“I am grateful beyond words, Elder Sister Yanmei.”

Gu Xiulan bowed low, lower than she had since leaving her home in the Golden Sands. Near horizontal at the waist, her hands clasped before her, the long billowing sleeves of her gown almost reaching the leaf strewn ground.

Gu Yanmei, her older sister, stared down at her impassively. She made Gu Xiulan feel small and contrite without even wearing a severe expression, like her nanny once had, when she had tracked stable filth across a tea room. Elder Sister simply exuded authority naturally. Gu Xiulan wished she was half so composed.

“There is no need for that little sister, raise your head,” Gu Yanmei spoke softly, but without any hint of meekness or uncertainty. Here in the low scrub hills at the base of the Outer Sect mountain, her elegance stood out like a bonfire in the wilderness, not that such low things as dirt and leaf litter could mar the gown and slippers of a cultivator of her level. “You are my kin, I would be a poor sibling if I could not spare a moment for you, now that the truce period has ended.”

“Elder Sister is kind,” Gu Xiulan said, straightening up. She admired her older sister greatly but… she did not want to appear pathetic and needy by waxing on in its expression. Even if they were sisters there were limits to the weakness one should show another person. “I still apologize for asking you out here, when you should be received better.”

“Think nothing of it, little sister,” Gu Yanmei hummed, folding her arms behind her back. “Given your request, this location will be much more efficient to our needs than an outer sect tea room.”

“...I know it is selfish of me, and skirting the Sects rules,” Gu Xiulan admitted. “But… I am not advancing quickly enough. It is not good enough. There is not enough fire on this mountain.”

Gu Yanmei’s lips quirked up in a small smile as she turned away and began to walk. Gu Xiulan followed her without a word, until her elder Sister glanced back and spoke. “That is a sentiment I am glad to hear from you. The Sect has its ways of dispelling complacency, does it not?”

Gu Xiulan frowned, thinking over her months here. Back at home, ensconced in the seat of her family’s power… it was different. She had never thought to call it complacency though. It was simply their right, wasn’t it? Yet if the young genius of the Gu, her elder sister, set to surpass even Father with her rate of cultivation, said so, was it not true?

“...It hurts me, to feel as if I am being left behind,” Gu Xiulan said. It was almost a whisper.

Elder Sister Yanmei paused, furrowing her brow. “...It is fine to begin from such feelings little sister, but to strive in cultivation, your motivation must come from within. Grasp for what you desire. Seek your own peak. Do not ignore others, their needs and their feelings, for that is foolish too. However, your Way must belong to you.”

Gu Xiulan tucked her head in, accepting the mild reprimand… and encouragement as it was. “I understand, Elder Sister.”

…She was too dependent wasn’t she. Yanmei had been there, even more than mother and father, early in her life. It was rare for siblings to be born so close together as they, in a noble family, only eight years apart. When she was born, her other sisters were already women grown.

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She had toddled after Yanmei too much. Perhaps that was why she was like this, too sensitive to the approval of others. But… her pride was not wrong. She was a member of the Gu Family, a commoner should not be catching up to her… surpassing her. Han Jian remained as distant as ever, and even his manservant was growing.

…The only one staying behind with her was Fan Yu, whose tepid efforts and whining were slowly beginning to enrage her.

But if she did not push herself beyond, was she really any better?

“Ambition is the first kindling to the fires of the Gu, the one we have never lost, not in the Cataclysm, and not in the madness and scrabbling that came after, nor the consolidation of the Guo clan after that. Though we have lost much, we are still the line of He the Glorious, and the Purifying Sun,” Gu Yanmei said, as if sensing her thoughts. “Little sister, stoke that fire, keep it hot, and you will burn beautifully as well.”

It was said with the same calm, unshakeable poise and confidence that her Elder Sister always had, that even Mother couldn’t match in its simple elegant directness. Gu Xiulan felt her heart swell with confidence. “I will, Elder Sister. May I ask where we are going?”

“To the place where I found enlightenment in metal, and the purifying fire of the forge,” Gu Yanmei said. “I do not know that you will find any such here. Perhaps the things of the earth are not your fuel, but I can guarantee that there is fire aplenty here, for you to cultivate.”

She waved her hand, and the air to their left rippled like the horizon on a summer morning, revealing a path that was not there a moment ago, and the awful scent of sulfurous smoke on the wind.

Gu Xiulan crinkled her nose, but stopped herself from stepping back in disgust.

Her elder sister laughed lightly, and Gu Xiulan could not help but pout childishly. Of course she would react to that!

“A very small trial, I am sure you will surmount it,” Gu Yanmei said, beckoning her to follow. She did naturally. She was not going to be pushed back by a bad smell!

Beyond the veil over these hills they found there way to one in particular, a rocky lump rising from the ground, belching forth a constant stream of foggy gray and white smoke from a crack in its side. A crack that glowed with a dull red light, from deep in the earth. Heat radiated from it leaving the earth bare scorched stone around the entrance. Even through the stone and rock, she could feel the deep well of flames roaring up from under the earth. It was not the underground forges of Pheonixhome, but it was the closest she had felt since leaving home.

“This is the Honden of Earthly Fires,” her sister said, turning to face her at the entrance. “Or at least its opening here in the Outer Sect, but at your level this node of the spirit palace is most suitable. It is the most potent source of fire qi in the Outer Sect. I have spoken with the spirit lord here and you shall be allowed its use, for this year.”

“Ah Elder Sister… I hope I have not cost you any true favor,” Gu Xiulan said, looking inside the crevice, where the smoke billowed freely and lurid firelight lept.

“It is a trifle, the Lord of Earthly Flame is generous with those who learn his arts,” Gu Yanmei dismissed. “Xiulan, little sister, go and cultivate yourself. We will speak more when you have found your clarity.”

Gu Xiulan took a deep breath and nodded, she only gave a short bow. “Thank you so much Elder Sister. I will make good use of this, I promise. I will not disappoint you.”

“...You never have, little sister,” Gu Yanmei replied. Gu Xiulan almost thought she looked troubled for a moment, but it was only a trick of the rippling heat and ashen smoke in the air.