Heavenly Shae

Shae sorted through her pack; the bit of added firelight made it much easier. It was filled with more than she expected. The bulk of which was Apollo's blanket that they had slept under just a few days ago. She slowed when she found it, running her hands over the soft material. That was nice of her... her mind wandered towards cynicism and she cast the thought away and moved to the next item.

Investigating the small cloth bag that held arrowheads, most had pieces of shaft still attached. The cloth was thin enough that she didn't even have to open the bag to identify them. Lifting it to her face she smelled the bag and was surprised they smelt nothing like the bloody battle. Must have cleaned them. She cracked it open and a faint smell entered, her forehead whispered of water and heat, with hints of floral soap. At a guess, she had fewer left than the two dozen she started with. She reluctantly nodded, accepting that some were better than none, and returned them to her pack.

She placed Apollo's letter to the side with the blanket. Next she dug deeper into the pack and found the Manifold Journey practice manual. She tapped her fingers on it, I might pass out again, then she glanced at Lari, safe enough to do that here. And I could use a nap.

Nodding to herself she began to tie the pack up again. A small pebble caught under her bare foot and she grunted. With a grimace, she dove back into her pack and found her extra shoe. Then she tied up the pack and carried her bundle away.

Shae saw Lari tense up as she approached. She stopped and asked, "Do you mind if I sit, Miss Lari? We can keep each other company." She pointed at the ground closer to the woman.

She blinked at the question. Then nodded and slid sideways to make more room. There was already plenty of room, the cliff wall stretched for a dozen li in each direction.

Shae stepped over and sat close, but left a gap between them. Her first action was to address her bare foot.

This immediately drew the runner's attention, her eyebrows rising quickly and drawing together. "When did you lose that?"

"Just today, maybe an hour ago. It was falling apart and the boggy stream claimed it when I ventured too deeply."

She turned to look the way they came. "That far? Must have slowed you down?"

"Hmm, not really. I was running and jumping those rocky hurdles without a problem." She shrugged as she loosened the laces for a second time.

Lari scrunched her forehead and grunted. "We need to check for cuts and blisters." She moved quickly, heedless of her previous caution, grabbing the young woman's foot and wiping the dirt and dust from it with her sleeve. Her forehead creased slightly then relaxed into curiosity. "Huh. Nothing, barely looks like you've been running on it. Which I know is false."

"Heh. One of the many benefits of a little bit of cultivation." She slung the shoe on again, and grunted as the laces were still too tight.

"Uhm. Let me." Lari batted her hands away and quickly took the shoe. She flexed the sole and nodded, focusing on one spot where she bent it repeatedly, then slapped the shoe into the ground a few times. "Leather's stiffened up. Probably got wet and spent too long in your pack."

Shae smiled as she watched her work. This is better, I just have to not screw it up again.

A few breaths later, Lari smoothly slipped the shoe onto Shae's foot. "A bit of oil or fat would be better, something to soften the leather with. But if your skin's that tough, you probably don't need it. How's the other?" She grabbed the other foot before Shae could stop her.

"Uaah!" Shae cried as her balance was swept out from under her, she was forced to pivot on her butt and she toppled over onto her small pile of belongings.

"Oh! Sorry there." Lari shifted her grip and helped Shae sit up again. "Ew," she looked down at the foot she now held. "This one needs a wash. And a new shoe. Didn't you just get these?"

"Yeah," she shrugged with a smirk, grateful that the other woman hadn't stripped it off to discover the blisters and bruises that she could feel under the mud, cloth, and leather. "That was like two weeks ago."

Lari shook her head and wiped her hands off on the ground. "They should have lasted longer. Guess that's the trade-off for running twice as fast. A quarter the life of your footwear."

"Heh, yeah. Hmm, maybe next time I'll have shoes with leather from a spirit beast. Those should last way longer."

"Snrk, and cost you house and home." Lari snorted.

It was Shae's turn to have her mood cut short. She stilled at the runner's words and stared forwards with a heavy sigh. "I already gave those up a while ago."

"Ah, sorry." She hesitated, then reached an arm over to squeeze the young woman's shoulder. "It's been a while, but I know what that's like. Us runners don't usually have a single home, but we make due."

A chill breeze reminded Shae of the weather and she unfolded her blanket over herself. After a glance, she tossed one end towards the other woman, being sure to stop it short.

Lari felt the soft material and showed a glimmer of surprise. Then saw that it was too short to wrap around herself and shrugged. "The shadow silk is plenty comfortable, remember?" She raised an eyebrow at the young woman.

She grunted in exasperation. "Aww, that's no fun. Come sit with me. I'm cold."

The runner rolled her eyes dramatically then shuffled over to sit beside her. Shae threw the blanket over them revealing that it had been larger than she was letting on. Then clutched Lari's arm against herself and leaned into the older woman.

"Quite the needy sprout aren't you? Heh heh heh." The older woman chuckled and adjusted the blanket.

"Mhmm." Shae agreed. "I'm going to be a cultivator soon, wouldn't this be inappropriate then? I gotta take these opportunities when I can."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll make a few friends quick enough. I'd expect at least one of them wouldn't mind a cuddle or two." She smirked, but then grunted. "Watch out for boys though. Especially the older ones that seem to know too much." She repressed a shudder, but Shae felt it.

"Uhm- you were saying about runners making due without a single home?" She rushed the words out.

"Heh, yes we do. We have a saying: home is where you're welcomed. So we put in the work of making friends and contacts in every town we pass through. Why have a single home when you can have one everywhere?"

Shae smiled. "That sounds nice. Though you have to leave a home behind every time you leave."

"Yes, but you're leaving to go home every time too."

Shae sighed at that. "You know, I'm a little worried about something like that, leaving too many people behind when I make progress cultivating."

"Hmm. Is that why you wanted me to join?"

"Yeah, but I get that this isn't the right place for you." She squeezed the woman's arm. "I still think you could explore it a bit though."

"I said before, didn't I? It's a path I can't start, or I'll be stuck on it."

"That's nonsense. You're already on it. Your travels have tempered your body against qi pressure. And that itch you talked about, I bet that's your body getting used to using qi to fuel your running. Do you really think normal people can run -how far did we go?- like, a square set of li in a day?"

Lari tensed up briefly, then remained silent.

Shae waited a few breaths, then asked, "Are you going south again, after this?"

Lari moved her head, looking up the mountain, then said, "Yes. Trips north are rare."

"Good. I'll give you a few names of people to visit for me. Let them know I made it safely. Heh, if we do visit in a few days I'll probably have letters to deliver."

"Deliveries cost coin! I'm not your personal spirit messenger."

"Heh heh. Of course. But they're nice people, you can also make a few more friends and homes."

"Hmm, and will these people try to convince me to be a cultivator like you are?"

"Heh. Saw right through that, eh? But I don't think so. You should talk to the last two, though. They can give you some great advice. Auntie Mei in Minlin especially."

"Miss Mei? Diviner Mei? How do you know her? Are you actually her niece?" She shifted and pulled her arm away to try to look at the younger woman.

"No, we're not related. She's just a nice auntie. We got along well and she helped me out a lot when I was down on my luck. Forced me into a bunch of yard work to pay for it, though."

Lari paused for a breath. "Last time I heard about Miss Mei getting along with a kid, the kid turned out to be the rightful princess of a lost kingdom or something."

"Heh, she has good taste." Shae released the other woman's arm, then stuck her own arms out from under the blanket with her pencil and notepad in hand. "I'll write you that list of names now. Oh, and the last one is a monk of the Golden Orchard. Know anyone there?"

"Inside the Monkery? No, they don't let many mortals wander their grounds. At the town under the mountain, sure, I know a few people. That's the same as any town."

"Huh. Really? They didn't seem so closed off when I talked to the monks in Minlin."

"Okay, but you had just... done whatever that huge spectacle with them was."

"Oh. Okay, maybe my experience wasn't normal." She paused while writing. "Still... I bet Wise Yungfan could teach you a thing or two. You could probably make progress while still doing courier work."

Lari sighed. "You're going to browbeat me into this aren't you?"

"What? No! Only do it if you want to. Just promise you'll talk to Mei and Yungfan about it. They will give you great advice and give you more options. Maybe I'm even wrong about your existing progress, I dunno."

She sighed again. "Fine. I'll talk to them." She reached over and mussed up Shae's hair. "You're paying for my time though."

"Sure, sure." She focused on writing the note. "How much?"

"Hmmm, I wonder," Lari said with a smirk in her voice.

Shae felt a chill on her neck and imagined the woman squinting and evaluating her with a keen eye. "Uh... How about two tales? Since it's on your way?"

"Just two?"

"Large taels."

"Hmm, but there's quite a few names, and Golden Orchard is quite the run."

"Uh, fine, a silver crown."

"Just a tiara? For a cultivator job? How soon do you expect it delivered?"

"Ugh. Crown and a half then." She looked up to find the runner wasn't smiling at the banter, but rubbing her chin and looking up into the night sky thoughtfully.

"Hmmm, I wonder what you were paid to clear the road. I did hear about that, and that you hired a set of locals. Must have been real good coin for a half day's work if you could hire that lot on top."

Shae frowned at the woman, but found her points hard to dispute. She was asking her to make the whole trip back, plus however far the monks were. She took a deep breath and exhaled her building frustration. She's probably overcharging me, but why shouldn't she?

"Okay. Tell you what," Shae began. "Stay in town for at least three days so I can get you a letter for Wise Yungfan. That and notifying my list of names..." She paused to think, "all before the new year, and I'll pay you a half-stud up front. Any additional letters at the standard mortal rate. I'm not made of silver."

"Not yet." Lari turned to her and smirked. "I accept." She reached out to pluck the note from Shae's hand.

The young woman huffed. "How much did I just overpay?"

"Heh. Not much, really." She reached over the shorter woman's shoulder for a sideways hug and pulled the blanket up with the other. "I wouldn't want to anger my new benefactor on the first exchange."

"Hmm." She tried to sound upset, but was distracted by the closeness that the other woman shared with her. She relaxed into the platonic cuddle. The exhaustion from the day's trials had begun to set in and drag her towards sleep. "Mhmm, I think I'm going to take a nap, wake me up in like an hour or so, please."

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Lari jostled her and asked, "Really, I thought this was a race? Why stop right at the finish line?" She pointed at the door in the cliffside.

"Aaah~m," she yawned. "That's not my finish line. There's other doors higher up the mountain. I want one of those."

"Okay, while that's technically true. How do you know it's right for the trial?"

"You said it yourself, Lari. That's the worst entrance. Which means there's better ones up there."

"Huh. I guess so." She paused. "Wait, no. Don't say that I said it, I'm not supposed to help. ... Shae!" She lightly shook the younger woman again, but that only elicited a low snore. "Ugh, if I get in trouble, you're paying for it."

Her snoring was fake. While Shae dearly wished to drift off into slumber, she had one last task before her. With her arrival at the sect and her travel now essentially complete, the last steps to complete the Manifold Journey practice lingered at the back of her mind.

The comfort of the campfire formation easily lulled her into meditation. She resisted sleep only by the constant stimulus of her energetic qi which still traveled through her channels. The lightning aspect of her personal qi demanded action and movement.

The first step was to ensure the second-last practice was complete. She slowly cycled her qi, thinning it more with neutral qi and bringing the cycle speed down to slower than her heartbeat. A rather tricky thing now because she was practically sleeping instead of running.

She mentally tensed as she approached the correct rhythm and feeling. Worried that she would blank-out again, like she had that afternoon.

Her worry was proven unnecessary, as was her cycling. Like many times before, the practice felt easy, like it wasn't accomplishing anything. It was a good sign she had done enough to complete it. Even without the obvious *click* or other reaction from the large mental structure that has been created by the first practice. She relaxed and decided Resist Anticipation was complete.

That initial structure now loomed larger in her mind, it had clearly grown since she first created it. Like a large sheet of parchment, it encompassed her whole mind's eye. The edges were frayed and erratic, just barely within her perception. While the center held an odd version of her caravan journey.

The map started just before the Jian Quan, and traveled through all the town's until just past Gatewash. It was a map, but lacked any reasonable form of scale. Sections of road faded here and there, picking up again right before a destination or water stop. The section before Gatewash was one of the worst, an erratic dashed line that was hardly straight and the dashes each seemed to be formed along separate lines, not one continuous one.

Her journey through Flame Well was the most upsetting, showing the town a second time to represent her return, then skipping far ahead where she had been carried by Fairy Yun.

Quickly, she saw that the most detail occurred where she had started each practice. Yet it somehow spread out in both directions. This was her only explanation for why so much detail before Jian Quan was included. She reasoned that her numerous attempts to start the first practice must have dug into her memories of the day before. Or, she considered, it was just an emotional afternoon that I remember very clearly.

With that new context she considered the map again. Yes, it could simply be a diagram of my memory. Not everything, not strictly when I was using the practices, either. Yet, the times I was actually traveling for sure.

She pulled back from the details, viewing the whole map again. It was oddly large for what it needed to show. The edges seemed to waver and even drift outwards as she examined them. The full construct had never been so completely obvious to her. When she first sensed it, the edges had felt more like walls blocking the detail hidden within.

Her previous memories of the construct were hard to imagine, like they resisted being formed in her mind's eye. When she pushed harder, she felt the main construct slipping away, fading to darkness. She relaxed her effort, instead letting the remembered version slip away. That was the first time she clearly saw it grow. The edge of the map where she was trying to envision the old image stretched and pushed outwards, the weathered parchment growing like a fractal to encompass the space.

Aha! That must be why it's so large. She nodded mentally. The consequences of such a thing didn't occur to her at the moment, what with her mind so thoroughly occupied.

She sighed and focused on the final practice. She had read the specific instructions several times already, all before Gatewash. When she had, they didn't make much sense, but now. Now she had a clear understanding of what to do.

She focused on the details of the map again, specifically the ending. A long thin streak made a line extending from Gatewash. It flew across the landscape, straight like an arrow rather than the winding, erratic paths of the roads through forest. The tip of the line faded out, its landing uncertain.

She focused on where it should land, filling in those details that hadn't been fixed in her long term memory yet. Adding the canyon crossings and especially her stop to clean the impurities away. She took particular care in recreating the massive waterfall Long had made. Next she drew in her arrival at the sect's border with the marker stone that she passed by to begin her trial. She smirked as she added the stone-faced Long as a statue that created the threshold to the sect's trial.

Is that far enough? She asked the map, and herself.

She answered her own question by drawing the ridges she had climbed over and around. Leaving glowing lights where she had made formation markers. She let the path wander and fade slightly until it reached the boggy river. Then she drew as much of the lake as she could, including a large pillar that represented her abandoned walking staff. She smiled because it stood out more than the shattered cliffs.

The cliff continued, much as she had walked along it. The hurdles of rock and stone were distinct, yet their exact number was not. She let the path fade in and out several times before reaching her current location.

The trial isn't quite over, though. She mentally nodded and drew in the lower entrance door, a mysterious spiral staircase that led up to the building above. She had a vague sense of the building's shape from her surveys of the mountain during daylight. That was enough for the crude map, even the staircase was a mystery, she hadn't seen it yet, nor did she intend to.

She drew a second door on the main admin building, and labeled it 'Administration Medium Entrance'. Then traced a path away and along the cliff. It found the mysterious dark cutout that she had spotted at the beginning of the trial. Surely it is a path up the cliffside. She drew her expected path backwards, from the building, down the cliff, then back to her current location.

The last Manifold Journey practice had said to mark your final destination with a pin. Write that you have arrived and even add the date if you so wished. Shae did that now. Marking her current location with a pin shaped like the warding candle that burned near her.

She added a note:

Arrived with Lari. A friend I left with, but who took a different path.

If she had used ink and brush to mentally draw the path, she was to let it dry. Shae hadn't needed that mental crutch to draw on the map. She considered how she had done it, how she expected the details to be set permanently and saved. Ah, that's it then. She mentally imagined a floppy-disc icon and clicked on it. There was a brief pause, like her mind hung frozen for half a beat.

Then a short, tapered spiral appeared, rotating along a circle and overlapping its tail. Hmm, wrong loading animation. Especially wrong for this world. She frowned to herself and the spiral changed into a dragon, styled like one of the long ones. That was the common representation in this world. It was eating its own tail as it flew in a circle. Better, she nodded. It vanished after completing a few loops.

The next instruction was to fold the map into thirds. First horizontally, then vertically. Keeping the frayed edges inside the fold lines, and to do so quickly.

She did that now, and could see why the instructions said to do it quickly. With the first edge missing, the parchment strained to expand and stretch out again. At the first signs of movement, she burned her mental focus to complete the task as quickly as possible. Once the pair of tri-folds were complete, she made more folds to hide the last frayed edge.

The final step was to destroy the map. She wasn't sure why exactly, it felt odd to ruin something she had put so much work into. Yet even as just a folded map, now a small triangle, it bulged and resisted the final fold, trying to spring free and spread out again. And while it seemed small, all folded up, it felt heavy, it resisted her effort to move or discard it.

A match would be simplest, she considered, but that feels too simple.

She summoned the image of her first tribulation. The swirling vortex of dark clouds filled with colorful lightning. Then cast the map up towards it.

It moved sluggishly, then hung in the air, waiting. The swirling tribulation was almost frozen in the moment. Then Shae smirked to herself and threw her own golden lightning up at both, a blinding flash that annihilated the map and broke the storm.

This is my mind, we do it my way.

Much like the calm after a storm clears, peace and relief washed over her. She felt like she had set down a tremendous burden and was just now getting to stretch and relax.

Her mind felt gloriously clean and fantastically empty.

With a smile she pushed all remaining qi from her channels and into her Dantian, and sighed at the complete lack of expectation. The freedom to do nothing.

The moment stretched on and Shae didn't notice as she drifted off to sleep.

She was woken abruptly by a jostle and a cold breeze. "Hwaah?" She called out with a scowl.

"Naptime over, Miss Shae." Lari ruffled her hair as she shook the blanket at her, fanning the chill wind.

"Nuuuu, it's only been a few minutes." She grabbed at the blanket helplessly.

"I don't know what that means, but it's been a good half hour. Much longer and I'll pass out for the night as well. Your little scrap of paper is too effective."

Shae grunted and looked up at the bright formation paper above her. The symbol glowed intensely and through the glare she could tell the edges of the paper were charring. "Right, I forgot about that fire hazard. Probably good that you didn't wait much longer."

"What does that mean!?" The runner called out as she folded the blanket and dropped it into Shae's pack.

"Ugh-" she snapped her mouth shut as she understood what she had just said. "Hmmmgh," she groaned and stretched. "That was a good nap." The young woman stood and plucked the note from the wall. A wave of heat and aggressive comfort hit her like hot air from an oven. She leaned away and almost sat down again, but instead shook her head and held the page at arm's reach. "Whew. That's a bit much."

"Yeah, no kidding." Lari stood back several paces, leaning up against the cliffside. "I would have tossed it but wasn't sure what would happen."

"Hmm, yeah, probably good that you didn't." She walked further away from her pack and Lari, moving slow enough the gathered fire qi could keep up. The glow faded as she walked, then strengthened again when she stopped or slowed. Uhhh, do I just toss it? Set it off again, like with the ants? Hope they don't have to send someone to clean up this mess of fire qi... She stopped suddenly.

"Uhh, you okay, Shae? Should I... run for help?" Lari pointed back at the administration door.

"Oh, uh, no. I just remembered something." Shae looked at the formation symbol carefully, trying to decide if she needed to break it or not. A breath later she just shrugged and walked it a little further to the cliffside, dropped it, then backed away.

She walked near the candle and felt the peculiar lack of qi around the strange item. Right, that will fight me. She turned again and walked a diagonal path towards the forest, placing her about as far from the candle as the formation page was.

She sat and looked back at her observer. "This should be quick and the light and feeling should fade. I probably won't fall asleep, but please wake me again if I do."

Lari shrugged and nodded.

The process of absorbing the qi was fairly rote at this point. Even if she hadn't done it with fire qi as much as neutral or water, the steps were still quite similar. Quickly she could feel the interference from the candle and the sluggish response from the local qi. She assumed the latter was due to the greater density here. She found she could speed the flow up by pulling in neutral qi and cycling her own qi as well.

A short time later she left meditation and found the formation still glowed, yet not nearly as bright as earlier. She nodded, walked over to it and tore the page in half, then stepped back quickly.

Lari was seated between the candle and wall again and gave Shae a suspicious raised eyebrow.

"That, uh, might still burst into flames. So you probably want to leave it." The young cultivator said.

"Might? How close was it earlier?"

"Uhm. No idea. It was probably fine for a while." She shrugged as she passed by.

Lari groaned and rubbed her face. "Whatever, at least I'm not being lulled into dreamland anymore. How much longer are you planning on sticking around?"

"Hmmm, not much. Just want to read this note." She raised the letter from Apollo.

"Okay, I'm going to give you..." She leaned in close to look at the candle. "An hour and a half-ish. Then I'm heading inside."

"Uhh, Sure? Is that important for some reason?"

Lari squinted as Shae with pursed lips, then jabbed a finger towards her. "I'm not helping, no clues."

"Isn't saying that a clue in itself."

Lari threw a pebble at her.

"Okay, okay! You're not helping. Heh heh heh." Shae dodged a few more pebbles and broke the seal on the folded note. It wasn't in an envelope, just a folded over page, and the wax stamp looked like the sect coin she had.

She read it slowly, regretting discarding her light-source so quickly. She had to move right up to the candle. The smell was briefly distracting, bearing hints of sour gasoline and household chemicals, she grimaced at it. Then focused on the letter.

It was more impersonal than she expected, stating a few facts that she had expected to find. Apollo hadn't found all of her arrow heads, only 19. The blanket was nothing special. Standard sect issue, though with winter coming, she expected Shae might want a second, even with one of her campfire formations. She took that as a hint that the feeling of warmth might not actually heat the body like a proper fire. Hmm, dangerous, she considered with wide eyes.

Apollo had recovered her lightning hairpin. Which the older cultivator had named Spirit Wire. It was sealed in the box because it could disqualify Shae from the trial if she was provided a spiritual tool partway through; even a functionally unhelpful one. The reason she still had the pack delivered at all was because she didn't want to assume Shae's success. She didn't want her to feel like the choice had been fully out of her hands. Shae smiled at this.

Her smile turned sideways at the next line, which said Apollo had taken the missive from Elder Ghon, because the sect had demanded its recovery. Shae was only upset for a moment, realizing that if Apollo had asked then she would have given it to her.

Lastly, the seal on the box was set to release ten hours after sunset. Plenty of time for her to enter the administration building, she wrote. It was signed only: Sincere Apologies.

Shae tilted her head at the signature, then reread the last bit. She blinked twice then snapped her head up towards the sky. "What time is it?"

"Uhh, close to- wait, no help!" Lari grunted.

The young cultivator ignored her. She tracked the constellations in the night sky, quickly finding what passed as the centerline. Then judged how far from it the moon was. Like on Earth, the moon wasn't always opposite the sun. Yet, here, it was much more predictable. She counted off days on her finger joints before settling on a solution. "Just after midnight," she declared.

"Huh, good job. What did you need to know that for?"

Shae didn't answer, still lost in her own thoughts. It's autumn, so sunset's closer to five pm. Seven hours to midnight, less than three 'till the box opens. "Shit," she swore loudly in English and scrambled to repack her things.

"Heh. Told you stopping to rest was weird." Lari snarked.

She stopped briefly to point at her. "This is new information, it doesn't count. Also, that nap was great and sitting with you was even better. Thank you so much, Lari, and see you in a couple days." She pulled the knot shut, swung the bulky pack over her shoulder, and nearly lost her balance in the process.

"Uhhhh..." the runner gaped.

Shae waved backwards as she sprinted off, running past the administration doorway and along the cliff.

"Uhm. Thanks? You too?" Lari waved a few fingers at her back.