NOVEL NEXT Bk 5 Ch 32: Mellow Yellow
"Well, this is a nice change," Min said as they looked around.
They stood where they had emerged from a cave inside of a hill. The hills stretched out all around, and in fact, Chang-li saw them curve away on both sides to the north, forming a ring.
In the center of the miles-wide basin bounded by the ring of hills stood a single solitary peak. It wasn't that much taller than the surrounding lands, perhaps rising six or seven hundred feet. Nevertheless, its top was snow-capped, and a gentle ring of golden clouds wreathed its summit. He could make out a stream falling down its side, cascading down the slopes in a series of waterfalls and forming a river which cut through the green and golden meadows between them and the mountain.
A handful of structures marred the green meadows. Clumps of trees too vast to be called groves, too small to be forests. Blocky stone outcroppings that looked a bit too natural. And something between them and the mountain that gleamed white under the sun.
"I expect the Guardian is on the mountain," Joshi said. "We'll have to keep our eyes open for any sort of offering or challenge to bring it. But we might as well start heading that direction."
Chang-li had been expecting this floor to be as yellow-hued as the previous two had been red and orange. The lux here was predominantly yellow, but with a healthy heaping of green and more than a trace of blue. Min and Hiroko would be alright on this level, and Joshi had his orange mana battery to help keep him filled. This already felt better than the orange floor.
A faint melody tickled at Chang-li's ears. He turned, trying to place it. "Does anyone else hear music?" he asked.
All three shook their heads, Min looking a bit concerned.
Chang-li stretched out his lux senses a bit more, and the music snapped into focus. He was hearing the lux rhythms of this place. The dominant theme was yellow, but not merely one single note. The tune had yellow as its base, yes, but it was playing variations on a theme.
Min ticked off on her fingers. "I see earth, air, and water represented here, as well as lots of life."
Joshi re-shouldered his pack. "Let's go and learn what challenge is presented to us here."
In agreement, they all set out. Chang-li cycled as he went, enjoying the freedom that the new bracer was giving him. The Lens was there and part of him, but it wasn't interfering with his own abilities to use lux anymore. That was a huge relief off of his shoulder, even as he pondered the knowledge he had gained there on the previous floor.
In order to save himself and learn what the Lens was really for, it seemed he was going to have to study the nature of cultivation. So be it. It was time he worked seriously toward Lux Endowment as well.
As they went, they startled a handful of tower beasts. Joshi and Chang-li hung back, encouraging Min and Hiroko to work together. Min rotated out different elemental arrowheads until she could find one suited for the beasts in question. If only a single beast attacked, Hiroko was able to use blue lux to confuse it, keeping it from seeing them and distracting it with illusory targets that it would chase and pursue. When that happened, Min would pepper it full of arrows until it fell. When there were more than one, Joshi or Chang-li would help distract the rest.
By the time they'd hiked about halfway toward the smoking mountains of the north through the wide-open grasslands, Hiroko was able to handle two beasts at a time. Chang-li suspected from the way she was handling herself that she had passed the Veil of Sight without really calling attention to it, or perhaps even realizing it. Now, along with Min, she was working on the next veil.
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Chang-li and Joshi discussed in low tones what they learned as they progressed toward Lux Endowment.
Joshi said, "What does learning to understand lux better actually mean, besides using it more? I've been trying to exercise my will on lux, even during a fight, and I'm starting to see some results."
Chang-li frowned. That was a more external application of the concept than he'd been going for. "I've been trying to do what Noren said and learn to see all the different shades of a color." He gathered yellow lux and cycled it, then formed a careful ball of yellow surrounded by a tiny, thin shell of green, a variant on a Firepot technique that had no practical use except for allowing him to handle the yellow. He held it up. "This would have every shade of yellow within it. I've been trying to isolate just one shade."
They were surrounded here by life-attuned lux, with yellow sharply tinted toward green. Chang-li concentrated on the mote he'd made and on his core. Carefully, he eked out a tiny drop of the yellow tinged green and held it out.
"That just seems like you're not processing out the traces of green that are already present," Joshi observed.
Chang-li thought it was possible he was right. Up ahead an enormous blue-furred rabbit the size of a goat had just leapt out of the underbrush toward them. Its ears glowed with light as it hopped toward the girls.
Hiroko spun out a blue web and entangled the rabbit in it. Min set a fire-tipped arrow to her lux bow and shot. They had the situation well in hand.
Chang-li resumed his own contemplation. This time, he thought of green and set it aside. Then listened until he could make out a very faint hint of red. Holding that note in his head, he found his core of yellow and blended the red and the yellow notes together.
He didn't want strands of each. He wanted a yellow that had just a hint of the aspect of red in it.
This time, when he drew it forth, he didn't bother wrapping it in a shell. If the yellow had taken on some of the physical properties of red, it ought to be stable enough to hold in his hand. He conjured a single bead of lux on the palm of his hand and held it out to Joshi.
Joshi coated two fingers in red lux, then gingerly picked up the bead and held it to his eye. "I think I see what you're doing," he said. "I've been trying something similar but outside my body, by combining the colors using my will."
"I think both techniques serve a purpose," Chang-li said. "Let's alternate together. Give me some guidance on what you're doing."
"All right," Joshi said as the girls approached, carrying the dead rabbit. "But let's do it while we eat. That thing looks like it's the perfect choice for lunch."
"Just what we were thinking," Min said.
"Much better than those scorpions we killed a while back," Hiroko agreed.
Soon, the skinned rabbit was roasting over a fire while the four sat and cycled, meditating on what they were learning.
Joshi and Chang-li sat together, facing each other, legs crossed in front of them. Joshi had his hands on his knees, and Chang-li copied the posture.
"First, I purify yellow lux in my core," Joshi said.
Chang-li filled his own core with lux. He siphoned off everything but yellow, enjoying the freedom once again to cultivate without worrying about the Lens. The bracer was a comforting weight around his wrist.
Joshi continued. "I push it out of my channels like I was going to use it, but I don't form a weave. Once it's out of my body, I stretch out my will, looking for the red in the air around me. When I find that, I bring them together, using my will to combine them like a vice." Joshi demonstrated. There was a clap and a small spark in the air in front of them.
Min looked up from her own cycling. "What was that?"
"Just trying something," Chang-li assured her. "It's fine."
He frowned and tried to repeat what Joshi had done. Putting out the pure yellow was easy enough. Stretching his will out and sensing for the tiny scraps all around of red wasn't much. But when he tried to bring them together, forcing his will on them, it didn't work. The red escaped from his grasp, and the yellow trickled away.
He sighed. "Let's try that again, shall we?"
It took several hours to feel confident, but at last he looked up grinning, only to find himself alone. Min was several yards away, practicing with her bow, while Joshi had vanished entirely. Stretching, he got up and wandered off.
Joshi was sitting atop a rock, cycling, with his eyes closed. He opened one as Chang-li approached. "Well?"
"I got it." Chang-li grinned, then demonstrated.
Joshi nodded gravely. He stood up. "Well done. Now, it's your turn to teach."
"Gladly," Chang-li said. "Where's Hiroko?" He turned, looking for her.
"Let her cultivate," Joshi said, a hard note in his voice. "She's near a breakthrough."
"Then I should—"
Joshi grabbed his wrist. "Don't," he said. "This is something she needs to do. Let her. I think she's almost ready to shake free of her training. And…" he hesitated. "I believe in her. She can free herself. If we interfere, we'll break things. Help me. Show me how you use your will to influence the world, and let's ascend toward Lux Endowment together."