The smirk never left Wolfram’s lips as he stepped skillfully around one of his opponents, lightly slapping her rear end with his tail as he simultaneously parried the blow leveled against him by her companion.

The woman rolled her eyes, long used to the antics of the young Lord Wolfram Spiritwind, the most promising heir the family had seen since his sister had struck out on her own. She unconsciously circulated a cold chill through her veins, using the Spiritwind cultivation technique to help keep her thoughts focused on the young lord.

Wolfram let out a low chuckle as he danced away from the pair of House Spiritwind warriors who were acting as his sparring partners, opening up some distance as the temperature around them started to drop drastically.

“Cheating already, are we?” He asked tauntingly, winking at the woman who he had caught manipulating her Qi.

The woman cursed, her focus broken as she realized that Lord Wolfram had, again, somehow been able to detect when someone else was using the refreshingly chill spiritual wind that gave his house it’s famous name. It was supposed to be a passive effect, and not something that anyone could tell without physical contact and a lot more experience than young Wolfram was supposed to have.

The boy was supernaturally quick at times, and from what she had seen he was an amazingly talented cultivator, able to wrest control away and rip the ice right out of the hands of all but the most experienced warriors of House Spiritwind.

Ice started to form on the ground all around them, but she could tell that Lord Wolfram was just playing around (as usual), and hadn’t taken serious offense. She glanced at her partner, another veteran warrior of House Spiritwind, and he scowled at her – there would be trouble later.

“I apologize Lord Heir! Please punish me!” She dipped her head, ready for a severe beating if necessary, but expecting either a very different punishment, or possibly none at all if she was lucky... Lord Wolfram was known to be much kinder than the rest of his family, but he was an odd young man none the less.

“Three laps around the compound, stark naked, after the duel! Then none shall punish you further.”

The woman let out a small sigh of relief, glad that Lord Wolfram had added that last part – it ensured that her commanding officers wouldn’t be able to dock her pay or discipline her for offending a noble of the Great House she was sworn to serve. But why naked? It mattered naught to her, however, and a little nudity never hurt anyone.

***

thanks me for it!>

Wolfram sent me a few pictures over our soul link, and I had to mentally rub my face in my hands. For the love of…

I sent a mental sigh to Wolfram.

This wasn’t the first time that this exact same topic had come up, and I had to force myself, again, to try and see it from his perspective. It was only Wolfram’s old-world morals from back on Earth that stopped him from treating everyone around him as disposable, and on the whole (as far as I could tell) the servants and guards had better lives with him there than they would have otherwise.

From a young age, he was never really shown any love, and although he had earned his fathers respect, Wolfram hadn’t ever had a chance to form a connection with any of the people here like I had… long story short, he was a nice guy who was doing the best he could with the situation he was in.

And to make things even more complicated, it was pretty clear to the both of us that the cultivation techniques of the four Great Houses messed with your mind, or personality, somehow. It wasn’t a huge change, but over time Wolfram and I had made a number of observations that wouldn’t be so obvious if we didn’t have an inside observer in both camps.

All the nobles of House Flameward I had met seemed to be a little more passionate and emotional than I might expect, if I looked at the big picture; while Wolfram and I had both noticed that the nobles of his house were a little cold (no pun intended) and lacked emotions, or empathy maybe, to some small extent.

The issues suffered by either Great House alone might have gone unnoticed, but when you compared the most powerful cultivator on either side, the contrast was pretty undeniable.

On the one hand you had Firebrand, a great big loud giant of a man with a laugh so deep and boisterous it could knock over a straw house; on the other you had High Lord Spiritwind, who was so emotionless that I would label him a psychopath, and was so quiet and secretive that Wolfram didn’t even know which wing of the mansion his own father lived in!

At this point, I was just glad that Wolfram hadn’t lost his mind…

Wolfram came across a lot more seriously this time, and I didn’t want to get too much into lecture mode.

I sent him a mental hug.

Wolfram sent me a sense of excitement and discovery.

I sent him a sense of mild surprise and curiosity. I hadn’t had a chance to really practice the upgraded version of the House Flameward cultivation technique that Kodan had given me, but it was quite a lot more complex than the one they gave their warriors. All the same pieces were there, but in the full version there was also a frame that they fit in, slotting into place and making the picture whole.

That… was actually a pretty apt description, although I think the Flameward cultivators tended towards kindness somewhat, not just pure drama. Did that mean Spiritwind made you less kind, if it was the opposite? That was a scary thought, but it did seem to fit…

***

Tetra and Wulfric both gave me blank looks before answering at nearly the same time.

“Sure, sounds good, let's do it!”

“Wait… so you want us to cultivate not one, but two illegal techniques?”

I simply nodded, not surprised by either of their reactions. I didn’t like the implications that the cultivation related personality shifts, however minor they might be, had for my friends – and if I was going to try and practice both techniques, I might as well share them with my companions.

“Great! So, we can use fire and ice? That’s insane, I never knew you could practice both systems!”

“Are you sure there are no downsides, or dangers? Fire and ice are opposites, won’t they cancel out or something? Fire melts ice, ice puts out fire?”

Wulfric raised some good points, but I was glad that the ever-enthusiastic Tetra was ready to trust me without worrying about the small stuff.

“There may be some dangers, Wulfric, and if either you or Tetra notice anything, please tell me right away. That said, my buddy Wolfram is very good at analyzing cultivation techniques, and he says they match together almost perfectly. The only downside is it takes at least twice as long to practice both, so you won’t get strong as quickly as if you just focused on one or the other. But that’s not a huge issue for us, I think.”

Tetra frowned at me, while Wulfric nodded. Their reactions had reversed, predictably, with Tetra unhappy to hear that it would take longer if they practiced both, and Wulfric likely relieved to hear there was a known downside (and therefore more likely to be safe, by his logic).

“There are long term side effects of either technique on their own, but Wolfram and I believe that if you practice both, it should cancel out and be safer and more powerful in the end. And we are playing a long game here, remember? Someone has to keep the world safe if worst comes to worst, and we already promised each other we would face it together.”

After discussing it a bit more we reached an agreement and decided to slow down our march by a few hours a day to get in some extra practice. All three of us needed less sleep than regular people at this point, so we would be able to make enough progress for it to matter – we just had to move far enough away from the main group that they couldn’t directly see what we were doing.

Everyone knew not to try and pry, so we were not really concerned in the first place; this was standard practice for groups of warriors or nobles from different Great Houses traveling together… and without knowing the inner mantras the exterior movements of a cultivation technique were useless anyway.