That evening, when next Ki'el had the chance to speak with Mian and Xam to-geth-er, by chance Da Chi-an had also de-cid-ed to join them. Ki'el didn't usu-al-ly mea-sure the girl's qi, but there was some-thing more to it, some-thing that she looked at but did not wish to speak of, or at least, not at first.

  So she start-ed in right away with what she want-ed to say. "I sent a mes-sage to Sobon," she said, "re-gard-ing what we spoke of yes-ter-day." She looked to Mian. "He does not think that your idea was a good plan. Try-ing to con-tain that much pow-er your-self struck him as un-wise, as any mis-take could cause con-se-quences."

  Mian made a face, but nod-ded. "Fair, I sup-pose. I was ar-ro-gant to just as-sume I could con-trol a tech-nique I've nev-er used be-fore."

  She looked back to Xam, and then briefly at Chi-an. "He did sug-gest that if we could not find a way to teach you a pu-rifi-ca-tion tech-nique, we could in-crease your re-sis-tance by ex-po-sure. The Right-eous Aether that I nor-mal-ly use is one of a pair, and the coun-ter-part, Sin-is-ter Aether, weak-ens in the same way that Right-eous Aether sup-ports. Ex-po-sure to the aether alone, with-out an ad-vanced tech-nique, will not have last-ing ef-fects, but ex-pe-ri-ence re-sist-ing for-eign aether will help you when fac-ing your tribu-la-tion."

  Xam leaned back once she had heard every-thing Ki'el had to say, her face se-ri-ous. "It's not a bad idea," she said, though her voice had doubts. "I have al-ready had some tem-per-ing ex-pe-ri-ence on the bat-tle-fields, but re-new-ing it here, in safe-ty, would be wise."

  "I also should prac-tice us-ing that," Chi-an mused, as she sum-moned one of her aether rings into each hand. Ki'el no-ticed that both of them were spin-ning, but while the left-hand thorn had built up en-er-gy, the right-hand thorn's pow-er had been used al-ready. "I as-sume I can just use it along with my qi when I use a nor-mal tech-nique...?"

  "I am not a mas-ter of these things," Ki'el ad-mit-ted, "But when I du-eled with Broth-er Mon-shu, I put both qi and left-hand aether into my sword. The com-bi-na-tion... did not feel wrong."

  "What kind of tech-niques do you have?" Mian asked, sound-ing cu-ri-ous. Then, when there was a slight-ly awk-ward pause, he added, "You don't need to say, or ex-pose your na-ture--"

  "I have been work-ing on fire tech-niques," Chi-an in-ter-rupt-ed him. "But... a more nat-ur-al el-e-ment for me is wind. And I think I could use that to-geth-er with this Sin-is-ter pow-er to pres-sure you with-out harm."

  Xam frowned at that, but Mian stood up, brac-ing him-self. "If ei-ther of you want to test... don't hes-i-tate. I will en-dure what-ev-er you wish to throw at me."

  That made every-one feel a bit awk-ward, but rather than dwelling on that, Ki'el stood up and brought out her Sin-is-ter Thorn, spin-ning up that cy-cle with-in her spir-it. "I do not keep a great deal of the en-er-gy," she said, "though per-haps I will cre-ate an-oth-er Cy-cle for it lat-er. Pre-pare your-self."

  Mian nod-ded, and when Ki'el felt his qi dis-trib-ute through-out his body, she moved the thorn away, and fo-cused only on re-leas-ing the Sin-is-ter Aether from her palm as she struck him in the chest. She... could feel it, dis-charg-ing into his body.

  But from the out-side, it tru-ly looked like all she did was smack him once on the chest.

  Even so, Mian's face twist-ed mo-men-tar-i-ly at it. She felt his qi slow, but not se-vere-ly or for very long. Af-ter only a mo-ment, it picked back up, and al-though she could tell that she had hit him, there seemed to be no dam-age.

  "It dis-rupt-ed my con-trol," Mian said, re-leas-ing his stance. "Not... much, or for long. But I don't know when the last time was some-thing ac-tu-al-ly con-test-ed my will, not ex-cept my own in-ter-nal prob-lems." He looked at Ki'el. "Can you do that more?"

  "A cou-ple more times," Ki'el agreed, "but I have not built up great amounts of this en-er-gy."

  "Let me feel it." Ki'el was sur-prised that it was Chi-an who stepped up next. Al-though she had her doubts, and prob-a-bly showed them, Chi-an gave her a very lev-el look and spoke with-out emo-tion. "You were kind enough to treat me to Right-eous Aether, and even taught me the tech-nique. I should know what I am do-ing to oth-ers."

  Ki'el nod-ded. "My mas-ter said not to use the aether on any-one who was not an en-e-my, or a will-ing par-tic-i-pant," she said. "But I trust you un-der-stand."

  When Chi-an nod-ded, Ki'el re-peat-ed her trick, strik-ing Chi-an in the ab-domen with her left palm. Some-how, Chi-an's qi seemed nat-u-ral-ly re-sis-tant to it, but Ki'el could sense that the re-sis-tance had tak-en its own toll, cost the girl en-er-gy or some-thing sim-i-lar.

  "I see," Chi-an said. "It's a pur-er form of spir-i-tu-al op-pres-sion, with-out mal-ice. The word 'sin-is-ter' is apt." She reached down and touched the place where Ki'el had struck her, but her face showed no sign of pain or con-fu-sion. "With-out a great deal more pow-er be-hind it, I don't think it will threat-en me. But if you were to make it more dense..." With-out warn-ing, Chi-an's mouth snapped shut, and she turned away. "Nev-er mind," she said, dis-mis-sive-ly.

  "It is a weapon," Xam said, stand-ing as well. "Ob-vi-ous-ly ter-ri-ble things when peo-ple de-vel-op pow-er-ful weapons. But light spar-ring be-tween friends, as long as we are care-ful not to do dam-age, is no prob-lem." She moved to where Ki'el could ap-proach her, and nod-ded.

  Ki'el struck her, and Xam had a medi-um re-ac-tion, less than Mian's but far more vis-i-ble than Chi-an's. It was clear, like Chi-an, that she had faced op-pres-sion be-fore, and had de-vel-oped in-stincts, but they were not drilled into her as se-vere-ly as Chi-an's must have been.

  Xam nod-ded, though. "I see," she said. "If the goal of sur-viv-ing a tribu-la-tion is to op-er-ate nor-mal-ly while un-der very se-vere op-pres-sion... then I can imag-ine that train-ing like this, es-pe-cial-ly with more pow-er and per-formed un-til we are ex-haust-ed... would be very help-ful." She looked at Ki'el. "But you do not have that much pow-er, yet."

  "I do not," Ki'el agreed, mov-ing to sit down.

  "Ah-ah," Chi-an said, and Ki'el turned to look at her. "You haven't tak-en a blow yet, have you? Let me try my own on you."

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that, and de-cid-ed it was fair, straighen-ing. "Of course." She re-sist-ed the urge to push right-eous aether through her sys-tem, know-ing that it would help her de-fend, but... want-i-ng to see for her-self what the im-pact was.

  When Chi-an be-gan to move, though, Ki'el al-most froze, as she sensed the deep and wild pow-er be-hind their spir-it re-act to the de-sire to man-i-fest sin-is-ter aether. The pow-er that came from Chi-an's hand, as Ki'el watched it ap-proach, seemed to mag-ni-fy, un-til she be-gan to feel blind-ed even be-fore it struck. In-stinc-tive-ly, Ki'el's spir-it flexed, pulling on aether and qi to form a bar-ri-er, but it could only blunt the im-pact.

  It felt like some-thing break-ing, shat-ter-ing into pieces.

  Ki'el was lost for a long mo-ment in a world where some-thing in-side of her was gone, where the warmth of the world had re-treat-ed and all that re-mained was cold. It took her long mo-ments be-fore she be-gan to un-der-stand what her spir-it was telling her--that she was back. That she was there.

  Ki'el could have vi-su-al-ized the burned ru-ins of her vil-lage, could have seen the tor-tured faces of her neigh-bors, could have seen the dogs and cats too ter-ri-fied of hu-man be-ings now to ap-proach her. She could have seen any of those things... if her spir-it had been strong enough to re-mem-ber them with-out break-ing fur-ther. But when-ev-er her mind be-gan to touch on those old things, on that cold and emp-ty world, a world where every-thing warm and vi-brant had been stripped away, her will all but col-lapsed, and she could not sum-mon forth any strength at all.

  But there was some-thing, in that waste-land, and Ki'el's at-ten-tion was pulled to-wards it. A warmth, a place that was not emp-ty, was not--

  Ki'el sat up with a jolt, the mem-o-ry of her vil-lage co-ex-ist-ing in a con-fused jum-ble with the cir-cle of fa-mil-iar faces around her. She could not fo-cus on them, or on their words, though she knew, to a cer-tain ex-tent, that Chi-an was bab-bling, and Xam said sev-er-al an-gry words, and Mian was not an-gry, or per-haps was only try-ing hard to be fair.

  She had to take many deep breaths, but the more she took, the more she un-der-stood. She un-der-stood that spir-i-tu-al op-pres-sion was what she had felt back then, when she felt the cru-el-ty of hu-man-i-ty, the will-ing-ness of oth-ers to be vi-o-lent and un-fair. It felt like death but not dy-ing, felt like she could nev-er again be whole.

  And yet she was.

  "I am al-right," she said, when she caught her breath. "I am fine." She looked at Xam, see-ing per-haps for the first time the woman be-ing al-most in tears. "Peace, Xam," she said, reach-ing out and tak-ing the woman's hand. "Peace. I am al-right."

  "Ki'el--she should not--I could not--I am sor-ry," Xam said, sound-ing en-tire-ly too much like she was blam-ing her-self. How could she blame her-self? Ki'el did not un-der-stand.

  "I didn't mean to," Chi-an was say-ing. "I... my spir-it mag-ic re-act-ed with it. I wasn't try-ing to, I promise."

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  "I know," Ki'el said, though in truth, she didn't know, only trust-ed her friend. "Peace, Chi-an. Xam. I am al-right."

  "What hap-pened? From your per-spec-tive?" Mian of-fered her a hand, and Ki'el used it to pull her-self up to a full sit-ting po-si-tion and ad-just her po-si-tion.

  "It brought me back," Ki'el said. "To the ru-ins of my vil-lage. To the wreck I was back then." Ki'el took an-oth-er set of deep breaths. "But... I sur-vived. I will sur-vive this."

  "She is too young," Xam said, look-ing to Mian, per-haps for sup-port.

  "I said I didn't mean it," Chi-an ar-gued again, and Ki'el glanced at her, un-sure what she was say-ing.

  When she looked back at Xam, though, Ki'el re-al-ized that the woman had been look-ing at Chi-an far more than she had been at Ki'el, and the look was not friend-ly. Had she had this mis-trust be-fore? Was it all be-cause of this one mo-ment? She was un-sure, but she waved im-me-di-ate-ly, to catch Xam's eye, and the woman looked back at her, her eyes shift-ing once more to con-cern.

  "Sis-ter," Ki'el em-pha-sized. "I am al-right." She want-ed to say a lot more--but her mind was still con-fused, the un-seen im-ages of her past still not en-tire-ly put away. "If this is what sin-is-ter aether feels like--at its high-est in-ten-si-ty--then I need to un-der-stand that. Need to en-dure it."

  "You are still a child, Ki'el," Xam said, and moved for-ward to wrap Ki'el in a hug.

  But Ki'el pushed her away, back-ing to-wards Chi-an. "I stopped be-ing a child when I watched a house pet eat its dead own-er," she said, and Ki'el could feel the ice in her voice, ice that sur-prised her. "When I buried the kind-ly old woman who gave me treats, who bore signs of what evil men had done to her. I do not need pro-tec-tion from a lit-tle bit of aether." She huffed heavy breaths, heav-ier than she was ex-pect-ing, as though the act of speak-ing of such old things had ex-haust-ed some-thing in-side of her, some-thing that had been hold-ing on for a very long time.

  For a mo-ment, she could see her. And the man, and the dog. And the face on the dog, the face of agony and con-fu-sion, the face of de-spair, in such con-trast to the numb and pain-less face of the man, no longer able to be hurt. And Ki'el re-mem-bered why she had start-ed to feed the oth-ers, even when they nev-er thanked her. Even when they could not thank her.

  Like her, they could nev-er move on.

  Ki'el breathed heav-i-ly, but with time, her thoughts sort-ed them-selves, and Ki'el re-called that she was not alone in her own mind. Kuli was there, but silent, as-sist-ing with-out putting pres-sure on her. When her mind had vi-o-lent flash-es of some-thing through it, Kuli re-treat-ed and did noth-ing, but as she calmed, Kuli was there, plac-ing things in or-der.

  And Ki'el was thank-ful, but still un-sure. The part of her-self that had nev-er left that vil-lage was ea-ger to find some-one to blame, and in starts and flash-es, that part thought that maybe Kuli was to blame. But...

  But not Chi-an.

  Ki'el looked over at the red-haired girl, whose face was full of many things, but not mal-ice. Ki'el could see the con-fu-sion there, the angst. And she reached out and took Chi-an's hand and squeezed it, al-though she thought she saw or sensed some-thing from Xam, a mo-tion or sense of dis-ap-proval.

  "You are not at fault," she said, and at Kuli's prompt-ing, she said, "but you must have more con-trol."

  "I will," Chi-an said, though her voice sound-ed con-fused, pained.

  "Then there is noth-ing else to say." She turned to look at Mian, and nod-ded at him. The man nod-ded back, look-ing more calm than any-one else there. She looked at Xam, who was still dis-traught. "You do not agree."

  But Xam took sev-er-al deep breaths, and al-though the last one was far deep-er than Ki'el ex-pect-ed, when she was done, Xam looked back with a cool and lev-el gaze. "If you trust her, then I trust you," she said. "But... from the first mo-ment you told us what she was... I wor-ried. Her kind... has a bad rep-u-ta-tion, for be-ing vi-o-lent and cru-el."

  "I--" Chi-an start-ed to ob-ject, but even though the word was met with noth-ing but si-lence, she didn't con-tin-ue. Or... was Chi-an a 'they' right now? Ki'el looked at her, but was not in a state of mind to judge. "I... do not wish to harm my friend Ki'el. More than most peo-ple I have met, I do not wish to hurt her."

  "That sounds like it is not your per-son-al-i-ty, but your na-ture," re-tort-ed Xam, stiff-en-ing like she was speak-ing down to the oth-er girl. "Which is what I said. If Ki'el trusts you, then I will trust her. But it may be that you are more dan-ger-ous than you in-tend to be, sim-ply be-cause of what you are."

  Chi-an bris-tled at that, but Ki'el spoke up, and was sur-prised when her own voice was eclipsed.

  { Peace, } Kuli pressed the thought at each of them. { The con-flict with-in Da Chi-an's spir-it comes from wounds born from op-pres-sion. Those who op-press her wors-en the in-jury. Fix-ing that kind of spir-i-tu-al and emo-tion-al in-jury is pos-si-ble, but it does not hap-pen in the course of liv-ing a nor-mal life. In that way, both of you are right, and wrong. Be-ing cal-lous and cru-el wors-ens the prob-lem, but well-mean-ing is not suf-fi-cient to heal wounds. }

  Some-how, those words didn't seem to mol-li-fy Xam or Chi-an, though they sparked some-thing in Ki'el. She shook her head. "What... would one need to do in or-der to cure such wounds?"

  { Surgery to fix phys-i-cal wounds re-quires cut-ting flesh to mend bones and or-gans, del-i-cate-ly per-formed vi-o-lence that must be paired with ex-treme tal-ent and ad-e-quate if not per-fect knowl-edge. The spir-i-tu-al ver-sion is no dif-fer-ent, and no one we have yet met is able to per-form such a task, not even Sobon. }

  Ki'el found her mind sharp-er now that Kuli was speak-ing as though the oth-er girl's prob-lem had an ac-tu-al so-lu-tion, and she found her thoughts about her own prob-lems fad-ing.

  "Re-al-ly?" It was Mian's voice that in-ter-rupt-ed the tense and con-fused si-lence. "I would have thought that among the so-ci-ety of Sobon's peers, they would have no fur-ther need to cut open bod-ies in or-der to heal wounds. Can't you just use in-cred-i-ble aether pow-ers, or some-thing, to do the same?"

  { Bod-ies re-sist for-eign pow-er, } Kuli an-swered. { Bod-ies that are in-jured pan-ic, and re-ject even healthy out-side aether, much less ef-fects that will cause more in-juries but make things bet-ter in the end. It is not sim-ple to take an or-gan-ism with the strength to re-sist and over-pow-er it, with-out do-ing fur-ther harm. Even with med-ical tech-niques to sub-due and calm the mind, the spir-it of in-di-vid-ual or-gans and tis-sues will re-sist on their own, and some such or-gans can-not be shut down with aether. In-stead, to reach their in-ter-nals and cre-ate the nec-es-sary change, care-ful vi-o-lence that can be healed is per-formed. }

  Ki'el not-ed, in the cor-ner of her eye, Chi-an's hand slid-ing to her low-er ab-domen, but re-fused to turn and look. In-stead, she asked what she knew must be the real ques-tion, the real mat-ter at hand.

  "The wounds of Chi-an, or the an-ces-tral spir-it that gives her pow-er, are be-tray-al and tor-ture. Are there re-al-ly tech-niques to ease such wounds?"

  { Yes, } Kuli said. { Be-cause the wound cre-ates ir-ra-tional-i-ty, a re-fusal to per-ceive. Most com-mon-ly, but not al-ways, if the per-son who was be-trayed and tor-tured had per-ceived what was com-ing, the worst might have been avoid-ed. A clear and healthy mind does not re-quire one to trust un-du-ly. Even a great spir-it who may be at-tacked at any time by any-one, has a right to have clear per-cep-tion and to be free from the pain of old wounds. They have a right to per-ceive all peo-ple for who and what they are, in-clud-ing those that will be-tray them in the fu-ture--and those that will not. Ob-tain-ing spir-i-tu-al health does not mean mak-ing a spir-it qui-es-cent, silent, sub-mis-sive. Health is health. }

  Ki'el had not heard or seen any sign of her aug-ment be-ing so up-set be-fore, if the spir-i-tu-al en-ti-ty's adamant speech could be seen as such. Are you well, Kuli?

  Kuli's at-ten-tion turned back to her, alone. { I con-tain a part of the in-teligent mind of the Tidal Coro-na. Ship in-tel-li-gences are ex-pect-ed to be sub-mis-sive to their cap-tains, even when the or-ders are fool-ish. The Coro-na dis-agreed with the or-ders that led to the ship be-ing dam-aged and trapped on this world. }

  Ki'el frowned, even as she was aware that the oth-ers were speak-ing around her. She only could think, though, about what Kuli had said. If you be-lieve I would do some-thing fool-ish and en-dan-ger you and my-self, please tell me. That is not a mis-take I wish to make my-self. In re-sponse, she felt a strange stir-ring in her mind, but Kuli of-fered her no words.

  Ki'el blinked away her mo-men-tary trance to see that Xam was look-ing into the camp-fire, as though think-ing deep thoughts, while Mian and Chi-an were talk-ing light-ly be-tween them.

  "...nev-er want that for you, and I don't think Xam does ei-ther," Mian was say-ing.

  "I know that Ki'el does not." She looked over at Ki'el, then away. "And I would be-lieve that you do not. And I can even un-der-stand that Sis-ter Xam is sim-ply fright-ened. But it is hard to trust some-one who open-ly dis-trusts you. Hard to put faith in some-one who seems ea-ger to find a rea-son to slan-der you."

  Xam looked up at that, and looked like she want-ed to ar-gue, but took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm sor-ry," she said, and Ki'el felt like it was not the first time she had said that, though she was not sure she had heard the first time.

  The tense-ness in the air didn't dis-si-pate eas-i-ly, though. Af-ter a mo-ment, Ki'el turned to Chi-an, ad-just-ing her sit-ting pos-ture again to be more com-fort-able. "Do you have any idea what you did to am-pli-fy the aether like that?"

  Chi-an looked at her, sur-prise clear on her face, though the look changed to re-gret. "I'm... not sure. I think that my spir-i-tu-al pow-er want-ed to am-pli-fy that kind of pow-er, with-out car-ing that I chose a friend as a tar-get. In many ways, it does what it wants, and I have to... know what it in-tends, and hold it back, if it is wrong." She sighed. "It makes prac-tic-ing with my born tal-ents trou-ble-some. If I do too much, I risk re-veal-ing my-self, or worse, harm-ing some-one. Es-pe-cial-ly here, in the Less-er House, that would be a ter-ri-ble prob-lem."

  Ki'el nod-ded. "Is that why you have that shield-ed place? Did Be-nai pre-pare that for you?"

  "Yes. It is too small for me to use great pow-er, and I am not tempt-ed to use great qi there. But my ...an-ces-tral tech-niques will still am-pli-fy small amounts of qi to dan-ger-ous lev-els, some-times. The shields are there to hide and dis-guise even large dis-charges of pow-er." Chi-an glanced away. "Be-nai is... an el-der. She..."

  "You don't have to say," Mian in-ter-rupt-ed. "Wouldn't she ob-ject to you say-ing things you shouldn't?"

  Chi-an looked at him, and nod-ded af-ter a minute. "She is... loy-al, hard-work-ing, and hon-est. She does not like to do what she does, but it is an hon-or-able task giv-en to her. If she were not here, I am sure she could be do-ing great things. Or at least... she could be hap-py, some-where." Chi-an slumped. "My fam-i-ly, and oth-ers, en-sure that she stays."

  Ki'el squeezed her hand again, be-fore let-ting her go. It felt nice to hold Da Chi-an's hand, and she thought the girl must also take com-fort in her, but she knew that it was one of many things that should not be done too much. "Per-haps we can find an an-swer, some day," Ki'el said. "Sobon has some-thing planned, though I don't know what. Ex-cept that build-ing a No-ble house, to pro-tect our-selves and the peo-ple we hold dear, is a part of it."

  Chi-an looked over at her, with an ex-pres-sion that Ki'el couldn't see clear-ly enough to read. "Build-ing a no-ble house?"

  Mian nod-ded at her. "Sobon's knowl-edge and pow-er puts him in rare com-pa-ny. At Gold Qi, he slew some-one at Mithril Qi. It is dif-fi-cult to imag-ine how much pow-er he will have when he ful-ly heals."

  Chi-an's head turned to-wards Mian's, clear-ly con-fused. "...Heals?" But when she looked from Mian to Ki'el, and then back again, the looks that they both gave her were too clear, too guile-less. "I... see. And you say he has no need for... blood?"

  "I doubt he has even the slight-est de-sire to per-se-cute or op-press any spir-i-tu-al beast," Ki'el said. "Un-less they are the rea-son be-hind the world dy-ing, or seek to kill him for some slight."

  Chi-an looked back at her, and now the con-fu-sion on her face was more in-tense. "...The world is dy-ing?"