Ciel woke to knocking.
Three sharp taps.
Her eyes opened.
For one terrible instant, she did not know where she was.
Wooden ceiling.
White walls.
A narrow bed.
Morning light entering through a small window.
Her heart jumped.
Her hand immediately shot toward the table beside her.
The stone was still there.
Ciel grabbed it.
Only then did memory return.
Blue Port.
The antique shop.
Mara Voss.
Dinner.
A locked door.
She looked toward it.
Still locked.
Ciel slowly exhaled.
Another knock came.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice.
Not Mara.
Ciel sat up.
"Who is it?"
There was a pause.
"Nora."
That explained nothing.
"Nora who?"
Another pause.
"Nora Bell."
Still nothing.
The woman outside sighed.
"I work downstairs."
Ciel looked around.
Mara's oversized robe still hung loosely around her body.
Her old clothes were folded over a chair. Someone had apparently washed them during the night, although several stains remained.
"Senior Voss told me there was a girl upstairs," Nora continued. "She neglected to explain why."
Ciel hesitated.
"Is Senior Voss here?"
"No."
That immediately made her uncomfortable.
"Where is she?"
"If I knew where Senior Voss was every morning, my job would be much easier."
Ciel remained silent.
Nora tried again.
"She left breakfast."
That helped.
A little.
Ciel placed the stone inside her sleeve, unlocked the door and opened it only slightly.
A young woman stood outside.
She looked to be somewhere in her twenties, with dark brown hair tied into a practical knot and a bundle of keys hanging from her belt. Her clothes were plain but neat, and several ink stains covered the fingers of her right hand.
Nora looked at Ciel.
Then at the barely opened door.
Then at the hand hidden inside Ciel's sleeve.
Her expression softened slightly.
"I'm the shopkeeper."
Ciel opened the door a little more.
"Senior Voss owns the shop."
"Yes."
"I run it when she's doing whatever mysterious thing she's decided is more important than being here."
Ciel blinked.
Nora smiled.
"That happens often."
That did not sound like the way Ciel expected an employee to speak about a Qi Condensation cultivator.
"You're not a cultivator?"
"No."
Nora held up both hands.
"Painfully mortal."
Ciel finally opened the door.
"I'm Ciel Yi."
"I know."
Nora pointed downstairs.
"Senior Voss left me a note."
"What did it say?"
Nora's mouth twitched.
"Almost nothing."
She pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Ciel.
Three lines had been written in neat characters.
Girl upstairs: Ciel Yi.
Feed her.
Don't let her sell anything.
Ciel stared at it.
"...That's all?"
"That's more detailed than some of her instructions."
Ciel handed it back.
"I'm not going to sell anything."
"Excellent. My morning just became easier."
Nora turned.
"Come downstairs."
Ciel hesitated.
"Where did Senior Voss go?"
"She had business."
"What kind?"
Nora shrugged.
"Senior Voss kind."
Ciel frowned.
Nora glanced back.
"You'll get used to it."
For some reason, Ciel suspected she was going to hear that phrase often.
Voss Appraisals looked different in daylight.
The warm lamps from the previous evening were extinguished, allowing sunlight to fall across shelves Ciel had barely been able to examine before.
There was much more merchandise than she had realized.
And much less of it looked magical.
Old porcelain.
Wooden statues.
Clocks.
Jewelry.
Bronze plates.
Paintings.
Carved boxes.
Books.
Walking sticks.
Musical instruments.
Pieces of armor.
Several swords whose best days appeared to have ended decades ago.
A row of old blankets had been carefully folded along one wall.
Only a few objects looked obviously supernatural.
A jade pendant emitted a barely perceptible green glow.
A small wooden statue sat beneath a glass cover.
Several pieces of metal were sealed inside labelled boxes.
Ciel looked around.
"This is an antique shop."
Nora had begun opening the shutters.
"Mostly."
"The sign says Appraisals."
"We do those too."
"Divination."
"Senior Voss."
"Spiritual Objects."
"Also Senior Voss."
"Lost Property."
Nora paused.
"Usually Senior Voss."
Ciel looked at her.
"What do you do?"
"Everything else."
Nora opened another shutter.
"Buy. Sell. Record. Clean. Catalogue. Argue with customers. Stop people touching things they can't afford. Stop people selling us things they stole."
She thought.
"Occasionally make tea."
"You know about antiques?"
"I've worked here six years."
Nora gave her a sideways look.
"Senior Voss taught me enough not to bankrupt her."
That seemed like a considerable accomplishment.
Ciel noticed a small table near the rear of the shop.
Bread, cheese and a bowl of porridge waited there.
Her stomach reacted before she did.
Nora heard it.
"That would be yours."
Ciel sat.
"Did Senior Voss pay for it?"
Nora looked amused.
"She's taking you as a disciple and you're worried about breakfast?"
"She hasn't taken me yet."
"Ah."
Nora nodded solemnly.
"Then definitely worry about the bread."
Ciel could not tell whether she was joking.
She began eating anyway.
Nora went behind the counter and opened a large ledger.
For several minutes, the only sounds were turning pages and Ciel's spoon scraping the bowl.
Eventually Ciel asked:
"Do you know why she might take me?"
"No."
Nora did not even look up.
"Does she normally have disciples?"
"No."
"Has she ever?"
"Not while I've known her."
That made Ciel stop eating.
"Then isn't this strange?"
"Very."
Nora dipped her pen into ink.
"Senior Voss is strange."
That apparently settled the matter.
The first customer arrived shortly after the shop opened.
An elderly woman carrying a wooden box.
Mortal.
Ciel could tell immediately.
There were no visible layers of Qi around her.
Nora greeted her by name.
"Morning, Mrs. Albert."
"Morning, dear."
The woman placed the box on the counter.
"My husband found these while clearing his father's house."
Inside were twelve old silver spoons.
Nora examined the marks beneath the handles, weighed one, checked several pages in a reference book and offered a price.
The woman complained.
Nora countered.
The woman complained again.
Eventually they agreed.
Ciel watched the entire exchange.
Nothing mystical happened.
No glowing eyes.
No Divination.
Just business.
After the woman left, Nora placed eleven spoons in one tray.
The twelfth went somewhere else.
Ciel noticed.
"Why that one?"
Nora looked pleased.
"Good."
"What?"
"You noticed."
Ciel picked it up.
It looked nearly identical to the others.
"This one is older."
"How do you know?"
"Maker's mark."
Nora showed her a symbol beneath the handle.
"Different workshop. Probably seventy or eighty years older."
"Is it valuable?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
Nora took it away from her.
"Old and valuable aren't the same thing."
She placed the spoon in a wooden box beneath the counter.
"But Senior Voss checks older objects before I price them permanently."
"Why?"
"Qi."
Ciel looked at the spoon again.
"That has Qi?"
"No idea."
Nora smiled.
"That's why Senior Voss checks."
Ciel frowned.
"I thought only cultivators had Qi."
"Everything is surrounded by Heaven-and-Earth Qi."
Nora pointed toward the shelves.
"Most ordinary things don't hold much of it."
"But materials aren't all the same."
"Some absorb more."
"Some barely absorb any."
"And given enough time..."
She tapped the wooden box.
"...strange things happen."
Ciel remembered something.
"Spirit plants?"
"Exactly."
Nora seemed surprised.
"You know about those?"
"A little."
"Then think about it that way."
She picked up an ordinary dried herb from a basket.
"Grow this for a season and it's a herb."
"Grow the right plant for decades somewhere rich in Qi and it may begin accumulating spiritual energy."
"Hundreds of years?"
"It might become something cultivators kill each other over."
Ciel stared at the dried plant.
Nora put it down.
"Objects can change too."
"Wood."
"Metal."
"Cloth."
"Jade."
"Bone."
"Senior Voss buys old things partly because sometimes age has made the material useful."
"Useful for what?"
Nora gestured around the shop.
"Ask her."
Ciel looked mildly annoyed.
Nora laughed.
"I'm mortal, Ciel."
"I know enough to sell the merchandise."
"I don't pretend to understand cultivation theory."
That was refreshingly straightforward.
Several more customers arrived during the morning.
A man sold an old pocket watch.
A young woman bought a silver necklace.
A merchant brought three paintings for appraisal.
Ciel gradually began helping.
At first she only carried boxes.
Then Nora discovered she could write neatly.
After that, Ciel found herself recording purchases in a secondary ledger.
It felt strangely familiar.
Her father's shop had different goods, but numbers were still numbers.
Quantity.
Purchase price.
Sale price.
Customer.
Date.
For the first time since leaving Orione, Ciel performed a task she knew how to do.
The familiarity calmed her.
She had just finished recording the sale of an old bronze vase when the door opened again.
Cold air entered with the customer.
The man who stepped inside was perhaps sixty.
Maybe older.
His hair was mostly gray, and an old scar ran from his neck beneath his coat.
Ciel immediately saw them.
Layers.
Thin, almost transparent bands of mist surrounding his body.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Ciel stopped counting.
The man noticed.
"So you're the new girl."
Ciel lowered her eyes.
Nora immediately approached.
"Senior Darius."
The difference in her tone was subtle but clear.
Respectful.
Not frightened.
"Your blanket is ready."
That got Ciel's attention.
Blanket?
Nora went to the folded row against the wall and removed one wrapped in dark cloth.
Darius followed her toward the counter with a slight limp.
"How strong?"
"Senior Voss rated this one for Fifth Layer without difficulty."
"Duration?"
"At your Qi output, around three hours before the fibers need to rest."
Darius grunted.
"Less than my last one."
"The previous blanket was almost one hundred and forty years old."
"This one's eighty-six."
"And the Fire Cotton?"
"Thirty-two."
"Thirty-two?"
Darius looked disappointed.
"That's young."
"It's also why this one isn't costing you three stones."
Ciel's ears practically moved.
Stones?
Nora unfolded the blanket.
It looked old.
Well kept, but definitely old.
Dark red wool.
Several lines of slightly brighter thread had been woven through it in patterns Ciel did not recognize.
Darius put his palm against the cloth.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then one of the visible Qi layers around him trembled.
The red threads glowed.
Warmth spread through the blanket.
Ciel felt it from where she stood.
Her eyes widened.
Darius smiled.
"Not bad."
He wrapped part of it around his shoulders.
"Much better."
Nora looked toward his leg.
"Winter bothering the knee again?"
"Knee."
He tapped his ribs.
"And here."
"That beast cracked four ribs twenty years ago."
Ciel looked at him.
Darius noticed.
"Ocean Fang Seal."
He said it almost proudly.
"Ugly bastard."
Nora rolled her eyes.
"You tell that story every winter."
"Because every winter my ribs remember it."
He ran his hand over the warm blanket.
"I'll take it."
Darius reached into an inner pouch.
Something clicked against the counter.
Ciel looked.
A translucent stone about the size of the final joint of her thumb.
It was pale, almost colorless.
But something seemed to move inside it.
Light.
Mist.
She couldn't tell.
Beside it, Darius placed thirty gold coins.
Nora counted them.
"One low-grade spirit stone and thirty gold."
Ciel nearly dropped her pen.
Darius took the blanket.
"Tell that old fox if she finds another with older Fire Cotton, I want first look."
"I'll tell her."
"And don't let Brenner buy it."
"Senior Brenner doesn't use warming blankets."
"He might start just to annoy me."
Nora smiled.
"Have a good day, Senior Darius."
The man left.
Ciel stared at the stone.
Then at Nora.
Then at the door.
"That blanket cost..."
She calculated.
Nora started smiling.
Ciel continued.
"One hundred and thirty gold."
"Nominally."
"Nominally?"
Nora picked up the spirit stone.
"Do you know currency?"
Ciel almost looked offended.
"My parents own a shop."
"Good. Tell me."
"One hundred copper is one silver."
Nora nodded.
"One hundred silver is one gold."
"Correct."
Ciel looked at the stone.
"And that?"
"One hundred gold is considered the standard value of one low-grade spirit stone."
Ciel silently calculated.
One low-grade spirit stone.
Ten thousand silver coins.
Her parents—
Ciel stopped herself.
Nora watched her face.
"Now forget the conversion."
Ciel frowned.
"You just told me."
"I told you because you need to know it."
"Now I'm telling you why it's misleading."
Nora held up the stone.
"If I wanted one hundred gold for this, I could probably have it before lunch."
Ciel nodded slowly.
"If I walked into the street with one hundred gold and demanded one of these..."
She placed the stone back on the counter.
"...I might still be looking next week."
"Why?"
"Because gold doesn't help a cultivator cultivate."
That made sense immediately.
"A shop might sell you one."
"For more than one hundred gold."
"Perhaps much more."
Nora shrugged.
"Depends on who needs money and who needs spirit stones."
"So they're worth more than gold."
"They're useful."
Nora corrected her.
"That's more important."
Ciel looked toward the door through which Darius had left.
"And he paid one for a blanket."
"A useful blanket."
"It was old."
"That's part of why it was useful."
Nora pointed toward the row.
"None of those are the same."
"Different age."
"Different material."
"Different amount of Qi absorbed over the years."
"Different Fire Cotton."
"Senior Voss refines each one according to what she has available."
"Fire Cotton is expensive?"
"Very."
"Fire-aspected botanists cultivate it."
Nora touched one blanket.
"The longer it grows while absorbing Qi, the better it becomes."
"And more expensive."
"Much."
Ciel thought about the cloth.
"So Senior Voss takes an old blanket..."
"One whose material has become spiritually receptive."
"Adds Fire Cotton..."
"And some other materials."
"And makes an artifact."
"A very simple one."
Nora nodded.
"Don't call it impressive in front of a professional Artifact Refiner."
"Why?"
"They'll laugh."
Ciel looked confused.
"It works."
"Of course it works."
"Then why laugh?"
Nora smiled without humor.
"Because some people care as much about who made something as whether it works."
That felt familiar in a way Ciel did not like.
She thought of Lara Kim.
Blue Port fashions.
Her parents' shop becoming a place where poor people bought clothes.
Ciel looked back at the blanket.
Nora had already moved on.
"Senior Voss's customers don't usually care."
"Old guards."
"Hunters."
"Lone cultivators."
"Small families."
"People who need something useful without spending twenty spirit stones to impress their friends."
Ciel filed that away.
At midday, Nora opened a cabinet behind the counter and removed something wrapped in cloth.
"Help me with this."
Inside was a small wooden statue.
An old man sitting beneath a pine tree.
Ciel leaned closer.
"Antique?"
"About ninety years."
"Artifact?"
"Now it is."
Nora pointed toward a narrow recess beneath the base.
"A spirit stone goes there."
"What does it do?"
"Watch."
She took the stone Darius had paid and moved it toward the slot.
Then stopped.
Her expression became pained.
"No."
Ciel blinked.
"No?"
"I can already hear Senior Voss complaining."
Nora returned Darius's stone to a locked box and retrieved another spirit stone that had already lost much of its inner glow.
"This one."
She inserted it.
The statue emitted a faint green light.
A few breaths later, Ciel smelled something.
Pine.
Incense.
Warm wood.
The scent was very subtle.
Her shoulders relaxed before she consciously realized it.
Her thoughts seemed slightly quieter.
"That's..."
"Spirit Pine resin."
Nora nodded.
"Along with several cheaper materials Senior Voss refuses to tell customers about."
"It helps you relax."
"More specifically, cultivators buy them to make meditation easier."
Ciel touched the table near the statue.
"It makes you cultivate faster?"
"Not directly."
"Senior Voss gets annoyed when people say that."
Nora imitated Mara poorly.
"'Calming your mind is not the same thing as increasing cultivation speed.'"
Ciel smiled.
Nora removed the spirit stone.
The aroma gradually weakened.
"These sell well."
"How much?"
"This one?"
Nora checked the tag beneath it.
"Two low-grade stones."
Ciel stared.
Nora laughed.
"You're doing the conversion again."
"Two hundred gold."
"Stop it."
"Twenty thousand silver."
"Ciel."
"An average person—"
"Thirty silver per year, give or take."
Ciel stopped.
Nora gave her a sympathetic look.
"Yes."
Ciel stared at the statue.
"That little thing is worth more money than..."
She could not even finish.
Nora shrugged.
"To a mortal."
"To a cultivator, it's two stones."
That sentence made the distance between the two worlds suddenly enormous.
Ciel had grown up believing Lara Kim's dresses were expensive.
She had known wealthy merchants existed.
Governors.
Nobles.
But this—
one small stone could represent years upon years of ordinary labor.
"How much does a cultivator earn?"
"Depends."
Nora began packing the statue again.
"A First Layer cultivator working ordinary labor might make around twice what a mortal earns."
"Only twice?"
"They still accept silver and gold."
"Second and Third Layer can earn more."
"Construction."
"Port work."
"Caravans."
"Guards."
"Jobs where one cultivator can do the work of several mortals."
She locked the cabinet.
"Once you get into the middle layers, especially specialists, things change."
"Spirit stones?"
"Usually."
Ciel thought about Mara.
"Senior Voss is Sixth Layer."
"Yes."
"How much does she charge?"
"For a normal cultivator consultation?"
Nora raised one finger.
"One low-grade spirit stone."
Ciel looked at the statue.
"The statue costs two."
"The statue took materials and work to make."
"Still..."
Nora smiled.
"You think one stone is a lot?"
"It is!"
"Tell that to an alchemist."
Ciel frowned.
"Why?"
"A Sixth Layer alchemist can charge five low-grade spirit stones to refine one batch of Grade One pills."
Ciel's mouth opened.
"Five?"
"You provide the ingredients."
"Of course."
"And if there are useful materials left?"
"The alchemist usually keeps them."
Ciel stared.
"That's robbery."
Nora laughed.
"That's alchemy."
Ciel looked around Voss Appraisals again.
Suddenly Mara's obsession with money seemed slightly less ridiculous.
"Why doesn't Senior Voss charge more?"
"For Divination?"
Nora shrugged.
"People don't respect it the way they respect Alchemy."
"Or proper Artifact Refining."
"Or martial techniques."
"Why?"
"Can Senior Voss kill a magical beast with a prediction?"
Ciel considered.
"No."
"Can she turn herbs into pills?"
"No."
"Can she forge a sword that cuts through another cultivator's Qi?"
"No."
"Then there you are."
Nora's expression became more thoughtful.
"People like Divination when they need it."
"They just don't like admitting they needed it afterward."
Ciel thought about the guards from the previous night.
That sounded believable.
The bell above the entrance rang again.
This time Nora's entire posture changed.
A woman entered wearing dark leather armor.
Three layers of Qi were immediately visible around her.
Then a fourth appeared faintly beneath the others.
Ciel watched carefully.
Four.
The woman carried a long wrapped object beneath one arm.
"Nora."
"Senior Hale."
"I need Voss."
Nora nodded.
"Is it urgent?"
The woman placed the wrapped object on the counter.
"Found it inside a Razorfin nest."
Nora did not touch it.
That was answer enough.
"Please wait."
She reached beneath the counter and removed a rectangular piece of pale jade.
Ciel immediately recognized that it was not ordinary.
A shallow circular socket had been carved into one end.
Nora opened another locked drawer.
Inside was a low-grade spirit stone.
Ciel's eyes widened.
Nora sighed.
"Don't start counting gold."
"I wasn't."
"You were."
She fitted the stone into the socket.
For several breaths, nothing happened.
Then the jade tablet began glowing.
Soft white light spread through delicate lines carved across its surface.
Ciel leaned closer.
"What is that?"
"Senior Voss made it."
"She made that?"
"Don't sound so surprised."
"I thought she did Divination."
"She does a little of everything badly."
A voice came from the entrance.
"I heard that."
Nora froze.
Ciel turned.
Mara Voss stood in the doorway.
Nora looked toward the glowing tablet.
Then toward Mara.
"You got here quickly."
"I was already nearby."
Mara entered.
"And I do not do everything badly."
Nora removed the spirit stone from the tablet.
"Your last heating box caught fire."
"It was a heating box."
"It caught the table on fire."
"Excess enthusiasm."
Senior Hale laughed.
Mara ignored her.
Ciel noticed a second piece of jade hanging from Mara's belt.
It was glowing with exactly the same white light.
Ciel pointed.
"Those are connected."
Mara looked at her.
"Excellent deduction."
"Were they one piece?"
That made Mara pause.
"Yes."
Ciel stepped closer.
"You cut the jade and refined both pieces together?"
Mara's expression became slightly more interested.
"Correct."
Nora pointed toward Ciel.
"She asks questions."
"I noticed."
"Many questions."
Mara sighed.
"I feared as much."
Ciel ignored them.
"How far does it work?"
"Not very."
"How far?"
"Enough to reach my residence and most places around Blue Port."
"How?"
Mara removed her tablet and placed it on the counter.
"The two pieces retain a weak spiritual resonance because they were originally one material and were refined together."
"Put Qi into one."
"The other reacts."
Ciel looked at the spirit stone.
"Does calling you use the whole stone?"
Mara's face changed in horror.
"Of course not."
"Good."
Nora nodded.
"Imagine how much she'd complain."
"I am standing here."
Mara reclaimed her tablet.
"One stone powers many calls if nobody abuses it."
She looked pointedly at Nora.
Nora looked innocent.
Senior Hale tapped the wrapped object.
"Can we discuss my problem before your disciple learns artifact refinement from the counter?"
Mara looked at Ciel.
"Not my disciple yet."
Ciel's heart sank slightly.
Mara saw it.
She smiled faintly.
"Patience."
Then she turned toward Hale.
"Back room."
The two disappeared behind a curtain.
Ciel looked toward Nora.
"Can I watch?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because Senior Hale paid for privacy."
Ciel sighed.
Nora smiled.
"You really are going to fit in here."
The consultation lasted nearly half an hour.
When the two women emerged, Senior Hale carried the object differently.
More carefully.
Mara carried something else.
A spirit stone.
Only one.
Hale nodded to her.
"Next expedition leaves in two weeks."
"If you're going back to the same place, don't touch the southern wall."
Hale stopped.
"Why?"
Mara smiled.
"If I knew, the consultation would cost more."
Hale stared at her.
Then laughed.
"Old fraud."
"Alive old fraud."
"Fair."
She left.
Mara watched the door close.
Then tossed the spirit stone once into the air and caught it.
Ciel noticed the satisfaction in her eyes.
Nora did too.
"Only one?"
Ciel asked innocently.
Mara's smile vanished.
Nora covered her mouth.
Ciel continued.
"I heard a Sixth Layer alchemist charges five."
Mara slowly turned toward Nora.
Nora immediately began reorganizing papers.
"Traitor."
"She asked."
"You didn't need to educate her this thoroughly."
Nora's shoulders shook.
Mara looked at Ciel.
"Alchemists are parasites."
"Nora said they're respected."
"Successful parasites."
"Five spirit stones."
"I heard you."
"Plus leftover materials."
Mara's eye twitched.
"Do you want to become an alchemist?"
Ciel thought.
"Would I make more money?"
Mara stared.
Then—
she smiled.
A genuine one.
"Perhaps there is hope for you after all."
Mara did not examine Ciel immediately.
First she made her finish lunch.
Then she made Nora lock the front door despite three hours of business remaining.
Nora protested.
Mara promised to compensate her.
Nora demanded that in writing.
Mara called her ungrateful.
Eventually they disappeared into the small consultation room behind the shop.
There was a padded table, several cabinets and an old wooden chair.
Mara pointed.
"Sit."
Ciel did.
"Give me your hand."
Ciel hesitated.
Mara waited.
"This is the examination."
Ciel extended it.
Mara placed two fingers against her wrist.
Nothing happened.
Then Ciel felt something cold enter her arm.
She flinched.
"Don't move."
"What is that?"
"Qi."
The sensation moved upward.
Not through her blood.
Not through muscle.
Something else.
A thin path beneath everything she normally felt.
Ciel clenched her teeth.
It was not painful.
Just wrong.
Foreign.
Her body seemed to resist it instinctively.
Mara's eyes flashed silver.
For several minutes, she said nothing.
She moved the thread of Qi through different parts of Ciel's body.
Arms.
Shoulders.
Back.
Chest.
Legs.
Finally, she released her.
Ciel immediately rubbed her wrist.
"Well?"
Mara opened a cabinet.
She retrieved several small objects and performed more tests Ciel did not understand.
A warm red stone against her palm.
A blue piece of jade.
A dull metallic disk.
A green wooden bead.
Nothing dramatic happened.
No light filled the room.
No ancient voice announced her destiny.
Eventually Mara put everything away.
Ciel could no longer endure the silence.
"Well?"
"You're healthy."
"That's good."
"Mostly."
Ciel frowned.
"Mostly?"
"Malnourished."
"I've had a difficult week."
"I noticed."
Mara sat opposite her.
"No unusual meridian structure that I can identify."
"No obvious elemental constitution."
"No bloodline reaction."
"No abnormal body trait."
Ciel waited.
Mara waited too.
"...That's it?"
"That's it."
Ciel's stomach dropped.
"So I have no talent."
"I didn't say that."
"You listed everything I don't have."
"Because you don't have them."
Ciel glared.
Mara crossed her arms.
"Would you prefer I invent a Divine Phoenix Bloodline to make you feel better?"
"No."
"Good."
Mara leaned back.
"You're ordinary."
The word hurt more than Ciel expected.
Mara noticed.
"Ordinary is not crippled."
Ciel remained quiet.
"Most cultivators are ordinary."
"Most never possess some legendary constitution."
"They cultivate because they have a technique, resources, time and enough persistence to use them."
"Then why do sects care so much about talent?"
"Because time is limited."
Mara pointed toward Ciel.
"Imagine I have two disciples."
"Both receive the same technique."
"The same spirit stones."
"The same pills."
"One possesses a constitution naturally compatible with that technique."
"The other does not."
"After fifty years, which one do you think will be farther?"
"The talented one."
"Usually."
Mara nodded.
"And if a sect has limited resources, who gets more?"
Ciel understood.
"The talented one."
"Exactly."
Mara stood.
"That doesn't mean everyone else can't cultivate."
"It means cultivation is unfair."
She shrugged.
"So is height."
Ciel frowned.
"You're very comforting."
"I charge extra for comfort."
That almost made her smile.
Mara continued.
"One of the City Lord's personal disciples is around my age."
Ciel looked at her.
"And?"
"Peak Foundation Establishment."
Ciel stared.
Mara smiled.
"Exactly."
"You're Sixth Layer Qi Condensation."
"I am aware."
"How?"
"He was a fisherman."
That was not the answer Ciel expected.
Mara continued.
"People used to say fire couldn't burn him."
"Stories."
"At least until the City Lord examined him."
"His blood carried a trace of Xuanwu."
Ciel had never heard the name.
"The Black Tortoise?"
"A Divine Black Tortoise bloodline."
Mara nodded.
"Faint."
"Still enough to completely change his life."
"The City Lord's family cultivates water techniques."
"Blue Port itself was founded by a cultivator said to possess a Primordial Ocean Psyche."
"Nobody living here knows exactly what grade that constitution even was."
"Only that the records call it unfathomable."
Mara tapped the table.
"The City Lord saw that fisherman's constitution and took him as a disciple."
"Now he's preparing for Golden Core."
Ciel was silent.
Same generation as Mara.
Qi Condensation Sixth Layer.
Peak Foundation Establishment.
Almost Golden Core.
The difference was enormous.
Mara seemed completely unbothered.
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Why?"
"He's so much stronger."
"So are several million people, presumably."
Mara shrugged.
"Should I spend every breakfast crying?"
Ciel almost laughed.
"No."
"He had his fortune."
"I had mine."
Mara's eyes briefly moved toward the shelves outside.
"Mine was a cultivation scripture I could afford at precisely the right auction."
"I'd call that a good bargain."
There was pride in her voice.
Not bitterness.
Ciel looked at her hands.
"So I can cultivate the Heavenly Dao Observation Art?"
"Nothing I've seen says you can't."
"Will I be good at it?"
Mara smiled mysteriously.
"I suppose we'll find out."
Ciel narrowed her eyes.
Mara's smile widened.
She knew something.
Ciel was certain of it.
But Mara stood before she could ask.
"Come."
"Where?"
"You're going home."
Ciel froze.
Mara stopped.
"Not Orione."
"Oh."
"My employee has a spare room."
"Nora?"
"Yes."
Ciel looked surprised.
Mara opened the door.
"You'll help her here during the day."
"Learn the business."
"Read."
"Catalogue."
"Keep accounts."
"Listen."
"Preferably more than you speak."
Nora shouted from outside:
"Good luck with that last one!"
Mara closed her eyes.
Ciel smiled.
"And at night?"
Mara looked toward her.
"At night you cultivate."
The carriage arrived shortly before sunset.
It wasn't luxurious.
But it was enclosed, clean and far better than anything Ciel expected Mara to use regularly.
Nora remained at the shop to finish the day's accounts.
Ciel climbed inside with Mara.
"Do you own this?"
"No."
"Then—"
"I have an arrangement with the driver."
Mara settled into the seat.
"Walking wastes time."
Ciel looked outside as the carriage began moving.
"Isn't this expensive?"
"In gold?"
"Yes."
Mara waved dismissively.
"Gold is easy."
Ciel stared at her.
Only yesterday she had been unable to buy a two-copper meal.
Mara noticed her expression.
"For me."
She corrected herself.
Ciel looked back toward the window.
Blue Port gradually changed around them.
Crowded commercial streets gave way to quieter neighborhoods.
Buildings became farther apart.
Trees appeared.
Eventually, the carriage stopped before a stone wall and iron gate.
Ciel stepped down.
Then looked up.
The house beyond the wall was comfortable but not grand.
Two stories.
Stone and dark timber.
A modest garden.
Several old trees.
But attached to one side of the residence was something unusual.
A narrow tower.
Three—
no.
Four levels.
Ciel tilted her head.
From a distance it looked strangely similar to the small western churches she had once seen illustrated in one of her father's books.
Except there was no bell at the top.
The roof was missing entirely.
Instead, the tower ended in an open platform facing the sky.
"What is that?"
Mara followed her gaze.
"My cultivation tower."
"You built a tower just to cultivate?"
"I needed height."
"Why?"
Mara looked upward.
"Stars."
Then she walked toward the house.
Ciel hurried after her.
The residence was far simpler inside than Ciel expected.
Good furniture.
Well-made shelves.
Books everywhere.
Not academy books.
Manuals.
Handwritten notebooks.
Catalogues.
Auction records.
Maps.
Bundles of loose papers.
Objects in various states of disassembly.
One table had half of a bronze lamp spread across it beside several tools.
Ciel pointed.
"Did you break that?"
"I'm repairing it."
"It looks very broken."
"It looked worse yesterday."
That was not reassuring.
Mara ignored her.
She opened a small cabinet.
Inside was the original scripture.
Ciel knew it immediately.
The book was old.
Dark blue cover.
Faded silver characters.
HEAVENLY DAO OBSERVATION ART
Mara handled it differently from everything else Ciel had seen.
Carefully.
Respectfully.
She did not hand it over.
"This is the First Chapter."
Ciel leaned closer.
"The one from the auction."
"The very same."
"Can I read it?"
"Eventually."
"Why not now?"
"Because you don't know enough to understand what you're reading."
Ciel frowned.
Mara pulled several other books from the shelf.
Then another.
And another.
Soon there was a stack almost as tall as Ciel's forearm.
Ciel stared.
"What are those?"
"My notes."
"All of them?"
"Those are the organized ones."
Ciel looked horrified.
Mara seemed proud.
"The original scripture tells you how to begin."
She placed one hand on the notebooks.
"These tell you how not to accidentally injure yourself while trying."
"You had no master."
"No."
"So how did you learn?"
Mara smiled.
"Slowly."
Ciel opened the first notebook.
Diagrams.
Dates.
Moon phases.
Star positions.
Lists of failures.
Corrections.
Entire pages crossed out.
Some notes had been added years later in different ink.
Ciel looked toward Mara.
"You really didn't know what you were doing."
Mara took the notebook away.
"I knew considerably more after thirty years than I did on the first day."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
Mara returned everything to the shelf.
"The Heavenly Star Sect is dead."
"The First Chapter survived."
"I did not receive its teachers."
"Or its commentaries."
"Or generations of disciples telling me which parts I misunderstood."
"So I experimented."
Ciel remembered Mara's silver eyes.
"Is that how you learned Aura Sight?"
Mara touched two fingers beneath one eye.
"Eventually."
"The scripture teaches you to refine your body with stellar energy."
"Your body gradually becomes more compatible with the Heavenly Dao."
"Where you focus that refinement matters."
"Why the eyes?"
Mara looked at her as though the answer were obvious.
"I was staring at the stars every night."
Ciel waited.
"...That's it?"
"That's it."
Ciel could not hide her disappointment.
Mara frowned.
"What were you expecting?"
"A secret revelation."
"I had several."
"None happened before the eye refinement."
Ciel smiled.
"What happens if you refine something else?"
Mara became quiet.
"Good question."
Ciel waited.
"No idea."
"Your ears?"
"No idea."
"Hands?"
"No idea."
"Heart?"
Mara's expression became dry.
"I had only one."
Ciel laughed.
"I decided experimenting by destroying organs would be an inefficient research method."
"So you only know the eyes work."
"I know what I have tested."
Mara corrected her.
"That's different."
Ciel remembered that.
Dinner was brief.
Afterward, Mara led her into the tower.
The stairs were narrow.
They climbed.
First floor.
Second.
Third.
By the time they reached the top, Ciel's legs were aching.
Mara wasn't even breathing harder.
The final door opened.
Cold night air touched Ciel's face.
She stepped onto the observatory.
There was no roof.
Only the sky.
Blue Port glowed faintly in the distance.
Here, away from the busiest streets, the stars were much clearer.
Ciel stopped.
She had seen stars every night in Orione.
But never from a place built entirely around them.
The stone floor was covered in lines.
Circles.
Symbols.
Patterns connecting dozens of shallow sockets.
Each socket contained a spirit stone.
Ciel began counting.
Mara noticed.
"Don't."
Ciel continued.
"...Eighty-four."
Mara sighed.
"...Eighty-seven."
"Ciel."
"Eighty-eight."
She looked at Mara.
"Eighty-eight spirit stones."
"Yes."
"Low-grade?"
"Obviously."
Ciel stared down.
Her mind immediately performed the conversion.
"Eighty-eight times one hundred gold—"
"Stop."
"Eight thousand eight hundred—"
"Stop converting my cultivation into gold."
"That's a fortune!"
"Not if nobody will sell you the stones."
Mara stepped carefully between the lines.
"These correspond to eighty-eight constellations."
"One stone for each."
"Why?"
"The array requires it."
"Why?"
Mara looked at her.
"The manual says so."
Ciel waited.
Mara waited back.
"You don't know."
"I know removing one makes the array worse."
"That wasn't my question."
"It is the useful answer."
Ciel smiled.
Mara pointed toward two mats positioned close together at the center.
Ciel frowned.
"Why are those so close?"
"Because there's one array."
"I thought I was getting my own."
Mara stared at her.
"Did you bring eighty-eight spirit stones?"
Ciel looked away.
"No."
"Then congratulations."
Mara pointed to the second mat.
"You've inherited half of mine."
Ciel sat.
Mara sat beside her.
Their shoulders were only a short distance apart.
"This is cramped."
"Yes."
"Couldn't I sit farther away?"
"You could."
Mara adjusted her robe.
"You would cultivate worse."
Ciel immediately stayed where she was.
Mara smiled.
"Good."
Then her expression became more serious.
"Listen carefully."
Ciel straightened.
"Humans are bad at cultivation."
That was not the opening she expected.
"What?"
"Compared to many magical beasts."
Mara pointed toward the darkness beyond the tower.
"Heaven-and-Earth Qi is everywhere."
"Your body is surrounded by it right now."
Ciel instinctively looked around.
She saw nothing.
"Don't bother."
"You can't perceive it yet."
Mara continued.
"Many magical beasts naturally attract and retain that energy."
"Humans generally don't."
"Our bodies resist it."
"Repel it."
"Then how do cultivators absorb Qi?"
"By changing the body."
Mara tapped Ciel's arm.
"That is what Qi Condensation begins with."
"Opening."
"Adapting."
"Teaching flesh that spent its entire life rejecting Heaven-and-Earth Qi to stop doing so."
Ciel thought about William.
"The layers."
Mara looked at her.
"What layers?"
"The Qi around cultivators."
"William had nine."
"The guards had fewer."
Mara smiled.
"Good."
She stopped circulating her technique.
Nothing happened immediately.
Then mist began forming around her skin.
A faint layer.
Then another.
Ciel leaned closer.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Six distinct layers of condensed Qi surrounded Mara.
"Sixth Layer."
Ciel whispered.
"Usually."
Mara resumed her technique.
The layers slowly thinned.
"Usually?"
"Never assume those layers tell you everything."
"Some techniques suppress them."
"Some deliberately hide cultivation."
"Some geniuses cultivate continuously enough that the energy doesn't accumulate in the same way."
"Some people are simply strange."
Her eyes became serious.
"Count if you want."
"Never bet your life on the count."
Ciel nodded.
"The cultivation world is full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons."
Mara looked out over the city.
"If someone appears weak, treat that as information."
"Not truth."
Ciel remembered the drunken man beneath the tree.
Someone who had looked ridiculous.
Until Camila attacked him.
"I understand."
Mara gave her a sideways glance.
Something in Ciel's tone suggested she really did.
She did not ask.
Instead she pointed toward the array.
"The Heavenly Dao Observation Art uses spirit stones to attract stellar influence."
"Not merely ordinary Qi."
"The stars."
"Their movements."
"Constellations."
"The changes above us."
"Night after night, the array bathes the body in that influence."
Ciel looked upward.
"And that changes you?"
"Slowly."
"Very slowly."
Mara emphasized the second part.
"Someone born with a constitution naturally compatible with the Heavenly Dao might progress in leaps and bounds."
"You?"
"No."
"Me?"
"No."
Ciel sighed.
Mara ignored her.
"Someone with a strong Fire Constitution might find this technique painfully slow because their body already has a natural tendency toward something else."
"But give them a powerful fire cultivation art..."
"They might progress in years where you would need decades."
Ciel looked at her own hands.
"So having no affinity..."
"Means nothing is particularly helping you."
Mara said.
"And nothing obvious is fighting you."
"Don't turn that into a hidden blessing."
"You're ordinary."
Ciel glared.
Mara smiled.
"Accept it."
Then she touched the floor.
"Eighty-eight low-grade spirit stones can maintain this array for approximately one year under normal use."
Ciel stared again.
"One year?"
"Approximately."
"And then?"
"They become ordinary stones."
"All eighty-eight?"
"Yes."
Ciel visibly suffered.
Mara looked pleased.
"Now you understand why I like money."
"But you said gold isn't the problem."
"Correct."
"I can earn gold."
"I can sell one spirit stone for enough gold to cover many ordinary expenses."
She tapped one of the stones.
"But convincing someone to give me this in exchange for gold?"
Mara shook her head.
"Much harder."
She pointed toward Ciel.
"And now I have to share them."
Ciel blinked.
"You offered."
"I know."
"You sound angry about it."
"I'm allowed to regret generosity."
Ciel almost laughed.
Mara continued.
"My cultivation base is much higher than yours."
"My body already knows how to absorb energy."
"Yours does not."
"While we share the array, the distribution won't be equal."
"You'll reduce my efficiency."
Ciel looked guilty.
Mara raised one finger.
"Which means you are going to become useful."
"How?"
"Earn."
"Learn."
"Find things."
"Help in the shop."
"Eventually bring spirit stones into this household instead of merely sitting on top of mine."
Ciel looked down at the array.
"Do disciples normally pay their masters?"
"Disciples normally belong to sects with resources."
Mara folded her legs beneath her.
"You found an independent cultivator with expensive hobbies."
"Congratulations."
Ciel smiled.
Then her expression became more serious.
"If I become your disciple."
Mara looked at her.
Silence settled between them.
The stars shone overhead.
Mara reached into her robe and removed a small cup.
Ciel stared.
"Why do you have a cup in your sleeve?"
"I planned ahead."
A small flask followed.
"Tea?"
"Yes."
"Up here?"
Mara poured it.
Then handed the cup to Ciel.
Ciel suddenly understood.
Her hands tightened around it.
Mara's expression lost its humor.
"You've been examined."
"You have no obvious special constitution."
"No great clan."
"No cultivation."
"No wealth."
Ciel lowered her gaze slightly.
Mara continued.
"But you came to my door."
"And I chose to open it."
She looked directly at Ciel.
"If you kneel tonight, I will teach you what I know."
"My cultivation."
"My profession."
"My mistakes."
"And anything I manage to learn before I'm dead."
Ciel held the tea with both hands.
"What do you expect from me?"
"Respect."
"Honesty when it matters."
"Work."
"Don't betray me."
"Don't sell my techniques."
"Don't teach them without permission."
Mara thought.
"And if you become disgustingly wealthy someday, remember your master."
Ciel smiled.
"You really had to add that."
"Most important rule."
The smile disappeared slowly.
Ciel thought about the previous days.
Her parents standing outside their shop.
The caravan.
William.
The cage.
Camila.
Yunior disappearing into the forest.
Living Books Academy closing its gates.
Franco Taylor's apprentices laughing.
The red lanterns.
The last open door.
Ciel slid from the mat.
She knelt.
Then raised the tea.
"Master."
For the first time since meeting her, Mara Voss looked genuinely surprised.
Only for an instant.
Then she accepted the cup.
She drank.
"Disciple."
The word felt strange.
Ciel Yi.
Disciple of Mara Voss.
She had arrived in Blue Port wanting to become a scholar.
Less than two days later—
she had become the disciple of a cultivator she had never heard of, practicing an art she had not known existed.
Fate had a strange sense of humor.
Perhaps Mara was right about that.
"Sit."
Ciel returned to the mat.
"Now what?"
"Now you learn why cultivation is expensive."
Mara placed both palms on the stone floor.
Qi flowed.
The array awakened.
One by one, the eighty-eight spirit stones began glowing.
Not brightly.
Softly.
Points of pale light appeared across the floor.
Ciel looked upward.
For a moment nothing seemed different.
Then—
the air changed.
Something descended.
Cold.
Thin.
Almost impossible to identify.
It touched her skin.
Ciel shivered.
Then she felt something stranger.
Pressure.
Not pressing inward.
Outward.
Her own body seemed to be resisting whatever surrounded it.
Mara's voice came quietly beside her.
"Don't fight your body."
Ciel closed her eyes.
"It feels like it's pushing everything away."
"It is."
"Why?"
"Because you're human."
Mara sounded amused.
"The array attracts."
"Your body repels."
"Between the two..."
"...we begin."
The pressure increased.
Tiny points of cold touched Ciel's face.
Her arms.
Her neck.
Thousands of invisible grains of starlight trying to enter.
And her body refusing every one.
Beside her, the sensation was different.
Ciel could feel it even without understanding how.
The energy flowed toward Mara.
Easily.
Naturally.
Her master's body pulled at it like a deep well.
Ciel opened one eye.
Mara's eyes remained closed.
"Stop looking at me."
Ciel immediately closed it.
"I wasn't."
"You were."
"How do you know?"
"I'm a diviner."
"That's not an answer."
"You'll get used to that."
Ciel smiled despite herself.
Then forced her attention back toward the cold pressure against her skin.
She could not absorb it.
Not yet.
Her body rejected Heaven.
But for the first time, Ciel understood what cultivation actually meant.
Not swords.
Not flying.
Not power.
Not even immortality.
At the beginning—
it was simply a human body sitting beneath the stars, attempting to convince Heaven to enter.
Ciel breathed.
Above them, eighty-eight constellations turned slowly across the night sky.
And beneath them, master and disciple began to cultivate.