Tantra has found herself with a sudden explosion of free time as she lays on her cot. Apparently the Serpent’s Fang takes recovery quite seriously, and the masters refuse to let her participate in training until she is whole and hale. Not that she’s complaining, she’s just bored, the only thing to occupy her being threading together Qi. Which while not thrilling, does work in passing time quickly.
“How are we feeling today?” says a woman of modest stature and vibrant green eyes.
“Much better,” Tantra replies, bowing from her cot. “This one thanks healer Toka for her meticulous care.”
Toka sighs, “You know I’m attached to the Dao of health right? I can literally see the wounds and how they hurt you. Putting up a front for your healer isn’t a medically advisable course of action, little bean.”
Tantra raises a brow, “last I checked, I am quite human.”
Toka snorts, “disgustingly so, but we can work on fixing that once you get back to your training.”
Toka goes over her wounds, changing bandages and applying salves, It hurts quite a lot when Toka reaches her collar bone, and she doesn’t make it a secret with a rather large wince to accompany every application. Eventually Toka is done, fresh bandages applied and wounds tended to, Toka grabs her tools and goes to stand.
“Well, call for me if you need anything,” Toka says, “I’m rather swamped with disciples to take care of right now,” and so she heads off.
Unfortunately, those aforementioned disciples weren’t the ones on patrol, they’re mostly dead, no, quite a few more houses were raided, resulting in a multitude of dead and injured. Yorin is one of them, huddled somewhere in the medicine hall, she knows because Toka told her when she asked. Kisrin is fine, even came to visit a few hours ago, his home was untouched. He promised to bring a few books, of which Tantra can hardly wait to crack open, hopefully he has good taste.
All of this distracts from the issue of Karaz. She’s alive, if only barely. Her wound progressed to an infection that the healers are fighting fiercely to suppress, using actual Qi techniques rather than simple salves. That, above all else, is why she feels no guilt for her part in killing that man.
Although the anger on his face after she stabbed him…she doesn’t think she’ll forget that anytime soon. She doesn’t think she’ll be able to forget that whole encounter, even if a mentalist tried to erase it from her mind.
“Thinking dark thoughts hmmm?” Says a voice beside her.
Tantra jumps, turning to see the librarian sitting cross-legged next to her cot, cheek on his fist as he regards her.
Tantra lets out a deep breath, “I didn’t see you there master.”
He grunts, “It happens when you're all focused like you were. Have to start making spatial awareness a habit, no telling when you could be attacked after all.”
Tantra casts down her gaze, “indeed.”
“Learn to get used to the violence girl.” He says suddenly, “if you survive you’ll see a lot of it.”
Tantra nods hesitantly, “yes master.”
The librarian sighs, “don’t just agree girl, I can tell you have more to say.”
Tantra looks down at her hands, “what do I have to say master? I almost died, but I didn’t. I fought for my life and came out alive. What else is there to say?”
“But you don’t enjoy that you had to do it,” he points out.
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“No,” she says
He takes a sip from his wineskin then passes it to her. She can smell the sharp scent of alcohol, something strong. She takes a swig.
“Were you afraid?” He asks as she hands him back the wineskin.
Tantra looks away in shame, “yes master.”
“Why were you afraid?”
Tantra looks at him perplexed, “I almost died.”
“Indeed you did,” he nods, “but by your own admission you didn’t, and that’s all you had to say on the matter, so why were you afraid?”
Tantra stares at the man then hugs her knees, “I have many siblings,” she says, “my father took on many concubines. I was afraid I'd never get to see either again, that I would die in this place and they would be none the wiser.”
He takes another sip from his wineskin and passes it back to her.
“Is that why you cultivate? To someday reach home?”
“Yes.” She says.
“Noble,” he nods, “but foolish. Few are the chances we get to become immortals, fewer still for those like you. Yet you wish to throw it all away once you leave this place?”
“I never chose this life,” She spits out.
“Do you think the peasant chooses to be a farmer, or the soldier chooses to fight for his liege? No, they are the cards life has given us, and you have been dealt quite the nice hand. Yet instead of being grateful you resent the thought of being here, of becoming something that defies the fate of the heavens rather than a simple merchant.” He says “I have to admit you confuse me.”
“Forgiveness master,” She says, “but in what world is someone like me meant to cultivate?”
“In what world indeed.” He muses, “and yet here you are. You’ve made progress in the last two and a half months, the girl from back then would not have survived an encounter with a cultivator in the midst of purification. Do you not see, girl? You could become like one of us, all it takes is a bit more dedication than your peers.”
“Forgiveness, but I don’t want to be like you.” She says a little too sharply.
The librarian sighs, “think it over at least.”
-
Eventually she was discharged from the medicine hall, with explicit orders not to participate in the training until at least next week's check up. She’s not complaining about that verdict. Leaving more time to read and weave, she did a lot of that in the medicine hall, and she doesn’t plan on stopping now. Her control hasn’t skyrocketed with the extra time, not by any means, but now after only an hour of weaving the rope can reach her brain. She wonders how long it’ll take just to reach the next exercise. She assumes that she only should once her weaving is just as fast as her current circulation speed. But she has something else to worry about. Half of her core is filled with Qi from her soul, not enough to cleanse a major meridian, but perhaps with her control, meager as it is, she can open up one of the smaller ones.
It’s skipping ahead a bit, normally the seven main meridians are opened in the foundation realm and the rest are dealt with after. It’s almost a waste to use it on one of the twelve hundred and thirty two minor meridians so early, but she is in no way ready to cleanse a major one. She heads over to her home after visiting Yorin, ignoring Dok on her way in, and enters her room, sitting cross legged on her bed.
She takes a deep breath and enters her inner world. Well, not really, that’s not how it works but its a close enough description. She views all the tangles and impurities, in her chest is one gigantic meridian, almost as large as her core, but that is not her focus. Perhaps it will never be her focus. No matter how much she progresses, it doesn’t change the fact that her soul will always produce its meager offerings, and fighting off the taint would be a losing battle unless she does it in one go. Which requires a much bigger core and potentially months worth of soul Qi.
Seriously, her, a cultivator? When she can’t even do something so basic? Ridiculous.
She puts that out of her mind and focuses, searching for one specific meridian until…there. Meridians filled with taint look almost like a void, like something hungry searching to feast. If given normal Qi it will simply grow, Qi from the very soul however?
That is perfect for exterminating vermin.
She pushes a constant thread of Qi into the meridian as the taint slowly burns away. It is a war for dominance, she has to do it all in one go, or she won’t get another chance. Over the course of an hour she maintains this until finally, there is no rot to be found, opening up one of the minor meridians and connecting it to her soul.
She sighs in relief as she opens her eyes and feels the pain in her right collarbone subside slightly. There’s a slight smile on her face, sure she accomplished something basic, and the rest of her meridians will be marginally harder to cleanse, but she did it. Something she never thought herself capable of.
She takes a whiff of victory.
“Good gods, that smells horrendous.”