Taking note that he was outside in a random field with Cuah’arn, John make a suggestion. “Perhaps we should move inside somewhere? Where Deirdre isn’t just lying on a rock?”

“I don’t believe you have a location suited for either of us. At best, anywhere within your clan would increase our discomfort,” the great bird of light responded. “Regardless of how things go, a short time in the dirt will not significantly harm this woman.”

“Alright, fine,” John nodded. “What do I need to do?”

“Deirdre’s cultivation was overloaded with excessive light element,” Cuah’arn explained. “She has not retained consciousness, and left unchecked it will destroy her. You need to remove it.”

“Pardon me, but would it not be safer for someone of the same element such as yourself to perform this task?”

“I considered that option,” Cuah’arn crouched down closer to John and the comatose Deirdre. “Performing this task myself would be risky, as my compatibility with her is low. I could easily worsen the situation. The same is likely true of others from the Golden Tomb Guardians.”

“I don’t believe that necessarily makes me a better choice. I have very little experience with the light element, and all of it quite… combative. I could easily destroy her from the inside out on accident.”

“You could,” Cuah’arn said matter-of-factly, “But you have more experience rooting around inside others than anyone I know in the current year.”

“Do I?” John frowned. Depending on parameters, that might be true. Dual cultivation with Matayal was cooperative, but certainly counted to some extent. He ripped shards of Ciaritzal out of many people. On the other end, he stabilized Aydan when he attempted the same with less success, helped Renato break through to Foundation Phase, and removed a claw of Ciaritzal from Cuah’arn herself. “It is possible I have more experience than others,” John admitted, “But I don’t know if that’s enough to make up for opposite elements.”

“It will have to,” Cuah’arn stated. “Ciarizal will be able to provide you with necessary energy, should you run low. It is too late to explore other options. Perhaps we are already too late for this.”

John sighed, “Very well, I’ll do my best.” He did feel partially responsible for Deirdre’s situation. Cautioning against a certain course of action wasn’t as helpful as simply making sure it couldn’t happen. If he hadn’t given her the egg, she couldn’t have done what she did.

John sat next to the comatose woman on the hard ground. He extended his senses, focusing on using the air element within him that should be least negatively reactive with the light. Deirdre’s meridians were flooded, but not in the proper way that someone brimming with energy should be. Instead, light element clung to the edges of her meridians like plaque in arteries. That wasn’t mere speculation- John had the unfortunate experience of having seen that. Or perhaps fortunate, as a cultivator’s ability to deal with such issues before they grew was likely one contributor to their extended lifespans.

But he shouldn’t let himself get distracted. Energy was not flowing through the meridians, but remaining stagnant- half clogged, but without flow regardless. If he didn’t know better, the complete lack of circulation might make him presume Deirdre was dead. He attempted to coax some sort of change with his air energy, but the light element was unfortunately too unreactive. Attempting to control the light element directly just made John’s head hurt- he had minimal control over free light energy to begin with, and this already had Deirdre’s patterns engraved in it.

Water and earth weren’t much better. The light pushed back against him instinctively, increasing the pressure inside Deirdre’s meridians. Though he didn’t really know if darkness would be better, he had to try. He created the smallest tendril of darkness energy he could imagine, smaller than a hair. He carefully brought it to the entrance of one of Deirdre’s meridians. As light and darkness met, the light lunged forward, clinging around the hair-thin tendril of darkness.

What sounded like a single small explosion was actually a series as light wrapped around the tendril, reacting as it made its way up. A small patch of blood appeared on Deirdre’s palm, skin scraped away in the event. And that was with everything happening outside of her body. Within her meridians would be a mess. And yet, John could sense the entrance of that meridian had cleared slightly, and while there was no proper flow of energy still some of it was squeezing through her meridian from further in.

“Cuah’arn,” John said. “If you could protect her, I can make at least a small amount of progress drawing the energy out.”

It took some doing, with Cuah’arn having to make a small pocket for John’s energy to slip through. He felt the light energy straining to latch onto his darkness and annihilate it, but it was tightly controlled. Keeping his own tendril of darkness from reacting like the light energy around it was magnetically attractive took significantly more work on his part. If he was in the exact middle, he could almost ignore the pull.

Another explosion of energy pulled from a different meridian, but this time properly contained away from Deirdre. There wasn’t enough to cause danger to John, but he still tried to make sure his tendrils of darkness were extended as far as possible so that there was never too much potentially interacting. Repeating the same process for every meridian was exhausting, and once that was done he had only cleared a small portion near the surface. He was already feeling drained, as controlling a fine point of darkness took a lot more effort than anticipated. Ciaritzal’s presence helped replenish him. There was some aspect of moral support, but more practical was Ciaritzal directly giving him a steady stream of energy.

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Now what? John couldn’t expect even a small explosion inside Deirdre to have any sort of result he could accept. With the entrances cleared, he could likely have a strand of energy find its way inside only to be immediately annihilated past the entrance. “Cuah’arn,” John said. “If you could redouble your hold on your energy, and especially focus on the portion protecting Deidre… I’m going to attempt something. Keep the path to that meridian open.”

Since it already seemed instinctual for light and darkness to seek each other out and annihilate each other, he planned to work with that. He focused a small concentration of energy, using it as a lure. The darkness called in what he hoped was an enticing manner. He felt some light element slowly begin to be drawn towards his lure and then… it surged forward, a crack of power flinging his palm away. He looked at his hand. No real damage, but it stung. The explosion hadn’t been enough to break through his defenses, but the shock could still be felt. Deirdre was… fine. Cuah’arn had reacted quickly enough to seal the remaining opening as the explosion happened, likely minimizing it by cutting off the flow as well.

This was harder than John thought it would be, and that had already been quite difficult. He had to be aware of that acceleration. Pulling on the light element with a steady flow was important. His next few attempts were somewhat better, and soon he’d cleared out the second portion of each meridian. How long had it been? The daylight was fading… but rather than concerning himself with that, he accepted the comfort of natural darkness.

When he found he could not entice any more light element to leave its domain, John knew he would have to dive deeper. That was where he truly couldn’t afford any mistakes. As he began to explore another meridian, he noticed there were still pockets of light energy embedded in the walls of the meridians. Something akin to crystals, more solid and less usable. Moving past them would be risky, but interacting with them would be dangerous as well.

They seemed fairly set in place, as John attempted to attract them towards his own energy. If he got too much closer he was worried they would suddenly break free and catch onto his tendrils. Yet he couldn’t exactly form a lure for the energy beyond them without being closer. He’d have to see if he could remove them.

With the energy more solidified, he decided to try again with air element. At worst there would be minimal reactions. It wasn’t exactly made for grasping onto things, but he managed to pull on a tiny crystal- more akin to a grain of sand or something- wresting it free from its position. It seemed pulling it out would require more effort, and John could tell he wouldn’t be able to sustain that with the air element alone.

He intended to coax the loose grain along with his darkness energy, but he got too close. It suddenly lunged towards his lure, and he could only instinctually react by smothering it, his energy wrapping around it to contain the explosion. He couldn’t even hear it, but it was surprisingly difficult to contain. The internal damage it could have caused was much worse than what actually happened, though John could see some scarring around the area. He hadn’t perfectly contained it. One mistake like that wasn’t too much, but if every meridian had a small bit of damage, or several… it wouldn’t say much for her health.

As John grew more tired, a sensible person might have told him to stop- but he didn’t have that thought, and he moved into some sort of flow state. Loosing crystals, carefully pulling them out of the meridians or occasionally destroying them where they were, containing the damage. He worked his way along one meridian until he reached Deirdre’s dantian, where everything was the same… but more.

A lure of darkness carefully extended to the area, and when the light element began to attract towards it he withdrew at a steady rate. However, the light sped up. John did as well, but it only pulled the light more quickly. He had to weave his way back out avoiding touching the walls of the meridians as much as possible, and he stopped attempting to lure the energy, but it kept following him. As his tendril of darkness managed to pull its way out, a burst of light element followed. John threw up his arms, absorbing the initial impact, but as if floodgates were unleashed the light element exploded out of that meridian- and the ones parallel to it.

John was knocked flying, but while it seemed problematic at first, that simply meant he got to spread out the absorption of energy over a longer period. And Ciaritzal even softened his fall. “Damn,” John cursed, “I messed up.” He couldn’t see Deirdre at the moment, the explosion of light briefly blinding him, but he reached out with his senses. Her body seemed intact, at least. And then… there was movement.

“... What?” Deirdre sat up suddenly. Her head jerked around. “Where am I? What’s going on?”

“Relax,” John said slowly. “Just take a moment to calm yourself. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Umm… there was a bridge?”

“A bridge?” John frowned. “What about the battle?”

“The battle?” John could vaguely see Deirdre’s face now, his eyes recovering. Her brow furrowed in concentration. “... There was an explosion?”

“Something like that,” John nodded. “It flooded you with a bit too much light element. It’s normal to be disoriented for a bit.”

“Light element…” she slowly nodded. “Um, right.”

“If you can, I’d suggest carefully circulating your energy. Your meridians and dantian might be in a poor state. The sooner you begin the healing process, the better.”

“Okay so… I just have to do… that thing you said…”

“Maybe you shouldn’t, actually,” John said. “You seem off balance still. Maybe have something to eat or drink?”

“Good idea,” Deidre nodded, squinting at him. “You’re… Fortkran, right?”

“That’s right,” John nodded. “You know me.”

“Right. I’m Odette.”

“What?” John asked.

“Excuse me,” Cuah’arn interposed some of her feathers between the two of them. “Could you translate what you are saying for me?”

“Translate?” John responded automatically. “Ah, crap.”