When Kai Lan was about eleven months old, he took his first steps, and shortly afterwards his limited babble turned to words.

His first word was ‘Mint’, the smell he liked the most in the mornings.

It didn’t take long for him to build his vocabulary to the point where one day, he asked his parents the question he hadn’t been able to come up with an answer for.

“Why does everyone only take in some of the colours, but not all of them?”

His mother had frowned in confusion, “What do you mean, Xiao Kai?”

“The colours,” Kai Lan had repeated, “Like when you and Ba are sitting in the culti-ay-tion garden”.

Ning Wei’s frown deepened as she turned to her husband.

“You mean…the elemental energies?” asked his father.

Kai Lan tilted his head in thought, “They look like ribbons of different colours to me. Ba only takes the brown and the green, and Ma takes in the white, the green and the blue”.

Ning Wei dropped the serving spoon she was using to serve dinner in her shock. Kai Lan flinched at the sudden sound, then he looked at the splattered soup.

“Ma, you made a mess”.

Ning Wei turned to look at the soup, “Right…silly me…I’ll go get a towel”.

Ning Wei turned and padded listlessly into the kitchen as Wu Lan sat with a deep frown, “You can see the elemental energies, Kai Lan?”

Kai Lan nodded, “Always. They’re really pretty, but everyone only has some colours that they take, never all of them. Why is that?”

Wu Lan paused for a moment before he cleared his throat, Ning Wei returning from the kitchen with a towel to wipe the mess she’d made.

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“Well, you’ve heard both your Ma and I talk about Golden Cores before, yes?”

Kai Lan nodded.

“Well, the Elemental Energies are kind of like the Golden Cores of the worlds,” Wu Lan explained, “They’re all needed to strike balance in the world and fill the world with enough spiritual energy to have it be strong. But humans like us, and beasts, and demons and immortals, they are all born like blank slates. They have Wills of their own, so therefore they must find their place among the Elemental Energies”.

“To forge their Golden Core?” asked Kai Lan.

Wu Lan, “Yes, to forge their Golden Core…but because we have wills of our own, our connections with certain elements are stronger than others, some we don’t feel at all”.

“Feel?” asked Kai Lan.

“Yes, feel,” said Wu Lan, “Most people can only feel the Spiritual Plain where the energies of the world exist…it is a very rare and a very special gift to be able to see the Spiritual Plain”.

Kai Lan’s eyes widened, realising for the first time why it was that kids like Ran Ran and Do Han did not see what he did. Why they seemed so unconcerned with the energies of the world. They could barely even register their existence yet.

Kai’s expression darkened, “Am I wrong to see them? I didn’t mean it-”

“No!” Ning Wei said strongly, “No, never wrong, Xiao Kai”.

Ning Wei leaned forward with teary eyes and wrapped her arms around her son, “This is a very special gift, a blessing of the worlds. You are never wrong to have it”.

“But you and Ba…you’re scared”.

Wu Lan’s mouth shifted into a grim line as he sighed, “Not of you or your gifts, Xiao Kai. Never of that. What we fear is what and who will come for you when they learn of your ability to see the Spiritual Plain without even having forged a Golden Core yet”.

Kai Lan thought about this for a moment before he asked, “Will bad people come?”

Ning Wei turned to look at her husband.

“They could,” Wu Lan spoke, “So unless it is just me, your Ma and yourself, you cannot speak to anyone else about this. Do you understand, Kai Lan?”

“Or else the bad people will come?”

Wu Lan nodded, “Yes, the bad people will come”.

Kai Lan nodded, “I understand, Ba”.

Wu Lan placed a hand on top of his son’s head affectionately, “Good boy, now come, eat your dinner before your Ma spills more of it”.

Ning Wei frowned, “There’s plenty there, stop your complaining”.

“Complaining? About your cooking? Never, Ah-Ning!”

Following that night, there was a shift in understanding in the Shan household. Ning Wei and Wu Lan had realised not only that their son was exceptionally gifted, but that they lacked the power to protect him should someone come to find him and exploit his gifts.

Every morning after that, Wu Lan would take Kai Lan out to the cultivation garden and train him to rely on the feeling of the elemental energies rather than the sight of them. Despite there only being four elements between him and his wife, Wu Lan witnessed a rapid understanding befall his son. An understanding that Wu Lan grew to suspect surpassed his own.