It took sur-pris-ing-ly long for the El-ders to fi-nal-ly speak on the mat-ter.

  The next morn-ing, Ki'el re-ceived her In-ner Sect to-ken, and not long af-ter-wards, she and Chi-an went back to the Hall of Heav-en-ly Recita-tion to meet with an in-scrip-tion-ist. The crafts-man was sur-pris-ing-ly an-drog-y-nous, and their spir-it seemed mut-ed, dull, which was un-usu-al for what Ki'el had seen of the In-ner Sect so far. But when she met their eyes, there was an in-ten-si-ty there, shin-ing up from deep be-neath oth-er things.

  Ki'el was sur-prised to find that the 'in-scrip-tion-ist' also need-ed to do met-al-work-ing, lay-er-ing the Gold-en Crux Wisp Ore onto a base they forged out of Danc-ing Sun Cupric Steel, only af-ter al-loy-ing por-tions of each with oth-er ma-te-ri-als, some of which Ki'el would not have ex-pect-ed to sur-vive a cru-cible of molten met-al. She had half ex-pect-ed that the non-struc-tur-al ma-te-ri-als would have had their essence ex-tract-ed some-how, but each seemed to be ac-tu-al-ly com-bined into the met-als, some-how--with the por-tions of met-al af-fect-ed by each kept sep-a-rate from one an-oth-er, at least un-til one had cooled and been shaped, and the next was be-ing ap-plied.

  Ki'el was con-cerned, but not en-tire-ly sur-prised, when the crafts-man asked Chi-an for blood to com-plete one part of the tal-is-man, and both of them watched care-ful-ly, but no amount of blood was wast-ed or stolen away. The met-al into which Chi-an's blood was in-fused be-came only a small piece, con-cealed deep with-in what would end up be-ing a most-ly sol-id tal-is-man, with lay-ers of met-al placed di-rect-ly on top of one an-oth-er with no room to spare. Many of the in-ner lay-ers were also etched with script, only to then have molten met-al poured over-top the etch-ing, and Ki'el had no idea whether or how the etch-ings were kept dis-tinct from the met-al atop them.

  In all, it hum-bled Ki'el, who had thought that her mas-ter's un-der-stand-ing of aether script was the pin-na-cle of crafts-man-ship. As she stud-ied the in-scrip-tion-ist care-ful-ly lay-er-ing in-tent through the de-cep-tive-ly thin met-al tal-is-man, com-bin-ing the prop-er-ties of ma-te-ri-als, script, and lay-ered in-tent with no flaws that she could de-tect, she un-der-stood that script-ed items were an art-form far be-yond what she had so far un-der-stood.

  She felt, though, as the process was wrap-ping up, that the ex-pe-ri-ence firmed her re-solve to study script and in-scrip-tion, rather than weak-en-ing it. She al-ready knew that Sobon's scripts had in-cred-i-ble abil-i-ties--the blade, the base-ment, the fly-ing frame that he had cre-at-ed to save her, heal-ing scripts, weapons--and she was sure that they rep-re-sent-ed only a frac-tion of his knowl-edge.

  If Ki'el could ex-plore all the knowl-edge of the world--even sim-ply the knowl-edge avail-able in this sect--she could forge things that would do what she wished. If she need-ed a sword, she would have a sword; if she need-ed a room, she would have a room. If she need-ed to heal, she would; if she need-ed to kill, she would.

  By the time the tal-is-man was fin-ished, more than two hours had gone by, the time eat-en up most-ly by de-tail work, as the in-scrip-tion-ist was jus-ti-fi-ably care-ful not to make any mis-take with the ex-treme-ly fine done to the in-ter-nal and ex-ter-nal lay-ers. The last of the scripts to be done was on the out-side, on the rear face that had so far been left plain, and as far as Ki'el could tell, that script was left in-com-plete when they turned and pre-sent-ed it to Chi-an for in-spec-tion.

  The oth-er girl looked it over, as though a vi-su-al in-spec-tion of the out-side would have of-fered any in-sight that watch-ing it be con-struct-ed had not, be-fore nod-ding. "Thank you."

  "That was the job," the in-scrip-tion-ist said, mild-ly, and again Ki'el was un-able to tell for sure their gen-der, though her guess was more fe-male than male. In the end, she mere-ly thanked them as well and let them go, watch-ing them move away with a grace-ful walk that still, to Ki'el's look, seemed some-how ex-haust-ed.

  "It it not in-com-plete?" Ki'el asked, when the in-scrip-tion-ist had walked away. "That script on the back--"

  "Is filled in when you make a con-tract," Chi-an an-swered, turn-ing and of-fer-ing the tal-is-man to her. "The en-tire form of it will shift slight-ly when that hap-pens. For all the work that our Sect Broth-er did, an-ces-tral qi will over-write many of the scripts he laid in it."

  Ki'el con-sid-ered the tal-is-man in her hands, the met-al al-ready cool in her hands, de-spite be-ing con-stant-ly held by the crafter ever since it was forged. Even-tu-al-ly, she looked at Chi-an. "And you think--"

  "If you want to be able to im-press a mem-ber of the fam-i-ly, you will need a fair amount of qi," she said. "I don't quite know how the tal-is-man ver-sion is sup-posed to work--but I was told that us-ing high-er qual-i-ty qi is nec-es-sary to even at-tract a greater spir-it, much less bind them to serve."

  Ki'el gri-maced. "Bind-ing..."

  Chi-an didn't look at or away from her, but sim-ply kept star-ing ahead for sev-er-al sec-onds, but nod-ded. "You are kind, Ki'el, and they will have the op-tion to refuse. But spir-its are also taught to de-fend them-selves, taught that the world at large is hos-tile, and that they must choose a place and re-main there, be-cause it will be safer than be-ing un-bound. Be-ing cho-sen is a sign of adult-hood, and they seek it, as long as they are giv-en good terms."

  Ki'el looked at Chi-an. "Terms?"

  But the girl be-gan walk-ing with-out an-swer-ing, and Ki'el let her lead, con-sid-er-ing as she went that there would nat-u-ral-ly be terms, if the spir-it has a right to refuse. What that in-volved--safe-ty, qi, knowl-edge, pow-er, food... she was un-sure--she would doubt-less find out. But for now, she was once again wait-ing to be able to use her qi...

  "We should stop by the Heal-ing House," she said, be-fore they got too far, and Chi-an nod-ded, choos-ing an-oth-er path only when it branched a while lat-er. When they ar-rived, a Se-nior Broth-er--it was Broth-er Yong this time, who had treat-ed her the first time she came to the House--was stand-ing at the door-way, for now idle, and his eyes locked on to her as she moved clos-er, study-ing her be-fore she got close.

  "Your merid-i-ans are heal-ing well," he said as they drew clos-er. "Is there a fur-ther prob-lem, or are you just check-ing in?"

  "Only check-ing," Ki'el said, and the broth-er nod-ded, let-ting them in. They stepped into a side room and Ki'el let the heal-er study her body briefly, his hands usu-al-ly not touch-ing her body, ex-cept in a few places along her arm and neck and near her core, places where even Ki'el could feel her en-er-gy flow was still ab-nor-mal.

  "Be-cause your qi is pure, you could use a [small amount] with-out do-ing dam-age," Broth-er Yong pro-claimed af-ter a few mo-ments, phras-ing his in-tent so that Ki'el un-der-stood what he be-lieved safe. "If you feel rest-less, I would en-cour-age you to [very slow-ly] emp-ty your en-tire core and then [very slow-ly] re-fill it. Main-tain-ing an ef-fect with [min-i-mal draw] is ac-cept-able, but it will lim-it the amount you can use for oth-er things, and slow your heal-ing."

  Ki'el held those in-tents in mind, let-ting Kuli file them away, and nod-ded. "How soon do you ex-pect I could do more?"

  "Emp-ty and re-fill your core at those rates, and you should feel the max-i-mum strain that you should ex-pect your spir-it to han-dle. As your spir-it heals, you will feel less strain do-ing com-mon tasks. Any more strain than that will in-ter-fere with heal-ing." He paused only a mo-ment. "I would ex-pect weeks more be-fore you are com-fort-able us-ing qi in any real quan-ti-ty, with-out dam-ag-ing your-self fur-ther. Be cau-tious with your us-age, but ex-er-cise your spir-it, and it may only be that long."

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Ki'el nod-ded, and af-ter speak-ing with him a lit-tle while longer and re-ceiv-ing some med-i-cines in case she strained her spir-it, they re-sumed the walk back to their home in the In-ner Sect. She looked at Chi-an. "I as-sume that is not enough--"

  "How much strain does it take you to cre-ate one of your cy-cles? To main-tain it?" Chi-an stepped on her ques-tion with the im-pa-tience of some-one who had want-ed to speak, but not to be the first one.

  Ki'el con-sid-ered, and with the help of Kuli, an-swered. "It varies by the size of the cy-cle. The small-est have al-most no draw. The ones I used in my tribu-la-tion... ob-vi-ous-ly not. I would think that I could... per-haps sus-tain one that con-tained a fifth of my core? If I drew it out slow-ly, as Broth-er Yong in-sist-ed."

  "Can you con-trol the qi in your cy-cle's... thorn?" Chi-an seemed un-sure about how Ki'el thought of the tech-nique, though she was sure she had ex-plained it. "At least well enough to of-fer it to a spir-it?"

  Ki'el con-sid-ered that, and spun up a very small qi cy-cle as they walked, feed-ing it slow-ly from her core, then ma-nip-u-lat-ing the thorn. It was not so much a ques-tion as to whether or not she could--in-stead, she paid very care-ful at-ten-tion to how the qi flowed through her, from her core, through her spir-it and body, touch-ing on her mind and arms.

  "If I use less," she de-cid-ed. "...I nev-er paid at-ten-tion to how ma-nip-u-lat-ing qi used my spir-it be-fore."

  "I guess in-jury does that," Chi-an said, then looked at her. "If you can hold a fair part of your qi out of your core, you should be able to make a con-tract. But prac-tice first. Signs of weak-ness won't im-press."

  Ki'el con-sid-ered more as they moved. Be-yond the qi in her core, of course, there was the qi stored in her sword, any aether she could cre-ate... and also, her mas-ter's aether, which she didn't ex-pect she would be us-ing. Even if she could cre-ate a strong bond with some-one be-cause of it, it would be... fool-ish. More, now that Sobon had said that it was dan-ger-ous to let oth-ers know about the sword.

  Some in the sect, per-haps many in the sect, al-ready knew of it. Who be-yond here, though? If she showed such a thing to a spir-it of Chi-an's fam-i-ly, would knowl-edge spread be-yond them? Should she al-low it to?

  They re-turned to their house, and Ki'el chose to rest while Chi-an oc-cu-pied her-self oth-er-wise. It was some hours af-ter that they fi-nal-ly re-ceived in-tent puls-es from their Sect badges, ones that en-cour-aged them to gath-er at their Is-land's Hall.

  Ki'el had so far not known any of her neigh-bors on the is-land, but when she and Chi-an met with the few oth-ers gath-ered there, she found that their spir-its, at least, seemed fa-mil-iar to her. She could iden-ti-fy peo-ple who had tak-en and sealed some of the rooms in the Hall, or whose hous-es she had passsed when en-ter-ing the res-i-den-tial is-land, even if their names and faces were en-tire-ly new.

  They wait-ed un-til some-one--or per-haps every-one--had ar-rived, and then their badges all pulsed in uni-son, and El-der Sang ap-peared be-fore them, the man's pro-jec-tion not trans-mit-ting any of his pow-er, even though its fla-vor seemed cor-rect.

  "Dis-ci-ples," he said, his voice sound-ing a lit-tle cold. "We apol-o-gize for tak-ing a while be-fore ad-dress-ing your con-cerns. We are cer-tain, now, of two things, and can only spec-u-late on oth-ers. The first is that the [Djang Ren Im-pe-r-i-al Fam-i-ly] has re-belled, open-ly. They are fight-ing for con-trol over the East Cen-tral and North-east re-gions of the Em-pire, in ad-di-tion to the area they al-ready con-trol in the North. They make claims that the oth-er news... seems to sup-port."

  "That news is that the Di-a-mond Lord has an-nounced a se-ries of events in-tend-ed to find a suit-able re-place-ment, an heir. A be-ing known only as [An-gel] is cre-at-ing sev-er-al ar-ti-facts, and mas-tery over those ar-ti-facts will de-ter-mine the over-all out-come. Those ar-ti-facts will be dis-trib-uted at a se-ries of twelve, non-lethal tour-na-ments, the first of which will be in two months, and con-tin-u-ing for sev-er-al years."

  "The four ar-ti-fact kinds are these: The [Di-a-mond Throne], the [Crestan Crown], the [Fairy Orb], and the [Aether Sword]. There will be many of each, though how many and how they will be dis-trib-uted is un-known."

  When Ki'el heard the words, heard the in-tent, she knew that her group was the first told about this, and she looked at Chi-an, who looked back at her. Mere mo-ments lat-er, she felt an aether echo, as though some-one else had heard of the [Aether Sword] and knew what it meant, and mo-ments lat-er, from an-oth-er place in the Sect, an-oth-er echo, and then an-oth-er.

  Ki'el swal-lowed, hard.

  "The Djang Ren in-sist that the Di-a-mond Lord is no longer fit to rule, that the Djang Ban are fall-en and un-wor-thy, and that the Ren shall be-come the new mas-ters of the Djang Em-pire. De-spite this, the pro-claima-tion from the Di-a-mond Lord also per-mits the Ren into the tour-na-ments, as well as oth-er fac-tions the Em-pire has in the past for-sak-en." El-der Sang's voice was un-pleas-ant, but clear. "Keep that in mind if you de-cide to par-tic-i-pate. It may be the Em-pire's in-ten-tion to keep the tour-na-ments non-lethal, but that is no guar-an-tee."

  "For the Sect, we will find par-tic-i-pants wor-thy of send-ing to the Tour-na-ments, and as-sist those here with prepar-ing. Only cur-rent mem-bers of the Out-er, In-ner, and Core sects will be con-sid-ered. We be-lieve cur-rent-ly that the Sect will re-main safe from the re-bel-lion of the Ren, but will un-der-stand if any-one choos-es to leave the Sect to pro-tect, or seek pro-tec-tion from, their fam-i-lies. A leave of ab-sence may be re-quest-ed for mem-bers of the In-ner and Core Sects, such that you may re-join with-out cost at a lat-er date, how-ev-er you will not be spon-sored by the Sect for any tour-na-ment if you do not re-main here."

  "We will share fu-ture news as we can. We en-cour-age every-one to con-tact their Fam-i-lies and en-sure that your wills and theirs are aligned. We will not in-ter-fere with any Fam-i-ly who wish-es the re-turn of their scions, and will de-fend all res-i-dents of the Sect from all oth-ers who tar-get them." Ki'el was un-sure why that was phrased in such a way, but filed it away. "Be-yond that, I have noth-ing to share for the mo-ment."

  A cou-ple peo-ple tried to ask El-der Sang's pro-jec-tion a ques-tion, but it dis-ap-peared with-out any re-sponse. Ki'el felt Chi-an pulling her away, and the two of them hur-ried away, back to their home, Ki'el sens-ing the eyes of Sis-ter Wun on them as they went.

  "We need Be-nai," was the first thing that Chi-an said, af-ter they were a ways away. "She can pro-tect us."

  "Can she?" Ki'el was un-sure. "Against peo-ple in this sect, and any-one who would chal-lenge it?"

  "She is far stronger than she gives any sign of," Chi-an said. "I don't know how strong. But she was an ac-quain-tance of the An-ces-tor--the orig-i-nal an-ces-tor, founder of my fam-i-ly." She glanced around, but seemed not to sense any ob-servers. "Her blood-line is known as the Half-di-vine sil-ver tor-toise. She ex-cels in de-fens-es, wards, and do-mains. I imag-ine that if she de-sired to pro-tect the en-tire Sect against a threat, she could--but she is here for the sake of my fam-i-ly, and those with spir-i-tu-al beast blood in gen-er-al, not for the rest."

  Ki'el raised an eye-brow, but giv-en all the hy-per-bole she'd heard, she wasn't sure how se-ri-ous-ly to take that blood-line name. "Half-di-vine?"

  "Ac-cord-ing to the sto-ry, An-ces-tor found Be-nai as a young woman de-fend-ing against a cul-ti-va-tor with Flame Qi, when she was not yet even in Gem-stone Qi." Chi-an looked back at her, the look on her face un-read-able. "How true that is I have no idea. But I don't know any-one who could take a strike from such pow-er-ful qi. For cer-tain, her de-fens-es are greater than any-one else's by far."

  They ar-rived at the edge of their prop-er-ty, at last, but Chi-an paused with-out en-ter-ing. "You should gath-er your qi and pre-pare to use the tal-is-man. I will see if Be-nai is will-ing to come. And I will ask if Mian and Xam can live here, even if they re-main in the Out-er Sect."

  Ki'el felt a chill. "Are you sure--"

  "You are far more of a tar-get than I am, and it's best if you stay with-in the wards," Chi-an said, her voice firm. "The rest, we will fig-ure out soon enough."

  Ki'el bit her lip as her guts twist-ed anx-ious-ly. When at last, she said, "Al-right," and stepped through the bar-ri-er, she still felt like she was mak-ing a mis-take, leav-ing Chi-an alone, but she could not deny that her Sword was sud-den-ly a far more dan-ger-ous thing to car-ry, and that oth-ers might well find rea-son to chal-lenge her for it, in one way or an-oth-er.

  All she could re-al-ly do, though was watch Chi-an hur-ry away, and then re-turn to the house to med-i-tate. She de-stroyed the small-er cy-cle she had made ear-li-er, and formed one some-what small-er than the largest she thought she could rea-son-ably use--then be-gan to fill it with en-er-gy from her core. As she sat and fo-cused on slow-ly mov-ing the qi out, let-ting it join the Cy-cle, Ki'el pulled free her aether sword and ac-ti-vat-ed it, set-ting it in her lap, plac-ing her hand on the blade, feel-ing it.

  She was not fo-cused on her mas-ter's aether, but she knew that it was there, could feel it. In-stead, she fo-cused on the blade it-self, the con-fi-dent strength of the aether that was so straight-for-ward, so clean. At a mo-ment like this, when her spir-it was burned and her merid-i-ans ached, she could wish that her body was so clean, rather than the com-plex mess that it was.

  Some-how, she found the act of mov-ing her qi med-i-ta-tive, and to-geth-er with the tired-ness from her in-jured spir-it, with-out re-al-iz-ing it, Ki'el soon dozed off, snap-ping back to re-al-i-ty once or twice, each time think-ing only of how tired she was, be-fore doz-ing off again.