Raika looks up at the skittering sound approaching, prepared to unmake whatever it is. Roiling depths of biology churn to prepare a weapon quiet enough to suit the occasion…

Dink.

Hmm.

“Good guy?” she asks.

Dink.

“...ok, well that’s not a yes.”

Dink.

“Ha! Fine. I’ll figure something out. Surprised that you’d go so far for something like this, though.”

Dink.

Raika smiles, feeling a wave of softness overtake the expression. “Thanks, bud. I appreciate you trying to help. I’ll see what I can do, ok?”

That settles the item spirit, which alms itself back towards silence. Dink is never entirely silent- she thinks that that’s something almost against its purpose, contrary to its being. Instead, it mimics the sound of what already exists, tuning into the frequency of what’s around it, mimicking silence through sound. It takes some small effort to make its own sound, and whenever it ‘speaks’, Raika makes sure to listen thoroughly.

A few moments later, a crocodilian beast with somewhere north of a hundred or so legs slithers out of the underbrush, crawling forward with a dreamy look in its eyes. She steps forward to intercept it before-

“Raika? Is it a threat?”

Raika quickly moves to block at least part of the crocodilian from view, awkwardly trying to put herself between it and the source of the danger she can foresee.

“Nope! Definitely not a threat! Just dealing with something out here real quick, no need to worry-”

But it’s too late. Li Shu peeks past the curtain of their little tent-camp, catching sight of the spirit beast. Her eyes light up immediately, the uniqueness of the beast’s biology drawing her gaze instantly.

“Oh! Did you tame it or something? Is it dying? If it’s dying, I can-”

“My darling healer, don’t you have enough projects without dissecting the first critter I get my hands on?”

Li Shu doesn’t pout, per se, as she’s not a pouty person. She most certainly does not make an ever-so-slightly adorable frown, quirking her eyebrow as she does. “Those are all theoretical or gradual! I’ve been doing theoreticals about you and medicine for people for a while, and I could use a chance for a proper exploration.”

“I promise I’ll get you a beast to dissect later, alright? Dink got this one for me, and I have some ideas I want to try out.”

Li Shu quirks an eyebrow, looking at her. “You know it’s actively trying to swallow you right now, right?”

Raika looks down at her right arm, most of it currently down the throat of the centi-croc.

“It’s fine, this is how it shows affection.”

Li Shu gives her a Look:™.

“I’m training it! It likes how I taste, this is just giving positive reinforcement.”

“Sure.”

Li Shu heads back inside, back to her notes and the tea that Raika left over the ‘stove’. The camp-tent she’s set up is spawned from her own body, same as anything she makes nowadays, really. From the bottom of her feet, she morphs a connection and disconnection as she walks, enjoying the little bit of architecture she’s set up in the wilds.

The overgrowth lives up to its name, and as they’ve kept heading east, finally passing beneath the first of those impossibly tall trees she saw, it’s only earned it further. There are whole areas that live forever in shadow, the shifting of gargantuan leaves up above creating dead-zones of mushy rot in the vegetation even as the vines and plants that feed symbiotically from the tree itself flourish. The areas of shadow bloom with fungal growth and ever-shifting ambush predators, while the rivers of sunlight that decorate the massive, alien geography are filled with bright green myriad colors.

Raika and co have stopped for a while. Raika could theoretically go without sleep for days, maybe weeks, but that costs Qi, constantly replenishing and regenerating damaged tissues and forming new brains to deal with the sleep deprivation after long enough. Besides that, stopping every now and then to let people out of her to breathe fresh air isn’t the worst idea, nor is it one that costs her anything but a bit of time.

And while time is at a premium, it’s a price that’s paid no matter how it’s spent. She could pay it by rushing blindly, or she could pay it by making sure she and her allies are in the best shape possible and keeping track of their location.

Rather than a patio of bone or a palanquin like before, Raika’s hung membranous tissue up between several lesser trees and greater vines, making a three-dimensional bubble of space. It has windows, it has walls, and it has comfortable flooring inside. Two floors, in fact- one of them up above with more writing space and clear breezes for Li Shu, and a lower area with a wide ‘doorway’, wherein she’s created a few cushy pillow-sections for lounging, several tables, a few meditative rooms, and, in the very center, her best approximation of a “firepit”. Not a literal one- for all that she probably could just light up a patch of True Flame, it works for higher-tier alchemy and destruction before working like actual fire (the name is a little misleading like that). Add to the prohibitive Qi expense of it, it wouldn’t fit at all. Instead, she’s removed some of her heat-venting materials from a patch of her biology, letting the internal temperature of a few blood vessels skyrocket until a constant trail of steam floats off it from contact with the open air. Some heat-activated bioluminescence, and she’s got a nice little warming-pit in the center of the space, not hot enough to actually cook with (not without burning her own flesh, at any rate) but hot enough to gradually warm water for tea.

Rather homey, if she says so herself. It’s mostly skin and fat-padding with some ‘hardfloor’ sections of bone, but altering the pigmentation is actually easier and less damaging than chromatophores, and turns out, it really only takes superficial changes to have people forget that they’re hanging out on living meat.

Turns out, once you get over the potential ick factor, soft, reactive, warm surroundings can be pretty comforting.

Speaking of the ick factor-

Raika pulls her arm out of the centi-croc’s maw, an act both easier and harder than it looks. For one, it’s really not trying to hold on all that hard- an instinctive crushing chomp to start, of course, but by now its pupils have turned incredibly broad and vacant, like it’s positively high off the flavor. On another hand, it’s still crocodilian, a beast species known for its crushing jaws, and she’s not willing to sacrifice a second limb to this thing just for shits and giggles. She has to drag the limb out, leaving bloody trails of torn skin and muscle in the creature’s mouth- but she does manage to retrieve the limb, mostly intact.

She pats the heavily disoriented spirit beast on the head, turning at the sound of movement emerging from the patio.

Many-Grasping crawls out of a window, her form mammalian but mimicking a lizard’s ability to climb on nearly any surface with her durable claws and multi-jointed limbs. Jin and Li Shu, on the other hand, emerge from the front door, Li Shu carrying a bundle of notes, Jin carrying tea and enough cups for all of them.

She raises an eyebrow, and he shrugs. “Fresh air,” he says, quiet. He’s been quiet a lot more often since he woke from his coma. Not enough to make her worry, not really, but enough that she’s taken note.

“And here I was making sure you were all properly ventilated in there,” Raika complains good-naturedly. “All my hard effort in vain. All my generosity, tossed aside.”

Li Shu rolls her eyes, finding a spot to sit on one of the nearby vines and spreading her notes out. “It’s lovely, Raika, thank you so much for your creative bio-dioramas. The beast there reminded me there’s a world outside my notes is all. Lack of direct exposure and danger is only going to make me less prepared for interacting with the world, not more, and I can’t have my notes lacking from something like a lack of experience.”

Raika huffs, shaking her head. “Also nice to enjoy some sunshine?”

“Also nice to enjoy some sunshine, yes.”

Many-Grasping gives a low grumble of approval, radiating an Intent of enjoyment and contentment towards Raika as she finds a sunny patch at the top of the bio-tent, soaking in the warmth up there.

Jin, on the other hand… he is still somewhat blank, as if lost in his own thoughts. Never enough that she’s afraid, never enough that it’s a danger, but again, enough that she notices.

Dink vibrates against her sternum in agreement, a little hum coming from inside her self-grown robes.

“You busy, Jin?” she asks.

He blinks, raising his head from pouring tea to look at her. “Oh, I… I’m just making the tea, master.”

“And tea is nice and appreciated. Figured while we’re here, though, we could further your training a bit. It’s been a few months since you entered mid-Qi Building realm, and a lot’s changed since then. Do you feel up for it?”

Jin frowns in thought, calmly pouring out the third and fourth tea cups… and nods. “Yes, master.”

She smiles softly, nodding. “Good. You can join me for some meditation.”

Jin nods, visibly firming up his resolve. With a little huff of breath, he picks up the third and fourth teacups, bringing them over for her and himself.

She smiles as he shows no fear facing the centi-croc, utterly unbothered by its presence. There’s a chance he’s just toughened from trauma, but she can smell the point where his hormones meld, hear his neurons fire in staccato, and it feels… more to do with her.

She can literally see his trust, synesthesia letting it radiate off him right beside snippets of Intent that flutter through all living things. She sits calm and unbothered by the beast, and she has invited him over- that is enough for him, it would seem, to know that no harm will come to him. He takes a seat at the edge of the centi-croc’s potential bite range, unworried as Raika grows a third limb, an additional arm growing from her shoulder blade to grab the teacup. Awkward compared to just growing out her left arm, but… why not? She prefers it missing, at least for now, and she can grow as many limbs as she needs. She takes a sip, enjoying the subtle flavors, the play of not just the tea-leaves and water, but the cooler heat from her own body, the taste of the earth and vine from which the leaves grew, the bitterness of the mortar and pestle that ground the leaves, the taste of the plants from which the fiber was woven that wrapped the powder.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

It is a reminder, and a kind one, that there is ever so much in even the smallest things. Big infinities and little ones.

She waits for Jin to take a sip of his own tea before putting her cup down, making sure that the patch of ‘patio’ they’re sitting on is warm enough that the tea will not go cold easily. She takes note of Li Shu paying attention off to one side, her keratin Sacrifice acting as pen and desk both, and smiles a bit at the fact that Many-Grasping is also watching quite intently.

“You’ve been through a lot in a very short period of time,” Raika says, her voice soft but firm. “Most take years to reach the point you’ve attained, and even in the sects of the third ring, your growth would be remarkable. From the scent, I can tell that your meridians and dantian are packed nearly full, meaning you’re on the verge of reaching the Foundational realm. Do you know what that is?”

Jin shakes his head. “I know that big sis Li Shu is in the Foundational realm, and that it’s the next step. It has to do with how much Qi you have, and then you start using it for something different.”

Raika nods. “That’s pretty much it. Qi Gathering realm is all about pulling Qi into your body. When used in conjunction with a formation, high enough quantity, or a technique, Qi generates more of itself, but the Qi generated by the body alone is almost never enough to start this process. It leaks out of you into the world unless you learn to control it, and by not only keeping it in, but drawing in more from your surroundings, you pass through the steps of the Qi Gathering realm. You’ve experienced already that some types of Qi work better for different people, and interact with techniques and cycling differently. Your Qi has always had some alignment to death and ghosts, theoretically limiting how quickly you could grow. But… in the fortress-city, you absorbed a lot. Those visions you described during your sleep are no minor thing, especially considering how you experienced the Cold Sun rituals Li Shu and I undertook.

“The identity of your Qi is much stronger than is normal for your level. For most in the Qi-Gathering realm, unless I really push myself, I usually only get a whiff of one or two notes, a concept here and there. For you, even with how faint your Qi is, small as your capacity is, I can detect an entire scene, a bunch of different themes and concepts. You might have noticed that cultivation is easier than it was?”

Jin frowns, but eventually nods. “I… I haven’t done it very much. I don’t want to burden you by taking from the Qi inside you, for one. I am grateful that you modified your internal Qi to better-”

She raises a hand to stop him. “I’ve done no such modification. I can superficially flavor Qi with the materials in my body, but I can’t modify it delicately or precisely enough to make it easier for someone to cultivate with. My theory is that, after experiencing so much comprehension and intensity relating to your aligned strengths, the Qi that you already have has become substantially ‘purer’, for want of a better term. Rather than needing to draw in Qi aligned to you, the small amount that you have is so well-defined that it’s overwriting the influences of the Qi you absorb, no matter the type. Before, if you absorbed, say, life-flavored Qi, you’d lose most of it due to being unable to absorb it, only managing to keep a small amount that you converted. Now, your Qi’s identity is strong enough to convert substantially more before it’s wasted or dissipates.

“As for what the Foundational realm is- Qi Gathering realm is all about filling your spiritual organs with enough Qi that they’re fully packed, capable of cycling constantly. By maintaining that constant cycle, your body starts to absorb your Qi, coming deeper in tune with your soul and, as the bridge between both, your mind. Foundational realm is where you establish the baseline of your cultivation, altering body and soul to obey the mind’s commands, altering body and mind to raise them to the level of a higher soul, and altering soul to better be able to interact with reality through body and mind.”

Jin nods, his eyes keen. She feels the lightest hint of relief at his eyes, clear and open like she hasn’t seen since before the fortress city. It’s no solution, but pulling him from his issues for just a bit makes her more confident in her decision to explain this now.

Nothing helps with trauma quite like gaining empowerment and self-awareness, as she can attest to. Admittedly, in ways both healthy and unhealthy.

“Your cultivation speed has gotten faster, and I think your current Qi capacity will be full before long. Focus on that for now, and once you’ve reached that point, let me know when you’re ready to advance.”

Jin nods. “I’ll do my best, master.”

She gives a rueful smile, leaning forward to flick him gently on the forehead. “Goes without saying, kid. You’ve yet to not do your best with something. I’m more worried you’ll get bad habits from me and your big sis, end up a workaholic.”

“It’s not work! It’s study, and it’s fun and engaging!”

Raika picks a clump of moss off the ground nearby and tosses it over at Li Shu, who gives a startled squeak and intercepts it with a Sacrificial needle.

“Only moles and ants enjoy digging into something as much as you, honored healer!”

Li Shu blushes, no quick comeback coming to mind, which only makes Raika laugh.

“Just remember to ask for help sometimes,” she reminds her friend. “I’m always happy to help with the theory, and I’ve got some ideas on Craft I’d love to chat about. Don’t burn yourself out.”

Li Shu takes a sip of her own tea, nodding. “I won’t. Too much to do, and too much of it fascinating. If the last two weeks have taught me anything it’s that my power needs to rise to meet my theoretical knowledge, and that there are gaps in my understanding I can’t even see until I find the pieces missing from them. Give me a few more days? I’m working on a formulae, trying to picture how the Sacrifice works. As Within, So Without is the only thing supporting my cultivation right now, and I need to study the Witch’s texts more to understand the ways my needles are changing.”

Raika nods. “Tell me when you could use some help with the theory, and I’ll watch your back whenever you need it.”

For a moment, she looks up at Many-Grasping, wonder if there’s advice she can give there, or a way to reach out… but the beastkin is studiously avoiding even looking at the lessons, her ears flattened and her Intent flaring with courteous privacy. She is Raika’s guest, and there’s no expectation to gain something so potent as cultivation resources or aid in that arrangement. Not unless Raika decides otherwise.

…Not now. Not until she has a better understanding of the 4th-ring courier’s character, and actual motivation to do more than uphold their currently-friendly agreement.

She turns back to Jin, smiling as comfortingly as she can. “I’m going to try and meditate on some projects of my own. If you’d like, you’re free to join me?”

She tilts her inflection, making the statement a question. She needn’t have worried- Jin’s breath eases, his heartbeat dropping a slight bitterness of anxiety so quiet she wasn’t even sure it was there.

“...yes, master.”

Under her guidance, he seats himself into a lotus position, the soles of his feet pointed up in his lap, his hands on his knees. Index touches thumb, and his breathing evens out quickly. She tastes one of the voices in his cultivation, whispering slightly louder, and for a moment it seems like it might have laughed, free and tired. Recognition lingers just out of memory, but it brings a smile to her anyways, like deep down, whatever wraith or echo Jin holds onto is something bright.

The space around them is rich in life-flavored Qi, the properties of the overgrowth overwhelming, but as she watches, she notices its trends shift.

For life, there must be death. There is predation, digestion, decomposition-

There. That last idea whispers out from ‘beneath’ the Qi of growth, of vitality and life. The idea of something turning, quietly, into a part of the world, of the end of one thing being honored and consumed with grace, rises out of the world, flowing closer to Jin.

Fuck. If they find some kind of death-aligned sect around here, the kid would likely knock their socks off. Barely pubescent and the Qi just… dances to him, concepts unweaving to the sound of his tune.

She smiles, and it is as much proud as it is sad. He would be dead without her having saved him the night they met. He might have lived a more normal life, had she not brought him along to protect him. And maybe, if she hadn’t given as much of a shit, he would have chosen to stay with the village when she gave the option, taken the payment and his talent and been somewhere safer.

But he is here, and he is wonderful, and she hates the thought as much as it rises strong and proud in her.

She takes a deep breath and begins to fall into herself.

Her ‘front-facing’ brain goes into something like stasis, responsive only to her name and possible dangers to avoid distracting the wider gestalt or drain energy unnecessarily. Her bio-brains churn, shifting their perspectives across miles of capillaries and kilometers of neurology, preparing and experimenting and managing the growing morass of biology that characterize her depths. Her broader mind reconvenes with the whole, far-ranging concepts and wider plans quickly conferring with the whole to establish viability.

And through it all, the center of her attention dives ‘in’, down towards a place that is not a place.

She awakens her awareness inside her Heart, the sound of rainfall trickling down eternally and impacting the ground, consumed to bloom fresh, crawling life.

It’s gotten bigger. The crawling life, that is. The first drafts that her Heart created and recycled were the size of a knuckle, but some are reaching almost twice that now, the occasional apex predator doubling it again. Moving her awareness, she finds the beetle easily, charging at the forefront of a wave of iridescent, pale worms, churning up easy meals from the dirt. It would be terrifying, were any of them larger than an inch in length, with even their valiant leader still small enough to fit in Raika palm. Makes it vaguely adorable as the chitinous, wide-fanged insect roars its victory to the sky, covered in insect-guts and leading its soldiers in squirmy warfare.

But the Heart’s progress, or that of the currently-living entities of her inner world, are not her priority. She looks out to the hills, towards one of the most distant peaks, where a faint glow radiates.

With the thought of movement, Raika’s soul steps onto the broad hillside of [Enacted Artistry Of Function].

There is a crude mask covering the collection of gears and glasses that serves as its ‘head’, working as a support strut for telescoping lenses and smaller tool-limbs. The creature trundles in small circles as it works, tread-wheels mixed with articulated metal joints and sculpted limbs- and in its hands, a bright and shining piece of Radiant Metal.

It turns its lenses to look up at her as she arrives, and while she knows it’s not sentient, its increased energy and enthusiasm at her arrival is adorable. Like a mechanical child, it chirps once, like a cricket, thin metal strings made for that exact purpose freshly added to its back, before trundling energetically towards her. It raises its multiple mechanical limbs over its head, holding up the Radiant Metal as if eager to show it off to her.

She smiles, kneeling down closer to its level. The harsh, molten shard of material she delivered has been smoothed, giving it a new luster, and-

She frowns. Blinks.

Physics aren’t a thing in the inner world like they are in the outer, but she can sense a sort of… attractive concept? Something that pulls at metal, that touches on electricity. Magnetism?

As if sensing her understanding, [Enacted Artistry Of Function] rotates its joints to pull it away, immediately replacing it with another sample, this one smaller and denser. Again, it’s the same material, but it’s as if by being reshaped, some new property has settled in it, some sort of durability that didn’t feel present in the prior example…

[Enacted Artistry Of Function] is already moving to show her a new sample, but she laughs and holds up a hand softly.

“Soon,” she promises. “I’ll review all of them soon. For now, I have something else I need to study, and I just need a sample, ok?”

Unlike a human child, [Enacted Artistry Of Function] seems to actually get more excited at the idea that she’s enacting her own experiments. It trundles off and back, bringing her a relatively untouched piece of Radiant Metal, its movements exhibiting a sort of enthusiasm that’s infectious.

“Huh. I’m… I’m glad you’re having a good time, buddy.”

It turns to her, as if confused by the statement. Then it turns its ‘face’ towards the multitude of re-sculpted and mechanized pieces of metal she has given. Then back to her.

Through language that is not language, it exudes a simple set of ideas.

Enacted.

Artistry.

Function.

She snorts, smiling wider. “Yeah buddy. It sure is.”

She leaves it to its enacted artistry and purpose, prompting it to immediately go back to experimenting and… ok, yeah, it’s playing with the Radiant Metal, but whatever it’s doing is clearly having some kind of impact.

Now, for the original purpose for the visit.

She looks down at the Radiant Metal in her ‘hands’, focusing on the idea of it.

She brought Blacksteel into this place. Blacksteel is real. She hadn’t questioned that she could- the idea had clicked, and it had been something like instinct, the steps all feeling natural. Just like the things she could consume, like Souls, end up here, so too did this material, a part of her moved from one state to another.

The golden band on the horizon looms, though. A dim glow, like a perpetual dusk surrounding the edges of every part of the horizon. Pulling something in, while still possible, isn’t just agony, it’s actively dangerous.

But… what happens if she pulls something out?

Does the band shrink to match? Will it punish the transformation?

Or… will it keep its current range? Aligned with a horizon that has since changed?

All this to say if she can even figure out how to pull something out in the first place.

Raika takes a moment, a metaphorical deep breath. She exhales, long and slow.

As with so many things in life, the only way to know is to try.

With a flex of will, Raika’s Mind, Soul and Body retrace the steps taken to bring something in… back out.