As they left the grove, Min, panting, plucked at Chang-li ’s sleeve.

"Are we done yet?” she asked.

Noren looked at her with disapproval. "Are you eager to be done so soon? Training has barely started. I will not have spouses in my sect who are ignorant of cultivation. I do not approve of this modern trend of sects allowing their spouses to be no more than decorations. You may call yourselves gems, but there is no reason for you to neglect your own training."

"No, I didn’t mean that. I just..." Min was more flustered than Chang-li was use to seeing her. "I've been busy with other matters. Helping the junior disciples, organizing the books."

"Yes, that is important, and I am not suggesting you must focus as much of your time on cultivation as does your husband, but you don't want him to leave you completely behind, do you?"

She shook her head. "No, of course not."

"Then I will present you with a training plan as well so you can weave it in with your other duties. Today we focus on Princess Hiroko because she will not be able to join us as frequently as you are until the marriage is contracted. I have a training device we can use since this floor has been fairly well denuded. Princess Hiroko?"

Hiroko started. She turned to the supposed Grandmaster, her eyes wide. "Yes, Grandmaster Noren."

"You claim an affinity with blue lux so here is your chance to prove it."

They were 100 yards from the grove now in an open field full of burrows. Chang-li noticed hints of movement out of the corner of his eye but had not gotten a good look yet at what there was.

Noren removed a bracelet from his soul space. It appeared to be made of copper or perhaps brass. There was a band to fasten around the wrist with a delicate chain leading to a pair of rings.

"Place this on your hand, one ring on your thumb, the other on your middle finger," Noren instructed.

Hiroko did as she was told. Chang-li looked at the device with great interest.

"This is a focusing device. It is a device with a weave already inside it. If you channel the appropriate lux it will form a weave you do not yet have the skill to create on your own. This weave is an illusion and enhancement technique."

Noren deftly wove a weave of his own between his fingers. Chang-li tried to follow what he was doing. There was a great deal of blue in it, with hints of red and yellow attached with green. There were at least four colors in the weave. Chang-li blinked and the weave collapsed into a single pattern, which Noren now flung out wide. It spread as it went, the lux dissolving into the air. Chang-li felt all his hairs stand on end as it passed through him. Min gave a small shudder.

"Min, Chang-li," Noren instructed. "You will take on the monsters that Hiroko makes for you. Min, you are to practice your bow and arrow. I want you to work on loosening arrows faster without thinking about them. Only when it is second nature for you to weave a lux arrow can you start adding additional colors and effects into them. That is almost impossible to practice outside of a tower, not unless you have some very expensive lux concentrators. So, make good use of your time here."

Chang-li stiffened as Noren turned to him. He wanted to protest that he already had his own training regime, but Min had already summoned her bow. Her eyes were shining. Hiroko's body was tense with anticipation. Noren was right. They did both need to train. He could swallow his own pride to help his wife and friend. And after that last exercise of pulling lux from Hiroko he was actually curious what Noren would have them do next.

"And you, Chang-li, I want to see you using that interesting new dual circulatory lux circulation channels you've got there. It's not a common arrangement, especially not at this stage of cultivation. So show me what you can do. I will call out colors that you are permitted to use at a given time. I want you to focus only on those and only with the lux channels on the correct side."

Chang-li frowned. "What will I do with the excess lux of the wrong colors once my core is filled?"

"That's for you to decide," Noren said maddeningly before turning to Hiroko. "Now then, here come your targets. You will keep these off of your partners using the lux I call out.”

"But I don't understand what I'm supposed to do," Hiroko protested as a pair of furry animals peeped out of a hole. They were a little bigger than marmots, with wiry brown and gray hair. Like all tower beasts, they teamed with lux, but Chang-li didn't think they were particularly dangerous creatures. Apparently beckoned by Noren's technique, they emerged from under their bush, approaching Chang-li and the others.

Hiroko was channeling. She extended her right hand, the one with the strange jewelry on it, and sent out a stream of lux. It came out fully formed into a weave, mostly blue, but with red held in place with loops of green. Chang-li couldn't follow the design, but as the first weave touched one of the rock pigs, the creature swelled in size. Now it was large enough to come up to Chang-li's knee. It seemed to gain in confidence as well. The rock pig snarled, showing long yellowing teeth.

“Chang-li,” Noren said. “You may start by using only the physical luxes. Defend your partners.”

Hiroko took a step back, away from the pig.

"Oh, don't lose your focus," Noren said. "You must continue to channel lux through this technique. Target the other one as well."

Hiroko's brow furrowed as she pointed toward the second animal. The first rock pig began to shrink and diminish.

"Keep up your concentration," Noren urged as Chang-li approached the beasts. "Chang-li, I want you to keep them occupied while Hiroko and Min start to learn. Don't harm them. Min will kill the beasts today. You just keep them away from the ladies.”

Chang-li drew his sword and then, thinking he might as well get some training of his own, started to try the Mirage Blade weave he’d been learning from the scrolls to duplicate it in his right. “Interesting,” Noren called, “but no swords today. I’ll work with you on that later. I think it might fit you very well, actually, but not now.”

Chang-li grit his teeth and dismissed his blades as the first rock pig regained its unnatural size. Its eyes reddened as Hiroko's technique took hold of it. Hiroko hunched forward. Her brow furrowed. The second pig grew in size until it was almost as large as the first. The first hurled itself at Chang-li. He channeled red lux to his right hand, conjuring up a shield. The rock pig bounced off it and hit the ground, briefly dazed, but the second pig was galloping past him, straight toward Min.

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Min had her lux bow in her hand. It looked more detailed than the last time Chang-li had seen her with it. He realized it had been over a week since he'd arranged for her to have any training time in a tower and berated himself. Noren was right. Min had told him she wanted to progress and he hadn't made any effort to see that it was a reality. He blamed her for not having his best interests at heart, but he didn’t prioritize her needs either.

Now Min formed an arrow on her bow. She fired the arrow at the second rock pig, even as Chang-li lunged for it. He reinforced his hand with red and orange lux. Instead of a gauntlet with spikes like Joshi's, Chang-li wrapped his arm in a protective layer of lux and added orange finger grips. He seized the rock pig by its back leg and pulled. The creature, which must have weighed 50 pounds, stumbled. He yanked the pig back by the leg and threw it across the grass. It tumbled and rolled as Min’s arrow flew past, just missing Chang-li. He thought for an instant he had spoiled her shot but the arrow thudded into the first rock pig as it was picking itself up and shaking itself.

"Here comes your next, Hiroko," Noren said calmly, and Chang-li spotted the third rock pig emerging from a burrow. Hiroko targeted it and enhanced it as well. Sweat dripped down her face.

"I don't know if I can channel this much lux for long," she panted.

"Your biggest weakness is going to be in the durability of your lux channels," Noren said calmly. Meanwhile, Min had formed a second and then a third arrow, shooting them carefully into the first rock pig she'd already injured. When the third arrow struck, it collapsed into the grass. Its body shimmered and shifted as Hiroko's enhancement left it and it shrank back down to its original size. Its dark fur matted with blood.

Chang-li was busy chasing down the next rock pig. The second one, recovered from his toss, galloped after him. Another pair appeared and Hiroko targeted them both.

"Min," Noren called, "shoot one arrow at each and then three arrows into the second you shot. Now! I’m watching! Faster, faster!”

Min's bow twanged. Chang-li was busy attracting the rock pig's attention and just hoped Min wouldn't accidentally shoot him. Another rock pig died.

"I can't cycle enough lux," Hiroko protested. "I'm losing focus."

"Someday, you may be protecting your team in a fight. Their only hope of survival depends on your ability. Healing with blue lux is a rare talent, Hiroko. To develop it, I will make you work much, much harder than any of your teachers have previously asked of you. But it would be criminal of me to allow your talent to go undeveloped. Min, two arrows into the one near Chang-li, then an arrow in the second, then kill the first. Chang-li, you're switching to the spiritual luxes now."

Chang-li heard his command just as he was reinforcing his arm. He hesitated a moment, then vented his physical luxes. He had a buildup of spiritual lux, mostly of blue, in his body now and would be glad to have a chance to use it but the sudden change caught him off balance. He still had the attention of all the rock pigs. They swarmed him quickly and with his red lux enhancement gone, he was forced to run away from their gnashing teeth.

What could he do with blue lux to keep himself safe? He didn't know many blue lux weaves other than Blindfold. To buy himself some time, he tossed a Blindfold at two of the rock pigs. His weave slid off them as Hiroko's interfered.

"Good thought, but no," Noren said cheerfully. "Hiroko, two more coming. Min, kill the big whitish one."

Min's bow twanged. Chang-li wished he could see how his wife was managing. He resolved to be more involved with her training. Two of the rock pigs were on him now, attacking his shins through his robe, tearing the robe and his legs. Blood trickled down. Their teeth hurt.

He cycled green lux through him, following the Purification of Mind and Soul technique. After all, according to his readings, when dividing lux into physical and spiritual, green could be considered either. When Noren made no objection, he decided that was answer enough. Green was allowed.

Well, if he couldn't use blue lux directly on the wood pigs, how could he fool them? Chang-li tried weaving a quick net on the infinite loom, blue and purple. He threw it around his shoulders like a cape.

Noren applauded. "A confusion pattern, excellent."

With the weave in place, the purple should ideally help hide his true location. He wasn't talented with it, and it was a very basic pattern, so it didn't do more than shift his outline, but it was enough. The rock pigs were no longer biting through his clothing.

Min gave a shriek. Chang-li turned. It was a rock pig bounding toward her when he had failed to attract. She raised her bow to shoot it.

"I didn't give you permission to change targets," Noren snapped.

Min shifted her aim. Chang-li had no tricks up his sleeve. Nothing he could think of that would help him turn the attention of a rock pig from his wife to himself, not without using physical luxes. So he ignored Noren's orders and threw a quickly woven firepot at the creature. It exploded, knocking the animal back. It shrank back to normal size and lay still on the grass.

"Stop," Noren ordered. "Hiroko, end your weave."

Hiroko dropped her arm. The remaining rock pigs shrank, looked around confusedly, and then dodged back for their holes. Noren stalked forward toward Chang-li.

"I said to use only spiritual luxes. I said not to kill the creatures. Did you misunderstand my instructions in this training exercise?"

"No," Chang-li said, meeting Noren's eyes. "I ignored them. You would have stood by and let my wife be mauled by a beast without even allowing her to defend herself. I'm not going to let that happen."

Hiroko gasped. She looked from Noren to Chang-li, clearly shocked by his disrespect. That annoyed him even more. She must know that Morning Mist didn't really have a grandmaster.

Min dismissed her bow. She looked upset. "I'm sorry," she said. "My arrows aren't very strong yet. That one should have been dead with my first three shots."

"You are building a foundation from which to progress," Noren said, not looking at her. "You did well enough. Hiroko, you will need further sessions focusing on your targets. You need to split your focus more effectively.”

"It's easier when I'm either directly attacking or I'm trying to protect someone I know," Hiroko said quietly. "I want to focus on that."

"Then you will need to understand the connections between people a bit better," Noren said. "I will send a scroll to you with some suggested exercises. My regards to the dowager. That is all for today."

He turned and began to stroll away. Chang-li's anger mounted. The man wasn't even going to try to correct him. Chang-li had been bracing himself for an argument. Now the grandmaster was walking away. He hurried after, Min on his heels. "So that's it, we're done here?"

"Hiroko is nearly at her limits anyway, and it's clear you do not want to hear what teaching I can offer. You would prefer to figure things out on your own with scrolls and books. After all, they cannot judge you. They are the words of dead men written down on parchment."

"I do not acknowledge your authority over me as a grandmaster," Chang-li said.

"So, you must acknowledge someone's authority in order to learn from him?"

"How do I know you have anything worth teaching?" Chang-li demanded. He immediately felt his words fall flat. Noren might be a phony, but he was clearly a knowledgeable cultivator. Chang-li’s attitude was petty and he knew it.

"We are in agreement," Noren said. "I have no authority over you. You have no claim to me. Good day, Cultivator Wu."

He stalked off, without looking back. Min and Hiroko caught up to Chang-li. Min touched his arm and he turned, expecting to find an argument. Instead, she was staring at him, her features soft.

"Thank you," she said. "When that thing was bounding at me, I froze."

"It wouldn't have hurt you much," he said. "Barely nipped me."

"Yes, but," Min bit her lip before shaking her head. "You didn't have to do that."

"I'm not going to stand by and let you get mauled by an overgrown rat," Chang-li said.

Hiroko's face looked drawn as she joined them. "It was an interesting technique," she said. "I think I understand what he was driving at. I'll have to see if there are exercises I can perform on my own."

"You know he's not really our Grandmaster, right?" Chang-li asked.

Hiroko shrugged. "He's clearly a talented cultivator, and he's the only one who's offered to help me train since I arrived at this tower. I'd be a fool not to listen to what he had to say."

That cut Chang-li deeply. Not that he could have offered to teach Hiroko. Could he? She wasn't a member of their sect, not yet, not really. But he remembered his guilt over not having properly helped Min with her training.

"I can take you both into the tower. We don't need him. We can stay here now, and—"

Hiroko shook her head. "He's right, I can feel the strain on my lux channels. I need a purification tablet — no, I suppose I don't. Not any more. Well, I need to cycle, at least," she said. "Thank you, Chang-li. I look forward to training again with you soon." She walked away, Min quickly catching up with her and speaking in a low voice.

Chang-li stared after both, feeling hollow, before following.