The Gushing Spring pill tasted of clear fresh water, the Qi Foundation pill of some spicy herb she didn’t recognize, and the Sable Light pill tasted of fresh cream…… but the flavors were quickly forgotten in what followed immediately after. A painful surge of energy filled her dantian, straining its confines, even as her limbs jumped with sudden energy, her nerves sang, and her senses almost overloaded. She felt like she was aflame from the inside, the light from the candles in the meditation room lanced painfully into her eyes, and the sound of her own heart was almost deafening in her ears.

  Letting out a trembling breath, Ling Qi closed her eyes and slowly forced her breathing back under control. She needed to cultivate.

  The next few days were a blur in her mind.

  Ling Qi vaguely remembered showing up for her lessons. Sneaking in and out of the residential area. Stumbling on the steep cliffs. The worried expression on Li Suyin’s face and a curious glance from Bai Meizhen as they passed one another in the hall leading to their rooms. The feeling of the pool of energy at her core deepening, expanding, and stretching the limits of her dantian, making her ache in a way that she hadn’t since her first growth spurt.

  What she truly remembered, however, was the sharp feeling of carving new channels for the surging qi within her, one coiling through her lungs and out through her throat and the second spiralling down her right leg.

  The days following the opening of her first and second channels released some of the pressure clouding her body and mind, and Ling Qi found herself growing coherent once more. A cup of Bai Meizhen’s herbal tea, left out for her on the table one evening, soothed the raging energies surging through her body even further, and its flavor seemed to be less bitter to her tongue than before. Opening the final channel, another winding meridian extending outward from her heart, reduced the burning in her core to manageable levels.

  It allowed her to remember her obligation to Li Suyin. She was coherent enough to feel guilty about the concerned looks the other girl had given her throughout Elder Su’s lesson that evening.

  “Are you feeling better today, Ling Qi?” Li Suyin asked as she caught up with her in the hall, glancing at her nervously. “It’s just…… um, you kind of…… growled at me yesterday when I tried to talk with you. I couldn’t really understand what you were saying. Are you feeling ill?”


  Ling Qi winced internally. Li Suyin had tried to talk to her yesterday? She didn’t remember that all.

  “I guess I am,” she responded neutrally as they exited the building. “I’m sorry, Li Suyin,” she apologized after a moment. “I used some medicines to help my cultivation, but it looks like I might have taken a little too much at once.”


  She would definitely space out her dosage in the future. That or do the whole ‘closed door’ cultivation she had heard about. Was that why people shut themselves in meditation rooms for days at a time? To work through the drug-induced haze in peace and quiet?

  “O-oh, I see,” Li Suyin replied, seeming relieved. “I was a little worried that I had done something to make you angry. Did it work?” she asked, drawing a confused look from Ling Qi. “I-I mean, did you accomplish what you were trying to do?”


  Ling Qi glanced around, noting that there were still plenty of others in earshot. She then decided that she didn’t care, at least when it came to this.

  “Yeah,” she said with only partially false confidence. “I got the three meridians I was working on open, and I even managed to almost double the size of my qi pool.” She deliberately pitched her voice to carry. Let the assholes eyeing her like prey chew on that.

  “Really? That’s amazing! I’ve only recently gotten my fourth channel open. And you’ve done so much else besides,” she added under her breath, almost too low for Ling Qi to hear. “I haven’t even properly mastered an art yet.”


  “Why is that anyway? Why open so many channels without even learning an art?”


  Li Suyin looked glanced around the plaza at the other people present, some of whom were occasionally looking their way.

  Ling Qi got the picture.

  “Well, I guess it’s none of my business,” she said instead. “We can get back to practicing together if you want.”


  “That’s fine,” Li Suyin replied hurriedly before clamming up, fidgeting with her bag and keeping her eyes on the path ahead.

  Ling Qi eyed her for a moment and shrugged, falling silent as well as they proceeded back to the residential area. As the two of them entered Li Suyin’s home, the other girl finally spoke up.

  “I…… do have a good reason,” Li Suyin murmured as she shut the door behind them. It looked like Su Ling was out again today.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”


  “It’s okay. I trust you,” Li Suyin said looking down and shuffling her feet. “It’s just – I don’t like fighting,” Li Suyin admitted, looking back up at Ling Qi. “So I know I don’t really…… fit here. I wanted to be a scribe or maybe a physician’s assistant.”


  Ling Qi shifted from foot to foot. She probably wasn’t the best person to trust, and she had a feeling Li Suyin was going to reveal something personal.

  “I can understand that. I don’t really like fighting either, but I’d rather not get pushed around, you know?”


  Li Suyin nodded unhappily.

  “Yes, I understand. That’s why I asked you to help me cultivate my body.” She sighed before straightening her shoulders and visibly steeling herself.

  “Mother is from a cultivating clan that was eliminated some time ago. They lost all cultivation resources…… but great-grandfather managed to hold onto one of the family arts even after his dantian was broken,” Li Suyin said in a rush.

  Ling Qi looked at her blankly. She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction the girl expected.

  “Alright. I guess you need a lot of channels open to practice it then? It must be a pretty complex art.”


  Li Suyin seemed nonplussed at her lack of reaction, but then, she smiled weakly.

  “R-right. I also, um…… need someone to practice on. It’s a medical art.” Her eyes widened. “Just the diagnostic part though! I asked Su Ling to capture a few animals to practice the other parts on.”


  Ling Qi felt like she was missing something.

  “That sounds fine. It’ll pretty much just be what we normally do then, right?”


  The other girl nodded in relief, and the two of them got started with their practice.

  However, despite the fact that Li Suyin had revealed that she had her own valuable art – which, on reflection, was probably why she had been nervous – Ling Qi couldn’t bring herself to share knowledge of her own ‘secret’ techniques. Instead, she waited until the dead of night, her newly expanded reserves burning away her fatigue, and practiced then.

  The first part of Sable Crescent Step, she came to understand, was a manual on leg movements and techniques for moving silently as well as qi exercises for drawing the cool, calm qi of night and shadows around herself like a cloak. Darkness was absence, and by becoming one with it, she could be wherever she wanted. What were barriers and obstacles to something which had no form?

  Simply mastering the movements quickened her steps and sharpened her reactions, and the night sky overhead only made her feel more alert and energetic. Of the actual techniques she mastered in secret, the Trackless Step allowed her to move without trace, her footsteps bending not so much as a blade of grass in her path. Crescent’s Grace let the cool, comforting dark qi she had cultivated flood through the channel in her legs, blurring the edges of her form and allowing her to move short distances in bursts of great speed.

  Ling Qi knew she was far from the understanding that which would allow her to truly become immaterial as she moved, but even the occasional glimpse allowed her to simply flicker from one position to the next with no intervening motion when she executed the qi flows perfectly.

  It felt very strange.

  Forgotten Vale Melody came easier to her but was strange in its own way. Sneaking out to the mineral spring she had shared with Gu Xiulan with her flute tucked into her sleeve was odd enough on its own. Actually playing on her flute once she was there, sitting on one of the flat rocks that jutted from the water, was stranger. She was no great musician, and she had only grown rustier over the years since she left Mother, but the music sheet laid out in her mind by the jade slip seemed to come to her naturally.

  Perhaps it was misplaced pride, but she found the song she played as she worked through the internal exercises eerily beautiful – at least when she wasn’t making mistakes. The feeling of the icy qi flowing through the channel in her lungs to charge the air around her mingled with the water qi drawn from the pool. It allowed her to flood the cave with a thick and cloying mist that moved with her as she played.

  With some effort, she could charge the mist with further power, confusing the senses of those within such that they would find themselves unable to leave it.

  With her qi flowing through her channeles, old and new, and the knowledge of her techniques in the back of her mind, Ling Qi found herself looking out over the deep night of the mountain wilderness and found it as bright as if it were lit by the noonday sun. The colors were washed out, but darkness no longer hindered her sight.

  Was this what it felt like to be a real cultivator, she wondered?

  Threads 27 Siblings 1

  For a long moment, silence reigned in the bedroom. Ling Qi could feel the turmoil in her mother’s thoughts. There was fear for Ling Qi, a helpless and directionless anger, and many other conflicting emotions. What emerged from that emotional morass, however, was resolve.

  “Was there something in that storm worth risking your life for?” her mother asked, drawing her attention back.

  “Absolutely,” Ling Qi answered immediately. “The spirit of the mountain was my teacher. More than anything else, I was there to save her daughter.” In her dantian, Hanyi’s qi seemed to both curl up and reach out to grasp hers. “In fact, I actually wanted to introduce you to her, if you don’t mind.”


  Her mother leaned back, releasing the squirming Biyu to slide down onto the floor from her lap. “Is that safe?” she asked faintly. “The spirits are -” Ling Qingge shook herself. “No, you would not suggest it if it were unsafe, but…… why?”


  Ling Qi smiled wanly. “Didn’t I say? She’s the daughter of my master. That makes her my junior sister and my responsibility. You deserve to know the ones who are in our family.”


  “I see,” her mother replied, fidgeting with her gown. There was an old and ingrained fear embedded there. Ling Qi knew that to most mortals, spirits were distant and unapproachable things, much more so than spirit beasts with their simpler motives and behaviors. “You are right. As…… family, it is only right.”


  Biyu, of course, was only looking around with incomprehension, unsure of what they were talking about.

  she thought, giving the young spirit a gentle nudge with her qi.

  In front of her, the air glittered, and frost spread across the carpet as Hanyi expressed herself, fading into view. Ling Qi felt the flicker of alarm and revulsion that passed through her mother as the spirit solidified. It hurt a little, but she expected it. She knew that to mortal eyes, Hanyi’s appearance was distressing. A young girl with skin and lips that looked like a corpse, a victim of the cold sleep, and blank white eyes without iris or pupil – of course that would be alarming.

  She saw Hanyi’s growing pout and gave her a silent nudge with her qi.

  “Hiya,” she greeted with a mildly disrespectful bob of her head. “My name is Hanyi. I guess you’re Big Sis’ family, huh?”


  There was silence for a moment until the silence was broken by Biyu, who had backed away and whose eyes were wide with alarm and fear. “Ghost?” she asked, looking to Ling Qi for support.

  Hanyi beat her to the response though. “No, don’t be a dummy. You’ll make your sister look bad. I’m a real spirit, not some whiny echo,” she boasted. Ling Qi noticed with some wariness a thread of jealousy and vindictiveness in Hanyi’s thoughts as with regard to her sister. She would have to talk to Hanyi about that later.

  “It’s fine, Biyu. Hanyi isn’t a scary ghost. Would I let her in here if she was?” Ling Qi answered patiently, ignoring Hanyi’s words for now. The young spirit shot her a pouting look. “She’s my friend, like Zhengui is. Do you understand?”


  “Oh,” the little girl said, still eyeing Hanyi warily. “Where is lil’ turtle?”


  “You’ll get to see him again soon,” Ling Qi said with a smile.

  “That dummy better be up soon,” Hanyi grumbled.

  More importantly, Ling Qi thought, giving her Mother a surreptitious glance, the little aside had given Ling Qingge the time to compose herself and stand.

  “Welcome to my home…… Hanyi,” she said, offering a polite bow. Ling Qingge hesitated on using the spirit’s name, which was understandable. Generally, mortals would use an epithet. “As my daughter’s junior sister, you are welcome here.”


  Hanyi blinked, turning back to the older woman, and Ling Qi felt a complicated snarl of emotions in Hanyi’s heart as she regarded Ling Qingge. “Yeah, um – thank you for your welcome,” she replied with awkward formality.

  Ling Qi suspected that Hanyi wasn’t sure what to make of Ling Qingge. Hanyi had a certain disregard for those weaker than her and had little social experience in general, but the role of “mother” was one she understood very well.

  There was a moment of awkward silence as Hanyi scuffed her foot against the frosted carpet and Ling Qingge seemed to struggle with her own ingrained manners.

  “And I’m Sixiang!” the empty air next to Ling Qi’s head announced brightly. “I can’t say I’m family, but I do live in Ling Qi’s head, so I’m afraid I’ll be intruding on the regular.”


  Her mother’s expression was one of blank confusion, and Biyu was once again looking around, searching futilely for someone who was not there.

  “You’ve done some good stuff with the house you know,” Sixiang continued, unabated. “Between shifting the furniture around and switching around the decor, it feels way more welcoming. I have no idea how Ling Qi manages to be so dull about that kinda thing.”


  “Thank you, I think?” her mother replied haltingly, looking to Ling Qi for explanation.

  “Sixiang is another spirit of mine. They’re a dream muse, the kind that inspires artists,” Ling Qi explained.

  “And look at this one, cute as a button. I’d pinch your lil cheeks if I had hands,” Sixiang rambled on, and Biyu let out a surprised yelp as a brush of wind ruffled her hair. “Never woulda guessed you were Ling Qi’s sister.”


  “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Ling Qi asked irately.

  “Hey, Big Sis is totally cute,” Hanyi said at the same time, stomping her foot.

  “Pfft. Yeah, yeah, you two have that ‘scary chic’ thing going on,” Sixiang announced, and Ling Qi felt in her thoughts the equivalent of the dream spirit giving her an exaggerated wink. “Not at all like the little cutie here.”


  Biyu pouted up at the empty air. “Don’t be mean! Sis-y is pretty!”


  “Hmph, it’s better if she’s more like me and Momma anyway,” Hanyi huffed.

  Ling Qi looked to her bewildered looking Mother and gave her a sheepish smile. “So…… Yeah, this is how things are. I know it’s not exactly normal, especially for you, but I wanted to include you in more of my life.”


  Her mother looked faintly bemused as Hanyi argued with empty air and Biyu squealed in delight, trying to catch tickling fingers that weren’t there. “I cannot say I understand entirely, but…… thank you all the same, Ling Qi.”


  Ling Qi nodded, feeling lighter than before. Still, there was one more matter of family to take care of.

  ***

  As busy as she had been in the last few months, Ling Qi had not had the leisure to spend much time at the hill Zhengui was hibernating in. So she was glad that the Sect had assigned someone to check on the location periodically as well. She knew the Sect was doing so partially out of self-interest. Having a confused, recently broken through beast of Zhengui’s likely size wandering around would not do them any good, and studying his growth could benefit them in other ways too, or so Cai Renxiang had said after making the arrangement. She would also receive a copy of their observations for the future.

  That was why Ling Qi knew that observation and divination had indicated that her little brother would awake sometime tomorrow afternoon. It had been fortuitous news.

  Sitting out here on the veranda with her Mother, looking out over the garden, she couldn’t regret that. The sun was on its way down now, and Biyu had fallen asleep some time ago, worn out by the excitement. Ling Qingge was seated in the lotus position, breathing slowly as she followed the basic exercises Ling Qi had given her. Hanyi was still out as well, snuggled up to Ling Qi’s side, toying with a half-frozen flower. The shattered remains of its predecessors littered the young spirit’s lap and the floor around her.

  Ling Qi cast a sidelong look at her mother. As much as her cultivation and arts had improved as of late, she could feel in far more detail the problems that plagued her mother’s cultivation. Though it was inactive, she could feel Ling Qingge’s dantian. It was small and empty like all mortals’, but subtle flaws had been made clear. Though it appeared as a healthy vessel on the surface, it really wasn’t. It was like a jug riven by a hundred, invisible, hairline cracks, and though it could hold some “water,” the closer the jug came to being filled, the more “water” was forced out through the widening cracks.

  While Ling Qi did not know enough of the subject to say, she suspected that this was the result of age on cultivation potential. Her mother let out a deep breath then, opening her eyes, and Ling Qi watched the slow trickle as recently cultivated qi began to dissipate.

  “I never imagined that sitting and breathing could be so tiring,” her mother sighed, trying and failing to disguise the slump of fatigue in her shoulders.

  “There’s a bit more to it than that, even if you can’t quite tell yet,” Ling Qi said wryly. “Are you done for the night?”


  “I believe so,” Ling Qingge answered.

  “You shouldn’t be. If you stay like that, you’re gonna disappear and make Big Sis sad,” Hanyi commented idly, not looking up from her project. The young spirit blew gently on the flower in her hands, sending scraps of the plant matter still clinging to the fragile sculpture fluttering away.

  Awkward silence fell in the wake of her words, and Ling Qi sighed. She really was going to have to work on Hanyi’s social skills.

  “I think we’re still a long way from worrying about that,” Sixiang said lightly. “Anyway, Ling Qi, didn’t you have something you wanted to ask?”


  “I did,” Ling Qi said, silently thanking Sixiang for the save. She glanced again at her mother, glad to see that her composure hadn’t been shaken much by Hanyi’s impolite comment. “I was hoping to take you and Biyu on a day trip tomorrow. Do you think you’ll be up for it?”


  “I suppose,” Ling Qingge replied slowly. “I wish you had given me more notice. I could have prepared better.”


  “Well, we would be going out into the wilderness a ways,” Ling Qi said. “Not exactly something you need to get fancy for.”


  “You mean outside the wards?” her mother asked in alarm.

  “I am pretty strong,” Ling Qi soothed. “Neither of you will be in any danger, and you got here alright, even without me, didn’t you?”


  “Traveling on the road is a different matter, and not, I suspect, what you intend,” Ling Qingge said with a hint of reproach.

  “That’s fair, but I promise that both of you will be safe. I just want everyone to be there when Zhengui wakes up,” Ling Qi said, causing Hanyi to perk up as well.

  “The Xuan Wu?” her mother asked in confusion. “It will be an impressive sight, I’m sure, but……”


  “Mother,” Ling Qi interrupted quietly. “Zhengui is family too. I know you can’t understand him yet, but he’s as smart as Hanyi or I.” She shot the spirit beside her an unimpressed look at the scoff that elicited. “I raised him from an egg. He’s my…… little brother, and this is kinda like his birthday, you know?”


  Ling Qingge gave her a long, searching look, and Ling Qi shifted uncomfortably. Searching her words and the tone they had come out in, she had a feeling that she had implied the wrong thing. She almost thought to correct herself, but that wasn’t a tangle she wanted to voice aloud.

  Sixiang asked silently.

  Ling Qi held in a grimace as her mother nodded. “Very well. I will trust you, Ling Qi. Is there anything I should know in order to prepare?”


  “Well, the first thing is…… he’s going to be a bit bigger than you remember……”