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Chapter 66: "Dangerous Implications."
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Shae bowed to greet Senior chameleon, plucked a book off the shelf, and sat down before Hon caught up. He hesitated at the doorway, likely sensing the change in qi pressure.
"Come on in and sit. Unless you'd prefer to wait out there?" She asked.
He took a cautious step into the room. Discomfort clear on his face. He forcibly adjusted his robes with a slow blink, then seemed to have an easier time with the pressure. He moved slowly across the room, taking it in, but it looked more forced than casual.
She had grabbed the third book, the one on meridians, and was reading the introduction thoroughly. She planned on skimming much of the later information, but some sections were worth reading properly.
Hon huffed out then took a slightly strained breath. "How are you handling this pressure?"
"Tempering." She muttered into her book, then waved him to sit.
He shrugged and took the other chair. "Ahhh, that does help a bit."
Shae, because he had complained about it, noticed a slight shift as he took the seat. Then glanced between the terrarium and Hon. She was almost directly between them. She shifted her sitting position in an attempt to casually extend a limb between the two seniors. Sure enough she felt the qi pressure increase.
"And, uh." Hon learned over and lowered his voice, "Who's qi is this? It doesn't feel like Doctor Cho's."
She resisted the urge to sign, and instead exhaled stiffly as she half-closed her book, leaving a finger to mark the page. "Apologies, Senior, for not introducing my associate." She stood and bowed to the terrarium. She gestured to the seated man, "This is Guard Hon of the Honorable Dragon's Entreaty sect. Guard Hon, the qi you are feeling belongs to one Senior Brother of Perpetual Reflections. Though he may not reveal himself, he is monitoring this room." She gestured to the terrarium.
She noticed the qi pressure waver when she stepped through it. Yet even after the introduction, it hadn't lowered to the same level as the rest of the room.
Guard Hon looked slightly stunned, then quickly stood and bowed in the rough direction of the terrarium. "This one greets Senior Brother."
"Tsk. Say the whole thing," Shae leaned closer and whispered to him.
"Huh?"
"Don't shorten his name, say the whole thing."
"Ah." He jerked up in realization, then smoothed his robes and bowed again, deeper this time, and adding a martial salute. "This one apologizes for not greeting you properly upon entering the room, Senior Brother of Perpetual Reflections."
Shae nodded but noticed the qi pressure still hadn't dropped. "Hmm. Ah." She turned to face the terrarium again. "Senior, Guard Hon is acting as my personal guard while I am in Gatewash. I hold no ill will against him, even after our previous discussion. However, I'm sure he would be comfortable waiting outside the room if you insist." She dipped her head and stepped through the qi pressure to sit. Again, she felt it waver as she did so, likely trying to avoid pressuring her.
Guard Hon held his bow and remained silent. Two breaths later he straightened and turned to leave, then stopped. The relief of the pressure being removed was clear as he let out an uncontrolled sigh. He turned back to the terrarium to give another martial salute. "Thank you, Senior." Then he returned to the chair and sat with a clear sign of pleased relaxation. "Mhmm... good chair." He muttered.
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The next few hours passed with only two interruptions. First, Hon finally got bored enough to browse the shorter shelves for something to read. He emitted a surprised "Huh?" when he found something, and quickly returned to his seat with it.
The second interruption was Doctor Cho, emerging from his office.
"Ahh, Miss Shae, nice to see you still at it, or did you return after dinner." He said.
She dipped her head. "Doctor Cho, good to see you. I did break for a meal and brought Guard Hon with me on the way back. I hope you don't mind."
"It is a public space." He shrugged and gestured to the open door.
"Glad to see you again, Doctor Cho." Hon straightened up and gave a martial salute. "I assume Miss Shae's recovery has been going well?"
Cho nodded. "About as well as it could be, I think." He spotted the book Hon was reading. "Ah-ha, good choice. The sequel is also excellent, drags out a bit longer, but there's more action, if that's what you're looking for."
Hon looked down at the book, cleared his throat quickly and nodded. "Thank you for the recommendation, Doctor."
"Anytime. And Miss Shae, I'm afraid I'll be too busy this night to observe your cleansing, as we discussed. However, there was some concern over your shadow qi scarring. With your permission, I'd like to biopsy the tissue to determine if it's dormant or simple scarring."
"Hmm, I don't see why not. Are there specific risks with either case?"
"There are always risks with qi, moreso with shadow qi. Though, I'd think you've already overcome most of them during the initial altercation. Scarring is what we would expect and should be harmless, able to be cleansed away. Dormant means what it sounds like, it's sleeping waiting to be used, or worse, waiting for something else." Cho finished with a serious tone.
Tense silence filled the room, with only the varied breathing of the three human cultivators to disrupt it.
Shae felt a grinding click from the terrarium and glanced over in time to see a turquoise flash on the wall.
Doctor Cho spotted it as well and nodded to the spirit beast that was still visually missing from the glass tank. "Good idea, Brother of Perpetual Reflections." He turned back to the pair, spotting Hon looking rather confused and Shae already looking at the wall. "Senior here suggests we perform the biopsy here. Not what I'd normally agree with, but his light qi could prevent an incident."
"Light?" Shae blurted out. "I thought it was pure color. Ah, that's not a criticism, Senior. Of course it's light, I was simply impressed by the... uh, saturation."
There was another tense pause as the room waited for a response. When none came, Shae inclined her head towards the terrarium. "I would be glad to have Senior here."
"Excellent!" Cho nodded and walked back to his office. "One moment while I prepare. If you two would move the chairs and grab a bed, yes?" He didn't wait for a response from them.
The two looked at each other, waited a beat, then shrugged. They quickly moved the chairs against the large shelves and moved a bed next to the terrarium. Leaving room on either side for someone to stand.
Just after they finished, Doctor Cho returned with a few ornate wooden boxes in hand, and shortly after Nurse Joi arrived with a cart of what looked like a mix of surgical tools and mad scientist props.
They quickly set up, and Shae was relaxed in the bed with her arm bear, her right side facing the terrarium. She decided to ask Doctor Cho for a favor. "If it's not a difficult procedure. Would you mind explaining it to me? Just to sate my curiosity."
"If it's not too difficult? What a dangerous phrase." Cho pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow. "If it was difficult, and I wasn't so humble, I might try and get distracted. Are you sure?"
Shae swallowed her nerves and then nodded.
"Heh heh. Luckily, it is simple." He smirked and brought out his stethoscope-like spiritual tool.
"Ah! You had that before! When I woke up right after the fight." She tried to sit up to see it but Nurse Joi pushed her shoulder down.
"Stay still please."
"And don't channel qi," Cho continued. "This tool senses qi in the body. I'll use it to make sure the shadow qi doesn't react, but if you channel then it won't be sensitive enough to see the shadow qi over your own qi."
Doctor Cho continued to talk through the procedure. Taking the time to get a baseline scan of the shadow scarring, then locating a thin off-shoot with lots of plain skin around it. Long enough that it couldn't quickly 'propagate back to the large mass' then he slowly attempted to detach and remove the strand.
All this was done painlessly and without anesthetic, until he finally needed to make an incision. He readied a scalpel and said, "This may sting a bit, try not to flinch."
Shae immediately flinched by turning her head away and tensing up half her body in anticipation.
"Hmm," Doctor Cho hummed. "We would use anesthetic, or a paralytic, but both would introduce qi into your system and cause interference."
"Uhh? Really?" Shae cracked open an eye and began to relax when she saw he had moved the scalpel away. "Couldn't you use mundane medicine, stuff without qi in it?"
"Without qi? Everything has qi in it." He raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, like, mortal stuff? Does it have to be cultivator grade anesthetic?"
"What did I just say?"
"Uhh, everything has-wait, like even the little bit of background qi would be a problem?"
He nodded. "This spiritual tool can be very sensitive to qi, and I need to see the exact moment the shadow qi reacts."
"Huh." She just said, and looked up at the ceiling.
"I'll try an alcohol swab, it'll feel cold but it should help with the pain. Say, did you ask Guard Hon about your spiritual tool?" He said while massaging the skin of her arm lightly.
"Oh! I forgot. Hey Hon!" She turned to look across the room. Nurse Joi leaned on her right shoulder, stopping her arm from shifting. "What happened to the giant spirit beast? I left one of my acupuncture needles in it, attached to an arrow." She felt the cold alcohol swab slide down her arm.
Hon's eyes went a little wide, he snapped his gaze from her arm to her. "Uhh, um, that's a hell of a statement. How'd it get in there?"
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"Shot it from my bow."
"Is that how our Martial Senior wounded it? You did say she borrowed your bow."
"No this one was me, I shot it a few times after it was pinned. And called out targets for the rock dropping." She felt more coldness on her arm but was thoroughly distracted by the conversation. "Ugh, hope the falling rock didn't break it... Well, it definitely broke the arrow, but my hairpin should be okay."
"Wait, hairpin? I thought it was a needle?" Nurse Joi asked, leaning over her to get into her line of sight.
"Uh, yea, I was calling them hairpins at first, then someone said they were acupuncture needles, guess I need to decide on a name for them." She looked up at the ceiling again and felt Doctor Cho's fingers pinching her skin together as he... did something... "What are you doing there?" She looked back to see him slowly working a piece of tape over a long cut in her arm. "Ugh, when did that happen?"
"Heh, while you were distracted. Though I must say I was also rather distracted. Hard to not react to a story like that. They told me you were at the front lines, but I didn't think they meant you were contributing to the fight."
"If I couldn't tell you weren't lying I wouldn't have believed it myself." Nurse Joi chimed in.
"Uh, yeah, sorry to pile on, but that was a little hard to believe." Hon shrugged.
Shae rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Did you see what happened to the body? Or hear if anything was found during the clean-up?"
"I believe one of the sect Elders picked up the body with their spatial storage."
Nurse Joi gasped.
"The whole beast?" Cho spoke up, also sounding surprised. "I had heard it was quite large."
"Yeah, it was pretty big. Like, uhh, a few wagons stacked together?" She looked over at Hon, who just shrugged. "I guess it was bigger at the end, when it was covered in crystal."
"You're sure it's stuck in the beast? I can ask around, see if any weird arrows were found." Hon suggested.
"Hmm, pretty sure. It had a lot of sharpness on it from Long's domain. I guess it could have punched right through, maybe stuck in the ground."
"Uhhh, sure," he said. Then scrunched his face up and shook his head. "Where?"
"Oh, uhm, where the first rocks were dropped on it, and it was pinned. Then it's right forearm, so six to a dozen paces further out from the canyon wall."
"Okay, I'll go take a look and ask around." He said and got up.
"Wait, right now? Isn't it kinda late, and dark out?" She asked.
"Sure, sooner the better though. Someone else might find it. You probably need a nap after that?"
"Rest would be advised," Cho said. "Though, based on this," he shook a small glass vial of black fluid. "I wouldn't mind extracting more."
"Oh? Why's that? Is it dangerous?"
He shook his head. "Quite the opposite. It's very much not dangerous, which is important."
"Doesn't that mean it's just shadow scarring? I thought you said dormant qi was dangerous."
"It can be dangerous. Shadow qi is one of the more dangerous kinds. This is dormant shadow qi, but seems to have been completely pacified. It isn't reacting with anything, aside from slowly dissipating in the light. As is normal. Do you recall how this happened?"
Hon cleared his throat before Shae could respond. "A-hem, before you get into that, I'm going to head out. One last thing for you, Miss Shae. Our Elder, you can probably guess which one, had a message for you. She thinks your 'little bet' may require some adjudication." He rolled half a shrug into a martial salute and bowed to the room, "good luck with the cutting, try to leave her some arm behind."
"Eh? Adjudication?" Shae stared at Hon's back with confusion clear on her face. Then she scrunched up her face when more by trying to make sense of it, I can't see an argument for how I won the bet: the last arrow never landed. That and he didn't even really agree to it in the first place.
Doctor Cho cleared his throat.
"Err, right, sorry. You were asking about the shadow scarring. Hmm," she hummed. "I was panicking a bit while it happened; I guess that I was mainly trying to get it to just stop."
He nodded, "It's surprising that you succeeded, but that does track with how it is now acting." He tilted his head to either side. "I suppose... If it was an old enchantment, the qi could have been neutral or lost its attunement to its owner, making it easier to subvert." He lifted her arm up, taking a closer look at the branching patterns.
"Subvert? Don't know that word, is that like take over? Is it my shadow qi now?" Her eyes went wide.
"The amount of branching suggests it wasn't a focused attack. Probably didn't have enough power to track your qi channels perfectly, or you pushed it out of them, I suppose." He looked up at her and slowly shook his head. "I'd say toying with shadow qi is like playing with fire, but that idiom holds no weight to us cultivators."
"Hah." Nurse Joi chuckled. "Ribbon dancing on a mountain in a thunderstorm?"
Shae coughed to the side.
"A better warning. Though some would do that for lightning cultivation. It's probably yours so long as it remains dormant, that's a reasonable assumption. If you try to tell it to act again, it may defer to its previous curse instructions instead of your own will." He lifted the dark vial off the side table. "Like this it should be harmless, dissolving it in spiritual water should break it down enough to be safely examined. What anyone would actually use it for," he shrugged. "I only want a second sample for scientific curiosity. So that if I do think of something, I don't have to chase you down again."
She shrugged, "I don't mind, that first one wasn't that bad. Can you take it out of the center of my palm? I don't really like the look of that big black spot."
He glanced at it and frowned. "Honestly, if there's active shadow qi anywhere here, it's probably right there. The large mass could be acting like a shell." He tilted his head back and forth, considering.
Shae felt a grinding *click-click* from the terrarium and spotted a brief flash of the chameleon as he projected light onto the bedside where they all could see it. It was a simple pictogram of a bright flame with darkness around it being pushed away in a starburst pattern.
"Excellent suggestion, Brother of Perpetual Reflections." Cho said while staring directly into Shae's eyes. A beat later he looked away, "Nurse Joi. Could you fetch my set of qi lenses from my office? Should be in the Northeast corner, third or fourth drawer, no rush."
She nodded, "Of course, Doctor. Do ask the patient before you begin another procedure, though." She smirked at his expression and walked away.
He cleared his throat roughly into his sleeve. "So, Wise Shae," he began slowly as Joi left the room. When the door closed he pulled out a pocket watch and clicked it, the sound in the room changed, deadened and free of echoes. His expression instantly changed, he was focused and serious. "Shae, quickly now, this is important, can you feel any odd sensations, or hear any noises when the Senior Brother uses his abilities?"
She hesitated only a little. "Uh, yes. I can hear it, maybe feel it grinding, like glass against itself."
"Alright," he put both his palms together and put them up to his lips, concentrating on his next words. "I'm not sure how much I can explain, but that is a very unique sense for one at your stage. It's like-"
She held up a hand to stop him. "I know what it is. It's his Dao grinding against itself because he broke it in the past."
Brother of Perpetual Reflections appeared in his terrarium, a mottled grey-green with spots of brown covering his skin. Shae thought it might be his real skin color. Even his dorsal ridge wasn't illuminated. His focus was solely on Shae, qi pressure slowly increasing.
"Apologies, Senior." She fumbled out a bow from her reclined position in the bed. "It's not the first broken Dao I've sensed, and yours is doing much better than the two military recruits I felt in Minlin City. Theirs wouldn't even stop grinding. I- uh-" she trailed off, not sure how else to mollify the spirit beast.
Doctor Cho recovered at this point. "Well, that's good that you know. However, it's generally considered very rude to talk about another cultivator's Dao. Even in passing."
"Err, but you-"
He stopped her with a raised hand. "You could have just said you know, and mentioned Minlin. Doesn't matter, it's in the past." He glanced at the chameleon with a particular look. The Spirit beast backed off its qi pressure. Then Cho glanced at his office door. "I trust her, but only so far, you shouldn't trust anyone with knowledge of that sense, it has certain implications. Especially alongside this type of cleansing."
"Uhm, how dangerous is it?"
"Mostly in how you got it. If you don't know that's possibly worse. Gaining a reliable way for low stage cultivators to sense Dao had been a goal of every noble house for millennia. And I hope that is the full extent of your ability."
Shae shifted uncomfortably.
Cho frowned, covered his eyes and raised a palm to her. "No, no-no. Don't tell me anything, don't even give me a hint. Doctor-patient confidentiality only goes so far. Just try not to make it as obvious as you have been. You looked over at Senior here before he even flashed his lights."
"Uh, alright. I'll try to be more subtle."
He didn't lower his hand from his eyes. "Don't even try to be subtle, just ignore it if you can. Once you're core stage no one will care anymore, even late formation is fine. Hmm, I think that's enough for now." He clicked his pocket watch again and the sound in the room returned to normal.
Shae looked up at the ceiling, working through questions she should have asked, and wondering if she should never ask them.
Nurse Joi walked into Shae's line of sight and smiled at the terrarium. "Ah! Cham-Cham is here! How've you been, old boy?"
Shae gawked as the woman reached into a pocket then dropped something into the terrarium from that hand. The chameleon snapped its tongue out, grabbing the snack out of mid-air. She could have sworn that it smiled, then its scales rippled with color, bright orange and green neons cascading down it from nose to tail.
"Ah-ha! Lovely colors, Cham-Cham!"
Shae snapped her mouth shut and glanced at Doctor Cho for explanation.
He was smiling wide as well, and nodded to Shae. "Joi grew up around our Senior here. They get along quite well."
"I can see that." She mumbled and watched the woman dote on the lizard; mumbling baby talk and wiggling her fingers at it from the roof-flap into its tank.
Finally, after a few more breaths of that, Joi looked back at them, "So? What did you think of the procedure, Miss Shae?"
"Uhhhgh."
"He didn't actually explain it to you, did he?" She glanced at the doctor who turned to the side to clear his throat. "Well, I suppose I missed an interesting conversation then. I might have to ask Cham-Cham for the highlights later."
Cham-Cham rippled with bright light.
"Please, don't." Cho dipped his head. "It was intended to be confidential. I apologize for the subterfuge, but we do need the lenses."
Joi set down an articulated metal construction. "For the procedure you haven't explained yet?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and offered a wooden box with her other hand.
"Yes, exactly." He nodded and accepted the box, opening it immediately and revealing a selection of glass lenses. He spoke as he picked through them, "Cha- A-hem, Brother of Perpetual Reflections has suggested we use focused light to negate the shadow qi in your palm. In theory, it would neutralize it before it can become a problem."
"In theory?"
"There are risks, of course. Mainly that there might be more fully active shadow qi encapsulated than what we are capable of handling. Though, given its size, I find that unlikely."
Shae flexed her hand and looked at the blob of black at the center of her palm. She took a few breaths to examine her memories of the struggle versus the curse. "Spiritual water also neutralizes it?"
Cho nodded sideways. "It should, though for it to be most effective, the concentrations required tend to melt flesh and damage qi channels."
"Uhhh, oh! That shouldn't be a problem," she said with a smile. "I dunked my finger in it a few days ago and it was fine for a good while."
The two medical professionals stared silently at her for half a breath.
"Because of the cleansing." She pointed at her right arm.
"Ah! Yes, of course." Cho nodded.
"Mm! Mhm." Nurse Joi mumbled at the same time.
"Alright, so you're comfortable with the procedure?"
Shae nodded. "Yes, Doctor. Please continue."
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