Yu’s right foot landed and . . . nothing happened. Yu blinked and looked back at her master who looked pointedly down at her left foot which was still outside the circle.

Oh, right. As soon as she pulled it in and placed it down the entire formation flared with light. It swirled all the colors of the affinities Yu knew and a few she did not, seeing a gray and sort of swirling red so dark it was almost black. There were a few others but they started to spin too quickly for her to make out. The outer circle which she was standing in brightened and she had to close her eyes and move her arm over them to avoid it. Suddenly she felt a weight fall on her, the light faded enough so she could see and when she opened her eyes she found a God Sign had appeared before her.

Chain of Silence being applied. Agree?

Yu mentally agreed and the weight vanished. Another Sign appeared and she was surprised by its contents.

Step forward for testing.

It baffled Yu how profoundly complicated that formation must have been to interact with her God Sign so deeply. Shaking her head, she took another step and entered the second circle.

This time there was no swirling; all Yu saw was a bright flash from beneath her feet and the next thing she knew she appeared in a large white space. A young woman appeared before her and tilted her head while staring silently at Yu. Yu examined the woman right back, finding her absolutely stunning. Possibly the most beautiful person Yu had ever seen.

She had long straight silver hair, perfect pale skin, red lips, almond-shaped eyes nearly glowing from the swirling silver inside of them, and a very womanly but athletic figure showing muscles in a white sleeveless Qipao with silver dragons, turtles, phoenixes, and tigers swooping and diving all over it.

Yu gasped. It was her. But not her today. It was her in five to ten years.

A “wow,” whispered from Yu’s mouth.

The woman smiled, showing perfect white teeth. “Thank you, child. I haven’t felt this beautiful in millennia.” Then the woman ran her hands over the nearly perfectly shaped body and gave it a sway. “Well, aren’t you going to be popular?”

Yu snorted at that. “At the rate I’m going, I’ll have so many enemies, they’ll all just kill me before I become that.” Yu waved her hand up and down at the woman.

Yu’s form smiled and said, “I suppose. You do seem to have a habit of making trouble, don’t you? Good! We Longs are troublemakers. It keeps all the idiots in the world from getting too full of themselves and being complete fools.”

Yu blinked. “Umm. How do I refer to you?”

“Oh yes. I’m your great great something something grandmother, Elder Jiu. I always take the form of the supplicant in case you are curious.”

Yu shuddered and said, “That must be creepy when you have to be a boy.”

The woman nodded seriously and said, “Yes, but I’m used to it by now. The Longs have been around for a while you know.”

Yu cleared her throat and said, “I don’t want to give you the wrong impression, elder. I have Long blood on my mother’s side, but my name is Fenghuang Yu, not Long Yu.”

She waved it off and dismissively, “Names don’t matter. Only bloodlines and power.”

Yu heard that word for the second time. “What do you mean bloodline?”

Elder Jiu looked surprised at that. “You don’t know?”

Then she tilted her head again and said exasperated, “Of course you don’t. Well, none of that matters now. We are here to test you for your Spatial Affinity. It’s easy to tell you have a strong overall affinity; now we just have to discover which areas you will specialize in. Each of the circles you pass through will be a test of the different elements of the affinity. This one is for your ability to control space sufficiently to create a spatial pocket. That ring you were wearing before you joined me had a good quality one and was a little bizarre. I haven’t seen its like in I don’t know how long.”

Was that possible? Yu blinked and said, “A spatial pocket without a spatial ring?”

The elder nodded and looked impatient. “Does our family teach nothing these days? Ugh.” Yu was about to respond but before she could the Elder went on. “Fine then. Here is how it works. You will be able to create your own spatial pocket. This is the most basic of all skills for our affinity and the size is determined by your overall affinity strength as well as your specific strength in that area of the affinity. Everyone with Spatial can do this, even if the pocket is only the size of a fingernail.”

Yu nodded, still nervous. “How do we test if I can do that?”

“Well, by trying of course. As we are in an illusory world, it won’t be your real pocket. This is just a test after all.”

Yu thought having storage without the ring could be handy when it came to hiding things so she waited for further instructions.

The woman got impatient and said, “Go on then.”

Coughing, Yu said, “Elder. I have no idea how.”

The woman glared at Yu and she felt like the weight of the world was on her in that glare. Is that what she would look like when she glared at someone? Heavens, it was scary. Upon reflection, Yu figured it was from the millennia-old and powerful matron in her body.

“You don’t know how?” The slow question vibrated with power.

Yu quickly shook her head and held her arms up in surrender. “I have no idea how to use the Spatial Affinity.”

The look she received was stormy. “Don’t lie to me, child. I can tell you have used it before.”

Yu blinked at her and said, “Umm. Elder. I don’t mean to contradict someone as obviously powerful and wise as you, but I don’t think I have.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose and said, “Oh? Are you quite sure?”

Then the woman tilted her head and her eyes began swirling. Her long silver hair rose behind her and then it all faded and everything was back to normal.

“I see. You have been using it without even noticing. That explains quite a bit.”

“I have?” Yu asked, surprised.

The woman waved it off and said, “We’ll get to that in future tests. For now, you have to attempt to pull Qi inside of yourself and. . .”

Then the woman went on a detailed explanation for how Yu needed to move Qi inside and around her. It was a fascinating insight into Spatial Affinity Qi and Yu thought it might help her in other areas as well.

In summary, the Qi needed to be folded inside of itself. Yu imagined it as something of a piece of parchment being folded again and again and again. The more folds, the more energy she needed to apply to fold it again and the larger the pocket. It was a massive effort but Yu ended up being able to fold it twelve times before she ran out of Qi. She actually felt she could have folded it more but without Qi she couldn’t force the invisible construct to bend.

The woman smiled widely and said “Excellent. You ran out of Qi before maximizing your folds. That means you have a very high overall affinity and a good amount of control over the Spatial elements of the affinity. This has nothing at all to do with the time-based skills and tells us nothing beyond what I just said so don’t get a big head. You will find you did not actually use any Qi so you will be refreshed for every test, but it will reset whatever you are doing. Now move to the next circle.”

Then Yu saw a flash and was back in the library. Looking around she saw her master staring at her hungrily. But the look vanished almost immediately and he simply gestured for her to step again. She nodded and looked down. The circle she was standing on was pulsing a silver nearly too bright to look at and she stepped forward into the next circle.

With a flash, she ended up in the same space and found herself staring at the same body as before.

“Elder Jiu, is that you?”

“Of course, child. So this test will determine your strength in moving between folds in space. Back in my day, we called it stepping but you youngsters may call it something different now. Either way, it is just as it sounds. You will step as far into this space as you can. It is somewhat similar to creating a spatial pocket, except this time in the opposite direction. You want to unfold space. You will send your Qi and . . .”

This sort of intense detailed training was an unmatched opportunity in Yu’s mind. She nearly leaped in joy at having the chance to directly learn from such an expert. Her mind was like a sponge, listening to every word and watching every demonstration down to the smallest gesture.

Her ancestor’s skill with Qi was unimaginable. She could control it at a level too small for Yu to see so she asked her elder to enlarge it and explain again. The woman seemed surprised but did as Yu requested, getting repeatedly more precise until Yu saw every particle like it was dust in a beam of light and watched the elder move it as if each dust mote was a note in a symphony.

Yu had not realized Qi could be controlled to such precision. She wanted to stay there for hours or days or years, pulling information from her ancestor like Yu was dying of thirst and the woman’s mind was the purest and freshest water.

Unfortunately, it could not last and the elder in a young body said, “All right. Your turn, child.”

Simultaneously disappointed and excited, Yu moved the Qi as the woman demonstrated and tried as hard as she could to emulate her. Her memory and perception were as perfect in that illusion as they were in the real world but thinking and doing are very different things.

Yu tried to move the Qi as her elder had but lost control many times. There were just so many different strings of power to control at once. After many tries, she did manage to advance her control but she always ran out of energy well before she could create a fold to step through. Yu’s frustration must have shown on her face.

The woman smiled at her and said. “Do not be too disappointed, child. That was excellent, but you will not be able to control your Qi that way. It is neither sufficient nor compressed. You should try to focus on the power of it. Remove any steps that involve the level of precision you are trying to emulate. That requires compressed Qi which is many years in your future. Focus on the power for now. I do not doubt you will be able to accomplish your goals. Eventually.”

Mollified, Yu nodded and the woman waved her hand. Yu found her Qi full again and repeated the same process but avoided trying to control it so precisely. Once again Yu found her Qi draining but she did not stop herself. She focused on forcing the world to unfold the space before her until a void appeared. Panting, Yu imagined her destination and took a step forward.

Yu could barely stand as her foot landed she was so drained, but she managed to stay on her feet as she turned around. Elder Jiu was behind her about twenty paces away until she suddenly appeared in front of Yu.

“Not bad, but you are too weak to make real use of this now. Once you compress your Qi, you can do more including pull the void towards you so you don’t have to actually step into it. Or even push it at others, which has all sorts of implications as you can imagine. That is many years away though. For now, you demonstrated very high ability with Spatial control and stepping. You may move forward to the next test.”

Yu was surprised - she felt it was rather awful. Twenty paces? What good was that supposed to be?

The woman who would be her in years walked up and put her hand on Yu’s shoulder. “You feel differently because you do not know. You did well. Now off you go.”

Once again Yu appeared in the library and looked down. The circle was just as bright as the last and she looked at the next. She then stepped forward and once again appeared in the white space. Elder Jiu was waiting and said, “The next test of one of gravity. This is exceptionally rare and I would be surprised if you had a talent with it so don’t be disappointed. Here is how it works. . .”

It turned out Yu did indeed have the capacity to control gravity but only barely. She could not crush or lift mountains the way Jiu demonstrated, but Yu could use it to make objects slightly heavier and lighter. Yu was rather annoyed she wasn’t more talented at that skill given how versatile it seemed.

Yu was determined to practice and find uses for it. Maybe it could improve. She was strong in Spatial overall after all. At least according to her elder. Not excelling at something she put her mind to had never sat well with Yu.

“Well, onto understanding time," her elder self said. "Step forward, child.”