"You do not, un-der ANY cir-cum-stances, start or ac-cept a duel with an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple," snarled Bai Be-nai, her face twist-ed with emo-tions that Ki'el couldn't be-gin to un-der-stand. "I would think that you would have un-der-stood, since you were in-volved with Xan Bu. If you are found to have harmed an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple, at best, you will lose far more in for-fei-ture than the stakes of the duel, and at worst, you will be killed for it."

  Ki'el swal-lowed. It's not that she was com-plete-ly un-fa-mil-iar with the stakes; she had been told, and she un-der-stood them. Even so... "I do not be-lieve that I was like-ly to harm him on ac-ci-dent, and I had no in-ten-tion of do-ing so on pur-pose."

  "In-ten-tions," scoffed Bai Be-nai, round-ing on Da Chi-an. "You in-tend-ed to do ex-act-ly as you were in-struct-ed, did you not?"

  "I did ex-act-ly as I was in-struct-ed," Chi-an re-turned, fury in their voice.

  "If it came to an ex-am-i-na-tion, they would find you did not. Some-how." She turned back to Ki'el. "The Less-er House does not ex-ist to raise up peo-ple, child. Those who ar-rive here too young and un-de-vel-oped to raise out of it in a time-ly man-ner are all but cer-tain to re-main trapped here. Those fam-i-lies who un-der-stand this of-ten pun-ish their way-ward chil-dren by send-ing them ear-ly, doom-ing them to re-main in the Less-er House un-til their spir-it is bro-ken or they make a mis-take that costs them their life."

  Ki'el felt a sud-den kin-dling of anger in her at that pro-claima-tion. With-out ques-tion, Lai Shi Po did not see things that way, or she would nev-er have rec-om-mend-ed that Ki'el and Mian be sent here. And... from how she talked, she had also been trapped here for a time, had she not? But... the way this woman talked... Ki'el could not imag-ine that she was be-ing de-ceived.

  "You think that the sect will al-low my life to be de-stroyed for an ac-ci-dent?"

  "It has hap-pened be-fore. Will hap-pen again. To peo-ple more im-por-tant and less vul-ner-a-ble than you."

  Ki'el closed her eyes and con-sid-ered that. The cer-tain-ty of Bai Be-nai's words... she was sure that was earned through hear-break. "I apol-o-gize," she said, fi-nal-ly. "I act-ed with-out think-ing. But." She re-opened her eyes to look at the old-er woman. "You also were will-ing to fight the Out-er Dis-ci-ple."

  "My life is lit-tle enough, child, and I keep no sect points to my own name. And even if I harmed or killed that dis-ic-ple, the worst they could do is throw me off of the is-land. I, un-like you, would sur-vive the fall."

  Ki'el felt shock at that pro-nounce-ment, but nar-rowed her eyes slight-ly. "You are...?"

  "I will not speak of that to you, even if Da Chi-an trusts you." The woman's voice re-mained cool. "Even if you did en-dan-ger your-self for her sake. My se-crets are my own."

  Ki'el sim-ply nod-ded, hav-ing no rea-son to ar-gue that fur-ther. "But you do not con-sid-er be-ing thrown out to be an is-sue?"

  "I am placed here by... a pa-tron. If I was thrown off, I would re-turn, and they would al-low it, again, so long as I paid the fee. Again."

  Ki'el nod-ded. "That is why you are not lim-it-ed to Gold Qi."

  Bai Be-nai's aura shift-ed, dan-ger-ous-ly. "Be care-ful what you speak, child," she said. "There is a great deal that you do not know."

  Ki'el frowned, un-sure why the woman re-spond-ed so poor-ly, but again, re-fused to chal-lenge her. "I do not," she said. "But I have seen, and fought, peo-ple above Gold Qi be-fore. You are more dan-ge-orus than any-one I have faced."

  "Ah," Da Chi-an said, their voice sur-prised, and their spir-it still at least part-ly con-fused. "Come to think of it, you did chal-lenge him af-ter he re-vealed his Bis-muth Qi. Have you fought a Bis-muth ex-pert be-fore?"

  "No," Ki'el said. "Only one at ti-ta-ni-um qi." Only. Ki'el un-der-stood, as she said it, the gap that must ex-ist be-tween who she was now, and who she would need to be in or-der to reach Ti-ta-ni-um Qi... and then, there must be an-oth-er gap from there to Bis-muth. And yet, she had been con-fi-dent. Why? Ki'el thought she sensed Kuli wish-ing to speak, but there was not time for that now.

  Bai Be-nai was look-ing at her strange-ly. "You sparred with some-one at Ti-ta-ni-um Qi?"

  "Not a spar." Ki'el was be-gin-ning to feel in-creas-ing-ly self-con-scious. "He was try-ing to kill me."

  The dan-ger-ous-ness in Bai Be-nai's aura snuffed out, not in-stant-ly, but over the course of a small few sec-onds. As Ki'el watched her eyes, she thought the woman's pos-ture went from fu-ri-ous to some-thing more sym-pa-thet-ic. "I see," she fi-nal-ly said. "You have... not had an easy life, then."

  Ki'el gave the woman the look that she felt that state-ment de-served. "No."

  "Have you fought many peo-ple like that?" Da Chi-an's voice sound-ed pos-i-tive-ly ea-ger, and Ki'el looked to them, sur-prised.

  "Ah... no. I fought sev-er-al pi-rates at Iron and Sil-ver, when I was Sil-ver my-self. But my mas-ter was watch-ing me then." She hes-i-tat-ed. "Them, and the one fight against a Ti-ta-ni-um Qi ex-pert. Those are the only times I've had true bat-tle ex-pe-ri-ence."

  "It's not a small thing, fight-ing to the death," Bai Be-nai said, her voice still se-ri-ous but with far less scorn. "Broth-er Mon-shu, though his soul is stained with evil, has prob-a-bly nev-er killed any-one with his own two hands." At Ki'el's blank look, she added, "That is the man you fought. Otoma Mon-shu."

  "I see," Ki'el said. "I... per-haps killed one per-son di-rect-ly. But while I fought the man with Ti-ta-ni-um Qi fear-ing death, I did not kill him. My mas-ter told me to de-lay him, and there was an... op-por-tu-ni-ty to dis-arm him, and I cap-tured him. He still lives, when last I heard."

  Be-nai sim-ply looked at Ki'el for a while, and for one mo-ment, Ki'el thought that she sensed some-thing be-hind the woman--a spir-i-tu-al ar-ti-fact, like Chi-an's tail and ears, but larg-er, and she was un-able to de-ter-mine the shape. Ki'el con-sid-ered the im-age, but had dis-missed it long be-fore Be-nai spoke again, to let the woman keep her se-crets.

  "I see," she said af-ter a time. "It is... more dif-fi-cult to cap-ture peo-ple, but the pres-ence of your mas-ter may have made it eas-i-er. In any case..." Be-nai shook her head. "You are still too weak and too naive to en-ter into du-els, child." There was a brief pause. "With re-gret, I have for-got-ten your name, Sect Sis-ter."

  Ki'el might have been of-fend-ed, if the woman hadn't been avoid-ing her and the rest of the group re-cent-ly. "Xoi Doua Ki'el."

  "Sis-ter Ki'el." The woman bowed, and Ki'el matched it po-lite-ly. "I can-not and will not pro-tect you like I must and will pro-tect Da Chi-an. But you seem to have a straight soul." She rose from the bow, and her voice and face were stern. "But that sword, and any oth-er ar-ti-facts you may have... keep them se-cret. A spir-it sword that can match a blow from a man with Bis-muth Qi is no small feat, and every-one watch-ing could tell that the ar-ti-fact it-self was not even strained. Many, if they found out such a weapon ex-ists, would wish to claim it by for-fei-ture, and you do not know the rules well enough to pre-vent such an oc-cur-rence."

  Ki'el found her hand drift-ing to her space ring un-con-scious-ly, but ac-cept-ed that ad-vice grudg-ing-ly. "I would not want to lose it," she con-firmed. "It is... left to me by my mas-ter."

  "It is clear-ly spe-cial," Be-nai said. "But peo-ple lose trea-sures all the time here. Es-pe-cial-ly when they are in the Low-er House and do not re-spect the rules."

  Ki'el want-ed to snap at Bai Be-nai that she un-der-stood, but did not. She had al-ready got-ten in two fights, de-spite be-ing warned not to. In-stead, she took sev-er-al deep breaths, re-sist-ing the urge to flood her spir-it once again with right-eous aether, and sim-ply nod-ded.

  "Good." Be-nai stepped back from Ki'el, and the three of them--who had sim-ply gone aside into a stand of trees, in a seem-ing-ly ran-dom spot in the Out-er sect is-lands--re-laxed by at least a touch. Ki'el looked around, tak-ing stock of their lo-ca-tion, but the rest of the Sect seemed com-plete-ly ig-no-rant and in-dif-fer-ent to their hushed con-ver-sa-tion. "Chi-an. Sis-ter Ki'el. Both of you should ap-proach Sis-ter Futi about this mat-ter im-me-di-ate-ly. It is not un-heard of for an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple to not ac-knowl-edge that a duel oc-curred or that it sat-is-fies a debt. Do not men-tion me im-me-di-ate-ly, but do so should the claim be chal-lenged. Do you un-der-stand?"

  They did, and they set off to-geth-er, with Be-nai tak-ing an-oth-er way. Ki'el glanced at Chi-an, but while they were calmer, there was still an ag-i-ta-tion to their spir-it. "You seem un-well, Sis-ter Chi-an."

  "I am fu-ri-ous," they re-spond-ed, their voice cold. "And how could I not be? It was a trap. By some-one who knows what I am, and knows that I can be ma-nip-u-lat-ed when I am up-set. Au--Sis-ter Be-nai is kind, and I ap-pre-ci-ate her swift as-sis-tance, but with-out that, at worst I could have been killed. All be-cause that some en-ti-tled brats want my blood to play with."

  Ki'el winced at the tone, and es-pe-cial-ly at the last part, but did her best to breathe eas-i-ly. "I wish that I could help you more," she said af-ter a mo-ment.

  Chi-an con-tin-ued for an-oth-er mo-ment be-fore paus-ing. "The tech-nique that you have," she said. "Not the one you are de-vel-op-ing, but the one your mas-ter taught you, which cre-ates calm and clear en-er-gy. Can you teach that to me?"

  Ki'el paused with her, turn-ing back to look, and af-ter a mo-men-tary men-tal glance at Kuli, who did not ob-ject, Ki'el sim-ply said, "Yes, if you think it would help."

  "Tonight, then. If it can re-duce my fu-ri-ous emo-tions by even a frac-tion, it will help a great deal." Chi-an con-tin-ued on at a some-what faster pace, and Ki'el re-sumed the walk, match-ing them. Or... her, again? Ki'el was un-cer-tain.

  Sis-ter Futi, when she had a mo-ment to spare for the two of them, took in the news of the ar-gu-ment and the duel with cold ac-cep-tance, though she re-in-forced Sis-ter Be-nai's warn-ing to Ki'el not to do any-thing of the sort again. Af-ter that, the two split again, Ki'el find-ing work gath-er-ing cook-ing herbs from a sec-tion of for-est that had been set up to farm them. They were a strange leafy herb, that grew as a vine up and down trees, and must be picked care-ful-ly so as not to kill the plant; by the end of the task, Ki'el was sweaty and ir-ri-ta-ble, as she had sev-er-al times been yelled at for near-ly dam-ag-ing the plant, when the al-ter-na-tive would have been a nasty fall.

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  But the task fin-ished, and even-tu-al-ly, evening came, and with it came Da Chi-an.

  The red-haired Fox Spir-it led Ki'el well away from the Less-er House and into an area sealed by script-ed tal-is-mans, an area which Ki'el felt some in-stinct to avoid. But once they passed the tal-is-mans, and en-tered a small clear-ing, Ki'el found that the re-sult was a com-fort-able space whose qi felt well away from the rest of the sect, and she nod-ded as she looked around and tast-ed the aether here. It was... healthy.

  "You had said be-fore, that you want-ed to speak to me," Chi-an said, and Ki'el re-al-ized even be-fore they ful-ly re-vealed their ears and spir-it tail, that part of the rea-son for the bar-ri-er was so that they could be them-selves. "What did you wish to say?"

  "I was prac-tic-ing speak-ing with in-tent," Ki'el said. "I... do not have it per-fect-ly yet, but I want-ed to try again."

  "Hum," Chi-an sat on a stone near the cen-ter of the clear-ing. "Well, let's hear it."

  Ki'el nod-ded, set-tled down, and tried to steady her breath-ing. Al-though it took some work to get back into the head-space she need-ed, and al-though she had to con-cen-trate very hard on per-form-ing the in-tent-speech, with Kuli's help she was able to ful-ly con-dense the in-tent into words. "[Nor-mal fire] is the [re-ac-tion] of [fuel] and [oxy-gen] with [heat]."

  Ki'el found, strange-ly enough, that she was out of breath af-ter sim-ply speak-ing the sen-tence. That... didn't usu-al-ly hap-pen when she prac-ticed. { It is be-cause you had to match the lis-ten-ers, } Kuli said, qui-et-ly. { That is more work than you may think. }

  "That..." Chi-an's voice sound-ed strange, and Ki'el looked at them, sur-prised to see a strange look on the fox-be-ing's face. "Say that again."

  "A mo-ment," Ki'el said. "It is dif-fi-cult." She took a deep breath again, press-ing right-eous aether into her-self to take the edge off, and spoke again. "[Nor-mal fire] is the [re-ac-tion] of [fuel] and [oxy-gen] with [heat]." She felt less strained the sec-ond time, but it was still an ef-fort.

  Chi-an stared off into the dis-tance for a few mo-ment, then closed their eyes. "Again."

  Ki'el, though she felt bet-ter, took an-oth-er mo-ment to steady her-self be-fore she spoke a third time. As she spoke, Chi-an formed an-oth-er qi orb, an orb that shift-ed as Chi-an con-sid-ered the words be-ing spo-ken.

  Once Ki'el had spo-ken the full phrase a third time, Chi-an flicked the orb at a near-by tree--and a sec-tion of wood sev-er-al inch-es across to burst into a blaz-ing fire all at once.

  "Gah!" Chi-an's tail twitched, and al-most all at once, the blaz-ing fire went out, leav-ing a ter-ri-ble burn scar on the tree that still steamed and glowed. "That is--that..." Chi-an moved for-ward to the tree, lean-ing in and study-ing it, but sat back, clear-ly un-be-liev-ing. "Is it... re-al-ly so much eas-i-er sim-ply be-cause...?"

  { You did not un-der-stand fire, } Kuli pro-ject-ed, though Ki'el felt that the aug-ment was only us-ing a touch of en-er-gy. { Your at-tempts to cre-ate some-thing like fire were of-fen-sive to me. I am pleased to see you do bet-ter. }

  Chi-an round-ed on Ki'el, as though Kuli's ex-is-tence were a sur-prise, but they seemed to calm af-ter a mo-ment. "Right. You." They looked back at the tree. "I... spir-its, but I don't un-der-stand. When I use my blood-line pow-er to con-trol wind and storms, I am not asked to un-der-stand, only to com-mand. I... sup-pose it must be true that for every-one else, un-der-stand-ing of the na-ture of things is key, but..."

  { My un-der-stand-ing of fire is above what you would nor-mal-ly be told. Ki'el's spo-ken in-tent is... close. }

  Chi-an reached their hand to-wards the scar on the tree, close enough that Ki'el was sure they were feel-ing the left-over warmth, but af-ter a mo-ment, they with-drew their hand and turned away, mov-ing di-rect-ly up to Ki'el. "Can you do the same thing with your tech-nique?"

  "Ah..." Ki'el felt em-bar-rassed, not least be-cause Chi-an got clos-er than she was used to. "I have been prac-tic-ing speak-ing the in-tent for the qi turn-ing cir-cle, not for that tech-nique, but they share parts. But also... you have per-formed the qi turn-ing cir-cle, to some ex-tent. Most-ly, what you need to un-der-stand comes down to one con-cept."

  Chi-an re-turned to their rock and sat, ges-tur-ing for Ki'el to con-tin-ue.

  So Ki'el, with some help from Kuli, did her best to gath-er her un-der-stand of aether, be-fore speak-ing. "The Pow-er Cy-cle is a tech-nique to cre-ate pu-ri-fied [Aether] by form-ing a [thread] of aether into a cir-cle, and turn-ing it, grind-ing against the [aether] of the uni-verse, and the gath-er-ing the re-sult-ing clean aether to cre-ate a thorn at its cen-ter."

  From the frown on Chi-an's face, not all of that was un-der-stood, and Ki'el no-ticed im-me-di-ate-ly how many con-cepts she had failed to con-vey. But hav-ing said the key word, the cen-tral con-cept, Ki'el tried to ex-plain aether in more words, ex-plain-ing how it was so much lighter and less-er than qi--that it was a fun-da-men-tal piece of the uni-verse, and not a com-plex thing cre-at-ed for this world.

  Chi-an clear-ly wasn't sure how much of those things to be-lieve, but when Ki'el in-sist-ed that cer-tain things were true, they at least were will-ing to at-tempt it. Un-like Ki'el, they had far more trou-ble ma-nip-u-lat-ing aether in-stead of qi, but... but once they were able to cre-ate a thread of aether it-self, every-thing else fell into place.

  Chi-an looked down at their first aether cy-cle, which spun lazi-ly in a right-hand-ed di-rec-tion, as though un-be-liev-ing. "This... is it? A pro-found tech-nique?"

  Ki'el pro-duced her own. "It is a tech-nique to cre-ate aether with-out in-tent. Be-cause any in-tent that is used to cre-ate the ring will be copied in the re-sult. But if you feed it, with-out adding in-tent..." Ki'el fo-cused, spin-ning up the... the 'dy-namo', as Sobon had called it first, feel-ing her aether ring grind-ing against the uni-verse, and the small pieces of aether gath-er-ing in the thorn.

  "With-out in-tent..." Chi-an's tail flicked. "My tail adds in-tent lat-er, but... it still feels dif-fer-ent. Hm." Chi-an fo-cused, and her ring also be-gan to grind, but slow-ly. "And the piece in the cen-ter--"

  "Thorn," Ki'el said. "Cy-cle and thorn. Mas-ter called it an aether (dyan-mo), though I do not know the word."

  "I see." Chi-an let the cy-cle turn, star-ing at it, and Ki'el watched for a long time, be-fore speak-ing again.

  "The ring, when you cre-ate it, can be turned the oth-er way," she said, in-ter-rupt-ing some thought in Chi-an. "But the right and left spins are not like one an-oth-er. The right-spin aether is... healthy. It en-cour-ages strength in sev-er-al ways. But the left hand aether holds things back, and is meant to at-tack oth-ers."

  "I thought you said they were with-out in-tent?" Chi-an reached down and plucked the small right-eous aether thorn, study-ing it, and then seemed to ab-sorb it, clos-ing their eyes and feel-ing the changes.

  "That is my un-der-stand-ing. I... only un-der-stand a lit-tle bit." Ki'el was un-com-fort-able ad-mit-ting how lit-tle she tru-ly did know, but it didn't seem wise to pre-tend she knew more than she did.

  "I wouldn't ex-pect you to have a mas-ter's un-der-stand-ing," Chi-an chuck-led, open-ing their eyes to study the cy-cle once more. "But... it's odd, isn't it? No in-tent, but two dif-fer-ent forms?"

  { All life is born of aether, } Kuli an-swered. { And all life as we know it is born from right-spin aether. The same spin added to it-self is a stronger spin, while two op-pos-ing spins can-cel. }

  "Is that so?" Chi-an didn't take their at-ten-tion away from the right-eous cy-cle. "So aether re-al-ly is clos-er to spir-it en-er-gy than any-thing else. But... it also isn't at all like my blood-line spir-it en-er-gy."

  { That is [an-ces-tral] spir-it en-er-gy, } Kuli said. Ki'el tried to grasp the term, but had not been ex-pect-ing Kuli to speak with such in-tent. An-ces-tral... well, as the word sug-gest-ed, it was born from an an-ces-tor. Be-fore she could try to ask or think hard-er, Kuli con-tin-ued. { Spir-it beasts, and those who in-her-it par-tial spir-it-beast abil-i-ties, are tap-ping into some-thing be-yond them-selves, an an-ces-tor or com-mu-ni-ty spir-it. It is re-lat-ed to qi, but it is sealed. Un-like qi, the user can-not change its na-ture. }

  "An-ces-tral..." Chi-an mused. "What if I want to change its na-ture?"

  { You would need to be-come an an-ces-tral spir-it your-self, and form a branch. }

  Ki'el felt, again, like she was a stranger sim-ply stand-ing by and ob-serv-ing some-one else speak such pro-found things about spir-i-tu-al en-er-gy. Just be-come an an-ces-tral spir-it? What does that even mean?

  "How can I be-come an an-ces-tral spir-it when I can-not have chil-dren?" Chi-an's voice had a strong sharpess to it, though Ki'el wasn't sure ex-act-ly what emo-tion to read into it.

  { There are paths to re-pair that dam-age. But... be-ing an an-ces-tral spir-it does not mean re-quire bear-ing chil-dren. The spir-it beast blood-lines are not lit-er-al chil-dren in that sense. The... essence of bi-ol-o-gy does not per-mit that. }

  "I do not know what that means, but if you say it is so, I'll be-lieve you." Chi-an, dur-ing the con-ver-sa-tion, had found a way to vast-ly speed up their right-eous cy-cle, and now seemed able to take the en-er-gy from the thorn with-out ma-nip-u-lat-ing the thorn it-self. Ki'el felt pleased, al-though... it had tak-en her much longer to get that used to her cy-cles. "Then, what is an an-ces-tral spir-it?"

  { It is a spir-it con-struct of im-mense pow-er, which pro-vides a bless-ing of wis-dom to those of cer-tain blood-lines or those who are oth-er-wise wor-thy. The Di-a-mond Lord is one such be-ing. The Bless-ing he pro-vides is grant-ed to all of hu-mankind. }

  Ki'el was quite sur-prised, not hav-ing ex-pect-ed Kuli to speak of such things. "Isn't the Di-a-mond Lord a liv-ing be-ing?"

  { Some an-ces-tral spir-its are, } Kuli an-swered. { There are few an-ces-tral spir-its, and there should not be too many more. To be born con-nect-ed to an an-ces-tral spir-it guides your des-tiny--some would say con-trols. It is not a dis-tinc-tion one may re-move once giv-en. It pro-vides great pow-er, but can cost a great deal. }

  "Why do you know so much about an-ces-tral spir-its?" Chi-an's voice didn't car-ry an edge, not that Ki'el could hear, but it did sound like an ac-cu-sa-tion even so. "I thought your mas-ter wasn't in-ter-est-ed in such things."

  { Sobon comes from a cul-ture that uses aether, and they have large-ly spurned the use of an-ces-tral spir-it en-er-gy, deities, and forces like qi. But, they have also learned from and stud-ied oth-er cul-tures. An-ces-tral spir-it en-er-gy is... a com-mon oc-cur-rence among the many worlds that ex-ist be-yond. }

  Chi-an was qui-et. "Spurned them? So they killed the an-ces-tral spir-its of their world?"

  { The his-to-ry of Sobon's world is long, and I do not have it all with-in me. But I know that there were ter-ri-ble wars. If an-ces-tral spir-its were wiped out in one or more of those wars, it would not sur-prise me. There also may be some that re-main. I am un-aware ei-ther way. }

  "I see." Chi-an reached out to-wards their aether ring, and with some ef-fort, pulled it into their spir-it. "You said that these rings can turn the oth-er way?"

  With Ki'el guid-ing her, Chi-an soon formed an-oth-er, left-spin pow-er cy-cle, and then an-oth-er of each. With all four cy-cles con-cealed with-in her spir-it, Chi-an sat in med-i-ta-tion for a while, and Ki'el joined them, tak-ing some time to clear her thoughts and or-ga-nize them. Al-though she in-tend-ed at the start to con-tin-ue find-ing the right words and in-tent to con-vey the pow-er cy-cles, or the qi turn-ing cy-cle, in-stead she found her-self re-play-ing the con-ver-sa-tion in her mind.

  They killed the an-ces-tral spir-its of their world? Chi-an's voice was odd, Ki'el thought. Not... or per-haps not judge-men-tal. Afraid, cer-tain-ly. But there was some-thing else, and what there was, Ki'el was not sure.

  Ki'el al-most jumped when Chi-an's voice woke her from her med-i-ta-tion. "I think that this tech-nique will help me, Sis-ter Ki'el." Ki'el blinked, look-ing up at the per-son... no, the girl that was now stand-ing be-fore her. "I would like to talk again some time. But not now, and maybe not to-mor-row. I... I have been try-ing to un-der-stand some-thing pri-vate. I hope you do not take of-fense when I iso-late my-self in the evenings."

  Ki'el just shook her head. "I have no right to judge you," she said, stand-ing up. "I just hope you will con-sid-er me a friend, when we do have chances to get to-geth-er."

  Chi-an stud-ied her for a long mo-ment, but nod-ded. "A friend... yes, I sup-pose. But you should be cau-tious, Ki'el."

  "Cau-tious?" Ki'el looked at Chi-an, who looked back for sev-er-al mo-ments, be-fore turn-ing and leav-ing the ward-ed clear-ing. Ki'el fol-lowed, be-com-ing con-scious as she did that it was late, and very dark.

  "Yes," Chi-an's voice in the dark-ness said, and some-thing about her tone made Ki'el feel a sense of dan-ger. "Cau-tious, be-cause spir-it beast in-stincts are sharp. You may end up get-ting hurt."

  "I un-der-stand," Ki'el said, "but I trust you."

  "I don't think you do un-der-stand," Chi-an said, from ahead of her in the dark-ness, "but you will, some-day."

  Ki'el nod-ded, feel-ing un-cer-tain, but she kept walk-ing, do-ing her best to keep an eye on her foot-ing as she trav-elled through the for-est in the dark.