Dan was sleeping one of the heaviest sleeps of his life. He had never wanted to be formless and buried as much as he did right now. His ruined face did not taunt him in his sleep, that was a pain reserved for his waking moments alone. He felt the dreamy darkness claiming him and fought past his instinctual reaction to run from it.

Now he floated above Jaia as he always did in his dreams. He felt himself explode and fragment, as usual. The fragments landed where they always did, the same places each time. All onto the same landmass on Jaia, with a tiny piece landing as it must, in the cup of a woman going through the pains of pregnancy.

He did not feel the normal waves of discomfort and claustrophobia that he had once felt. He was not the rain again in this dream. He was simply the pieces of a broken thing, scattered on the world. Dan traditionally does not hold any real position of perspective in his nightmare, instead feeling dozens of points of view, all meteorically smashing into the surface of the planet. He sinks, all across the land in different spots. Some are burying into rock, molten heat letting them fall through like a hand through wet paper. Some explode as they touch water and the steam becomes a rain that will nourish a calm land.

Time seems to pass in an instant and somehow Dan knows it has been thousands of years. Separated from even himself and wholly alone. As the time passed, the superheated parts of himself cooled. They waited. He saw demons, dwarves, elves, humans and other creatures that were so unique they didn’t bear a name as a whole. Some built shrines above the craters he made, some avoided them. Some revered the chunks of Dan, some feared them and hid them away. Others still waited, until the heat of the fall had dissipated so much that they could touch the pieces of Dan that had felt so alone for so long. His dream normally ended long before this, but he saw now as people arrived near the pieces of himself.

When the various people began to wield the shards of Dan’s fractured self, that was where Dan awoke, sweating. He was bundled so tight, and it was so humid in the closetted recovery room, that perspiration was a given. For once, it didn’t feel like it was because of his nightmares but because of nature. For once… he didn’t wake up in fright. His dream, and it had actually, truly been a dream, had left him with something akin to hope. His friends had given him a similar hopeful feeling in the forest of Sasin.

It was that emotion that let him sit up from his stupor. Even now the tidy bandages around his ragged face were juxtaposing a destruction of Dan’s self that he was trying desperately to ignore. Better to pretend, for now, that the bandages were his face. He could see just as well with his face covered than he could without, though breathing was obviously not so easy.

He had waited until the attendant left. A portly man with greasy fingers and a surly face, he was actually quite nice but Dan didn’t want anything to do with him. He didn’t want to see, or more specifically be seen, by anyone right now. He could bathe himself, change his own bandages and even cook his own food, if they weren’t already cooking it for him. Still, the man had diligently done his duties and unwaveringly so, at that, despite Dan’s many protests.

Dan was finally ready to move, and now he had his moment. He wasn’t under lock and key, but the man was definitely under orders to make sure Dan rested. As forcefully as he could, whilst being polite. Dan had no recourse against someone who genuinely harboured no ill-will, and didn’t want the man to get into trouble, so he slipped away without notice. He would remain without notice, too.

Sitting cooped up in a room with nothing but sour emotions and confused understanding had left Dan with nothing to do but cycle his mana and meditate. It had been the only thing keeping him sane, he thought. With each passing moment of stillness in Dan’s body, his mana raged faster and faster, his core more and more full. He let himself delight in the feeling of being everywhere, rather than the sensations he felt while he was focused only on himself. His range, control and clarity had all improved leaps and bounds since his time in the forest, and even more since the battle.

He didn’t allow himself to think of the fight. Or of his now remembered, inexperienced mistake. Just because you think you’ve won doesn’t mean your enemy won’t take that final moment and steal it from you. A lesson learned, for a supreme cost. Both to Dan, and to the Guan family, it would seem. Distracting himself from his thoughts was easy enough with the constant chatter and gossip around the Jaioduo.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Did you hear what Po Shang’s branch plans to do next?”

“Will it be an internal war? Or another Quiet Combat maybe?”

“Whatever combat comes next, it definitely won’t be quiet.”

There didn’t seem to be a corner of the massive school that wasn’t alight with the fire of intrigue and all were desperate to guess what would happen next so they would seem wise. The wisest thing would to not be in the way when things started to get violent, not that any would listen to Dan, even himself. It was like a whirlpool, everyone in the Jiaoduo was caught in its flow and would be tossed around by the waves which were made.

Dan was growing anxious, more and more with each step. It was impossible not to take on some of the feelings from the people he observed, and right now everyone was terrified. Some of them spoke of being excited, of being interested, but every single person held a telltale tension in themselves. Mana flowed quickly, and fights were breaking out every now and then where normally things would have remained calm.

Dan weaved his way through the hallways, easily able to avoid the heavy stepping students with his perception. It wasn’t worth being seen, especially with his face wrapped like this. It would be obvious who he was, even obscured by the bandages. It was impossible to avoid the whispers about that too.

“I heard he died.”

“No, apparently he faked the injury and he’s going to attack Po Shang.”

“No one survives a hit like that to the face, though, right?”

That conversation occurred between two teachers, lounging near a pond while the chaos of the day washed over the school. No classes were happening right now, which only added to the sense of change and the aura of oppressive worry that clung to every shadow. When the words hung in the air held his name, misspoken or misremembered by most, he couldn’t help but be drawn into their words.

“He’s meant to be special though, did you actually see the bout?” Dan stopped to listen, silent and slow as a slug on the wooden floor. The speaker was a woman, and her aura felt square stage, like the man she was speaking to. Dan had never seen them before but he believed the man to be Guan Ji Kal, who he had heard was something of a lazy teacher.

“I didn’t see it, but yes, he’s a strange one. The fact that he fought Po Daiyu evenly says that much. How would you fare against her, Lin?”

“Mincemeat, most likely. An unfair fight with my mana, it’s not built for a fight like that, but she’d defeat me easily. This child has an empty soul badge and Po Shang using him as a pawn, the fact that he might still be alive is incredible.”

“And I’m the same. They say he made her weaker, but they are also saying other crazy things. Like a clear badge using their mana offensively, so who knows?” Dan had made her weaker? Noticeably so? That hadn’t happened to Fa Lian in the forest but he had taken much, much less of her mana. An interesting facet of Dan’s newfound power.

His power. That was the thought driving him along, making him take to the nighttime halls of the Jaioduo, fueling his search. He was looking for a few people, and any one of them would be enough. Elder Baba would be the most obvious. She had been elusive, and given Dan’s… state, was easily able to avoid him. Hyun Soon or Guan Xiaomei would be next, if nothing other than to see that they were alright.

Strangely, Dan found his mind wandering to Guan Fa Lian and decided he wouldn’t mind seeing her again either. Her mana had felt dangerous, a flagration of his core. It had also been the key, in whatever way it worked, to helping Dan find a new level of understanding. He wanted to thank her. He hoped that maybe she would know more, or have thought more on these things than Dan.

Meeting any of them would make venturing out tonight well worthwhile. Dan’s face was beginning to itch under the bandages, and his searching had brought him no luck. His range had jumped many dozens of times, but he still had to move around the Jaioduo for his search to work. The place was massive. Like looking for a specific grain of rice in a bowl, Dan was having trouble sifting through the massive amount of information that his mana was sending to him.

He had stretched himself too thin. Trying to leave an ear on everyone’s wall meant that his consciousness was everywhere except for himself. Dan nearly walked right into the large man without seeing him. A facet of having such a strong, star stage core. A facet of seeking Dan himself out intentionally.

Dan almost asked what Guan Po Shang was doing in the Jiaoduo, but he had no place to question the brother of the patriarch, and he thought he knew the answer. A suspicion that would be confirmed quickly.

“Ah, Guan Ah Dan. Just the young man I wanted to see.” The huge man’s form was now clear to Dan. He was using his mana to trace him, so as not to be blinded by the mass of mana within Po Shang. His voice seemed to drip out of him, deep and slow it was full of intent.

“Forgiveness, wise elder, but I must be returning to my room for rest.” Dan turned, already sure that he would make it no further than the end of the hallway. No hand grabbed Dan as he began to walk, briskly, the other way. Instead, heavy footfalls fell into step beside him.

“That is very sensible. I shall accompany you, so that you don’t get lost.”

Dan gulped and found he had no other excuses. “Thank you, wise elder.”

“It is my pleasure. After all,” Guan Po Shang’s voice fell to the whisper of a snake’s hiss, “we’re family.”