This time, Zu Mari barely had time to blink before Master Elvanis slammed down from above.

The child-Master pointed to Zu. "That one. Bring him."

Menya and Nira leaped to obey, fumbling over each other as they hastily unlooped Zu from the chain of prisoners. "Master, do you want his hands released, or—"

Master Elvanis did not give them an answer. He grabbed Zu and dragged him from the line, the chains still connected to his wrists and neck, but no longer attached to those on either side. Without another word, they were airborne, flying straight up.

Zu swallowed, panic shoving itself down his throat and into his lungs. He hadn't even had time to recover before Master Elvanis threw him into the most glorious room he'd ever seen.

"Sit here," ordered Master Elvanis, pointing to a shallow pool in the center of the room. Water flowed from it in a perpetual stream, flowing outward in eight snakelike patterns across the floor and then to the walls, where it flowed upward to gather in the central pattern on the ceiling, then drip down in a steady pattern pit pit pit into the pool.

"You want me to sit in the water?" Zu asked.

Master Elvanis shoved him forward, force accompanying the movement that pushed Zu forward into the center of the pool, then down until he sat awkwardly in the finger-deep water, water dripping into his lap.

"Sit."

Zu swallowed, then adjusted himself until he sat in a proper meditation pose. Or as close to it as could be managed with his hands chained together.

The movement shifted the water from his lap to the top of his head, drip drip drip in a steady patter, which he thought might well drive him mad if he had to stay here much longer. The water began to saturate his hair, dripping down his back and into his eyes. Master Elvanis stood, arms crossed, watching without a word.

Zu wanted to ask what he was doing here, or what the point was, but the weight of Master Elvanis's presence choked the words in his throat.

If it had been anyone else, he would have self-immolated on the spot. The whole situation was screaming danger. But his only hope was to convince Master Elvanis that...

Zu's breath came out in a gasp, and he berated himself for being stupid.

Smoke of Progression had said Zu could direct his Protagonist Fragment's working toward a person. He could focus it on Master Elvanis. Perhaps speed up the process of converting him.

It was a better plan than 'sit and stare at the pretty walls' - though they were very pretty walls. The water flowing up them was mesmerizing.

Zu shifted slowly, turning until he faced Master Elvanis front on. Then he bowed as deeply as possible from a sitting position. It took all his strength to make his voice work without shaking, but it came out clear and strong. "Master, may I speak?"

Silence. Finally, "You may."

"Master, what is the purpose of my sitting in this pool?" Zu asked.

"There is something different about you."

Zu swallowed, and did not speak.

After a moment, Master Elvanis continued. "I wish to understand it."

Water trickled down Zu's back. Drip drip drip, fast and steady. He remained bowed. "I will answer any question you ask, Master. You do not need to soak me for that."

Master Elvanis's face tightened in sudden irritation, and Zu tensed for his imminent destruction. He would return, Luja Ni would protect him, it would be fine. Still, his pulse raced and his breathing quickened.

Then Master Elvanis relaxed into a quiet laugh. "I forget," he said, his childish voice even higher than usual, an arrogant lilt to it. "Many there are who do not know of our power and skill. You sit in a Spirit Pool. The water joins with your own cycling and empowers it, allowing for greater advancement and clearer understanding."

"I... do not have the capability of cycling power," Zu said, puzzled. How had someone so powerful not sensed this already?

"I know. You are stunted and weak, but there is something... something different about you."

Zu held his breath. Could it be... had his Protagonist Fragment gotten through to the young master already?

"Sit up. Stop thinking about me. Focus inward. Find the flow of energy, and join yourself to it."

Zu did as he was ordered, still off balance from the abrupt shift.

One moment he'd been watching Smoke of Progression shattered into a million fragments, then... Master Elvanis decided he needed private tutoring?

He wanted to believe it was because the young master had finally recognized Zu's latent ability and wanted the best for him, but his deep seated wariness of the boy wouldn't be so easily assuaged. He fully expected it to be a trap. Somehow.

But he forced his tension down, relaxing into the flow of the water and the movement around him, letting his eyes drift closed, moving his imaginary spirit energy through imaginary cycles.

His own internal makeup was blocked to an unprecedented extent. His family had tried for years, everything they could to force him to manifest his latent cultivation abilities. Nothing had worked. He'd remained crippled from the day he was born until the day the Protagonist Fragment fell from the sky to save him.

But he knew what he was supposed to do, how it was supposed to look to those outside. He'd gotten very good at pretending, back before he was relegated to the dregs and thrown only the least favored of chores. Before his cousins stopped treating him as a peer and began seeing him as a servant, or an object to toy with for their amusement.

Even the thought of those years filled him with a strange mix of anger and simple dread. The quiet pain of them was too much to remember, too much to bear. He forced away all memory of what had come later and immersed his mind in the flows from long ago. Back when he'd truly believed there was a way out for him. That by working hard enough eh could do anything, that he could conquer the world by sheer hard work.

Before he'd realized that power was something you were given, or something you were born with, not something you could earn. If no one showed you how, you'd never get anywhere.

Zu Mari had never gotten anywhere until he'd been given the power of the Protagonist Fragment.

No, no. He was thinking ahead again. Forget the past, forget the present.

The chains on his wrists suppressed his phoenix, the loop of silver around his throat felt chill with the water running across it. He could sense the tethers tying him to his swords, his familiars, and Luja Ni only faintly.

It was almost peaceful. Alone in his mind, his soul distant and quiet, only his body and thoughts.

Without quite meaning to, he drew himself into his private mind space, the calming room he'd built for himself a long time ago. In his early childhood it had been one of many things his clan had taught him in hopes of awakening some ability in him.

Now, it lay in ruins. Walls were shattered, blood dripped down the pillars, and the floor had been crushed by countless impacts.

Memory flooded back. That day. The day he'd accepted that he would never be what he was meant to be. The day he'd turned his back on the Mari clan as thoroughly as they'd turned their backs on him. No, more, the day he'd turned his back on the world.

The day he'd sworn to ascend.