- Sam -

"Now turn your Sight back on for a second."

They did, and they saw the the connection between the beating heart, and Coyote's body. Then they watched the pattern of the chi flow as he healed his own chest. "This part might take y'all some practice," he told them, "but that's what you're here for. Once you get to the end of Foundation Establishment, it'll be real easy." His chest finished healing over the empty hole, then he took his heart back from the first Coyote. It was still beating. "Now if you wanna put it back inside, here's how ya do it." Then they watched the chi flow to his jaw, as his mouth opened wider than should've been possible. He swallowed the heart whole, and they could see the heart's chi inside of him, so they continued to watch as he moved it back into place. "That part's a little tricky. You don't wanna chew it, so you gotta get the whole thing down in one gulp. Then ya gotta get it where ya want it to go, and that's really a whole other set of difficulties, but y'all are only just startin' out. We'll show ya again when the time comes.

"Next up, the spirit seed. You probably already noticed that you feel a little different, but also a little bit the same. That's all there is to it for now. It ain't goin' away, so y'all are just gonna have to get used to it. It shouldn't be too jarring though. You've been usin' that twin cultivation for a few years. The only differences are that now you won't have to hold hands all the time, it never shuts off, and you'll have an easier time controlling your separate bodies. Basically think of it like you've been doin' it the hard way, but now I've shown you how to do it the easy way." In fact, the boys were getting used to it. It was like getting off a horse after riding for too long, so walking on solid ground felt strange for a few minutes. They felt joy knowing that the connection would stay in place permanently now. Over the last four years of cultivating together, they had formed a bond stronger than even brothers could obtain. They shared every memory and experience. They might have unique experiences while they were apart, but they would share them again the next time they cultivated. After four years, they essentially felt like the same person, and it had been growing more and more uncomfortable to be separated. Now they wouldn't have to be. They could each experience what the other experienced in real time. They wondered how far apart they could stand without disrupting the connection.

As if in answer to their unspoken question, Coyote told them, "So there is a caveat. You won't be able to go to the other side of the planet, and still maintiain that connection. At least not with just the two of you. You'll need... hmmm... how should I put this? Have y'all learned much about communication arrays?" They shook their heads. "Okay, so for a communication array to work over a long distance, you need a bunch of other communication arrays in between. So from the start point, to the end point, every communication array in the middle is called a 'node', and all the communication arrays together are called a 'network,' does that make sense?" They nodded. "Good, so any one of those nodes can act as a start point or end point. It just depends on where you are when you wanna talk to someone, and where the other person is. A communication array 'network' is just a bunch of identical communication arrays all talkin to each other at the same time. So with that in mind, what do you think you'll need?"

"Nodes? Are we building communication arrays?" the boys asked.

"Yes and no. You'll need nodes, but they won't be communication arrays. I'm sure y'all noticed there's more than two of me. There's also gonna have to be more than two of you."

The boys gasped at this realization, then stared as a third Coyote stepped into view from behind them on top of their mountain. The old man looked identical to the first two Coyotes, with his short gray hair, leathery skin, and even the same tattered clothes for some reason. He was carrying a boy in his arms. The boy appeared to be sleeping, but they were still using their Sight, and they could see that the boy's inner chi was in a state of chaos.

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"As such," the third Coyote said, "you'll need to make some new friends. This here is Yuma. You'll learn about Yuma soon enough, but the important thing you need to know right now is that Yuma is in a state of chi deviation. It's pretty much the same thing that happened to Kyle, when Sam came to the rescue, and y'all figured out my cultivation technique all on your own. I must say, I was a little impressed when that young turtle, Valerie, told me about it. Anyway, I was owed a favor by the boy's parents. I saw the boy goin' into chi deviation, so I took him right away. They were yellin' and hollerin' about me trickin' them or somethin'. I tell you what, I ain't that mean, but they didn't believe that he was gonna die if I didn't take him. Kekeke! It wasn't a bad deal for 'em. Their debt was resolved, their son ain't dead, and I get to teach my successor."

He laid the boy on the ground in front of Sam and Kyle. "Now I can keep this boy from havin' a chi explosion for a while. You two are gonna go in and fix him, just like you did with each other. Yuma's at the peak of Chi Condensation, with a middle grade spirit root, just like yours, and he's even got compatibility. Y'all are real lucky I found him. This'll probably be the easiest one y'all ever do. When you're done, he'll be connected to you, just as much as you are to each other. But first, you're gonna lose your sanity if you just start addin' other folks' memories to your own like spices in a pie. You gotta have an identity. Something new that represents you as a whole. You can't be Sam and Kyle anymore. You need a new name. Think on it for a minute, but don't take too long, or we're all gonna be cleanin' Yuma juice out of our hair."

It was a lot to take in, but the boys had learned to focus even when they felt overwhelmed. It was one of the side benefits of their cultivation technique. So they focused on names. It wasn't a hard choice. They decided to keep it simple and just combine their two names. If they were going to be adding more minds to their own, they should remember who they used to be: Sam and Kyle. Some ideas came to mind. Kam, Smile, Sky, Miles, Syler... They didn't want to take too long. The new boy looked like he must be in a lot of pain, and even if they didn't know him, they didn't want to watch someone suffer like that. Thinking of the beautiful spectacle of colorful chi in the wind, the connection their spirit guide, Eagle, had between heaven and earth, and their proximity to the heavens on this mountaintop, they settled on the most obvious choice.

"Sky," they told Coyote.

"Sky," Coyote replied, "a good name for you. You will spread yourself everywhere that touches the sky, one day. Your decisiveness is good. One last thing, before you start, I want you to use this opportunity to learn how your Sight plays a role in this. Look at Yuma with it, and pay attention to what he has in common with both of you. Since he has so much compatibility, it should be easy, but in the future, you're gonna have to figure out how to channel your chi so you don't kill someone, or worse, lose a body tryin' to get a new one. Take a good look, Sky. I'll tell you before you take too long."

Sky looked at Yuma, and paid careful attention to the boy's spirit pathways, comparing him to the ones in his own bodies. For a moment, Sky was distracted by the realization of how quickly he'd started thinking of himself as just Sky, instead of Sam and Kyle. It was like something had been missing, but now they were fully whole. Sky forced himself to focus again. He memorized the pathways that were similar between his own and Yuma's, then decided on a path to follow that would be safest once he connected his own chi to Yuma's. It felt natural, and he didn't wait for Coyote's warning. He placed a hand from both bodies on Yuma's chest, one on each lung, then directed his chi into the new boy.

Directing his chi, he forced Yuma's lungs into a new breathing pattern. He wasn't familiar with the boy's breathing technique, and it wasn't doing him any good anyway, so Sky forced him to use the Intense Focus technique instead. That would be the easiest, since the boy would naturally continue the focus technique on his own, once it was started. Next he followed the predetermined path through Yuma's spirit channels, until he arrived at the lower dantian. Before entering Yuma's spirit root, he formed connections between his lower, middle, and upper dantians, so they would be ready once the spirit connection was formed. With that done, he wrapped his own chi around Yuma's spirit root. He found the problem right away. There was some damage there, which needed to be repaired, like they had done for Kyle's spirit root back in the tent four years ago. Sky sent his chi into the spirit root, and immediately he knew Yuma.