“Ah! Hold up!” Lily paused. A brush of wind swirled through the narrow street, empty but for a few lonesome passersby, as so many of the streets at the center of the university tended to be. A cool breeze, catching on the street tree leaves and the bushes, and the edge of her jacket, and setting them all aflutter. Looking back, the peace of the moment was so slightly marred. “Wait!”

  Lily blinked in surprise. “Aomao? It’s been a little while…” the last class they’d been in had been canceled the week prior, and even then, they’d not had much a chance to talk with each other. “What brings you to this part of campus?”

  Aomao skidded up beside her, leaning heavily on her knees as she panted with exhaustion. With how they were all cultivators with no shortage of physical training, showed a pretty impressive amount of exertion. “I was…” a second, a breath— as the canopy above shifted and swayed, its shadows scattering, dappled light crossing over itself in scintillating patterns— “looking for you. Wanted to, to talk to you about something.”

  “Oh! Well, it’s good you found me. I was about to head home.”

  “Great, great…” she paused for a second, finally getting herself back together as she stood, limping for a few seconds then walking smoothly alongside her. “Sorry about that, again— do you need to go somewhere? I really don’t mean to intrude, and I just wanted to talk for a bit, so I don’t mind if you can’t—”

  Lily shrugged. “No, not really. I was just going to practice my sword forms for a bit, then meditate for the rest of the night after dinner. Nothing time sensitive.”

  “Ah. Well, I’ll make this quick then. I’m sure you could use as much meditation as you could get.” Lily didn’t really know if Aomao got what she was talking about when she spoke of meditation. It wasn’t the sort of meditation that advanced her cultivation— even with her custom-built formations, the qi in the city was far too attenuated for that. No, it was a different sort of meditation entirely— closer to thinking, and to what Mingtian had advised her to do when they’d last left. It’d been… not entirely fruitful in the way she’d hoped, but it’d also not been fruitless. Hopefully, she’d make a breakthrough in three dimensional runes sometime soon…

  She realized she’d forgotten to respond. “No matter. It’s no matter, really. Go on.”

  “Thanks.” Aomao breathed out a sigh of a relief which was Lily’s… third, maybe, clue that this was a more serious request than the other woman had been letting on. “I managed to acquire a set of spiritual materials, ranging from the blindingly obvious to the eminently subtle, so subtle that even my Master said that they were difficult to find, but I wasn’t able to repeat your success. My natural ability to sense qi gets in the way, I think.”

  Lily blinked, struck silent for a second before she put the dots together. “So… you want me to help.”

  “If you can, I’ll give you some of the materials. We’re surely not as esteemed as the Bloody Saffron Sect, but Hontian-si has its roots going as far back as the pre-imperial days, and my background is by no means small. Sorry. I don’t like to flaunt it like the Song twins—” Lily resisted a smirk at that— it felt like those two were annoying everyone these days. If only they weren’t also at the top of their class, also… “but I can certainly arrange some things.”

  For a moment, Lily was genuinely tempted. What sort of treasures did Hongtian-si have, that she might gain access to… but, only for a moment. Between Mingtian’s book, Qinfu’s instruction, and classes, she already had enough on her plate. Plus, it’d just feel wrong to extort a fellow classmate for something so simple. “No need. I’ll help where I can! Do you know which parts you’ve been having trouble with?”

  “I… um, I don’t really know. I don’t know what to look for, and I certainly haven’t been able to gain the same sort of achievement you have when it comes to sensing qi.”

  “Well, why don’t you tell me what you’ve tried so far…” and they chatted as they walked, and the sun set slowly overhead, and a cool breeze blew— towards the river, and their little house beside it. The place looked much the same as it had when they’d first arrived, though some of the plants had been torn up and replaced with herbs more valuable to a cultivator as compared to the typical ornamental plants that had been there before. Other than that, it still looked quite charming, which was an accomplishment that… given that neither of them had ever had to take care of their own place before, Lily was quite proud of.

  “Wow.” Aomao glanced around as they entered, eyes alight with… admiration? Appreciation? Something like that, hopefully. “You have a nice place! I mean, it’s not like my place isn’t nice, but I think you definitely have me beat for scenery, at least. Riverside property!” They moved through the house to the back porch, lord over its small incline, and the vast waters before it golden and bright. Aomao sighed wistfully. “This reminds me a lot of home.”

  Lily glanced up, mind still half-consumed with all the various and sometimes inane strategies that Aomao had been using to try and replicate Mingtian’s strategy. “How so?”

  “It’s… well, you know. Or maybe you don’t? We’re not as known as the Bloody Saffron Sect, for obvious reasons, but Hontian-si was originally the main temple for the entire area. According to the records, even the Bloody Saffron Sect once had various rituals and observances performed by us.” She shook her head. “That’s beside the point, though… the temple grounds, they’re on the other side of the lake, up where the mountains seem to rise forever into the sky and the lake seems to capture the entire world in front of you, and it all… sometimes, when the sunlight struck the lake just right, it would turn the entire thing into this burnished, bloody metal. When I was a kid, I used to imagine that was why the lake was called what it is.”

  “That sounds… nice.”

  “It’s wonderful,” she breathed out, leaning against the railing and staring out at the ships that even now slunk through the wide river’s waters. “The Hontian-si temple complex is a wonder of architecture from its time. A fortress and a temple and a small mountain of stonework built up over the ages, all painted vermillion red in a way that catches sunlight so beautifully, and bleeds into the night sky…” she shook her head. “But, I’m not here to talk about home. So.” She turned Lily’s way. “Anything?”

  Lily was quiet for a long second. She could suggest alternatives. She had enough knowledge with doing dumb things that there were no shortage of alternatives to suggest to try and get it to work, even if most of those suggestions would be bad. Aomao had already tried the obvious— playing hide and seek with the spiritual materials, blindfolding herself, finding the materials with her arms tied behind her back, pointing out specific materials from a selection blindfolded, and then blindfolded with a progressively shorter timer…

  It was honestly impressive that she’d failed in so many creative ways. When it came to that… Lily wasn’t sure she could add anything of value.

  Luckily, that wasn’t all she had. Not quite daring to look Aomao’s way, she stared out at that same river, watching the waves lap over each other and glitter. “Well…” slowly, at first— “I think you’re doing it wrong. Or rather… that doing it that way in the first place is wrong?” She could just feel how sharp Aomao’s glare as she pointedly did not look her way. “The thing is, the base of that test was to make me feel the qi of something I should not have been able to feel the qi of. So, by that metric… and, I think, what made my qi perception so good in the first place, you should try to feel something you can’t feel. Reach out to the qi around you in your meditations.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “So, you’re telling me—” her voice was dangerously even, the sort of placid, not energetic but frozen anger— “that I didn’t need any of this stuff in the first place? Why did you even tell me that then!”

  “Hey!” Lily ducked away, shying behind her hands. “In my defense, I don’t really know anything about this either! It’s not like I’m an expert or anything— I’m a student much the same as you are! I’m just trying to help!”

  “…fine.” Aomao’s anger deflated, as fast as it’d come, replaced with a quiet mantra uttered under the young woman’s breath. She couldn’t quite catch it, but even if she could, she was pretty sure it was in a different language entirely. “No, you’re right… I should at least try your method before I so readily dismiss it. And if it works… well, these materials weren’t too expensive for my master anyways. I’m sure I’ll be able to put them to good use eventually. Thank you, Lily.” She gave her a slight bow, then set out, not looking back. “May we meet again sometime under heaven.”

  Then she was gone, leaving Lily alone beneath the darkling sky.

  ………

  Lily sat on the roof, simply… breathing. In. Out. Letting the qi of the world— filtered by her formation into that which was most beneficial for her— sink into her body and slowly seep in towards her core, where the qi of her self mingled with it and became just ever so infinitesimally greater. Beside her, her sword sat placidly on the tiles— more decoration than anything. She’d already finished her sword training for the day, but she’d not the heart to go and put the thing away. The unwieldy thing had already begun to grow on her… really she dreaded the day it’s replacement would come.

  In.

  Out.

  Again, the quiet repetition. Cultivation, she’d learnt, was a lot like training the sword. Or rather, training the sword was a lot like cultivation? Maybe— either way, as she meditated, eyes closed, her perception focused inwards… and felt, more than acted, the way she and the world mixed in the middle. Something more. With each and every breath, she slowly became something more. Slowly— but surely. One day…

  That was not why she was meditating, though. The was no particular advantage to ascending through the Shedding while she was still at the University of East Saffron. No— there was a different thing entirely she was trying to do. More ephemeral, more difficult, more frustratingly possible if she could only just reach it—

  On the edge of her consciousness, each time she sank into the depths of her meditation, seeking to understand, she could catch glimmers of that perception. Of an understanding that might one day underwrite deeper understanding still—

  One crucial step, that would elevate her formation to something… more. Three dimensional runes. She had to understand them in a way she didn’t at the moment, but her every attempt failed. It would’ve been one thing if she’d just failed— but no. It was close…

  She failed to grasp it again, knocked out of her meditations with a sigh. She should have everything she needed to get it— sure, the actual method of acquiring it through meditation wasn’t written out in Mingtian’s book, but between what was and what she’d been told by the man himself, she was capable enough when it came to reading through the lines that she knew it should have worked. The capacity to modify three dimensional runes such that they could slot into different parts of various formations like she’d done with the far more simplistic two-dimensional ones… it would be incredible. \

  The number of formations she could make… She tried meditating again, but even that escaped her, mind too awhirl with the night’s past failures for her to get much of anything out of the exercise. Biting back a muffled scream of frustration, she picked up her blade, tying it sharply to her waist— in a manner that had been refined aggressively by Qinfu, as matters of her bladework had— and leapt down from the roof.

  At least that— that subtle act, that graceful moment of undeniable cultivator prowess— managed to cut the worst of it. Even if she was making little progress on her own personal goals, she still had that, at least. Even when it felt she was backsliding compared to how dramatically forward everything had felt while she was at the academy…

  She had her cultivation, and that meant something. What, though, she had no clue.

  “Lily?” Avyr glanced up from where he’d been laying on the couch as she stalked in, his wide eyes tracking her unerringly as she strode towards one of the plush chairs off to the side. “I cooked something and left it on the kitchen counter, you can have some if you—” he paused, a long second passing. “Are you alright? You look…”

  An explosive sigh escaped her as she crashed down onto her chair. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I keep trying, and…”

  “Maybe you’re coming at things from the wrong direction.” That earned the cat a glare, and then an apologetic wave of her hand. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about, so… sorry,” Avyr mewled in response. “I wish I could help more, but… I think you’re doing well, Lily. You’ve got sword instruction and a very enthusiastic liaison, you’re doing well in all your classes, and if what I’ve been told—” unsaid, by her— “is to be believed, then you’re progressing exceptionally fast for a Shedding cultivator.”

  She suddenly felt a lot worse, in a different way entirely. She’d known that Avyr was having a harder time of things than she was— a much harder time of things, from everything she’d gathered, and yet here she still was, the one griping while Avyr listened patiently. “Sorry,” muttered, “I shouldn’t have…”

  “It’s nothing.” The big cat flicked his tail in dismissal, churring softly in what might have been a laugh. “If I can help you, then it’s well enough to satisfy me.”

  Lily hesitated for a second, then stood, quickly crossing the short distance between her seat and the couch and dropping down heavily beside Avyr. “Thanks. I needed that.”

  “Oof.”A big paw pushed her slightly, adjusting her seating position with a deftness she’d come to understand very well. “Be careful with that sword. I can feel it when that thing knocks into me, you know?”

  She smiled. “Sorry.” Then she leaned back, purposefully jabbing Avyr’s ribs with its hilt and giggling at his aggrieved yowl. “Sorry, sorry— I couldn’t resist. You’re always so untouchable, what with how you’re a whole stage ahead of me…”

  For a long while, they just spoke, the two of them, as they did so often… It was nothing special, and yet, for that, it was the most special— a balm without compare, a perfect pill, all her exhaustions wiped away and quietly obliviated.

  She went to bed happy.

  She went to bed still a failure.