Two days later was her second class— a much more welcome class, because at least this one came with the assurance that— even if it sucked— at least Avyr would be there with her. She wasn’t vibrating with excitement like last time— mostly because it wasn’t a class on her specialization like the last one had been— but she was still excited.

  “Calm down.” A heavy paw pushed her forward, knocking her out of her daydreaming.

  “It’ll be fine. Having you there will be so much better.” Ah. Avyr thought she was worrying for him. That… a flash of a grimace flashed across her face. She hadn’t even thought of that, actually, which probably made her not the best friend in existence. Avyr hadn’t been having the nicest time at the University so far. The whole thing had been a bit of an uphill battle so far. It wasn’t that anyone had been downright cruel to him— other than, maybe, his liaison— but as someone undeniably different from everyone else there… she supposed she’d come to expect the unkind reality of that.

  She rested her own hand on Avyr’s soft fur, feeling the preternatural warmth that roiled like the heart of a furnace beneath his skin— in step with the sunlight beaming down through the clouds above them, its slanting rays just as golden as they crashed against East Saffron and illuminated the city in heavenly light. “It’ll be fine. If anyone treats you poorly, I’ll… um.” Not really do anything, because she was probably one of the greenest cultivators in the entirety of the cohort. A fair few of them had already been Shedding cultivators before they’d arrived.

  Avyr just rolled his eyes, churring a laugh. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” A moment, quiet, as they strolled past the neighbor’s home and gave the kind old couple a wave… “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Softer.

  Not entirely sure, after all.

  ………

  The class wasn’t held in a pagoda, which came as a bit of a surprise— a bit of a pain, too, given that they spent fifteen minutes searching fruitlessly until a kind older student gave them better directions. She’d gotten the impression that pagodas were a bit of a status symbol amongst the people of the university— as well as just generally being great for cultivating, for those disciples that were stolen by duty’s call away from the paradise that was the Bloody Saffron Sect’s grounds. So, she found it odd that their Qi Theory class was being taught out of a single story classroom tucked away in the pleasant gloom of a small forest on campus. They’d—

  “Good. You made it.” She blinked, hand flinching down to her talismans at the unexpected voice. Avyr’s reaction was even more extreme— his qi surged for a brief second, all the hair on his body standing upright as his back arched and he hissed at the sudden sound. Just for a second, though— he quickly smoothed himself out, shaking off the remnants of surprise to the sound of gentle laughter. “Apologies for startling you! I always forget that the younger generation can be quite picky about something…” yet, there was a bit of mirth in the middle-aged man’s eyes that told her that he was totally lying through his teeth. “I was wondering if I’d have to go search for you two, but I’m glad you made it.”

  Lily blinked, taken somewhat aback. “Really? I was under the impression that…” she didn't dare finish her sentence, realizing just how bad it sounded. Insulting the university was one thing— insulting it to the face of a professor? An entirely different, far more career-suicidal thing entirely. “Apologies. I didn’t mean that.”

  Again, though, the man just laughed. “It’s fine. I always get a few students who get turned around every year— I’ll readily admit that this isn’t the easiest place to find on campus. It’s one of the important wood-element nodes in the grand formation, which means I’ve been given free reign to… ah, before I get carried away with that, why don’t you two go and sit down inside. There are a couple of students that are probably even more lost than you are that I’ve got to go find quickly.” Then— with a slight, strange roll of qi within him that Lily assumed was a technique of some sort, he leapt up onto the bough of a tree that should not have been able to hold his weight with far, far too much grace, and dashed away into the forest.

  Lily and Avyr gave each other twinned looks, so different by the nature of their separate species, and yet in a way that transcended even that, so similar— bewildered, they wordlessly turned away from… whatever that’d been, and stepped into the room.

  The transformation was immediate, and yet, in a strange way, not complete. In an odd way, the inside of the classroom felt so very similar to the forest around them— not in atmosphere, for in that manner, it could not have been more different, but… something more intangible instead. It was a cozy room, dark wood planks bordering every wall and a mat of woven reeds covering the floor, looking more like something out of a history textbook than an actual classroom. After a second, she realized with some small shock that it was very possible that the building was actually that old.

  A suffusing warmth filled the room, quite pleasant, carrying with it the scent of dried pine and old wood, and a slight hint of dust. Yet… ignoring the looks they garnered, she found a spot and adopted a meditative position, closing her eyes and reaching out to the world around her. It was… calm. That was the best way to describe the elements about her. Like a blanket had been dropped down on top of her, muting her senses and turning the whole world into a quiet lullaby, named— peace, and the shadow that crouched in its passing.

  A part of her— the part of her that wasn’t basking in the demure splendor of that wonderful peace— knew that it clearly wasn’t natural. It was so far removed from the chaotic blending of the city’s qi, all aswirl and whirling and wheeling about in vast currents all muddied and muddled— which meant that for how ironically natural it felt, it probably wasn’t natural. Yet, in turn… it wasn’t like Qinfu’s pagoda; there were no flows of qi. Merely the world around them, and the scattered stars of her peers' cultivation, and…

  And…

  She focused, then when that made the sensation only flee further, she tried her best to not focus. It was a weird feeling, and almost impossible— the mental equivalent of grasping at falling leaves, or moving without reason or thought and yet still leaving behind only perfect action. Yet… even the slightest of glimpses she was able to grasp were so very, deeply profound. A vast— no, vast did not do it justice. To her, right then, right there, in a small classroom, in the gloom, in the pleasant cedar scent quiet, whisper of conversation, warmth of Avyr beside her and warmth of the building around her— in a building in a forest, in a campus— to her limited perspective, it felt infinite. Like… like, what she felt in the pagoda, or what she felt when she looked at her own work, like—

  She gasped, eyes flying open and spine snapping straight as she gulped down a breath of air, a grin splitting her face. “A formation!” Then her face burst into a flaming red as she realized she’d just blurted that to the entire class, a good portion of which were looking at her quite strangely now. “Ah, nothing…” she turned to Avyr, even that not quite able to fully extinguish her excitement. “It’s a formation! The professor told us, but I didn’t realize—” she breathed, deeply, settling herself for a long moment. “I didn’t even realize that was what I was looking at, but…” it’s so beautiful. She didn’t speak them, but they hovered at the edge of her tongue nonetheless, the memory of that fathomless thing… “it beggars the mind that they were able to make something like that.”

  “Brilliantly deduced, and insightfully correct.” That voice managed to get everyone’s attention, as its owner strode through the classroom’s entrance, two rather contrite looking students trailing behind him. “I’m pleasantly surprised this year has someone who’s already reached minor proficiency in spirit sense.” He winked at her. “Don’t answer all the questions, now— leave some for the other disciples too.”

  Then, before anyone could respond, and before she could could shrink back beneath the suddenly piercing gazes of her classmates, he stepped up to the front of the room and snapped his fingers, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Alright. Now that everyone’s here, let’s get the formalities out of the way— my name is Wang Sunliang, and I will be your Qi Theory instructor for the semester. Probably for next semester too, if things work out…” he laughed softly, and it wasn’t just a polite thing— it carried with it a genuine warmth. “For a real instruction… I’m a Core Formation cultivator— yes, really, don’t look so surprised—” it was a surprising thing— “from a minor sect on the mainland, serving a one hundred year contract to teach at the University of East Saffron. When I finish, in about… twenty years or so, the Bloody Saffron Sect will accept me as a provisional Outer Elder and assist me with my breakthrough to the Sundering realm. How about you all?”

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  For a long while, nobody dared speak. Even Avyr looked a little surprised… and who wouldn’t? To realize the man that’d spoken to them so amicably just minutes before was a single step away from ascension to the same rank of power as the Outer Elder, whose dominion had seemed to settle over the entire world.

  Finally, after a truly awkward few seconds, someone did end up speaking. Lily even recognized him— he was that annoying kid from the formations class. Or well, not actually annoying, but she readily admitted to being a bit prejudiced against someone who was able to get the instructor’s favor despite being clearly so much worse at formations than she was. Probably. “Song Banwei greets the master. This humble student is a Shedding cultivator of the East Saffron Twin Pines Clan.”

  Before anyone else had a chance to speak next, the other kid wearing fancy black robes spoke up. “Song Yangge greets the master. This humble student is also a Shedding cultivator of the East Saffron Twin Pines Clan.” She narrowed her eyes at them. The chances they were actually from the same clan as that oaf were probably minimal— and the probability they’d hold it against her all but nonexistent… she still didn’t like that she was in a class with them.

  The introductions continued, all in that very formal style— which Lily could see was kind of annoying Liang, but who would dare act informally in front of Sunliang? At least he didn’t seem disappointed that she didn’t have a fancy clan like everyone else…

  Everything continued normally after that more or less… until it was Avyr’s turn. “Ai’er Avyr greets the—”

  “Truly?” Sunliang’s eyes had widened slightly. “Of Black Rock Refuge?”

  Avyr was quiet for a second, before, almost hesitantly— “…yes.”

  Sunliang clasped his fists together, and gave a shallow bow. “To think I’d find you here of all places. I pay my respects to the Heroes of Refuge.”

  A bitter expression flashed across Avyr’s face for a brief moment, long moment, long enough that most of the curious stares turned away in shame. Only a brief moment later, it was replaced with a sort of… blankness. Curiosity, she recognized at least, but mixed in with something entirely unnatural. “How do you even know about that?”

  “I fought on the southern front— and I’m sure every single soldier there knows about it at least tangentially. I’ve spoken to enough of your kind that I got the details of the matter, that’s all. Had it not been for them, the entire war might have turned out very differently. The last stand of the Lords of the Peerless Paw is legendary. ”

  Avyr flicked his tail sharply. “They’re still dead.”

  “Ah.” His gaze was all too knowing. “My condolences.” Then, before that awkward moment could stretch out too long, he quickly waved his hand, and with a pulse of disconcertingly gentle qi the classroom wall came alive.

  The wood twisted and writhed in place, like someone had dumped an entire bag of snakes behind the boards. Somehow…Or, rather, as if a wood cultivator had seized control of them. Slowly, the writhing growth settled out into something far more recognizable— familiar diagrams, long since memorized.

  “Let’s start with something simple.” Sunliang smiled at everyone. “In review, let’s take a look at the elemental cycles and their interplay with the taiji elements…”

  ………

  The lecture itself was surprisingly rather enlightening, despite the simple topics it’d covered— far, far, incomparably far more enjoyable than the formations lecture. Come the end of it, Lily’s mind was racing with a bunch of ideas she could test with formations, and maybe some other things besdies…

  Still, however much she wanted to stay and talk to Sunliang, she could recognize Avyr’s clear desire to leave. Clearly, that odd exchange at the start of class had impacted him more than he’d let on.

  So, it came as a bit of an unpleasant surprise when, the moment the professor dismissed their class, one of their classmates made a beeline straight towards them. Beside her, she could feel Avyr stiffen, his gaze fixing decidedly not on the young woman making her way towards them. “We should get going,” he mewled suddenly, to… someone. Not to her, that was sure. “We have that… thing later—”

  The woman walked right up to him— then past him, utterly ignoring the cat. “Lily? Lily, Lily of Ward was it? Ten thousand blessings be on you. I’d love to speak with you, if you have a moment.” The way she carried herself, the robes… and, of course, now that she looked closely, the prayer beads she was wearing as a necklace— pointed only to one conclusion. Apparently her Liaison hadn’t been lying about the monks…

  “Um. Sure… Aomao, was it? Of… North Hongtian-si?”

  The woman nodded, continuing her slow stroll out of the building— and, by the very purposeful nature of her walk, taking them still further into the oddly wild forest. For a while, the woman was content to be quiet, which… maybe it was a monk thing? Either way, it was very uncomfortable, made all the worse by the fact that of the three of them, she was the only one who kept getting tripped up on the underbrush. Avyr, she could understand, but she’d kind of hoped that the jungle-dense overgrowth would’ve tripped up her fellow East Saffron native. No such luck, unfortunately— clearly far more used to her cultivation than she was, Aomao glided across roots with an envious ease.

  Finally, she broke the silence. “How did you do it?”

  Lily cocked her head. “Do what?”

  “Ah, sorry, I thought it was obvious…” she chuckled. “Living with the Temple Master of Hontian-si, you’d think I’d be used to that sort of thing by now.” She shook her head. “Regardless. I speak of your achievement in the sensory arts. I’ve been trying to reach essential comprehension in the movings of the world, yet I clearly have much to learn.”

  “Oh.” Lily blushed a bit. “It’s nothing special. I’m pretty sure I just got called out because I was the one to speak when Professor Sunliang returned.”

  “You underestimate yourself. Don’t let humility become a vice.” How very… religious sounding. Fitting. “Or perhaps you’re simply blind to it? As is often the way of those who achieve amazing things without context… again, I should be used to this with what Master is like, but it’s always a bit amusing to watch. Let me describe a scene to you.”

  She clapped her palms together, the sudden sound of it startling— “you are a student of small means— compared, at least, to the clan scions— having made your way through an odd forest to find a classroom in the middle of it. Eccentricities are, of course, the very nature of higher-realm cultivators, so you don’t particularly think much of this, simply settling down and waiting for the lecture to start. You try your best to meditate, but the presence of annoyingly arrogant clan scions distracts you, and the natural qi around you is opaque to your probings. Then, suddenly, a young woman of no means whatsoever, clearly, enters the building, immediately sits down into a perfect meditation, and finds in minutes what you’d failed to even touch on over the course of an hour.” Lily glanced away sheepishly. Well, when it was put like that… "perhaps not a heaven-defying talent, sure, but still— something you have every reason to be proud of.”

  “Thanks.” She was quiet for a moment. That, and she tripped on another blasted root, but that was better left forgotten. “It really isn’t anything special. My… teacher, he acquired a few samples of various spiritual materials and had me practice sensing them.”

  “Did you not only recently become a cultivator?”

  “I had to sense them as a mortal.”

  Aomao gave her a uniquely strange look. Lily had long since gotten used to many varieties of unkind looks, but that doubt… perhaps incredulity would be a better word. It was… it evoked a strange emotion, a mix of— annoyance, of satisfaction, of… it was hard to catch the whole of it in her grasp. “That’s impossible.” The annoyance suddenly became a whole lot more predominant amongst them.

  “It’s a different sort of sense entirely to the spiritual sense of a cultivator. Maybe.” She shrugged. “I’m not actually sure, but it feels different. Spiritual materials are deeply unnatural things, seeped in the qi of heaven and earth, and it’s not impossible to feel the… slight change, the charge, the energy of them if you know how to look for it.” She tilted her chin up, just a little. “I’d say that I got rather good at it, near the end.”

  Aomao frowned. “Forgive me. That was impetuous of me… no, I understand. Unfortunately, I do not know if I can follow in your footsteps, Teacher.”

  Lily winced. “Please don’t call me that.”

  “Again, apologies, again… it’s merely a small idiosyncrasy of the temple— if I were to teach you the sutras, and if you were a monk, then you would call me Teacher in that matter.” She shook her head. “I fear that as I’ve already stepped onto the path, I won’t be able to follow in your footsteps. I can try, but…”

  “With weaker spiritual materials, perhaps? I know that the ones my Teacher gave me were stronger, and…” she frowned. “Much much stronger.” She shook her head. That memory of pain wasn’t something she wanted to dredge up at the moment. “My liaison was going to give me some ‘Yin Lotus Tea’ or something, I don’t know if that’s going to be at all useful to you, but maybe if you put the materials further away from you? Try to feel the effect they have on the world, instead of looking for their qi?”

  “Perhaps…” she frowned, nodding sagely and stroking a beard she didn’t have. The whole thing just ended up looking a bit goofy. “Yes, yes, I see the path now. I’ll inquire of my master, and query my liaison, but perhaps the whims of fate have not barred this door to me quite yet. Thank you, kind soul. I look forward to speaking with you again” Then with only a slight bow, Aomao bounded off into the forest.

  Lily glanced Avyr’s way. “That was weird, wasn’t it?”

  The big cat snorted. “Defnitely. She’s a character, that’s for sure…” he was silent for a long second, just looking at her— before he sighed. “Eyes forward, Lily. You’re going to trip again.”

  “What?”

  And then she tripped.

  All in all, a nice day.

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