Enrei floated in a dark and damp place, her skin felt chilled yet warmed, replacing the tingling nature of her dozens of wounds. At least this time, the boat’s like a cloud. She breaths a mental sigh.

‘This is it…’

Once more Enrei failed, brazenly charging into the Hoarfrost took her life… There’s a blend of emotions, but above all else… Disappointment, regret. The Boatswain had led her to death and didn’t even sing her haunting yet beautiful song as she crossed.

‘This is the well…’

Enrei hated it, as her heart thrummed a rising pain spawned within her chest and veins like a cascading heartburn, between her eye’s a dense pressure built between them.

She gasped for air, as her limbs twitch.

‘Wait a minute!’

Enrei shoots upright in surprise, a rag falls onto the cloud white blankets covering and the bed which had been plucked from the heavens themselves.

The room is sizable, only furnished by her bed, a table and an empty shelf; Fang is leaned up against the door. Despite the bareness, the lunar blue walls livened with natural curves and bends of a luminous white stone with a slight golden iridescence.

Her robes carry a similar design in color and pattern. They’re comfortable, and slightly regal but the tight sleeves, the hem ends just above her knees with pants covering the rest of her legs, making it more than viable for everyday purposes a Sentinel may need whilst being quite fashionable.

‘There’s no Qi in it…’

Despite scouring the room, Royan is nowhere in sight spawning a sweat across her brow, seeking to locate it, Enrei readied to send her Qi out to form a guide but once the energy is applied, a burning sensation tremored throughout her body like sizzling oil.

In an instant, her teeth grit as she choked down a cry, gripping the nearby table to save her from hitting the floor.

‘What the hell… Is happening to me?!’

Reacting to her plight, the ambient Qi drew toward her like a magnet alleviating the pain whilst the minty smell amplified. Recomposing, Enrei struggled to swallow as she went to the door, it’s unlocked.

Instantly, she freezes in place. For a moment it felt as if she were under the gaze of a great beast as she faced down a white rabbit no bigger than a large house cat adorned with jade jewelry. It’s dope black eyes sparkle with red.

“Goood evening young lady, it’s quite a sight to see you up so shortly!”

The Spirit Rabbit spoke, commanding the qi to ripple around him; his tone is jolly yet proper almost like an old butler staving away exhaust.

“I believe my fair lady wishes to speak with you, come come.”

He hopped down the hallway with Enrei in tow, occasionally pain bubbled in her step forcing her to limp and pause.

“Who… Are you?” She asks.

“I am but a humble servant, please don’t worry yourself with me.” Its ears flopped, “My lady is a much more interesting caricature than myself.”

Rabbit led her to a living room at the hall's end. A pair of sofa’s face each other with a table between them, Royan rests on the table trickling with energy. Normally, it would’ve drawn Enrei’s sight if it weren’t for the woman facing out the window speaking.

“Thank you, Hare. You may leave us.” Her elegant voice is soothing and clear with a slight regality to each word.

Without a sound, Hare bowed, and hops out of the room with the door closing behind him.

Lunar blue hair slowly swept into dim whites, framing her face. A ponytail spawns from a bun, with two hairpins put into it. One, represents the waning moon, the other a waxing. She dons a regal and ornate armor that’s turquoise and white in color with trims of gold, while the gauntlets are separate pieces, a black silk sleeve runs from her hand to her shoulders.

An emerald jewel shimmers in the armor's sternum, and her entire form is framed by a pair of golden hawk wings sprouting from her shoulders and held at a rest. Enrei herself is caught in the woman's jade-colored eyes which swirl with regal mirth and curiosity.

“It’s relieving to see you walking again,” There’s a passion in her voice as she softly smiles, “I was in the area looking for interesting monsters, and I happened to find you in the snow three feet into deaths door… How are you feeling, Miss..?”

“Enrei.” She answers, “I’m feeling well, thank you…”

“Parvatti.”

The warrior answers with a slight bow,

“If I may ask…”

Parvatti raises a brow.

“What brings a Sentinel this far into the Hoarfrost? Even with your… Special Qi Realm core, you should’ve known a wrong breath would’ve frozen you solid.”

“I…I came because I needed to get stronger, and fast…”

Enrei recollected the events leading her here. The sudden razing of Snowhaven and the slaughter of the Asarge. The battle with Xei and meeting Squuyu. She spoke of the evidence pointing toward House Caprinoue as the masterminds. Enrei did however refrain from mentioning anything about the Boatswain.

When she finished, Enrei’s tears are fought back by unadulterated rage flowing through her veins as the foreign Qi nipped and budded away at the rocking pains sprouting from her anger.

“... So… I sought a teacher, I sought the Moonlance… So, I can hold my own against cultivators. Proper cultivators.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Parvati bowed her head, speaking with a somber tone, “You, and your people have my condolences.”

Enrei chewed her lip, remaining quiet.

“I will help you make amends, under one condition.” Parvatti stood up straight, standing a head and shoulder over Enrei. “You will give us a year before seeking revenge.”

The Sentinel glanced around, a sweat wetting her frigid brow.

“A–A year?! You can’t possibly mean that—” Pain boils across her veins, making her seethe before it dissipates, “If we take that long they could be dead, if–!”

“I understand how you feel, and I applaud your determination to right this unfortunate event… As you are now, you would sooner perish against yourself, then by a beast or cultivator.”

Enrei chews her cheek as Parvatti continues, stepping forward.

“They could be dead, but don’t let your grief blind reason… Why would House Caprinoue hire beasts to take them Demihumans across the frontier alive if they were going to kill them?”

The Moonlance placed her hand on Enrei’s shoulder, making the sentinel jolt. Not from fear, nor pressure but the soothing sensation brought by the midnight silk glove beneath her gauntlet.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“The Goat is headed by fools, but they’d be more than willing in filthening their hands if it meant saving pennies.”

Enrei’s shoulders relaxed as she tasted iron, her fists closing. Desperately, she wanted to dispute it. Training for a year is bad on time, but remaining idle is worse. Each second is a second longer they suffered, and a second wasted.

She needed to get stronger, the battle against Xei is proof as were Squuyu’s words… If, what Parvatti spoke is true, that this event hadn’t been isolated… It dawned on her. Those words were spoken to her an eternity ago.

‘They march to a fate far from Nirvana’s grace, and further from the enlightened peaks of Heaven.’

It was what convinced Enrei to take the Boatswains offer, to walk the earth once more and now she grimaced. Her family didn’t march toward death, they’re being dragged to a far darker fate. One, she needs to prevent from coming.

Enrei grimaced, they don’t march toward death. They’re being dragged to a fate far darker. A fate she needs to prevent. Her eye’s water with scarlet tears muddled by oil, as she sighed.

“I–I’ll take it. One year, no longer.” The Sentinel resolves.

Parvatti’s soft smile grew, looking over her new apprentice.

“When the next season of Hoarfrost comes, the Great Beast at its will be slain and you will march on Shanyang, this, I promise to you, my pupil.”

Enrei met her eyes, asking.

“When do we begin?”

“Starting now. Walk with me.”

Enrei nodded, glancing around the room.

“Could… I bring Royan with me?”

Parvatti looked to the spirit bow with a funereal look, “Not yet.”

Enrei frowned,

“For our first lesson, it is important to limit outside variables. I’m… Afraid your connection with Royan would disrupt your practices.” She offers a comforting smile, “Once we get a hand on it, your spirit bow will be returned.”

Hesitant, Enrei nods. The idea of leaving Royan behind doesn’t sit well. A mark of power, a final vestige of her father and an heirloom that’d been in their family for generations. But if Parvatti deemed it necessary, then it was and Enrei followed her into the hallway.

It curved inward, every other pearlescent window has a flower bed holding tulips which shimmer the moons radiance and blue grasses carrying its grace, a lick of majesty infront of the howling Hoarfrost on the other side.

“What’s the first lesson going to be?”

Enrei wisps as they walk through the hall, at its end there is a double door with a full moon forming when each half is closed.

“Foundations.” Parvatti speaks with a smile, pushing the pale blue door open, “Your spirit in particular. Your Physical Foundation could use slight improvements, but it’s close to the peak for someone at your stage… And your mind can wait till we placate your spirit.”

They enter a circular courtyard, crested at the center rests a stone platform where a moonbeam lands from the sunroof, adding to the stone's natural luminosity and further distincting from the pearlescent white sand which has several circles forming several independent circles within the main radius.

Forming the walls of this garden are a mix of lunar tulips small enough to fit in a pot, and others larger than doors. Crested midway up the wall is the Lunar cycle with the full moon being above the door and the New Moon crested above the opposite door.

“I–”

Enrei stuttered as they walked through the calming garden, motes of Qi lingered in the air, reminiscent of water with a slight pull and calming effect,

“There’s no point to train my spirit… My core is stuck this small, and I was never able to go up a stage past 3.”

Enrei cursed beneath her breath as Parvatti led across the stone pathway and to the luminous center.

“It isn’t a matter of training, nor simply tempering it just for strength, which will come through it but… It is regaining your Dominion before you burn out.”

The pair stop at the center, bating in the gentle moonray piercing through the dense Hoarfrost like a spear. Enrei raised a brow, a spark lighting in her heart.

“What do you mean?”

“Have you looked at your core recently?”

“Only… Only when I was filtering poison, or warmth.” In the middle of battle, no less.

Parvatti raised a brow, “And you never thought of healing your wounds?”

“I did… Squuyu gave me a pill for it too, but the Hoarfrost froze them before the Qi could work… And I never got a chance to thaw.”

The Moonlance nods, “Have a seat, it’ll be easier to show.”

Enrei followed her onto the smooth stone, assuming a meditaitive stance. Her legs crossed and breathing slowly, she never mediated often; there was seldom a reason too. Sure, it allowed her to clear her mind, but she’d rather hunt or goof off with her sisters… And a weeks' worth of Qi was naturally drawn from the Hoarfrost throughout her first few minutes spent outside.

With no reason for refining, or attempting to comprehend it, because she would never ascend in Stage nor Core. Her sole technique worked better with unrefined Qi as well, allowing her to blend in with the surroundings.

Despite Enrei’s thoughts of meditating, after the third breath she is taken to a realm of black. A Spiritspace. Everyone had one, they were nothing special. The perpetual darkness is broken at first by a small pebble of ice rebuilding itself, little flakes fall off peaks jagged and smooth and into the nothingness below.

No matter how miniscule her core is, it shone like a beacon, a reminder of her existence throughout this realm of soul.

Another breath, she felt a rising, constricting heat spread through her as if temperature became a snake hell bent on strangling and burning the life out of her.

Pain rumbled throughout Enrei as her core surged, the expanse filled with a luminous aura of foreign Qi speckled throughout the darkness it acted as a shield against the scorching stars heat, threatening to melt and crush her in one fell swoop, turning her attention to the south.

Amidst the darkness she witnessed a titanic sphere whipping and lashing with vibrant flames possessing a venerable rage. The overwhelming power twists and contorts as darkness smothered it like ash, shrouding grandeur and glory through its own blaze like the core of a long dead sun clinging to life before the end of a primeval existence.

Tridents and rays, multi-pronged unadulterated streams of flame connected to her thawing core in an aggressive assault. At first, they were vast and long, but a series of dams and knots constrained it as it battles against its neighbor.

A shimmering pond of pure ice and frost soaked like a sponge with, with ambient Ice Qi aimlessly drawn toward it in the midst of this perpetual battle. Wide streams connected to her core, narrowing and faltering beneath the heat.

Enrei coughed, her body shaking and rattling as she sought to end this session; still she found herself drawn in like a moth toward the sun. Unable to end her meditation as she desperately tried to comprehend how this came to be.

Making matters worse a nascent cloud hardly larger than a nimbus made of Wind, it hazarded around harassing all caught within its maelstrom furthering the elemental pandemonia inside her spirit… All of it pale to what lie beneath, where everything gravitated toward.

A formidable pool of black and oil sparkled with distant star’s sprawled with a primordial expanse, faint hands reach out with stygian tips freezing heat itself. They are neither complacent, nor active, they simply are, and in being so, all four entities are drawn toward them.

Desperately, she fought against the unavoidable pull to little success only for another flash of the soothing aura interrupting it all and returning them back to place, to begin their pandemonia once more as Enrei is thrust from her spirit with a gasp.

Coating her brow is a thin sheen of sweat as her bones rattle, every hair stood on edge while her eye’s frantically search for a vacant solution. Enrei’s heart thrummed like a herd of beasts, readying to stampede out of her chest.

Parvatti’s voice soothed her as the garden's ambient Qi lit like fireflies.

“Your core is caught in pandemonia, your Dao’s are conflicting, and you cannot control them.”

She solemnly reports,

“This is not the end, but if you wish to continue, if you wish to live and get stronger your dominion will need to reign once more…”

She pauses, Enrei’s trembling comes to a stop though her breathing is still heavy, and she lurches forward as she holds the urge to vomit.

“The first step is regrowing and strengthening your roots, from there, you will ascend a stage.”

Enrei finished collecting herself, biting her lip as Parvatti continued.

“Enrei, Sentinel of Hoarfrost… Hunter of Snowhaven, are you ready to reclaim your comprehension and garner your strength?”

Enrei experienced death, her own and others. She’d been stabbed, clawed, bludgeoned and frozen… Yet, all that paled to the feeling of her being torn and frozen, scorched and broken from within where only a thin, bright veil separated her from eternities final embrace.

Her coal and red eyes drew a steely look as she met her newfound teacher's, shelving the pain behind her as she sat upright, fidgeting back into a meditative sitting.

“I’m ready.”

Parvatti drew a soft smile,

“Good.” The Moonlance came closer, ambient luminosity swirled off her fingertips. “We’ll begin with my presence, and slowly ease it off until you feel a tingle.”

Her hands rest on Enrei’s shoulders,

“When the pain becomes unbearable, inform me and I’ll reinstate.”

“Good,” She came closer, ambient luminosity swirled off her fingertips “We’ll begin with my presence, and slowly ease it off until you feel a tingle… When you get to where you can’t handle it, inform me and we’ll start from there.

Enrei nods, and with a series of deep, long breaths she returns to her personal pandemonia once more.