The Light pierces the Light purifies the Light saturates and sanctifies i feel the Light within and without sear the skies and boil the seas there will be no darkness there will be no shadow under the watchful gaze of the Light

“You have to eat, Alex. I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but I still care about you.”

There will be no Distraction within the Light it fills our eyes warms our skin the Rainbow plays across the glass and we are one with the Light

“We still care about you. Mom misses you, everyone misses you but you need to snap out of it.”

The Light will cleanse the Heretics and Nonbelievers BURN free the impurities and corruption of the ever darkening world i will be the Herald of the Light

“You can’t hurt me, Alex. I’ve been a higher cultivation stage than you since we were kids, remember? Blast away all you like.”

The advance of the Light cannot be Stopped it cannot be Slowed the Light presses onward and onward and there is no containing and constraining the Light the Light has no fetters and no Attachments the Light feels no hate and feels no pain

“Damn it, I miss you, asshole. What the fuck have you done to yourself?”

**********

Sollen felt the energy circulate within him.

He sat, back to the intricate carvings on the wall, hands cradling a piece of glacial stone, butt firmly on his rubber mat. The mat was one of the best investments he had made for his cultivation, considering how much time he spent sitting in one place. Supposedly, when you reach your first ascension you don't have to worry about things like pressure sores, but Sollen wasn't there yet. The merchant who had sold it to him got it from the Climbing Ivy sect, and according to her they made it by doing something with tree sap-

Focus. Sollen acknowledged the extraneous thoughts and sent them on their way. It was taking longer than normal to clear his mind, but he was almost there. He felt the cold energy from the stone, creeping and hollow, trickling through his veins like water through pipes. Earth energy seeped through his back, solid and present, spilling in through his bones like a filling hourglass. The two energies coiled in his chest, braiding and unbraiding, dancing around each other in a helix. He breathed in deeply, held the breath for a moment, then exhaled sharply.

Earth and cold snapped together into Ice. The diffuse Qi, no longer a helix, felt powerful and solid as he gathered it into a ball. He traced it around the bones in his chest, then up his neck and down his limbs, searching for a section of skeleton that wasn't brimming with power. He found none, excellent.

Next, he searched his muscles. None were as saturated as his bones, with each muscle holding roughly half as much qi as an equivalent bone could. But as he gently prodded them, none felt like they could take any more without pushing, and Sollen knew better than to try and force infusion. After checking on his tendons and sinew to similar results, he finally moved to the area that had been giving him trouble.

Sollen frowned as he probed the inner membrane of his skin with Qi, which refused to accept even a tiny bit of it. Qi slid off it like rain off a waxed umbrella, and Sollen sensed that if he tried to force the issue, bad things would happen.

It was especially frustrating because Sollen knew that he could trigger his first ascension right now, if he wanted to. His body was suffused with enough Qi that forming a core would be trivial, and would give him a huge boost in strength.

But no. Breaking out of the foundation stage without infusing every part of his body would handicap his future progress. As he ascended through the stages, those parts of him that hadn’t been prepared in foundation would become weights around his neck, hobbling his future growth.

He had been stuck here for over a week now, and when he had finally broken down and asked his mentor for advice, he had been told to relax and let progress happen at its own pace. So here he sat. Frustrated with his bottleneck, and lacking any new way to make progress, Sollen found his mind wandering to the events of the day. He and his sect brothers and sisters had been warned that the newcomers would react poorly to the news that they would be cultivating without a net, so to speak, and they had, for the most part. Jack had reacted significantly less than expected, however.

When Uncle Sun had informed him of his task to befriend the child of a Sunbelt, he had expected someone fiery, passionate, even cruel. So far, Jack had demonstrated none of those qualities. From what Sollen has seen, the redheaded boy had been nothing but easygoing and gentle, almost deliberately so. Though, he supposed it’s possible that he’s just hiding that part of himself.

What was that thing he said? Something like “Everybody has secrets. You Ice cultivators seem particularly good at holding things inside”. Harsh, but fair. Is it just our natural tendency to be quiet, or is there some other reason? Do we just have a particularly strong shell?

That wouldn't make sense, because Ice doesn't have a shell. It’s solid all the way through, except for when it’s freezing, of course.

Sollen fought to keep his body relaxed as he followed that train of thought to its conclusion. He saw, in his mind’s eye, the surface of a lake on the cusp of winter. As the temperature dropped and the surroundings stilled, a layer of ice began forming across the surface of the lake. When a strong breeze blew, kicking up the bulk of the water, the ice shattered, filling the lake with bobbing shards of ice like panes of broken glass. When the wind died down, in a manner of minutes, the layer of ice had reformed, creeping out not just from the edges, but from each shard of ice floating on the surface.

A skin of ice is brittle, but strong, and every time you break it, it reforms faster than before.

His Qi surged, then condensed into a tighter weave. The insight had taken, integrating itself into his understanding of ice. It was a small gain, the edges of his Qi a little smoother, the weave a little denser, but it was enough. Slowly but surely, Qi began to saturate the inner layers of his skin.

Fantastic, he thought. Only ten thousand little epiphanies to go.

**********

“Are you sure you want to spend your free afternoon with me in the library? It probably won’t be that exciting.” Silvia said, pausing at the great stone archway that marked the entrance to the outer sect library.

Amy gave the slightest of shrugs. “I’ve had a whole lifetime of free evenings. I’ve never tried to help you make a cultivation method before.”

“I guess that’s true.” They walked past the front desk, with its array of tubes, shelves and carts, and an empty seat in the center. The door to the office behind was open, but there was no light on inside, so Silvia couldn't see what the office’s interior looked like. They made their way to a small study room covered in chalkboards, signed the log on the front door to reserve the room, and spread out their collected books on the table.

“What was it like when you first started cultivating? Are you allowed to tell me about the sect’s cultivation method?”

Amethyst sat down on a stone stool, drumming her fingers on the table briefly. “It’s complicated. I can tell you about my cultivation method, but I can’t tell you about the sect’s, because ostensibly, we don't have one.”

Silvia looked quizzically to the carvings in the stone of the ceiling. “You don't?”

“Not officially, no. According to Elder Sun, we all create our own methods in the process of cultivating, but because we all have effectively the same influences, advice, and reference materials” she gestures vaguely out the study room door towards the stacks, “it works out to about the same as having one standardized method. I do cultivate slightly differently than Sollen, and I’m sure our methods are very different from the Elders.” She scanned the rough jumble of books they had found. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I don’t even know where to start.”

“Well, we normally start from the end and work our way backwards. We know that we want to be permafrost cultivators, and we try to figure out what aspects of earth and cold will make that final product, and what will work for us. What do you want to end up with?”

“Anything but Death,” Silvia said, focused on rearranging the books on the table.

“You’re sure?” Silvia nodded, resolutely. “There's a reason the Reapers are feared across the continent. Elder Sun is adamant that the only wrong cultivation method is an ill suited one.”

“I'm sure. I don't want to be a weapon.”

“Understood.” Amy thought for a moment, leaning back against the wall and registering Sil’s furrowed brow and clenched jaw. “I can try and give you a lesson that the elder’s like to give people having trouble forming qi.”

“Please, I'll take all the help I can get.”

“Well, the first thing they say is to remember that the names we use for the elements are just shorthands to help us understand. Cold isn’t necessarily cold, and…” Amy trailed off, thinking.

Silvia cocked an eyebrow. “Cold isn’t necessarily cold?”

“I said that wrong.” She said, shaking her head. “There’s a reason I'm not an elder. Alright, cold is cold, but it also can also represent slowing, or stillness, hollowness, or any of another million aspects. We think of it as cold, but we could just as easily think of it as stillness. And it’s opposite, Heat, represents motion, speed, and energy.”

“Wait, what?”

“Earth and Air aren’t just Earth and Air either, they represent solidity versus fluidity, or if you want to get really abstract, pulling versus pushing.”

“You’re telling me that the compass points, the eight sacred seals, and the foundations of the world are symbolic?”

“Yeah.” Amy paused, turning to see Sil’s eyebrows attempting to crawl into her hairline. “Is that… not common knowledge?”

“I think my local priest of the compass points would try and have you burnt at the stake for just suggesting that the names of the elements aren’t literal!”

“It wouldn’t work, but it might be funny to see him try. How did you think us permafrost cultivators took cold and earth and came away with Ice?”

“I don't know, you’re cultivators! Everything you do is insane!”

“We’re cultivators, and everything we do is insane.”

“Gods damn it.” Sil’s forehead hit the table, and she beckoned Amy to continue. “Go on, I know you had more on the spool.”

“Oh yes, right. Growth and Decay are pretty literal, but they don't just refer to life. They can be about gaining or losing things, and creating or destroying. Light and Dark are the most abstract ones. The easiest analogues are penetration versus engulfing and exposure versus concealment. If you squint, they can also be presence versus absence, but earth and air fit that a bit better.”

“So I need to find a piece of decay and a piece of darkness that fit together to form a concept? Like stillness and solidity do for Ice?

“A concept that you resonate with, yes. And it helps if you can work in more than one facet from each aspect.”

“Great.” Sil said, pushing herself up from the table and drawing in a deep breath. “Let’s research.”