Hiroko was in the middle of a sentence when she felt the lux patterns shift. She broke off. "Is everything alright, my lady?" Min asked, frowning at her.

"Do you feel..." Hiroko paused as a terrifying screech rent the air. Li Jen leapt up from where he had been conversing with the Dowager Pearl. Young Master Feng shouted for his disciples.

"What's wrong?" Min asked. "What's happened?"

"Great ones, please," Li Jen said, beckoning to them. "Please, remain calm." He turned to Feng. "We must evacuate at once."

"We don't even know what's the matter yet," Feng contradicted. "There's no need to frighten the Gems."

"You felt the strength of that lux disruption," Li Jen argued. "Whatever's happened, they shouldn't be here. We must escort them to safety and then return to face whatever this is."

Feng was looking stubborn. "My disciples and I will take care of whatever threat has emerged. You forget, Li Jen, that I have reached the Peak of Mental Refinement."

"Li Jen is correct," the Dowager Pearl said. "Any cultivator with sense knows that the sort of lux disruption could precede a tower eruption. We must get clear and return to the camp. If it's an eruption, the bridge will have to be taken down to protect the camp, and we don't want to be trapped on the wrong side of that."

"Of course, Great One," Feng said, visibly deflating. "We should—"

Hiroko felt it, something enormously powerful passing overhead. She looked up and saw a glimpse of huge, dark wings. The cultivators were looking up as well. Li Jen swore. "Too late. We'll have to fight it here."

The servants were screaming and running. Lady Min studied the surroundings with a calm gaze.

"At least we need a more defensible location," Li Jen said. "Feng, you and your—"

But he was speaking to air. Feng had raced from the clearing in the direction of the creature, his disciples following in his wake.

Li Jen started to shout orders, when an enormous, four-span, tall bird burst into the clearing. Most of the servants scattered. Li Jen and his disciples raced toward the creature, drawing or summoning weapons and weaving techniques.

The Dowager Pearl turned and faced it down. She pushed the sleeves of her robes back and began to weave together a technique. "You girls stay behind me," she said calmly to Min and Hiroko.

Min's eyes were wide. "What should we do?"

But Hiroko didn't have an answer for her. The bird screamed a shriller version of the cry that had rent the air a few minutes ago and lunged at the cultivators. Its beak stabbed one of Li Jen's disciples, and the woman fell to the ground.

Hiroko acted without thinking. She raced forward, already constructing her weave. Touching the fallen cultivator made it easier to put her at one end of the weave. Hiroko lashed out and tried to catch the bird with the other end, but this creature was so much more powerful than the one she had faced on the first floor of the tower. It was like trying to throw a bridle on a rampaging elephant. Her technique slipped from her grasp.

The woman's wound went deep in her chest. Blood bubbled upward, soaking her robes. Her face was coated with the bloody spit that emerged from her mouth. This was bad. The wound would be fatal in moments.

Hiroko tried again. As Li Jen and the Dowager's own attacks landed on the bird, hers slipped in between the cracks and made a connection. She felt at once the life force draining from the bird into the fallen woman and tried to wrestle it under her control.

There was so much lux here, far more than she'd ever handled. She was a conduit too narrow for the flood. The lux poured through her as she mediated between the bird and the woman. She cycled furiously, trying to purify the lux before she fed it into the woman. Her channels threatened to burst, but she would not let go. She would not let this woman die.

Hiroko felt her core change as it condensed for a third time. Now suddenly the streams of lux were manageable. There wasn't any less of it, nor was she any larger a conduit, but she could force the lux denser, her core more able to pack it in.

She continued siphoning life from the bird as Li Jen and the Dowager took it on. Behind her, Min was muttering something to herself. Hiroko couldn't take attention off her targets. The cultivator's bleeding slowed. Her breathing rhythm became more natural. Hiroko watched carefully as the wound knitted itself back together, then severed her technique, cutting off the woman before letting the bird go.

She slumped to the ground. Min was there, helping her up. "Are you all right? How did you do that? What did you do?"

Hiroko merely shook her head, too tired to answer. As the Dowager’s technique sliced the bird’s head cleanly from its body, she drank in its lux. Blue flooded her, so much of it, along with the other colors. She gasped and cycled, her exhaustion fleeing as she did. Her channels were getting clogged with lux contamination again, but it would be a while before she needed a purification ration.

She straightened up, shaking Min’s hand from her shoulder, as the Dowager and Li Jen turned back to them. “Where are the others?” the Dowager asked.

“Most of them went that way,” Min said, pointing.

“Fools! There could be more of the small ones out there,” the Dowager snapped, then turned to Li Jen. “You fetch them. The girls and I will make our way to safety.”

“But —”

“We will be fine.” The dowager wove a quick four-color technique between her fingers and released it. Hiroko didn’t know what it was for, but it looked fancy. “You’re wasting time, great-nephew. Go!”

Chang-li and Jiya swiftly caught up with their fleeing party. Jiya urged them forward. The nobles were having a hard time of it. Lord Jai-lin had his silk robes hiked up, and they were catching on brambles as he ran. As Chang-li tried to help him along, the robe became stuck for the dozenth time. Frustrated, Chang-li ripped it from the noble's shoulders, leaving him standing in his white undergarments. A look of fear passed over Jai-lin's face. "You, cultivator, what are you doing?”

Chang-li was taken aback to be referred to as a cultivator. He realized he didn't look much like a scribe right now with his own robe half stripped away, though he did still carry his satchel slung around him. "Worry about your dignity after we've escaped," he told Jai-lin roughly. "Come."

He and the nobles scrambled to catch up with the rest of the party. Screeches echoed through the jungle—the loud, deep call of whatever the parent bird was, and at least two echoing juvenile screeches. Chang-li thought they must be almost back to the jungle.

"It's ahead of us!" he hissed.

There, an enormous bird creature clashed with half a dozen cultivators. It had to be the parent of the hatchlings they had killed. Its plumage was all colors of the spectrum in bands radiating out from its neck. It was like a great eagle, only the size of no bird that had ever existed in the outside world. This creature's wingspan had to be at least 15 spans. Its body was larger than a house. It threw back its head, shrieked, and then, as Chang-li's hands went to his ears to protect them, it spat a ball of fire from its mouth at three of the cultivators in front of it.

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Two of them dodged it. Chang-li recognized Young Master Feng. The third was caught. She screamed as her robes and hair caught fire. The bird reared up as she fell to the ground. One of the other cultivators raced to her side, beating at the flames, and another unleashed a yellow and red technique that poured water all over her, extinguishing the flames.

"What do we do?" one of the porters asked Jiya nervously.

"Stay here," she said, her face set. "I'll have to face it. We'll try to draw it off. If we do, run for the exit." She sprang forward.

Chang-li was debating joining her. He could not let these other cultivators catch sight of his sword, though. Then, close by, he heard one of the infants scream. As it burst through the brush, he hurried to face it. It was chasing something, he saw as he stumbled closer to it.

To his horror, he made out the figures of Brother Stone and Jiya's two disciples, stumbling through the jungle. The bird was chasing them, its mouth wide open, as though they were worms it was about to gobble up. Chang-li didn't hesitate. He ran forward, weaving a Firepot technique and tossing it straight at the bird's open mouth. The technique hit square in the gullet and exploded.

The bird gave an angry squawk. It looked about as Brother Stone and the two disciples joined the rest of the group. Another larger party came to join from the other side. Their cultivators hurried to Chang-li's aid. To his shock, one of them was the Dowager Pearl, her sleeves rolled up and her hair falling loose from its tight bun. She glared at the creature. "You overgrown chicken," she called at it. "Li Jen, take it on the right. Keep it confused. Bind it with that illusion technique your grandfather taught you."

"Yes, Revered Pearl," Li Jen called.

The Dowager noticed Chang-li. "You, who are you? What sect are you with? I don't recognize you."

Chang-li said desperately, "I'm one of the scribes."

"What are you doing here, fool boy? Get back.” She braided a three-color technique and sent it lashing at the giant chick. It hit the beast's legs and wove upward with strands of red lux that tugged at the beast while blue ate away its outer armor. The bird squawked. Chang-li threw another Firepot into the creature's open mouth.

"Well, there's an odd technique for a scribe," the Dowager observed as she cast an indigo and yellow braid held together with green. For an instant, Chang-li was seeing double. Then the technique wrapped around the bird's eyes. It must be an illusion spell.

Li Jen moved in, casting his own illusion copy. Now there were three of him in the forest clearing, all attacking the beast with long orange-enforced versions of Chang-li's sword.

In seconds, the bird was down, its bleeding carcass streaming lux ribbons skyward. Chang-li scooping up as much of the free lux as he could. The Dowager looked him over. “Just where does a scribe learn a technique like that?"

"From books," Chang-li said desperately and bowed low. "Forgive this one, revered Pearl. I acted to protect the others."

"And you've done better than many so-called acolytes," she observed. "Don't stand around talking,” she snapped to Li Jen and Lie Jiya. “There might be more out there! Get back to your charges!”

They hurried back to the others. By now, almost all of the nobles, workers and guards who had left the cultivation camp this morning were here, waiting for a chance to escape. Chang-li didn't see Hiroko, who should have been with the Dowager. He looked around until, to his horror, he spotted her.

She was at the edge of the clear area where the cultivators faced the enormous monster bird, kneeling beside a wounded woman, trying to form a technique. Min was there, tugging at her arm, urging her back to safety. Hiroko didn't seem to notice.

The Dowager's eyes were drawn to the princess. "What is that fool girl doing?" she hissed. "She'll be killed. Somone get in there. Protect her."

Just then, the bird reared back, flapping its wings, sending a violent gust of wind that knocked the cultivators back. Chang-li shielded his face with his arms as branches and sticks were hurled at him. His bare arms received half a dozen shallow cuts.

The bird screeched louder than before. Chang-li was stunned. His arms fell to his side. He was frozen in place. So were those with him. From the smell, some of them had lost control of their bowels. He summoned his will, trying to force himself to move, but he was frozen in place.

The bird snapped three times in quick succession, cutting two cultivator disciples in half. Chang-li watched them die in horror, unable to even react. The third time, it was met by a shielding technique from Young Master Feng. The Soaring Heavens cultivator stood tall, lux flaring off of his body as he laughed in the face of the monster bird.

"I defy you and call the heavens as my witness,” he roared. “You will feel the power of my soul!”

He launched a complicated technique straight at the bird. It landed square in the center of the bird's chest and knocked it backward. Despite the enmity he had for Feng, Chang-li was impressed. The Young Master raced in. His weapon was an enormous sword nearly as tall as he was. He held it with two hands on the outsized handle, reinforcing himself with red lux.

The edge of the sword shimmered both orange and yellow as he struck. The blow cut a deep wound on the bird, which leapt upward, the force of its downdraft knocking down Feng and the other cultivators. It lifted into the air, screaming.

"Run!" one of the porters yelled and raced forward through the clearing. A bunch of the others followed hot on his heels.

"Wait!" Chang-li shouted, but too late. They broke out into the clear space and the bird overhead launched a fireball straight into their midst. Three of them were charred to ash instantly. Others, taking glancing blows, burst into flames. They fell to the ground, screaming and writhing. A few made it all the way to the exit and vanished.

Meanwhile, Min and Hiroko were still at the edge of the clearing, now on their own with none of the cultivators to protect them. The bird was circling overhead. It pulled its wings in and began to dive.

Chang-li raced forward. He wasn't sure what he could do, and he was going to be too late. The bird was coming straight down at Hiroko, who didn't seem to have noticed. Min did, though. She screamed and pulled Hiroko back. It wouldn't be enough.

Chang-li raced forward, even though he didn’t know what he was going to do. He threw another Firepot technique. It exploded, throwing up a cloud of smoke. He drew in more lux, desperately cycling to purify it. There wasn’t enough yellow for another Firepot yet. He had plenty of red, though, and some orange. So be it. He reached into his soulspace and pulled out his sword. Chang-li channeled red and orange lux to his left hand, enforcing the blade with orange as he strengthened himself. The bird was coming for Min and Hiroko again, reaching toward them with a talon.

His sword could not stop the bird's talon, but he had to try. He seized everything he could, draining his core, infusing the edge of his sword with orange lux, and strengthening his arm to take the blow. He didn't bother trying to protect the rest of his body.

The claw fell on him. The bird screamed again. Its shriek shook him to his core, his channels echoing with its power. The claw met the sword and the blow pushed Chang-li back. He planted his right foot and refused to be moved, channeling red lux into his heels in an attempt to keep himself planted.

He felt his sword bite. It sliced through the bird’s claw. Its blood showered down on him, coating him. It splattered his eyes and his face. He scrambled backward, using his right hand to wipe his face clear as the bird screamed and flapped its wings, knocking him and the girls back.

There was a burning sensation in his eyes and mouth. The bird's blood was too full of lux. He cycled madly, trying to wash away the impurities as the blood streamed through him, boiling inside his lux channels, blasting away the impurities, scouring them. He cycled frantically. The Purification of Mind and Soul technique Joshi had first taught him was the only thing he could think of.

Time seemed to slow as he flew backward, helpless against the power the bird unleashed. The roc's wings lifted and froze. Chang-li was suspended in midair as his core filled with the roc's too-strong lux. It was going to destroy him from the inside out.

He would not be destroyed.

Chang-li switched to the Swirling Mists technique, venting the lux through his damaged channels as hard and fast as he could, pushing it out like he was a a boiling kettle spurting steam from its spout. He felt his body being destroyed even as he cycled, and knew this would leave him a cripple or dead. The bird’s blood was too rich in dense lux, poison to a mere mortal like Chang-li.

He wasn't going to give up. He seized the last bits of violet lux in his channels and as much as he could gather from the air around him, pulled it into his core, condensed it as much as he could, then thrust it out into his lux channels. It swept through him like a cooling mist, soothing the damaged channels. At the same time, his core shuddered inside him.

Everything changed.

Chang-li screamed as every cell in his body was remade. If the pain in his channels had been agony before, now it threatened to undo him. He hung suspended in nothingness, feeling the lux reshape him. He would not let it destroy him. He was the master of his body. He would survive this.

Then the pain abated. His core returned to normal. No, it had changed. It was denser, deeper. His lux channels felt stronger. It was like when his core had condensed, but more so.

He was unconsciously continuing his cycling. Chang-li felt the lux filling up his core and marveled. There was so much of it. It was so dense. He had reached Bodily Perfection. The lux blood should have destroyed him, yet it had instead remade him. He was a cultivator for real now.

But during his distraction, the bird should have destroyed him. He was lying on his back in the clearing. The bird was screaming in anger.

Cautiously, he sat up and blinked. Dust formed a cloud, obscuring the whole clearing. As the dust settled, he saw the enormous red lux shell shielding the two girls. There was a man standing in front of them, holding up the shell, his bare arms raised protectively, his bald head gleaming as the lux boiled off him almost as strongly as it had off of Feng.

Joshi had arrived.