What Willow very quickly determined in their lessons with Madame Park was that etiquette did not interest them in the slightest. They tried their best to follow along and take in the lessons, but they constantly wandered off track and tried to learn things that were more aligned with their interests, like spirits or stories.

  Though, to her credit, the Madame identified the issue fairly quickly and began altering the lesson plan to better suit her new student. She was nothing if not a professional when it came to teaching one of her passions.

  “You’re not the first problem child I’ve had to teach.” The matronly woman told her one day when Willow commented on some of the changes. “There was a time when I was far more forceful in my corrections. But I’ve since learned that for children like you it’s better to try and relate the lessons to your interests. Some of my best students were ones with your issues in directing their focus.”

  She always had a small smile on her face and a motherly warmth to her qi whenever she reminisced about her favorite pupils. It was a far departure from the cold and steely persona she often wore around people. Though Willow rarely saw the cracks in that particular facade they often tried to find ways for it to show more often.

  The solution she came up with for Willow’s focus problems came in the form of some stories that had etiquette be one of the main tools of the protagonists to solve their problems. They weren’t exactly the kind of stories Willow loved though. They were more in line with the boring parts of the Calypso stories they grew up with, but it was still something new for them to read and absorb, which was always exciting.

  According to Madame Park the stories themselves came from the Endless Empire to the south of the clan’s territories so she had to adapt some of the practices displayed in the stories to better fit the protocols for interactions here. However it definitely helped give Willow a framework to build off of and see the importance of what they were learning, even if they still didn’t always grasp the lesson the story was apparently supposed to impart.

  Especially whenever the lesson seemed to just be ‘don’t get involved with clan members’, despite whatever Madame Park said the true lesson was supposed to be.

  There was also still a lot of rote memorization that couldn’t be made more fun through storytelling, but the Madame came up with a system of teaching Willow qi exercises in exchange for showing mastery in the latest lesson she’d been trying to teach. It worked great for the most part, but there were still times where they’d get confused and mix up what bow or curtsy was appropriate for which clan or house, and what utensil was appropriate for which meal.

  It was all so strange and arbitrary at times! Why did these people come up with five different ways of showing ‘the appropriate amount of respect and deference’? It didn’t even make sense to the child why showing respect for someone was so important to them.

  But the lessons on how to use water qi effectively were quite fascinating and made the struggles with etiquette worth it!

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Wood was mostly about stimulating growth in different ways, whether for healing, ensnaring, or even accelerating the process of decay. The mechanisms were fairly simple, but using them effectively required a lot of finesse and controlled applications. Wild growth was relatively easy, but direction and force of will were paramount to use the element well. It was why Miss Mu hadn’t taught them any proper healing methods yet despite that being one of her specialties. There was too great a chance for Willow to cause harm in an attempt to heal.

  Water, more often than not, required a certain amount of build up and momentum to achieve their best effects. You could use your own qi for everything, but that was wasteful and far from efficient. It was better to use the particles of water in the air or earth to supplement your qi to produce far more with less.

  Though, like with most qi techniques, concepts helped bridge the gaps when direct qi manipulation would be insufficient for a task.

  For instance, the Madame’s steam spirit allowed her to evaporate water with extreme ease, whereas Willow needed to expend a lot of energy to achieve the same effect. It got to a point where they began hoping that Calypso would develop a concept of their own so that there’d be an application of water qi that they’d be able to excel in.

  However according to the twins that would likely be a long time coming, even with the accelerated growth of their younger friends.

  Many more months now passed in the town of Yeobaek as these lessons went on and the cold fingers of winter began to thread their way into the town. The water qi in the air went from trapping heat and making it unbearably muggy to causing frequent snow and ice to form on the ground and in the sky grey clouds were an almost constant companion for the villagers.

  Willow did not like the weather in this part of the world to put it bluntly. They missed their clearing in the Vale and the family they left behind in the Darach Clan’s territory. The cold and snow there was far more tolerable, and they mostly just got light powderings rather than the full winter storms they got here. It was miserable.

  It was to the point where Willow and Mu were trapped in their inn rooms at times while teams of workers helped to clear the streets of snow. And that was when Mu was even in town and not out on some wanderer mission that she viewed as ‘too dangerous’ for her apprentice to take part in.

  Those times Willow was alone aside from the inn keeper who’d only check to make sure they’d eaten and had enough blankets for warmth.

  Well, ‘alone’ was never quite the right word, as they always had their spirit friends with them. Though only having Change and Harmony to converse with often left the child wishing that there were more people for them to make friends with at the inn or tea house. Since they were rarely allowed to simply wander around and meet people, and the more crowded sections often left them with a headache from all the people anyways, Willow often used their free time to study or wander the nearby tea fields instead of trying to make new friends.

  Besides, once their lessons with Madame Park were over, they were unlikely to spend too much more time in the village so Willow tried to rationalize it as avoiding hurt in the long run.

  They didn’t want another situation like Remy…

  It was after several weeks of cold on one of the days his mentor wasn’t in town that Harmony gave Willow a piece of news that they'd eagerly been anticipating.

  “We think you are ready for the next step of your core exercises.”