Alice stared at the ceiling. At the light wooden planks that slatted over a crosscutting beam. I’m still here. She thought numbly. She flinched at the soft scrape of a door and scrambled to her feet.

  The door creaked open “Did you sleep in your robes?” Lai Jianjun asked with a note of concern.

  Alice glanced down at her crumpled silks and ran her hands down the robe to smooth it out.

  “Technique?” asked Lai Jianjun

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, right. I was just wondering if that was a qi technique, you’ve always been good at that sorta stuff.”

  “I dunno, it just felt natural,” Alice said glancing at her hands or rather Jo Meilin’s.

  “Anyway, I brought breakfast,” he said, ducking out of the room. Alice stared at the door for a moment.

  “What’s this?” Alice asked, tilting her spoon such that the thick porridge teetered at the edge. A globule fell back into the small bowl. She could just make out individual grains of rice.

  Lai Jianjun glanced up from his own bowl. “The congee?” he asked

  “Congee?”

  “Oh, it’s rice porridge, though, Cai Junjie’s is the best,” he glanced at her “err, second best.”

  Not knowing why Alice smiled. “Gotcha.”

  Lai Jianjun set his spoon down in his bowl and reached into the bag next to him. “So, I was thinking about your cultivation, and well,” he trailed off. His hand had stopped moving in the bag and he sat there frozen in front of her. “I was just thinking that you might be able to progress in your cultivation and if Elder Chuanli is right, I think I have the perfect manual for you.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well most of your impurities were cleansed, so I was thinking,” he took out a small than book “that the Three-Fold Path would be perfect for you. Since your meridians are more or less cleansed, you’d barely need to spend any time practicing the first and second paths and after the third path you could move onto the second realm!” Lai Jianjun’s eyes shone with pride, but the air seemed to go out of him when Alice remained impassive and confused. Another glob of congee fell back into the bowl.

  “Second realm, third path, cultivation? What are you talking about.”

  “You don’t know? Of course you don’t remember. Ummm” he paused for a long moment “cultivation is… it’s… it’s the gathering and understanding of qi, it’s the defiance of the heavens and the path to immortality! The road travelled by the Great Sage and the Red God.”

  “Oh shit. You’re telling me that-” magic exists in this world? What? That’s absurd, they’re probably just really into traditional medicine or energy healing… right? Alice stared into her porridge dimly aware that Lai Jianjun was speaking. I guess that makes sense, I mean I ended up here somehow. What? That makes no sense at all! How is this even possible. Am I in a coma and this is just the work of my brain? Probably.

  “Hello?” Lai Jianjun interjected loudly.

  “Sorry, I got caught up in my thoughts. What were you saying?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing. I can’t believe how little you remember.”

  Alice cleared her throat. “Yeah well, it’s all a little strange to me too.”

  Lai Jianjun fidgeted in the moment of silence that followed. “Well, I’m going to cultivate for a little bit, you’ll be fine on your own?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Left alone Alice finished the congee. She glanced at the manual. It had a nondescript tan cover with the title in a small vertical rectangle of pale white where the Three-Fold Path was written vertically in Chinese characters. She picked up the book and opened it to the first page. So… this is real?

  Immediately she realized she had no idea what she was reading. The text was filled with jargon and so specific that parts of it read like a technical manual. What even are meridians? And what do you mean by channel sequentially through the 45th to the 68th acupoints before repeating twice over?

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  After what felt like an hour of confusion Alice closed the book. She thought about asking Lai Jianjun for help but didn’t want to bother him. What other options do I have though?

  She set the book down and sat at the table while boredom crept in. She glanced at the book. I mean exposure is the first step to learning. She got through another couple pages. Something about a metamorphosis which seemed literal but she could barely tell what was esoterix and what wasn’t. Something about choosing paths, elemental alignments, qi constructs and qi images. Finally Alice put the book down and left the house. The house was on a scenic clifftop as she remembered.

  She sat heavily with her against the wall of the home, staring out at the mountains and forests that rolled away from her. She played with her fingers, feeling the digits move and shift; the tips of her fingers were warm against her palms. Her breath filled her chest and she put two fingers to neck, searching for her pulse. She lost herself in the soft beat against her fingers. Am I feeling this in my fingers or my neck. The familiar thought brought a smile to her face. It doesn’t matter, I guess I’m here now in… this body. She thought back to climbing up all those stairs and wondered just how far Jo Meilin had fallen. And I took over her body? How? Can I go back? Am I stuck here? I’ll never be the power broker, goddammit the cars won! Fuck! She let out a slow breath. And I’m here while… She left the thought of what was happening in her world unfinished. It’s not like I was actually helping with anything, maybe it’s better this way.

  Alice stared while her mind spun, lost in the depths of her rumination, a habit she was all too fond of.

  Alice sighed “The world is sensory rich and causal poor. What am I doing? Thinking isn’t going to do anything.” Even in another world I am consumed by my own thoughts, I guess that makes sense though, after all there is a little high you get by thinking. Of course my habits would continue. Agh nuts, maybe I can stop, new world – new me. I am not lost, I am here.

  She stood and stretched. Her arms were shorter than she remembered, and her legs seemed just a little too long, but she moved like she had always had this body. She watched the jungle and for a little while she was content. Content to sit and stare at the unfamiliar plants and trees, at the occasional insect that fluttered by. But soon she fell back into the throws of boredom, discontentment.

  She paced the clearing, until the thought of going for a longer walk caught her fancy and she made her way down to the sect. The place was full of cultivators, and she made her way to the cafeteria. It was early and there were only a few groups eating the equivalent of brunch.

  “Ah, Cai Junjie. How goes it?” she asked

  “Oh, umm, same old same old”

  “Come on, what have you been working on lately.” Alice persisted

  A smile touched Cai Junjie’s lips “Well… I’ve been working on a couple new recipes, you can try them if you like. Anyway what’s gotten into you today? You’re usually brooding on that solitary peak.”

  Alice grinned “I’m actually looking for instruction. Lai Jianjun gifted me a manual, but I barely understand the first thing about cultivation. Is there anywhere I might be able to get some basic instruction?”

  “Well, the regular lectures should be starting up soon. Oh, and I hear disciple Yeong-Bum is teaching this year so it might be worth a look.”

  “Disciple Yeong-Bum?”

  Cai Junjie leaned over the counter “Yeah, he’s one of Elder Ping’s disciples, but there’s no need to worry about Elder Ping’s machinations, Cho Yeong-Bum doesn’t get involved in the sect’s politics.”

  “Right,” Alice said, taking a mental note “Any idea when that starts?”

  “No idea, Lai Jianjun should now though. So, while you’re here, is there anything I can getcha?”

  “Ooh, one or two bao would be great.”

  After a moment of rustling he handed the buns over.

  “Thank you, for everything. And don’t think I forgot about your new recipies. I’ll stop by to try them sometime,” she said, walking away.

  She took a bite of the steaming bao. That went well. So where to next?

  Wandering around the sect was more interesting but also more hostile than Alice had expected. As she looked around the stores and workshops. Someone had closed a door in her face and she felt an air of us vs them from the sect disciples. Is it just because I’m wearing green and they’re wearing gold or is it about the Lai Clan? Is this what Cai Junjie was talking about?

  Soon she returned to the clifftop home. Lai Jianjun was still nowhere to be found and after a short while of wondering what to do with herself she settled down to meditate. The sun was warm on her skin and the backs of her eyelids shone red. For a while she focused on her breathing, often drawing her focus from the occasional thought back to her breath. I mean, aren’t more thoughts good? Doesn’t that mean I’m doing more mental pushups, oh, right.

  The sun in the west when she opened her eyes. She looked at it serenely. From her spot on the ground. She sat there, overcome with an odd feeling. She lay back in the grass, and enjoyed how they ticked neck, her wrists and hands, the bit of exposed ankle. This is not so bad, food, water, and a roof over my head. What more could I ask for. A friend or two would be nice. She closed her eyes and settled down to take a nap. Magic and friends can wait for another day.

  Lai Jianjun shook her awake, it was almost dark. “Where am I? Who are you?” Alice scrambled backward, but it took only her another moment to remember. I’ve known that face for long time, of course I’d remember. Who- who… was that?

  “Is everything okay?” Lai Jianjun asked gently. Still bent over, he hadn’t moved after waking her though he looked pained to have done so.

  “I’m okay, just didn’t remember for a sec,” said Alice, as her breathing slowed.

  “Right, well, we should probably turn in. Sleep ell be good for you.”

  “Yeah.”