Daphne stroked the catcus’ back with gentle strokes, eliciting a purr from the spirit animal. Alice, Daphne decided, would be her name.

“Do you even know the first thing about raising familiars?” Blaise asked.

She had heard tales from her old monster of a master about cultivators that tamed beasts and waged war with spirit animals by their sides, but such arts were beyond her grasp. Her master never allowed his disciples any pets. Said it created too many earthly attachments and deviated one’s cultivation, preventing them from reaching the apex. There had even been tales of those spirit animals whose own cultivation had grown to a point where they could take on human form.

“Animals are still animals, no matter how profound their cultivation!” her master had declared with a confidence that only came with advanced age.

Because of that, any animal that strayed near the sect too long would have been killed and cooked for dinner. Not that they’d ever had the misfortune of coming across a spirit animal with such deep roots.

“How hard can it be?” Daphne said. She tried to hand her over to Maid, but the catcus hissed, letting barbed thorns sprout out of its dry fur whenever Maid’s hand neared her. Alice only relaxed when Daphne’s hand returned to stroking. Clearly her new path friend was of some intelligence, and having recognized Daphne’s own impeccable status, would not allow someone lesser to pet her.

“It’s more about the risks involved,” Blaise said. “Investing in a familiar is not lightly done. If the creature is ever caught by your enemies—”

“Caught? I’d be surprised if they could even touch her,” Daphne said. “Alice is more than capable of defending herself.”

Blaise groaned. “You’ve already named her?”

“A path friend deserves a name,” Daphne said simply.

He threw his hands up in the air. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you of the dangers. If you’ve named her, you’re already on the first step of forming a familiar bond.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Daphne said. Maid finally stumbled upon a solution, and approached Alice while carrying a cushion. The catcus seemed to find this acceptable, and allowed herself to be deposited onto Daphne’s silk sofa cushions stuffed with geese feathers. “Now let us return to the matter at hand. The tournament is less than a month away, which means to awaken the two of you, we must use an accelerated program.”

“There’s a way to speed it up?” Tracey asked, eyes brightening.

Daphne smiled at her. “Of course. There are two ways to do this—either drug early, or drug often.”

“Drug early?” Blaise asked. “Cousin, just how young were you when you started taking these pills?”

Daphne considered the question seriously. She had begun honing her cultivation at the tender age of four, but she’d been born to a village that few cultivators paid mind to. It was only when her master had sensed her primordial yin energy while flying over her village that things changed and she’d been initiated into the Elegant Swan Sect. “My first time was when I was eight,” Daphne said at last.

Jaws dropped at her proclamation. Really, it wasn’t so strange. Some masters even considered eight too old to begin stepping heavenward with the aid of refining pills, though they were hardly in the majority.

“Eight years old … you’d just started fostering with the House Principal Parkins then,” Blaise muttered. “Are you saying they drugged you just as you entered their household?”

“Don’t be silly,” Daphne said, scoffing. “I sought them out myself.” Whether in this world, or the next, nothing was ever given freely. Like in any decent society, which the Elegant Swan Sect most certainly was, the acquisition of materials to help one cultivate had to be bartered for with service or spirit stones. Some fools resorted to theft, and they paid for that with the severance of choice parts.

It was Tracey that broke the silence next. “Will we really be able to see as you do before the tournament begins?”

“It is within the realm of possibility,” Daphne said. “I will need you to describe to me what you saw if I’m to accurately gauge your progression, however.”

Her disciple closed her eyes softly, hands reaching out for something unseen and half-heard. “I … I felt it, for a moment, I think. The energy, the flow. It was everywhere and nowhere.”

Daphne hummed, and bobbed her crown of golden hair. “The endless dao. You’ve caught a glimpse of it.”

Blaise frowned. “I have no idea what either of you are talking about.”

“Of course you don’t,” Daphne said. “You were too busy fighting the drug, letting yourself be distracted by worldly things. How can one grasp the immaterial when still tethered to the material?” She turned back to Tracey. “When we do this next, focus on that feeling, but do not try to grasp it. When seeing becomes second nature, you will be able to witness it without aid.”

“Is that really it?” Blaise asked. “That’s all there is to the trick?”

She sighed. “Everything in the universe is simple, but even the simplest things are hard. I have told you the secret, yet there is a difference between knowing it and knowing it.”

“Cryptic as ever,” Blaise said dryly. “Unfortunately, there might be a slight problem with your plan of drugging us daily.”

“Broken Nose can acquire more pills if we should begin to run out, nor are we lacking for funds,” Daphne said. Broken Nose nodded his head in confirmation, confident that in his ability to acquire more pills to fuel their nascent cultivation.

“Are you forgetting the promise you made to Archystor Archibald when you first arrived?” Blaise said. “You mentioned it to me in passing not a few days ago.”

Daphne thought for a moment. “He asked that one of the hystors supervise me whenever I experiment with magic.”

“Exactly,” Blaise said. “If we are to meet everyday like this, he will grow wise to our activities, and the archystor is not someone we should make an enemy out of. Why you’ve chosen to keep this from him is beyond me, but I can only advise you not to raise his suspicions against you.”

“I understood the terms to mean I would be supervised while experimenting,” Daphne said. “This is no experiment. I am sure of what I’m doing.”

“You are playing with magic unheard of. It’s arrogant to think that way,” Blaise said.

Daphne beamed at him. “Thank you.”

He blinked at her, and sighed. “And the archystor isn’t likely to see things the way you do. Developing a signature spell, nevermind teaching other people said spell, would surely be considered experimenting by him and the hystors.”

“You really think he would take offense?” Daphne asked with a hint of worry coloring her voice. Like her cousin said, it was best not to raise the ire of an old monster or to wake sleeping dragons. It was said that each star that hung in the sky was a reminder of an empire toppled or a sect exterminated by angered cultivators!

“He might not show it,” Blaise said. “He wouldn’t have lasted so long as archystor without some tact, but it would do our standing with him no favors.”

“Are you counselling me to tell him of my cultivation then?” Daphne asked.

“Either that, or we keep to our current training schedule,” Blaise said. “Allowing the hystors to witness the crafting of your spell has its own dangers. A signature spell cannot be a signature spell if it isn’t secret.”

It really was strange that this realm had not uncovered the basics of qi sensing yet, but their own style of cultivation could accomplish things beyond Daphne’s imaginations. She dared not think of their methods as lesser, just different. “The archystor did promise the witness would be sworn to an oath of secrecy and promised to keep my cultivation a secret.”

“That might suffice, if you hide the nature of the pills from them too,” Blaise acquiesced.

As their session for the day came to an end, Daphne found herself reaching out to Archystor Archibald. He had a representative picked out already as it turned out—Filip. A known character, according to Blaise, who had risen high in the Archystor’s esteem as of late and was raised to the rank of Polihystor—one wise about many things.

He was a bastard, as it turned out, but one born to upper nobility on both sides. It was even whispered by some that he had turned down a lordly inheritance to pursue his studies with the Middle School.

As Daphne learned more about the man, she could only extend respect to him. Many cultivators deviated from their path once tempted by worldly power, failing to realize that the only true power was one that could not be stripped from you. Titles and estates were all of the material world, and of little good beyond easing one’s steps heavenward.