I saw no more visions that night, and fell into a black sleep as soon as my head rested on my borrowed pillow. The Elder left me to slumber till the sun was high overhead, at it’s peak. My body felt strangely spent in one way, and lightened in another. Looking into myself, I found my vessel half-empty, a scattering of shimmering energy, but none of the chi I was used to.
Dragging myself upright from the embrace of blankets and idleness, I found a covered bowl waiting for me. In it was a broth full of herbal flavors, strange spices, sourness muted with a creamy richness. Tender meat of indeterminate origin in the soup, a plate full of a strange sort of bread alongside it left me feeling sated.
Gathering the garb around myself, like I’d been shown, I hesitantly stepped from the room I’d been given. Elder Siu was not to be seen, in her place was a woman about my own age, luxuriantly long hair wrapped in a ribbon of sorts. She saw me, her eyes narrowing, and strode forward at pace. My eyes widening, I held my hands up, but she simply gestured at my body…Specifically the knot in which I’d tied my garments.
I stared at her, not understanding, and she stepped into my space, her body pressed against mine momentarily as her hands found the inexpert ties I’d used. Once more my cheeks flushed with embarrassment as this woman resituated my clothing, fixing it with a nod, then offering me a rueful smile. I ducked my head, offering a bow, unused to such treatment, neither having been a true noble with servants, and independent for a number of years.
She circled me once more, eyes raking over my body, leaving me both pinned in place, and trying not to squirm. Then she stepped past me into my rooms, grabbing the conch and pressing it into my hands. She placed her hands on top of my own, and nodded. Hesitantly, I tried running my chi through the device, gasping as I felt it leave me, stumbling her.
“Oh! Careful, what’s wrong with…” Those were the last words I heard as darkness swelled in from the edges of my eyes, falling towards the ground. Vaguely feeling her arms around me, seeing her lips move, and her eyes wide with worry.
-
“Children…” was the next thing I heard, the grumbling murmur of Elder Siu, as I felt water under my body. I looked up, seeing the woman from before, hearing her voice “Chief Siu, she is waking.” “Good, she simply needed time to rest, but no, you had to try and push her didn’t you?”
The ocean waves lapped at our garments, spilling and crashing over me. My eyes closed once more, and I felt my vessel start to move, to fill. I squirmed slightly in the woman’s arms, feeling her release me as my body floated atop the next wave. I sighed, turning easily, filling myself with it’s motion, it’s energy. My feet once more found themselves nestled in the sands, and the water seeped out of my garments, back into the sea.
No longer did I feel that heaviness, that emptiness, now a trickle of energy was flowing into me once more. I opened my eyes to see the other woman watching me, their own clothing soaked from the sea, but neither seeming to mind. With a gesture, I reached out, feeling a connection, tugging at it. Soon I was drying their clothes out for them, even as they stood in the waters.
I shivered, feeling that connection loosening again, feeling my vessel empty…And so once more I began to move, feeling the wave crash over me, letting the waters fill me up, letting my vessel drink and swell. Slow surges of energy flowed through me once more, and they stepped back towards the dryer sands as I began to dance, to move, to tumble with the waves. Lips forming a crescent smile as I let the next set carry me atop them.
Now I was above the waters, feeling them move underneath me, feeling them swell and fall, feeling the waters move all around me. I bowed to Siu and the other woman, gesturing once more, offering them my own shroud, ridding their clothing and skin of the salty water, leaving only a film of white crystals behind.
Hurrying now back to them both, I bowed once more, “This one apologizes for their unseemly behavior.” Siu waved it off, “Nonsense, you didn’t know and Ling here was simply too eager.” The other woman, Ling, inclined her head, “It is no bother, my apologies for stressing you further after you’d awoken. But fear not, your burden was light…”
It was now that I got a chance to really look at her, not from her looming around me, or from her carrying me, and I found…That she was a full hand taller than me, her muscles clearly defined in her bare arms, and powerful shoulder muscles. Realizing I was staring, I bowed my head to hide a blush,
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“Thank you just the same…I think…” “You emptied your core, silly child.” Siu was shaking her head at me, then gestured to the waters. “Twice in fact, once for the Diviner, changing your energies, then once again on waking, before you’d had a chance to fully restore yourself.” She makes a shooing gesture, pointing me towards the ocean once more, “While I appreciate your manners, take your time to restore yourself. We’ll be waiting.”
I nod, moving back towards the waters, stepping into them, feeling them slip around me, accepting me. Safety, oneness, power, it surrounds me as I march my way into the ocean. Ignoring the boats on the horizon, the fish in the sea. The waters part around me, carving a path and a place. I cross my legs, settling down to sit, closing my eyes once more, turning my vision inward.
My vessel feels different, strained, strange, cracked, and half-shimmering with those strange energies…Twinkling light outlining the dimensions of my vessel, revealing weaknesses, cracks, places where energy comes and goes in equal measure. I frown, mentally brushing against those places, flaws in my vessel, my self, my soul.
At first I try to run the watery energies over them to try to reinforce the vessel…But they simply seep through, crash in, flow with it. Not caring for the weaknesses, not caring for the flaws, simply accepting them, simply moving despite them. Then I turn my mind to the moon chi, the Diviner’s chi. It rests there, illuminating, revealing, pointing out those flaws. Unmoving, but…not fully solid either…It wasn’t taking up space just to never return it…This was energy to be used…
I reached out to it, cupping it in a mental hand, shivering at the cold touch of it. And that was it, unlike the light of a fire, or the sun, this light was cold…Like the moon’s light on a chill night, illuminating just enough to see, but not offering enough to warm your skin. I grasped that cool light, felt it spill through my fingers, dragged what I could towards the walls of my vessel…And began to paint.
-
I had been told once that one could craft a building, from simply piling more and more things atop one another. It would not be pretty, it may not be the strongest, but with enough connections. Enough things simply touching one another that it would be enough to shelter you from a storm. Then they showed me how to dip a brush into the strange wet slurry made of mud and stone and seashell and powder other strange powders, showed me how to apply an even coat of it over the cracked brick and stone and wood of their house.
It had been a punishment for taking part in a fight that had left buildings in disrepair, walls broken, cracked, doors torn off the hinges. But it also leant me a valuable lesson, that sometimes even the most hodgepodge of buildings, could be made strong, could be made beautiful, with the right coat of paint…Or as they called this, parging.
-
It felt much the same, my mental fingers scooping up this strange slurry of energy, cool and runny, caressing the cracked outlines of my vessel, letting it settle in, glowing, illuminating the flaws even as it covered them over. A tiny indent, a hairline crack, and then my mind was burning with exhaustion, even as my vessel was full of chi once more.
I surfaced once more, striding towards the pair, interrupting a conversation with a bow, “This one thanks you for your patience.” I looked up, only to see Ling’s eyes widen once more in surprise, and Siu’s narrow. “Child…” “Your eyes!”I blinked, looking between them for answers, and Siu once more offered me a blade.
Curious, I looked into the flat of it, seeing my eyes glowing once more, the outline of the moon, waning away from it’s full peak. I looked up at her, “I see you were not content to simply do one thing…Were you?” She shook her head, turning away, “Come, it seems you’ll be staying with me a little longer, Ling, prepare a second room.”
She nodded and sprinted ahead of us, taking off at a considerable pace. I blinked, looking towards Siu, who simply smiled knowingly. “She’s strong, you’ll see why I sent her ahead.”
She doesn’t say anything else as we make our way back, my vessel still churning with the energies of the ocean, twinkling with the light of the moon, and finally stilling as it comes to fullness. I watch the way the elder moves, slow even steps, slight sways to her gait, her muscles always seemingly wound tight and ready to move.
What awaits me as we reach her home though is more openly awe-inspiring, Ling is out to one side of the structure, humming low, and finally stomping her foot, as there’s the CREAK of twisting metal, one wall of dark stone tearing itself away from the building, another gesture and a high piercing note sends it slamming into the earth. Metal threads pulling themselves from the ground, a low song rising and falling as the metal-weaver expands her Master’s building, sewing on a new addition crafted from metal and dark stone, overlaid with more of that strange green glass.
I marveled again as she leapt straight into the air, powerful muscles tensing as she landed, testing the strength of materials. Singing a solid structure into existence, expanding a building from a few words from Elder Siu. She hops down lightly, garments fluttering, and offers me a slight smirk. The elder rolls her eyes at her and steps inside, “Yes, yes, very showy and powerful, now just make sure it’s watertight, there’s another storm this evening.”
Ling inclines her head once more, “Well, now that you’re all topped off, care to help me test that?” I blink for a moment, realizing she’s looking at me, and blush brightly. “Ah….I’m not sure….I’ve only ever, moved water, never conjured it…” Both women look at me, “Well…Then there’s no time like the present to learn is there, child, teach her best you can.”
Siu steps into the building and closes the door behind her, even as Ling frowns at her back, then turns to me with a sigh. “So…”