Amdirlain’s PoV - Beneath Wudang Mountain

  As time passed and Rustam’s fortitude strengthened dramatically, Amdirlain dipped lightly into the emotions within Ori’s memories. She turned the crushing loneliness and heart-sickened disappointment into a whetstone for him to hone himself against. She caught glimpses of his time as the protector of elephant herds and a graveyard hidden in the deep jungle where so many had gone to die when their time came. A temple built to appease another god with no respect for the generations that had died there, the decaying bones of recent generations crushed carelessly, disrupting the growth of a replacement guardian spirit. His rampage had started with that temple and spread through the village that had commissioned it before continuing to another temple. He’d been in the middle of seeking a third when he’d been sealed away.

  With Phoenix’s Rapture suppressed into passive mode, the injuries he inflicted in his unknowing struggles overloaded its healing capabilities, the excess pushing hard against Protean.

  Amdirlain carefully steered Rustam, luring his thoughts away from the herds to dwell in isolation from those he’d cherished. The barren terrain of the arctic tundra, with its howling winds and the crunch of snow underfoot helped create a crushing desperation for company which she enhanced using Ori’s loneliness. The eerie winds whispered and mocked, urging him in to stop and give in to dissolution. With him caught in her hyper-accelerated mental landscape, she sped up every millisecond to provide the same sensation as an hour of equivalent misery. The strain as his fortitude improved provided a significant challenge to her telepathic abilities as she juggled all the sensory information for the Primordial being.

  The energy exchange with Sarah made Amdirlain aware that dawn had arrived fifteen hours after she began his mental tempering. Rustam now believed he’d endured for over a century.

  Yet she didn’t stop until his growing strength sent near-perceptible tremors through her hold.

  The sudden cessation of the misery prompted Rustam to thrash his head.

  “The stench of blood is so strong,” Rustam groaned, eyeing the deep scarlet pool around Amdirlain’s feet in horrified disbelief. “What have you done to yourself? How did I not notice that until now?”

  “It got hard to fight against your mind,” admitted Amdirlain casually.

  “Why are you bleeding now after helping me for so many years?”

  Keeping a Primordial being equivalent to a Demigod on ice for nineteen hours is a decent accomplishment.

  “It hasn’t even been a day, Rustam,” advised Amdirlain, smiling through the streams of blood coming from her eyes as his ears flapped in confusion. “Close, but not quite. I’ve been bleeding worse the last few hours as your mind fought harder against my hold. A disadvantage of mimicking living flesh is that psionic injuries manifest according to the flesh’s weak points. You’ve given my healing abilities one heck of a workout.”

  The casual tone washed by him as he dropped into a crouch, his forelimbs wobbling against his knees. “Not yet a day?”

  Amdirlain eliminated the blood from herself and the stone, but the air was still thick with the metallic odour. “You didn’t notice, but I put you back into a mental illusion while you focused on the drills. You’ve reached the point where your fortitude makes it too difficult to maintain. How are you feeling now?”

  He tilted his head as if listening, and Rustam’s influence brushed outward, restoring the cavern’s natural contours and unsealing passages. “I thank you for putting my feet back on the path, though I’m uncomfortable with what you endured on my behalf. After I take some time for quiet contemplation, I’ll appeal to Quan Yin to set me a task.”

  He sounds a lot more reasonable.

  “You’re not yet up for getting past the seals?”

  “When I consider them, I can feel my temper rising at their deliberate provocation,” replied Rustam. “Until I can dwell on them without that reaction, I don’t believe it’s safe for me to be among others. Are you able to get past the seal?”

  The smell is unnerving him, but he’s progressed enough for now.

  “I believe so.” Amdirlain sent tendrils of ectoplasms drifting about the cavern, shifting their make-up to quash the stench.

  “Before you leave, it is my turn to teach you. You asked about Spirit Passage?” Rustam’s trunk lifted, the end of it coiling curiously.

  “Helping you stretched my telepathic techniques to their limits and helped me significantly grow my understanding of them.”

  “A gardener might grow stronger through their labours, but they should still receive compensation.”

  That’s a pretty kind analogy after what I’ve put him through today.

  “Alright, I won’t say no to advice on that Power,” allowed Amdirlain. “Your transition between air and stone was smooth. I have to pause when entering and then whenever the composition of the stone shifts too far.”

  “It is a common problem for those who cling to the material,” replied Rustam. “How often do you use the Power?”

  “Infrequently, but I’m planning a dangerous trip, so options for hiding and moving unseen would be useful.”

  “You said you could listen to how I used Spirit Passage. Did I understand that correctly?” asked Rustam.

  When Amdirlain nodded, he lumbered over to where two passages exited the cavern close to each other. His steady steps didn’t shift their tempo as his flesh changed to energy and flowed around the molecules. Undistracted by an impending fight, she focused on how his essence intermingled with the rock, akin to scattered hydrogen and helium atoms slipping past each other in the depths of space. Rustam drifted close to the vortexes, and she felt his temper ignite as he briefly tried to slip past the seal; before he lost control, his course reversed to the cavern.

  He moves like fish in water, flowing through it, yet it supports him.

  Once he was entirely out of the rock, Amdirlain grinned playfully. “You had to see how you’d measure up?”

  Rustam’s ears rustled, and he twitched his trunk quizzically. “I just told you it wasn’t safe for me to be beyond the seal yet, and I wanted to see how you’d react. You didn’t seek to yank me back.”

  “Your choices aren’t mine,” advised Amdirlain. “If you’d gotten past them, wouldn’t that have proven your words false?”

  “And left you without payment.”

  “Who says? I heard you move through the stone, and I’d have heard you fight the seal.” Amdirlain approached the same wall and activated Spirit Passage; the comparatively discordant sound of energy flows prompted her to shut it off again. “It has been years since I used this Power.”

  “Without moving through the rock, you won’t improve.”

  “Sorry, that’s not quite right. I can immediately hear how the energy flows are off,” corrected Amdirlain. “Humour me for a little while.”

  She flicked the Power on again and tweaked a shift in its flow through her spiritual net. Quickly shutting it down again, she repeated the process and this time received a notification.

  The process felt akin to tuning a harp, working through each note, ensuring none slipped. She ignored Gideon’s notifications as the minutes crawled by, meticulously adjusting the changes until she was marginally satisfied.

  With the last notice hovering in her mind’s eye, she stabbed tentacles deep into the rock, feeling the buffeting of the seal for herself.

  [Spirit Passage [M] (15->16)]

  “You won’t get past the seal using that ability, as you’re still far too rough passing through the rock,” advised Rustam. “I can feel the eddies left by your passage.”

  Amdirlain reached across the link to Sarah. ‘I’ve got through one stage of this lesson, but there is still more to learn. Is everyone keeping well?’

  ‘Fancy hearing from you, stranger. Things are good here, and I’ve been picking up Tao enchanting tricks while Jiutian Xuannü thrashes me at Go. Neither she nor Xuan Wu are anything like I expected. The jade maidens have been entertaining Klipyl and embarrassing Jinfeng while Kadaklan is digging through the healing manuals here,’ returned Sarah, her tone softening. ‘Are you okay? Your mental touch feels battered.’

  ‘I kept the equivalent of a Demigod in a mental holding cell for a while. It helped them refine their fortitude and pushed my Advanced Telepathy.’

  ‘Of course you did.’ A tickle of warm amusement and concern ran through their connection. ‘Try not to have too much fun without me.’

  ‘It’ll be an effort, but I’ll try. I wanted to let you know that I’ll be here another day at most,’ reassured Amdirlain.

  ‘You can take longer than that,’ pressured Sarah. ‘You’re not the only one with things to learn here.’

  ‘I’ll learn enough to guide future practice and then teleport out if I’ve not improved Spirit Passage enough at that time.’

  ‘If that’s what you feel is best. Though let’s not rush off, since Jiutian Xuannü has agreed to teach me, I’d like to stay here for at least a few weeks.’

  ‘That’s good. I’m going to need time to write a bunch of songs. I love you.’

  ‘Love you too, sweetie.’

  Amdirlain took her primary attention away from the connection. “Let’s get to work.”

  ? ? ? ? ? ?

  While another day had seen gains in Spirit Passage, which Rustam had found incredible, it was only through sensing the turbulence in the seal that she could cross it using that Power. Still, her trip across the seal’s boundary taught her many lessons about flowing with energy rather than fighting it.

  Once beyond it, Amdirlain floated aimlessly upwards through the rock strata. She deliberately sought shifts in the stone’s makeup to test her ability to adjust on the fly until she sensed the open air ahead. Spurred on, she raced for the topsoil and discovered she’d been beneath Wudang Mountain all along. The prayer gate for the palace’s outer ward was to her northwest and, guided by it, she made for a lower section of the path.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The trail’s hard-packed soil didn’t so much as ripple as she rose out of it.

  Alone on the trail, Amdirlain dawdled along, enjoying the fresh air, the sounds of wildlife, and the isolation that had caused Rustam so much struggle.

  ‘Down below where we arrived,’ Amdirlain projected to Sarah.

  ‘Great. Now, rescue me from another defeat. I swear she’s not even paying attention,’ responded Sarah, as welcoming warmth rushed across the link. Along with the emotion came the image of a ‘Go’ board with the white stones having only a few pointless moves available.

  ‘You know, surrender is an option.’

  ‘She makes me play to the last stone, so I have the time to contemplate where I went wrong.’

  The guards at the prayer gate stiffened to attention. Instead of arraying his men about the clearing, the leader politely greeted Amdirlain with a deep bow.

  “I hope your day has been peaceful.”

  “It has been a good day,” the leader replied with a polite smile. “With luck, it will continue to be one.”

  “Do you see much in the way of trouble on a duty station so high on the mountain?”

  “The demons often seek to probe at the defences, slipping between the wards of the lower and upper palaces,” explained the leader. “Though less so when the North Wind is physically present. It does no one any good to become lax at such times.”

  Giving them all a polite nod, she continued along the path. Taking in labourers dealing with a convoy of hand wagons ahead of her, she kept to a sedate pace.

  When she got within hailing distance of the main gate, she brushed her attention across the palace to determine where folks were.

  Xuan Wu drifted among scores of students arrayed in a courtyard to the east. They were practising sword drills in slow motion; each action conveyed the sense of a gentle drifting mist, and the control involved placed extra strain on their bodies.

  In the western arm of the palace, two jade maidens lounged near Jiutian Xuannü, their toned bodies draped in silk robes. Jiutian Xuannü’s attention lingered on them appreciatively as she absently placed stones on a fresh Go board, effortlessly blocking Sarah’s plays. The other four jade maidens soaked in an outdoor bath with Klipyl and Jinfeng, sharing tales that affected Jinfeng more than the bath’s heat.

  Before she could withdraw her senses, Jiutian Xuannü’s awareness touched hers in calm acknowledgement and welcome. The extension of her senses also drew Xuan Wu’s focus, and she felt his attention settle on her from a kilometre away.

  “Lady Am, if you’d join me,” said Xuan Wu.

  Rather than wandering through the passageways, Amdirlain appeared on the courtyard’s outer path and nodded politely to Xuan Wu. With a wry smile, he returned the gesture and dismissed the students to private practice. Though he had tied back his hair in a queue earlier, one fraying pant leg dragged on the ground.

  “How did you fare with Rustam?”

  “I would have thought you could check from here.” Amdirlain stretched her senses downwards and found the seal’s turbulence five kilometres under the mountain.

  “Though I sealed him away, I didn’t want to intrude on his misery.”

  Amdirlain smiled tightly. “Well, I understand what you meant about teaching what the combatant needs rather than what you’d like to teach them.”

  “There needs to be a balance, and one cannot simply put the other’s needs first,” said Xuan Wu. “Did you overstrain yourself? I can sense many recently healed injuries.”

  “I needed to push another Power, so I didn’t use Universal Life,” explained Amdirlain. “That seal was interesting.”

  “But you didn’t endure any lasting harm?” persisted Xuan Wu.

  “Are you concerned because you tossed me in without warning?”

  Xuan Wu’s mouth thinned. “More because you took so long to get free from the seal.”

  “You didn’t expect me to stay and teach him?”

  “Would you tell me what occurred? I expected you to subdue him and then work on your Spirit Passage enough to learn to flow with the energies in the seal.”

  “I did that after I sucker punched him and then dragged him into nightmares to negate his physical capabilities,” explained Amdirlain. “Once his fortitude increased enough to free himself from my mental trap, he could temper his aggressive nature.”

  “In such a short time?” Xuan Wu smiled appreciatively. “Though I’m sure there is more to your tale.”

  “That’s true, but it seemed over a century to him. You could think of it as a waking dream with me in control,” clarified Amdirlain. “He didn’t enjoy the experience, but it honed him. While he doesn’t feel restored to himself, he said I helped get his feet solidly on the path.”

  Xuan Wu plucked a white-covered book set with rubies from the air and offered it to Amdirlain. “A token of appreciation. A rare Ki Body technique that is suitable for Primordial flame. I can’t teach you this, but the text has no traps.”

  “Why is that? Aren’t the traps customary?”

  “The one who wrote it found putting traps in knowledge offensive. All original versions of their text have references that are from the Zhōngguó classics,” advised Xuan Wu.

  Amdirlain raised a hand to stop him. “I don’t need to take it from you as I’ve memorised its song. Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll study it and see if it works with my mindset. May I ask some questions now?”

  “It depends on the questions,” Xuan Wu hedged. “There are some things I can only point you towards understanding.”

  Gideon’s note said he destroyed a temple in his rampage. It’s not exactly essential, but I’m curious.

  “Rustam remembered attacking two temples, yet information I gained showed he was sealed for destroying a temple. What happened?”

  “Those who captured him only acted after the second ‘temple’, as the villagers had built the first without consulting with any priesthood. The village elders had conceived of it as a gift but hadn’t had it properly dedicated, so it was more a building than a proper temple,” explained Xuan Wu. “Unfortunately, they trusted the wrong practitioner.”

  A new protector destroyed, a sacred place defiled, villages destroyed, and a Primordial corrupted into rampaging all via one scheme.

  The pieces of the situation came into place, and Amdirlain nodded. “That clears up many things. Did someone gain favour with Di Yu?”

  “I believe so,” replied Xuan Wu. “Especially since Rustam’s rampage turned the place into a tainted butcher’s yard. The energy of the new ghosts mingled with the corrupted elephant graveyard and took some effort to cleanse away.”

  “And you sealed him in the north as far from his home territory as possible,” stated Amdirlain.

  “Correct. Given his Earth nature, we had to lessen his link to his surroundings while still giving him some way to anchor himself.”

  “Was he why you’ve spent so much time on the Material Plane lately?”

  Xuan Wu sat on the stones near the courtyard’s edge and motioned her over. “Only a small part. Several matters, including the prayer gate you found, require my attention. Though we can come and go, the greater we are, the longer the transition between planes takes.”

  Kneeling across from him, Amdirlain suppressed the temptation to ask about their problems. “You’re the greater yin, but yin energy is female, so why are you male?”

  “I’m not always. I could get into the old Chinese mythologies about turtles and serpents, but let’s just say I balance,” stated Xuan Wu. “And in balancing, gender has no meaning other than the physical mask I wear at any point in time. Above all else, I am pragmatic. What form do a person’s prejudices require so that I can convey the message they need most efficiently? Does the flesh matter when the essence is transcendent?”

  He rippled through forms almost faster than Amdirlain could track, from mischievously smiling toddlers to ancient crones, thousands of variations of age and gender, clothing changed to match.

  Amdirlain laughed sheepishly. “No, but it took me so long to figure that out. Does your enlightenment event impact the expression of other shapes?”

  Xuan Wu was cross-legged across from her in a female form, wearing a regal black silk gown and a headpiece adorned with jewellery and embroidery with a serpent motif. Her complexion was alabaster white, with traditional make-up adding colour to her cheeks and lips, and she had a dark gaze regarding Amdirlain from beneath carefully shaped eyebrows.

  I wonder what Gail would think of their relaxed shapeshifting between genders.

  “Indeed, it’s hard to appear as a fine lady when my hair wants to pop out and my slippers won’t stay on. I must plan any visits needing these appearances to be soon after transitioning to the Material Plane to minimise the distraction of maintaining the form.”

  Her hair popped free from its fancy coif, and Xuan Wu returned to his plain male form, wearing the ragged black cotton garb. The wind in the courtyard played with the loose curtain his hair had formed.

  “It’s an odd restriction,” offered Amdirlain.

  “We seek truth and embody the truth of our Dao, so the truth of our enlightenment wins over the disguise. It is not the only restriction we have for coming to the Material Plane, but it is the most visible. You can adopt many forms, but you started as a Human, correct?”

  It’s time to change the subject.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll consider the best approach for progressing your martial arts. Bai Hu suggested you fight in unnatural forms, but adapting a lesson to other forms would heighten your understanding.” Xuan Wu copied Amdirlain’s seiza posture, his knees almost touching hers. “I am curious about one thing. Did you deliberately inspire Master Cyrus’s enlightenment?”

  “I had a Power running to help anyone nearby and provide myself insights,” said Amdirlain. “I wasn’t expecting it to have that effect on Master Cyrus.”

  “You cause change wherever you go.”

  Amdirlain smiled. “I like to think I leave things in a better state.”

  “Some seek change for its sake alone. Are you not among them?”

  “There are plenty of things I’ve left alone that I’d have preferred to upend,” countered Amdirlain. “But we’re getting away from your original question. Why did you ask about Master Cyrus?”

  Belying his calm composure, amusement twinkled briefly in Xuan Wu’s gaze. “Do you think you can cause such a change in another Immortal?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve known Master Cyrus for a considerable time, and he’s given me guidance over the years. It wasn’t only the Power that triggered his insight, but our interaction. I doubt it’s that easy, though, as I’ve not caused Jinfeng to move beyond her Immortal Spirit state.”

  “I’ve heard from Master Cyrus about the teacher he sought for you. Master Sakda Tang is the individual who created your technique, and I’ve arranged for him to come here. He has been an Immortal for a couple of millennia now.”

  “Do you want him to advance?”

  “If he does, it should be up to him,” replied Xuan Wu. “His Dao isn’t as stable as the one followed by Master Cyrus.”

  “I don’t know much about daos,” Amdirlain admitted.

  “His technique uses pain as a catalyst, purifying it from the Soul. While Master Tang doesn’t now need much pain for any execution of the Power, he still requires some of it.”

  “He’s a masochist?”

  “Not directly, more extreme in his risk-taking. He frequently pushes himself beyond the limits of his capabilities. I’ve had to speak to Judge Po a number of times requesting Master Tang’s release after repeatedly returning to his court.”

  “Oh?” Amdirlain straightened slightly.

  Xuan Wu’s brows lifted. “Perhaps you are too alike?”

  “I won’t know until I meet him.”

  “Then I’ll let him know you’ve returned and see when he can visit,” advised Xuan Wu. “It might be a few days since Master Tang is presently involved in an exorcism project, which can’t be abandoned part way through without worsening the situation.”

  “That’s fine. I need time to compose a song to align a world with the courts’ planar axis. Would you look to use the world I align only to prevent the energies returning from the Abyss from bubbling about, or would you want to move people to it?”

  “I hadn’t considered the second possibility,” admitted Xuan Wu.

  What options do I have? The Lóm? used the original songs to repopulate the worlds that Orcus completely purged, taking them off the table, since none were suitable for humans. Cemna? No, I was going to leave it to the jungle giants.

  “The first I can do quickly, but the second would take some time to arrange. People would find a starless night sky unsettling, so I’d have to find a location within a galactic arm. Then either adjust an uninhabitable planet or create a new one around a sun with minimal or no planets.”

  “Do you do anything in half measures?”

  I caused the instability in their heavens by releasing the energies across the worlds. They might be fine over time, but they got caught up in the trap set for the Greek Gods. Is it weird I feel the need to make amends? I will need to stretch my capabilities and maybe expand True Song Architecture.

  “If you’re going to do something, it’s important to do it to the best of your ability.”

  “What option you proceed with is your choice. Isn’t that what you say?”

  “It is.” Amdirlain nodded.

  Xuan Wu rose and motioned towards the courtyard’s centre. “While I can’t create stars or worlds, I can help you with martial arts. Let’s have that exchange of pointers you requested.”

  Bouncing to her feet, Amdirlain saluted. “It would be an honour.”

  They squared off in the middle of the courtyard, and Xuan Wu attacked with a blindingly fast jab. Though she managed a glancing deflection, Amdirlain felt the blow reverberate through her arm.

  She caught his faint frown, even as she slipped away from the snap of an elbow strike.