"Child."

  Da Chi-an was bare-ly a step in-side the Sealed Palace when the fa-mil-iar, bit-ing voice of her an-ces-tor emerged from the dark-ness. Al-though she knew, from speak-ing with the El-der in the past, that the room split be-fore the Guardian Deities, or her An-ces-tor, were al-lowed to reach to her... she still con-tin-ued a ways fur-ther, into the dark-ness, be-fore sit-ting and ac-knowled-ing the spir-it.

  That both-ered the old fox, and it was clear in the dis-tor-tions of his qi, in the way his pres-ence loomed clos-er and heav-ier, from the rank stench that she could feel on his spir-it waves. By the time she was ready, her ears and tail out and sta-ble, the spir-it--an ac-tu-al fox spir-it, who only took hu-man form if it suit-ed him--ap-peared quite cross.

  "Yes, An-ces-tor."

  "You haven't learned your les-son from last time." The spir-i-tu-al en-er-gy seemed to melt re-al-i-ty around her, though for the mo-ment, the dark-ness re-mained only that.

  "My les-son from last time was to trust my in-stincts," Chi-an said, clos-ing her eyes and know-ing what was com-ing, her heart pound-ing. "And I do."

  The old man raised one clawed hand and bat-ted at her, and Chi-an had to force her spir-it en-er-gy into a bar-ri-er. Ki'el's ad-vice helped great-ly here--or Kuli's. Un-der-stand-ing her tail as a way to com-mu-ni-cate her will with the spir-it world, as a way to change the qi that she had al-ready de-ployed, al-lowed her to sim-ply vent her spir-it en-er-gy and then snap it into some sem-blance of a wall in time to stop the three curved slices.

  Slow slices, al-most dull. An-ces-tor was not se-ri-ous.

  "You don't un-der-stand, and you nev-er will." The fox took a hu-man step for-ward, but his 'real' pro-jec-tion, a fox, slunk away in the oth-er di-rec-tion. Chi-an warred with her in-stincts--it was only po-lite, if the hu-man pro-jec-tion con-tin-ued to watch her, not to di-rect her at-ten-tion away, even as she knew that she was be-ing test-ed, that the fox pro-jec-tion was the threat. "Your path will al-ways and only ever be my path. All of your strength comes from me. All of your in-stincts come from my side. I am your in-stincts."

  Chi-an bared her teeth back at the hu-man pro-ject, al-most be-com-ing too dis-tract-ed to split her fo-cus, but she kept the real threat in mind. She had been taught through her youth that what the old man was say-ing was true--that her pow-er and in-stincts came from her no-ble blood-line, in-her-it-ed from her an-ces-tor. But she had also been taught, by her fam-i-ly and by Bai Be-nai, that the spir-it in her tribu-la-tion would lie and at-tempt to con-sume her, con-trol her.

  It had been hard-er be-fore.

  "You are not my only source of strength," Chi-an said, "and even if you were, my in-sincts tell me not to trust you." That was only half true--they had said that, un-til the old fox wished oth-er-wise. Even now, with the fox it-self creep-ing clos-er, she sensed its in-tense fo-cus on her, how it con-ceived of this as a preda-tor stalk-ing its prey, lulling it to sleep, so that--

  When at last it was close enough, Chi-an's tail flick-ered, and the spir-it en-er-gy she had kept around her lashed at the an-ces-tor's fox body. It wasn't enough to be dan-ger-ous--she knew it wasn't--but the goal was nev-er to de-feat her an-ces-tor, but to catch it and claim the seed that would be-come her sec-ond tail. But, as she ex-pect-ed, her fox an-ces-tor leaped away spry-ly even be-fore her en-er-gy could prop-er-ly mo-bi-lize.

  The hu-man pro-jec-tion grinned a nasty smile, and his sev-en tails curled out be-hind him, his out-fit dark-en-ing into the one he used in fights. "You have no strength with-out me, child," the old man said. "And no need to lie. Your heart is open to me, as your an-ces-tor, but nev-er more than when you are to face a tribu-la-tion. Your ef-forts to con-trol qi are pa-thet-ic, your mis-un-der-stand-ings thick, and your at-tach-ments to those fool-ish hu-mans poi-son you from with-in."

  Chi-an bris-tled, even know-ing that it was a trick, the old man prod-ding at her weak-ness. "Don't talk about my friends."

  "No?" The hu-man pro-jec-tion leaped for-ward, and Chi-an sprung to her feet and flick-ered out more en-er-gy, di-rect-ing it to move her back and lash out light-ly at the hu-man form--though she knew that the fox car-ried her prize. The old man wouldn't be sat-is-fied hav-ing a con-ver-sa-tion with-out ex-er-cis-ing at the same time, which meant she had to let him waste pow-er, while she spent as lit-tle as pos-si-ble.

  But he did con-tin-ue to speak, and Chi-an felt her-self get-ting ang-i-er as he did. "What about the old-er girl--Xoi Xam? She fears your con-nec-tion to things she can-not com-pre-hend. She is jeal-ous that you will be hand-ed pow-er for the rest of your life, and knows that you will be-come ever more the preda-tor, ever less her peer." The hu-man pro-jec-tion stepped for-ward and slashed a few times, and each time, Chi-an moved her-self away, eye-ing both the hu-man and the fox. "She is ready to go to war with you for the small-est of-fense, and you de-serve that, be-cause you are not your peer--you are a preda-tor who feeds on peo-ple like her."

  "Stop it," Chi-an said with a snarl, but she knew that the man was speak-ing to her doubts--and he wasn't wrong.

  "And that man--Xoi Mian? A liar, a mur-der-er, a craven cow-ard, pa-thet-ic and des-per-ate. Giv-en a sec-ond chance out of luck, he squan-ders it, though he is ea-ger to re-ceive his re-wards any-way." The el-der fox's tails twitched, and Chi-an fo-cused in-tent-ly on the sense, but she couldn't catch how he com-mand-ed the mas-sive well of spir-i-tu-al pow-er that he'd al-lowed for this tribu-la-tion. It sim-ply seemed to come in be-ing that a pair of mas-sive polearms, hal-berds this time, she thought, ap-peared from the air by his hands, and he caught one in each hand, jump-ing for-ward and cross-ing the blad-ed weapons in front of him like they were noth-ing more than an ex-tend-ed, hor-i-zon-tal jaw.

  Chi-an knew well enough that he un-der-stood the use of hu-man weapons far bet-ter than that, and stayed well clear of them.

  "If it came down to it, both of those 'friends' of yours would be-tray you if not for dar-ling lit-tle friend Ki'el," the el-der said, his voice tak-ing a light tone that she was sure was heav-i-ly con-de-scend-ing, though he hid it, for the mo-ment. "And what a dear she is, so fo-cused on her tasks, so ea-ger to work hard, so blind to what's around her." The lev-i-ty in his voice fad-ed. "In truth, child, you know far bet-ter than me that she is rav-en-ous-ly hun-gry for at-ten-tion. If you fail for even a mo-ment to be at the cen-ter of her world, you will fade away, be quick-ly and eter-nal-ly for-got-ten. I'll give her this--the child is in-no-cent. But she is weak at heart, just like you."

  Chi-an was ex-pect-ing it, when the man reached the end of his speech and the two forms pre-sent both fad-ed, the fox form seam-less-ly tak-ing a hu-manoid form while re-tain-ing its true face and na-ture. The hal-berds hung be-hind it for a mo-ment be-fore leap-ing at her, and al-though Chi-an had to turn away from where the hu-man pro-jec-tion had been to see the an-ces-tor with her own eyes, she still dodged the at-tacks with lit-tle ef-fort. But now, the el-der's spir-it en-er-gy be-gan to gath-er around the seed, and his ca-nine face had no ex-pres-sion that could be con-sid-ered friend-ly on it, the eyes leak-ing ha-tred and angst.

  "You cow-er be-hind your pro-tec-tors, be-hind that id-iot tor-toise, nev-er fac-ing the truth of the world, and you want to tell me that this is you trust-ing your in-stincts?" The pro-jec-tion flick-ered, and for just a mo-ment, Chi-an thought that above them both, like a child look-ing down on their toys, was a mas-sive fox spir-it per-haps twen-ty times her size, who only waved a hand through the dark-ness around them, and where it passed, the world changed.

  Chi-an fell through the air be-fore she could muster enough spir-it en-er-gy to stop her-self, plung-ing into the storm-tossed sea. With-in the wa-ter, as she'd found last time, it was dif-fi-cult to find qi that res-onat-ed with her blood-line, but it was there--stormwa-ter and wind, even traces of light-ning qi that swirled through the ocean wa-ter. With ef-fort, she forced more pow-er into her tail, and lift-ed out of the wa-ter un-til she could stand atop it, and grasp the stormy air that was her birthright, forc-ing it to car-ry her into the sky.

  That had been enough, last time, for the an-ces-tor to choose not to de-stroy her, even though she failed to as-cend a tier. This time, she was not will-ing to fail.

  But see-ing her an-ces-tor, the mas-ter of her en-tire fam-i-ly, in his nat-ur-al el-e-ment, the Six Tailed Rag-ing Storm Spir-it Fox, dulled any ex-cite-ment she could have. He had not yet em-braced the full might of the storm that raged around him--per-haps he couldn't, not at this lev-el of her as-cen-sion. But nei-ther did he have even a mo-ment's fear for the lash-ing wind, the dri-ving rain, the flash-es of light-ning that seemed to trav-el miles.

  "Your in-stincts are those of a preda-tor in the rain," a voice whis-pered from near-by her. "Not those of a child hid-ing be-hind fa-ther's legs, be-hind tur-tle shells. If you want to chase vic-to-ry, then chase."

  Chi-an hung there in the storm-tossed air and con-sid-ered that. She was still con-sid-er-ing it when a mas-sive skull made of storm-twist-ed rain ap-peared from nowhere, jaws open-ing in a sound-less show of teeth. But Chi-an was not there when the jaws closed, and she struck once at the pro-jec-tion, hop-ing to at least knock it away--but no such thing hap-pened. In-stead, the skull turned, mov-ing for-ward once more.

  Chi-an felt the rain soak-ing through her clothes, soak-ing into even her spir-it tail, soak-ing into her skin. She felt every buf-fet-ing wall of wind that ran into her, but she closed her eyes, ig-nor-ing all but the fanged skull be-fore her, the dis-tant pro-jec-tion of her an-ces-tor... and the les-son.

  Though the An-ces-tor might call Bai Be-nai an id-iot, the woman had cho-sen a ton-ic for her that matched her de-sires far bet-ter than the world that An-ces-tor was show-ing her.

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  It took her a mo-ment to find the clar-i-ty, but when at last she could find the per-spec-tive, a slice of the sky opened--just a slice--and that sky wheeled over-head. She saw her an-ces-tor look up at it, felt him try-ing to will it closed--but in only a mo-ment, Chi-an was no longer be-neath the storm-clouds.

  The view from above was mag-nif-i-cent.

  The storm-clouds from above were white things, like the small-er puffy clouds you would see on a clear day, or even the tow-er-ing storm-clouds that you saw in the dis-tance--when they didn't block the sun. What the Wheel of Light and Sky Ton-ic had shown her was that the storm only dark-ened the world be-neath it. Here, in the world above the storm, was a dif-fer-ent world. Even the dark-est, widest, wildest storms only con-cealed the blue sky, the sun-light.

  "Some small in-sight, I see." An-ces-tor stood atop his clouds, but his face and de-meanor were not ap-prov-ing. "But mean-ing-less in the face of true pow-er." His tails twist-ed, and the storm-clouds be-low whipped up-wards to-wards her, try-ing to form a shell around her, to re-turn her to dark-ness and rain.

  But Chi-an was will-ing to bet that his do-main was far weak-er here, even if he forced the im-age back to a fa-mil-iar form. It was one thing to ma-nip-u-late a nat-ur-al rag-ing storm, and an-oth-er to force a rag-ing storm into new forms, new places. But more than that... Chi-an pulled at her own spir-it en-er-gy, try-ing to find every scrap of it that she had and all that she had left be-hind, or-ga-niz-ing it, grow-ing it, col-lect-ing it--and or-der-ing it.

  It was prob-a-bly the truth that An-ces-tor saw the at-tack com-ing. It was prob-a-bly true that a be-ing so wise wasn't go-ing to fall for such a sim-ple am-bush. But the spir-it en-er-gy she'd left be-hind, in the rain-soaked sea, stalked up through the storm be-hind him while his at-ten-tion was di-vid-ed, and ap-peared as claws and fangs with-in his own pre-cious clouds, from with-in the storm that he stood upon look-ing up at her, snap-ping down on him from be-hind. She felt her en-er-gy force its way into the pro-jec-tion, seek-ing and find-ing that seed of spir-i-tu-al en-er-gy, that prize she was sup-posed to steal away.

  She felt it slip into her pos-ses-sion, de-spite some strug-gles from her an-ces-tor.

  "Bah." As the en-er-gy of the tribu-la-tion be-gan to dis-perse and swirl around her, at-tract-ed to the Rag-ing Storm Fox Spir-it Seed, her An-ces-tors will re-leased its grasp, let-ting her win--but also, she saw one of the an-ces-tor's hal-berds slink into view from just be-hind her, and she didn't know when or how it had slipped in so close. "An ac-cept-able hunt, lit-tle girl. Not quite wor-thy of a two-tailed spir-it fox... but I will ex-pect bet-ter of you next time." The vulpine face that the an-ces-tor showed her gave her an un-pleas-ant, sharp-toothed smile, but she thought she sensed real pride there. "Be sure not to dis-ap-point me."

  Da Chi-an re-turned from her spir-it trance to feel the world shak-ing.

  She leaped to her feet, half sur-prised that she was sim-ply in a dark room, and found her-self rush-ing out-side--but be-fore she could leave the Sealed Palace, she end-ed up find-ing Xam and Mian gath-ered around...

  ...Around what seemed to be the body of Ki'el.

  The girl wasn't dead--that was the wrong word. But qi was turn-ing in bands around her--in many bands, each turn-ing through dif-fer-ent or-bits around the girl, each spin-ning at dif-fer-ent rates and in dif-fer-ent di-rec-tions, each with an as-so-ci-at-ed thorn--and each thorn was al-ready over-full of blind-ing-ly white qi. Chi-an paused, star-ing, but un-sure. What-ev-er was hap-pen-ing, she felt sure that it was too much.

  "Chi-an." Mian's voice sound-ed re-lieved. "You were in there for a while."

  Had she been? Chi-an had not both-ered to find out how long her trance had been the last time, but this didn't feel like it had been a long bat-tle. In-stead of an-swer-ing that, she looked at Ki'el. "Is she al-right?"

  "Only the El-der would know," Xam said, tired-ly, "but we can't move her. And I don't think the El-der wants us leav-ing while--"

  The world shook again.

  "--while Sis-ter Ai, we as-sume, rages out-side," Mian fin-ished, look-ing at his wife, who looked back at him, sourly.

  Chi-an stared at Ki'el for a long mo-ment, but couldn't shake the feel-ing that the pow-er was too much, and turned to-wards the en-trance. "I will ask."

  "Chi-an--"

  But she was al-ready push-ing ahead, her qi and spir-it en-er-gy mixed. The feel of her sec-ond tail--no more than a sprout-ing seed, yet--felt good, and she felt in-cred-i-bly free, mov-ing through the space like it was noth-ing.

  Get-ting too close to the en-trance spat her out be-fore she was quite ready, and she felt her stom-ach drop at what she saw out-side.

  Djang Zen Ai had a lev-el of qi that Chi-an had nev-er seen be-fore, or not specif-i-cal-ly, but there could be no ques-tion that it was Di-a-mond--three phas-es above her, and mere steps be-neath the be-gin-ning of Flame Qi. Her qi was mer-ci-less-ly clear and dev-il-ish-ly hard, and Chi-an could sense with-out try-ing that there was some-thing buried with-in her qi--some blood-line trait that was wo-ven through her core and merid-i-ans, and right now, it was boil-ing over, vent-ing en-er-gy that seemed ea-ger to con-trol Sis-ter Ai from with-in, in ex-change for of-fer-ing her pow-er.

  And right now, she didn't seem par-tic-u-lar-ly keen to stop it.

  It wasn't as though no one was try-ing to stop her. At least a dozen In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples were around her, and it seemed like Sis-ter Ai kept enough sense to not try to se-ri-ous-ly hurt any of them. But even as Chi-an watched, she lashed out, seem-ing-ly be-cause she couldn't con-tain the en-er-gy, and it vent-ed into the side of the Sealed Palace--mov-ing the en-tire is-land by sev-er-al feet and knock-ing her down, but seem-ing to do no harm to the build-ing it-self.

  "Stay in-side." El-der Aji spoke qui-et-ly, but even so, Chi-an could tell that the de-mon-ic Sis-ter above heard her, no-ticed them.

  "What is this?" The woman moved with a flash of in-tent, and al-though it was in-tense-ly pow-er-ful, her use was im-per-fect, bru-tal. She crashed into the ground be-fore them, and the is-land dropped by feet, enough that Chi-an could ma-neu-ver in the air to be back on her feet be-fore she land-ed.

  She... didn't re-mem-ber in time, what it meant to dis-play her pow-er. She was too fo-cused on the dan-ger in front of her, dan-ger that she didn't imag-ine she could es-cape one way or the oth-er--but she should have known that she could still make things worse.

  "A com-pan-ion of that bitch... and a spir-it beast. Per-fect." The woman's eyes were too in-tense for Chi-an to look at, and her voice all but com-pelled her to obey, but some part of her re-sist-ed, even be-fore she un-der-stood what she was fight-ing against. "You will serve me for the rest of your life. Or I will kill you and your pa-thet-ic friends."

  Chi-an heard the words, felt them sink-ing into her like teeth, but stopped them from catch-ing on any-thing in-side of her, any-thing that would have forced them to be-come true. She all but for-got about the El-der be-side her, all but for-got about every-thing ex-cept the im-pe-ri-ous gaze of the woman in front of her, but--

  "You will not." The steps that the El-der took to place her-self be-tween Chi-an and Sis-ter Ai didn't res-onate with the world, didn't ex-ude enor-mous strength or shake the is-land. Her strength was in the shad-ow that she cast, a shad-ow that blocked Chi-an from the sun ahead of her ef-fort-less-ly. "You have been told this be-fore, Sis-ter Zen Ai. You may be a ge-nius, but your sta-tus here is not un-lim-it-ed. And harm-ing your ju-niors, es-pe-cial-ly prodi-gies, is nev-er ac-cept-able."

  Sis-ter Ai twitched like she want-ed to at-tack the El-der, but clear-ly thought bet-ter of it. "I de-mand sat-is-fac-tion."

  "You can-not de-mand of some-one so be-neath your sta-tion." The El-der's voice wasn't smug, sim-ply mat-ter of fact.

  "My re-tain-er was mur-dered!"

  "The facts of the case have been record-ed." The El-der's voice re-mained per-fect-ly mea-sured. "This case, and sev-er-al oth-ers in the past of Broth-er Kem Jee Sai. And sev-er-al oth-ers in your past. The eyes of this Moon-stone Is-land Sect are not blind."

  "As though I care about what some pa-thet-ic Moon-stone sect thinks," Sis-ter Ai spat. "I am from one of the Em-per-or's vaunt-ed lin-eages, and you shall not stand in my way."

  "This is not your Em-pire," the El-der said, her calm-ness not yet seem-ing to be test-ed.

  But Sis-ter Ai looked past her, to Chi-an, who swal-lowed. "You, girl. If you wish to save your mas-ter, you will swear your life, and your de-scen-dents, to me, to serve my house for-ev-er. If you do not, there will be no sav-ing you."

  Chi-an felt like she was be-ing swal-lowed up by a do-main more per-ilous than that of her an-ces-tor, felt qi more in-tense and more blood-thirsty than any-thing she had yet ex-pe-ri-enced--and she un-der-stood that it was real blood-thirst, and not train-ing, not even of the most bru-tal kind.

  Parts of her were scream-ing to say what-ev-er she need-ed to say to save her-self. An-oth-er part of her want-ed her to say what-ev-er she need-ed to say to save Ki'el. But she also had strength, and pride, and stub-born-ness. And all of that de-layed her for a mo-ment, when the El-der turned back to look at her.

  "Why did you come out?" The El-der's voice was clear and even de-spite the cir-cum-stances, but it also car-ried with it an in-tent, one Chi-an didn't re-sist.

  "Sis-ter Ki'el has come out of her Tribu-la-tion, un-con-scious," she said.

  The words caused sev-er-al near-by to flick-ered their qi, un-cer-tain, wor-ried. "Did she fail?" The El-der asked, though with her calm voice, Chi-an thought that the woman must have known. In truth, Chi-an did not know, not for cer-tain, but it would have made no sense.

  "No," she said. "She sur-vived--but she has ab-sorbed so much of the Tribu-la-tion Qi that she can-not re-gain con-scious-ness."

  Chi-an... did not un-der-stand, gen-uine-ly; she didn't un-der-stand that at her words, that ha-tred, and the un-remit-ting blood-lust of Sis-ter Ai... hes-i-tat-ed. It be-gan to shift, away from her. It backed away, as though in awe... or in fear.

  "Is that the truth?" El-der Sang, the spec-ta-cled el-der from the Gale Pavil-lion, ap-peared next to her as though from nowhere. Chi-an shied back from him, but looked up and nod-ded, and the man moved past her like a flash, she as-sumed into the sealed Palace. And mo-ments lat-er, he walkd out of the Palace, hold-ing Ki'el limp in his arms, the bands of pure white pow-er turn-ing around her undimmed by be-ing in the pres-ence of greater pow-ers.

  El-der Aji re-mained where she was, so that Chi-an re-mained in her shad-ow, but Sis-ter Ai's tu-moltuous qi was re-ced-ing, its cor-ro-sive blood-lust reigned in. Al-ready, it felt as though Sis-ter Ai was no longer the cen-ter of every-one's at-ten-tion, as many of the In-ner Sect dis-ci-ples who stood near ma-neu-vered to get a bet-ter look.

  "It seems to be true," El-der Sang said, his voice eas-i-ly car-ry-ing, "that Sis-ter Ki'el has cap-tured and is ab-sorb-ing the ma-jor-i-ty of the tribu-la-tion en-er-gy that was sent to her. Her qi and life force are be-ing used to re-fine as much of it as pos-si-ble, and the process is tem-per-ing her spir-it, but she re-mains in dan-ger. If she sur-vives the process-es, she may ad-vance straight to mid-Bis-muth, or even low-Dam-as-cus Qi."

  "Im-pos-si-ble." The voice that ut-tered that was Sis-ter Ai's, though her voice had lost some of the tim-bre of ha-tred that it had. "To ad-vance half of an en-tire Phase sim-ply from a sin-gle tribu-la-tion...?"

  "I knew our Ju-nior Sis-ter wouldn't dis-ap-point us." That voice came from Broth-er Yang, who ap-peared near to Sis-ter Ai, his clothes torn and his face and hands bruised--from a bat-tle, she guessed, with Sis-ter Ai. He glanced over at Ai with a smug grin. "If you're not care-ful, Se-nior Sis-ter, she'll sur-pass even you in time!"

  Sis-ter Ai clenched her fists, and Chi-an could feel the world's qi tense as the words got to her, but she willed away the ha-tred for now. "Fine," she said, af-ter a mo-ment. "I will... grudg-ing-ly ac-cept the Ju-nior Sis-ter's of-fer to have my... per-son-al items re-turned."

  A voice from some-where Chi-an could not see, clear-ly of El-der Gol, rung out. "Your points and pos-ses-sions will also be used to sat-is-fy the for-fei-ture owed due to your ram-page."

  "Ugh." Sis-ter Ai curled a lip in dis-gust, but not anger or fear. "What-ev-er. This non-sense is be-neath me." She turned, and in a flash, was else-where, the in-tense qi that she had been emit-ting van-ish-ing as though to noth-ing.

  And Chi-an fi-nal-ly let her-self fall to her knees and gasp for air.