A week had passed and Willow was once more facing her nemesis. Chores. At least now she had multiple friends she could commiserate with by her side at all times. Unfortunately that did not go unnoticed by her brother.

  The young teen confronted her during their daily weeding. “You’ve been mumbling to yourself more than usual lately. What’s up?” His default light scowl was replaced with one of mild concern. Which would have been nice, if Willow wasn’t trying to hide the fact she had bound more spirit’s from her family.

  The girl deflected. “Just talkin to Eos. Sometimes I forget to send with my qi.”

  The concern on her brother’s face was replaced with confusion. “You know that people from stories can’t hear you if you talk to them right? It’s important you understand that.”

  “I know that!” Willow puffed up indignantly. “It’s what I named my fire spirit!”

  The boy rolled his eyes. “You picked a weird one then. Should’ve called it Candle, or Spark.”

  “They’ll grow into the name.” She said confidently.

  Her brother scoffed back. “Good for your great, great grandchildren I guess.”

  Willow blinked. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

  Yew raised an eyebrow. “You know spirits don’t grow fast right? Bough’s been in our family for generations, and according to Da he’s only a little stronger than when he was first bound.”

  The girl was flabbergasted. “But in the stories the hero’s spirits get stronger all the time!”

  “First of all, life ain’t a story, little gremlin.” Her brother started lecturing her with a somewhat smug tone. “Second, don’t they usually find some kinda special item or treasure that makes them stronger? It’s not natural growth they rely on.”

  Oh yeah, he was right. Stupid Yew. However she wouldn’t admit defeat in the face of logic and reason.

  “Well then I’ll find a treasure that’ll make Eos super strong!” She declared with childlike certainty. Besides, surely her new friends knew the locations of such treasures!

  ***

  Her new friends did not, in fact, know the location of such treasures. The fact that Change wouldn’t stop cackling after she asked the question was starting to hurt the embarrassed girl's feelings.

  This was a couple of hours after her conversation with her brother. Willow was currently sitting in her bed, one of her mother’s scrolls in front of her so her sister wouldn’t question what she was doing.

  “It’s not that funny!” Her projection pouted from inside of Change’s space. Both Eos and Harmony were also there for the conversation. Though Harmony was currently in thought rather than being as thoroughly amused by the question as her brother was. Eos was just happy to be included, and was marveling at the size of Change’s realm.

  “It kinda is my friend!” Change continued to chortle as he explained. “At least if you understood just how rare those treasures you were talking about actually are.” His face grew a bit more serious as he continued. “Of course they wouldn’t be as rare if most humans didn’t completely use them up whenever they found them, but that’s not on you.”

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  Harmony decided to chime in here. “Besides child, we already have a plan to foster you and your spirit’s growth. You just have to collect the other spirits to balance yourself first.”

  Willow was happy they had a plan, but there was a pressing issue. “But I need to do something to wipe that look from Yew’s face! I don’t like him thinking Eos is gonna be weak forever.”

  The stars of change twinkled in the childlike void. “There are some exercises we could start on now. However, do be aware they could cause quite a bit of pain to start with.”

  “And once you start, you can’t stop, no matter what.” Change chimed, his grin a tad manic.

  “But they’re necessary to become strong?” The child asked. Somewhat hesitant at the idea of more pain.

  “To become as strong as you could be, yes.” Harmony explained. “These exercises will make your body more proficient at channeling yin and yang energies, while also strengthening your core.”

  The young girl wasn’t convinced. “That sounds like it’ll help me, but I want to help Eos.”

  Change started tossing around Eos like a ball, teleporting back and forth between points to catch and throw. The fire spirit seemed thrilled at the game. Willow was a bit concerned when he started, but was glad her friends were getting along.

  Ignoring her brother’s antics, Harmony continued.“Any strength you gain will be strength gained by any spirit you bind, Eos included.” Sensing that her human friend was also uncomfortable with the pain aspect, she softened her pitch. “We shall be starting slow in any case so that we can build a more stable foundation for later exercises.” It would slow things down, but be better for long term trust and growth.

  Willow relented. “Fine. When should we start?”

  Change chimed in next to her. “Now would be good!” He appeared back where he was and caught Eos before they hit the nonexistent “ground” in the yang spirit’s void.

  “My brother is correct. The sooner we start, the better the results you will get from the exercises.”

  The girl sighed, tired from her daily chores, and not wanting to do anything strenuous. But she knew being a hero wouldn’t be easy. She just wished she could skip over the actual training required and enjoy the results like in the stories she enjoyed.

  “What do I gotta do?” Willow reluctantly asked.

  Her spirits explained what she had to do, and they all went back to their respective internal spaces.

  The starting exercise was deceptively simple, but she could do it while still seated in her bed. So that was a plus. She made herself as comfy as possible and went over the steps in her head again.

  All she had to do was fill her core with Harmony’s qi. Then she had to slowly replace it with Change’s. Then back to Harmony’s. She had to do this as many times as she comfortably could, with each day increasing the number she should do. And once she started doing the exercise she had to continue to do it daily until she had bound all of the spirits she needed to find.

  There were apparently going to be more steps added as they felt she became ready for them, but to start with there wasn’t much to it.

  Willow slowly inhaled, filling her core with Harmony’s pure yin energy as she filled her lungs with air. She held. As she started exhaling she began to slowly replace the docile yin with Change’s volatile yang qi.

  In.

  And out.

  So the cycles went.

  The first cycle hurt, but not as bad as she was expecting. Yet each following cycle started hurting her exponentially more as she continued. All of her spirits cheered her on from within their spaces.

  Eventually, after twelve or so cycles, Harmony called for Willow to stop. The girl collapsed on her bed, clothes and bedding soaked through with sweat. The more intense pains stopped almost immediately after she ceased exercising. However a lingering ache persisted in her core and spiritual sense, similar to the aches her body got after she exercised a lot.

  She was not looking forward to doing this every day.