Al-though Ki'el had wor-ried some about ask-ing Broth-er Du for ad-vice on find-ing an Al-chemist, the man had not let her down. Du had led them to a pri-vate place, where she talked about the ton-ics, in-gre-di-ents, qual-i-ty lev-els, and her bud-get, and the man had stu-dious-ly con-sid-ered them all, be-fore rec-om-mend-ing two al-chemists, one for each of the ton-ics, and one herbal-ist al-ready fa-mil-iar with prepar-ing the Thou-sand Mile Wa-ter-fall Flower for use.

  "I imag-ine, young Ki'el, you are pre-pared to spend what-ev-er you must to see these pre-pared prop-er-ly," Du con-tin-ued. "In truth, there are bet-ter al-chemists--but they charge more for their ser-vices than the im-prove-ment war-rants. None of these three will be sat-is-fied pro-vid-ing some-thing of less than Un-com-mon qual-i-ty, and Sis-ter Mai, the herbal-ist, is more se-ri-ous than most when it comes to in-sight-grant-i-ng herbs, ow-ing to her own bad ex-pe-ri-ences in the past. Es-pe-cial-ly for a ju-nior, I ex-pect she will pro-vide bet-ter qual-i-ty than what is paid for."

  A day lat-er, Ki'el re-ceived no-tice that all the al-chem-i-cal in-gre-di-ents were ac-count-ed for, and with the as-sis-tance of Broth-er Du, gath-ered the al-chemists and herbal-ist, along with her friends, at the Hall of Earth-en Recita-tion. Du was wait-ing with them out-side by the time those from the Less-er House ar-rived--all four of them wear-ing the robes of In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples, and Ki'el not-ed with some alarm that at one of the al-chemists seemed dis-pleased.

  "Young Sis-ter Ki'el," Du in-tro-duced as she ap-proached, ges-tur-ing with one hand. "Broth-er Prang, Broth-er Hong, and Sis-ter Jian."

  "It's been a very long time since I had to work in the Earth-en Hall," Prang said, his voice as bit-ter as the look on his face, as he stared at the large build-ing. "If this wasn't a re-quest from Broth-er Du..."

  "It does you good to get out," the herbal-ist, Sis-ter Jian, said, with a mock-ing smack to Broth-er Prang's shoul-der, though the man jerked like he had to hold back a vi-o-lent re-ac-tion. "The Heav-en-ly Hall may be bet-ter, but the air there is so stuffy. Too many of the peo-ple who work there hard-ly ever leave, ex-cept to eat and sleep."

  The oth-er al-chemist, in con-trast, seemed with-drawn--though Broth-er Hong was ac-tu-al-ly quite large, Ki'el im-me-di-ate-ly got the im-pres-sion he wouldn't speak much. But... she im-me-di-ate-ly did her best to calm them, giv-ing them all a salute. "I am hon-ored for your help. I apol-o-gize if the Hall of Earth-en Recita-tion seems be-neath you, but..."

  "It's fine, it's fine," Sis-ter Jian said, her voice slight-ly rough de-spite the cheer in her tone and words. She was al-ready turn-ing to-wards the hall, and ges-tur-ing for them to fol-low. "But the longer we stand here, the less time you'll have to get ac-tu-al work out of us. Come along, boys and girls!"

  "The paid time has al-ready start-ed?" Mian's voice sound-ed both du-bi-ous and alarmed.

  "You'd bet-ter be-lieve it," said Broth-er Prang, with a sneer, but he was also walk-ing into the Hall. "Our time is pre-cious, and if you waste it with idle ban-ter--then it's bet-ter you waste your mon-ey than ours."

  Broth-er Hong, for his part, kept pace with Broth-er Du silent-ly, though Ki'el thought he saw the man's eyes flick-ing around, notic-ing the de-tails as they went.

  Though Ki'el had done noth-ing to arrange it, each of the three seemed to know ex-act-ly which of the many work-ing rooms of the Hall they need-ed to pick in or-der to find the in-gre-di-ents that had been pre-pared, and each got to work with in-tense fo-cus. The were, re-gret-tably, not ad-ja-cent to one an-oth-er; Mian, Xam, and Chi-an each fol-lowed the per-son prepar-ing their own med-i-cine, leav-ing Ki'el to stand with Broth-er Du as the scat-tered.

  "I sense you have im-proved your abil-i-ty to use your Qi Turn-ing Cy-cle," Du said af-ter a mo-ment. "Un-less I am mis-tak-en?"

  Ki'el turned to look at him, sur-prised, but nod-ded, shy-ly. "Un-til now, I was main-tain-ing it only with my own spir-it, but since we are in a rush, I am hav-ing Kuli as-sist me. I would not dare to do less, when every-one else is prepar-ing for their own or-deals."

  "I imag-ine that with the ex-tra qi, you will con-tin-ue your body tem-per-ing." Du's voice was not judg-ing, and might have even been ap-prov-ing, though it was a lit-tle hard to tell, since it was not silent in this part of the Hall. "If you can tem-per your-self enough, even be-fore reach-ing Ti-ta-ni-um Qi, then I imag-ine that the tribu-la-tion will be easy for you--far eas-i-er, per-haps, than it will be for your friends."

  Ki'el nod-ded, vague-ly. "When my mas-ter reached ...a tribu-la-tion, with his knowl-edge and pow-er, he sim-ply took a walk, faced it, and came back as though noth-ing of note had hap-pened." She hes-i-tat-ed. "It changed what I un-der-stood, though I had un-der-stood very lit-tle. My grand-moth-er told me sto-ries of men who chal-lenged the gods and were struck by light-ning, only to sur-vive, re-cov-er, and grow stronger. But I do not be-lieve she un-der-stood, as no one in my vil-lage was ever a pow-er-ful qi user. I be-lieve that she thought it was luck, or some mas-sive bat-tle be-tween men and gods."

  Broth-er Du made some-thing of a hum-ming laugh, clos-ing his eyes as though en-vi-sion-ing it. "That is cer-tain-ly one ver-sion of the tale. When I was a young boy in the city--long ago, and far from here--I was once told that in or-der to cul-ti-vate past a cer-tain lev-el, you had to slay a god in a duel and steal their god-hood. Those who nev-er pass the Gold-en Wall can only imag-ine the truth." He re-opened his eyes and looked down at Ki'el, and she thought his eyes had some-thing to them, though what, she wasn't cer-tain.

  "Though... for those who are un-pre-pared, fac-ing a tribu-la-tion can be as dan-ger-ous as fac-ing a god in com-bat. Nor-mal-ly, I would not sug-gest that any-one who has just reached the peak of Gold do such a thing. You... I firm-ly be-lieve are more pre-pared than most. Your Sis-ter Xam, in con-trast, has pre-pared for a long time, and I be-lieve that with this as-sis-tance, she will be fine. Even young Sis-ter Chi-an seems like-ly to be ad-e-quate to the chal-lenge. Your Broth-er Mian..." The doubt in Du's voice gave away his next words long be-fore he was will-ing to voice them. "...I still doubt his abil-i-ty, even with help. For that rea-son, I asked Broth-er Prang to pre-pare a Greater qual-i-ty ton-ic for him."

  "Greater qual-i-ty? As in... above Un-com-mon?" Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed. She... had not ex-act-ly de-mand-ed to know what they would charge her, and she trust-ed Broth-er Du, but she had only been told a few of the Alche-my grades, and Greater was the sec-ond high-est that Chi-an had told her. Was that... tru-ly with-in her bud-get, un-be-liev-ably high though it may be?

  But Broth-er Du sim-ply nod-ded, not look-ing at her. "It is a more com-pli-cat-ed mat-ter than you might be-lieve, young Ki'el. I would not have al-lowed it if I didn't be-lieve that you would be by his side. Your qi pu-rifi-ca-tion and your... aether rings, I be-lieve will be enough to sta-bi-lize him if he should have a bad re-ac-tion to the ton-ic. And high-er-grade ton-ics will not only have few-er side-ef-fects, but height-ened ef-fects. I be-lieve that as long as you can sta-bi-lize him, a Greater ton-ic will tem-per him enough to get through a tribu-la-tion on his first try."

  Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed, but looked up at him. "You have ex-pe-ri-ence with the Hun-dred Hearts Ton-ic, Broth-er Du?"

  "I con-sid-er my-self a teacher, young Ki'el," Du said, glanc-ing in her di-rec-tion, but still not mak-ing eye con-tact. "I have done a num-ber of things in my time, prepar-ing to lead and teach peo-ple. The Hun-dred Hearts Ton-ic is a sober-ing re-minder of how many dif-fer-ent ex-pe-ri-ences peo-ple may al-ready have had, be-fore they reach the Sect. I have tak-en the ton-ic sev-er-al times over the years, when I feel that I have tak-en on a stu-dent who I can-not un-der-stand. Af-ter tak-ing the ton-ic and speak-ing with my stu-dents again, I of-ten find my sym-pa-thy for their plight is far greater--or else I find that they tru-ly are self-ish, or fool-ish, and I need not con-cern my-self with them."

  Ki'el swal-lowed. Sis-ter Be-nai had said that for some, the ton-ic was tor-ture--and Broth-er Du took it sim-ply to un-der-stand his stu-dents? Sev-er-al times?

  "In con-trast, young Sis-ter Chi-an's ton-ic is some-thing I will nev-er be able to take, and the Thou-sand Mile Wa-ter-fall Flower would pro-vide me no ben-e-fit, as Wa-ter Na-ture Qi is not close enough to my Path. But Broth-er Hong has many sym-pa-thies for peo-ple like Sis-ter Chi-an, and Sis-ter Jian has long been a firm be-liev-er in care-ful-ly prepar-ing med-i-cines for spir-i-tu-al in-sight, and where pos-si-ble, ad-just-ing the dosage for the per-son re-ceiv-ing it. I be-lieve that each of your friends is in good hands--but to an ex-tent, Broth-er Mian will be in your hands." His voice was be-com-ing qui-et, as though re-flect-ing, al-though it still car-ried per-fect-ly well. "As a per-son who has tak-en that ton-ic, I would ask that you are there for him on his jour-ney as only a sis-ter can be."

  Ki'el swal-lowed, but nod-ded. When Broth-er Du said lit-tle else for a time, she spoke up. "Do you have any ad-vice on ...tem-per-ing the body?" She was com-ing to ac-cept that Broth-er Du's word for it was bet-ter than Sobon's "ac-clima-ti-za-tion", if only be-cause it felt more nat-ur-al. Like many of the words her mas-ter used, it was prob-a-bly cor-rect, but... awk-ward.

  "I sus-pect your Kuli knows it as well as I do," Du replied, af-ter tak-ing only a mo-ment to clear his head. "Most peo-ple I have known tem-per their bod-ies af-ter de-ter-min-ing their qi na-tures, and they tem-per them-selves with their in-com-plete qi na-tures, not tem-per-ing un-til they are cer-tain that they want to keep that na-ture as a part of them. The process caus-es our bod-ies to nat-u-ral-ly gen-er-ate that na-tured qi, which en-hances our abil-i-ty to per-form re-lat-ed tech-niques." His face shift-ed as Ki'el watched, and he fi-nal-ly turned to meet her eyes again. "If you have any in-tent, in the fu-ture, to pick a qi na-ture, you will def-i-nite-ly not want to ful-ly tem-per your body be-fore form-ing that qi na-ture. I can only imag-ine that tem-per-ing with pu-ri-fied qi is as dif-fi-cult to undo as tem-per-ing with a spe-cif-ic na-ture... but it is be-yond my knowl-edge."

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Ki'el frowned, con-sid-er-ing that. In truth... she had done very lit-tle con-sid-er-a-tion of qi na-tures, in part be-cause she most-ly ex-pect-ed to fol-low her mas-ter's route of us-ing knowl-edge and tech-nique to draw scripts in the air. But... Sis-ter Xari per-formed such scripts while also hav-ing some form of moon and thread-na-tured qi. She... was most-ly sure that she would not re-gret at-tun-ing much, per-haps even most of her body to pu-ri-fied qi. Was there a rea-son to also have parts of her spir-it that pro-vid-ed qi na-tures? She was sure that Kuli had some-thing to say on the top-ic, but the aug-ment seemed to not wish to speak on it here and now.

  So Ki'el looked away from Broth-er Du, her own thoughts go-ing to what Sobon had taught her. "My mas-ter spoke of... tem-per-ing, as a process where the body grows used to hav-ing qi, or aether, with-in it. He spoke of ter-ri-ble things that may hap-pen if we pos-sess great qi with-out ever tem-per-ing. That... the self-ish-ness of the body de-stroy s it from with-in."

  "De-stroys... yes, there are qi sick-ness-es that warp the body, if you go too long with-out tem-per-ing," Broth-er Du said, slow-ly. "Self-ish-ness of the body... is an odd phrase. Is my skin self-ish? My bones? Do they not ex-ist only to al-low me to live?"

  Ki'el found her-self clench-ing her jaw slight-ly. Is my skin na-ture self-ish? As soon as the ques-tion was asked, she knew that it was, or close enough. "Your skin only knows its task, its world. There are times when it, if it were giv-en pow-er, would be-have as it be-lieves it should, and it would be wrong. If you were cut near the mouth, and your skin was giv-en un-lim-it-ed abil-i-ty to re-grow, might it cov-er your mouth by mis-take? Or even a small part of it? What if it made such a mis-take and you could nev-er con-vince your skin that it was wrong? Would it not stub-born-ly at-tempt to re-main whole and in-tact even if you could not eat or breathe? Your skin may be a nec-es-sary part of you, but it does not ex-ist while know-ing your form and pur-pose. It only ex-ists to ful-fill its pur-pose, to be what it is." With some parts of that, she thought she felt Kuli di-rect-ing her thoughts slight-ly, but... most-ly, it was all things that she al-ready felt were right.

  She could see Broth-er Du re-act-ing some-what to that idea, one hand drift-ing to-wards his face, al-though he caught it and low-ered his hand a mo-ment lat-er. "I... hm. You do pose raise strange thoughts when-ev-er we speak, Sis-ter Ki'el." He con-sid-ered that for a mo-ment. "And bones... when bones break, they re-grow stronger, but this is only a virtue if the bone is set and can heal in its prop-er place-ment. I have seen heal-ers re-break bones which were... stub-born-ly healed be-fore they should have been, lead-ing to a tru-ly ter-ri-ble state. But sure-ly, bones that are in-tact can do no harm, if giv-en pow-er?"

  "I am ig-no-rant of such things," Ki'el ad-mit-ted. "I only have thought about my skin be-cause it is part of my spir-it. I do not like when things at-tempt to get in-side of me, change me, af-fect me. It is a self-ish urge that some-times caus-es is-sues."

  "I see," Broth-er Du said, and turned slight-ly. "It seems Sis-ter Xam is done."

  Ki'el looked past, and no-ticed Xam and Sis-ter Jian walk-ing and talk-ing. She could not see Xam's med-i-cine, but then, the woman had her own space ring--which re-mind-ed Ki'el that she could now af-ford one for each of them. "It seems so," she said, watch-ing them for a mo-ment, be-fore re-lay-ing a thought from with-in. "Kuli says that bone mar-row is also where blood is pro-duced in the body, and that such can eas-i-ly go wrong if they are giv-en too much pow-er, among oth-er things."

  "Hm? Oh. I have heard that, as well." Du, for once, sound-ed a bit flus-tered. "I... sup-pose I will con-sid-er the top-ic more lat-er, but..."

  Ki'el laughed, qui-et-ly. "It seems I have found a top-ic that up-sets Broth-er Du?"

  The man turned and gave her a look, then glanced past her. "Broth-er Hong and Sis-ter Chi-an are also fin-ished."

  Ki'el turned to look, but the large Al-chemist avoid-ed her gaze and Chi-an's as they walked, and Chi-an seemed cha-grined or flus-tered. Ki'el turned to look at the work-room where Broth-er Prang and Mian were... but the man there still seemed hard at work, and deeply fo-cused.

  "That ton-ic should take time, and know-ing Broth-er Prang, he will pace his work to take the full al-lot-ment of time you have paid for."

  "Then... I should at least pur-chase an-oth-er space ring for Broth-er Mian." Or take a re-place-ment for one of the ones in the for-fei-ture, as be-fore. She looked over at Chi-an as she moved, find-ing that the girl did have one on her hand--though she was not sure she had no-ticed it be-fore. Then... as para-noid as she and Sis-ter Be-nai were, they might have a way to con-ceal it, nor-mal-ly.

  Du ges-tured to the line cur-rent-ly wait-ing for the El-der. "It will be luck to find which is fin-ished first, but... go ahead."

  In truth, Ki'el had won-dered if she would be able to sim-ply sig-nal the El-der and con-tin-ue to wait... but the tone of Broth-er Du's voice sug-gest-ed that she could not. So she went in, and when she was as-signed a place in line, med-i-tat-ed, re-in-forc-ing her ac-clima-ti-za-tion... her tem-per-ing with the help of Kuli. Some-thing about the way Kuli helped her ma-nip-u-late the qi, along with some of her Right-eous aether, was sublty dif-fer-ent, and Ki'el did her best to study the dif-fer-ences un-til the mo-ment when she sensed El-der Gol's at-ten-tion.

  [ Xoi Doua Ki'el. Af-ter pay-ing the al-chemists and for your in-gre-di-ents, your Points to-tal--ad-just-ed for your po-si-tion in the sect--stands at two thou-sand, one hun-dred and fif-teen points. ]

  Ki'el swal-lowed hard. Out of ten thou-sand? Be-nai sug-gest-ed that the cost of in-gre-di-ents might be a thou-sand, plus any fees to go fetch them, that fee be-ing dou-bled for ur-gency... and the al-chemists are In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples, but work-ing out of the Earth-en Hall... Al-though Kuli made a few sug-ges-tions of the ra-tios, it still worked out to the time of each al-chemist be-ing worth more than a thou-sand points per hour. In all these mat-ters, she hadn't spec-i-fied... and El-der Gol and Broth-er Du had spent her points freely. Of course, from what El-der Gol had said, she had more than this many points strict-ly from the for-fei-ture, but would only be al-lowed ac-cess to the rest af-ter pass-ing her tribu-la-tion. And... it wasn't as though she wasn't in a rush.

  But the idea that they had made no ef-fort to help her un-der-stand ran-kled her. Did they think of her mind as in-fe-ri-or? That per-haps she didn't need to make her own de-ci-sions?

  [You seem dis-turbed, child.] El-der Gol's men-tal voice was as sol-id as ever, and Ki'el took a breath, let-ting it out, and ig-nored the thought--for now.

  In-stead, she fo-cused her in-tent on the El-der. [ Would like space ring. Con-tin-ue to hold ones from for-fei-ture. Would like re-place-ment for one un-til mat-ter re-solved. Like last time. ]

  El-der Gol's re-ply in-tent wave back seemed slight-ly off, per-haps con-fused. [ All the con-tent of the rings, but es-pe-cial-ly the con-tent of Kem Jee Sai's, be-longs en-tire-ly to you. I don't mind hold-ing the rings in es-crow, but would it would be sim-pler if you sim-ply take that one. ]

  But Ki'el only nar-rowed her eyes in re-turn, form-ing the re-turn thought pack-et. [ Don't know re-la-tion-ship to mas-ter. She may want his items, and I don't care. Would pre-fer peace. ]

  El-der Gol wait-ed a mo-ment be-fore re-ply-ing. [ A re-place-ment ring will be fur-nished for you, ] he said, with no ob-vi-ous emo-tion-al tones to the mes-sage, and then he re-treat-ed to the space ar-ray, or what-ev-er it was, that con-tained the Sect's stor-age.

  Ki'el fin-ished re-liev-ing the pres-sure and re-ab-sorb-ing her qi from her ef-forts at tem-per-ing just as the El-der re-turned, and she took the space ring glad-ly, bring-ing it out to where all the oth-ers were gath-ered around Broth-er Du. Mian's eyes shot up with sur-prise when she hand-ed him the ring, and al-though he put it on, he seemed to have al-ready giv-en his med-i-cines to some-one else, pre-sum-ably Xam. Broth-er Du nod-ded to her, and then glanced around at them.

  "I would like to in-vite you all to a pri-vate spot for these kinds of med-i-ta-tions," he said. "Nor-mal-ly, it is re-strict-ed to the Out-er Sect and above--"

  "And what of the fee?" Ki'el found that there was a hard-ness to her voice.

  Du turned to her, look-ing some-what sur-prised. "I be-lieve you still have enough re-main-ing."

  "Per-haps. But I do not like that nei-ther you nor El-der Gol gave me any no-tice or in-for-ma-tion about the costs of this. It is ur-gent, and I do ap-pre-ci-ate the ad-vice. I do not wish--"

  "Ah," Du gri-maced some-what at that. "I... apol-o-gize, Sis-ter Ki'el. I for-get, again, how dif-fer-ent it is be-ing at the bot-tom of the Sect in-stead of the top. And El-der Gol... is in-fa-mous for not giv-ing in-for-ma-tion un-less it is asked." He fold-ed his hands and bowed in what Ki'el thought was an apolo-getic stance. "The fee would be one hun-dred Points per per-son per hour, and I would ex-pect that the three of you act-ing at once, and Ki'el there to as-sist... would take no more than four hours, cost-ing six-teen hun-dred Points to-tal."

  Six-teen. With the help of Kuli, Ki'el un-der-stood that to leave them all just enough points to make a sin-gle at-tempt at the Gold-en Wall each by the end... and a small bit more. "That leaves lit-tle mon-ey to pay for heal-ing or med-i-cine if there is a mis-take," she said.

  Some-how, Ki'el thought, it didn't fit her im-age of Broth-er Du that the man seemed sur-prised by the idea that they might fail and re-quire heal-ing. Or... was it that he was sur-prised that Ki'el ex-pect-ed to pay for it? Or some-thing else?

  "...The lo-ca-tion is known as the Less-er Gale Pavil-lion," Du con-tin-ued af-ter a mo-ment, a strange dis-tance in his voice. "It is one of the three ar-eas in the sect where the Moon-stone Is-land Sect's wards chan-nel the pur-er qi from out-side the Sect, the oth-ers be-ing the Greater and Peak Gale Pavil-lions. It is con-sid-ered a bet-ter lo-ca-tion for gath-er-ing qi than any but the spaces re-served for the El-ders and Core Dis-ci-ples, es-pe-cial-ly when un-der the ef-fects of med-i-cines that im-prove your gath-er-ing abil-i-ty."

  "You can choose to gath-er qi at an-oth-er lo-ca-tion with-in the sect if you pre-fer... and you can cer-tain-ly ask my-self or oth-er Sect Dis-ci-ples to help de-fer the costs, but un-der the cir-cum-stances, I would con-sid-er it the best use of your re-main-ing Sect Points which I can fore-see... bar-ring, of course, the need for med-ical treat-ment."

  Ki'el bris-tled, but Mian spoke up. "I'm ob-vi-ous-ly the weak-est here," he said, into the at-mos-phere that Ki'el hadn't even re-al-ized was get-ting tense. "And I trust that if some-thing does hap-pen, Ki'el will help, even if she has to ad-vance into the In-ner Sect to gain ac-cess to the rest of her funds. If this is the best op-tion, I for one am not wor-ried... for my-self." He glanced at Xam, who looked back, and Ki'el re-al-ized that she did look dis-turbed... but per-haps not as up-set as Ki'el her-self felt.

  But Ki'el breathed in, and out, and con-sid-ered it only for a brief while be-fore open-ing her eyes again. "Fine. We will do it. But I do not like this." There were so many things that could go wrong--

  A cool sen-sa-tion on her shoul-der sur-prised her, and she turned to find that Chi-an had laid a hand on her, and was smil-ing. "Sis-ter Be-nai has talked to me of these Gale Pavil-lions as well. I think this is the right choice. And... I think we can trust our al-chemist Broth-ers and Sis-ter to have giv-en us the best pos-si-ble chances, as well."

  We cer-tain-ly paid a great deal for their help, Ki'el thought, with a bit-ter-ness that sur-prised her, but she nod-ded to Chi-an. "Do you wish Sis-ter Be-nai's help with your own cul-ti-va-tion?"

  "Ah..." Chi-an gave her a look, but with a smile. "No. She is on a very dif-fer-ent path. I don't be-lieve her pres-ence would help, ex-cept in spir-it."

  Not the same kind of spir-it beast? Per-haps that is not sur-pris-ing. Ki'el sim-ply nod-ded, and with an un-steady breath, looked to Broth-er Du. "Then... I sup-pose we will go."

  Du sim-ply nod-ded, and be-gan to lead the way.