Chang-li felt the inhibitor band settling on him, choking off the flow of lux. It was like suddenly stepping outside of the tower again, but worse. He cycled his lux, and his core was sluggish. Outside the tower, it answered him as he pleased, but with the inhibitor in place, he felt half alive. His vision shrank like he could no longer see from the corners of his eyes, and his nerves felt dead.

"Ugh.”

“Now you see why I will not bear the touch of an inhibitor on my flesh again," Joshi said.

“I’m fully converted to your way of thinking," Chang-li said. "Let's do this."

They set off together. Magen was scouting ahead, watching for any sign of Feng. Joshi had assured him that even if Feng was trying to hide his presence, Magen would be able to sense him.

"He waits for us," Joshi reported back after a moment. "Just on the far side of the bridge. He seems very confident."

"We need to be careful of a trap," Chang-li reminded him. "The disciples could have been lying. Why wouldn't he have more script circles? He clearly thinks you are at least as great a threat to him as Li Jiya was."

“Li Jiya was accompanied by half a dozen disciples stronger than ours. I do not think Feng considers you a threat," Joshi said. "Let's keep it that way. The bracer at least will help."

Chang-li's throat was tight. "Yes. I hope you’re right.”

"He comes," Joshi reported sharply.

They were nearly out of the mushroom forest now, with only a few hundred feet separating them from the moat of shining lux that surrounded the great crystal. The crystal reared up over them like a mountain's peak, at least a hundred feet tall, its walls of shifting purple.

The moat was fed from the crystal with seven streams coming out at regular intervals. At least Chang-li guessed it was seven. Two of them were hidden behind the bulk of the enormous crystal. Even with his inhibitor on, the lux moat felt intense to Chang-li's senses. He would heed Joshi's warning and stay well clear of it.

Now Feng crossed the nearest bridge, striding toward them, his robes moving in the breeze of his own passage. His jet-black hair was perfectly slicked back from his head and tied in a tail with a silver cord laced through it. His robes were open, showing the silken white trousers and tunic beneath it. He carried a long, thin sword in one hand. The sword was reinforced with the physical luxes, but no sign of any of the spiritual. Chang-li hoped it was no more than on a par with his own. He told himself they could do this if Feng continued to underestimate them, if they worked together as they had discussed.

Chang-li stayed three paces back and to the side of Feng, Joshi, as Feng approached. Feng stopped fifteen feet from them. He smiled coldly and lifted his sword. "I hoped you would be foolish enough to come, Joshi." He wasn't even looking at Chang-li, who sidled off a little bit as though drawing away.

Joshi spread his arms and shrugged. "Where else could I go? My path leads through this floor and therefore through you."

"Your path ends here," Feng declared, "and with it, any thought that Princess Hiroko may deny me my due.”

Even with the inhibitor on, Chang-li could feel Feng's lux flare. He was cycling in a pattern Chang-li didn't recognize, something that roiled inside him like a boiling pot. He lifted his sword, both hands on the hilt, the blade pointed toward Joshi.

"Come, barbarian, show me what you can do, and I will show you the quality of my lux. You go no further. I take it you left that bitch to die?"

"Li Jiya awaits us outside the tower,” Joshi replied.

"Enough." Feng's sword blazed. Joshi crouched, which was the signal for Chang-li to act. He quickly wove together a tiny Firepot and threw it right at Feng's feet. He was practiced with the technique; it took him only a few heartbeats to compose and toss.

Lux exploded on contact, kicking up a shower of sand in Feng's face just as Joshi leapt. His red-empowered jump carried him past Feng's head. Feng, still recovering from the dust, turned to follow him as Joshi crashed down beside him. Meteor Punch landed, sending up another shower of dust.

In the confusion, Chang-li acted. He raced forward as Feng swung his sword at Joshi. Joshi caught the blow on his red lux wrist shield. He was keeping the shield small and tight, just enough to help him block.

Joshi punched. Feng took the blow to his torso without even seeming to notice. Feng swung again. Chang-li slipped the inhibitor bracer off his wrist as he ran toward the dueling pair. He dove, sliding forward toward Feng, arms outstretched. The hem of Feng's robe was in the way. Chang-li scrambled, caught hold of Feng's ankle, and clamped the inhibitor band around it.

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Feng staggered back. Joshi was there, driving in with a fistful of punches. Feng blocked as best he could, but Joshi’s blows smashed past his defenses. Chang-li was already weaving together his net. He threw it over Feng. Feng clawed at it with his left hand, pulling it away while avoiding Joshi's fists.

He stumbled backward toward the moat, just as the two of them had planned. Joshi wasn't letting up. His flurry of blows, left then right, landed with reflected images of the fists punching Feng from all corners.

Feng's hair was disarrayed. Blood trickled from his ear, where one heavy blow had landed. Chang-li was waiting to see what more he could do. He had a Firepot weaving, but didn't see how to toss it in, or that it was needed. Joshi almost had Feng cornered.

Then Feng exploded into action. He blasted a wave of force off of himself, empowered by green and blue lux. Chang-li staggered backward under the blow. His mind reeled. He was frozen in his spot, unable to move. How had he dared to go against this son of heaven? He was no match for a true cultivator. He was—

Joshi shouted wordless defiance, and Chang-li felt the hold break. Suddenly there was Feng. He hurled the broken bracer at the ground. A strange purple crystal hanging from a golden string hung over one hand.

“How dare you interfere? Begone,” he snarled, and tossed the crystal at Chang-li, who reacted instinctively, catching it from the air with his empty right hand, as he prepared to counter Feng's sword with his own.

But the world dissolved around him.

Chang-li blinked. Feng was gone. Joshi was gone. The tower was gone. All around was purple. He seemed to be in a small room, its walls carved of the same sort of purple crystal as the spire they had been approaching at the bottom of the blue chamber. There was no one in here with him.

He touched a wall. It was cool under his fingers. He ran his hands around the perimeter of the chamber. It was a circle about thrice his armspan across, the ceiling overhead curved with the nearest edge just past what he could reach, and the center twice again as high.

What had just happened? Had Feng used some technique he'd never heard of before? No. That crystal he'd thrown had been a trap, and Chang-li had foolishly stepped right into it.

Chang-li banged a fist against the crystal wall. It echoed dully. He slammed the hilt of his sword with no effect. Chang-li enforced his sword with red to strengthen it and orange to sharpen its edge, and then struck it against the wall. It didn't so much as scratch the purple surface.

Taking a deep breath, Chang-li sheathed his sword. He summoned a bit of yellow lux to a flame and aimed it at the wall for as long as he could until his yellow lux was nearly halved. Letting the flame drop, he inspected the wall. There was no sign anything had so much as touched it. He tapped one finger against it. The crystal was cool to his touch. He'd just used a large supply of his lux and got nothing back from it.

And yet — Chang-li sensed lux all around him. He pulled it in, cycled it, and realized his core was as full as it had been when he first entered. Experimentally, he let out a trickle of blue lux, then a flood until his blue was gone. Then, he pulled in the lux in the chamber. The same blue he had dispersed flooded into his core.

What was this place? Chang-li sat down, his legs crossed, his arms in a comfortable pose, and began to cycle. He started with Purification of Mind and Soul, trying to help himself think.

It helped. His mind cleared. Some lingering terror washed away. He couldn't see beyond, didn't know what was happening. There was nothing he could do at this moment to affect the fight between Feng and Joshi. He needed to figure out how to escape. It seemed that the first step there was to determine what this place truly was.

Chang-li unslung his satchel. He had his own cultivator journal inside, a few blank books, and some notes he'd taken on the most promising Morning Mist scrolls. Taking out a pen case, he realized it wasn't his, but Wulan's.

He channeled a little lux into the pen case, and a moment later, the scribe's shade emerged. Chang-li let out a quick sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t completely alone. As the dead scribe looked around, Wulan's eyebrows rose.

"You've made progress, then. How did you get your hands on a temporal training chamber so quickly? There were none in the sect resources we left behind at the library, I know that for a fact."

"A what?" Chang-li asked.

“Temporal training chamber. They are rare and fantastically expensive, at least they were in my time. Perhaps you decadent youths have made them into playgrounds for children, but in my day they were the sort of resource only a very highly placed cultivator could afford. A whole sect might save for years to get one. The sort of thing you might receive as a tower boon."

"A tower boon?" Chang-li's eyes widened. "A tower boon, that's it. Feng beat us to the tower guardian, and received his boon. We were fighting him and he threw this at me."

Wulan's mouth dropped open. He stared wide-eyed at Chang-li. "He trapped you?"

"Yes."

"In — a temporal training chamber?" The scribe's words were choppy as though he had trouble pushing them out.

Chang-li nodded. "It seems so."

The shade smacked a palm against his forehead. "Young Master Feng trapped you in a temporal training chamber that he had received as his tower boon?"

"Yes. He's fighting Joshi right now. Is there a way for me to escape and aid him?"

Now Wulan smacked both palms against his forehead. "To escape? To escape? No." He seemed to take a deep breath and force himself calmer. "That is, yes, there is a way for you to escape. It's just going to take you a while." He glared down at Chang-li as though somehow this was his fault. "How much lux can you contain now? How far has your training taken you?"

In answer, Chang-li released it all into the chamber. For a few moments he was blinded by a swirl of colors and then it all faded, absorbed into the walls of the chamber.

"I see. Not as much as I'd like, but we'll make it do. Now, the first thing you're going to do is tell me exactly what's been happening. The second thing you're going to do is train. You'll be able to step out of here easily enough once you've reached the Peak of Mental Refinement. I can tell by the feel this training chamber will be good for someone near your stage of cultivation. I'll have to thank Rose and the others for the knowledge they gave me," he added, his eyes going a little distant. "It seems they were more thorough than I knew. Well," he folded his hands together, "what are you waiting for?”

“You speak as though it's going to be easy.”

“Not at all. I merely speak as though I want you to get started. Begin."