“Excuse me?” Hudson said, his brain not fully sure if he’d heard correctly.

“I need you to take off your armor, your shoes, and your shirt,” Clara said.

“Oh. Uh… why?”

“Just do it. And stop being weird about it. Are all mouth-breathers like this? Embarrassed to show a little skin?” she sighed. Cor was trying hard not to laugh and failing miserably.

“It’s much easier for someone in the Qi Gathering stage – like me – to sense the qi in someone else if there isn’t qi-fortified clothing or armor in the way. I can’t visualize the flow of qi in the environment, like you say you can, but I can tell a little bit if I touch your meridian points.”

“So you’re just going to touch my meridians?” Hudson asked weakly.

“Stop whining and hurry up,” she snapped.

Hudson quickly stripped to his underwear. When he pulled the small, sharp and tubular end of the silverine’s claw out of his palm, Cor whistled in appreciation at the bloody wound. The air was warm, but a cool draft from the cave tunnel made Hudson shiver slightly. A few goosebumps formed on his skin.

“Now sit next to me, and cultivate. Try to activate your qi sensing as well.”

Hudson closed his eyes and did as instructed, sitting with his legs crossed, hands on his knees. It took him a few minutes to block out his regular senses, but he was eventually able to block out the distractions of the cool breeze, hard stone floor, and the sets of eyes watching him.

He could sense his qi revolving steadily through the channels in his body. There was a small leak from his right wrist, where he had broken open a meridian.

He expanded his perception outside of his body, and he could sense another presence with qi close by – he assumed this was Clara. As she came closer, the blurry lump of qi began to grow in resolution, until it formed a roughly human-shaped form.

A hand reached out and covered his wrist, but the feeling of someone else touching his body knocked him out of his meditation.

“I lost my concentration; let me try again,” Hudson said.

“Before that – could you sense my approach?” Clara asked.

“Yes, I could see you. At first, you were a blurry blob, but when you got closer, I could make out more details.”

Hudson closed his eyes and continued to meditate, but whether he was too cold, nervous, or because he was cultivating so intently, he was unable to enter a deep enough meditative state to perceive the flows of qi around him. Clara had placed one hand on his wrist, and another over his stomach, at the bottom of his rib cage.

“That’s enough,” she said after a good amount of time had passed.

“You definitely need to see an Elder. They would be able to help you more,” she said. “But it’s not all bad.

“Your wrist is definitely leaking qi. I think you’ve injured yourself and that meridian; it feels sore and tender?” she asked.

Hudson nodded.

“You need to see a S.E.C.T. doctor, but these types of injuries do happen on occasion. It’s not completely unheard of. Unfortunately I am not an expert; you could have permanently crippled your ability to use that meridian in the future, or it could be healed easily, or it could be your just advancing far more rapidly than I know is possible – I don’t know. But your cultivation technique – that is what is truly amazing.

“I was unconscious when you caused the rockslide in the ravine, but looking at the results afterwards, I found it difficult to believe that you were solely responsible – even with the runed sledgehammer doing the work of gathering the qi.

“The tools that the director provides for us are inscribed with runic symbols and forged with qi pathways of their own, such that they absorb the bits of qi that pass out through your muscles and skin. They will absorb any loose qi concentrations of qi around them, and concentrate them into powerful strikes, without absorbing any qi that is significantly concentrated – such as the qi that flows inside of a cultivator, or the qi that is fixed and resting in a maseki deposit.”

Clara shook her head, and looked at Hudson with more respect than he’d ever seen her show. “When you activate your technique, all of the ambient qi in the surrounding area rushes towards you. All of it.

“You do not understand.” She reached out and grabbed Hudson by the shoulders and leaned in close.

“You can draw more qi than any Qi Gathering cultivator I have ever seen. It’s at the level of a Foundation Building cultivator’s technique – at least. The more qi you can gather, the stronger you can become. The faster you can cultivate, the stronger you can become. It won’t be long before you surpass me and everyone else in this trial.

“Elders will fight over making you their apprentice. You’ll receive resources, and your choice of assignments. You will grow more powerful, and if all goes well, become a future leader of S.E.C.T.”

Hudson didn’t interrupt, but he was growing more and more uncomfortable. Not least in part because Clara’s very intense face was inches from his own – but also because he had no interest in S.E.C.T. He did not want the attention of Elders, or to become a future leader. He wanted to become stronger so that he could avoid all of what Clara was saying.

“Um, yeah…” Hudson sighed. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“Can I at least put my shirt back on now?”

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Clara blinked, and Cor burst out laughing.

…..

Despite his broken legs and numerous scrapes and cuts, Cor’s status was stable. Hudson shared the rest of his dried fruit, and they collected water from condensation on the walls of one of the side tunnels in his water bottle to stay hydrated.

While they waited for the suns to set, they did not see any silverines or other cultivators. They each took turns as a lookout, while the others slept or cultivated. When Hudson was cultivating, Clara made him move down to the end of the tunnel, so that she wasn’t fighting him for the ambient qi.

Unfortunately, the path of the suns through the sky was parallel to the path of the ravine. If the ravine had been turned ninety degrees from its orientation, then the sunlight would only have a brief period of time when it shined down into the ravine. But because it was almost exactly parallel to the path of the suns, they had to wait much longer for them to drop below the edge of the horizon.

When they finally did, and the alien night sky became visible, the trio was ready to move.

Clara took point with the spear and the rucksack, with Hudson carrying Cor in his arms. They had briefly considered breaking the spear shaft and using it for splints on Cor’s legs, but had decided against it. Instead, they had used Hudson’s leather armor pieces, both the greaves and vambraces, to tie to his shins and femurs in an overlapping pattern.

It was a poor attempt to immobilize his legs, and every step brought a wince of pain, but Cor bore through it without complaint.

They didn’t need to walk far down the ravine path to arrive at the rockslide Hudson had created. The entire bottom of the ravine was covered in rubble – huge boulders mixed with loose scree, piled half the height of the ravine. The edge of the cliff that Hudson had hit with the sledgehammer was completely caved in.

Crossing over the rubble would be no problem for Clara and Hudson. It was dangerous, as the rubble could easily shift under their footing, but with their cultivation-enhanced strength, it should not be too difficult. The problem was carrying Cor over the rubble both safely and without worsening his wounds.

Clara started finding a safe path through the rubble, testing each new footstep with the butt of her spear first. Hudson followed behind, concentrating intensely on both his breathing technique and on carrying Cor without jostling him.

No one spoke. Countless times Clara probed a possible foothold, only for it to collapse. Several times Clara shifted the rubble herself, when a large boulder was in the way. Hudson only had a single scare, when the rubble settled further underneath his and Cor’s combined weight. Luckily Hudson kept his balance, and the pile did not collapse and trap them inside.

When they finally reached the other side of the rockslide, they were slick with sweat. Less so from any physical exertion, and more so from the still-high temperatures and anxiety from navigating a treacherous obstacle.

Following the path back to the cavern, Hudson began to notice dark stains smeared on rocky sections. It was blood. The S.E.C.T. group had not escaped unscathed from the rockslide.

As they rounded a bend in the ravine, Hudson gasped suddenly. Lying on the ground in front them, dried blood pooled around in him, was the body of one of the S.E.C.T. members.

Clara rushed forward and bent down to inspect the body before shaking her head. Hudson followed, his steps slow and his mind strangely blank.

Clara rolled the body over and sighed deeply.

“Ah, Guo. Your path has been cut short,” she said, as she pulled his eyelids down over his sightless eyes.

Hudson stared at the body of the deceased cultivator. Guo had most likely been trapped in the rubble, but had managed to dig his free and crawl part of the way back to the portal. But he hadn’t made it in time. His group had abandoned him, likely considering him crushed underneath all of the rock.

He had done this. He had smashed that hammer into the cliff in rage and anger, and now, as a consequence, someone was dead. He – Hudson Appleseed – had killed this man.

“Hudson.”

His mind and emotions were a complete jumble. Was this man – Guo – his enemy? Shouldn’t he feel proud for defeating his enemy? If so, why did he feel so sad? Where was the anger, the rage, that had caused this in the first place?

“Hudson,” Cor repeated. Hudson didn’t respond or take his eyes away from Guo.

“Hudson. Now isn’t the time. We still need you right now. I know it’s tough, bu you can process this later. OK?”

Hudson nodded briefly, tearing his eyes away from the body.

“Let’s go. We’re close to the cave with the rift,” Clara said.

They easily found the cave they had come out of the rift from. The rift wasn’t open, but they hadn’t expected it to be open yet. When they had come through the rift previously, there had been no hint of a sun in the sky, and the temperature within the ravine had been cooler than it was now.

Nestled in the wall of the cave was a small, metallic cube, approximately one foot square. It was the same bright metallic sheen as the walls and ceilings of the trial area. It was located on the wall behind where the portal appeared in front of and must be connected to the portal or used by the director in some way.

The three sat on the floor of the cave, waiting in silence for the rift to open. None dared say anything about whether the rift would open or not – it simply would. The director would send participants back out again, and they would go back through the rift. They did not dare to believe otherwise.

“What should we do? With the body, I mean,” Hudson asked after some time. “Guo’s body.”

Clara looked up at him thoughtfully. “I don’t know what happens to participants who die in trials. But within S.E.C.T… if he had died on Earth, his family would likely have him cremated.”

“Wait here,” Hudson said, before exiting the cave.

When he returned twenty minutes later, he was carrying Guo’s cold body. Neither Cor nor Clara said anything.

“If I were his family, I’d want to have a funeral,” he said to them, feeling the need to justify himself for some reason. “He was a fellow participant anyways.”

“He died, and there’s no way around that,” Cor said. Hudson refused to look him in the eye. “But… you didn’t start that fight. You defended yourself, you defended us. We’re alive… and some of us, just barely.”

Hudson stared at the wall of the cave where the rift would appear. Willing it to appear. He didn’t have to wait too much longer.

The rift snapped into place with a high-pitched whine, so suddenly and without warning that Hudson wondered briefly if it had been there the whole time he was waiting. Clara hurriedly picked up Cor and rushed through the portal.

More slowly, Hudson picked up Guo’s body and walked over to the rift. It was beginning to stiffen; rigor mortis was setting in, and becoming unwieldy and difficult to move.

If only he had been stronger, he could have shut George down immediately. He could have defeated the cheater group without killing any of them. If he had had more strength, he could have done things differently.

“I didn’t want him to die,” Hudson said quietly to himself before he stepped through the rift.