Lya spent the next half hour decoding the first page of the manual, so far it had not revealed anything beyond what the average mortal knew about Soul-Wards. Namely, that the Soul-Ward took the exact same shape as your body in the Spiritual Realm, growing as you did from the time you were an infant. It was just starting to disclose information about how Soul-Wards were supposed to be chiseled out for the Soul-Space when there was a knock at the door.

There was a slight pause before Lya said, “Come in!” knowing it was Brella on the other side.

The Cultivators’ statements had left them in an odd state, but after distancing herself from the unprecedented situation just a little bit, Lya had already reasoned her way past any potential disagreement with her best friend. Brella had never given her any reason to doubt her, and she wasn’t going to start now, especially when she would need Brella’s help to decode the manuals in time.

Her friend walked in hesitantly, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

“So Lya, I just wanted to say that—“

“Oh thank the peak you’re here,” Lya said, cutting off her friend’s uncomfortable approach, “I’m stuck in this passage and really need your help.”

Brella’s eyes widened in surprise, and then looked at Lya questioningly.

‘Are we really going to pretend that didn’t go down the way it did?’

The girl’s face said it all.

“I can’t understand these words in context here, it says: The younger a Soul-Ward the easier it is to chisel, but at the same time the easier to permanently maim the Soul-Space… I think it’s talking about recommended ages for using the Foundation-Pill, but I am not sure.”

‘Okay, I’ll pretend for you. But don’t you dare bring this up later as some kind of personal affront.’

Brella said, using their many years of extensive friendship to communicate, Lya just nodded, not having the privilege of time to deal with this. She had a month and she would need her friends’ help. Whether her friend was helping because of friendship or self-interest did not matter. It would be a mutual partnership, once the month was over, and hopefully she’d found a way to discover and deal with her ‘staying alive’ problem… they’d deal with it. Until then, they needed each other.

Brella sat down next to Lya on the bed, and quickly falling into long time habits started reading with Lya following along the manual over her shoulder.

“It is of general consensus that the Soul-Space should be formed no earlier than ten years of age and no later than twenty years of age. Each Sect choses its own preferred timing between these years, but there will always be a trade-off between Qi sensitivity (decreasing with time), Soul-Ward malleability (also decreasing with time) and Soul-Ward strength (hardening with time).

If a Sect’s teaching requires very small and stable Cores (usually associated to Spirit focused Sects), the recommendation is to chisel the Soul-Space in older years. If a Sect’s teaching requires a larger more fluid Core (usually associated to Body focused Sects, the recommendation is to chisel out the Soul-Space in earlier years).

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Earlier Cores tend to be larger and less even in shape, sometimes requiring extensive remolding in later years. When the Sect uses a mixture…”

Brella had read in five minutes more than Lya had been able to figure out in thirty. She sighed a breath of relief and focused on the information she was learning, somewhere in there she’d have to find what was wrong with her. Where had she gone wrong in her own molding of her Soul-Ward?

Lya and Brella stayed up late into the night, burning through an entire candle’s worth of light. Eventually they went to sleep, knowing they would have a hard time going to work in the morning, but ended up getting there late anyway.

“What are you doing here?” Garmin asked when they arrived late.

Brella and Lya looked at each other uncertainly.

“Do you need any materials? We don’t have much, but we could gather some writing materials? A slate maybe?”

“What about work?” Lya asked.

“Work? You’re a cultivator now, you don’t need to work! You’ve made us proud, now go focus on the studies the Master Cultivator left you. Who knows, might be enough to make you into an inner disciple!”

“A slate would be helpful…”

“But what we really need,” Brella said, taking the initiative as always, “are candles. We don’t have enough daylight to get through everything.”

Garmin nodded, “I’ll get those to you immediately. Now go get your breakfast and go back to your studies! I’ve already told the Cook you’ll be needing extra servings for all that studying you’ll be doing! Can’t have your scrawny butts embarrassing us at the Sect now can we!?”

The girls were still caught off guard by the woman’s change in behavior towards them, and were getting around to thanking them for the benefits when the older woman just shooed them along to the kitchen.

They had their breakfast, got their materials promptly delivered to them and were about to go to Lya’s room to continue their studies when the matron found them again.

“Here is the key to my study, I have cleared out my things so you girls have a more suitable environment to study. The lighting is better there and you will have a desk to use.”

Lya blinked in surprise, “What about you? Where will you be?”

“Worry not about me,” she chuckled, “Worry about yourselves. Make us proud!”

In one day they’d jumped to the top of the food chain, and it was disconcerting to both of them, but not having the time to dawdle, they soon found themselves entrenched in the study going over the manual at record speed.

Lya thought it would take her a while to figure out what the Master Cultivator had, in her eyes, so mysteriously hinted at, but in a very short time it became apparent to her what kind of very serious and basic mistake she had done.

“The Soul-Ward is, by all understandings, Heaven’s way of protecting the Soul from the energies of the world. It buffers and filters all the energies from having direct contact with the Soul-Space. There is no recording of any human having ever survived direct contact of the Soul-Space with external world energies. Therefore, it is very important to always leave as substantial a buffer as possible between the Soul-Space and the external Soul-Realm.”

“Shit,” Lya said out loud.

“What is it?” Brella said, surprised at Lya’s sudden exclamation.

“I’m just… realizing how what we did was so dangerous,” Lya misdirected. She’d just realized that Brella had no idea about the state of Lya’s Soul-Space. The Cultivator had never mentioned the patch he’d infused in her Soul-Ward.

“Yeah,” Brella said pensively, “I guess you’re right,” and continued reading.

They might not have stated it outright, and they might be pretending for their mutual temporary benefits, but their relationship had already changed definitively.

Lya shook her head to wipe the useless melancholy away, now that she’d diagnosed her problem, she needed to find a solution.

Twenty nine days left.