Portal, protector of the Gorge.

Portal looked at the Archduchess anxiously. The last time he had been so anxious, his wife was dying of old age. The first blow. After the centuries, he had thought that he had outgrown the feeling, the impatience that came with important situations.

But he was still anxious. The Archduchess had asked him to come with her to a private area to tell her what she had found. The act was a red flag, and harm could come to Aloha while he was away, but for some reason he still went with it.

“A word of warning, protector Portal. What I am about to tell you may hamper your breakthrough to Spirit Tree, perhaps even destroy any chance of it. The System frowns on sharing any information that you should not have access to, and this very much qualifies.” she said.

Portal could not help it, he scoffed. The last time he had broken through was over a century ago. And he had expected it to be his last, even then.

“I have less than a decade left in me Archduchess, I am not breaking through. Not in this life. Tell away, the children are the future of the Gorge, not this old fossil.” he said, waving his hand as if to dismiss her worries.

“As you wish, protector. I shall first tell you of what I speak of. What we see in this world is not everything there is; a substance called the spirit flows around us, even within us. The problem with Aloha is that this spirit does not function as an able barrier here. Are you following me?” the Archduchess said.

Portal had to admit that he was not. Oh, he knew of spirit, the thing that unlocked the Spirit Tree stage, but this was the first time he was hearing of it flowing through things or being a barrier. But he had long ago learned to ask questions.

“The barrier thing, I fear I don’t understand. Does the spirit protect against something? And there is not enough of it in Aloha?” he asked.

“On the contrary, there is more of it than there should be. I shall use another analogy. The spirit is like a spatial barrier, separating Qi from the normal world. The barrier is weak or porous in Aloha, allowing the Qi in.Do you understand it?”

“A little. I do not understand how it is fluid and porous at the same time. A fluid cannot be porous, the property is reserved for solids. And the barrier confuses me also, are you saying that this barrier has holes and is allowing Qi in? But Qi is known and has been proved to be in the environment. Is it that it is directly coming into the body that harms her? But a cultivators body already has Qi, and it does not harm it.” he said, not understanding what the problem was.

“No, no, Qi isn’t what is in the environment, spirit is. Qi is in the spirit. The same with the body, the spirit is what has the Qi, the spirit space, which is but a concentration of spirit, allows us to access the spirit.” the Archduchess said.

What a puzzling thing. The explanation challenged everything he had held to be true. But presuming what the Archduchess said was true, she had no reason to lie after all, it was some worldview changing information.

“So the problem is that the spirit is not flowing properly through Aloha as it does through everyone else? Is that what decides talent? How well the spirit flows through someone? And the answer is then…to make it easier for it to flow through her, so it no longer deposits Qi?” he asked as he felt his mind open up. Perhaps there was hope after all.

“Yes and no. The matter is a bit more complicated. The flow is not the issue, the problem is the nature of Aloha’s blood, it is spirit. Or at least part spirit. The same phenomenon is present in you, to a lesser extent.”

“ I would bet that it is the experiment that was done on you.” the Archduchess said. But wasn’t spirit a fluid? So they all had spirit as part of their blood? A constituent perhaps?

“So the answer is to remove the spirit from the blood? The thing is flowing there, yes?” he asked, trying to confirm what he had deduced.

“Well not quite. The spirit isn’t flowing through the blood. Um, imagine it’s a compound. The spirit and the normal parts of the body are its constituents. Aloha now has the properties of both the spirit and the body. The issue is that Aloha has the property of carrying Fire Qi, but not the property that makes it bearable.” she said.

“So, what is spirit, Archduchess? A fluid, a barrier, or a constituent? And what in the world is a compound? A different word for alloy?” he asked, frustrated at her. The thing became more and more confusing.

“Not quite.” The Archduchess said, looking frustrated. “Perhaps it is prudent to avoid this conversation for now. The spirit might just be too complex a thing for me to explain. Do you understand what I am saying, at least?”

“Aloha has the ability to draw spirit, not keep it. In other words, to the Qi it seems like Aloha’s blood is spirit, so it flows into it. But Aloha’s blood cannot keep it, it is not spirit and cannot handle natural Qi.” she finished.

Portal just had one thought running through his head now. “Qi is a fluid too?” he asked, causing the Archduchess banged her head on the table. A few seconds later a young, fed up, face rose from the table and stared at him.

“The solution, protector, is to either give Aloha’s blood the ability to hold Qi, or stop the Qi from coming in. Or processing the Qi into the normal Qi we all used to cast.” she said.

“The Qi is different in its natural form.” he said, suddenly realizing something from her words.

“Yes, not in our control. The seed can’t interact with it at all, it interacts with spirit that interacts with the Qi. The spirit space process it into the Qi we use that has the seed’s signature on it. The Qi is still not in our control, just more likely to respond to the surrounding spirit that is guided by the seed.” the Archduchess said.

“And Qi in its natural form is toxic to us.” he stated another fact.

“Not quite. I suspect that if it were Water Qi, then Aloha would be in less danger. The problem is that Fire, and by extension Fire Qi that draws its properties from Fire, is not supposed to be there.” the Archduchess continued.

Yes, it made sense. The Qi drew its properties from its element, he knew that, he also knew that it was why Aloha’s blood was boiling. Fire Qi. But it reminded him of something, two things, really.

The ability of a Spirit Tree to draw Qi from far distances and the name of their Qi. Spirit Qi. Portal cast his eyes at a point a distance away, trying to think, to imagine. Qi was, he knew, shapeless. And spirit was a fluid of some sort with Qi in it. Portal imagined the place having something like milk there, with spots of red, yellow, green etc. defining the elements.

A mental push later, he extracted a single spot of green Qi, Earth Qi. Smiling at his discovery, he poked a hole in space and jumped through it, straight to the gorge. A breakthrough of such magnitude was best done in the Gorge so that others could benefit from it. Laughing the entire time. Spirit Qi. Qi with the properties of spirit. Just like Fire Qi.

And he knew the properties of spirit, he had just figured one out. A miscible mixture, an able solvent. Portal willed a thread of Qi before him, it appearing before him. A few thoughts later, he changed its properties, turning it into what he knew to be Spirit Qi.

Portal laughed as his Grand Tree lit up, the centuries old thing suddenly filled with new life. The Archduchess had done what every genius did, she had skipped the steps. Qi led to spirit, not the other way around. What the spirit was, still eluded him, it claimed too many properties, it was too complex.

But he had taken the step. The step of a Spirit Tree. The surrounding air curved as his Grand Tree transformed. Portal laughed as he chanted, ‘The fluid around is spirit. Spirit Qi is but Qi with the properties of spirit. And as he did so, a hole formed within his Grand Tree, asking him a silent question.

Asking him to show it what he could do. And Portal did. A normal person would change the spirit space, but Portal knew too little about spirit to even try to attempt that. What he did was different, he changed the Qi within, he turned it all into Spirit Qi. And the hole accepted it.

And just like that was born, Portal, Elder of the Gorge, protector of its people and Spirit Tree of the Land of Seven Jewels.