“Come inside, and don’t break anything. I’ll get the testing crystal,” he barked at me as he walked further into the cottage.

The inside was far better appointed than I had expected. While it was far from a mansion, it was snug and rather homey. Rugs and furs covered the polished wood floors and simple, yet well-made, furniture predominated. There were a few items that screamed luxury, though. An elaborate Go board was set up on one of the tables and was covered with polished red and green stones as opposed to the black and white glass pieces I’d seen in college. A few ornate weapons, mostly spears and swords, were spread about the room on display stands, or placed on the wall as trophies.

“You’ve lived here for six hundred years?,” I called out, questioning.

“Not here, exactly,” came the response from the other room, “I moved closer to the village when it was founded. Before that I lived at the far end of the valley. Got tired of being two hundred li away from supplies when I needed a new sewing needle, though. Ah ha! Found it!”

He reappeared in the doorway, holding a small sphere made of a material so transparent it looked almost like a soap bubble.

“This is a testing crystal,” he said, handing it to me, “Draw in your qi before trying to send it through the crystal. The colors in the crystal will correspond to your elemental affinity. You have my word of honor that I will keep your results in confidence from anyone who is not a Jumpspark. Or from everyone, if you prefer. Jumpsparks tend to share information more freely amongst each other, but it’s your choice.”

I gave him a nod, then closed my eyes and nervously began focusing on my breathing. Feeling for the same energy that seemed to enter my body when I ate the spirit beast, I tried to channel it down my arm and into the crystal I was holding. The trickle of energy I had gathered started to slowly move down my arm and into the crystal. A low whistle from the Temüjin broke me out of my concentration.

“Well, we now know what your magic gift is. That should have taken you more than a single try with no instruction, for one, and for two…,” he trailed off, still staring at the crystal in my hand.

The crystal that was glowing in four distinct colors.

Red for fire. Brown for earth. Blue for water. White for air. The crystal had all four colors circulating, but not mixing, within it.

“I can’t say that was unexpected,” said Temüjin after a moment of silence.

I handed the orb back to him and asked, “You actually thought I’d be able to cultivate all four elements?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I had a suspicion that you would. The Eolian that I spoke of earlier could as well, although his elemental manipulations were so strange that they could barely be identified as such.”

“Can you still teach me what I need to know?,” I asked.

“Of course. I’ve trained thousands of cultivators of all affinities. Some even thanked me for it afterward,” he said as he took the crystal from me. It lit up with red and white as he pushed his qi into it.

“Fire and Air, right?,” I said, as he put the crystal down on one of the low tables.

“Indeed. They’re well-known in the valley, but I would appreciate it if you kept my powers as a chosen of Krieg and Kelias quiet,” he said.

I nodded, “Like you said, we’re both Jumpsparks. I’ll be happy to keep your secrets. Besides, it seems like breaking trust with my teacher would be a short-sighted thing to do.”

He nodded at my reply and gestured to the kitchen area, “Go have a seat at the table and we’ll discuss your training while we eat.”

I sat at the small kitchen table as he began to cook a simple meal of rice and vegetables and expound upon cultivation.

“Most people in the world can cultivate to some extent,” he began, “Some are better at it than others. While three out of four people may have an elemental affinity only one out of a hundred people can utilize it to any great degree. There are two types of qi expression, internal and external. Internal expression is the act of utilizing qi to power your body. External expression is utilizing the qi to affect the world outside of your body. As a fire and air cultivator I can use fire qi to give myself prodigious strength and air qi to give myself great speed and agility using internal expression. To utilize qi for internal expression, I must bathe my body in qi by first drawing it into my core and then allowing it to seep out uniformly so that my entire body is bathed in it. If I choose not to allow the qi to seep out, but instead keep it internalized, then I can externally express it as intense blasts of fire, gusts of wind, or other elemental manifestations.”

“And of course, as we discussed earlier today, earth and water cultivators,” he continued in a lecturing tone, while still cooking, “tend to follow the same guidelines. Earth cultivators tend toward boundless stamina, defense, and healing during internal expression while their external expression manifests as an affinity for plants, stone, and metal. Water is the most balanced of the elements but lacks focus on any specific area. For example, a water cultivator will be faster than an earth cultivator but will tire more quickly. Conversely, they will be slightly slower and less physically strong than a fire cultivator but vastly more durable and able to outlast their opponent. They express their elemental affinity using water and ice. All elements are able to heal to some degree although earth and water are by far the best at it.”

He noticed the look on my face as he paused to plate up our food and shook his head, “Ask your questions.”

“So, I could cultivate earth and air to be both fast and durable?,” I asked.

“You can, yes. But nobody else could. Earth and air are diametrically opposed elements, much like fire and water. There are no records of any cultivator, and only a handful of beasts for that matter, being able to cultivate diametrically opposed elements. While I can guarantee your safety in the valley you’d be hunted down if word got out that you could use opposed elements, much less all four at once. I’d suggest picking two and using them as your public elements while cultivating the other two in private. Being able to wield two elements is rare, but not unheard of,” he answered.

I finished chewing some green vegetable that looked like asparagus but tasted more like a carrot, before asking, “So that would mean fire and air, right? You can help me with them.”

“Not at all,” he replied, “the cultivation method doesn’t change between the elements and I’m fairly well acquainted with several techniques that earth and water cultivators use for both internal and external cultivation. If, further into your training, you require personalized teaching in earth or water cultivation Gladewood can provide it. Batuhan is an excellent water cultivator and Tarkhan is very good with the earth element. Either will assist with your cultivation and will give an oath, if needed.”

I suppose he could see the disbelief that was etched on my face as he continued, “Gladewood exists specifically because of me. They would not deny me a few years of assistance against the centuries of peace I’ve brought to them.”

“Tarkhan might,” I said, “he didn’t seem to care for me much.”

“Tarkhan is a good man,” came the rebuttal, “he doesn’t dislike you in the least. He dislikes strangers that could pose a threat to the town. Your method of arrival, while understandable to me, is quite suspect to him. Realize that you’re not the first person that has tried to engage me as a teacher. You’re just the first that’s succeeded in a very long time. Now that you’ve been acknowledged as my apprentice I doubt he’ll have any issues with you. You’ll see when you visit Gladewood for supplies.”

“I’m going back there?,” I asked.

“Of course,” he answered, “I’m not so cruel as to make you stay here and train constantly. Being able to venture into town and make friends is good for you. It will help you determine where you’re going to go after your training is complete. Besides, running to town and back with our supplies is good exercise. Your pace was pathetic.”

I’d been mentally preparing myself for seclusion while training and to hear him say that I’d at least be able to visit town was a relief. Being stuck on a mountainside with an old man might be fine for a movie training montage, but it wasn’t something that I’d been eagerly anticipating. Even though Gladewood was far from a metropolitan paradise being able to see different faces would be something to look forward to. We sat in silence as we finished the meal and when we had both finished our bowls of food I picked them up and assisted with cleaning up. He directed me to take the wok and bowls down to the stream and clean them with water and sand, which I did.

Temüjin was in the front room when I walked back in, “My apologies for the lack of amenities. The trading caravans won’t be here until next month, at the earliest, so until then you’ll sleep on the front room floor. Part of your earth cultivation training will be to build a room onto the house for yourself. I have every confidence that you can do so before the winter sets in.”

He gave me a blanket and a fur and pointed me to an out of the way corner in the room where I could curl up.

The next morning as rays of light were barely peeking through the small windows of the cottage, I awoke to the smell of cooking. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I stumbled into the kitchen and was greeted by the sight of my new teacher putting breakfast on the table.

“Sit, eat, and we will begin your training after,” he said after putting rice and a few bits of meat into bowls and pouring two smaller bowls of a milky tea from a teapot. “Today you will have a small amount of spirit beast flesh. Batuhan told me of your reaction to spirit beast. I believe it is because you have an abnormally high rate of qi absorption. When your breakfast is complete, we will move to the porch and you will practice your cultivation.”

When we were finished with the rice, meat, and milk tea we walked outside and down to the stream. We settled on a flat rock the size of a table and my new teacher withdrew something resembling a monocle from his pocket and handed it to me.

“Cover one eye,” he said, “and then look at me through the lens with the other. It will help you to observe qi flows. I will perform a normal qi dispersal exercise; your job will be to copy me as best you can.”

I watched as he settled into a meditative pose and began to breathe. Small wispy strands of qi, visible through the monocle, began to gather in his chest with each breath. When he had a small amount, no larger than the size of a grain of rice, he began to very slowly disperse it through his body. Blue and brown wisps failed to absorb and slowly made their way out of his skin. Small pink wisps, a combination of the white air qi and red fire qi, sunk into him until they vanished from my augmented sight. The whole process took less than a minute.

“You try now,” he said, holding out his hand for the lens.

I handed it to him and assumed the same pose he had. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breathing. Keeping my breathing steady, I imagined the strands of energy entering my body and gathering in my chest. I felt the warmth of the sun, felt the rock beneath me, felt the breeze on my skin, and felt the moisture it contained as it came off the mountain. Teacher had said, yesterday, that these things didn’t matter, but I thought it was worth using the mental imagery as a crutch until I got the hang of the process.

It seemed to work, too. There was a definite pressure building in the center of my chest, and after a few seconds Temüjin spoke, “Do you have it?” I nodded in the affirmative, eyes still closed. “Then disperse it just as I did,” he said.

So, I did. My body felt as heavy as a mountain and as light as a feather. My muscles bulged with barely restrained strength. I was invincible. I was all that was man. For about a half-second. Then I lost control of the qi and a beam of uncontrolled energy lanced out of my palm and exploded a boulder in the stream a hundred yards away.

“That was awesome,” I shouted, jumping to my feet, “Did you freaking see that shit! I shot a…a thing! Holy crap it worked!”

“That was a qi bolt. They are what happens when a very large amount of qi fails to disperse properly,” Temüjin said with a pensive looked on his face. “Just how much qi did you have stored up to disperse?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t really see it, but I can feel that something is there. I guess whatever I had stored up from breathing since yesterday.”

“Eolians,” he muttered. “Try again, this time I will observe with the lens. I should have done that to start with. Getting sloppy in my old age.”

I settled back on the rock and started my breathing exercise over. Almost immediately Temüjin spoke, “I see the problem now. You can stop for a minute.”

“Am I doing something wrong?” I asked.

“No, it’s not you. It’s your boon,” at my worried expression he hurriedly added, “Your qi flow is more robust than I had anticipated. The body of a beginner should be fed drips and dribbles of qi. You are attempting to feed yours a raging torrent. As a disciple of Krieg my qi flow is quite substantial, but not overwhelming. I had assumed that your boon only covered four element cultivation. That was a mistake on my part. What was the exact wording that Eolia gave to you?”

I thought back to the conversation before answering him, “She said that she would make me a flawless conduit for power and that my synchronization, whatever that means, would be perfect.”

He nodded as I spoke, “That explains much. I believe that by synchronization she meant that you would be able to access and use all four elements. The flawless conduit portion of the boon means that your uptake of qi is much, much, much higher than I had expected. The amount of qi I cultivated as a demonstration is what a typical beginner should start with. You are gathering, with each breath, an amount more suited to somebody that has already undergone their third tempering. This is not your fault. All cultivators gain qi even through the simple act of breathing, much less focused meditation. You simply gain a much higher amount than most. While this will serve you well as you progress down the road of cultivation, for now it will hinder you.”

“I see it,” I said. “Now how do we fix it? Or rather, how do I fix it?”

“You don’t,” he replied. “We will instead work around the problem. I will poison you and then you will cultivate.”

“Whoa, whoa…Poison? Seems to be a rather drastic step, doesn’t it?” I asked, alarmed.

He waved off my concerns, “Not at all, Student. There are a multitude of natural treasures that can make cultivation far easier in the world, some of which can be found in this valley. Where there is Yin, there must be Yang. There are several poisons that do not harm the body, but instead inhibit the uptake of qi. A small dose should cripple your qi flow for a few hours which will allow you to cultivate more safely. We will try again after lunch with the poison.”