"I have to acknowledge, the speed with which you adapt to your surroundings is noteworthy." acknowledged Toras, who was sipping tea at the table.

Kiyu, however, was still struggling to catch his breath. "Thank you," she brought out, panting.

Her struggle had been anything but long, but it was not the physical exertion that weakened her so.

"Using your powers is tearing at you. It's draining you," Toras explained as he looked at her. "Don't worry, it's natural. Think of a spiritformer's spiritual energy as a container. A growing container. You only have a certain amount available to you, and when you've drawn it up, you suffer the after-effects."

"So it's... no matter how big the accumulated power is. If it's depleted, does the body suffers?" asked Kiyu, who was understanding more and more of her power thanks to Toras. But she wondered why Cheryu had not taught her all this. If he had taught her, she might have.... no! She couldn't think like that anymore.

All the lamenting about woulda, woulda, coulda. That was what was costing her so much time. If she wasted her time on that, she wouldn't have to wonder if she didn't get anywhere. She couldn't decide what Cheryu taught her and what he didn't, and more and more often in her future life others would be the ones pulling the strings.

However, it was up to her what she would make of it.

"You get it." He confirmed to her. "But your container grows the more you strain it. In time, you will learn to use your power. But that is not important for now."

After emptying his cup, Toras straightened up again and stared at her with a battle-ready expression. "How does it look? Can you continue?"

He doubtless knew the answer, and so did Kiyu. It was a no, and yet….

"Yes!" she roared, and again took up a fighting stance. She used her powers to the fullest and there wasn't much left. Thanks to that, she had gotten a sense of the amount of her spiritual power. It was still vague, like distorted boundaries with too much room to maneuver. But she would learn to recognize these limits better.

Without a warning, some tendrils shot towards her and were about to give her belly a hard blow. Since her strength had not even returned to full spiritual energy, she focused it only on her eyes and ears.

Her goal was dodging her opponent's attacks and not waste too much of her energy.

"So you're not using your fists this time, huh?" he remarked, not stopping his attacks against her. "You're saving your strength, that's good. But if you don't attack, it won't do any good at all! A stronger opponent will just keep you at a distance until you're exhausted. So, what are you going to do now?"

Plant by plant, he let her fight them and watched as she dodged them. Her movements, however, became clunkier with time. This time it wasn't her spiritual strength which she exhausted, no; it was the body that was becoming more and more exhausted.

Kiyu dodged one attack after another, just waiting for a gap in the pattern. When she thought she spotted one, she strengthened her legs and leapt forward. Still in flight, she released the power there and concentrated it instead on her right fist, which she aimed at Toras.

But before her fist could reach him, a wall of plants had built up in front of him and intercepted her blow. Not a scratch had she added to her opponent's living shield. Her attack was just too weak!

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"Uff!" A last attack from Toras hit her in the stomach, forcing her to her knees.

"That wasn't so bad after all." He finished the combat practice.

"It's enough for now. If you overuse your body or spiritual powers, your body can't keep up with regeneration and you won't be able to free the girl in time." Toras decided, stretching as he explained himself to her. "Besides, it's still the middle of the night. You didn't sleep long after the attack. Your body needs rest."

"Huh?" All this time, Kiyu had been underground, so she didn't know what time it was. But that the night they attacked her hadn't even passed surprised her more than anything. "The same night? How long was I blacked out?" she asked, surprised and confused.

"Don't know. Half an hour, maybe? But morning has yet to dawn, that's for sure." he replied.

"And Zhèngyi goes out in the middle of the night to gather information? What if Tānlán's men catch him?" she worried at the thought of the boy being out alone.

"Don't worry. Zhèngyi's Spiritformer skills are superb for information gathering, and the night gives him an advantage." Toras shrugged, seeming to put enough faith in the boy.

"Spi.... Spiritformer? Zhèngyi is also a spiritformer?" Now Toras had thrown her for a loop.

Spiritformers weren't that rare, she was well aware of that. But she had always thought that they were in the middle of nowhere, where nothing special was ever happening. And now she had already met two other Spiritformers. And besides, Tānlán had also hired Spiritformers for his protection, even if she didn't know how many there were.

"What ability does he have?" she wanted to know, but Toras shrugged his shoulders.

"I think the boy will tell you best himself when he returns," he dismissed her question and headed toward one of the many corridors. "Your sleeping place will be the infirmary. Rest and do not use your strength for today." he advised her and disappeared behind the door of another room.

With slow movements, Kiyu also made her way to her sleeping place. Toras wouldn't give her any more answers, and there was no point in asking any more at the moment.

Exhausted, she opened the door, closed it again behind her and dropped onto the bed.

'What a day' she thought to herself and reviewed the events in her mind.

That her life would never be normal as long as she followed the path of the Spiritformer was clear to her. But today had brought so many uncommon events that her thoughts could not unload. Like thousands of stormy clouds, they whirred around in her head.

< To clear your mind, it helps to write about all the thoughts that occupy you, > Cheryu said to her. < While doing so, the sage looks back at the day and evaluates what he succeeded in, what he succeeded less in, and how he will react better next time instead. >

For a moment, Kiyu didn't respond. She had exhausted her body way too much today. But then she pulled herself together and searched her temporary room for pen and paper.

'Hey, Ryu,' she began her attempt at conversation as she wrote about the past day. 'How does a normal relationship between a spirit and a human look like?'

'Is what we have like the normal connection of a spiritformer?'

< That's a tough question you're asking. Every spirit is unique, just as every human is different. And like everyone, I try to approach things the way I think it's the best. > he replied to her.

Kiyu had understood that there was no normal way. As long as their relationship worked the way it was, they wouldn't need to change it. Otherwise, they would have to deal with it together.

For quite a while the pen scribbled across the paper, and she had written about all the things that happened to her. From the arrival in the city to the training with Toras, everything had been there.

Since she had no measurement herself to decide how she could have behaved better, she followed Cheryu's wisdoms.

They were a matter of interpretation, but they all harbored a core. The concept of control was not as simple as she thought at first. She could interpret it to give up without trying, or to move forward without sorrow.

If one only decided based on the outcome, Kiyu could have always given up and told herself that she couldn't control it, anyway. But when she gave it a second thought, every event exposed her to a certain framework. Her choices were open to her.

Her worst mistake had been getting involved in the fight with the guards. She could just have used her powers to escape without harming her opponents. After all, when she thought about it, those men were just scared, too, because their master could execute them for failing their task.

In order to free her sister, she could not avoid a fight, but if she managed not to give in to her anger during the fights, that would be a big step forward for her.

After getting rid of all her thoughts, her entire body felt so relieved, as if a significant burden had fallen from her. She put pen and paper aside and fell asleep within a few seconds.