Kai followed Vradesh Tast out of the cave and up into the cliffs above. He was warned by Odash not to leave the area immediately around the cave and had taken that warning seriously. Yet, as Kai walked up, feeling the friendly rays of the sun, tasting the refreshing breeze, and looking out from the trail over the beautiful mountain range, he wondered what the big deal was.

“Soul space,” Tast glanced back at Kai’s eyes, “don’t go believing everything those old foxes say. They use words like stabilized dimensional aperture and pre-ascendency relocation.” She paused on the path next to a cluster of jadevine. Long curls of jade flowers, waxy and richly colored, weighed down the deep green vines that cascaded down the wall of grey stone that flanked the mountain side of the path.

“All we really know is that soul spaces share some common traits and provide each soulforger unique benefits.” Kai saw her stop, turn towards him, and noticed her eyes focusing on something. In a blur of motion, she closed the distance between him and her, her hand reaching for him.

So fast, he thought. But she was still again before the thought could even complete the circuit through his mind.

He refocused on her hand; in it, a green viper writhed. It squirmed as it barred its fangs, a yellow poison dripping from them. Kai’s eyes went wide noticing this and he took a reactionary step away. His reaction was too slow by far. I could have just died. I didn’t even see it.

“How dare you try bullying my little brother!” She held the snake up to her face, pinching its mouth closed before crushing its skull between two fingers. Kai watched the viper stop squirming, then go limp.

“The light in your eyes. That’s called soul light, it’s proof that you have created a soul space. Now watch.” She held the body of the viper in front of him. Kai watched as brilliant green vapor poured out, a few wisps at a time, and condensed into an illuminated ball of floating vapor above the body.

“A soul, barely,” she looked at Kai. Kai noticed that Tast’s eyes displayed the same tell-tale soul light, the shimmer of her aqua-marine eyes emitting a faint white glow. “Soul light allows us to see the souls of the recently dead.” She chucked the body of the dead snake over the cliffside and down the mountain. The ball of green vapor hung there in the air for a moment, before floating away, dispersing as it went.

“Once you access your soul space you will learn how to dim your soul light too; that will help you pass as a normal cultivator when needed.” She turned and started back up the trail. The two walked in silence for the rest of the journey; Kai unconsciously moved closer, following just behind. Tast smothered her smile when she noticed how close Kai was.

Kai was lost in his thoughts. Souls. I just saw a soul? It seemed so real. In his previous life, the concept of souls was only brought up in the domain of philosophers and religious zealots. As a scientist, he considered a soul as real as hope or love. Sure they were real, but they had mechanical explanations, they weren’t mystical the way people normally thought of them. Here, they are clearly real in a different way.

The path continued up until it wound gently around the highest peak and opened onto a flat expanse of solid rock that jutted out over the side of the mountain. Tast paused at the top of the expanse.

“This will do,” she stepped out and sat down. The sunlight caught her hair, the metal-like curls reflecting golden light and a fiery copper color Kai hadn’t noticed before. “Let’s begin.”

Kai knelt opposite her and waited, his mind filled with doubts about souls and spirits. I am an engineer, not a martial artist! I’m certainly no sorcerer or whatever it is in this world that does magic or whatever with souls. He sighed at the last thought. I can’t believe I’m actually thinking about this.

“The soul light present in your eyes originates in your soul space. You will need to use your spiritual sense to follow the thread connecting your eyes to your soul space. This is not as hard as it sounds, even the least advanced cultivators can do this because of the principle of bilocation. Do you know of this principle?”

Kai didn’t know how, but he instinctively knew, and it wasn’t the first time. Several times over the last few days a tutor would tell him something he hadn’t heard before, only for him to realize he knew it already. It was an eerie experience; one he struggled to rationaly explain. Without involving soul fusion anyway.

“It means the body and the soul are in two different places at the same time?” Kai replied tenously.

“It means you are in both places at the same time, your spiritual awareness is here with me right now, but you and I are also elsewhere, we’re just not paying attention to those other places at the moment.”

Kai’s brow furrowed, his confusion becoming clear by his expression. “But I don’t know where that other place is?”

“For you, you are a bit of a special case,” she flashed him a smile. “You will have to travel there the long way to start. But once you get there you should be able to just shift your awareness thereafter.” She took a meditative posture, crossing her legs until her feet rested on the opposite thigh, then forming a few seals, she placed each hand on her knees, one hand held the sign for unity, while the other for flow.

“This is the Blooming Lotus posture, it strengthens your spiritual awareness while allowing proper circulation for long periods.”

Kai tried to copy her, but found it uncomfortable, his body stiff. After a few failed attempts he was able to power through and get close enough. Tast just waited patiently, watching him with interest. Once he was settled she continued.

“The thread that connects your body and your soul space is also a part of you, think of it as an external meridian that links these two parts of yourself. Even at your cultivation, your spiritual awareness can sense every part of you, so moving along the thread should be possible with some practice. Focus your spiritual sense on your eyes. Feel their unique energy, you may even begin to see the gold light in your mind’s eye. Once you get a feel for it, try sensing the thread that connects to them.”

Kai nodded, settled himself, and banished his negative thoughts. Might as well try, who knows maybe I’ll get lucky?

Kai didn’t get lucky.

He tried and tried, but as the morning hours grew long, and the sun rose high in the sky Taft suggested a break.

“I sensed the energy,” Kai grumbled, “I found the thread, but it doesn’t go anywhere. I pulled my awareness along it, but it just never ends. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.” Frustration was evident in his voice, frustration, and exhaustion; using his spiritual sense for that long had completely drained him.

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

“Make sure to pay attention to the changes around you as you shift your awareness along.” she offered sympathetically. “I know you can’t sense that far at your cultivation, but you should be able to sense some changes. Use that to shift your awareness to those places, so you can jump to where you left off, eventually, if you keep trying, you will find it.” She stood and stretched.

“No one understands why soul spaces get created where they do, but we found they can move around when your soul undergoes changes. You feel stable to me though, so keep at it. I believe in you, little brother.” She smiled, her perfect white teeth showing, “Let’s head back for now.”

They retreated down the mountain, Kai staying close to Tast as they passed the jadevine. Back at the cave, Kai convinced her to stay for lunch, sharing the smoked fish and rice that Odash provided. The two talked for a while about her early life at the Celestial Temple, Kai’s eyebrows reaching higher and higher with each ridiculous story she shared about her early adventures. After some time she hesitantly rose to leave.

“Try again later. I’ll come to check on your progress tomorrow. And about all those troubles I had,” she smiled, her canines showing through, “I’m your big sister now. If anyone gives you trouble you just find me and I’ll sort them out for you.”

Kai smiled and bowed as she left. After spending time with her he felt much more confident about his chances. He turned and eyed the unknown envelope near the lamp. He spotted it earlier but didn’t want to draw attention to it, so purposely ignored it. Now he promptly opened it.

Inside was a note and a small bracelet of wooden beads. The note read:

Sun Kai, I’ve retrieved some of your most important memories and stored them in this bracelet. Use your spiritual energy to access the memory in each bead. Once you have gone through each memory destroy the bracelet.

The note wasn’t signed, but Kai suspected who it was. They were the same kind of beads Odash had around his neck. This is likely why she asked for Odash. He has some means of… Kai hefted the bracelet in his hand before sitting down. Of whatever can do this.

He spent a minute pulling energy into his palm, it came easier this time. After the failures over the last few hours, that encouraged him. Once he had a wisp in hand he sent it into a bead. He was rewarded with an explosion of dark mist. The dark clouds rolled over him, blinding him. A moment later, when the mist parted he found himself, not in the cave but standing in a long line of children. Or rather, he saw Sun Kai’s body standing in a line. His perspective was one of an outsider observing the scene. He examined the children that shuffled forward. They were all wearing robes, some plain, others richly adorned. Each child held a sealed writ.

Braxon tried to move but discovered he was locked in place, only able to observe the scene play out from his stationary perspective.

“I thought I was selected for the Celestial Temple for my talent,” a boy wearing blue robes exclaimed loudly. His robes were richly embroidered with a mythical beast on the sleeves. “I heard rumors that things were bad, but I didn’t realize till now how bad things have gotten.” Braxon watched as the boy glanced down at Sun Kai and shook his head.

Sun Kai followed behind the loud boy, his head down, ignoring him.

“They must have to take everyone that can afford the admission. Perhaps I have chosen poorly.” Blue robes continued to complain loudly.

A tall girl in the line next to Sun Kai also voiced her opinion, shaking her head. “I heard that the Celestial Temple may fall in rank this year, due to the weak performance at the last tournament. I told my father such but he sent me here anyway, and now look at this.” She waved her delicate hand around as if to include everyone else. “If the Celestial Temple can afford to support this many new initiates, they should just give those of us with real talent their resources.”

“Just ignore them,” a small voice came from a girl that stood two lines over from Sun Kai. She peeked through the line, between the gap in students. “I’m Zhou Mei-Jing. You’re Sun Kai, right? I was there during your testing.”

“Ignore them? I agree with them. They are right,” Sun Kai replied, acknowledging Mei-Jing. “The Celestial Temple takes in more initiates than they can support. They know that by doing so not only will they collect more admissions, but they have to spread the resources out over so many. This forces us to fight each other to gather enough to progress our cultivation.” The line moved forward, all the children taking an orderly step forward.

“If you know this much you should just give me your resources already,” the boy in blue robes laughed looking down at Sun Kai.

“You? Why not her? She seems strong too. Maybe I should pick the strongest between you?” He stroked his chin in thought, ”But why just you two, look at all these cultivators. I’m sure I can find someone stronger who will appreciate my resources more than you.” Kai speculated aloud.

Mei giggled, her eyes lighting up with pleasure, at Kai’s antics.

“Why you little…” the tall girl growled, “like the weak have any say. If I say you give them to me, you give them to me.”

”Oh, now you want to steal from royal blue robes here?” Kai shook his head. “This is going to be such a hassle, maybe you two should decide amongst yourselves who’s going to take my resources. Work out a sharing schedule or fight it out or something, just let me know when you decide. I can’t be bothered to keep track of this kind of stuff.” He sighed.

Mei laughed at that but soon confusion crossed her face. “I don’t get it. Don’t soulforgers need resources too?” She asked.

“S..S..Soulforger?” Blue robes stuttered. He turned to look down at Sun Kai again, finally noticing the writ he held. Unlike most others, Sun Kai’s writ was stamped with a two-colored seal; the sign of the Soul Hall.

“I suppose. But we’re just chatting to kill time in this boring line, I don’t think anyone is being too serious here.” Kai replied. The blue-robed boy and the tall girl decided they were done talking for a while.

The black mist returned and enveloped Kai before clearing again. He found himself in the cave, not having moved at all. Kai held the bead, and marked it, scratching a line across it with his fingernail.

This little guy was a bit clever, but maybe overconfident. No, he was definitely overconfident, based on what I know of how things turned out.

Kai looked down at the many unviewed beads and sighed before assuming a comfortable sitting position and getting to work.