Al-though Ki'el was able to spend some time with her friends over the next sev-er-al days, it be-came clear that life in the Sect, es-pe-cial-ly with-in the Less-er House, was full of mo-not-o-nous la-bor. Al-though her first days at the sect had been... no-table, time nev-er ceased, and a sur-pris-ing num-ber of things be-gan to sim-ply be-come com-mon.

  Among those was sim-ply not be-ing able to see her fam-i-ly and friends of-ten.

  Oh, they still had their evenings, though all or most of them were usu-al-ly tired, more in-ter-est-ed in train-ing to es-cape their sit-u-a-tion than any-thing else. For Mian, that meant work-ing to im-prove him-self to the peak of Sil-ver Qi first, a task that seemed with-in grasp if he could just fig-ure out the trick to his new qi turn-ing tech-nique. While Ki'el tried to get him in-ter-est-ed in a dis-cus-sion of her Sect Points and the med-i-cines of the Sect, he seemed not to take her se-ri-ous-ly, or oth-er-wise had no in-ter-est. He also didn't ex-act-ly spurn Ki'el's help with his tech-nique, but... he seemed more alive and ac-tive when work-ing at it him-self than when he was re-ceiv-ing Ki'el's ad-mit-ted-ly novice ad-vice.

  In con-trast, Xam all but lost in-ter-est in the turn-ing tech-nique in the days that fol-lowed; she seemed to be fo-cus-ing on the new foot-cen-ter dis-ci-pline, and what-ev-er in-sights she gained or strug-gled with she kept to her-self. She also seemed to be prac-tic-ing some-thing else, which Ki'el didn't im-me-di-ate-ly press her about, though it made her qi move strange-ly, so Ki'el as-sumed it must be a tech-nique from her fam-i-ly, or pos-si-bly the Sect.

  Da Chi-an, for her part, only vis-it-ed them one evening out of the next three, and Ki'el used that day's time to ask her about the ma-te-ri-als from the Sect. Da Chi-an, pre-dictably, had not heard much about most of them, though she had some gen-er-al in-sights.

  "Spir-it crys-tals and spir-it gems are very dif-fer-ent," she said, "though they can be dif-fi-cult for a novice to tell apart. Mere crys-tals are spir-it en-er-gy locked into a form, and would be a very good way to pass en-er-gy from one per-son to an-oth-er--but they are usu-al-ly weak and im-pure, with most of the qi lost in the process." The red-head-ed woman was lean-ing against a tree trunk, and didn't quite meet Ki'el's eyes as they talked, al-though there seemed not to be any re-sent-ment there. Some con-fu-sion, per-haps, at most. "I'm not sure there's any way to im-prove the process, but maybe you'll find one. Your tech-nique is pret-ty odd."

  "Gems on the oth-er hand are made while med-i-tat-ing on a tech-nique or an in-sight, or they are ex-tract-ed from a source that has some par-tic-u-lar qi na-ture or prop-er-ty. In the-o-ry, every gem should pro-vide some chance at in-sight into some prop-er-ty or na-ture, but if all the dispensary says is that it is a gem, with-out pro-vid-ing de-tails, it's not go-ing to be any-thing valu-able, or the chances of un-der-stand-ing it are not high. A real spir-it gem con-tains a deep and fun-da-men-tal spir-i-tu-al truth. It's worth a lot more, and you have to ask for a spe-cif-ic kind. I've nev-er been in-volved with that, but the Broth-er from the out-er sect who told me about it says that they usu-al-ly just post boun-ties when peo-ple ask for things, and see if any-one can pro-vide one."

  Ki'el frowned, con-sid-er-ing. "They can-not sim-ply con-vey a con-cept with in-tent?"

  "Mas-ters could," chuck-led Chi-an. "And mas-ters could read in-tent that some-one else mere-ly spoke. But if you are go-ing to spend a day, or many days, med-i-tat-ing on in-tent that you only just heard once..." She shrugged. "No. Bet-ter to buy a gem. Or if you ever re-al-ly get rich, hire some-one to cre-ate an In-tent Plate. At least, I think that's what they call it."

  Ki'el re-called hear-ing that term from the Appraiser at the Auc-tion House, and nod-ded. She... might have brought up hav-ing heard it, if not for the fact that the Ap-prais-er want-ed to cre-ate an In-tent Plate for some-thing Sobon him-self had cre-at-ed, ap-par-ent-ly out of noth-ing, or worse, out of the in-for-ma-tion that he had left to Ki'el, buried with-in Kuli. She... was well aware, that be-tween her and Kuli, the two could with-out ques-tion at least speak the prop-er In-tent for Pri-mor-dial Qi, at least to copy what Sobon had said.

  What-ev-er re-sources she might gain from that, Ki'el was sure, she would gain far more at-ten-tion, and es-pe-cial-ly, at-ten-tion that she did not want. Not now. And... it was not im-pos-si-ble, that Sobon, or the ones that helped him, would dis-ap-prove of her us-ing their knowl-edge for such small things. It would be bet-ter to at least en-sure she knew who was go-ing to ben-e-fit, and if pos-si-ble to ask Sobon his opin-ion be-fore even sug-gest-ing that she had such things.

  Of course, Broth-er Du and Chi-an both un-der-stood that she had some-thing from Sobon. She doubt-ed ei-ther of them un-der-stood what Kuli rep-re-sent-ed--but then, Ki'el her-self could only guess. Or rather... she had no in-tent to force Kuli to try to re-veal the depths that Sobon had left her, es-pe-cial-ly not now. Not with so much yet to learn.

  "What kind of in-tent can one gath-er from an... un-spec-i-fied spir-it gem, then?" Ki'el forced her-self to ask the ques-tion, al-though in truth, she was al-ready cer-tain that what-ev-er was to be found in these spir-it gems, un-less they were nat-ur-al aether phe-nom-e-na, she would not like them.

  "I can't say I know," Chi-an said, sound-ing like she had no deep in-ter-est in the con-ver-sa-tion. "I've only had my hands on one, and it gained me noth-ing be-fore it de-cayed. Es-pe-cial-ly some-thing like a less-er or low gem would at best be the work of some-one in the Out-er Sect med-i-tat-ing on vague con-cepts of qi, and what-ev-er got im-print-ed in the stone. They are prob-a-bly use-ful, es-pe-cial-ly for peo-ple claw-ing for every last ben-e-fit, but I do not un-der-stand them."

  Ki'el nod-ded at that, and af-ter a mo-ment of si-lence, asked, "Which is bet-ter--less-er, or low?"

  "Ah, the great ques-tions in life at last," Chi-an teased, and Ki'el was sur-prised to hear the lev-i-ty in the girl's voice again. "They don't al-ways use both terms to de-scribe the same thing, and so of-ten the two mean about the same thing. But there is Least, and then Low, and then Less-er, Com-mon, Un-com-mon, Greater, Great, and some oth-er things I doubt we'll ever see." Chi-an pushed out an-oth-er small qi orb, as she had done a few times that night, and Ki'el thought she sensed the girl try-ing to pres-sure the qi of the orb with her spir-it tail. Ki'el... found her-self watch-ing the oth-er girl's eyes as Chi-an fo-cused on the orb. The look on Da Chi-an's face as she fo-cused was...

  She lost the thought as the orb zipped away, this time into a fall-en leaf, which smoldered, but did not catch fire or have any-thing else in par-tic-u-lar hap-pen. Still, it was more of a re-sult than most of the oth-ers. Ki'el frowned at the leaf. "You in-tend-ed to burn it?"

  "Fire isn't a part of my blood-line's na-ture," Chi-an replied. "I... can al-ready tell that if I used my blood na-ture, it would be far more pow-er-ful. I'm not ready for that, not yet. I'll al-ways need to prac-tice qi na-tures that dif-fer from my own, so that I can dis-guise my-self. Fire is... com-mon."

  { Her un-der-stand-ing of fire is worth-less, } Kuli com-ment-ed to Ki'el alone, and Ki'el blinked, sur-prised at the bit-ter-ness im-plied by the aug-ment's tone. { Fire--the true el-e-ment, with-out con-sid-er-ing qi--is fair-ly sim-ple. In-tent must al-ways re-flect the truth be-hind a phe-nom-e-non. Ig-no-rance pro-duces ter-ri-ble spir-i-tu-al tech-niques. }

  Teach me, Ki'el pushed at Kuli, who paused as though sur-prised, or un-pre-pared for the com-ment. Teach me enough about nat-ur-al fire that I could speak it with in-tent.

  Kuli con-sid-ered the re-quest, and then sud-den-ly Ki'el un-der-stood.

  She all but leaped to her feet at the strange thoughts that Kuli sim-ply merged into her mind, of phys-i-cal struc-tures--too small to see--that might break if struck with too much en-er-gy, and which might re-lease more en-er-gy when they break than it took to break them. Of the rem-nants, which might trap the heat, help it flow away, or might them-selves burn. Of gasses--the one in par-tic-u-lar need-ed for most fire, and oth-ers--and of things re-leas-ing light be-cause they are hot.

  It wasn't sim-ple, as Kuli had said--not to know every-thing. And Ki'el, as she sat there, her back straight and her eyes un-see-ing, knew enough about fire now to know that she had known al-most noth-ing. She had known that wood burns, that wa-ter puts it out. She had known that it took fuel and pow-er. Un-der-stand-ing the why of fire should not have been this pro-found. She should not have need-ed to un-der-stand pow-er and gasses and what makes up things in or-der to un-der-stand fire.

  Learn-ing all of that in an in-stant might have been more im-por-tant than learn-ing how they all com-bined to cre-ate fire... if any of that knowl-edge had been in the sligh-test way use-ful to her ex-cept in un-der-stand-ing fire, but now, it was all dis-con-nect-ed, un-cer-tain. Dis-tant.

  "Ki'el?"

  Ki'el blinked and looked to Chi-an, and the woman looked back, her eyes guard-ed and un-cer-tain. Only in that mo-ment did Ki'el re-call how Chi-an had re-act-ed when she of-fered a gift, and she hes-i-tat-ed.

  "I asked Kuli a ques-tion," Ki'el said. "About fire. Be-cause I want-ed to help you. But I am not cer-tain whether you will want the... the knowl-edge that I gained."

  "You gained in-sight just from the an-swer to a ques-tion?" Da Chi-an's voice sound-ed strange-ly... amused? Did she think Ki'el was jok-ing?

  "It is what I asked for," Ki'el ad-mit-ted. "I thought... that I could sim-ply speak with in-tent, what I learned, in or-der to help you."

  "Like I said," Chi-an said, her voice still amused. "It's dif-fi-cult to speak with in-tent, and dif-fi-cult to mem-o-rize some-one else's. Even if your Kuli could pro-vide in-sight, how would that help me?"

  But Ki'el just looked back at Chi-an, un-sure. "If I could... would you want me to try? To teach you what I learned?"

  Chi-an's hu-mor seemed to qui-et, and then van-ish. And the girl, or maybe not quite a girl, sat up straighter. "Maybe," she said. "I... sup-pose I appreciate you ask-ing. Try. See if you can even speak with in-tent."

  Ki'el, of course, had pushed in-tent out with her spir-it alone... but she wasn't good at it. And now, when she tried to sum up all that she knew about fire, she found it even more dif-fi-cult to com-press a whole con-cept into a word, as she knew mas-ters did. But more than that... Ki'el found it dif-fi-cult to speak the word 'Fire' while also speak-ing the in-tent, [Fire], at the same time, es-pe-cial-ly link-ing both to-geth-er.

  For whichev-er rea-son, Kuli did not help her with this, and for whichev-er rea-son, Ki'el did not re-sent that. This... seemed like a thing worth try-ing hard to learn and mas-ter. Per-haps... per-haps now was not ex-act-ly the right time, but it was a wor-thy task.

  Chi-an did not seem sur-prised when Ki'el failed to speak the con-cept, and didn't press her or at-tack her, but she didn't come back the next day, ei-ther. At the very least... the knowl-edge that Kuli in-stilled in her also didn't fade, though Kuli had to walk Ki'el through the thoughts and how to or-der them in her own mind, be-cause the thoughts--al-though they had be-come her own--were still for-eign. Even try-ing to sum-ma-rize the knowl-edge in words was strange, and try-ing to con-vey more than the words with the words was a mad-den-ing chal-lenge.

  Over the course of the next cou-ple days, Ki'el worked on the phras-ing of the sen-tence it-self whenev-er her work al-lowed her time to think. When at last she de-cid-ed on words--"Nor-mal fire is the re-ac-tion of fuel and oxy-gen with heat, releasing heat and light"--she be-gan to try to med-i-tate on each of the con-cepts in part. Fuel, be-ing some-thing that ei-ther can re-act with oxy-gen and heat, or re-leas-es some-thing when heat-ed that will re-act. Oxy-gen, be-ing the gas that most things re-act with. Heat, be-ing not only en-er-gy, but a prop-er-ty of all things, which can be stored, trans-fer on touch, or ra-di-ate out. Re-ac-tion, be-ing a part of na-ture, some-thing that will hap-pen even with-out qi, sim-ply be-cause of how the world works. And... "nor-mal" fire, be-cause she need-ed to con-vey that this was one of many pos-si-ble cas-es, and had noth-ing to do with how things worked once qi was in-volved.

  Al-though Kuli did not help with this di-rect-ly, she did teach Ki'el to store whole thoughts in the part of Ki'el's mind that Kuli her-self oc-cu-pied--that Kuli aug-ment-ed, made bet-ter, stronger. And this quick-ly be-came a thing that Ki'el found strange-ly thrilling--the idea of set-ting aside a whole and com-plex thought, but then pick-ing the thought up again as though it were sim-ply a stone she placed down and picked up again. She could work on her phras-ing of Nor-mal Fire, and when some-one in-ter-rupt-ed, put it all away with-out los-ing her place or her way. When she picked it up again, there was no track-ing down the thoughts she'd had, and no fum-bling with pieces no longer in con-text.

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  Is this how Sobon felt? Ki'el asked Kuli as they re-turned from a job, this time re-plant-i-ng a flower bed that had been messed up by an-oth-er Out-er Dis-ci-ple duel. It had been med-i-ta-tive work, un-til the last mo-ments when an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple walked by and made all her hard work feel mean-ing-less, as they used their qi to bet-ter dis-trib-ute the dirt, the wa-ter, and the flower's roots, and the many flow-ers Ki'el had plant-ed over hours sat up brighter and more healthy in re-sponse. Be-ing able to hold con-cepts in his mind, and sim-ply bring them out when he need-ed?

  { Yes, } Kuli an-swered. { Many ad-vanced cul-tures have tools like that. I am not the tool Sobon was most fa-mil-iar with--I was cre-at-ed by the Ri'lef, and for their peo-ple, but adapt-ed for you. But I know that Sobon was used to aug-ments like me, and most like-ly, far more pow-er-ful ones. Ones meant for aether war-riors, so that they could draw upon cen-turies of knowl-edge in an in-stant. }

  Ki'el could be-lieve it, af-ter hav-ing seen Sobon sim-ply cre-ate spells of dev-as-tat-ing pow-er from noth-ing. Now that she, her-self, was stum-bling to make even the most triv-ial qi cir-cuits and do sim-ple things like speak-ing the true na-ture of fire... she un-der-stood that wield-ing that much pow-er re-quired a tech-nique en-tire-ly with-out flaw. The pow-er that Sobon had wield-ed, if he had a frac-tion as many flaws as Ki'el had now, would have de-stroyed him the first time he used it. And he had used it over and over and over, with-out show-ing even a mo-ment's hes-i-ta-tion or fear.

  Sobon had cre-at-ed a bomb out of an en-graved rock, a crude one, while still trapped in the body of a squir-rel. Even now, Ki'el shiv-ered to think of that ex-plo-sion, to think of the ter-ror she felt in the pi-rate cap-tain with the in-sid-i-ous black, Gold-tier qi. The ex-plo-sion that had near-ly cap-sized a mas-sive ship, de-spite go-ing off dozens, per-haps hun-dreds of feet away. Ki'el could re-mem-ber Sobon be-gin-ning to charge that stone, as he held it there, inch-es from his own body, mere feet from Ki'el. If there had been a sin-gle flaw...

  { We are cre-at-ed to help with things like that, } Kuli con-firmed. { To hold ideas in mind, cre-ate them out of pieces. To go over them again, com-pare them to oth-er thoughts and mem-o-ries, con-firm they are cor-rect. To com-mu-ni-cate them to oth-ers, pre-cise-ly and with-out er-ror. To copy them ex-act-ly into re-al-i-ty, con-firm the copy is per-fect, and only then em-pow-er them. To Sobon, and oth-ers who have ac-cess to these meth-ods, this world in which in-tent is a per-son-al jour-ney is prim-i-tive. It is a nec-es-sary jour-ney with-out these tools, but to those who have them... }

  Ki'el un-der-stood, even with-out Kuli ex-plain-ing, but the ex-pla-na-tion did feel right, as well. It only un-der-scored, once again, that Kuli was a trea-sure--some-thing Ki'el had no right to, and which she dared not un-der-es-ti-mate. And... the ex-pla-na-tion also pro-vid-ed one oth-er in-sight for Ki'el. A pos-si-bil-i-ty she had not quite con-sid-ered.

  When she was con-tent that she was close to speak-ing the con-cept of Fire with in-tent, she be-gan to do the same for her qi turn-ing tech-nique. It was not ex-act-ly a triv-ial con-cept; she had only crude-ly ex-plained to the oth-ers that aether, and qi, were in-di-vid-ual specks that could join to-geth-er into a whole as a nat-ur-al con-se-quence of their form. Like bub-bles, they were essence that also had an in-side, and the sur-faces could join to cre-ate a larg-er with-in.

  She spoke on this to Mian, and it seemed to help him with his tech-nique, though still he seemed to be miss-ing parts and pieces of it. With the in-sight, though, he fi-nal-ly com-plet-ed sev-er-al turns of qi, pro-duc-ing pu-ri-fied qi in his Thorn, and he was able to grasp the pu-ri-fied qi and re-ab-sorb it. The next day, he awoke at Sil-ver 4, and he felt cer-tain he would get to Sil-ver 5 with-in an-oth-er day's ef-fort, if that.

  That day, by chance, Ki'el met Chi-an while on a task, the red-haired girl pulling a cart some-what larg-er than her-self, with large wood-en wheels, with rel-a-tive ease. Ki'el, mean-while, had been asked to help car-ry a num-ber of al-chem-i-cal vials very care-ful-ly across a mod-er-ate dis-tance, as the Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple who most like-ly should have been do-ing it went off to do some-thing else.

  "Chi-an," she said as she passed, and she re-al-ized the girl had been en-tire-ly with-in her own thoughts and not no-ticed her un-til she spoke. The red-head looked at her, and nod-ded, but her gaze was wary. "We should talk again, if you don't mind."

  "I have been busy, but..." she looked away. "I wouldn't mind."

  They part-ed ways, nei-ther will-ing to in-ter-rupt their task. Ki'el was dis-ap-point-ed that Chi-an didn't show up that night, but fo-cused her ef-forts on pol-ish-ing her in-tent for the con-cept of Fire any-way.

  The next day, Ki'el felt strange-ly dis-qui-et, al-though for a long time she couldn't find any source for the feel-ing. It wasn't un-til she was on her way back to the Less-er House, and saw the woman who re-mained across the hall from them--Bai Be-nai--mov-ing with un-nat-ur-al speed up the path and away, that she felt cer-tain it was more than her imag-i-na-tion. She could only watch Sis-ter Be-nai leave, but shift-ed her at-ten-tion to Kuli. Do you feel some-thing?

  { An un-cer-tain in-tent, } Kuli agreed. { A reck-less ac-tion. Da Chi-an may be in trou-ble. }

  So Ki'el, hav-ing ac-com-plished her own deeds, turned and fol-lowed Sis-ter Be-nai--or, most-ly, fol-lowed Kuli's di-rec-tion. By the time she caught up, the sit-u-a-tion had long since re-solved--Sis-ter Be-nai was stand-ing pro-tec-tive-ly over Chi-an, who seemed to have been struck, but an-oth-er, an Out-er Dis-ci-ple, was look-ing far more in-censed than any-one else.

  Ki'el had to check her-self a mo-ment be-fore speak-ing. "Sis-ter Chi-an! Sis-ter Be-nai."

  Both glanced over at her, and Ki'el saw great dark-ness in the eyes of Bai Be-nai, but the Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple gave Ki'el a dirty look. "A third mem-ber of the Less-er House? What is with you id-iots to-day?" He moved to-wards Chi-an, but Be-nai repo-si-tioned her-self in-stant-ly to be in his way. He start-ed to raise one hand to her, but stopped. "You won't stop me from get-ting com-pen-sa-tion, Less-er House. My rather ex-pen-sive set of to-kens is ru-ined now."

  When Bai Be-nai spoke, Ki'el could feel a deep-er and more dangerous spir-i-tu-al pres-sure than she had ex-pect-ed to sense from any-one in the Less-er House. "You get what you pay for, Out-er Dis-ci-ple. Com-pen-sa-tion for loss-es when re-quest-ing aid from the Less-er House is lim-it-ed to three times the re-quest fee."

  "That is NON-SENSE, and I will hear noth-ing of it," the Out-er Dis-ci-ple snapped. "Each of those to-kens was worth at least twen-ty Sect Points, and they are all ru-ined!"

  "Then you should have paid more to have an Out-er Dis-ci-ple clean them."

  "I will not be talked back to by a less-er be-ing." The man's qi flared, and Ki'el re-al-ized that he was past Ti-ta-ni-um Qi--his qi took on a va-ri-ety of col-ors, but it was only about as dense as Sobon's had been. See-ing it now, and try-ing to un-der-stand it, she un-der-stood it to be Bis-muth Qi, the sec-ond tier in the Bright Met-al Phase. "You will step aside, or..."

  "Or you will what? As-sault me?" Bai Be-nai's sneer of con-tempt was con-veyed by her qi, al-though Ki'el could not see her face.

  "I..." he eased off the pres-sure but his words only con-tained more ven-om. "I will have my sat-is-fac-tion, on my po-si-tion as heir to House Otoma."

  "We have no rea-son to ac-cept such a duel."

  "The girl struck me," the Out-er Dis-ci-ple said. "I have done no vi-o-lence in re-turn. My words are sim-ple and true. Ei-ther com-pen-sate me for the lost to-kens, or take... let's say, three moves from me. If you think you could sur-vive that."

  Ki'el swal-lowed, star-ing at the scene for a mo-ment in con-fu-sion, then frowned. In the bat-tle at Sobon's home... she had fought a man with Ti-ta-ni-um Qi to a stand-still with her aether blade. He had not been a mas-ter, but he had been over-con-fi-dent that his qi alone made all the dif-fer-ence. But this is also a Sect. Doubt-less this man has learned more--

  "I will place my hon-or on the line to de-fend my friend," Bai Be-nai said. "I will take your three moves." But Ki'el could sense the raw fear that em-anat-ed from her, and imag-ined she un-der-stood. Bai Be-nai also did not wish to re-veal her blood na-tures.

  "No," Ki'el said, step-ping for-ward with-out think-ing too hard about it, and with-draw-ing her Aether Blade from her stor-age ring. "I will take them."

  All three of them looked over at Ki'el, at that, and the Out-er Dis-ci-ple looked strange. "You? What do you have to do with this?"

  "She is also my friend," Ki'el said. "And..." And what? What right did she have to in-ter-fere? Ki'el glanced over at Chi-an, see-ing that she--no, they were strug-gling to sup-press their blood. "And... I be-lieve that Sis-ter Be-nai would do bet-ter see-ing to Sis-ter Chi-an. I be-lieve that I can han-dle you alone."

  "Han-dle me? Ridicu-lous." The Out-er Dis-ci-ple raised his hands in a strange fash-ion, one cross-ing over the oth-er be-fore him, and a phan-tom like a snake ap-peared in the air around him. Ki'el froze up, wor-ried that she had of-fend-ed yet an-oth-er spir-it beast, but the qi so-lid-i-fied into some-thing more like a pup-pet or chain weapon in-stead. "I have reached the third chap-ter of the Book of the Earth-en Pup-pet Drag-on. I can man-i-fest my qi na-ture. Can you even use ex-ter-nal qi?"

  Ki'el took a deep breath, and pressed her in-tent into the Aether Blade, awak-en-ing it in its staff form. When she did... she could feel some-thing, deep-er with-in the blade, some-thing she knew was there, but it struck her dif-fer-ent-ly this time.

  It de-sired in-tent.

  "If I can-not take your three strikes, you can take one hun-dred Sect points from me," Ki'el said, un-sure where her con-fi-dence came from, but she raised the Aether Sword be-fore her, and for rea-sons she could not put into words, she con-veyed to the Aether Sword the in-tent for [nor-mal fire]. Noth-ing hap-pened. "If I can... then con-sid-er it your loss, and Sis-ter Chi-an owes you noth-ing."

  "Pa-thet-ic. This won't even take a sin-gle strike." The man waved his hands, and Ki'el could feel the strings of qi con-nect-ing him to the con-struct. Ki'el pres-sured her Right-eous Aether cy-cle, flood-ing her body, and when the con-struct be-gan to move, she po-si-tioned the Aether Sword be-tween it and her.

  When the con-struct hit her blade, Ki'el shiv-ered.

  It wasn't the qi drain, al-though that was sub-stan-tial. No, Ki'el felt some-thing, as though the aether sword was mea-sur-ing the pup-pet snake for how well it matched the in-tent of Nor-mal Fire. It was... not a match, and more than that, Ki'el sud-den-ly felt cer-tain that the pup-pet con-struct was ac-tu-al-ly fair-ly weak. It was a qi con-struct, and it would con-tin-ue to func-tion un-til de-stroyed or its pow-er was used up, but... the core be-hind the con-struct was flim-sy.

  Ki'el was sure that she un-der-stood [nor-mal fire] bet-ter than that man un-der-stood his pup-pet, and all of that passed through her in the mo-ment that the qi smashed into her blade and bounced off.

  But the man at-tack-ing her felt no hal-lu-ci-na-tion dur-ing the blow and gained no in-sight. His fin-gers twitched, and Ki'el could al-most see the com-mand pass through the strings. By the time it reached the pup-pet, and the Earth Pup-pet Drag-on leaped at her again, she al-most felt in-sult-ed at the slow, de-lib-er-ate mo-tions of it, flick-ing the aether sword to knock it away.

  There was a cold si-lence bro-ken only by Ki'el's breath-ing af-ter that blow. Ki'el knew that the blade con-tained its own qi, but for now, she pressed her own aether and qi into the blade, al-though it near-ly drained what she had in her dant-ian and her sin-is-ter aether cy-cles. The Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple stud-ied her, and Ki'el silent-ly in-struct-ed Kuli to record that mo-ment of clash-ing in-tent for lat-er, try-ing to keep her breath-ing even.

  "I see," he said at last. "I mis-took you for some-one who'd nev-er du-eled in your life. I sup-pose it's your..." his eyes flicked up and down Ki'el, and he changed his mind about what-ev-er he was go-ing to say. "Nev-er mind. This one is for real, then."

  This time, the man's qi surged through his core, not his fin-gers, and the pup-pet drag-on res-onat-ed with him. Ki'el brought her sword up, but she could feel that some-thing was wrong--that the at-tack that was com-ing was more than those that came be-fore.

  With-out re-al-ly con-sid-er-ing it, Ki'el flipped the Aether Sword into its nat-ur-al, sharp state.

  The change that came over the pup-pet was, Ki'el would re-al-ize lat-er, im-mense. It in-creased in size by a good four times, and it went from be-ing a fair-ly ba-sic seg-ment-ed pup-pet snake to some-thing more re-fined, with teeth and claws. Even in the in-stant where it be-gan to trans-form, it was leap-ing at Ki'el, who re-act-ed as though she were hold-ing her old staff--back-ing off a step and swing-ing de-fen-sive-ly. But the aether blade in her hands was no staff, and the pup-pet drag-on that came fly-ing at her was al-most too fast for her de-fen-sive ma-neu-ver.

  Al-most.

  Ki'el was struck by a part of the pup-pet in the hip, but its in-tent was al-ready spent--the pup-pet it-self was split in half by Ki'el's blade, far more than she could pos-si-bly have cut with the length of the sword be-fore her. It still hurt--bad-ly, and Ki'el stum-bled and fell, grasp-ing her mid-sec-tion, try-ing to force her-self to stand, un-sure what count-ed as a loss or a vic-to-ry in such a sit-u-a-tion.

  But the Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple was star-ing at her, baf-fled.

  Ki'el re-al-ized af-ter a mo-ment that her sword was re-vealed, and she shift-ed it back to its staff-like blunt form, but did her best not to show con-fu-sion or pan-ic. "I be-lieve that is three strikes," she said af-ter a mo-ment. "Or have I mis-count-ed?"

  The Out-er Dis-ci-ple glanced down at his hands, as though there was some an-swer to the ques-tion in the qi threads that still em-anat-ed from his fin-gers, but shook his hands and took a deep breath. "No," he said, sound-ing grudg-ing, and he straight-ened and bowed. "It seems... Ju-nior Sis-ter, that I had mis-tak-en you for a novice. You have giv-en me much to think about. Per-haps the val-ue of this in-sight is not quite as much as I lost, but..." he rose from his bow, show-ing a de-cid-ed-ly ir-ri-tat-ed face, as though he had bit-ten into some-thing very bit-ter. "...I will of course hon-or the terms of the duel. Per-haps when I re-fine my tech-nique we can spar again."

  "Per-haps," Ki'el said in re-turn, but the man was al-ready turn-ing and march-ing away.

  Ki'el almost jumped out of her skin when a hand gripped her arm, and Bai Be-nai's face ap-peared next to hers. "I don't know what the hell that was about," the woman hissed at her, "but do not chal-lenge Out-er Dis-ci-ples in the fu-ture. You have no idea what peo-ple like him are re-al-ly ca-pa-ble of." She start-ed to pull Ki'el away, and she no-ticed that the woman was also drag-ging Da Chi-an to her feet. "Come on. Let's get out of here be-fore any-one else de-cides to get in-volved."

  Ki'el trad-ed glances with Da Chi-an, not-ing that their ears and tail were just bare-ly vis-i-ble, but she made no ef-fort to say any-thing or re-sist Bai Be-nai's pull.