“Alex, you’re alive!”
Alex blinked, surprised to find himself choked up with emotion when he caught Ya Ling’s tear-filled gaze across the already blooming garden now protected by Copperthorn vines forming a lush canopy of blossoming pink carnation-like flowers that protected near the entire yard from the harsh glaring light of the midday sun. Of course he knew the garden’s best kept secret, one he was determined to keep for as long as possible, until all was lost and his foes played their final card.
He froze, momentarily speechless as Ya Ling flung herself into his arms, sobbing and holding him so tightly, Alex fiercely grateful just to see her hale and healthy under the brilliant midday sun.
Yet his heart broke as well. For where her left hand should be was a stump wrapped in gauze steeped in exotic herbs and healing compresses, the formulae unknown even to him.
“Alex, you made it! You’re alive. Thank the gods above, you’re both alive!”
Alex swallowed back his almost reflexive snark, instead focusing on what mattered. “Ya Ling...” He shook his head ruefully, for all that he grinned from ear to ear. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you!” His widened eyes filled with wonder.
Soul Sight check successful! You know your friend at least as well as she knows herself!
“And the whirlwinds within your meridians. They haven’t weakened or settled down in the least. They’ve only grown stronger. They, like you, revel in the fierce, clean desert air. The whole world, or at least this part of the city, stretching as far as we can see. Utterly free of the rift’s constraints at last!
Ya Ling laughed with merriment, spinning away from Alex to do a little pirouette in the air.
Linnea gazed at her in slack-jawed wonder. “Alex, she’s floating on top of the grass. And now she’s dancing upon the air! It’s like… is she flying? Truly?”
Alex laughed for sheer joy to see the look in his friend’s eyes. And when she teasingly raised a hand his way and said ‘join me!’ he did just that. Losing himself in the glorious dance of air currents and wind, sensing the echoes of lost remnants of ancient arts that had once been his.
At first he stumbled, as might be expected, earning tinkling laughter from the faerie now dancing a good five feet in the air as Alex tasted the memory of walking on currents of mist, his connection to Water once so exquisite as to be able to support himself on nothing more than the humidity in the air.
Yet compared to that, embracing the air directly all around him was child’s play. Because it wasn’t just springing off it like chaining a dozen Bullrushes had once been before being limited to forest and field… it was about letting it caress and carry him, as Storm Flight’s brooding echoes resonated in his mind with such illumination that it suddenly all clicked.
At first he was swimming in the air as Wind and Water, neighboring elements, shared their secrets and their burdens. Then it was striding with baby steps before walking, skipping, then dancing as effortlessly as the girl before him was, who had traded a priceless hand for a connection to Wind that marked her incredible potential as a wujen sorceress like nothing else as the pair danced and cavorted in the breeze.
Wind Walking is now Rank 2.
Wind Walking now incorporates full range of motion!
Wind Walking is now Rank 3!
“You’re doing it, Alex!” Ya Ling’s laughter rang through the air, her smile shining in the glorious light of the sun.
Then bittersweet joy turned to fierce, wild focus in the shared beating of their hearts, shared mingled breath as the Wind became their own, awakening a restlessness that neither could deny.
“Show me what you can do in the Wind’s embrace, Alex!” she cried, a training jian suddenly in her dominant hand. And how it warmed Alex to see the sheer brilliance of her forms. To realize in that moment that every hour she had spent gazing at him slowly mastering his Wind Crane martial technique in their month-long caravan ride had been the farthest thing from idle hungry staring or wasted time.
You have successfully pulled free training staff from storage ring!
You have successfully countered Winding Lunge!
You have successfully weaved past Wind’s Passing!
You have won in the bind!
Your foe has surprised you with Wind Blast!
Alex was beyond awed by his friend’s fierce onslaught, her combined mastery of jian, along with having also incorporated so many elements of his own dao form that she could immediately shift stances, balance meaning little in the whirling winds as she then swung her blade with the power of a straight-edged dao and an entire spring storm behind it.
At first he was careful. Cautious. But it quickly became apparent that his concerns were unnecessary as his wrists and forearms rapidly began to smart with snaking blows and winding lunges so like the ones he had once mastered by Panheu’s side, the normally overwhelming advantage of a properly spaced two-handed grip now neutralized with the power of Wind itself serving as a monstrously strong limb along both hilt and blade.
Alex’s lips curved in a fiercely approving grin as Ya Ling, now just as fast as his Rank 2 Quickness, pushed him to the absolute limits of his own form, Alex feeling his spiritual energies slowly drain away as his ability to stay aloft began to slip from his increasingly spotty concentration.
Still, he managed a cheeky smile as he gazed upon a sweat-covered Ya Ling’s heaving chest, glaring daggers at him.
“Is that all you got?” He quipped, before being sent tumbling head over heals as she roared and shouted, Alex was stunned by what he swore was a ‘Fus!’ somewhere in her titanic roar. And the fact that he had been sent flipping head over heals before his own waning control righted him once more. Laughing, he rose both hands in mock surrender as he sunk the rest of the way to the ground.
Congratulations! You have achieved Rank 4 in Wind Walking. You have used 17 of 19 Qi!
“Wow, that was incredible!” Linnea cheered. “Ya Ling, you totally kicked his ass! Well done!”
“The match is yours!” Alex said with a rueful chuckle, gazing at a now positively beaming Ya Ling with unmitigated awe. “That was incredible. Absolutely incredible! You’ve taken in that element and mastered it to such a degree in what, just a single afternoon?” He shook his head in amazement. “If I didn’t now better, I’d say you got a Major Affinity and that Elder Wu didn’t hesitate to give you access to some pretty high tier spiritual energy-laden tomes and let you absorb them directly! But even those treasures should have taken weeks to master!”
Ya Ling was positively beaming. Doing effortless somersaults in the air before leaping and spinning like a ballerina, it was clear to an increasingly dumbfounded Alex the acts were effortless to her. She felt absolutely no strain or spiritual fatigue at all.
With a teasing smile, she slowly settled back down to earth. “Finally, I was able to beat you at something!” She quipped, before wiping away another unexpected tear from eyes that Alex swore were twinkling with happiness, not regret. “Even if the cost...” she shook her head.
Alex swallowed. “Ya Ling...”
She quickly shook her head. “It’s alright.” She gazed at her stump, her attempt at a smile turning into a shudder as wide haunted eyes gazed at sights Alex feared he understood at least as well as she.
“It’s been three days, Alex. Not just a single afternoon’s rest.”
Alex blinked, dumbfounded. “I… are you sure?”
She snorted, shaking off her haunted gloom. “Yes, Alex. I’m pretty damn sure.”
She bit her lip and trembled. “And we were terrified you were a goner. That you two had given up your lives for the rest of us. When you didn’t come out...” She shook her head, before giving him the strangest smile. “And then none other but Senior Cultivator Te Chang personally comes to visit grandfather, giving him the bow of an equal and presenting us with tokens bound to our talismans, each of which are worth a thousand Silver Sand credits.” She gazed at Alex for long moments, shaking her head in wonder. “Do you have any idea how profoundly valuable that is? The library resources now at our disposal? The spiritual treasures we could buy from the school directly?” She flashed a teasing smile. “And that’s not including all the property that Dui Zhong immediately snatched up for himself in the choicest quarter of the city. Not that I blame him even a bit. Not with the way I saw a certain girl making eyes at him through the whole caravan trip, whose only crime isn’t being a cultivator like us.” She flashed a teasing smile. “Not that it stopped him from kissing her beneath the stars more nights than not.”
Alex blinked, surprised despite himself. “Dui Zhong fell for someone during the caravan ride? I had no idea.”
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This earned an eye-roll. “Of course you didn’t, Alex. You and grandfather were lost in your own heads so often that you hardly noticed the rest of us.” She softened her gentle scolding with a smile. “Not that you ever hesitated to spar with me, and maybe you were doing exactly what you were destined to, and that’s the only reason why we survived the desert… or the western rift.”
She swallowed, before bowing formally and low. “Thank you both, from the bottom of my heart. On all our behalves.” She had the grace to include Linnea in her respects, her face utterly avoid of anything like jealousy or dismay. “We are sincerely grateful to both of you. Had you both not been willing to literally put your lives on the line for us, treating us like closest family… there’s no way I would have had the chance to access Silver Sand’s most sacred Wind tomes, all with Te Chang’s open blessing.” She trembled, eyes growing haunted once more. “Without you, my dream of ascension and the revelations and breakthroughs that flooded my soul these last three days would have instead ended only with the horror of being eaten alive. Consumed by shadowy monsters tearing free all our hopes and dreams, one bloody chunk at a time.”
Alex’s eyes widened, alarmed by how fragile his fierce friend suddenly seemed, before she began to break down in choking sobs as Linnea gently wrapped her up in sisterly arms, cooing to her as she would a wounded dove.
Alex shook his head, feelings a whirlwind of admiration, awe, and profound solemn gratitude. To see his precious beautiful friend blossom so fiercely under the most fortuitous of blessings, a Greater Wind Affinity somehow synergizing with her Sand to absolute perfection, and immediate access to the most prestigious of tomes after such a breakthrough allowed her to forge an understanding of her arts mirroring his own mad breakthroughs at peak levels of absurd grace.
Only now did he realize that her three days of deep-diving into tomes that could have utterly consumed her, did she lack the appropriate degree of affinity, had been her own desperate attempts to escape absolute nightmare… her maimed limb, the lingering taste of death at the back of her throat. Knowing that had fate’s dice shifted a single pip, she wouldn’t be glorying under pristine blue skies, reveling in her absolute mastery over the breeze, but be choking her last gulps of air before a massive shadow cat finally tore out her lungs and heart, right before devouring her utterly.
To have mastered flight, to suddenly understand so well the secrets of Wind Crane Kung Fu he had shared with her dozens of times while sparring was beyond remarkable. To say nothing of the projected blasts of wind that might be unfocused, relatively speaking, but spoke of fierce wujen potential as she continued to master her arts.
Alex bowed his head in genuine respect, bowing and saluting with hand over closed fist. “This student of the Way greets wujen Ya Ling. May your studies take you far. May you never lose sight of your path.”
This earned a snort. “Come on, let’s go inside. I have no doubt that grandmother already has tea and snacks prepared.” She took one furtive look at the adjoining yards. Smiling when the property to their right showed nothing untoward, seeming all but abandoned, though wincing when she saw more than half a dozen students staring at them open-mouthed on the academy side of their yard.
“Did you see them? They were flying in the air!”
“Isn’t that the Ruidian pair that dared three delves in a week’s time? But Ruidians can’t fly, can they?”
The youngest looking observer adamantly shook her head. “No, I hear the boy’s actually a cultivator.”
This earned a snort from the oldest, glaring Alex’s way. “My friend says they’re a menace, that they taint the rifts. I hear that they were both kicked out of the aspirant’s classes.”
A flushing Alex quickly turned away, ears burning with words that now carried even more perfectly than before, thanks to his newfound affinity with the wind. And if Ya Ling’s sympathetic look was anything to go by, she had caught ever whispered words as well.
“Come on, let’s go inside. I know Reny wants to speak with you, and I suspect grandfather does as well.”
Only then did Alex freeze, abruptly remembering why he had been so willing to sleep in the luxurious quarters provided without first checking up on his friends. At least not before he had a good night’s sleep to prepare himself. Not if they had sensed just how far his hold over their bodies and minds had been.
To his genuine surprise, it was Linnea who gave his hand a soft squeeze.
“It’s okay, future husband. You did naught but save their lives.”
“Linnea...”
“And mine as well.”
He turned Linnea’s way as Ya Ling led them inside, unable to disguise the shame he felt, and the memory of another beautiful redhead who had once gazed at him in terror, once she understood what he was capable of.
Yet to his profound relief, all he received was a gentle smile. “I hear that when two people make love, or dual cultivate, they become one in body, mind and soul. So why should I fear when allegory becomes reality?” Linnea flashed a teasing grin. “Even if we’re not actually making love. At least not yet.”
Alex gently squeezed her hand, truly grateful for her words, and forgiveness, even if he still held so much of his feelings back. And it seemed she understood that as well. She knew that if his heart wasn’t already spoken for… and he sensed how she patiently waited for acceptance of the past to wash away bitter regrets in the present, and allow them both to savor the sweet sharp joy of savoring the moment… and each other.
He flushed, sensing her unguarded thoughts, earning a saucy smile before both their focus turned to the luxuriously appointed foyer and grand dining hall just past, where Alex had savored his tastiest meal at the college so far, prepared by Reny herself when she treated his entire class… with a feast that was somehow even grander than before.
And there a smiling Reny and benevolent-looking Qing Wu waited for the three of them even now. Even Dui Zhong was there, giving Alex the fierce approving smile of one warrior to another. And the one thing he didn’t see in anyone’s eyes was horror, dismay, or the lingering fear of Alex’s will scurrying across their psyche, infecting their souls.
Alex was almost choked up with relief. He then bowed before his hosts.
“This one greats his elders and gives thanks for meal you would share with him and his.”
“The food looks delicious, and I can’t wait for another foot bath!” Linnea declared in wholehearted agreement.
Reny beamed. “Please have a seat, both of you! The rufas are in high spirits today, and I would count it a personal honor if you were to partake of this humble fare.”
“Indeed!” Qing Wu said, now giving them both the personal honor of pouring strong brandy-like spirits into thimble glasses for both of them. “Make yourselves at home and share your adventure with us! Eat, drink, be merry, and finish the tale we had started together!”
Alex and Linnea shared a glance and began to do just that, Alex’s friends at first cheering their accomplishments, then their faces grew ever more grave, brittle smiles cracking under the pressure of remembered horror, when they came to understand just how grave the situation had been, how perilous Alex’s daring, and how deadly the delve now truly was.
“So that’s it. It looks like Liushi’s just lost it’s safest delve,” Dui Zhong said with a soft curse.
Qing Wu’s gaze hardened. “And the spirit beast count continued to increase while we were there? Even more so after we had left? Are you absolutely sure of that, Alex? Sure that there were cats that had simply cloaked until the…” his words died off under Alex’s resolute gaze. He gave a frustrated shake of his head. “Damn. This is bad.”
“Especially since it works right in the Duo Li clan’s favor,” Linnea glared at her spirit beast stew. “Tan Yi was all but gloating, he or his clan having somehow forced Elder Win’s hand to make our getting booted from the class official, and the looks in his cousin’s eyes when we passed them were that of men who would eagerly see us dead… and were working behind the scenes to make that so.”
“Although to be fair, that’s just speculation,” Alex conceded. “We just know that they hate our kind. But still, Tan Yi seemed almost offended that we managed to survive the western rift,” he said with a snort. Then his smile faded. “But as things stand, something has to be done, or this city’s future will be jeopardy. Because if the Duo Li clan successfully leverages the fear and panic that will no doubt ensue when a second waterfall inevitable dies out, I suspect that the citizens of Liushi will pay a terrible price.”
Linnea’s features paled. “They’ll start purges. Where there had been centuries of peace… those bastards will embrace the old ways like they had never stopped.”
Reny lowered her gaze in shame. Qing Wu gave a tired nod. “Probably. It’s only thanks to your tribe that so many Water cores have been successfully found over the years. And how odd it is that this city is suddenly suffering such a shortage that they need illusions to cover their unforgivable failing.”
Dui Zhong sighed and shook his head. “Why couldn’t we have had this conversation before I invested so much in local real estate?” He rubbed his brow. “And there isn’t anything necessarily devious about the lack of Water cores. In all my years traveling the desert, I only uncovered a single Ice core. And that’s what allowed me to walk the sands as a caravan master in the first place,” he said with a chuckle. “Still, if anyone’s hoarding, the rates I’m hearing in certain circles make it clear that the prince is as aware of the situation as anyone, and revealing such a prize will not only earn you silver and property, but peerage as well.”
Alex’s eye widened. “Wait, you’re saying we could earn noble titles just by presenting him with a Water core?”
“Or Ice,” the former caravan master said. “He’s not picky. Both work quite well for securing the basin, and the Ice cores grant a cooling effect as well, even if they don’t last quite as long as Water.” He then gave a glaring Qing Wu a sympathetic smile. “It appears that a certain bursar did indeed play us all like fools. And he’s nowhere to be found, by the way. We suspect he fled the city a truly rich man, or he’s a shriveled corpse with his throat cut somewhere in the desert. Either way, he’s beyond our reach now.”
“And he might not have even sold it to the Duo Li clan,” Reny sighed. “Liushi isn’t the only desert city depending on beast core enhanced water sources.”
“At least we made sure that the deed and title to our property is well and truly ours,” Ya Ling added. “That bastard was at least not so stupid as to forge those documents, though that’s small consolation, all things considered.”
Alex gave a sympathetic nod, before flashing a rueful smile. “I think we’ve all been played by that clan to one extent or another. Because even if both Elder Win and Senior Cultivator Te Chang made it quite clear that I was always welcome to delve the rifts as often as I chose, with whomever I chose… it was also made clear that I can no longer be considered a disciple of the academy.”
Alex looked sadly down at the pin an oddly apologetic Te Chang had given him. Copper had been replaced with a rather pretty brass alloy, with a clear crystal jewel at its heart symbolizing his own odd path as best they could. For a Fire specialist might receive a ruby jewel and a frost specialist a brilliant blue Sapphire, but there were no jewels for body specialists, as he was now referred to as, so Te Chang managed to claim a very old and no doubt valuable pin. Certainly it worked as well if not better than their standard artifacts, instantly imprinting the 1800 credits Alex was owed. Yet it was a Ruidian jewel master’s pin he wore, not a cultivator’s. Which both meant he had privileges that students did not and absolutely no strictures to his freedom. But it also meant that he was denied all access to the library. For what point was there to Ruidians studying sacred texts? Even if he could at least hire wujen to help him emulate spiritual energy forms with pure mana. A boon for many an elementalist looking to diversify his or her arts, he was sure.
But that did him absolutely no good at all if his goal was to finally be able to study cultivation tomes rich in spiritual potency. Precisely what he needed in order to advance his arts, and the one prize he had just been cut off from all access to. Clearly, if he was going to advance further at this academy, it would be either through paid instructors with nothing better to do who might take months to teach what he could absorb from a manual in days, or through the Path of Peril, just as it had always been before.