Ki'el did not ex-pect bound-less sym-pa-thy from Lai Shi Po, and would have been sur-prised if the woman had been im-me-di-ate-ly or lim-it-less-ly help-ful. That made it dif-fi-cult for her to sum-ma-rize the rea-son why she had called for the woman in only a few words, so she walked Po through the gen-er-al cir-cum-stances quick-ly first.

  The in-sis-tence that there was no room in the Less-er House. Be-ing shown rooms with no floors. Be-ing giv-en a room with no floors. The at-tack by a man who seemed ma-nip-u-lat-ed by a bracelet--Ki'el, at-ten-tive to the ad-vice of Sis-ter Futi, hedged her word-ing there slight-ly--and who had been ma-nip-u-lat-ed to die at the hands of El-der Gol. Hav-ing time to her-self.

  But then, Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed. She looked at Po, who was tak-ing all these events so far very sto-ical-ly, and if Ki'el were to guess based on the woman's dis-po-si-tion, she thought the woman was un-sur-prised and per-haps even bored. She could imag-ine that some, though like-ly not all, of this was fair-ly stan-dard for the Less-er House. But she also was not sure she want-ed to speak too much of Sobon's gift, not af-ter Futi had been so very cau-tious of it, and not when Sobon him-self had said lit-tle.

  But there was no avoid-ing it, and it wasn't as though the top-ic was now com-plete-ly con-cealed. Al-though she phrased it to make sense to Po, she felt strange again, not-ing how in-con-sis-tent she might ap-pear to oth-ers. "You know that Alas-si spoke of leav-ing me with some wis-dom be-fore she left."

  "Of course," Po said, sound-ing bored, or per-haps just guard-ed.

  "It was... de-liv-ered. And now I have a... spir-i-tu-al helper, per-haps. A men-tal as-sis-tant."

  "Men-tal and spir-i-tu-al..." Po nar-rowed her eyes slight-ly. "Com-ing on the heels of oth-er ma-nip-u-la-tions. I see."

  "There was some... ac-cu-sa-tion, or per-haps just con-cern," she said, glanc-ing at Broth-er Du, who re-mained silent and did his best to ap-pear un-af-fect-ed. "But my mind was not on those things. I was think-ing about Alas-si's abil-i-ty to ma-nip-u-late sub-stances, be-cause I was think-ing about the room re-pairs."

  Po, at least, looked sym-pa-thet-ic to the idea that Ki'el was distractible, but said noth-ing.

  "So I came out here with... my as-sis-tant, at-tempt-ing to learn the ba-sics of in-scrip-tion," she said at last, feel-ing more em-bar-rassed as she talked. And she led Po to the crude scratch-es in the dirt where she'd been. "In the end, the full in-tent that I wish to per-form is noth-ing more than an ar-ti-fi-cial floor us-ing the planes of force that ...she uses. I was in-struct-ed that in-volves three or four sim-ple mark-ers to de-fine the re-gion, and then a sim-ple glyph to cre-ate the ef-fect be-tween them."

  "In prin-ci-ple, a sim-ple script," agreed Po, glanc-ing down at the cir-cle marks. "To my eyes, this is a com-plete be-gin-ner's in-tent mark, but it is one. If your as-sis-tant taught you how to do that much, it is at least com-pe-tent."

  Ki'el could feel her-self flush-ing and re-sist-ed the urge to squirm at the scruti-ny. "When I con-sid-ered try-ing to get tools to make a more... portable ver-sion... I ran afoul of Sis-ter Futi. Who was..."

  "I am aware of Sis-ter Futi's ca-pa-bil-i-ties," Broth-er Du said qui-et-ly.

  Ki'el nod-ded at him, grate-ful that she did not need to mince words. "Be-cause she sensed what I was do-ing, she for-bade me from bring-ing any such in-scrip-tions into the Less-er House."

  "She's prob-a-bly not wrong," Po said, and Ki'el felt her heart drop. Po glanced at her af-ter a mo-ment. "Or rather, in this in-stance, she is. But there is a world of dif-fer-ence, Ki'el, be-tween an in-scrip-tion-ist with a mas-ter and some-one think-ing that the art will work re-li-ably and in the way they en-vi-sion. All mas-ters, in-clud-ing yours, have years--usu-al-ly decades, some-times cen-turies of fail-ures be-hind them. We learn to de-tect fail-ures as quick-ly as we can, from the small-est signs. Per-haps your spir-i-tu-al as-sis-tant can per-form that func-tion--but un-til Sis-ter Futi can con-firm this her-self, or have it con-firmed by an-oth-er, it would be fool-ish to trust too eas-i-ly."

  Ki'el scowled and looked down at the dirt. "All I re-al-ly want is a floor to sleep on." She thought she sensed a small burst of emo-tion, turn-ing to see that it was Broth-er Du, not Po.

  "In truth, when I ac-cept-ed the cur-rent state of the Less-er House, I did not think about that part of it," he said. "Though I would think the cor-rect an-swer, rather than a script--"

  "Oh by all means," Po broke in sud-den-ly, and Ki'el could hear a cut-ting edge to her voice. "Sug-gest raw planks, Du. Sug-gest them." When Broth-er Du looked to her in sur-prise, Po moved to-ward him in a flash, and even Du seemed to feel threat-ened when she snagged the front of his uni-form. "You can't pos-si-bly have for-got-ten, can you?"

  "Ah... in truth, Sis-ter..."

  "Three times," Po snapped. "I went to the heal-ing house three times while stay-ing in the Less-er House, be-cause turn-ing in my sleep ripped my skin on raw wood of the floor or walls. Blood loss, par-a-sites, and dis-ease. I re-mem-ber the way the sect treats the Less-er House, 'Broth-er' Du," she said, with some ob-vi-ous scorn. "As do you. They are over-worked and un-der-ap-pre-ci-at-ed be-fore they have to deal with se-ri-ous prob-lems be-cause of the shit-ty con-di-tion of the hous-ing that the Sect it-self pro-vides. Hous-ing that the Sect even has the nerve to be proud of."

  Ki'el watched Broth-er Du, whose pan-ic slow-ly gave way to a more com-posed ap-pear-ance. "You did not fix the bro-ken wood."

  "Per-haps," Po said, with what she prob-a-bly thought was feigned sweet-ness, al-though she couldn't muster that kind of sar-casm in the mo-ment. "But you act as though it would be safe for any-one to do. That would be a step be-yond bad guid-ance, and into ac-tive ne-glect, Broth-er."

  Du held up his hands in a sign of sur-ren-der, and Ki'el felt her-self start breath-ing again, though she had not no-ticed her-self stop. "You are right," he said af-ter a mo-ment. "I have for-got-ten since long ago what it is like to have mor-tal skin. It is reck-less of me to give ad-vice to some-one at Gold Qi, sim-ply be-cause I would have no prob-lem with it. As a penance, I would hap-pi-ly as-sist with pro-vid-ing an ap-pro-pri-ate sleep-ing sur-face."

  Ki'el didn't like that an-swer, and she was pleased when Po im-me-di-ate-ly shook her head. "No," she said, "you can stay out of this for now. Ki'el. I can ver-i-fy you have a cor-rect in-tent mark, here. If you can demon-strate an ap-pro-pri-ate mark and in-tent for the floor field, I will per-son-al-ly en-grave the script onto..." she glanced around. "Oh, I don't know. Rocks or some-thing."

  Ki'el felt re-lief, and moved to an-oth-er, un-touched patch of dirt. Kuli...

  { I be-lieve you un-der-stand the idea well enough, } Kuli an-swered quick-ly. { And see-ing you strug-gle and learn will show hon-esty in the eyes of the oth-ers. They will not ex-pect you to suc-ceed the first time. }

  So Ki'el sat silent-ly for a mo-ment, try-ing to re-call the glyph she thought she un-der-stood, and though she didn't quite catch it hap-pen-ing, she was sure that Kuli ad-just-ed it slight-ly. And when she was sure, she drew out a sym-bol in the dirt, not quite cor-rect-ly get-ting the thread of qi as she sketched it in.

  Two more quick tries af-ter that, Ki'el frowned at the qi thread in the dirt. This is not right, is it?

  { No, } Kuli agreed. { You have the cor-rect sym-bol, but it is not meant to be used like that. These three lines are sup-posed to con-nect to pieces that name a tar-get, the op-po-site end of the nam-ing mark. Call it an ar-row mark, with the nam-ing mark be-ing the tar-get. You can still at-tach ar-row marks to this, but you will need to be very care-ful. }

  So Ki'el, as del-i-cate-ly as she could, sketched out from one of the three marks, her in-tent con-nect-ing it to the in-tent mark she had left be-hind. When she moved to join it to the full mark, how-ev-er, her fin-ger brushed the qi thread she had left be-hind, dis-rupt-ing it, and the larg-er mark dis-ap-peared.

  "I think I've seen enough," Po said be-hind her, naked con-tempt in her voice, and Ki'el felt her heart jump into her lungs. She turned to find the two watch-ing her work. "Aside from be-ing a com-plete novice, Ki'el, it's clear that you do not un-der-stand in-scrip-tion at all. You have the cor-rect mark, but you have put no thought into it at all."

  Ki'el fell back-wards, into the dirt, un-sure of what to say to that, but even as she opened her mouth to try to say any-thing in her own de-fense, Po con-tin-ued.

  "I can see your mas-ter's style in the use of the script," she said, "but you made two se-ri-ous blun-ders with it. The first is a lack of a pow-er source, mean-ing you would need to pow-er it with your own qi all through the night. The oth-er is a lack of an off switch. If you carved the en-grav-ings here, they would be ac-tive as you car-ried them. If you dropped one and didn't know it, the plane of force might cut into any-thing that got in the mid-dle of it un-aware."

  Ki'el, know-ing full well that the same ba-sic in-scrip-tion pow-ered a sword, felt sick and hu-mil-i-at-ed at that thought, and looked down. In the end... al-though she had been proud, it tru-ly was fool-ish of her to ex-per-i-ment with-out a mas-ter... was it not?

  { I would not have let you use it in this way, } Kuli said, qui-et-ly, as Ki'el sat there in the qui-et for a mo-ment. { I was aware of both is-sues. I did not ex-pect you to fin-ish by to-day, but used the floor to mo-ti-vate you to work hard-er. }

  "Still," Po said into the still-ness, "You demon-strat-ed the cor-rect mark and in-tent. It would have func-tioned." And Ki'el watched as four small rocks in the vicin-i-ty seemed to zip at Po all by them-selves, and the woman got down in the dirt, pulling her in-tri-cate carv-ing sty-lus out of her space ring.

  It was a mat-ter of thir-ty sec-onds, if that, be-fore Po hand-ed her four en-graved rocks. Ki'el had watched the woman en-grave for hours on end on the ride up to the Sect... and it only served as a les-son to her, now, just how sim-plis-tic what she was ac-tu-al-ly try-ing to ac-com-plish was. Sim-ple sym-bols with sim-ple in-tent, and even then, she all but failed.

  "Pour your qi into the widest mark, here," Po said, in-di-cat-ing one. "The spi-ral mark trig-gers it on, or off. The qi stor-age will not last for more than a night--not if all three of you sleep on it. And it will not stand up to any at-tacks. Since there's only three marks, it will sup-port at most half a room, and the qi will stretch fur-ther if you use it less. Don't let any-one jos-tle or take the rocks." Po paused. "Make sure all the marks are fac-ing up. I don't think there's even an-oth-er thing to say about it. It's noth-ing more than a very crude tool."

  "Thank you, Po," Ki'el said, qui-et-ly, test-ing the rocks only briefly be-fore hold-ing them in her hands and clutch-ing them tight-ly. She wasn't quite sure why this gift from the woman hurt her heart, some-what, but it did, mak-ing her re-gret how she had thought of the woman so far. She was... un-couth, and crude. But this help was not mean-ing-less.

  Lai Shi Po sniffed at her, and Ki'el for a mo-ment thought that the woman was also sen-ti-men-tal, but af-ter a mo-ment, she talked again. "I en-cour-aged your mas-ter to give me a name as she pleased, and I'm not go-ing to scorn you for think-ing you are fa-mil-iar with me. But on this mat-ter, as on many oth-er mat-ters, I am your su-pe-ri-or, not your friend. Ki'el. You shall not ex-per-i-ment with in-scrip-tion with-out some-one pre-sent. Un-til the Sect deems you wor-thy to per-form in-scrip-tions with-out su-per-vi-sion, do not."

  Ki'el wilt-ed un-der the woman's tongue, and she nod-ded. "I un-der-stand. Thank you, Lai Shi Po."

  "Bet-ter." Po straight-ened, and her voice light-ened. "Aside from the liv-ing con-di-tions, how do you find the Sect so far?"

  Ki'el looked up at her, sur-prised. Af-ter a mo-ment, she put the rocks in her pock-et and tried to match her sit-ting stance to Po's. "I... do not dis-like it. There are many won-der-ful things here. Al-though I am dis-ap-point-ed that the... qi here is not fresh."

  "You no-ticed that?" Broth-er Du's voice sound-ed gen-uine-ly sur-prised.

  Ki'el just looked up at him and nod-ded. "I asked... my as-sis-tant, and she said that there is a bar-ri-er di-rect-ing all the fresh qi to the top of the is-land, and what fil-ters down to us has al-ready passed the oth-ers."

  "Oh, we know it's true," Po said, as though Ki'el were de-fen-sive or ex-plain-ing it to them. "It's just un-usu-al that you would be sen-si-tive enough to tell. Or maybe, strange that you know enough to put it into words."

  "It be-came ob-vi-ous on my trip back from the heal-ing house," Ki'el said, "but more-so when I sat close to the edge and ex-pect-ed the breeze to be fresh. A wind blow-ing in from afar should not feel like the is-land be-hind me."

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  Broth-er Du chuck-led at that. "I sup-pose an Il-lan would know," he said. "Sea breeze is sea breeze, un-less it is blow-ing the smell of some-thing spe-cif-ic to you." Ki'el nod-ded at that, though she was a lit-tle sur-prised at the com-ment, which he seemed to no-tice. "I have stood on shores, and on moun-tain-tops," he said sud-den-ly, as though there was some need to ex-plain him-self, "and I have stood on the top of the is-land, though I am rarely al-lowed to stay there long. Every-where else here is sim-ply... down-wind. It was a strange sense, un-til I un-der-stood it prop-er-ly, but ever since then, I have sym-pa-thized with those who can tell."

  "Ki'el's qi is un-usu-al-ly pure," Po said to him, con-ver-sa-tion-al-ly, "be-cause of the way her mas-ter taught her. I don't know how long that will last..." she turned and con-sid-ered Ki'el.

  "I am aware that draw-ing in dirty qi is not ide-al," she said. "And I do not in-tend to use... my Mas-ter's meth-ods at all times. I spent some of my time to-day try-ing to find a way to pu-ri-fy the qi that comes in, slight-ly. It is not as ef-fec-tive as..." she nod-ded at Po, "...but I think it will help."

  "Pu-ri-fy the qi?" Broth-er Du's voice was du-bi-ous, and Ki'el be-gan to wor-ry that she was do-ing some-thing sil-ly again.

  But in-stead of get-ting de-fen-sive, Ki'el held her two hands in front of her, where the two could see, and though it took her a few mo-ments to fo-cus, she be-gan her qi turn-ing ex-er-cise again, try-ing to fo-cus on not only the left and right hand spins, but also the in and the out. When she was able to find the method again, with some dif-fi-cul-ty, she opened her eyes, see-ing the qi turn-ing and the flakes falling gen-tly away from it.

  She could also see the se-ri-ous looks on the faces of both Lai Shi Po and Broth-er Du.

  "It is a method un-like my mas-ter's," Ki'el ad-mit-ted, do-ing her best to sta-bi-lize the ef-fect as her heart raced and her guts squirmed at the scruti-ny, again. Al-though she knew she should not talk too flip-pant-ly... "The pow-er cy-cles that Sobon taught me were meant to..." she caught her-self, turn-ing the aether. "...well, they work on a dif-fer-ent process. But what Sobon taught me was to ma-nip-u-late with-out in-tent, and I un-der-stood that this was im-por-tant. As I was sit-ting, I be-gan to won-der what im-pu-ri-ty in qi even was, and so I wished to see what hap-pened when qi was used. This is... qi with-out added in-tent, but used. I think... in my mind, I think that if I used qi this dirty while it was with-in me... then..." she nod-ded at the flakes of qi na-ture and in-tent falling away from the turn-ing, white-ish qi.

  "It is known that im-pu-ri-ties build up," Broth-er Du said, as he ex-am-ined the turn-ing qi, "but a method like this..."

  "In its own way, it is pro-found," said Po, and Ki'el looked at her, sur-prised. Po re-turned her look, her face once again show-ing some amount of bore-dom or ar-ro-gance that Ki'el was not sure she un-der-stood. "It is a novice's tech-nique, built on sim-ple foun-da-tions. But it shows a grasp of the ba-sic prin-ci-ples that is im-por-tant."

  Sur-pris-ing-ly, Broth-er Du open-ly scoffed at that. "It is in-ter-est-ing," he said, stand-ing back up. "But it is in-ter-est-ing in the way that many novice tech-niques are. It shows new thought while also dis-play-ing promi-nent-ly that you fun-da-men-tal-ly do not un-der-stand Qi."

  Ki'el al-most lost her en-tire con-cen-tra-tion at that, and it was only a men-tal nudge from Kuli that... let Ki'el no-tice the ir-ri-tat-ed look on Po's face as the oth-er woman turned to Du.

  "What do you mean?" Po asked, calm-ly enough that if Ki'el had not seen the look of ir-ri-ta-tion, she might have thought the woman was be-ing... aca-d-e-m-ic?

  "Ma-nip-u-la-tion with-out in-tent, and pu-rifi-ca-tion of qi," Du said. "They are in-ter-est-ing con-cepts, but in the end, they mis-rep-re-sent the goal of pu-ri-fied qi. Ul-ti-mate-ly, the idea of us-ing pu-ri-fied qi strikes me as worse than sil-ly, as an ac-tive mis-step on the road of cul-ti-va-tion. The goal is to have qi that serves your pur-pos-es, that is ful-ly at-tuned to you, that rep-re-sents all your knowl-edge and all your ex-pe-ri-ence. Gath-er-ing qi and strip-ping it of all that which does not match your own spir-it is one thing--but strip-ping it of every-thing, of all the knowl-edge and will of the world? That is ridicu-lous."

  { False and wrong, } Kuli in-formed her qui-et-ly, even as Po con-sid-ered for only half a mo-ment be-fore speak-ing.

  "I think you're wrong, Du," she said. "Much of what I do and study--in-scrip-tion, alche-my, spa-tial qi--in-volves cas-es where for-eign in-tent in your qi can be dead-ly."

  "And it's fine to re-move in-tent that does not be-long," ar-gued Du, and some-how, Ki'el thought she was see-ing an-oth-er side to the man. He took a step back and be-gan to pace, his face far more an-i-mat-ed than she had seen be-fore. "But qi should al-ways be-long to its user, and what-ev-er re-mains in qi, from what-ev-er source... it is wis-dom from the world--" { False, again. } "--which can be care-ful-ly stud-ied and med-i-tat-ed upon. While I've ad-mit-ted-ly nev-er seen flakes of qi in-tent falling out in a pu-rifi-ca-tion tech-nique... it strikes me as wrong, and wrong-head-ed. Qi isn't sim-ply qi. It is the very will of the world it-self, con-tain-ing all of the pro-found wis-dom of cre-ation."

  Ki'el lis-tened to the man talk, and al-though the top-ic was mak-ing her feel strange, she be-gan to un-der-stand even with-out Kuli in-ter-ject-ing that this was a top-ic that Broth-er Du only thought he un-der-stood. By the end, she had be-gun to flush her own spir-it out again with Right-eous Aether, feel-ing her var-i-ous ex-cit-ed feel-ings dim slight-ly so that she could sense the world clear-ly, again.

  Po, too, seemed un-con-vinced. "I must ask, Broth-er Du, whether you're try-ing to con-vince the girl, me... or your-self?"

  Broth-er Du round-ed on Po like he want-ed to say some-thing harsh, but he stopped him-self, con-sid-ered, and took a deep breath. "You might be right," he said, his voice sound-ing a lot more like the sto-ic, even-keeled man he'd been a few min-utes ago. "It was... a some-what vis-cer-al ex-pe-ri-ence to see in-tent flak-ing away from qi as though it was... ac-tu-al dirt. I..." he con-sid-ered, and looked up at the trees.

  Ki'el looked around, too, re-al-iz-ing as she did that time was turn-ing to-wards evening, al-ready.

  "Broth-er Du," Po said af-ter a mo-ment. "This is one of those con-ver-sa-tions that makes me want to spill se-crets, but I won't. Suf-fice it to say that pu-ri-fied qi, or bet-ter, [Pri-mor-dial Qi] is the prop-er base for all oth-er ef-fects. A per-son may gath-er in-tent and na-ture into their qi, but the qi should be built on top of pure qi."

  "Sis-ter Shi Po," Du re-turned, his voice un-ex-pect-ed-ly harsh. "I have spent a cen-tu-ry of my life think-ing long and hard about what peo-ple are meant to do with their qi. Ki'el looked at him, reap-prais-ing the so-called 'Broth-er' as she did. "I will not ar-gue that pu-ri-fy-ing qi is not good, but..." He sud-den-ly shook his head, and looked away. "Apolo-gies. I'm not sure what I am ar-gu-ing."

  Ki'el looked back down at the cy-cling qi be-fore her, watch-ing it turn, and as she did, she thought about what it meant--un-til the mo-ment when she un-der-stood what it ac-tu-al-ly was. "Is it be-cause it is the qi here, specif-i-cal-ly?"

  The oth-er two turned to-wards her, say-ing noth-ing.

  "Be-cause it is the sect's qi," she clar-i-fied, as she raised her hands, and the cy-cle be-tween them. "I am not turn-ing and cy-cling qi from my dant-ian, but from the en-vi-ron-ment. And it is that qi, the sect's qi, that sheds in-tent like it is dirt."

  Broth-er Du flinched, and Ki'el could swear she felt a small qi spike from him. "That is... cer-tain-ly not the whole rea-son," he said, tak-ing a deep breath. "But now that you men-tion it... it does shed some light on my ir-ri-tabil-i-ty."

  "I would ex-pect so," Po chuck-led, be-fore turn-ing to Ki'el. "Set-ting aside the rea-son why... can you do any-thing else to de-scribe what you're do-ing? The method?"

  Ki'el con-sid-ered. "Sobon taught me to cre-ate a sin-gle thread of aether," she said, know-ing the word would be un-fa-mil-iar to Du, and most-ly un-fa-mil-iar to Po. She knew that Sobon had spo-ken to her a lit-tle bit about it, but not at length, not when Ki'el was lis-ten-ing, at least. "with-out in-tent, as part of a pat-tern that would pro-duce more of the same. Ob-vi-ous-ly if that aether sam-ple was taint-ed, so would every-thing it pro-duced. I only... sought to pro-duce a thread of qi with-out in-tent, qi that was be-ing 'used' with-out gain-ing or los-ing any-thing. And... I sup-pose I had the in-tent to see in front of me what would hap-pen when I 'used' qi in-ter-nal-ly."

  "But also..." Ki'el took a mo-ment to stop and breathe, con-sid-er-ing her words. In truth, she didn't un-der-stand this part. "Sobon spoke of the... math of rings and turn-ing. The na-ture of this tech-nique was that the aether, when it is done turn-ing, be-comes a part of the thorn at the cen-ter, ready for use. In this case, the qi joins the thorn when it has no fur-ther need to be part of the turn-ing, when all the in-tent has been shed. It is... not Primordial Qi. But it seems to be pur-er."

  "It looks like it's sup-posed to be self-suf-fi-cient," mused Po. "But it isn't."

  "Mine is not," Ki'el agreed.

  "Most peo-ple at Gold Qi aren't even con-sid-er-ing the pu-ri-ty of what goes in. And in truth, I'm not sure how much it mat-ters." Po's eyes re-fo-cused, di-rect-ly on Ki'el's. "You've tried it. Put pu-ri-fied qi in your dant-ian."

  Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed only a mo-ment. "Yes. It felt..." What could she say? She had no ba-sis for com-par-i-son. "It was... a lot, at once."

  "At once?" Broth-er Du's voice sound-ed strange. "You passed a large quan-ti-ty of qi di-rect-ly into your dant-ian? With what tech-nique?"

  "Tech-nique?" Ki'el looked at him, feel-ing like it was an odd ques-tion. It was true, Kuli's ad-vice for breath-ing in the qi was strange-ly par-tic-u-lar. "I... my as-sis-tant told me that be-cause of the pu-rifi-ca-tion process, it was al-ready my own. I used a breath-ing tech-nique, but... ac-knowl-edged it as al-ready mine, al-ready pure. It seemed to pass through clean-ly."

  Both of them frowned at that, and Ki'el sat there, look-ing from one face to the oth-er, watch-ing them both think through what had been said, un-til at last Broth-er Du broke the si-lence. "I see," he said. "I've of-ten found that the high-est-pu-ri-ty qi sources were eas-i-est to cul-ti-vate, but even those re-quired... tech-nique, to ab-sorb safe-ly. Your tech-nique oc-curred out-side of your body, and there-fore looks odd to our eyes, but it may end up be-ing no dif-fer-ent in the end." He stood up a lit-tle straighter. "You have tru-ly giv-en us much to think about. For my part, as a mem-ber of the sect, I will pay for your time in sect points. I imag-ine you are not yet too fa-mil-iar with them, but trust that they are a sym-bol of re-spect for your time and ex-per-tise." He looked at Lai Shi Po. "But I have oth-er tasks, and I be-lieve that Sis-ter Shi Po does as well. Un-less there is firm need to re-main...?"

  Po just laughed, but shook her head. "You're still un-will-ing to be hon-est in front of your ju-niors, Du. Ki'el. Sobon con-tact-ed me with a cer-tain method re-cent-ly, one I was not aware of. I trust you are?"

  Ki'el's eyes widened slight-ly, but she nod-ded.

  "We'll most like-ly leave soon. I should have left ear-li-er, but..." she shrugged. "I get dis-tract-ed, and the sect en-joys teas-ing me. I need to get the oth-ers where they're go-ing. If you need my ex-per-tise, I will give it to you. But... try to be more than a com-plete novice be-fore you ask me for things." She straight-ened, not both-er-ing even to brush the dirt off of her knees, and she gave Ki'el a strange-ly lop-sided smirk that was more like the street urchin Ki'el had first seen her as than the well-dressed in-scrip-tion-ist that she had been mas-querad-ing as late-ly. "I do have some pride."

  "Do you." Ki'el tried to keep the tone of her voice light, so that it would be ob-vi-ous she meant it as a joke, but she wasn't sure how well she was able to do that at the drop of a hat.

  "Ah, your doubt wounds me," Lai Shi Po put a hand against her fore-head, feign-ing a faint, but when she start-ed to ac-tu-al-ly fall over back-wards she turned it into a tum-bling roll, and then af-ter a mo-ment, with some force of qi, popped her-self back to her feet, a ways away, and grin-ning. "Tru-ly, Ki'el, I hope that you en-joy this place. I think you will, when you es-cape the Less-er House. Places like this love and re-spect the truth, and find joy in learn-ing and shar-ing. The Less-er House..." she went qui-et.

  Ki'el crossed her arms over her chest, un-sure of ex-act-ly how the oth-er woman would jus-ti-fy the ex-is-tence and na-ture of the aw-ful build-ing and its oc-cu-pants.

  "I think," Po said af-ter a mo-ment, "that it's nec-es-sary in or-der to keep cer-tain types of peo-ple from suc-ceed-ing in places like this. I'm not sure that it works, and for cer-tain, not per-fect-ly. But I can see you, and per-haps Mian, do-ing far bet-ter here than most that can af-ford the tick-et. Be-cause you are not the kind of peo-ple that the Less-er House ex-ists to keep out."

  "I have heard sim-i-lar be-fore," Ki'el said. "Still, it feels..."

  "Dis-re-spect-ful?" Po laughed. "Ex-act-ly, Ki'el. It is painful, and dis-re-spect-ful. Just work, and sur-vive it. You'll do well." She turned. "We can es-cape now, Broth-er Du. I've dis-tract-ed her."

  Du rolled his eyes, and rather than mov-ing away, moved clos-er and bowed to Ki'el. "Thank you for your in-sights, young sis-ter Xoi Doua Ki'el. Per-haps I will ask you to demon-strate your tech-niques for me an-oth-er day."

  Ki'el re-turned the bow. "As long as you do not ex-pect too much of me, Se-nior Broth-er Du," she replied. "Be well."

  "You as well."

  Ki'el let the two of them leave, and then took her stones with some ea-ger-ness to the small bro-ken room where Mian had led her ear-li-er, hold-ing the ac-tu-al floor glyph stone and charg-ing it with her pu-ri-fied qi un-til it was full. As the evening was com-ing on, there were more peo-ple around, but Ki'el ig-nored them, and even man-aged to most-ly ig-nore the stairs as they shift-ed un-com-fort-ably be-neath her feet.

  When she got to the room, Xam was there, look-ing tired.

  "Xam." Ki'el paused. There was a wide, rough plank of wood next to her, one that had not been smoothed or cleaned. "That wood..."

  "I'm sor-ry, Ki'el. I was try-ing to find the spare time to pre-pare some-thing more." She scowled at it, look-ing of-fend-ed. "I... sup-pose it's bet-ter than noth-ing."

  Ki'el just raised her hand, though, show-ing the stone. "Be-fore you wor-ry too much, let me see if this works."

  Xam raised an eye-brow at that, but Ki'el fetched the three mark-er stones, find-ing places on the wood-en sup-port-ing planks for each of them, and then trig-gered the main in-scrip-tion. As she'd hoped and dreamed, a faint out-line of a tri-an-gle ap-peared be-tween the three points, and when Ki'el moved to stand on it, it held her weight eas-i-ly.

  She glanced down at the stone in her hand, sens-ing the qi use. It was... not triv-ial, but es-pe-cial-ly if she--if they could all con-tribute qi to it be-fore sleep-ing, it should last the night.

  "That is..." Xam crawled to the edge of it, reach-ing to touch the edge.

  "It's sharp," Ki'el warned, and Xam stopped be-fore touch-ing it. "Sharp-er than a blade."

  "That sounds like an un-com-fort-able thing to sleep on."

  Ki'el re-al-ized it was true in the same mo-ment, and she sat down and stared at it, re-al-iz-ing that if the de-sign had been square, if it had tak-en up the whole room, it would have been much eas-i-er. But... it also wasn't dif-fi-cult to imag-ine find-ing a way to put some-thing along the edge that would keep them from hit-ting it in the night, even if it was just a tree branch.

  Come to think of it... Ki'el took the rough board and po-si-tioned a part of it near the edge, try-ing to scrape some of the rough-ness away. She could feel the stone pulling hard-er at its stored qi, but it did scrape the board a bit.

  "Don't do that." Xam clicked her tongue and shook her head. "But... it will hold your weight? Our weight?"

  "Po thought it might hold all three of us, if we will its stor-age with qi."

  "Po? Lai Shi Po?" When Ki'el nod-ded, Xam threw her hands up. "What is she even still do-ing here? She was sup-posed to de-liv-er Un-cle and the oth-ers..."

  "She said she was dis-tract-ed."

  "Poor un-cle." Xam sat down. "Well... I sup-pose we'll find a way to make the edges safe, and we have to wor-ry about charg-ing it with qi. But with that and the floor that's left, we should have enough room to sleep."

  "That's all I want-ed from it," Ki'el con-firmed, step-ping away and de-ac-ti-vat-ing the stones for now. "Din-nn-er?"

  "It's not quite time," Xam hedged, but set the board aside as Ki'el picked up her stones. "Tell me about the stones, and Lai Shi Po. There's no way what-ev-er hap-pened is as sim-ple as you made it sound."

  So Ki'el filled her in, as the two of them moved back down-stairs, know-ing that Mian would be help-ing cook din-ner for the Less-er House. And Ki'el... re-al-ized, as she moved, that she had not eat-en a lot late-ly, and she was look-ing for-ward to what-ev-er Mian and the Less-er House was go-ing to serve.