Two days lat-er, Ki'el felt a strange urge to go out into the city of Red-fang Wall. Al-though the group in to-tal had not been idle, the city bu-reau-crats had kept Xam and Broth-er Juno oc-cu-pied with, ac-cord-ing to their retellings, an end-less back-and-forth se-ries of tasks scat-tered across the city. Even so, they'd yet to meet with the City Lord--al-though ap-par-ent-ly, de-spite Sub-com-man-der Rui's cyn-i-cism, they were be-ing al-lowed to move for-ward in the process any-way.

  The urge to wan-der felt un-nat-ur-al enough to con-cern Ki'el. She was be-gin-ning to spend more of her days med-i-tat-ing and re-build-ing her qi, even think-ing on qi and aether again... but not so se-ri-ous-ly as to have made any no-table progress. The sud-den urge had come on quick-ly, and it was all too spe-cif-ic, but when Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed, Kuli had in-sist-ed that it was fine.

  { I have been send-ing mes-sages to near-by spir-i-tu-al gods. This one would pre-fer to meet in per-son. You are free to refuse... but I be-lieve it would be good for you. }

  [ Is that what all that was, ] Meixu added from Ki'el's shoul-der. The fox had con-tin-ued to be over-ly af-fec-tion-ate with Ki'el, though she was be-gin-ning to sense a sta-bi-liz-ing of his spir-it. [ You needn't wor-ry, then, young Ki'el. It's a city de-ity, it will be quite safe. ]

  Al-though Ki'el asked the oth-ers--most-ly Chi-an and Mian--if they wished to come, in the end, she set out into the city with only Meixu, the fox rest-ing once more on her shoul-der.

  It was a pleas-ant walk, most-ly. The city was far from lev-el, the roads go-ing up and down a num-ber of hills as it went. Sim-i-lar-ly, the... aether of the city seemed to vary wild-ly, with some ar-eas fresh and up-beat, oth-ers heavy and sod-den, oth-ers sick-ly or in-flamed. At the worst... Ki'el was aware enough of her sur-round-ings to no-tice sev-er-al of the city's Djang giv-ing her strange or dirty looks as she moved through cer-tain parts the city, es-pe-cial-ly in the ar-eas with the worst aether, but she did her best to put them all out of mind. She had... un-com-fort-able thoughts, as to why they might look at her like that, and all of those thoughts would pull her out of the mo-ment and put her in dark places, if she let them.

  Those looks and thoughts van-ished when Ki'el turned onto a wide and steep stair-case carved into a rocky, forest-ed hill-side. The en-trance was flanked by wide walls dec-o-rat-ed with im-ages of a large, preda-to-ry crea-ture that Ki'el did not rec-og-nize, walls that sup-port-ed some spir-i-tu-al bar-ri-er around a moun-tain or large hill. Through that gate, every-thing seemed like it might have been a dif-fer-ent world en-tire-ly--the smell of the air, the feel of the aether, the sounds... even the sun seemed a bit brighter, even if it was in the same po-si-tion in the sky.

  [ It's a spir-i-tu-al bar-ri-er, ] Meixu in-formed her when she was stopped to mar-vel at the dif-fer-ence. [ It marks the do-main of a spir-it beast turned god--some-thing that they tend to cre-ate when they de-cide to set-tle down in a place. ]

  "Do all gods have shrines like this?" Ki'el had seen small-er wor-ship sites in her youth, of-ten small-er fam-i-ly sites, but she nev-er had any im-pres-sion of pow-er from them, not like this.

  Ki'el felt the fox on her shoul-der shift-ing, and she turned to look at him, but the fox's eyes were the same as ever--guard-ed, and un-sure. [ Spir-it beasts and spir-i-tu-al gods are a var-ied group, ] he said af-ter a mo-ment. [ Stay-ing in one place to act as a pro-tec-tor is usu-al-ly be-cause they have formed a con-tract, and those might have pow-er to spare. But not every-one is like that. ]

  Ki'el looked around, feel-ing the dif-fer-ence, be-fore turn-ing back to the stairs and con-tin-u-ing to walk up. "The bar-ri-er is some kind of nat-ur-al spir-i-tu-al abil-i-ty?"

  [ More like a script, ] Meixu an-swered. [ If you went hunt-ing, you'd find places where it's be-ing sup-port-ed. Don't, though. ]

  Ki'el gave the small fox a look that told him that she wasn't stu-pid.

  It was a long stair-case, seem-ing to Ki'el to be far longer than the hill should have been tall. By the time she felt she should have reached the top, look-ing ahead, she only seemed to be halfway there, and she was be-gin-ning to sense some-thing lurk-ing in the trees that flanked the stair-case, prowl-ing around her.

  { We are in-vit-ed, } Kuli an-swered her hes-i-ta-tion. { The guardians are not hos-tile. }

  This was feel-ing more and more like an-oth-er sit-u-a-tion where Kuli had been mak-ing de-ci-sions on Ki'el's be-half with-out her knowl-edge, but un-der the cir-cum-stances, she did not feel in-clined to ar-gue. In truth, she had no in-ter-est, right now, in watch-ing over every-one else's de-ci-sions, even as they ap-plied to her. She just want-ed... well, she wasn't sure what, at the mo-ment.

  Ex-cept a home. That... she was be-gin-ning to un-der-stand that the feel-ings she'd had when she left the sect were not go-ing away, not calm-ing down. Dulling, per-haps, but no more than that.

  When Ki'el fi-nal-ly reached the top of the hill, she found the tem-ple to look al-most for-eign to her. She had seen cer-tain el-e-ments of Djang ar-chi-tec-ture, sure, but this... whether it was a re-li-gious tem-ple or sim-ply a build-ing to pro-vide com-fort to a spir-it beast, it cer-tain-ly didn't look or feel like nor-mal build-ings, even in the Djang style. The hill-top it-self had been cut per-fect-ly lev-el, and there were five build-ings, four at cor-ners around the cen-tral fifth. The four out-er tow-ers were three sto-ries tall, and each lev-el had wide ve-ran-das around a small-er, sealed in-ner sec-tion, the walls of which were dec-o-rat-ed with more im-ages of the same beast that had been at the en-trance.

  The cen-ter build-ing had five sto-ries, with the fourth and fifth sto-ries hav-ing the same wide ve-ran-das and the same dec-o-rat-ed walls. Strange-ly, the fourth sto-ry also had four wide walk-ways that con-nect-ed to the third floor of each of the tow-ers, slop-ing down as though it might have been a roof--but it was clear-ly meant to bear weight. The fifth floor was the only place Ki'el could see with an open door-way, but she could see noth-ing with-in from so far be-low.

  All around the build-ings were var-i-ous idols and totems, of-ten with heavy use of met-als like gold and sil-ver, and clear-ly pre-cious gems mark-ing cer-tain fea-tures. Most of them were carved with ob-vi-ous script and suf-fused with en-er-gy, and though Ki'el could not see them close-ly enough to try to iden-ti-fy the char-ac-ters of the script, none of them gave off nor-mal qi pres-sure. Even the ones that seemed to be peace-ful in na-ture gave off aether waves that felt harsh to Ki'el, and she won-dered if that was the de-ity's na-ture, or the in-scrip-tion-ist's, or... some oth-er fac-tor.

  There was one hu-man-look-ing at-ten-dant stand-ing in the plaza calm-ly, as though wait-ing for Ki'el. It... her in-tu-ition about the per-son was very strong-ly that they were also of spir-it beast blood, but there was no out-ward sign that she could see, ex-cept per-haps a dis-tinct fa-cial struc-ture, but that could have been for more com-mon rea-sons. Ki'el hes-i-tat-ed only briefly be-fore ap-proach-ing the per-son and bow-ing, not quite sure how to broach the top-ic.

  "You are the Lady Ki'el and the [ Su-pe-ri-or As-sis-tant ] Kuli, cor-rect? And one guest." Her eyes flicked to Meixu, who did noth-ing to cor-rect her or pro-vide in-for-ma-tion. "Our lord is await-ing your pres-ence on the fifth floor."

  Ki'el re-mained bowed for a mo-ment. "If you would show me the way..."

  "I was won-der-ing if you would try to jump," the at-ten-dant laughed cheer-ful-ly. "You would have found your qi abil-i-ties sealed with-in this bar-ri-er, but some are sim-ply so im-pa-tient. Of course, we will take the main stair-case." The woman ges-tured to the build-ing be-hind her, where a door-way slid aside with-out any ob-vi-ous use of en-er-gy, and no ap-par-ent per-son there to have done it.

  Ki'el was slight-ly cu-ri-ous, but she had no doubt it would be triv-ial to hide such work-ings in a well-built tem-ple.

  Fol-low-ing the woman up the stairs took longer, again, than Ki'el felt it should, and she found that the woman man-aged to get far ahead of her de-spite Ki'el nev-er feel-ing like she slowed down or need-ed to rest. She frowned, but made no at-tempt to ar-gue or to com-plain, es-pe-cial-ly since the woman ahead seemed pa-tient.

  The stair-way only led to a closed hall-way, with many slid-ing doors on ei-ther side of the hall-way, doors that some-how blocked any aether that might have passed through them as eas-i-ly as they blocked the light. It mere-ly led to an-oth-er stair, and Ki'el felt sure, this time, that each stair-way was longer than the last. A part of her want-ed to com-plain, feel-ing like the re-stric-tion must be some kind of tease or abuse, but she re-mained silent, mov-ing stub-born-ly up stairs and down hall-ways un-til at last she reached the fifth and fi-nal floor. Al-though she got the im-pres-sion that the climb had tak-en far, far too long, when she looked ahead, the shad-ow of the sun through the door did not seem so dif-fer-ent than it had been.

  In be-tween her and the open door, of course, was a mas-sive spir-it beast.

  [ Ban Molu Rotan ] was the beast's name, ac-cord-ing to its qi, and it was a very large striped cat--and Ki'el could feel in-tense pow-er ra-di-at-ing from it in gen-er-al, but also ra-di-at-ing from its claws and fangs in par-tic-u-lar. She had no rea-son to have doubt-ed that it was an in-cred-i-bly pow-er-ful beast--but it was also clear-ly pre-sent-ing it-self as such. Ki'el bowed again be-fore it, still un-sure why she was here.

  "Lord Molu Rotan, I pre-sent to you the young mis-tress Doua Ki'el, the [Su-pe-ri-or As-sis-tant] Kuli, and the [Po-lit-i-cal Ex-ile] Meixu."

  Po-lit-i-cal Ex-ile? Ki'el felt her-self freez-ing, but she felt no change in the fox on her shoul-der, not even any sign that he was bow-ing or oth-er-wise be-ing po-lite to the lo-cal guardian de-ity.

  [ Meixu? Oh... from the old days. ] The mas-sive beast got to its feet and moved clos-er, but al-though Ki'el no-ticed with her eyes and from the shift-ing spir-i-tu-al pres-sure, it seemed to make no sound, and she did not feel any flex or shift in the floor be-low her as it moved, de-spite its size. Ki'el not-ed that the woman who had led her in re-treat-ed qui-et-ly as the de-ity ap-proached her, and shut the door a mo-ment lat-er. [ I sup-pose this is a sign of old wounds heal-ing? ]

  [ There is no fur-ther need to for-give, but some things will nev-er be for-got-ten. ] Meixu's men-tal voice re-mained steady. [ The girl re-minds me of my daugh-ter, is all. ]

  His daugh-ter? Ki'el re-sist-ed the urge to turn and look, but she could tell that her own qi was in flux. Was that what seemed so strange in how Meixu was treat-ing her? Or was there even more still un-spo-ken?

  [ I see. And you, Su-pe-ri-or As-sis-tant. ] Ki'el felt the mas-sive beast's eyes lock on her, though its spir-it and in-tent seemed to pass her by al-most en-tire-ly, doubt-less lock-ing on to Kuli her-self. [ You said that you are re-strict-ed in how you can broad-cast mes-sages be-cause of your host. I trust this is eas-i-er? ]

  { It is. Young Kuli's spir-it has re-cov-ered much, but I would not have wished to hin-der her any fur-ther. And... I be-lieve she would be in-ter-est-ed in hear-ing what I will tell you as well. }

  [ The mat-ter of the so-called wis-dom of the (Ri'lef). ] Ki'el felt a strange sense at the word as it flowed through her, a hes-i-ta-tion, like the word felt for-eign to the one speak-ing it, even as it was passed along clear-ly. [ Their [ web of fate ] is not small, and they strike me as gen-uine, but I de-test be-ing en-snared in things I do not un-der-stand. I may al-low you to make your case... if you can pro-vide what was promised. ]

  Ki'el paused, sur-prised, and with some ef-fort, fo-cused her thoughts on Kuli. [ This mat-ter is about the peo-ple who cre-at-ed you? ]

  Ki'el felt the at-ten-tion of the spir-it beast turn to her, but not mean-ly. Ki'el felt her-self flush, though she should have known that the de-ity would be able to hear her ques-tion. [ You were not aware? ]

  { Ki'el is still a child, and she has many more im-por-tant things to wor-ry about. But yes, Ki'el. The Ri'lef have long ne-go-ti-at-ed with the spir-i-tu-al gods of this world, in the in-ter-ests of keep-ing bal-ance. Al-though you are my pri-ma-ry con-cern, I re-main in con-tact with my cre-ators, and was asked to per-form a few tasks should the op-por-tu-ni-ty arise. Now, more than ever, this is nec-es-sary. } There was only a brief pause. { Guardian De-ity Molu Rotan. Of the many se-crets of qi and spir-it en-er-gy, the most com-mon among guardian deities is why the two seem to be the same, and yet dif-fer-ent, is that not so? It is not so much a se-cret as it is knowl-edge be-yond that of this world, and it is knowl-edge that can be passed, with some ef-fort. }

  At last, the spir-it beast stopped star-ing at Ki'el, turn-ing and mov-ing back to where it was lay-ing be-fore. Be-fore it had even sat down, though, it spoke again, a strange-ly in-tro-spec-tive tim-ber to its qi. [ Qi and spir-it en-er-gy are [yin] and [yang]. Qi ab-sorbs, car-ries, am-pli-fies the pow-er of the world, while spir-it en-er-gy re-jects it, com-bats it, dom-i-nates it. This much is known. ] Some-thing in the spir-it beast's trans-mis-sion, though, held doubts, per-haps even deep ones.

  { The pow-er that you call Spir-it En-er-gy, and the pow-er you call Qi, are both craft-ed el-e-ments, gifts from the Grand Mas-ters of the Heav-ens. As your words sug-gest, they are re-flec-tions of one an-oth-er, but I gath-er from your words that you do not un-der-stand why. } There was a pause. { Ki'el. While we talk, can you cre-ate two of your aether cy-cles? One left, one right? }

  Ki'el... had itched to do that for a while, but Kuli had sug-gest-ed that she wait. Now, though, the tim-ing of the aug-ment's re-quest struck her as odd. "Did you ask me to wait only so that I could do it now?"

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  { No. I wor-ried that you would use the aether and do more to slow down your heal-ing than to help it. But... it will be a help-ful demon-stra-tion for now. }

  Ki'el frowned, but cleared her mind, find-ing that Kuli man-aged to help her do that even as the aug-ment con-tin-ued to speak. { There are forces in the [uni-verse] more fun-da-men-tal than qi and spir-it en-er-gy, and young Ki'el was taught to use some of them by her mas-ter. You have like-ly seen how the qi and spir-it en-er-gy mir-ror each oth-er, pro-gress-ing sim-i-lar-ly, but the way they re-act to in-tent and their meth-ods are very dif-fer-ent. }

  It was Meixu who re-spond-ed to that. [ Every spir-it beast that tries to learn qi tech-niques dis-cov-ers that very quick-ly. Qi at first ap-pears un-sta-ble and vi-o-lent, but it is the way we use the pow-er, not the pow-er it-self. ]

  Ki'el found her-self al-most au-to-mat-i-cal-ly gen-er-at-ing a small Right-eous Aether cy-cle first, and was able to put to-geth-er a Sin-is-ter Aether cy-cle in only a few more mo-ments, tak-ing the time to make them as close to the same size and thread di-am-e-ter as she could. When she fin-ished both, she felt Kuli re-leas-ing her, and then catch-ing her up to the con-ver-sa-tion, she found her-self won-der-ing again just what--or who--Meixu was. But... more than that...

  "Are you say-ing that spir-it en-er-gy is based on the op-po-site of Truth aether?" Ki'el held the two cy-cles be-fore her, and she felt the spir-it beast be-fore her scan-ning the two small cir-cles float-ing above her hands.

  { Yes. Aether comes in tiers, the low-est tier be-ing what Ki'el has pro-duced here. At every tier, there are two ways of us-ing the aether, and they are op-po-sites, in a sim-i-lar way to how these two en-er-gies ap-pear to be mir-ror op-po-sites. At the low-est lev-el, as a con-se-quence of their na-ture, one [Op-pos-es] and one [Sup-ports]. Each lev-el is built on the lay-ers be-neath them, and each lev-el uses all the forms of pow-er be-low them. Even at the sec-ond lay-er, [Space Aether], one must [Sup-port] one thing and [Op-pose] an-oth-er at the same time. }

  [ That en-er-gy is very small and thin, ] Rotan's pro-jec-tion held a kind of lazy cu-rios-i-ty, but it also felt more in-tense to Ki'el, per-haps be-cause he was no longer shield-ing her from it. [ Far thin-ner and pur-er than ei-ther qi or spir-it en-er-gy. More fun-da-men-tal, you say. ]

  { Qi and spir-it en-er-gy are de-signed to ease the tran-si-tion, so that [chil-dren] do not make great and pow-er-ful mis-takes. } Kuli's men-tal tone re-mained mat-ter-of-fact, de-spite what Ki'el might have ex-pect-ed to be a con-de-scend-ing use of the idea of adults as child-like be-ings. In-stead... Kuli's in-tent seemed to very care-ful-ly weave to-geth-er the idea that peo-ple, even-tu-al-ly are ex-pect-ed to grow past the stage, and that it is not shame-ful to be ig-no-rant for a time. { The low-est lev-els of qi and spir-it en-er-gy have all aether above this lev-el sealed off, but it is still a more pow-er-ful en-er-gy. In truth, both qi and spir-it en-er-gy are of the fifth lay-er of aether, and their [weight] can-not be com-pared to that of the real thing. }

  There was a si-lence af-ter that, as the guardian de-ity, and Ki'el, and Meixu all con-sid-ered what had been said. Af-ter a mo-ment, Rotan spoke. [ There is a lim-it to how strong one can grow, in ei-ther spir-it or qi, then. ]

  { The lim-i-ta-tions on this world have more to do with this world's youth than the fact that the nat-ur-al en-er-gies are of only a cer-tain com-plex-i-ty. With the right ed-u-ca-tion, more is pos-si-ble than any on this world may ever ac-com-plish, us-ing far less. }

  Ki'el was only half pay-ing at-ten-tion. She had a ques-tion... but she thought it was not wise to ask, nor even think it. She had no idea how sub-tle a though the guardian de-ity may be able to pick up. In-stead, she tried to find some-thing else, an-oth-er thought to dis-tract her, and end-ed up speak-ing a ques-tion. "I un-der-stand that qi is based on Truth aether, which tries to cre-ate the ef-fect we de-sire...? But what is its op-po-site?"

  There was a pause, and Ki'el felt the aether around her stir-ring for a long mo-ment be-fore Kuli replied. { Truth and Con-tra-dic-tion are the two forms of Con-se-quence Aether. Just as Right-eous and Sin-is-ter aether re-in-force or weak-en body and soul, [Truth] can cre-ate or re-in-force an ex-ist-ing [law], while [Con-tra-dic-tion] weak-ens or re-moves a [law], or cre-ates an ef-fect [sim-i-lar] to a law be-ing re-moved. }

  Ki'el... had felt, be-fore, when oth-er peo-ple felt shock at her words. And she had felt, at the Sect, the strain on her qi when she forced her-self to speak a whole thought into oth-ers' minds, when do-ing so changed how they thought, fun-da-men-tal-ly. Now... the words that Kuli spoke rang so com-plete-ly true, and some-how still man-aged to get tan-gled up in Ki'el's mind... and Ki'el was sure it was not only her. From the sud-den snap in the aether around her, she thought that Kuli had done some-thing to off-set the strain on her when pro-vid-ing that in-for-ma-tion to the spir-i-tu-al de-ity.

  Even so, Ki'el felt an in-tense pain shoot through her merid-i-ans... and also, through her mind.

  The con-cept of a spir-i-tu-al [law]... it tan-gled through Ki'el's thoughts and mem-o-ries in a strange way. Such a law was a thing both true, and some-times fake; it could be made true, with pow-er, but if it was cre-at-ed, then its cre-ation was a part of its own law. And law, both true law of the uni-verse and false law cre-at-ed by peo-ple... all of that could be bent with spir-i-tu-al pow-er... but they wove through cre-ation it-self, or they could. But...

  Ki'el did not un-der-stand. And she did not mean to un-der-stand, did not de-sire it, or not ex-act-ly. She un-der-stood that this was all far above her, things that she nev-er should have been ex-pect-ed to un-der-stand. But some-how, with but a few touch-es to her mind, Kuli still man-aged to pull her tan-gled thoughts into fo-cus, guid-ing them into or-der.

  Qi ef-fects were cre-at-ing and en-forc-ing laws; they start-ed very small, but could be-come very pow-er-ful. Ki'el's sword qi and fire qi had been sim-ple "laws" that had spe-cif-ic, de-ter-mined ef-fects. That was a frame-work that she felt Kuli cre-at-ing.

  Ki'el's thoughts, with the help of her aug-ment, straight-ened out the rest in mo-ments. If qi was a 'sim-ple cre-ation', then a 'sim-ple re-sis-tance' would be sim-i-lar-ly unim-pres-sive--just a re-fusal to be af-fect-ed by some-thing. The in-tent might need to be phrased a dif-fer-ent way, and there might be dif-fer-ent con-se-quences, but both pow-ers could ac-com-plish the same over-all goal--just as Ki'el might win in com-bat by strength-en-ing her-self or weak-en-ing her en-e-my.

  The true pow-er of such laws, Ki'el un-der-stood, was that they could tru-ly set what the uni-verse un-der-stood as 'true'--if giv-en enough en-er-gy to per-form the task. Some-how, Ki'el's mind drift-ed again to Sobon's de-scrip-tion of his home-world, of the idea that all the peo-ple in that world were a part of a grand ar-ray, a work-ing that con-trolled the civ-i-liza-tion as a whole. Per-haps they did, or per-haps they did not, make use of such aether, but... Ki'el un-der-stood that the pow-er to 'de-ter-mine what is true' changed the fates of not only peo-ple, but cities, na-tions... worlds.

  As soon as Kuli let go of her mind again, Ki'el felt the pain re-turn, if much more weak-ly, and she felt her thoughts scat-ter, the strange vi-sion of an-oth-er world fad-ing but not dis-ap-pear-ing. She sat up with-out much of a strug-gle, hold-ing her head... and looked ahead of her, to see the large spir-it beast guardian de-ity also paw-ing at its head, as though nurs-ing a sim-i-lar headache.

  [ You don't do things by halves, ] Meixu com-ment-ed, though the fox was also up-right and look-ing at Ki'el... or at Kuli. She might have thought, to look at him, that Meixu had re-ceived no sim-i-lar shock or break-through, but Ki'el had been close enough to him and for long enough to tell that he was ac-tu-al-ly in spir-i-tu-al tur-moil as well, and sim-ply re-tained his poise. [ A fas-ci-nat-ing in-sight, though I won-der how prac-ti-cal it is. In truth, does it change any-thing? Do we treat ei-ther qi or spir-it en-er-gy dif-fer-ent-ly now? ]

  { Let the oth-ers re-cov-er first, } Kuli chid-ed, though a mo-ment lat-er, an-swered. { It was re-quest-ed that we pro-vide proof that we--the Ri'lef, not Ki'el--are be-ings of great knowl-edge and wis-dom from the heav-ens. With this, there should be no doubt of that. }

  [ No. ] Rotan re-moved his paw from his head and looked at it, grouch-i-ly, as though the mas-sive thing had some-how been the cause of his pain--or as though he ex-pect-ed to find blood on it. But the beast sim-ply sat up a mo-ment lat-er. [ But you said that spir-it en-er-gy was cre-at-ed by this law-re-mov-ing pow-er. How does one cre-ate with re-moval? ]

  { Spir-it en-er-gy, like qi, is aether that re-stricts its own use. Qi 'cre-ates' seals on its pow-er, while spir-it en-er-gy 're-jects' its own pow-er, un-til cer-tain mile-stones are met. You are cor-rect that it is more com-pli-cat-ed than that... but that is a mat-ter that should be left alone. Those who are wor-thy can reach the cor-rect heights in time, while those who are un-wor-thy... should not be giv-en a path for-ward, or not com-mon-ly. }

  [ Per-haps so. ] Rotan stood up ful-ly, and then stretched his mas-sive back, his fore claws ex-tend-ing as he also stretched his legs out. [ Very well. This Ban Molu Rotan will en-ter-tain the idea of join-ing the Ri'lef [web of fate]. But I would still pre-fer to un-der-stand what it does, its pur-pose. ]

  { [Sa-cred] en-er-gy con-nects across time and space, sim-i-lar to how guardian de-ity wor-ship is per-formed, } Kuli an-swered, im-me-di-ate-ly. { Those deities who need strength to de-fend their charges may bor-row from those who have enough, at the times they have enough en-er-gy, while those who of-fer their en-er-gy will not be asked to suf-fer in or-der to strength-en some-one else. }

  Ki'el con-cealed a frown. She un-der-stood--or had been told--of Sa-cred aether, and also its mir-ror, Cor-rupt aether. But... Ki'el stopped her thoughts af-ter a mo-ment, un-will-ing to wor-ry about some-thing that should be asked of Kuli in pri-vate.

  [ This much we are aware of, ] Rotan ad-mit-ted af-ter a few mo-ments of think-ing about it. [ It is the role of a guardian de-ity to over-see the fates of those in their do-main. How-ev-er... your an-swer gives no in-di-ca-tion of what fates you think are go-ing to be too great for us to con-tend with in-di-vid-u-al-ly, of when the pow-er will be used or why. ]

  { A com-plete con-tract will be pro-vid-ed to you. The terms of when it may be used, and when it may not, are laid out care-ful-ly. }

  This time, Ki'el was sure that she sensed Kuli send-ing a mes-sage, per-haps to the [Tidal Coro-na], and al-though it was faint, she was sure that she sensed a mes-sage in re-turn, one that she thought Rotan re-ceived. The large crea-ture tilt-ed its head and closed its eyes, fo-cus-ing on its thoughts.

  [ I will con-sid-er the terms. You may go. ]

  This time, Ki'el did not mis-take the words for a mere in-vi-ta-tion, even for a mo-ment, and bowed and turned away im-me-di-ate-ly. She was sur-prised, when she got to the door she had come in through, when she re-al-ized that Meixu had stayed be-hind... but when the door opened in front of her, she stepped through with-out hes-i-ta-tion, trust-ing that the fox was more than wise enough to know what he was al-lowed to do... or at least, what he could get away with.

  She felt slight-ly more con-cerned when the door shut be-hind her, with Meixu still on the oth-er side, but she forced her-self to walk away de-spite that. Ahead of her, an-oth-er door opened, show-ing a stair-case, though Ki'el was... un-sure whether it was the same stair-case she had come up.

  { I am sor-ry. }

  Ki'el paused in her steps only for a mo-ment, but found that the sim-ple words from Kuli did ease a ten-sion with-in her, a frus-tra-tion. Tell me, she said, leav-ing the words open. What ex-act-ly the aug-ment felt sor-ry for would change how she felt about it.

  { I have not for-got-ten that you wished to be a part of de-ter-min-ing your own fate. In a way, this meet-ing has changed your fate in ways you can-not un-der-stand. Molu Rotan will watch over you, and it will be for the best, but... I did not ask, or in-form you. } There was a pause. { I also wish to thank you. For not speak-ing the ques-tion that came to mind. It would have been safe to think about--Molu Rotan does not read minds--but the un-ease in your heart would have caused him con-cern. }

  What lies above Truth and Con-tra-dic-tion? Could I pos-si-bly reach it? But Ki'el was no fool. She could bare-ly be-gin to touch on Space aether, let alone Time, Fate, or Con-se-quence. Even so... she yearned to at least know the name. What great pow-er was there above Con-se-quence Aether? A pow-er so grand that every use of it must in-volve the use of both Truth and Con-tra-dic-tion at once? Ki'el shiv-ered, just think-ing about a be-ing whose aether could cre-ate or de-stroy whole qi na-tures as an ac-ci-dent, as it per-formed some oth-er task.

  { Not only am I un-aware of the an-swer to your ques-tion, my peo-ple are, to the best of my knowl-edge. And... it is for the best. Even the Ri'lef would cov-et pow-er if they had the name of it, just as you have come to wish for the pow-er of Truth and Con-tra-dic-tion af-ter hear-ing how they work. While some-one should un-der-stand such mat-ters, so that is-sues can be dis-cov-ered and ad-dressed... it can-not be al-lowed to spread as freely as oth-er mat-ters. }

  Ki'el... would not have said that she wished for the pow-er to use Spir-it En-er-gy, but her mind had be-gun to think about it, to ques-tion whether it would be the right tool for cer-tain things. But even then, she had no idea whether it was tru-ly all that help-ful. Is there any ad-van-tage to qi and spir-it en-er-gy over aether? When prop-er-ly used?

  Ki'el had a strange feel-ing at that, and re-al-ized only af-ter some re-flec-tion that it was Kuli feel-ing sur-prised at her ques-tion. { Qi and spir-it en-er-gy are in-tu-itive ways to use aether. Their ad-van-tage is be-ing able to learn them and use them quick-ly and eas-i-ly. But be-cause of their na-tures, aether, qi, and spir-it each make cer-tain tasks more dif-fi-cult. Raw aether use re-quires ed-u-ca-tion, more than you may ever be pro-vid-ed with on this world, even with the help of Sobon and the Ri'lef to-geth-er. Some tasks that would take cen-turies of ef-fort to [re-search] the aether script to ac-com-plish can be cre-at-ed as qi or spir-it en-er-gy ef-fects in decades or less. }

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that, some part of her mind ea-ger-ly en-gag-ing with the com-pli-cat-ed thoughts. Then... when you say that I cov-et Truth and Con-tra-dic-tion, you are wrong, she de-cid-ed af-ter a mo-ment. I am not in-ter-est-ed in fast ways to grow stronger. I sim-ply wish to fin-ish learn-ing, and when you teach me that there is more yet to learn, I find my-self think-ing ea-ger-ly about the day when I un-der-stand enough to see be-yond the next door.

  Ki'el felt the aug-ment's aether shift slight-ly. { What if I told you that there are some things you will nev-er learn? }

  There are, Ki'el agreed, with only a mo-ment of thought. But I do not like it when you tell me you know, now, what I will not learn. Per-haps you are right, per-haps you are wrong. But to say that I will not sounds like you wish for my ig-no-rance, in fur-ther-ance of a goal I do not un-der-stand. What if my learn-ing things will be help-ful? What if it will be easy for me? What if I can be trust-ed? Will I still not be taught? If there are no teach-ers, no way to learn it, then we will dis-cov-er that at the time, and there will be no one to blame. But my life is al-ready full of strange things. Per-haps life will sur-prise you, as it does me.

  Ki'el could tell that her aug-ment was con-sid-er-ing those words for a time, and then that it chose to sim-ply re-main qui-et for a while af-ter that, de-spite per-haps hav-ing fin-ished its think-ing.

  When at last Ki'el reached the bot-tom of the stairs and the en-trance to the Tem-ple build-ing, she found the woman who had led her up stand-ing there, with Meixu sit-ting placid-ly on the floor next to her. Al-though Ki'el did not get the sense that she had in-ter-rupt-ed a con-ver-sa-tion, she still felt awk-ward, as though their pa-tience in wait-ing for her was dis-guis-ing some-thing else, though what, ex-act-ly, she was un-sure.

  [ Thank you, cousin, and per-haps we will have that drink soon, ] were Meixu's part-ing words to the woman, who sim-ply bowed, the near-by door slid-ing open of its own ac-cord. The fox leapt again to Ki'el's shoul-der, and looked at her, and this time, she stud-ied his eyes for a long mo-ment be-fore look-ing away. Know-ing that Meixu had said some-thing about a daugh-ter... there was some-thing there, a deep re-gret.

  "Good-bye, [Po-lit-i-cal Ex-ile] Meixu." The woman gave a toothy grin, but bowed. "Good-bye, Young Mis-tress Ki'el, [Su-pe-ri-or As-sis-tant] Kuli."

  When the doors had shut be-hind her, and they were be-gin-ning to walk down the long stair-case out of the tem-ple, Ki'el fi-nal-ly asked. "Ex-ile?"

  [ The Di-a-mond Lord did not keep my fam-i-ly safe, de-spite a promise. I broke our al-liance the day I found out, along with many oth-er things. I was po-lite-ly in-vit-ed to nev-er re-turn, and I agreed. ] Meixu's thoughts did not con-tain the kind of feel-ings Ki'el might have ex-pect-ed. They were... dry, per-haps. No longer fresh. [ I can feel that in-vi-ta-tion is no longer bind-ing, but some ar-ti-facts re-main, es-pe-cial-ly among those old enough to re-mem-ber. ]

  Ki'el con-sid-ered those words, and thought long and hard about ask-ing more ques-tions, but her mind was al-ready full of oth-er things, and she found that she felt bet-ter think-ing about aether than about her newest com-pan-ion's painful past. An-oth-er time, she promised her-self, be-fore her thoughts bent once more to the idea of spir-i-tu-al laws, and the pow-ers that en-forced and re-strict-ed them.