle to re-store the bal-ance. Why?

  { It is your heart, } Kuli an-swered, fi-nal-ly. { In an emo-tion-al, not a spir-i-tu-al, sense, al-though it ex-ists, spir-i-tu-al-ly. It is a part of your spir-it that wants to guide and pro-tect. It is... not ex-act-ly your mind, and you must be vig-i-lant, to keep it from mak-ing mis-takes. But it is a part of you, and your aether will en-hance it along with your mind... un-less you fo-cus your aether care-ful-ly. }

  I have not felt like this. Ki'el felt her body mov-ing af-ter Da Chi-an, though her thoughts turned in-wards.

  { You have known your heart to be hurt and alone, } Kuli an-swered. { And this will be-come a prob-lem if left alone. If the path that you, the mind, take... if that ig-nores what your heart tells you, your heart will not trust you. And if you leave things to your heart en-tire-ly, it will try to take over at times when you will need to think and act wise-ly. You must act as you know your heart wish-es, but re-main in charge of it, in or-der to reach the great-est heights. }

  Act as my heart wish-es? Ki'el felt be-wil-dered. What does my heart want?

  { Your heart is a part of you. It wants what you want, but with-out un-der-stand-ing as much. }

  When Ki'el re-al-ized that she was stand-ing be-fore Bai Be-nai's door, with-out any an-swer to what Kuli was telling her. But... she also turned to look at the pa-thet-ic half-room where she and the oth-ers had been sleep-ing, its floor still miss-ing, the raw wood-en board that Xam had pro-cured still sit-ting there, its ob-vi-ous splin-ters around the edges still some-thing that Ki'el didn't want to even look at.

  It feels left un-done, Ki'el ad-mit-ted to her-self. But many things are. I had hoped... when I left...

  She had hoped, when she left the Less-er House, that her friends would be there with her. She had hoped, when she left the Less-er House, it would be leav-ing a bet-ter House be-hind, with at least their one room fi-nal-ly fixed. But al-ready, she didn't have enough time, and Mian was still be-hind. She want-ed more time, to bring Mian to the peak of Gold Qi with her and Xam... and she want-ed to be able to...

  To ask Chi-an prop-er-ly, even though the girl had said they were friends. Be-cause...

  "Ki'el?" Mian put a hand on her shoul-der. "It will be fine."

  Ki'el looked back at Mian, her thoughts start-ing to get lost--but she no-ticed Kuli, gen-tly, col-lect-ing them, and she ap-pre-ci-at-ed it. She knew that she was on the edge of some-thing, but... now was not the time.

  She took a deep breath, and turned to look at Chi-an, who nod-ded her to-wards the door, and Ki'el knocked.

  "It's not as though I don't know you're there," the voice in-side said, and Ki'el could hear a cer-tain bit-ter-ness. "Just come in. At least... Ki'el, and you, Chi-an. There's not re-al-ly a lot of room."

  Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed, but opened the door, find-ing--as she knew--that it was true. The woman was sit-ting there, some-what cen-tered in the con-fined space, with no can-dles or spir-it lights ev-i-dent to keep the dark-ness away. Al-though Ki'el couldn't quite see, she got the im-pres-sion of some-thing be-hind Be-nai... but de-clined to try to fig-ure it out, step-ping in in-stead.

  As soon as Chi-an closed the door be-hind them, how-ev-er, the space changed.

  Ki'el didn't know--and didn't find rea-son or courage to ask Kuli--whether it was an il-lu-sion or some more pro-found tech-nique, but she found her-self in a wide cir-cu-lar room lit by spir-i-tu-al flames along its un-bro-ken stone wall. The floor be-neath them was like bot-tom-less wa-ter, but sol-id be-neath her feet; when Ki'el looked down, she thought she was look-ing through the floor, though there was noth-ing to see ex-cept blue that fad-ed too quick-ly into black.

  "You want some-thing from me," Bai Be-nai's voice sound-ed strange, in the space.

  Ki'el turned to look at her, but only took a deep breath. In this mo-ment, she could have wished that the force that had dri-ven her for-ward had the right words for her to say... but also, it felt like that was wrong, self-ish. She was here be-cause of what she want-ed.

  "In or-der to get out of the Less-er House swift-ly," Ki'el said, try-ing to keep her nerves in check, "I was ad-vised to use Sect med-i-cines to ad-vance my-self and my friends, as soon as pos-si-ble. And..." She hes-i-tat-ed, again un-sure, but spoke, only be-cause her feet and her heart had brought her here. "I... would like to en-sure that Chi-an can take the test along-side us. I will use all my sect points, and any oth-er re-sources I have, to en-sure it."

  Ki'el kept her eyes on Bai Be-nai, even though she felt a spike of qi, or emo-tion, from the girl next to her.

  There was a si-lence for a time, and Ki'el found her-self match-ing the stare of the old woman--and the more she looked, the more firm her be-lief be-came that Bai Be-nai was a very old woman. It wasn't ob-vi-ous in her looks, but in the un-wa-ver-ing spir-it be-hind those eyes--eyes that must have seen a great deal, more than Ki'el could imag-ine.

  "Sis-ter Futi told me that you are fa-vored by the el-ders," Be-nai said af-ter a time. "Enough that they want you to sur-vive the con-se-quences of this ridicu-lous chil-dren's spat. But the Sect is fool-ish in so many ways, about so many things. Al-ways stick-ing to old ways, no mat-ter who gets hurt." She low-ered her head, but kept her eyes fixed on Ki'el. "Not that I have done dif-fer-ent-ly."

  Ki'el said noth-ing in re-sponse, un-sure what even could be said to that.

  "Of course they have the re-sources to pull peo-ple out of Gold Qi as eas-i-ly as they wish," the woman said af-ter a mo-ment. "The most com-mon med-i-cines be-gin your jour-ney down spe-cif-ic spir-i-tu-al paths. For you, young Ki'el, I do not sus-pect they will have any med-i-cine pure enough to meet your stan-dards."

  "I am not wor-ried about my-self," Ki'el said brave-ly, al-though it wasn't true.

  "Da Chi-an's tribu-la-tion is more ex-pen-sive than a nor-mal one, at two hun-dred fifty Sect Points," Be-nai con-tin-ued, "which she has most-ly col-lect-ed, or so she's told me. But for her to ad-vance, the ide-al med-i-cine would be the Wheel of Light and Sky Ton-ic."

  Be-low, Ki'el no-ticed a flick-er, and glanced down, sur-prised, but a sheet of pa-per--not white, but some pale green ma-te-r-i-al--with com-plex di-rec-tions shot out of the wa-ter be-neath her and hov-ered be-fore her. She took it, sur-prised.

  "You will need time with at least an In-ter-me-di-ate Al-chemist, to pro-duce a ton-ic of at least the Com-mon grade." She scoffed. "Any med-i-cine less than Com-mon is the poor prac-tice of a novice al-chemist, and not suit-able for any se-ri-ous mat-ters, and even a com-mon ton-ic will be a com-pro-mise." She paused. "For the oth-ers... I am un-aware of their paths, and I doubt they are aware, ei-ther. But it would be fool-ish not to at least ask."

  Be-nai ges-tured, and Ki'el heard the door open. Al-though she didn't turn to see her friends en-ter, she heard Mian suck in a breath as soon as the door closed. Had the na-ture of the room been hid-den while it was open?

  "In or-der to find the best med-i-cines for you, I would know your path," Be-nai said, her tone more for-mal than it had been be-fore--more for-mal than Ki'el re-mem-bered the woman be-ing any oth-er time.

  "Can't say that I even--" Mian be-gan, but Xam spoke up.

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  "My clan has per-cep-tion tech-niques, but I don't fa-vor them. In the mil-i-tary, I used most-ly move-ment and stealth tal-is-mans. I am com-ing to un-der-stand that my... na-ture in-volves move-ment and foot-work, but be-yond that, I am un-cer-tain."

  Be-nai stretched her neck slight-ly, from where she was sit-ting, and Ki'el got an-oth-er strange un-seen half-vi-sion of the woman's spir-it na-ture, but didn't fo-cus on it. "I see. Sword, spear, or bow?"

  Ki'el blinked, un-cer-tain of the ques-tion, but Xam an-swered, "Spear," with-out much thought, and the woman nod-ded. "There is a spir-it med-i-cine, a hal-lu-cino-gen, known as the Thou-sand Mile Wa-ter-fall Flower. If you can en-dure its ef-fects while cul-ti-vat-ing, it may start you on a path of move-ment and wa-ter qi... if you so choose." The woman re-laxed slight-ly. "A flower of suf-fi-cient qual-i-ty--at least Com-mon--will also tem-per your body, and sig-nif-i-cant-ly im-prove your chances at pass-ing the tribu-la-tion."

  Xam frowned and con-sid-ered that, seem-ing-ly se-ri-ous, as the woman turned to Mian, who frowned, and con-sid-ered.

  "I'm afraid I don't know my path," he said, "ex-cept that I hope to sup-port my wife," he looked point-ed-ly at Xam, "and Ki'el. And I know that my spir-it is fo-cused around my heart."

  "Your heart?" Be-nai sound-ed per-haps a lit-tle cu-ri-ous, but more like she sim-ply found his words un-clear.

  Chi-an spoke up to an-swer that. "You re-call what I said about be-ing at-tuned to my tail? How Ki'el said it was like a voice for spir-it en-er-gy?" Be-nai turned, and gave the girl a look that said in no un-cer-tain terms that her mem-o-ry was quite good. So, af-ter only half a mo-ment, Chi-an con-tin-ued. "My tail, Mian's heart, Xam's feet, and Ki'el's skin--these are all the same sort of 'fo-cus'."

  "I see," Be-nai said, and af-ter a mo-ment, looked back at Mian. "Then--you con-trol your-self with your emo-tions? You strive to be-come the per-son you must be from with-in?"

  Mian had a sur-prised look on his face, but tapped his chin, and nod-ded. "I sup-pose. That's not a bad de-scrip-tion, re-al-ly."

  "Then I sup-pose I must rec-om-mend the most--and least--use-ful med-i-cine I can imag-ine." Be-nai's lips curled away from her teeth in a strange-ly ugly smile, or per-haps a gri-mace that looked too cheer-ful. "The Hun-dred Hearts Ton-ic is a com-bi-na-tion of sev-er-al herbs that al-lows one to ex-pe-ri-ence every emo-tion the hu-man heart can pos-si-bly know--and a few more. For some, the drug is an un-pleas-ant jour-ney through all the worst feel-ings--pain, shame, mis-ery, angst--but they are equal-ly dragged through all the best feel-ings--the many fla-vors of love, joy, and ec-sta-sy, along with con-tent-ment and ac-cep-tance. Some have called the ex-pe-ri-ence en-light-ment, oth-ers tor-ture. But for a per-son who must speak with their heart in or-der to progress, it helps to speak its lan-guage. Flu-ent-ly. I would rec-om-mend you not ac-cept a ton-ic at less than Un-com-mon qual-i-ty, or the side ef-fects will be... se-vere."

  Mian made a noise, and Ki'el thought the man went pale at the idea, but he also seemed to be se-ri-ous-ly con-sid-er-ing it.

  "Each of these med-i-cines, if tak-en while med-i-tat-ing, will also vast-ly in-crease your in-take of qi--if you can keep your mind on the task." Be-nai's voice echoed slight-ly in the cham-ber--more than it had be-fore, Ki'el thought, now that the woman wished it to. "If you are se-ri-ous about push-ing for-ward quick-ly, com-bin-ing the qi gain and in-sight is the only op-tion. The cor-rect way for-ward is to gain that same in-sight with hard work and ef-fort--but then, prodi-gies have been raised to be-come the great-est pow-ers among mankind by us-ing the cor-rect mix-ture of train-ing and med-i-cine."

  For Ki'el, the whole top-ic sound-ed odd. She had been more ex-pect-ing to hear of pills that did noth-ing but in-crease one's qi, some-how--but hal-lu-ci-nat-ing wa-ter-falls and ex-pe-ri-enc-ing every emo-tion known to man?

  And from Be-nai's face, when the woman turned her at-ten-tion back to Ki'el, her thoughts must have been show-ing. "You may doubt this method, young Ki'el," she said, and Ki'el thought the woman's voice was hard, un-yield-ing. "But peo-ple were nev-er meant to use these pow-ers. Dis-cov-er-ing the truth of the uni-verse in or-der to un-lock its se-crets takes ei-ther med-i-ta-tion and in-sight... or un-usu-al meth-ods."

  Ki'el stiff-ened, but in a way, she did un-der-stand. If she didn't have Kuli or Sobon to tell her the an-swers... what could she do? If it hadn't been for Sobon, she wouldn't even be try-ing to gain these sorts of spir-i-tu-al pow-ers, but... if she had cho-sen to go down this path, where would she even be-gin search-ing for in-sight into how to con-trol fire, or wa-ter, or school one's heart?

  So she only took a breath, and spoke qui-et-ly. "I un-der-stand, Sis-ter Be-nai. I... am very for-tu-nate to have ac-cess to in-sights by oth-er means, and with-out them..."

  There was a pause, and then Chi-an spoke. "We're all for-tu-nate," she said, her cheer sound-ing a lit-tle forced. "I would be nowhere with-out Be-nai, and with-out you. And we are all here be-cause of un-count-able oth-er suc-cess-es, oth-er bless-ings." She moved clos-er and took the sheet that Ki'el held, which con-tained the for-mu-la-tion for her Wheel of Light and Sky Ton-ic. She glanced over the list, wor-ry-ing her lip. "But... what should we ex-pect all this to cost?"

  "Your ton-ic alone will cost at least five hun-dred Sect Points--if you can find an al-chemist will-ing to work cheap-ly," said Bai Be-nai, quite se-ri-ous-ly.

  Ki'el swal-lowed, the amount seem-ing crazy--at first. But she had also been giv-en that many sect points sim-ply for hav-ing a sin-gle 'in-sight-ful' con-ver-sa-tion with In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples. And... she had no idea what she would have in her pos-ses-sion be-cause of the for-fei-ture of the man who had tried to kill her. "And the rest?" she said, won-der-ing whether what-ev-er she might end up sink-ing the whole for-fei-ture into it.

  "If the herbs are al-ready in sup-ply, I would imag-ine be-tween three and five hun-dred for both, plus al-chemist costs," Be-nai said. "If they must be gath-ered, an ad-di-tion-al one to two hun-dred points per herb that must be gath-ered--if you are will-ing to wait up to two days for the mis-sion. A re-quest put in as ur-gent will dou-ble the costs."

  Ki'el kept her calm in the face of that. It... did not en-tire-ly es-cape her, that if she had not cho-sen to in-clude Chi-an, or if she blind-ly as-sumed that Chi-an would be fine with-out the med-i-cine, then it would halve her costs... but there was no rea-son to take that thought se-ri-ous-ly. It would be strange if she had ar-rived just at the mo-ment that Chi-an was ready, on her own, to chal-lenge the tribu-la-tion. And... if she was hon-est, she would pre-fer to bring up oth-ers, as well. Not be-cause she was as close to them as she was her friends and Chi-an, but...

  But... be-cause she kept see-ing them, and the echoes of her own lone-li-ness in them.

  But she shook the thought off, and not know-ing what else to do, gave Be-nai a grate-ful ges-ture, one she re-al-ized a mo-ment lat-er was in the Il-lan style rather than the Djang, but she didn't think the woman cared. "I will see what we can do. Thank you, Sis-ter Be-nai."

  "Thank me by tak-ing care of Da Chi-an," she said, still sound-ing very se-ri-ous. "While she is here, she is my charge. If any-thing should hap-pen to her..." Be-nai left the rest un-said, but the look she gave Ki'el was stern.

  "I will," Ki'el said, though as she turned away, her mind got caught in a sil-ly ques-tion: should I have said I would try, in-stead of say-ing that I would? Am I strong enough to take re-spon-si-bil-i-ty for such a thing?

  When they reached the door and walked out, Ki'el was mo-men-tar-i-ly stunned to re-turn to the hall-way of the Less-er House, and more sur-prised when she looked back into Be-nai's clos-et and saw it as one more sim-ply a cramped space with a woman med-i-tat-ing at its cen-ter. But once she and the oth-ers were out, the door closed it-self, and Ki'el was left think-ing that what she had ex-pe-ri-enced--the wide room with its wa-ter floor--was some-how more true than the clos-et, no mat-ter how ob-vi-ous it seemed to be that the clos-et was real.

  I have seen spa-tial ex-pan-sion from Sobon's tech-niques, Ki'el rea-soned as she fol-lowed the oth-ers back to the spi-ral stair-case with the loose steps. Even as the stair-case re-quired her at-ten-tion again as she moved down it, though, there was doubt in her mind. But the room looked dif-fer-ent from with-in than from out-side. And... I didn't think, when I looked back from out-side, that I was see-ing il-lu-sion. Both felt true.

  "Trou-ble," grum-bled Chi-an, be-fore they had even got-ten to the bot-tom, and Ki'el felt it as soon as her thoughts were drawn back to the pre-sent. When they got to the front door, Ki'el could tell that things were only get-ting worse.

  Out-side, a woman dressed in what was clear-ly In-ner Sect robes was... seat-ed on a palan-quin, that had been set down by the four Out-er Sect dis-ci-ples who had been car-ry-ing it. Un-like most, who wore the robes long or had pants, this woman--or girl--had cut her robe short, not far be-low her waist, and had her legs bare--and shaved, with only thin san-dals on her feet, which were tucked be-neath her in a side-lean-ing sit that looked like it was sup-posed to ap-pear com-fort-able, but which Ki'el thought could not have been. She was also, Ki'el thought, not Djang, and nei-ther were her four re-tain-ers; their faces were some-what sharp-er

  For her part, Ki'el didn't un-der-stand at all; it felt like a ridicu-lous-ly un-com-fort-able cut for her robe, and Ki'el felt mor-ti-fied at the thought of or-der-ing oth-er peo-ple to car-ry her around like that; it made no sense, and she couldn't imag-ine it was even re-mote-ly com-fort-able, es-pe-cial-ly for a cul-ti-va-tor who was sup-posed to be get-ting ever more com-fort-able with their own body. The ride in that abom-inable fly-ing box that had brought her here had been quite un-com-fort-able, and it had also not been at all cheap.

  "There you are," the woman called, long be-fore Ki'el had stepped out of the House it-self. There was some-thing to her voice that Ki'el dis-trust-ed, and also didn't un-der-stand; she was clear-ly go-ing through some ef-fort to add a strange tone to her voice, though it was not a car-ri-er of qi the way Lan Wu's was. "I'll make this easy for you, girl. I want all the for-fei-ture of Kem Jee Sai, mi-nus what-ev-er Sect Points he had. I'll even through a hun-dred Sect Points in it for you, which should be more than enough, giv-en how much trou-ble I'll be sav-ing you. And if I were you..." she raised a hand, and the four who had car-ried her stu-pid sled stepped for-ward, look-ing men-ac-ing, "I wouldn't refuse."

  Ki'el looked around at the oth-ers, but their wor-ried looks only mir-rored what she felt--ex-cept Mian, whose wor-ry was mixed with some dis-trac-tion. Ei-ther way, she saw no ad-vice in them, and she turned back to look at the woman out-side, pro-ject-ing her voice slight-ly to make her-self heard through the open front door. "I apol-o-gize, Sis-ter, but I don't know who you are."

  One of the four car-ri-ers stepped for-ward, his voice loud and brash. "Of course some gut-ter-trash is-lander wouldn't know Lady Pha. Just shut up and do what you're told, be-fore things get rough.

  From where Ki'el stood, she could still see Sis-ter Futi in her of-fice--and the mo-ment she locked eyes, she felt a nar-row pulse of in-tent di-rect-ed at her. [ That woman is Vaja Pha Laila. She is a dis-tant re-la-tion of the Va-jan Roy-al Fam-i-ly, and more spoiled than many of the Djang no-ble hous-es. She has al-ready sac-ri-ficed sev-er-al of her ser-vants in feuds, but has done no wrong in the eyes of the Sect. She is also not the mas-ter of Kem Jee Sai. Be very care-ful how you treat this one. ]

  Ki'el ab-sorbed that knowl-edge, and looked out ahead. "I have not re-ceived any for-fei-ture yet. If Broth-er Sai was hold-ing into some items for you, I am sure--"

  "All the con-tents," Laila said, and Ki'el felt a threat-en-ing twist to the qi out-side, but... she was also sure that it was not from the woman.

  Ki'el un-der-stood that she was be-ing threat-ened, and could rec-og-nize--even with-out what Sis-ter Futi had said--that the woman was will-ing to cause sub-stan-tial trou-ble, here, but Ki'el couldn't help her na-ture, and her na-ture told her that this woman was try-ing to con-trol her--to taint her, to get in-side of her and cor-rupt her. She set her jaw, stub-born-ly, and spoke again. "I will speak to the El-der and en-sure that those who have a le-git-i-mate claim to the con-tents may re-quest their re-turn."

  "You bitch--" One of the four guards--not the one who had stepped for-ward--start-ed for-ward as though at a run, though he only took two or three steps be-fore low-er-ing one hand to-wards the ground, and his qi flared. Ki'el blinked, tak-ing a step back. Sure-ly he wouldn't--?

  Ki'el might have been hap-py nev-er to have seen what hap-pened in the blink of an eye--but in a way, this time, Kuli was a curse to her. Be-cause the man's qi shot into the ground, and four pil-lars of stone leaped for-ward like spears, but spears larg-er than Ki'el's tor-so, and they tore com-plete-ly through the front of the build-ing, throw-ing splin-ters and shrap-nel--

  But then, with a men-tal sound like a snap-ping tree branch, the dam-age was un-done, and Ki'el only caught a glimpse of the small El-der's ar-rival, even as the small man ca-su-al-ly back-hand-ed the of-fend-ing Out-er Sect mem-ber, knock-ing him en-tire-ly out of the area. In the blink-ing mo-ments af-ter-wards, as the El-der be-gan to speak, Ki'el could imag-ine be-ing un-sure whether what she had seen was il-lu-sion, or not.

  It wasn't. That fact was made per-fect-ly clear from her aug-ment, as Kuli re-gard-ed those mem-o-ries, those sen-sa-tions, with a cool de-tach-ment that Ki'el might nev-er have with-out her. By what-ev-er means, from what she had seen... vi-o-lence had been done, and then un-done. But it had hap-pened.

  "Lady Vaja," the El-der said, with an in-tense in-tent be-hind his voice that Ki'el was ex-treme-ly glad was not di-rect-ed at her, as she could see plant life be-hind the oth-er woman with-er-ing with its in-ten-si-ty. "You will keep your re-tain-ers on a short leash, or you will be pun-ished along-side them."

  "I don't--what?" The oth-er woman, Vaja roy-al fam-i-ly or not, seemed caught en-tire-ly off-guard by the El-der's phras-ing. "Pun-ished? For do-ing what?"

  "Per-haps it was un-clear to you when young Ki'el was brought be-fore a coun-cil of all the Sect's El-ders," the short El-der said, and Ki'el could only imag-ine the look on his face as he said it, "But we are pay-ing at-ten-tion to what is hap-pen-ing, here, now. Are you ex-pect-ing that play-ing the fool will be tol-er-at-ed while we are watch-ing every-thing you do? No mat-ter how sub-tle your plans or in-sin-u-a-tions, if you think they will suf-fice to dis-guise your in-tent from the three El-ders cur-rent-ly mon-i-tor-ing the sit-u-a-tion, then you clear-ly mis-un-der-stand the Sect in its en-tire-ty." He stepped for-ward, and al-though it was only a step, Ki'el felt like the man had moved leagues and leagues of land away from her--and, she imag-ined, to the woman, it must feel like he was com-ing that much clos-er with each step.

  He stepped for-ward again, and again, and again, at what could be de-scribed as a nor-mal walk-ing pace, and Ki'el watched her and her three re-main-ing com-pan-ions buck-ling un-der the in-ten-si-ty of the El-der's qi.

  "What-ev-er your ri-val-ry, what-ev-er your per-son-al con-flicts, tear-ing apart Sect prop-er-ty and as-sault-ing un-in-volved stu-dents will nev-er be ac-cept-able." His words were mea-sured, even, but Ki'el could hear the mut-ed echoes of his in-tent bounc-ing off the woman, her palan-quin, and the trees be-yond. "We very fre-quent-ly al-low peo-ple to cre-ate con-flict, when we be-lieve it will al-low peo-ple to learn valu-able lessons. But it seems the only les-son to be learned here to-day is," his last words fell with the im-pact of boul-ders from the sky, "this is not your coun-try."

  Two of the re-main-ing Out-er Sect dis-ci-ples failed to hold up un-der that much stress, and the El-der stepped back, this time with-out any strange qi ef-fects. "We are not sim-ply go-ing to al-low you, or any-one else, to do what you wish," he con-tin-ued, his voice sud-den-ly as placid as though he were sim-ply mak-ing con-ver-sa-tion over lunch. "It was un-wise of you to push at all, more-so when you should know you'd be caught." Al-though Ki'el felt breath-less just from the echoes of what the woman had faced, the el-der main-tained an al-most friv-o-lous-ly calm air. "Per-haps you should go rest? Per-haps it is only the stress of your day that is mak-ing you be-have so fool-ish-ly."

  "I..."

  "Now, miss Vaja."

  The woman swal-lowed hard, and with a flick of her qi, sim-ply shot her palan-quin up into the sky-mak-ing Ki'el won-der why the woman had ever made four men car-ry it. Or had she? By the time they'd got-ten here, it had been set on the ground. And yet... some-how, she was sure.

  Ki'el's at-ten-tion was drawn to the el-der as he turned his head to look at her, his face se-ri-ous. "Go on," he said, no con-cern ap-par-ent in his voice. "Things will be fine, here."

  Ki'el glanced over to where Sis-ter Futi re-mained in her of-fice, but that woman was sim-ply stand-ing still with her eyes closed, and Ki'el saw no rea-son to wait for any kind of sign from her.

  "Thank you, El-der," she said, po-lite-ly, and gave a def-er-en-tial half-bow, but when she start-ed for-wards, she couldn't stop her-self from mov-ing at al-most a run.

  To get away from this place, and hope-ful-ly, to get to an-oth-er safe place, as soon as pos-si-ble.