Jing came to get me just before dawn, her face stony and her expression flat. “We must leave soon,” she said coldly. “We have far to travel.”

I scrambled to my feet, checking to make sure my brass knuckles were still tucked in the pouch at my side, then followed her out the door. “No training this morning?” I asked, half hopefully. A day off would be pretty nice.

“The quarry is a great distance,” she answered. “You must try to keep up with me.”

“I’ll do just fine…” I snapped my mouth shut as she took off, her silk-covered form blurring as she ran to the north. “Wow. Someone’s feeling like an ass this morning.”

“You can keep up with her,” Sara assured me. “Just keep this pattern, and you should be fine.” An image of myself flared to life in my vision, highlighting two of my extraordinary meridians and the lesser meridians running to my heart and legs. I spent a few seconds building the pattern, fed some of my stored qi into it, and took off running – making it all of three steps before I stumbled and landed hard on the ground.

“Maybe start at a walk and work your way up to a run?” my virtual helper suggested without a hint of sarcasm. I picked myself up, brushed off my clothes, rebuilt the lost channels, and started walking briskly to the north.

Walking using my qi was an odd sensation. Each stride seemed to carry me farther than I would have expected, and my legs recovered from each step far more quickly than normal. The air blew against my face, and I realized that I was walking at the speed of a decent jog. I also quickly understood why I’d fallen before; it was hard to get the rhythm of my new stride. Walking and running were more than just moving my legs. My entire body had to adjust, and I was fairly wobbly until I got the hang of it.

After that, I moved to a jog, eventually speeding up into a decent run. I wasn’t sprinting, but I was pushing harder than I normally would have for a long run. Running was part of my daily training back on Earth, but I’d never been able to keep up the kind of pace I was pushing in an attempt to catch up to Jing. My lungs and heart labored slightly, but the exertion was tolerable, and my legs kept up the ground-eating pace, my muscles fueled by the qi I was pouring into them.

After a while, I saw Jing appear on the horizon before she disappeared over another hill. I kept up my pace, but she didn’t reappear. When I got closer, I knew why she hadn’t. Screeches and growls rose through the air ahead of me, and I crested the hill to see the woman standing at the bottom of a long, low valley, facing four creatures that seemed like giant, bright green scorpions with gleaming, brown swords for stingers. The woman was leaping and dodging as the creatures lashed their tails toward her or swiped with their giant pincers, their movements swift and fluid despite their enormous size.

Jing seemed to be doing fine until one of the creatures stepped back, shook slightly, and lashed forward with its tail. A flash of dark brown leaped from the tail toward the woman. Jing lifted an arm to sweep aside the attack, then cried out as it opened a long, thin line of red blood along her forearm.

Now, I’m not really much for chivalry. I used to be, but years of dealing with women who were just as good at killing as I was kind of soured me on it. I’d long ago lost any idealized notions I might have had about females being delicate or needing my protection. Add that to the fact that Jing had been beating me like a rug for the past two weeks and that the one time I’d finally won, she seemed to be throwing a hissy fit, and I wasn’t really inclined to help her out. I slowed down as I neared the battle and simply watched. Jing’s feet danced and spun as she kicked at the creatures, knocking them back and deflecting their swipes. Despite her efforts, though, it didn’t look like she could crack the monsters’ shells. She could probably still beat them to death, but it would take a long time.

I rolled my eyes and gathered my qi, channeling it through my lesser meridians into my arms and legs as I slipped my brass knuckles onto my fist. I’d seen Jing hit much harder than she was – hell, she’d hit me harder than she was kicking them. I didn’t know why she was playing around with these things, but I didn’t think we had time for it. Plus, if something happened to her, I had a feeling old Wim would kill me.

“This might be a good time to practice your techniques,” Sara suggested. “Jing’s preoccupied, and if you’re careful, she won’t have any idea what you’re doing.”

That was a good point. As I raced forward, I wove qi through my lesser meridians, projecting it out through my skin. The energy poured out of me in the patterns Sara helped me memorize, spilling into the air in front of me and causing my vision to distort and ripple for a moment before it stabilized. My Moonlight on the Water technique allowed me to see through it just fine, but apparently anyone looking at me from the front would see a distorted, wavering image of me.

One of the creatures turned swiftly toward me and lashed out with its sword-tail. I slipped to the side, but my dodge wasn’t necessary; the creature’s aim was off, and the blade rushed past my shoulder harmlessly. I ducked under one of its claws, dropped low, then rose swiftly, driving my fist up into its underside below its grasping mouthparts. At the same time, I channeled qi through my arm into a tight, spiral pattern, forced it out my hand into my Sun’s Scorching Ray technique. My knuckles cracked through the scorpion’s shell, and it shook as a spear of golden light tore through it, erupting from its head and leaving a large, smoking hole. Its tail swished past me again, deflected by my shield, and I rose up, slamming my left hand down on its cracked carapace in a classic hammerfist. My qi-empowered blow crunched through the thing’s armor, splattering me with viscous, green ooze that I supposed was its blood. The scorpion collapsed on the ground, its head basically crushed, and I spun to face the next one.

The other three were all menacing Jing and ignoring me. That was fine with me; I gathered my qi again and thrust my hand out toward the one attacking the woman from behind. Another blast of golden light lanced forth and struck the creature in the side. This time, the beam burned a hole in the monster but didn’t come out the other side; I assumed that was either because I was farther away and the beam lost energy, or because I hadn’t cracked its exoskeleton first. The attack was still enough to stagger the creature, and turned to face the source of its pain. Its tail shot forth, and this time, it struck fairly true. I dodged at the last second, but its blade slid across the top of my shoulder, opened a shallow but painful wound.

Before the tail could retract, I grabbed it, thinking to pin it against my side. Instead, the tail carried me into the air above the creature, where I dangled for a moment, looking down at its . I grinned evilly and let go, dropping onto its back and slamming my knuckled fist down onto it as I landed. My hand crunched through the thing’s shell, splattering me with more of the foul, green goo inside it.

“Look out!” Sara shouted, and I rolled to the side instantly with instincts born of years of being hunted, sliding off the creature and landing on the ground between its articulated legs. The arachnid’s tail lashed down where I’d just been standing, but instead of impaling me, it stabbed deep into its own body. The creature shuddered as it tore open its own shell, but before it could recover, I rose to my feet, grabbed its side, and drove my knee up into it with a loud crack. I slammed my elbow down onto it right above where my knee had struck, and its shell crumbled beneath my blow, spilling more of its green blood.

I pushed away from that monster as it fell to the ground, its ichor streaming from it and draining its life. Jing still faced the last two, but being able to concentrate on the remaining creatures seemed to make her more effective. She slipped past a striking tail with ease, then swept her foot up at the extended appendage. The creature’s shell crumpled beneath her strike, and the severed tail flew free of the monster’s body. She leaped over a claw swipe, and as she landed, she slammed her heel down onto the offending scorpion’s carapace, crushing it. She spun and blocked a tail slash from the last, then seemed to almost leap forward as her heel slammed into its shell, crumpling it and killing the thing instantly.

She turned to look at me and shook her head. “You are filthy.”

“You’re welcome,” I snorted, looking down at myself. It was true, I was covered in the monsters’ blood or whatever it was, but I’d still charged in and saved her bacon.

“I am what?” she said, her face flat.

“Welcome. You’re welcome.” I shook my head. “Since you were struggling with those things, and I came in and helped you, I assumed that you meant to say, ‘Thank you’. You know, the way a normal person does.”

Her face reddened as she stared at me. “You believe I needed your assistance?” she demanded. “That I was incapable of defeating the Hard-Shelled Stone Blades without you?”

I looked at her in amazement. “What the hell is your problem?” I asked.

“My problem?” she repeated. “You, strange one! You are my problem!”

“Me? Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t done a thing to you.” I snorted. “Well, not that you haven’t done to me, first, at least.”

“You have done nothing? Is that what you think?” she snapped, her hair actually seeming to fly in a breeze that somehow didn’t reach me. “I brought you to my father to learn, not to – not to usurp my place in his eyes!”

“Usurp…” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I beat you one time, lady. Just once. You pounded on me for weeks!”

She stepped closer to me, and now I could feel the wind swirling around her. Feeling that gave me a sudden suspicion about the breezes that tried to knock me into the paddy each morning, but I set that aside and focused on her. She was infuriated, and I didn’t really see why.

“That is how it should be,” she hissed. “I have labored for years – years! – to achieve the skills that I possess. You have been here for less than a moon!” She opened and closed her fists as she took another step forward. “My father does nothing but speak about you. He raves about your celestial qi, tells us all how you are a latent genius with limitless potential, and even allows you to spar with me!

“And now, he sends us together to clear the vermin from the quarry, the task that he told me would be mine when I had reached the stage of true cultivation! Apparently, I am unworthy alone, but with you, all is fine! Yes, strange one, you are my problem!”

“You’re wrong,” I said quietly, keeping my qi channeled and readying my defensive shield technique but not activating it. “I’m not your problem, Jing. You are.”

“What?” she screamed, and I felt a blast of wind roar past me. She was losing it, and I was getting nervous. I’d taken her once, sure, but she hadn’t been expecting it. I was pretty certain that part of her had been holding back. She wouldn’t hold back this time, and I would probably have to use my techniques to stop her.

“You’re jealous, not of me, but of the attention your father’s giving me,” I said. She simply stared at me, her eyes wide. “Don’t get me wrong, I get it. I really do. My little brother was my parents’ darling boy. I was the screw-up kid that always got in trouble. I know what it’s like to feel like you’re second place.

“And I hated him for it, for a long time,” I continued, my voice still soft. She kept staring at me, her eyes wide and unblinking. “I blamed him, but the thing was, it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I laughed. “Hell, neither did I, not really. I got in a bit of trouble, sure, but nothing too big. Just stupid pranks and the like.

“No, where I screwed up is by not going to my parents and talking to them. You’re making the same mistake, but that’s your mistake to make. I’m not telling you what you should do. However, I can tell you that I’m not your problem, Jing. This is all on you, and you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it.”

I walked past her, heading to the north, renewing the qi construct from before that helped me to run faster. I still wasn’t confident enough with it to start running, right away. I had to work myself up to a jog and then to a run. By that point, I’d had plenty of time to realize that I had no idea where I was going – or, really, how to get back to the farm. Jing could totally ditch me out here, and I’d be screwed. I just kept running, though. I didn’t really know what else to do.

A minute or so later, I caught a glimpse of something in my peripheral vision, and when I glanced over, I saw Jing running beside me. She made no sound at all as she ran, and her movements seemed impossibly fluid, as always, but her face was a mask of contradictions. I could practically see the different emotions warring there: anger, shame, resentment, jealousy, and fear. None of those seemed particularly healthy to me, but I decided not to say anything. I’d let her break the incredibly awkward silence.

She did, but not the way I’d been expecting. “The reason that you fall when you attempt to run is that you are neglecting your sky meridian,” she told me after a few minutes of quiet.

“My sky meridian? Which one is that?”

She sighed. “I forget, with all your seeming abilities, how little you truly know – and how much I have neglected to teach you.”

“You? I thought your father was supposed to teach me.”

“In the usage of your qi, yes. In the theory…that was supposed to me my duty, one that I neglected. I presumed that it would not be needed for many months or years, but – I still failed in my duty.” She took a deep breath. “In truth, even when I saw that the instruction would aid you, I withheld it, to make you look foolish and stumbling before my father.”

That kind of pissed me off, but I bit off the snarky comment about how I figured it out anyway, mostly because I had Sara’s help to work it all out. “Well, I suppose you can always make up for it now.” She glanced at me curiously, and I explained. “Teach me now. It’s not like it’s too late for me to learn. What’s my sky meridian?”

“The meridian that runs from your dantian to the top of your head,” she replied. “All seven of the lesser meridians are named. There are the inner and outer metal meridians that connect you to the earth below, the inner and outer fire meridians that link to your hands, the sky meridian, the water meridian that links to your heart, and the wood meridian that connects to your masculine organs.”

“The wood meridian connects to my crotch?” I repeated suspiciously. “Is that a joke?”

“I do not understand,” she replied, her face confused.

“Never mind. So, why do I need to empower my sky meridian?”

“Your body is moving at an accelerated pace, but your mind is not. Your muscles are responding faster than your mind can command them. If you empower that meridian, you will find this journey to be much simpler.”

“What do you think?” I asked Sara silently. I didn’t think Jing was trying to sabotage me – but then, I hadn’t thought that before, either, and it turned out she was. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I’ll put a bullet in your face.

“It won’t hurt you,” she assured me. “I don’t know if it will work or not, though. The brain is vastly different from your muscles. Speeding it up is a matter of making increased connections, and I don’t see how qi will do that. If you want to try it, though, it will look like this.” An image of a line curving through my chest, along my spine, and curving up to the top of my skull appeared.

I considered it for a moment, then slowly imagined filling that line with power. I took my time and let the power flow very cautiously; I wasn’t really interested in cooking my brain, after all. As the energy flowed up my spine, I felt my movements becoming surer and more fluid. My stride relaxed, and my steps grew confident and certain.

“Oh, I see,” Sara said, and I could almost hear her facepalm herself. “It’s boosting the nerves of your spinal cord, not your brain itself, John. It’s like it’s boosting your reflexes and reaction time.”

“That is easier,” I said aloud, silently wondering what else Sara might have missed.

“I’ve had this information for one day, John. I’d have gotten you there.”

“We can speak more as we run,” she said. “We have some hours before we reach the quarry at this pace. You are certain to have many questions, and I will answer what I am permitted.”

“What’s the deal with this quarry?” I asked. “Why is it so important?”

She sighed. “As my father said, it is infested with vermin, and those vermin emerge at times to raid our farm or the surrounding homesteads.”

“What surrounding homesteads?” I asked. “I’ve been all over this place and haven’t seen anyone!”

“You have been only in one direction, that which leads toward the Beastlands,” she corrected. “Our farm is the closest to that realm, as my father protects those around us from the creatures that descend from it. Most of the homesteads and villages lie in the opposite direction, toward the Purple-topped Mountains, or toward the Forest of Darkened Branches.”

“That doesn’t sound like a friendly place,” I muttered.

“It is not, but it is not overly dangerous, either. The forest is named for its trees, which are black in color and produce lumber that is both very hard and very heavy. There are beasts that live beneath its canopy, but they tend to be smaller and less dangerous than those closer to the Beastlands.”

“So, what are those mountains called,” I gestured toward the silvery peaks looming before us.

“The Silver Peaks.”

Okay, I guess I walked into that one.

“They are a plentiful source of crystals for the purpose of alchemy,” she continued. “That is why my father wishes to clear the vermin from the quarry. While they are there, harvesting the crystals is awkward and somewhat dangerous.”

“So, what kind of vermin are we talking about?” I asked.

“They are vermin,” she told me, her face puzzled. “Do you not have vermin where you are from?”

“Well, yes, but…there are different kinds of them.”

“I would not know what kind they are,” she said dismissively. “I have no interest in learning such details about them, as well. They are simple vermin, nothing more – but they are numerous, and dangerous in such numbers.”

It figured. Every other creature in this world had some kind of overly descriptive name. That was probably useful when you had to fight them – knowing that you were facing a trunk-nosed brain sucker probably warned you not to let the thing’s trunk near your head – but it had to be hell to talk about them casually. When I finally wanted a descriptive name, though, they were vermin. Simple vermin. I wondered how many rats or whatever there had to be for them be a danger to someone like Jing. That thought reminded me of something else I wanted to ask.

“Hey, why did you take so long to kill those things back there?” I asked her curiously.

“Things? You mean, the Hard-Shelled Stone Blades?”

I refrained from rolling my eyes. “Yes. Those. I saw how easily you crushed the last two. Why didn’t you do that right away?”

“They are creatures of metal,” she replied simply.

I waited for a moment, but no further explanation seemed to be forthcoming. “I feel like you think that’s an explanation,” I said with some exasperation. “I don’t know what you mean, since they definitely weren’t made of metal, and I don’t know why that would matter, anyway.”

She looked over at me, her face surprised, then she nodded. “Again, a reminder that my teaching has been lacking,” she said. “As my father told you, all living things can take in qi naturally. This includes beasts, and they do not seem to suffer from the dangers of drawing in impure qi as people do.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “It is my belief that this is because the beasts can draw on only one or two types of qi. It may be that their meridians cannot be clogged, or that their dantians are not harmed by corruption.”

She shook her head. “In any case, the Hard-Shelled Stone Blades are creatures that draw in metal qi and project it through their attacks and abilities.”

“So, what does that have to do with why you didn’t kill them right away?” I pressed.

She made a face before answering. “I was incautious and allowed them to surround me,” she finally said. “Some types of mortal qi exist in opposition to one another, and metal qi opposes my wind qi. When they enveloped me, they cut me off from a steady flow of wind qi, limiting me to only water qi, which is far less prevalent, as we are not near water.”

“Wait, so you can be cut off from your qi?” I asked in surprise.

She nodded. “If you are in a place where your qi does not reach, or you are surrounded by qi that opposes your own, then yes. It is possible to separate a practitioner from the source of their power. This is why it is important to cultivate ki and store it as densely as possible in your dantian. Then, even should you be unable to drawn in the energy of the world, you can tap your own reserves for power.”

I frowned, thinking that over. “So, what kind of qi opposes celestial?” I finally asked.

“None of which I am aware,” she sighed. “That is a great strength of celestial qi.” She looked over at me seriously. “However, father says that it must be drawn directly from heavenly bodies. Indoors or in a place of true darkness, you would be bereft of power just as I was.”

That was something to consider. Being inside did seem to stop me from drawing in new qi, and I couldn’t imagine that I’d only be fighting outside in this world. That meant that I needed to store as much power inside me as possible – and that meant I needed to become a better battery. The only question was, how in the hell did I do that?

“I might have some ideas, John,” Sara said slowly. “Let me think about them, and we can try something tonight.”

I glanced down at her wounded arm. “Are you okay? I saw that one cut you…”

“I will be fine,” she assured me. “I will purge the qi poisoning swiftly.”

“Qi poisoning?” I asked, reaching up to touch my own wound.

“The Hard-Shelled Stone Blades’ tails are filled with metal qi. When they pierce your skin, they introduce that qi into your body. If you are a metal practitioner, that is of little moment. For an air practitioner such as I, the foreign qi slows and weakens you until you can cycle it and purge it.”

“Sara, am I poisoned?”

“It doesn’t seem so,” she said after a moment. “The meridians near there are still clean and empty, and I don’t sense any foreign qi in your body. If I had to guess, I’d say you already purged it.”

“Well, that’s useful. Keep an eye out, though, and let me know if you notice any problems.”

“Of course.”

Jing and I ran for hours, most of it passing in silence. We were attacked by various beasts a handful of times, and once Jing led us in a wide circle to avoid what she called a Flame-Tailed Spirit Eater, whatever that was. The land started to ascend as we neared the mountains, becoming broken and rocky, forcing us to detour around fallen piles of stone. Eventually, Jing slowed to a walk as we ascended the side of a steep hill, then dropped into a crouch as we approached the crest.

“This hill overlooks the quarry,” she murmured to me in a low voice. “From the top, we will be able to see the vermin and determine the best approach for clearing them out.”

I nodded and followed along behind her. She moved silently, but she wasn’t actually all that good at sneaking. She was standing too tall, and her head bobbed too much as she moved. That’s the key to getting into a sniping position unseen. You have to limit your movement, especially your head movement. Humans are conditioned to notice motion and to recognize faces, so much that we see faces in things that don’t have them. That’s why people see Jesus in tree bark or a man in the moon. Still, nothing seemed to cry out in alarm as we crested the top of the hill.

It turned out the hill ended in a cliff, one that sloped sharply down to a ragged series of cuts in the earth. The gashes in the rock were wide and deep enough for two people to walk abreast and extensive enough for at least fifty to a hundred people to fit easily within them. I knew that was true because that’s exactly what I saw. The quarry was filled with people dressed in ragged clothing, most carrying simple weapons. Fires burned throughout the quarry, emitting very little smoke, and various makeshift shelters dotted the landscape before us.

“There they are,” Jing said softly, her head really peeking too high over the edge of the cliff.

“Where?” I asked. “I’m not seeing any rats or anything.” I looked around the edges of the camp but didn’t seen anything that could constitute vermin. Unless, of course…

“Rats?” she repeated, her expression confused. “I do not know that word. I speak of the vermin spread out below us.” She pointed down at the camp. “There. Those vermin.”

“We take great offense at that term,” a voice growled from behind us, and we both spun to see twenty or so of the ragged people standing along the slope below us. They held crude weapons – clubs, stone spears, even what looked like flint axes – and their faces wore angry expressions.

“Look what gifts the heavens have provided us,” one of the people growled. “A fresh, young beauty such as this – surely, we have been blessed.”

“She will be blesses in other ways by the time we have finished with her,” another voice laughed.

“Be silent,” the man who’d first spoken growled. “She will be given to the Chief, as always, and once he is done with her, he will determine her fate.” He looked us and spat on the ground. “This will be easier on us all if you accept your fate and come with us.”

“And if we don’t want to?” I asked, the words just slipping out of my mouth.

In response, the man hefted his stone axe and took a step forward. “Then we do it the hard way. Both are fine with me.”