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Aside: "Meaning & Intent."
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The formations in the clinic serve many purposes. One of their primary tasks is to act as an alert system when a patient or nurse is in need of assistance.
If someone were to call out for a nurse or Doctor Cho himself, they would hear it, and be able to identify its location. Doctor Cho himself is most attuned to this system, while many of the lower stage nurses are unable to use it properly.
The formation network does this by measuring the weight of meaning in the words spoken. Doing so is an obscure concept to most, and many knowledgeable cultivators would deride it for being less than intent. Yet, for this purpose it is much more important.
Mortals cannot easily impart intent into their words, but meaning is automatic, effortless. They know their words to have meaning, so they do. Adding more meaning takes work, but urgency and panic does a lot of that for them.
Specific formations symbols in the network detect words with relevant meaning, help, doctor, nurse, for example, and then it transmits them to Doctor Cho and nearby attuned users. It also registers any words with particularly high meaning, and can be actively monitored by the doctor himself.
This, obviously, means Doctor Cho can utilize it as a spy network of sorts. Though, he would never frame his observations as such. This is why, after leaving Nurse Joi and Shae to attend to his own duties, he continues to monitor their conversation.
He doesn't catch all of it. Many words slip under the threshold to be carried by the network, and certain tasks require his full focus. Yet, some words punch through by the sheer weight of their meaning. Lost soul and inquiry are two such examples.
The volume of Shae's intent-filled "Ennui" could have forced someone to their knees, he only winced. Certainly he would have fallen and lost his hearing were he mortal as the formation was designed to amplify the sound of meaningful words. He considers that it was likely an oversight to not set an upper limit to that amplification, but he didn't make the thing himself.
Contrary to Nurse Joi's explanation, Shae did not use much intent for the word, but rather meaning. Ironically, neither intent nor meaning are fully transmitted to Doctor Cho over the formation network, only the amplified sound. He has the meaning, anyways, from the context of their earlier words.
If the formation could convey intent or its lesser cousin meaning, or if it could moderate the volume of the sound to something reasonable, then it would be much more complex and thus much more expensive to build and run. A cost that would be multiplied for every room and hallway. Cho knows this, but he still sometimes regrets not spending the additional funds.
He is distracted while Shae complains about the sect; misses most of it, and is somewhat confused by the way the conversation jumps to a new topic when he is not paying attention. She complains about the sect again, and Joi asks about her preference for using titles. The pair seems to find something there. He notices from the tone in the words that something is happening, but not what. There is too much lost context for the overheard conversation to be easily tracked.
The more expensive variant would again come in handy here. Yet, that formation is often used as security. As a full on surveillance system. The lesser version is more generally accepted for public use and regularly sees use in clinics, libraries, and large shops. Knowing when someone is lost or can't find something they need can greatly improve a customer's visit.
Shae's last whispered words are very concerning as two words stand out loudly, "Sorry,...this...n't work."
Doctor Cho stops between his rounds of checking on patients and frowns to himself. Then the qi alarms go off, detecting a massive surge in divine qi. One of the few it was made to specifically detect. The associated location is exactly where Joi and Shae had been.
Doctor Cho gasps in understanding, "An enlightenment!" He mutters and hears the echo of enlightenment through the qi formation, pointing at his own location. This is a known defect in the formation, though it only affects some areas of the clinic.
As he moves to the next patient he makes plans to bring chalk and formation flags to the pair, for whichever one is experiencing the event. Shielding the enlightenment properly should prevent the turbulent qi flow from affecting nearby patients and should make the event more efficient. Really, the over-spilled divine qi could be used to heal patients, but it tends to swirl and upset the natural flow more than effectively heal others. He frowns absentmindedly while checking the patient, his thoughts distracting him with the idea that there really should be a better way to harness the overflowing qi from the event.
Then the alarms became louder.
He freezes mid inspection, the patient's leg raised up in one of his hands. More qi detected, much more. Still divine qi. Which should only be possible if it was a much larger enlightenment than is reasonable, or if they both had enlightenments.
He reviews what he remembers of their last words. It is certainly possible, they seemed to be on the same line of reasoning.
He abruptly releases the patient and steps away. Then turns back and offers a brief apology. Two more steps then a careful movement technique takes him to the doorway into the next hallway. He taps into the formation network to ensure his path to the pair is unobstructed and is gone from the doorway as quickly as he appeared in it.
He is a full dozen paces past the turn to his office before he realizes he needs equipment from it. Some weak piece of flesh in him protests the rapid change in direction and he ignores it; it will heal itself before their enlightenments are over.
A weaker piece of wood and cloth protests his passing: the bed still in his private library partly disintegrates as he passes through the space it once occupied. His door is not so easily brushed away and while opening it Cham-Cham makes his complaints about the interruption known.
He collects two sets of rarely used formation flags, a qi stone to power them, door barricades, and a stick of chalk.
He apologizes to Cham-Cham on his way out, quickly explaining that Wise Shae and Nurse Joi seem to be having a shared enlightenment.
The chameleon's joy is immediate and the doctor can feel as his Dao grinds and clicks against itself so that it can display that joy as light and color. At least one of those clicks feels correct, Cho smiles and is already two hallways away.
For all his rushing to get there he is stunned by what he finds.
The young cultivator seems to be trying to perform some strange ritual. If his senses weren't as good as they are he would be tempted to separate the pair, just as a precaution.
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Shae's left arm drips a thin line of blood from where an acupuncture needle pierces it just above the elbow. Her other arm is pierced with another, but doesn't bleed. His hand twitches at the sight of blood, but he crushes the urge to go fix it immediately.
That alone would not have stopped him. It is the small ball of qi that floats between the women that bothers him. It is clearly the girl's. A misty white with a hint of blue that suggests pure qi, but laced with gold flashes, the occasional spark of lightning arcing off to strike the incoming enlightenment qi and drawing it in. He almost mistakes it for storm qi, but that would be dark grey. He has felt her qi before, so he knows this is hers. Though, this is a fine mist compared to the torrent he felt when she was first brought in.
The needles make sense now. She used them to release her qi, and probably to help re-absorb it later. Without cleared meridians she would need a way to do that; blood and physical harm is usually the last choice, but she likely knows no other.
A more rash cultivator who found this scene might have assumed she was leeching off Nurse Joi's enlightenment. Not unheard of, though it was generally considered demonic and worthy of execution. His senses tell him that they are indeed both having enlightenments. As for the ball of qi, the rumors of Wise Shae and her title tell him exactly what she is trying to do.
It is an interesting idea: trying to replicate a six person ritual with just two who are both having an enlightenment over the same thing. Foolish to do it without consulting anyone, especially the other party.
He can only hope that Nurse Joi doesn't follow along. He has no idea what will happen if they try it; only guesses.
From what Cho has heard the monk's normal ritual shields the enlightened party in the center of the five others. It uses their swirling qi as a buffer to contain the enlightenment qi. The way Shae is trying to do it is completely reversed, and it could easily waste far more qi by pushing the enlightenment qi away. They would need a shielding formation around them to contain it.
He looks at the formation flags in his hands and curses as silently as he can. At least I'll only need one set of the bloody things now.
The barricades neatly fit across the doorways and double as privacy wards. The formation's flags find their way to the floor on top of a perfect chalk circle just large enough to go around the pair of mattresses. He only has to use a single extra flag to close the larger formation.
And now I wait.
Patience is not his strong suit, that would be patients. He walks closely around the formation to inspect the young woman's acupuncture attempt. He scowls at the appearance of the needles, they look rusted and dirty. Hmm? No, I think they are supposed to look like that. They are spiritual tools, the ones she showed me earlier. Definitely didn't sterilize them, though.
He sees that the acupuncture attempt itself isn't terrible. He wonders why she didn't use her hands or wrists, then sees the shadow qi, and her tattoo on her bleeding left arm. Ah, good choice to avoid those, then.
The specific points she has used are not the best choice: wider ones would handle more qi flow. Yet, he approves of them because if she had missed the placement slightly, or if she damages the points with massive qi flow she won't do any lasting damage to herself. The blood suggests she did miss the point somewhat, but he observes that it's unlikely to cause lasting damage, especially with her qi.
From this close he sees that she's very tense. Her shoulders and neck muscles strain with effort or nervousness. She's also barely absorbed much of her enlightenment. He inhales sharply then nods slowly, Right, she's hoping Joi will join in, and probably straining to keep her qi moving. Even her internal qi is roiling and spinning quickly now.
He watches the young cultivator's enlightenment begin to spin and twist around her, following her internal qi. In contrast, Joi's is clearly separate, resisting the current, probably with intentional effort.
Cho wonders if he can slip away to check on a few more patients. There is little for him to do here.
He stays and waits anyway.
Less than a half hour later Nurse Joi's enlightenment winds down, the golden light beginning to fade and flicker.
Cho watches the younger cultivator's shoulders slump as she realises it's too late and the nurse won't be joining in with her absurd idea. He relaxes as well, releasing more tension than he thought he was holding.
He finds himself a little surprised to see Shae's personal qi cloud has had a considerable density increase. Then he nods, Yes, that is to be expected, what with all the enlightenment qi around. It would have a similar effect to cycling it within her alongside the divine qi.
Nurse Joi shifts her body, signaling she is about to exit meditation. She does so a little early, ignoring the last few wisps to get up and walks out of the formation with a shudder.
Cho raises a palm towards her, placating her softly, "Now, Joi-" with his other hand he pulls out his pocket watch and activates the privacy ward so their discussion doesn't affect Shae. "-please don't jump to any conclusions."
"Hm?" She skews an eyebrow up and follows his quick glance back to Shae. "Oh, because she's trying to replicate the monk's ritual?"
He blinks twice.
"You thought I didn't know? That I would have no clue what she was trying?" Joi rolls her eyes at him.
"Well, it's a fairly obscure ritual that I only remembered because of the recent rumors."
"The rumor that I told you? The one where Shae earns her Wise title? Hah. You're such a man sometimes."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She rolls her eyes again. "It means you assume you are the first and only one to realise anything."
He coughs to the side. "Well, I just didn't want you to think the worst of the girl. Look at her! It practically looks demonic!"
They both looked over to the brightly glowing golden light and the young woman in a white hospital robe in the center of it.
"Oh my!" Joi mocks. "She's practically raining blood and hellfire across the room."
He coughs again. "It was worse earlier. When I walked in."
Joi shakes her head, then slowly shifts to tilting her head sideways, still looking in Shae's direction. "Does her enlightenment look bigger than earlier?"
Cho can't resist matching the exact angle of her head tilt, it doesn't help with the comparison. "I think you're correct. Huh. Is this because of her...?" He waggles a finger at the ball of super dense qi above her lap.
"How should I know? I've never seen a monk's ritual before." She pauses. "I really don't think so, though. Maybe she had a bigger one saved up?"
"Pah, that's never been proven to be possible."
"That doesn't mean it's impossible."
He frowns at her.
"What? Do you have a better idea?" She shrugs.
"Bloody lost souls, doing whatever they damn well please." He clears his throat into his sleeve. "Did you need to meditate more? It looked like you rushed it."
She hesitates before shaking her head again. "Not urgently, and I think I'd rather watch this. Feel free to go back to your rounds, if you like."
He hums and shifts his weight from foot to foot. He is behind on work now. "Why do I feel like something important is going to happen as soon as I walk away?"
She glances at him with a smirk. "Well, hurry up and go, then. Don't make me wait longer for the bloody lost soul to do something unheard of."
Cho sighs, pulls out his pocket watch and clicks it off. He dips his head and she bows a little lower in return, then he takes his leave.
He pauses just around the corner and waits a few breaths. Obviously, nothing changes.
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