Yu thought she wouldn’t be surprised by any more of the affinity mountains after seeing the fire, water, and earth, but it turned out she had overestimated her imagination.

The moment she stepped through the transparent crackling door made entirely of raging bolts of purple lightning, Yu had to close her eyes and cover her ears from the terrible noise of the nearly constant flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder.

Scarred and shattered trees, dirt, and stone were everywhere. And around the buildings steel rods appeared to be sticking up from the ground, encouraging the lightning to strike them. As Yu wandered to class, adjusting her over-stimulated senses to the cacophony of lights and sound, she wondered if they used the power for the sect or if it went somewhere else.

She found out when she saw her classrooms were filled with more steel rods that crackled and popped with the affinity. Thankfully, both lightning classes were completely normal and uneventful. Lightning Affinity was apparently treated similarly to fire in that the disciples all received similar warnings of his violence, uncontrollable nature, and utter apathy towards anyone and anything.

As she hadn’t had a particularly restful sleep nor had time to focus and restore her Qi, Yu did not offer a particularly spectacular showing against the target dummies and everyone seemed disappointed. Whatever. She didn’t care. Well, maybe she did a little. Okay, it bothered her to perform less than her full capability.

Frustrated, she asked for a Lightning-specific meal for lunch which was one of the more expensive given the rarity of creatures of that affinity, but since Elder Tseung was paying she was okay with it. Yu told the girls all about the episode with the inner sect disciple but didn’t speak about the ordeal with the law enforcement elders.

The twins were appropriately indignant on Yu’s behalf and told her to go to the law enforcement group and Yu said she had a plan but needed to get to afternoon classes first. “All I want is for that girl to lose her ability to harm outer sect disciples.”

Li asked, “Why just the outer sect? She probably hurt anyone she could get away with.”

Yu looked at her petite suitemate and slowly lowered her chopsticks. Taking a breath, she responded to the other girl in a firm tone, “Li, this sect, this world even, is about power. Whoever has more is better. If an inner sect disciple wants to abuse another inner sect disciple, that is their business. If the victim wants to avoid it, get stronger. Grow and challenge the girl for the points back. Or face, or whatever. And the same for outer to outer. But an inner sect abusing an outer sect is unreasonable in this environment. It would be the same as us beating a mortal. At least in my view. What if the inner sect disciples just started abusing all the outer sect disciples so they could get stronger? Then no one of the outer sect would be able to advance to the inner because they would have no resources and thus no strength to get more. And that cycle would continue forever. That does not serve the sect. While power means you have the right to do what you want in this world, here it can and should be managed to stay within sect level.”

Yu shook her head and said, “The strong being greater than the weak is how the world is, and pushing against that would only result in weakening the sect and humanity against our real enemies, the demonic beasts that control everything outside the walls of our cities. They would slaughter us if we became too weak, and the only way we can stop that from happening is through strength. Don’t confuse compassion with weakness, Li. Believe me, I know.”

“Is that really how you feel, disciple?” Yu, and everyone else, jumped and stood immediately seeing Vice Leader Long Mingchen.

“Vice Leader,” the room intoned and bowed.

“Sit down and finish eating everyone. Except you, Disciple Fenghuang Yu. I asked you a question. Do you truly believe what you said?”

“I do, vice leader,” Yu responded with a nod.

“I see. Finish your meal and come see me at the head table.”

Yu bowed and said, “Yes, vice leader.”

After he turned and left, Yu went back to sitting while shoveling the infused food in her mouth. The girls looked scared. “Do you think you’ll get in trouble? Did the healers report you?”

Yu shrugged and mumbled between bites, “No idea.”

Having finished eating and feeling the pleasant spicy tingle of Lightning-infused meat, she approached the head table and waited in line. Any time the vice leader was there, a line always formed. That time though he stood and said, “I am sorry, disciples. I have an urgent meeting and I require Disciple Fenghuang Yu.” Then to her, he directed, “Follow me please.”

Yu followed the vice leader to the stairs leading to the higher floors of the pagoda. He started climbing but Yu halted before taking a step on the first stair and said in a nervous tone, “Vice leader?”

“Oh, yes. You have been given one-time permission so you will not be disabled. Please follow me to the top floor.”

Yu gulped and followed the vice leader up seven flights of stairs. Despite her nervousness, Yu took the opportunity to glance in at each dining area as she passed and found them progressively nicer and more comfortable. The inner sect had padded seats while the core had individual tables and relaxing chairs and pillows. The ranked floors were just more comfortable versions of the non-ranked floors.

At the top floor, Yu found a table with four elders, Elder Tseung, Elder Dianxin, and two elders that Yu did not know—one outer and one inner. Vice Leader Long Mingchen walked and sat at the head of the table and said, “Please sit, disciple.”

Yu sat at the opposite side from him, where he had gestured. She was pretty sure her legs were shaking a little as she did so. This could not be good.

The vice leader started, “Disciple, we wanted to address this immediately which is why we have moved so fast on it. Usually, an investigation such as this would be a few days. But frankly, what happened was pretty obvious based upon the evidence provided.” Yu’s eyes were bouncing between all four elders but said nothing. “It’s clear that Disciple Shishi overstepped her bounds. You were correct in that it took very little investigation to prove it.” The inner sect elder shifted in his seat but said nothing. “This entire experience has lost face for many parts of the sect. Tell me, what did you tell your friends of the incident?”

Yu cleared her throat and answered with a slightly shaky voice, “I told them what happened with the disciple, Shishi I guess, and that I called the healers. I didn’t share anything about the law enforcement part of it and left them the impression I had yet to report the incident. I try not to lie so I didn’t specifically say it, but they lept to the logical conclusions.”

Elder Tseung asked, “Why?”

Unsure what he was referring to, Yu asked, “Why what, elder?”

“Why didn’t you tell them about your experience with Elder Dianxin?”

“Because it would undermine their faith in the sect, Elder. And for at least one of them, that would probably be irreparable.”

He leaned back and smiled at that. The unknown outer sect elder said, “The fact that she had to lie to protect us from ourselves is not something to be proud of, Tseung.”

That law enforcement elder replied somewhat hotly, “It shows she truly cares about the sect, and not just about herself. It speaks to her character, which is something we have been failing to demonstrate insufficient quantity recently.”

The vice leader stopped their argument before it escalated. “Enough." Turning back to Yu he said, "Disciple, you are not naive enough not to understand you are a special case. Your master makes everything we do more complicated.” Yu sighed and nodded. He smiled and said, “So tell me and these elders what you think of the incident and what you think the outcome should be.”

Yu blushed and asked, “Umm. You want my opinion?”

Elder Dianxin snorted but the out sect elder and Tseung both nodded, the inner sect elder raised a single eyebrow and the vice leader said only, “Yes."

Yu looked at the group still bright red, cleared her throat again, and answered. “Vice leader, I came here to grow stronger, not cause problems; which it seems I have excelled at unintentionally.” A few smiles and chuckles preceded Elder Dianxin’s humph. “I truly believe what I said below. This world is not fair. If any know that, I do.”

All of them looked curiously at her. “Oh. Umm. I am limited in what I can say, but I ask that you accept I spent most of my life weaker than most mortals.” There were many raised eyebrows at that but Yu continued, “Thus, I know better than most that fairness is a fiction. That said, there has to be control and balance in an environment like this because it has constraining rules. You cannot allow inner sect disciples abuse outer sect disciples and steal from them regularly any more than you should have core disciples stealing all the things the inner disciples have. This sect would stagnate if students never had the resources to grow because they kept getting stolen.”

Yu stopped but they said nothing so she continued. “I truly believe that strength matters, but within limits, at least here. Disciple Shishi had been abusing her authority not just over those who could win it back, but those who already have little and thus absolutely no chance of growing stronger to get it back.”

Yu saw skepticism on their faces so she explained, “Let me say it this way. If you have a rule to prevent an out sect disciple from killing a senior, then you must put constraints on that senior as well because that is the only way to stop the abuse. I will tell you now I could have killed her thanks to that bee and it would have been easy. I had power over her, and thus I could have ended her life. Would it have been fair or even reasonable? Of course not. But it would have been my power over hers. Under the prior pretext of power over the lesser, I would be justified and none of you could speak against it. I did not for two reasons. One because I believe she is a young woman who is lost in some pain of her own in regards to outer sect disciples. And second, because there is a rule against it.”

Yu does not give the third that she had never killed and likely couldn’t. At least not Shishi and certainly not in that situation. Anyway, Yu continued. “She abused the power, and far more importantly, the protection the sect gave her. There must be consequences for her actions, but reasonable ones. Simply take away the power she misused and give it to someone who will use that power appropriately within his or her own level.”

The outer sect elder said, “Well said, Disciple,” while glaring at the inner sect elder.

In return, he stated with visible frustration, “That is untenable. How can we possibly enforce something like that?”

Yu took another breath and said, “Use the branch of the sect already designated for it. I cannot possibly imagine how difficult it is to be a law enforcement elder. Being required to put aside personal favor or disfavor seems like something I would certainly find challenging.”

Yu had pointed at herself but put her hand back down and spoke further of her perspective. “That said, that law enforcement elders stay objective is what creates and ferments the trust in them. Abuse by the law enforcement group would absolutely and irreparably damage the sect’s reputation both internally with disciples and elders, but also externally because those disciples and elders eventually leave and take the stories with them. Not to mention that they communicate with families and friends, many with substantial influence and power.”

Turning to Elder Dianxin, Yu told him, “Elder Dianxin, I have no idea what I could have done to make you so biased against me, but I would love to learn so I can improve from it.” He said nothing but glared back at her. Yu clearly and blatantly just accused him of bias in a way that made it seem as though she was willing to learn from him. The reality is, they all knew he just lost face and there was nothing he, or they, could do about it.

Then Yu decided to take a risk and she was okay with whatever came of it. She looked around at all of them and said, “But let me ask you. What should I have done? I was literally being beaten into near unconsciousness. In fact, the abuse could have been so severe it could have crippled my growth for a long time and this was by someone with who knows how many more meridians opened than I have and at who knows what stage of cultivation. I’m nine years old, Elders. She was what, eighteen? Twenty? There has got to be a line somewhere and Disciple Shishi crossed it.”

Then she faced the vice leader, stared into his brown eyes, and stated firmly, “I am not sorry for defending myself against someone who could kill me as easily as waving her hand and if you want me to say that I am, you will simply be disappointed. The only reason I am not dead or near it is because she did not use Qi and because of unexpected outside intervention. Elder Dianxin said attacking a senior is an expellable offense. Frankly, that is one of the most ludicrous things I have ever heard. Maybe it was intended to stop stupid outer sect disciples from unwinnable fights. I don't know. But I will say this, if she is allowed to almost kill me, then I am allowed to respond in kind. Otherwise, why not just stand all the outer sect disciples in a row and let their seniors beat them, steal their resources and stop pretending there is any sense of sanity within these walls. If you feel differently then I will simply leave the sect and find a place to learn where logic exists.”

There. She said it. If this isn’t the place for her, that’s fine. She had enough silver to get to Grandma Huan in the capital. Maybe her old teacher had connections to another sect. Her family would be disappointed, but there was no way she was staying at a place guaranteed to kill her.

The elders were silent after her rant, all staring at her. The vice leader broke the silence with a question. “Do you want to leave?”

Yu shook her head vehemently. “Absolutely not. I cannot imagine a better place for me to grow given my. . . ummm. . . peculiarities. But I will not stay at a place where I can be killed but not allowed to respond. I am not suicidal. Not only that, the fact that we are even having that discussion makes me want to call my master and tell him I cannot stay at a place where I can be killed while having to just stand there and take it. I am confident I can find a place that is not guaranteed to result in my death. Hells, even in the world outside the sect I can kill in the same way someone can kill me.”

The inner sect elder looked at her through squinting eyes and asked, “Are you really nine?”

Yu blinked at him and nodded. “Yes, elder. I had a difficult life and that tends to mature people quickly.”

The vice leader said, “None of us was there, disciple. We cannot judge what happened.”

That statement was so hypocritical that Yu slapped the table and responded with a snap in her voice, “But you would have allowed Elder Dianxin to do just that!” She then turned to Elder Tseung while pointing at Elder Dianxin and said, “And you would have backed his decision because he is an elder and I am just a lowly disciple who is a liar.” Seeing his eyes narrow she demanded, “Tell me to my face I am wrong, Elder Tseung.”

After a few moments of silence, he said with a stiff voice, “I cannot.”

“Then stop putting people unable to control their bias in charge of enforcing laws!” Yu’s voice may have been raised. “I am going to be bold and if you wish to punish me for it I will accept because I wish to help this sect, which I hope to be my home for the next years of my life. I think you all have some reflection to do about how laws are enforced in this sect if Elder Dianxin is an example of your enforcers. The idea that anyone in their right mind is arguing that I was at fault is utterly deranged and I am tempted to call my master and demand he fix this whole hells-damned place.”

That certainly got their backs up. Elder Dianxin said with a sneer, “Do you see now? I told you all.”

Elder Tseung turned to him and snapped back in a raised voice, “Shut your damn mouth, Dianxin! This entire event is your fault.” The target of his ire blanched. Yu nodded, agreeing. This whole thing could have been far less of an event.

Tseung continued, “All Disciple Yu had to do was touch that badge, summon her master and explain events. Do you think you would have even lived through it, never mind his reviewing the entire sect’s enforcement arm for her? Can you not see what sort of restraint she has had?”

The still-unnamed outer sect elder said with obvious frustration glaring at the two law enforcement elders, “Listen to you two. A nine-year-old has just educated and shamed you both. This could have simply been resolved with some research proving Disciple Shishi’s actions, which you already stated took very little time and effort and removing her from her position. But no. You, Dianxin, were a fool and couldn’t do your damn job. And top of that, you have clearly failed to learn your lesson and are still showing bias against her. Are you absolutely without sense?” Then he turned to Elder Tseung and said, “If you don’t address it, and quickly, I will move for an elder council and have a review of the entire law enforcement arm before her master does and out sect ends up mysteriously short of elders. Specifically, that elder right there.” And he jabbed a finger at Dianxin.

The inner sect elder said, “She is an inner sect disciple, you have no right to remove her from anything.”

Tseung glared back at the outer sect elder and then at the inner sect elder. “We do, Shou. And you know it.”

The vice leader spoke up loudly, “That will do!" And in a lower volume, "This is not an argument to have here and now.” Everyone quieted. “We are here to determine what discipline is to be applied to the disciples involved in the incident.”

Disciples? Plural? Are they kidding? Yu asked angrily, “Am I being punished for defending myself from blatant abuse of power by a senior and law enforcement elder?” That caused more silence and all the elders looking between each other.

The vice leader finally said, “No.”

“Thank you. Maybe you should reflect on what would have happened here to an innocent girl had I not had my connections." Thinking of some of the things that happened to her recently, Yu added, "And worse, imagine if that had been a young man instead of a young woman and what could have happened to someone not allowed to defend herself. Now, may I be excused? I don’t see what else I can possibly add to this farce.”

More silence followed until the vice leader said, “Yes. Thank you for your testimony.”