In be-tween every-thing else that was go-ing on, the fol-low-ing day Mian had a break-through that Ki'el nei-ther ex-pect-ed nor un-der-stood. It... in all hon-esty, the man's qi be-gan to feel odd to her, and even Kuli was un-able to put words to the dif-fer-ence, ex-cept that Mian's prob-lems with his qi cy-cling re-mov-ing bad in-tent from him seemed to no longer hold him back. If any-thing, the new-er ver-sion of his qi cy-cle seemed more like it want-ed to reck-less-ly dump the world's dirty qi into him, and it took some amount of dis-ci-pline on his part to refuse, and hold qi into the pu-ri-fy-ing cy-cle.

  It was not sur-pris-ing that such a method quick-ly pulled him out of sil-ver qi, which nev-er should have been such a stum-bling block for a per-son with a good pow-er cul-ti-va-tion method.

  It was Xam, not Ki'el, who walked him through open-ing his dant-ian and reach-ing the be-gin-ning of Gold Qi, a process that was sim-ple enough as long as you had some-one to ex-plain it. By the time that she met up with Mian again the fol-low-ing evening, the man seemed more con-fi-dent, and his ver-sion of the qi cy-cle seemed to be func-tion-ing nor-mal-ly. When asked about his break-through, Mian's mood seemed to shift a bit.

  "I re-al-ized what was be-ing pu-ri-fied away from me," he said. "It's... prob-a-bly not wrong, but also, I be-lieve I can safe-ly choose not to com-plete-ly re-move it from my-self. It is a mat-ter of hope... and love, and courage, and a few oth-er com-pli-cat-ed things." He sim-ply smiled at Ki'el and pat-ted her on the shoul-der, his face not guard-ed but also show-ing noth-ing. "You don't need to wor-ry about it. I think... it may stop me from reach-ing the same heights that you and oth-ers might reach, but then, I'm not sure I ever would have. And I think I'll be-come strong enough to pro-tect my home, my fam-i-ly, my friends." When he with-drew his hand, his de-meanor shift-ed, as though he had put the in-ner con-flict out of mind, for now. "Don't wor-ry. Now that I've got-ten this far, I don't think I'm go-ing to hit my lim-it any time soon."

  Ki'el wasn't sure what to say about that, but let him do as he pleased.

  For her part, Ki'el had so many things that she could fo-cus on that it was dif-fi-cult not to be-come dis-tract-ed. Kuli en-cour-aged her not to wait too long to reach the peak of Gold Qi, al-though it was her in-stinct to leave that for now, since she had un-til the end of her first month be-fore that would be a prob-lem. So when she was work-ing, she kept her fo-cus on her qi cy-cle, ea-ger for the day when her process was sta-ble enough that she could split her at-ten-tion be-tween two qi cy-cles, or per-haps, hold-ing one while be-ing able to think clear-ly about things. For now, al-though she could move her hands and feet and do crude labors, or main-tain the cy-cle with-out do-ing any pu-rifi-ca-tion, try-ing to do too much while con-cen-trat-ing would make her fum-ble one task or the oth-er.

  She was get-ting bet-ter, though, es-pe-cial-ly if she also added right-eous aether to her spir-it to keep her mind cen-tered and clear, and it was that habit, more than any-thing else, that caused her to no-tice some-thing was wrong be-fore she got en-tan-gled into a mess.

  It was a com-mon enough task--a haul-ing la-bor, but when she ar-rived, the box of al-chem-i-cal vials to be moved was sit-ting care-ful-ly next to a door-way, and the Out-er Dis-ci-ple who re-quest-ed it was con-spic-u-ous-ly ab-sent. Ki'el glanced around, but it was when she flood-ed her spir-it again with Right-eous Aether that she sensed it.

  The qi with-in the vials was un-sta-ble. She frowned, mov-ing in a small cir-cle around it, but she was cer-tain of it. She took the to-ken that Sis-ter Futi had giv-en her and fo-cused her in-tent on it. [ I re-ject task. Vials are un-sta-ble. Maybe trap, maybe fool-ish. ]

  She felt a mo-men-tary tin-gle from the to-ken, and then, af-ter a mo-ment, [ Wait. ]

  Ki'el stepped away from the vials, and wait-ed, and af-ter a time, an Out-er Dis-ci-ple showed up, frown-ing at the vials, and then at Ki'el. "Are you the one who re-quest-ed the task?"

  "No," Ki'el said. "I was giv-en the task but no one showed up. The vials seem full of un-sta-ble qi. I told Sis-ter Futi that I refuse the task."

  "Un-sta-ble? Re-al-ly?" The man moved over to the box of vials and squat-ted down. "Hum, maybe a lit-tle. The task was re-as-signed to me, so--"

  From the mo-ment that he be-gan to move the box, Ki'el could see that the trap wasn't sub-tle at all, ex-cept in the way that it was hid-den. From the first time the box was shift-ed, the qi in one of the vials be-gan to stir, and then the qi in oth-ers. She stepped back. "Sect broth-er, the qi..."

  "I haven't done any-thing," he said, pick-ing the box up. "And if the vials were that un-sta-ble, some-one would be tempt-ing fate just leav-ing them out like this--"

  Sud-den-ly, the qi from the one vial spiked, and the vial shat-tered, mak-ing sev-er-al vials near it also be-gin to peak. The man paused his haul-ing, frown-ing, and be-gan to set the box down--but the bro-ken vial pro-vid-ed space for oth-er vials to shift, and more of them be-gan to col-lapse or spike their qi.

  As though sum-moned by the event, a man that Ki'el had seen not too many days be-fore seemed to ap-pear all at once out of a near-by build-ing, only to pause sud-den-ly when he saw Ki'el and the Out-er Sect mem-ber, who was squat-ting over the box. "Hey!" He shout-ed. "What are you do-ing with my al-chem-i-cal ex-per-i-ment? It's very--"

  "Il-le-gal," Ki'el heard the oth-er Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple mut-ter un-der his breath, and he sum-moned a stone to his hand. But no mat-ter how gen-tly he set the box down, the dam-age was done and get-ting worse.

  "And you--are you the Less-er House mem-ber that ac-cept-ed my task?" Broth-er Mon-shu round-ed on Ki'el. "How dare you have some oth-er fool do your work for you? I de-mand that you re-pay me for the work that you so care-less-ly de-stroyed!"

  Ki'el just looked over at him, and lift-ed her to-ken. "I did not ac-cept the task, Broth-er Mon-shu. I asked Sis-ter Futi to as-sign an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple to it in-stead."

  Broth-er Mon-shu's mouth snapped shut so hard that Ki'el heard it echo. "You... you do not have the right--"

  "Broth-er Mon-shu," Ki'el said, feel-ing a cold cer-tain-ty in her stom-ach that the man had gone very far out of his way to try to trap her here, and if not for a smidgeon of aether, he might have suc-ceed-ed. "I did not ac-cept the task. I nev-er touched your box. An Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple was as-signed it."

  "I have no in-ten-tion of pay-ing an Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple to sim-ply move a box for me!"

  "But you do ad-mit that this was your task?" The Out-er Dis-ci-ple stood up and turned to look at him. "This is your box, full of your vials? You de-mand-ed re-pay-ment, so it must be."

  "I..." Broth-er Mon-shu's face blanked. "I'm sor-ry, Broth-er, but I'm not fa-mil-iar with you. Have we met?"

  "If this were your alche-my ex-per-i-ment, I'm sure we would have, Broth-er... Mon-shu, was it?" The man stepped up to him, and sud-den-ly, he had an ex-ceed-ing-ly un-pleas-ant look on his face. "I am Broth-er Abi, and I am a ju-nior as-sis-tant in-struc-tor in charge of teach-ing alche-my to the Out-er Sect."

  "I..." Broth-er Mon-shu's voice drew out un-til it hit a very strange note, as the man was clear-ly try-ing to find an ex-pla-na-tion for his ma-nip-u-la-tions that didn't make his mal-ice ob-vi-ous, and was not able to find any such suit-able words.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "I ad-mit when I was sud-den-ly tasked to take on a task to sim-ply move vials, I was cu-ri-ous, but I can now see the en-tire pic-ture, as El-der Fai will when she ar-rives." Broth-er Abi sud-den-ly re-vealed a set of three dif-fer-ent col-ored vials in his hand, all of which Ki'el rec-og-nized from the set. "I ad-mit I am dis-ap-point-ed twice, Broth-er. No, three... four times, once in my-self. I was first dis-ap-point-ed when I re-al-ized that one of the com-pounds in these vials is against the rules of the sect. I was dis-ap-point-ed a sec-ond time as it be-came clear to me that you set this up to trap some poor mem-ber of the Less-er House. And I am dis-ap-point-ed in my-self, be-cause a mem-ber of the Less-er House was more able to de-tect an alche-my trap than I was, as a ju-nior alche-my as-sis-tant, even if I was dis-tract-ed and dis-mis-sive."

  "Ah... Broth-er Abi, per-haps you have mis-un-der-stood--"

  "But I am most dis-ap-point-ed, Broth-er Mon-shu, that this vile mix-ture was clear-ly not even done by you. You are not even a ju-nior al-chemist, and be-lieve me, we will be search-ing for the per-son who you hired to make your lit-tle trick. The sub-tle ma-nip-u-la-tion was im-pres-sive--and il-le-gal."

  Ki'el frowned, un-sure that she liked the mixed mes-sage that Broth-er Abi was giv-ing the oth-er Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple. It might have been bet-ter, if he had done it him-self?

  When Mon-shu seemed to de-volve into a stut-ter-ing mess, Broth-er Abi turned to Ki'el and of-fered a shal-low bow. "Ju-nior Sis-ter. I ap-pre-ci-ate your alert-ness, but there is no fur-ther need for you to re-main, and it might com-pli-cate your life if you do. My tes-ti-mo-ny will see Broth-er Mon-shu pun-ished, make no mis-take." His grin spread, and to Ki'el, it was an ugly ex-pres-sion.

  { I be-lieve he in-tends to keep all of the for-fei-ture, } Kuli nudged her, men-tal-ly. { As a re-sult, we can keep our hands clean in this mat-ter. }

  Ki'el re-al-ized that she had been star-ing, and flushed her mind with right-eous aether one more time to clear it. She bowed to Broth-er Abi. "I will let you take the re-spon-si-bil-i-ty, and the cred-it, then, Broth-er Abi. Be well."

  She walked away, feel-ing un-com-fort-ably like more than one or two pairs of eyes was look-ing at her as she did. For what-ev-er rea-son... she felt like she was be-ing watched the en-tire walk back to the Less-er House. A spir-it? Or some kind of qi ef-fect?

  By the time that she met with Sis-ter Futi, Ki'el's rush had end-ed, though she still couldn't deny that it was in-fu-ri-at-ing. Sis-ter Futi gave her a care-ful look as she walked in, im-me-di-ate-ly af-ter an-oth-er Less-er House mem-ber walked out, and asked, in a very se-ri-ous tone, "Is every-thing han-dled?"

  "The re-quest-ed Out-er Sect dis-ci-ple... re-spond-ed ap-pro-pri-ate-ly to the sit-u-a-tion," Ki'el said, de-cid-ing to be cagey about it. "My choice not to get in-volved was cor-rect."

  Sis-ter Futi sim-ply arched her brows at Ki'el and said noth-ing about that, in-stead of-fer-ing her an-oth-er small task in a very dif-fer-ent part of the Sect.

  It was strange to Ki'el, though, that for many days af-ter that, she start-ed to no-tice more and more fre-quent-ly that she would pass Sis-ter Lan Wu, the woman's red dress be-ing dif-fi-cult to mis-take for an-oth-er. Sis-ter Wu nev-er spoke, but if she was sub-tly try-ing to keep an eye on Ki'el... then she was no good at sub-tle-ty. Af-ter the first few days, Ki'el brought it up with Xam.

  "She has men-tioned you," Xam agreed. "She con-tin-ues to talk to me when she sees me, I think be-cause she ex-pects me to agree with her. I... do not like her."

  "You re-call I said that her voice has qi lay-ers in it," Ki'el said, wor-ried about the im-pli-ca-tions.

  "Yes, and I sense them. Ma-nip-u-la-tion tech-niques re-quire ad-vanced con-trol, Ki'el. If she had that kind of con-trol, she would not re-main in the Less-er House."

  Ki'el sup-posed that was true, but it... felt very wrong. There were al-ready at least two peo-ple here who seemed not to be-long--Sis-ters Futi and Be-nai. Both were clear-ly more ad-vanced than some-one who stayed for-ev-er in the Less-er House should be, in dif-fer-ent ways. It would not be at all sur-pris-ing if some oth-er force plant-ed some-one else here. And yet... her opin-ion of Lan Wu was no dif-fer-ent than Xam's. The woman sim-ply didn't seem com-pe-tent enough to pull off such tricks.

  Un-less...

  Since Xam had proved to be dis-in-ter-est-ed in her qi cy-cling tech-nique, Ki'el tried an-oth-er tac-tic. "Have you sensed any-thing off in the qi in around the Less-er House? As you have ex-plored your foot-cen-tric na-ture?"

  "Yes," Xam said, the ir-ri-ta-tion in her voice ob-vi-ous but not se-vere. "It shifts, but I adapt. All of the var-i-ous meth-ods used by the mem-bers of the Less-er House make for a con-fus-ing land-scape of in-tents, some of them un-pleas-ant. I have found, be-yond ques-tion, that know-ing the area around where I med-i-tate im-proves my abil-i-ty to fil-ter and ab-sorb qi. But the area around the Less-er House... too of-ten, the shift-ing qi is a prob-lem."

  And you do not think it could be de-lib-er-ate? Ki'el held her tongue, know-ing that in spite of the re-cent trap set for her, there was not an im-me-di-ate rea-son to be so para-noid, es-pe-cial-ly for Xam's cul-ti-va-tion. While Ki'el had man-aged to make en-e-mies, Xam had seemed to grudg-ing-ly adapt to her cir-cum-stances, reach-ing a steady lev-el of stress that seemed to not vary much day to day.

  Still, she forced her-self to take the oc-ca-sion once a day to push right-eous aether into Xam and Mian's spir-its, and each time she did, she felt she drove some mi-nor ef-fect off. Mian's qi, which still felt a lit-tle odd, sta-bi-lized, and Xam's sim-ply lost a cer-tain edge to it. Both clear-ly no-ticed that some-thing changed, but nei-ther seemed in-ter-est-ed in com-ment-ing on it.

  The days fol-low-ing her en-counter with Broth-er Mon-shu and her new-found para-noia about Sis-ter Wu did, how-ev-er, bring Ki'el up to Nine Gold-en Stars, and as she be-gan to ap-proach the peak of Gold Qi, Kuli sud-den-ly be-gan to speak to her.

  { The eas-i-est way to pass the chal-lenge ahead will not sim-ply be to have qi in your dant-ian, } she said, { but to ac-cli-ma-tize sev-er-al parts of your body to qi. The eas-i-est way to do this is by build-ing up your pu-ri-fied qi and then in-ject-ing it into parts of your body. }

  Ki'el sent her aug-ment a men-tal ac-knowl-edge-ment, as she walked back to the Sect for an-oth-er task. Is there a set of parts I should use?

  { Rather than tell you, I would ask you to imag-ine that your task is to grasp hold of a bolt of light-ning, as it strikes you from the heav-ens. What should you re-in-force with qi to make that pos-si-ble? }

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that. How does such qi light-ning strike?

  In-stead of an-swer-ing that, Kuli in-stead gave her in-for-ma-tion on nat-ur-al light-ning--far less de-tailed than the in-for-ma-tion about fire, but still suf-fi-cient for her to un-der-stand that qi light-ning, which would fol-low sim-i-lar rules, would def-i-nite-ly be try-ing to pass through her body and her qi chan-nels, from her hand to the ground. Whether she want-ed to re-sist the light-ning or sur-vive its pas-sage, she would need at least to make sure from her hand to her dant-ian, the path was strong enough to han-dle greater qi than she could use now. And... if she want-ed to let the light-ning pass through her, an-oth-er pas-sage out from her dant-ian, or sim-ply her arm, through one or both of her legs.

  In short, her limbs and core. It was... not sur-pris-ing, but it helped that she un-der-stood why she need-ed these things, and not sim-ply that she need-ed them.

  That night, Ki'el took her whole day's worth of qi and, at Kuli's in-struc-tion, be-gan to pack it tight-ly into her right hand, along with pure right-eous aether. She could sense that do-ing so strained her body, and she was care-ful not to do too much, but... when she had put enough strain on her hand, she forced the qi and aether mix to be force-ful-ly re-ab-sorbed into her dant-ian straight from her hand. As it flowed through her chan-nels back to her dant-ian, it made her arm feel swollen and un-com-fort-able where it passed. When the pres-sure in her hand had fad-ed, she tried again, and dis-cov-ered that her tol-er-ance for the ex-tra en-er-gy seemed less than it had been be-fore. She fin-ished that at-tempt, then stopped, let-ting her hand and chan-nels rest.

  Since she had the qi and aether to spare, she start-ed on her oth-er hand, but didn't quite get through two full cy-cles. Her left hand, strange-ly, burned more and took less qi to reach ca-pac-i-ty, though she still didn't have enough.

  { The dom-i-nant hand is of-ten bet-ter ex-er-cised, } Kuli replied to her men-tal ques-tion. { It is true of both mus-cles and qi. If you train your off hand, it will be-come equal to the oth-er, but most peo-ple do not try to bring the two into bal-ance. }

  Ki'el con-sid-ered it, and de-cid-ed that at least in qi, if not in mus-cles, she could see no rea-son to have her left hand be less-er. So she be-gan to work at it, us-ing her right-hand aether cy-cles with her left hand, de-spite Sobon's protest when she was first learn-ing, that she should make sure that she did not con-fuse the two en-er-gies. She could see that was true, and so when she man-i-fest-ed her right thorn in her left hand, she let it come to the back of her hand in-stead of the palm, and chan-neled the en-er-gy dif-fer-ent-ly. If she had a rea-son to use sin-is-ter aether with her right hand, she de-cid-ed, she would do the same.

  The days af-ter she start-ed prac-tic-ing this... ac-clima-ti-za-tion, Ki'el be-gan to feel more and more ir-ri-ta-ble, her hands tired more of-ten and faster, but she pushed through it. Kuli had not led her wrong, and was not in-ter-rupt-ing her cur-rent method. She had to trust that this would all take her where she want-ed to go. But... the ir-ri-ta-tion only made her more sus-pi-cious of Sis-ter Wu's fre-quent ap-pear-ance.

  So Ki'el de-cid-ed, when she had the time, that it was time for her to be-gin in-ves-ti-gat-ing that woman, since she was clear-ly be-ing in-ves-ti-gat-ed by her.