----------------------------------------
Chapter 69: "Quite the Patchwork."
----------------------------------------
Shae stopped with a jolt as Joi's tone was surprising. The jolt emphasised the feeling that skin on her right collar had shifted like it was stuck to her clothing. The shorter sleeve of the clinic robe brushed her right arm, and there at least, her skin was free of obstruction.
"Back to lotus pose, try not to move, Shae." Joi's voice was quieter this time, a pang of something in it.
Pity? She thought as she lowered her arm, and the tension in her shoulder retreated. "Ah-ck-" her own voice emerged as a rasp, yet she stopped herself before the feeling made her cough. Blood of the nine hells, what have I done this time?
"No talking either, it seems." The nurse sighed and walked around the room; Shae's hearing easily tracked her as she circled. "I'm going to break the shield formation slowly. Grunt or something if the ambient qi is uncomfortable."
She waited patiently for a pair of breaths. A shuffling noise signaled Joi's actions, then she felt a soft breeze across her skin. Though, only on some parts of my skin?
"For a while there, we thought you knew what you were doing. Then... Well, you can probably feel the crust?" Nurse Joi sighed again and moved to another point in the room. "Doctor Cho thinks he recognizes it, but is checking old research to find out, and to see what to do next."
Shae gasped lightly as the next wave of qi flowed around her. "Ahhh!" The qi felt slightly heavier, and with the cool touch of something like stainless steel.
The gasp was quiet, yet Joi still noticed. "That wasn't quite a grunt. Are you okay?"
She flexed her right hand, making grasping motions while she tried not to move anything else.
"Oh, you're probably scared silly." The pity was in her voice again, and she still does what Shae wanted. She sits near the young woman to lace their hands together.
Shae squeezed gently and slowly, then relaxed.
"I'm here for you, don't worry. We'll figure this out." Warmth and confidence flowed easily from her calm voice.
Perfect bedside manner. Shae smiled to herself. Her mouth then twitched at the thought, and pulled against the sharp crust to remind her not to move.
The cool sensation of polished steel tools and disinfectant grew in her senses. Not originating from the Nurse's touch, but from the parts of her exposed skin that felt fresh and raw. Raw like she's lost a layer of skin. Her heart rate spiked at the thought and she had to control her body to not gasp in shock.
Nurse Joi spoke again, "If you're doing alright. One squeeze for yes, two for no."
'yes' She squeezed once, slowly.
"Okay. Let's take this slow then. I take it you can feel the qi in the room?"
'yes'
"Does it hurt?"
Two quick squeezes. 'no'
"Is it overwhelming?"
Shae paused to consider. 'no'
Joi sighed. "That's good, very good." She grabbed Shae's right hand with her both and began to gently massage it. "I can tell you're tense and frightened. I'm not going to say everything is going to be fine, but I think it's not as bad as you fear. Mostly we are waiting to ensure the next step is as comfortable as we can make it." She inhaled like she was going to continue, yet didn't.
The young cultivator tried to ignore her own panic, ignore the fact that she wanted to move, to open her eyes and see what was wrong, yet couldn't. She focused on her breathing, which helped. Focus on her hand being massaged also helped. She slowly relaxed, and let the massage lul her into a kind of waking meditation.
Nurse Joi moved the massage up to her forearm for a few breaths. "Okay. I'm going to grab the other formation flags. The room's qi should be balanced out by now. But still, let me know if you feel anything." She patted the back of Shae's hand and stood.
Shae half-squeezed her hand, not wanting to let her go, yet she hesitated as she knew she should, and knew she couldn't stop her anyway. She inhaled sharply and tried not to panic at the loss of touch; tried to hold onto that half meditative state. Slow, controlled breaths.
She couldn't track Nurse Joi's movement around the room now as she was too focused on herself. Focused on controlling her breathing. On controlling her own thoughts to fight the panic. What happened? What's going to happen?
She trusted Joi when she said it's 'not that bad,' but her fear and anxiety didn't need to make sense. She didn't even know what she was afraid of, she just knew she should try not to be.
A new feeling wafted across her skin. It was the warmth of the sun, like walking out into a bright summer's day. She gasped quietly at the sensation. A breath later she heard footsteps and Doctor Cho's voice.
"How's she doing?"
"Good. Quite good," Nurse Joi answered flatly.
"Hmgh," he grunted, and Shae thought it sounded slightly off, like he wasn't quite responding to what she said. He stepped closer and Joi followed, the pair moved in front of the young woman. "Any oversensitivity to qi?"
"Some. It doesn't seem to be overwhelming yet." Joi answered.
"That's good to hear." He moved closer and Shae felt his qi clearly now. That same warm sunlight and a cup of fresh tea, it was much like what she felt while he was first inspecting her. Distressingly, the feeling was now distributed erratically across her skin.
She squirmed in place with the smallest of movements and flexed her hand again, grasping for touch.
"Okay, Miss Shae. We're going to get through this. Can you click your fingers for me?"
She did. The snap was very loud, louder than she intended.
"Heh. Quite the snap you have there. One for yes, two for no. Did that cleansing make your muscles stronger?"
'Yes' she snapped once and almost nodded yet caught the movement early.
"Thought so. One of the interesting things that happens with strength increases is what actions we easily control, like walking, and which ones we still try to do at full strength. Like snapping our fingers."
She inhaled deeply and slowly. She focused on her fingers and fumbled out a few softer snaps and clicks.
"Don't worry too much about it. You and nurse Joi picked an empty wing to have your enlightenments in. No one to bother with loud snaps or far too much qi in the air. Which is the source of our current problem. Did nurse Joi explain any of it to you?"
'No' the two snaps were still louder than she'd like. The impact point at the base of her thumb tingled slightly, without any pain so far.
Joi cleared her throat. "Well, we weren't really sure if it was what we thought. Didn't want to get her hopes up."
Shae raised an eyebrow at that. The skin on her forehead pulled slightly like there was something stuck to it. She heard a quiet 'crack' noise and something light fell to her lap. Spots of exposed skin began to tingle and itch like raw skin and she inhaled sharply from the feeling.
"And that answers a follow up question." Cho said softly. "Alright, Miss Shae. Let's talk about what has happened. What you did... Well, more about the problem that you surrounded yourself with high density qi. Enlightenments qi in this case, which is rare to see. This has produced something like a cleansing mixed with a type of tempering. Since you are already tempered you stayed conscious, which is excellent." He paused slightly. "Doing this at all, however, and so early in your journey is less ideal. Failing to complete the process, also not great. Though the side effects would be much worse if you had, so it's not the worst thing you could have done."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Silence hung in the air for a breath. Nurse Joi spoke up to break it, "So, Doctor, what are we doing about it?"
"Err, yes. We will do something about the side effects which you can already feel a sampling of. Divine qi has good healing properties, but doesn't generally freely enter the body, just the qi channels. That means more pressure is required to force it. That pressure causes more damage when it does enter. Then its divine nature heals that damage almost immediately." He sighed. "That crust you are feeling is the result."
Shae's breath quickened and her fingers twitched.
"It's not nearly as bad as he just made it sound, dear. No scarring or ugly scabbing." Joi said comfortingly; it helped Shae relax a bit.
"Uh, yes. No disfigurement or terribly permanent side effects." Cho cleared his throat. "But we are slow to act because removing it will expose fresh, extremely sensitive skin. I was able to find a slower way but it requires somewhat pricey materials. Pricey for one at your stage, not having spent time in the sect yet. A rough cost is about six spirit stones. If nothing else, I could take it from the agreement we made earlier. The question is, would you rather have no cost? We could try removing some without the treatment?"
She considered it for a few breaths. The skin on her forehead seemed to have stopped stinging from being exposed, though she could still feel the qi in the room. Though, even that small patch was rather uncomfortable. Do I have money to spend? I did win something from Bai, Shu, and Chen the other night. She took a slow breath. For cultivators, that's not really that much money, right? Why are they asking?
She flipped her hand over and tapped on her knee. Clicking her tongue slightly at each tap and changing which finger is tapping like she is counting.
"Hmm?" Both older cultivators hummed. Cho followed up with a question, "Counting? You want a more specific price?"
'No' she snapped twice, then counted on her finger joints like merchants do and snapped 'no' again. She went back to tapping on her knee, but simply alternated thumb and pinky this time with the pace set slightly slower than her heartbeat.
"Time? Time passing?" Joi asked.
'Yes' and she pointed at the nurse. Then quickly moved her right hand over her left knee, and flinched as skin pulled at the crust on her back where her robes hadn't been covering her skin closely. She flattened her hand like a knife and moved it slowly to her right. She pointed at herself, pointed at her left knee, then slid her hand across again until it was over her right knee, pointed there and finished by holding her upturned palm open.
The room was silent briefly while the two cultivators worked it out.
"Ah!" Nurse Joi gasped in understanding.
"What happens later?" Doctor Cho explained.
Shae snapped once for 'yes' then gestured thumbs up, thumbs down, and mimed scales with one hand out to her right. Ugh, this one is hard with only one hand, I hope they get it.
"Pros and cons." Cho supplied before she was even finished.
'Yes' she snapped loudly and pointed repeatedly, trying to not shake her whole body with the eager gesture.
"Heh. Wise and smart to ask. You're going to do well at whatever you set your mind to, I think." Cho paused then sighed. "The treatment, to make it less painful, is said to reduce the positive benefits."
Shae upturned her open palm with a flourish.
"Which are?" Joi translated with a high pitched and slightly whiny voice that Shae desperately hoped wasn't an impression of herself.
"First, I'll say this practice is usually done closer to core formation, or just after. And usually done with elemental qi. It's called elemental tempering, though it's closer to a body cultivation bath. For your case it would be divine tempering and is rarely done because at higher stages it requires much more qi. You didn't even finish it and probably used a good chunk of what you should have received."
"Though," Joi jumped in, "you also seemed to have continued that minor enlightenment into a much larger one. Likely something closer to what we would expect at core formation. Frankly, it's surprising you managed to not waste more of it."
Her head began to tilt and she had to freeze and reverse the action when she felt the crust dig into her neck. She tapped her fingers across her right knee as a thinking gesture instead. Well, it was about the heavens. And ultimately related to tribulation lightning, which most wouldn't have experienced unless they were at core. She gave them a thumbs up, and pushed 'I understand' into the intent of the gesture.
"Hah!" Cho laughed. "Joi mentioned your intent was strong, suddenly expressing it clearly with a hand gesture is very impressive."
"Oh! Next time you can use that instead of acting out charades." Joi chuckled.
She gave the 'okay' hand gesture and forced the same intent into it.
"Unn-gh!" Cho grunted. "Well that was unpleasant."
"Doctor?"
"Just feedback from the formation. Never felt it try to fully communicate a hand gesture before. Wise Shae, do be careful with doubling up the base meanings of hand gestures, please and thank you. The former one was also a little strong, but less intense because the meaning you added was different from the gesture."
She hesitated, trying to think of something for 'sorry' then just gave him a thumbs up, without added intent.
"Alright, so, like most body cultivation the conventional wisdom is that the more pain involved the better it will work. That sounds rather unscientific yet it's consistent with most results, so let's not debate that right now. What the elemental tempering is supposed to do is give the cultivator more control over that element outside their body and add some secondary sensory effects, much like what you are already feeling." Cho paused for effect. "For divine tempering... It's hard to say what all of those results will be. So, few people actually try it and the recorded effects seem to vary dramatically. Though, in all reported cases the results are very beneficial."
"How very?" Joi asked.
"Not necessarily in the strength of the benefit. More in that the benefit they believe they received is one particularly useful to their path."
The room waited two breaths before Joi spoke up again. "Could you clarify what they believe means?"
"Considering the reports vary widely, and are not entirely reliable. It's very difficult to say what the benefits they actually received are. The only slightly common point-" he cut himself off with a click as his teeth snapped shut.
Shae immediately gave a 'what?' filled open palm.
He sighed loudly. "It's not something I should say. Both because I can't confirm it, and I don't believe it will be immediately helpful. Thus, you shouldn't base your decision on it. What I will say is that if you take the hard path, you will have some kind of improved qi sense for a time, similar to what you are feeling now, I imagine. With the easy way, that will fade quickly, as will the pain, discomfort and rawness of your new flesh buried beneath the crust."
The room fell to silence again and Shae welcomed the time to think. Another new, half-assed cleansing or change or whatever. I'm going to be quite the patchwork, aren't I? She rubbed the tips of her fingers together, feeling the skin. Hmmm, but I don't have to be.
She focused on the strangely sensitive patches of skin. Felt out the rawness and embraced whatever qi sensations came through. It's really not much more than feeling their qi. Probably much more sensitive than most qi senses since I don't think these two are throwing their qi around the room. That will be good and bad, and it will become more overwhelming once the crust breaks off, right?
She inhaled, readied herself, and held up her index finger in the universal sign for one moment. Then slowly reached up to her forehead and felt the crust there. It was like a layer of sand, but the grains were larger. Like a thin sheet of shattered glass? I wonder how it looks. It didn't cover her whole forehead, and she found the exposed edge where the sensitive skin started.
Her own touch wasn't painful. There was simply more feeling to it as she dug her fingers under the crust and pried it away from the center of her forehead. A brief flash of memory made her hesitate.
> A drop of blood at the center of her forehead.
She breathed a steadying breath, then continued to clear away the area, but stopped at her hairline and eyebrows. She lowered her hand and waited for the tingling assault of the fresh cool air to stop. Just the air and qi in the room pulled all her attention to the small patch of skin.
It felt similar to what she expected, and a few breaths later she had made her decision. She signaled as much to the waiting Doctor and Nurse. The conversation followed in a blur as she confirmed her decision and tried to ignore the assault of information from her skin. Nurse Joi departed to prepare something, Shae hadn't listened. Instead she was focused on her breathing to attempt to manage the new sensations with meditation.
----------------------------------------
The treatment passed in a blur. Doctor Cho only stayed long enough to ensure she was comfortable and not still overwhelmed. Nurse Joi was there to administer all of it: she poured a sour smelling liquid over Shae's flesh and slowly washed away the crust. Peeled it back then washed the freshly raw skin with the medicinal liquid. Shae thought that it felt the same as a lemon tastes, yet it was a blissfully singular feeling.
Once a large area was completed, Joi applied a warm and gentle lotion. It smelled of dry grass, and felt silky with the rare sharp-edge of a leaf. It quickly numbed the raw skin as it was worked into it. The full experience was an odd combination of overstimulation followed by a numb nothingness that was almost too little by comparison.
What felt like hours passed which left Shae exhausted and half-numb. She fell asleep when the gentle nurse carried her from the center of the hallway to her bed.
----------------------------------------