Well before the sun was up, Yu sat, looking at two objects sitting on the floor in front of her. She had set the training room to be a Darkness area so she would have no distractions. The only things in the massive black space were Yu, a single adjustable Ether lamp, and two items of unknown origin and effect. She stared at them, wishing she didn’t have to be doing this but… she felt it was out of hands. Her master was right. He needed to stop hiding from her power. It was doing this for a reason.

Ever since the knife had been identified, Yu had occasionally found herself holding it, not having remembered taking it out of her ring. And for the last two months or so, the bracelet had let itself be known as well. She would realize she had been fiddling with either of them and not remembering when she had started or how long she had been doing it.

Yu did not want to deal with these objects. There was so much risk, so many unknowns. But this morning the final blow had landed: Yu had woken wearing the bracelet on her arm and holding the knife in her hand. Finally, she had surrendered to it, aware that denial could only be pressed so far. Her power was driving her, and she could only resign her fate to the gods.

Letting out a breath, she picked up the closest and twirled it in her hands. It was a silver band with a single violet and red gem, each embedded into it and held by settings that look like claws. The light of the ether lamp glinted off the silvery metal, which Yu could tell was not steel. Or at least not normal steel. The reflection of the Qi-based light was not the gentle white of its source, but a rainbow of colors clearly visible against the black backdrop. And in that rainbow, it became apparent that, when looked at at just the right angle, there were small carvings. But they were not characters or words, nor runes or formations, as she had thought at first glance. No, they we nothing like that. The carving marks were the edges of feathers. When seen in the multi-colored reflection, the previously solid silver appeared to be made of metallic feathers. And now that Yu had seen that, a closer inspection of the claw settings holding in the gems confirmed that they looked similar to those she had seen on the large birds that took sect disciples up and down the mountain.

Obviously, the first thing Yu did was try to have the object identified. Master Mi Gong had recognized it when she had asked him to do so, as she had thought he would. But his answer was disappointing. He said he could not get past something called a keyed barrier, which was in essence a “suicide enchantment,” meaning anyone who tried to force their way past it and did not have the “key” – whatever that was – would cause the item to destroy itself, and sometimes the user. He seemed familiar with the that type of protection and explained that they were extraordinarily complicated and prohibitively expensive to set up. When she had asked why they would bother, he told her that many ancient family heirlooms and inheritances used them to prevent competing clans from getting their hands on them. In that example, the key would be the wielder’s bloodline rather than an object. He added, “I know for a fact that, generations ago, the Gui clan had put keyed barriers around certain spatial rings and vaults that only opened with a signet of some sort. Nobody beyond them knows the details though.”

How the bracelet had ended up in the tomb it had was a mystery to him because there was no key to go with it. He had tried every other object there. Thus he assumed that the key was either lost or a bloodline. That was the whole reason the thing had been so inexpensive in the auction, despite the potential power. The bracelet or armlet or whatever was one big gamble at best and a suicidal waste at worst.

So, the identification attempt having failed and Yu’s hope for an easy solution lost, she had spent hours and hours reading about similar objects in both the sect’s library and the Enchanters’ Hall, hoping to avoid killing herself. Her findings were a mix of exciting and terrifying, which matched with Master Mi Gong’s statements. She had read stories of ancient heirlooms granting great powers to cultivators who would eventually become renowned. But equally as many cautionary tales were told of protected objects burning their greedy wielders to ash or cursing them to lives of pain and suffering.

That had made Yu think of the risks she had taken with her other enchanted gear. Yu had had no idea what she had been doing when she had first donned her gifted armor, just trusting in Jiang and his intentions. Looking back now, it had been naïve and foolish. However, even with the benefit of hindsight, Yu felt she probably would have done the same, given her vulnerability at the time. However, her hook swords, which have never had any issue cutting through anything – nor experienced any flaws, stains, nor nicks needing to be sharpened – were a complete mystery. Everything about them was unknown. They could be harming her every time she wielded them for all she knew. Even so…

I won’t give them up. They’re practically a part of me now. And I can’t allow fear to rule me.

Thus, Yu was sitting in a room of blackness, staring at an unknown object, with unknown properties, and unknown potential side effects… and she was about to put it on. She had done what research she could and was confident that she had mitigated the risks as much as possible. Now all that was left was to put it on, inject Qi, and hope for the best.

Time to take the chance. Then she moaned to herself, foresight, please don’t get me killed or cursed.

Yu put her hand through the hole and, thanks to it being so big, pulled the ring all the way up her arm to sit just above her bicep, just like it had done all by itself that very morning. She then turned it so the gems were facing out, took a deep calming breath, and injected Qi into it.

The first thing that happened was the gems glowed, which was expected. What happened after, was not. The claws opened and the gems flew out of the metal. The rotated around Yu’s head once, and then stopped in front of her face.

Her vision wavered and she was pulled into memories that were not her own. “Well done,” rumbled a slow deep voice in her mind that was vaguely familiar. “You are moving faster than I anticipated. Good. Now watch and learn of the past. And possibly the future.”

***

Yu saw a city many times larger than hers, prosperous and filled with cultivators. Powerful men and women flew around the city, their capital. They used their great power to travel their empire that spanned a continent. They ruled it with power and ferocity, but were loved by their people for the most part.

But just like that, it ended in fire and death, lightning and darkness. People were dying by the millions. By the billions. She saw the dead rising and those killed not staying dead, their black eyes terrifyingly familiar. Only those with the ability to purify something to its source could fight the tide of horror. She saw a group of powerful cultivators, a council, sitting around a table discussing how their world was under siege. Their people were dying by the droves and they could not prevent it. They did not have enough… origin. They researched and read, looked at old tombs and histories. Billions more died, but finally, after hundreds of years of endless war against the corruption, they found it. The origin. Aeon.

So they pooled all that remained of their smiths and enchanters, all their knowledge and power, into the creation of objects able to break down the corruption into its original form and defend them against the tide. Yu watched as they toiled over forges and formations, their people fell from exhaustion and deviation. Again and again they failed to create what they had hoped… until they didn’t. Four objects were made. One of Wood and Water, one of Earth and Metal, one of Fire and Lightning, and one of Wind and Ice – each crafted from a special metal that had both a solid and liquid form, its malleability the only way to hold the keys to their salvation: their origin gems, aeon stones. They believed, hoped, they would save the world. But they were wrong. Yu watched as the realization struck them. The aeon stones could not create origin energy by themselves – they needed to be attached to those who already had it.

So they gathered their four greatest warriors with origin power and gave them the aeon stones. And for a time, only a few years, they were able to hold off and even push back the hordes of corrupted. But the truth became quickly evident. The aeon stones had a terrible side effect: they drained their wielders of life and power. Their greatest warriors, greatest hope, wasted away from use of the stones. The council wished to remove them, but the four declined, knowing they were the last with sufficient origin energy to battle the sources of the corrupted. And battle they did… until they faced their final battles and died against corrupted gods.

Their stones left them then, returning to their families. They gave the stones to the next of kin with the most potential, but they did not have sufficient origin energy, and the stones destroyed them before they could even wield the power. They tried again and again to find warriors with enough origin power that the stones would accept them. All died. Hundreds. Thousands. None could be found.

Seeing no alternative, the families created a final seal, cutting off access to the aeon stones to any without a tremendous amount of origin energy. Then they hid them in their family vaults, passing them down generation to generation as stories and reminders. And soon the stories became lessons, and the lessons fables. And then even the fables were abandoned. The aeon stones were forgotten as anything but expensive jewelry to be sold and traded, their true history lost to time.

***

Yu wobbled as the world came back into focus. She blinked, and looked around into the blackness surrounding her. Then she saw two stones floating in front of her and recalled herself to the present. She stared at them, amazed and scared of what they were and what they could mean.

“They’re coming back, aren’t they?” Yu asked them. They flashed once and Yu bit her lip. “Will you kill me?”

For a few breaths nothing happened and Yu waited. Then they flashed red and violet and shot down back into the large ring. The claws closed and the object went inert. For a moment Yu thought she had not met the requirements and she was both relieved and afraid.

But such was not her fate. The silvery metal seemed to lose its solidity and soften. It liquified and ran like water, flowing down her arm, pooling together and then molding itself in a shape. Yu watched as two lumps seemed to pull out from the blob, slowly morphing themselves into… feathered wings. Two thin legs ended with sharp-taloned claws formed underneath a feathered body. A head became visible, a beak with a sharp point at the end slowly formed. And finally, the two gems, one of Fire and one of Lightning flowed down the liquid as if rafts in a stream, moving along the currents of the feathers, until they reached the head and took the place of eyes. Yu watched, astonished as the liquid metal had formed a stunning raptor of lightning and fire laying on top of her arm, coiling around it from bicep to wrist.

It was then that the pain hit and the metal sunk into her arm. It was not horrible by Yu’s standards and she gritted her teeth through it. She did not take her eyes off of the glistening liquid melting into her flesh. And slowly the metal was absorbed, leaving behind a silvery tattoo of the greatest of mortal hunting birds, a Roc, diving for prey, its red and violet eye glistening against the dim light.

***

Twenty minutes later, Yu was still examining her arm. “Did you know, tiger? Or was it just convenient timing?” she asked the air.

Neither expecting nor receiving an answer from the enigmatic feline that had so altered her life, Yu sighed. She had started poking around with the new addition to her body in hopes of getting a response, or better yet, hiding it. Sadly, so far nothing caused a reaction of any kind. This was worrying to Yu because if she just spontaneously had a tattoo of that size on her arm, it would be noticed. Easily and quickly.

She had tried sending Qi into it like it was a ring. It offered no response. She had tried talking to it, thinking to it, touching it, rubbing it. It offered no reaction. Sighing, Yu put hiding it aside until she came up with a way to actually do something about it.

After some further consideration, she decided she was not going to tell her master about it unless he figured it out for himself. She frankly didn’t trust him. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She trusted he’d do whatever was of his own benefit and the benefit of his mysterious plans – whatever in the nine hells they were. But she was going to keep the aeon stones hidden from him if she could. Telling him just did not sit well with her. Then again, he might detect them anyway, given how powerful he was. If that happened, she’d have to tell him and just hope for the best. He was equally likely to chop off her arm or shrug in apathy in her experience.

For now, Yu wanted to focus on things she could control. Which lead her do one more thing before going for breakfast.

She had been scared about using the bracelet before she found out the truth of it. But she had been absolutely terrified of the knife. It was just too… big. But, her power told her she could not avoid it any more than she could have avoided the bracelet, which she only partially understood, even now.

Sighing again, Yu hesitantly remembered the contents of the now destroyed tag.

Item: {{{SPIRIT WEAPON}}} (Name unknown, grade unknown)

Qi Type Requirement: Matches the wielder’s

Affinity Requirement: Matches the wielder’s

Stage Requirement: Meridian Formation (all spirit weapons)

Resale Value (Est.): Priceless (into the multiple tens of billions)

Description:

This is a spirit weapon. Frankly, I am a bit short of words at the revelation. A damn spirit weapon. Astonishing. Being my first, I was hesitant to experiment too aggressively on it, lest I damage it or force an unintentional binding. That would be a colossal waste. This weapon should be wielded only by the best of the best. The cultivator with the greatest potential of the young generation, in or outside of the Gui Empire. It is too rare, too extraordinary. A once in a dynasty weapon.

This reaffirms my decision to remove all the precious equipment from the hands of that no-name bumpkin brat. How in the nine hells did she come by an unbound spirit weapon anyway? In regards to the knife’s capabilities, all of my research states that spirit weapons permanently bind to a single wielder and become part of their body and spirit. They will grow stronger together and die together. They become one being and whatever capabilities the user has, the weapon gains… over time. It is a slow process from what I understand, and the younger the individual is that bonds with the weapon, the better, giving them both time to grow. Historically speaking, spirit weapons were created and gifted to the heirs of great dynasties to help defend their rule. Unfortunately, the method to create spirit weapons has long been lost, and nobody is stupid enough to destroy one of the handful that still exist to make an attempt at figuring it out.

Additional product notes: The grade of this spirit weapon is unknown and probably will remain so until bound, and likely for long after. Never having interacted with one before, I cannot even guess at whether it is mortal, earth, or heavenly grade. The ritual for binding a spirit weapon is vaguely similar to binding a beast and can be done only by a Spiritualist. Of course, I will offer this service for free to whomever ends up purchasing the weapon. Speaking of which, I have to spend some time thinking about the best method to sell it. I have contacts high in the international Treasure Pavilion organization thanks to my previous creations and finds. They may advise me which branch on the continent is the best to have the auction. No doubt it will create a great fervor, but also potentially great conflict. Thankfully, the Treasure Pavilion are experts at handling things like this. And anyway, none of that is my concern as long as I get paid.

Yu shivered at the idea of such a tool. A weapon that grows with the wielder. Changes with and for the wielder.

Does that go both ways? she wondered. Will be different after? Who could I become?

Losing herself had been Yu’s greatest fear since she had been healed years ago. And now… Spirit weapons… They had been used to defend dynasties, he said. Once again, Yu had come into possession of something that would cause wars, but this one was even worse than the grade 6 core.

She fell backward, flopping on the floor of the training room and looked heavenward, wondering if she should bind it. She had learned how from elder Pei, who had leant her a book from the Senior Enchanter’s Library of the Enchanter’s Hall. It would be simple, just as bonding with Bai had been. No great formations, no massive energy. Just blood and intent. Yu could do it by herself, here and now. All she had to do was go through with it.

She let out a breath in a big puff of air. It felt like it should be more complicated. Harder.

Why does this keep happening to me? I never wanted it. Then she rubbed her forearm and the new tattoo there. Any of it…

She lay there for a while, staring into the blackness, trying to empty her mind of the fear and self-pity.

What’s the right choice? If anyone finds out, everybody I know and love is at risk. My family and friends, my city, my future. There are so many implications, and so many more I’m sure I don’t know. But is it really up to me? Has anything ever been? Then she rubbed her forearm again. With what might be coming, do I have a choice?

Yu reached over, picked up the knife and once again held it to her face. She tried to feel within herself, to the source of her power. She moved deeply inside of her core, looking for answers to questions she was not even sure she knew to ask. Yu saw herself, her own rough jade form among a sea of mist, so much thicker than when she had first arrived at the sect.

She looked at the representation of how she saw herself. Really looked. The white jade showed streaks of color representing her power, but with something deeper inside. Within herself she found a glow, brighter than the streaks, but still dimmer than it could be. Will be. For the first time she saw how the silvery radiance of space and time pulsed, pushing and pulling at her and the world around her. It moved the very essence of the world, shaping and changing itself to fit who knew what. But right now, it pressed at her, nudging her to the object currently in the hand of her physical body.

“Are you sure?” she asked it in her mind. “This isn’t like the aeon stones. We may never use them. Never have to use them. And they’re removable according to the memories. But not this… this is forever. It’ll change us.”

It pulsed harder, yanking at the weapon, almost desperately. She nodded her ethereal head and sighed. “Okay.”

She withdrew from herself, staring up at the knife in the real world. Sitting up, she used its tip to prick her thumb and placed it on the center blade of the blade, just above the hilt. The blade itself was the “soul” of the knife… its purpose – the hilt, guard, and wrapping were all added for the wielder, but the blade was its center.

Unlike with beasts, spirit weapon bonds were supposed to be one-sided. It was more like a contract of someone agreeing to serve than a bond of equals. That made Yu somewhat uncomfortable, but she reminded herself that a spirit weapon was not alive. It would become a match for her, but it was a tool, not a living creature. And despite their name, spirit weapons did not have souls. According to the book, they had what were called intents. Sort of goals. The purpose for their creation. The examples the book gave were: to serve, to conquer, to rule, to win wars, to rise, to save, and to dominate. Almost anything under the heavens could be a spirit weapon’s intent.

And Yu was about to find out this knife’s. She sent the words she had learned from the book. “I, Fenghuang Yu, take you to become mine. I awaken you with my power, as you will grant me yours. As I grow, you grow. When I die, you will follow. Serve me well and you will gain in power as I do. These are the terms of our binding.” And she sent herself into the blade to learn its intent.

She flowed into it, finding herself surrounded by… blood. An ocean of blood. And in the center was a barely-visible pulsing light, red to match the macabre environment. It sucked at Yu, trying to pull from her her life. But it failed. She was not a victim to be drained, but the master to control. Realizing it, that light moved towards her. It was only a single dim mote but it pulsed with desire. With intent. It wanted life, to drain and to grow. And that intent in the form of light entered Yu between her brows and her entire world was hunger. Ravaging hunger to feed off of life.

The world of blood exploded.

Yu gasped, opening her eyes and finding herself on her side. She looked at herself, wondering why she wasn’t painted red with the blood of her victims. Those she drained. Then she remembered, and let out a breath.

“That was creepy,” she said to her now empty hand. Spirit weapons were housed in the body, not on it. So she closed her eyes again and entered her mindscape. She found the white jade version of herself visible, but it had changed. Only slightly, but different. Her jade self’s hands, instead of being on her legs in meditation, were cupped in front of her. And floating between and above them, was a slowly spinning knife with a blood red blade.