# 2.10 Cycles 4

It became obvious over the course of the evening that Ki'el's cycle-purified qi was the best way to charge the floor barrier stone, especially without passing the energy through Ki'el's dantian. Ki'el, Mian, and Xam experimented only a little with the stones, since Ki'el was a bit concerned that using too much of their capacity would damage the stones themselves--she had seen the result of Sobon's overused attack rods, and she had no concept of just how common that kind of damage was.

Their experiments showed that putting too much stress on the field caused the stone to heat up and use too much qi, but the engraved shapes were simple and broad, and the heat spread over a fairly large area. Ki'el could imagine, though she wasn't sure, that a more compact arrangement would be easier to damage.

All of that only took a little time of their evening, though, which left Mian and Xam to introduce Ki'el to their neighbors--something that Ki'el had been somewhat dreading, especially since so many of their walls were torn apart. And... in truth, most of the so-called neighbors were as distant in the evenings as she had seen the members of the Lesser House being all throughout the day, and although she resolved to remember many names, few of them seemed like they would be relevant.

Two of those who seemed actually relevant were even a pair.

"Ben Jito and Fei Taru," Xam introduced, gesturing to the two. Jito had a wide and short face, one which Ki'el thought would have looked much more natural if he had more fat on his bones; being thin only gave him the appearance of being older and wearier than his actual years. Taru, on the other hand, had a narrower and longer, foxlike face, but pinched, almost unhealthy. Both men had strange qualities to their qi, Ki'el could tell at a glance, even though they remained at gold, and both were of mostly similar builds--one a bit wider and shorter than the other, but both were mostly healthy and strong, if a bit... underfed, perhaps. "They arrived separately only a few years ago, but both still hold hope for leaving the Lesser House.

"I've had one meridian blockage after another," griped Fei Taru with a snarl, "but the resources of the sect have helped. Twice I've attempted to pass the Wall, and twice the tribulations have knocked me down."

"You're doing a lot better," Jito said, pulling the other man into a side-hug and rubbing his shoulder, with an intimacy that surprised Ki'el. His wide face seemed to amplify the sympathetic look. "But we can't make a move forward until you're sure you're ready to try again."

"You're not ready, either," Taru snapped back, pushing away. "I know you're confident, but the Wall is more dangerous than you think. Your second time could be your last, too."

"Hm," Ben Jito didn't sound offended, and looked at Ki'el. "That goes for all of us, really. So many people here thought that money and resources would be all it took to pass the Golden Wall. Even the name of it sounds like money is all you need. But advancing through a tribulation is no joke. In truth... none of us even understand what we are facing, even the ones who have faced it once already."

Ki'el resisted the urge to exchange glances with either of her companions. In truth, she *didn't* know exactly what lay at the Golden Wall, although she knew it was information Sobon had, and so doubtless, it would be information that Kuli had. And Sobon...

Ki'el could remember when Sobon had finally decided to pass the tribulation at the end of Gold Qi. She could remember the contemplative look on her face as she stared into the distance. There had been no shred of concern, as though the matter was something understandable, simple. Ki'el had no doubt that her own tribulation would be significantly harder--Sobon had forced her spirit and body into shape using methods Ki'el would never have access to, and had been mentally and spiritually prepared to command far greater power than Ki'el had ever seen her use. Even so... if there was a path, she and Kuli would find it.

"I said before I have some knowledge," Xam said, "though as I've thought about it through the day... I'm not sure I understand it myself. Not the dangers, and not exactly how one should best prepare. Especially..." She gestured to the narrower man.

"I know. My constitution is unfortunate." Taru scowled, but let the displeasure lapse. "Anyway, welcome... Keel? Was it?"

"Ki'el. It is the Illan word for eagles, birds of prey we see in the islands." Ki'el smiled a little, though she had to force it. She wasn't quite sure, after all these years, how to make friends, but it was worth trying.

"An auspicious name," Jito said, though Ki'el wasn't sure what to read in his tone of voice. "I like to tell strangers I'm named after a turnip, though in truth, I was named for another Jito." He glanced away, the look on his face clearly dissatisfied. "I think between the two, I prefer the turnip."

Ki'el gave him a look. "He was a bad man?"

"Clearly my mother didn't think so," was all Jito seemed willing to say, even when an awkward silence descended.

The fox-faced Taru, apparently, was not the kind to break that silence for the sake of his partner, and eventually it was Xam who made an apology, and pulled Ki'el to meet another woman, a very short woman who might have looked more like Ki'el's age if not for her weathered skin, skin that seemed entirely unusual on a cultivator. Unlike most people here, Ki'el could immediately sense great depth to her spirit--as though the woman could not possibly still be at Gold Qi, and was only pretending. Nevertheless, Xam introduced her as Bai Benai, saying that she lived across the hall, in one of the unbroken rooms.

Benai gave Ki'el an odd look, opening up her door to show a space barely big enough to sleep in, and closing herself in without actually saying hello.

Xam, at least, seemed surprised. "She... was more friendly yesterday. I'm sorry, Ki'el."

Ki'el tried to think of the woman's, to see if perhaps she could recognize her from among the people crowded around Xan Bu, but nothing struck her, and so she simply forgot about the woman for the moment, instead looking around and spotting someone down the hall, but they also refused to introduce themselves, and the three returned to their room, a bit uncomfortable. Ki'el noted, as they did, that despite the many holes in the walls and floor, there was... not too much noise here, and when she saw glimpses of people she hadn't met through those gaps, the people she saw were sitting, either in meditation, or...

Or... rest? What could she say?

Ki'el found herself looking down through the gaps in the floor to one of the very narrow rooms below their slightly wider room, to find a man sitting against the wall unmoving, but not in any sort of comfortable or meditative pose. Although she understood upon reflection that she was staring, she... could not help but look down at him for several moments, her mind finally deciding that the pose was... that of someone who was giving up. Who had *given* up.

She was sure she was not stealthy in body, and perhaps not in spirit, but the man never did look up at her, even when Xam called her name loudly to get her attention.

Ki'el was distracted when Xam asked her to demonstrate the qi turning cycle again. Instead, she did her best to walk them both through the first steps to creating an aether power cycle, describing as best she could the concept of an aether thread as solid, in the sense of having an internal space. Although she tried to convince them that they could perform the technique without using qi... when Xam at last was able to create a similar ring, it was only by using her qi to do it.

Mian, in far less time, had been able to generate a fog in the shape of a ring, but not bind it together, and he showed no significant progress in that through the evening.

Ki'el studied Xam's qi ring, and decided after some time that the woman had put too much intent into it, and spent the next hour or more trying to get the woman to create a ring to which she added nothing. It was somewhere in the middle of this all that Ki'el noted the strangest phenomenon, before it truly got close.

To Ki'el, it felt like a bubble of brighter colors shifting slightly through the world.

It was because she felt the phenomenon that she looked out into the hallway--just barely peeking her head around--in time to see Da Chian, of all people, rush up the stairs so nimbly that Ki'el could almost imagine the girl was flying. She stayed remarkably low to the ground, rushing forward, and only as Ki'el noticed that she was coming her way did she understand the noise she was making as an actual word.

"Be~nai...!" Chian's voice was a plaintive whine, and she launched herself at the door, only managing to pull it open a few inches before the door was pulled shut again. "Benai! They did it again!"

"Leave me alone!" Bai Benai's voice, through the door, was harsh. "I don't want to hear about--"

"They tried to take my blood," the girl whined, slumping down against the wall next to the door. "Even though I said--"

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But Ki'el felt her blood surging, and she jumped to her feet. "Who did?" she asked. "Someone in the sect?"

Chian, for her part, yelped and spun around, pressing herself back against the wall even further. On her face... Ki'el would decide later that the half-girl more had the look of someone caught doing something, rather than someone who had just endured some kind of trauma. In the moment, however, Ki'el could not get over the idea that Da Chian had been attacked.

"Ah..." she glanced away, nervously. "It's... not what you think, Sister Ki'el."

"If you are being attacked, you should say something," Mian said, standing there next to Ki'el. "Do you need help?"

"No... it's..."

But the door to Bai Benai's room opened, and the woman reached out and snagged Chian from behind, in a gesture more protective than Ki'el expected from the woman. "Don't tell them," Benai hissed. "They can't be trusted."

"But..." Chian looked over her shoulder. "Ki'el... knows."

The other woman looked at her. "You told her?"

"She... seems to be a good person, Benai."

Benai just narrowed her eyes at Da Chian, and in the moment of stillness, Ki'el spoke up. "Knowing what you are does not make it any better, if someone tried to take your blood from you."

"Ah." Chian stood up a little straighter. "I... did not mean by force. They offered sect points. I just..." She wilted again. "I don't..."

"You don't *need* their points," Benai hissed. "And they should not continue asking when you have said *no.*"

Ki'el found herself nodding, though Chian was not looking at her. "It is not something they should ask, if you are not comfortable."

Chian, for whatever reason, simply seemed to pout, and Ki'el though that the girl was entirely different here than she had been below. And... it seemed clear to her, when she saw how Benai seemed reluctant to let the girl go, now that she had her hands on Chian. And when Chian looked up at her, she saw light in the girl's eyes, far more than there had been.

Finally, though, Benai pushed Chian away and slammed the door behind her, and Ki'el could almost *feel* the color of the world get sucked out, as Chian's own qi dimmed in response. And Chian pounced at the door, making more whining noises, but this time, when Benai spoke, her voice and the qi behind it was harsh and cold.

"You do not need me, Da Chian," she said. "Go tell your *new* friends about your plight, and leave me *alone.*"

Ki'el flinched at the acid tone of the other woman, and felt... perhaps justifiably nervous when Da Chian turned to look at their room, the thin barrier of floor that covered less than half of it, the few finished planks covering another small section, and the unfinished wood laying against the wall. And... of course, she immediately moved over and examined the script stones.

"This is a barrier technique," she recognized. "But nothing like... the ones I've seen. Simple and to the point." She sat back, and looked at Ki'el, her eyes wary, and the color around her swirled, but eventually stilled, becoming not unlike the rest of the world that Ki'el knew. When it did finally fade, Ki'el thought that there was a sudden and complete change in Chian, bringing her back to the woman Ki'el had known first.

"Are you alright?" asked Ki'el, feeling like the girl was focusing on anything but the real question. And Chian, in a way more like the girl than Ki'el had known before, half-closed in, but was willing step into the shared room, which barely qualified as that.

"It's... it will be fine," she said. "Bai Benai gave me a talisman to give me courage to resist people. It... makes me excitable." She brightened a bit, though the world did not gain color around her. "I... like when she does that. But I know she wishes I would keep the secret, and I never do. When I'm excitable... I talk about it. She hates that."

Ki'el opened her mouth to open a question, but thought better of it. Instead, she said something else. "She must be talented if she can do that, despite remaining in the Lesser House."

"She..." Chian looked to the door across the way. "she hasn't told me why she stays here, either. Or... she did, but she doesn't let me remember."

Ki'el blinked, and looked at the door across the way. "Doesn't *let* you?"

"She isn't the only one in the Lesser House who is strange. Sister Futi also shouldn't be here. And Brother Adi'ba." Chian continued to stare at Benai's door. "I sometimes fear that I will end up like them. Just a strange person trapped where they do not belong."

There was uncomfortable silence at that, and Xam moved close to Ki'el, and whispered, "What exactly is she?"

Ki'el, understanding what Xam wanted, pressed a hand her and to Mian, and signaled with crude intent. [ Spirit beast bloodline. ]

Mian had not expected the signal and looked at her, but after a moment, after seeing the serious concern on both Ki'el's and Xam's faces, nodded, relaxing. Xam... Ki'el never did quite understand the look on the woman's face, which persisted for several seconds, but it cleared, and Xam just looked at the other girl.

"You are Ki'el's friend, so you are ours," she said, firming her resolve. "Let us know if there is anything we can do for you."

Ki'el appreciated that, but wondered what the look was about, and what they could all do if the Sect was endangering one of their friends.

When at last Chian was willing to sit with them and speak in a low voice, Ki'el found that it was only few member of the Outer Sect who were pestering her, and at least according to Chian, without malice. They spoke of research and open communication, but... they had also not accepted no for an answer, not after almost half a dozen rejections.

Ki'el was surprised that Mian, of the three of them, seemed most upset at that, though she supposed he had been taking care of Lui for some years. Ki'el was also finding it hard not to be protective of the Da Chian, and she imagined that the man was struck in a similar way.

To distract them all from the question, Ki'el asked if Chian had any information about Bai Benai's technique, but the girl was tight-lipped about that, and Ki'el imagined she knew why. So instead of pestering the girl, Ki'el decided to teach her the same qi cycling technique she had been trying to teach Xam and Mian.

What she did not expect was for Chian to pick it up almost instantly.

It was strange, however; when Da Chian created a qi thread and began turning it, it never turned white or even whitish, although it did flake off significant chunks of intent. Instead, it turned a color red not unlike her hair, even when it gathered into the cycle's thorn. She studied that red qi thorn carefully, seeming a bit unimpressed.

"You certainly have talent," Xam said, eyeing the thorn. "It was difficult for me to even understand what Ki'el was asking."

Chian studied the thorn for a bit longer without answering, before seeming to snap out of the trance. "Oh," she said, seeming to recall where she was, and then what had happened. "Ah, I 'heard' Ki'el, is all." She paused, and then realized she needed to clarify. "My... ah, some people, like me, just have a natural affinity. We can 'speak' to qi, and listen to it. Ki'el's qi spoke of what she wants and what she does and is."

That sounded strange and exiciting to Ki'el, and she leaned forward. "What sort of things does qi 'say'? What does it sound like?"

But Chian just shook her head. "It's not sound. It's intent. Your qi sounds like what you meant to do. It sounds like who you are."

And Ki'el thought about this for a few moments before it really struck her. "Oh," she said, deflating. "You must have... *really* hated what Xan Bu was doing to you."

Da Chian was silent for several seconds, and Ki'el might have thought she was simply studying the qi again, but when she spoke, her voice was very quiet, and hard to hear. "Yes."

Ki'el reached out and put a hand on the girl's arm, sympathetically. Even so... "You said, that morning of the Elder's judgement, that you did not feel you belonged here. Why?"

Chian looked up at her, confusion apparent there, but buried. "Everyone knows what they are doing," she said, sounding perplexed. "It's written all over their qi, and--"

Ki'el almost jumped out of her skin when Mian threw his head back and laughed a long, loud laugh, one that she realized after a moment was more bitter than it sounded at first.

"Ah," he said after a moment. "I'm sorry. Da Chian. You *know* that the people who remian in the Lesser House don't know what they're doing. It's exactly why they're *still here.*"

Chian, somehow, seemed to take offense, like she had pride. "But... but they *feel* so certain. All of them do."

But even Xam was nodding. "That is why they are still here," she said. "Because they are so sure they know what they're doing, and they're wrong."

Ki'el moved a little closer, feeling an intense instinct to hug the girl who was showing such confusion and fear, but restrained herself. "Sister Chian. My master is one who genuinely knew what he was doing, how qi works, and how one was intended to raise onself. He..." Ki'el stopped, understanding just how odd her story would sound, and how silly it would be to try to explain Sobon being a master that started at almost no qi at all. So, she tried again. "He made it very clear just how different the path is for those who know it, and how fast a person could walk it if they must. I do not have all of his wisdom, but even I have great confidence I will not be trapped here. Not because I know what I am doing, but because I have faith that there is an answer, and that we can find it."

There was a scoff at that, and Ki'el looked up to see one of the neighbors standing at the hole in the wall.

"'We can find it', she says." The man who stood there was bristling with indignation; that much Ki'el could tell, although she could not see his face or features from this angle. "There are true talents in every generation, brat, and there are those who can buy their way to the top. And then there are the rest of us." He slammed his fist into the wall, making Ki'el and Chian jump slightly, but turned away. "This is a place where talentless fools go to waste their lives. You won't be any better." He turned away from the wall, and Ki'el only caught a glimpse of his eyes as he did. All she could tell was that they were cold. "You'll see."

Ki'el exchanged looks with Xam and Mian, but neither of them seemed any more impressed with the man next door than she was. And she looked at Chian, who... seemed to be struggling with something.

Ki'el squezed her arm, and Chian stopped, and looked at her. "He's so confident," she said, quietly. "It's hard not to see what he says as 'true'."

"It's not," Ki'el said. "It is anger, frustration. A sense of betrayal."

"He only intended to say what he feels," Chian said. "What he believes."

"He can be wrong." Ki'el met the other girl's eyes.

Chian held her eyes for a long minute, before finally nodding.

"You're a strange girl, Da Chian," Mian opined, apparently out of nowhere, and Chian suddenly looked at him, confused, but he shook his head, speaking quietly so that his voice wouldn't travel too far. "How can it be any more obvious that the people here are wrong? There is a path forward, and they don't take it, *can't* take it. Many thousands of others have found a way. You think because their qi is confident that they know the way? That's just too naive. Confidence says nothing. A fool can be confident, and a master nervous. It says *nothing.*"

"But qi responds to them," Chian said, her voice strangely hollow. "It hears their intent. Their confidence."

{ It does, } Kuli responded, and when Chian's head turned towards her, she realized that the augment had somehow projected its intent outwards, though not strongly. { And their mistaken intent leads their qi in the wrong direction. }

Chian all but pounced on Ki'el, moving her head close and studying Ki'el's qi from right near her face, near her skin. And Ki'el felt herself flush deep scarlet in mortification, as the half-girl looked at her closely enough to see every pore and skin blemish.

"That was new," Chian said quietly, as she pulled away. "What are *you?*"