Labby felt a faint presence in the far distance from her bond to her Great Master. A strange melancholic emotion filled her chest to be so far away from him.It had been almost a week since Labby had started visiting the Inner Sect, and today, she had declined the chance to go with her Master once more as he traveled by himself.

Lightning shot towards Labby as she leapt, her own purple lightning crackling around her in response.

“Leiyu sees the little rat's distraction. At this rate, she will never achieve her dreams,” the bird taunted her, standing in front of her wearing a human form with light brown hair and golden eyes, he that crackled with lightning, there was no mistaking him for a human.

Labby jumped around striking back with her purple lightning that the bird swatted away with his palm, a crackle of thunder sounding out from around him.

“What has Leiyu taught you?”

“Never take your sight off the enemy,” Labby replied, the words rote to her with how often the thunder bird loved to repeat them.

Leiyu nodded, and suddenly propelled himself towards Labby. With a leap, the little rat dodged the attack, as lunar Qi gathered at her claws. Blades extended from her feet as she slashed at the much larger Leiyu, who smoothly dodged her assault.

“For a spirit, a human form is a hindrance. Unfamiliar, clumsy, and incapable of the strength that their own body could generate. It is a facade, put on to mingle in this society that is run by humans, a show of respect. And it is why you will never see a dragon wearing a human form, for one of the few things humans still bow to are them,” Leiyu said, hands behind his back as he continued to dodge the bolts of lightning that Labby shot at him.

“But you? You are a rat. A creature who was never meant to cultivate, and gain such strength and more importantly, knowledge. For you, even a human form provides strength, stability, and mass. Yet, it is far easier to take on a form lesser than yours, far more difficult to assume a greater form. Not all carps become dragons, and the climb of the waterfall possesses deadly currents that are survived by only a few.”

Labby squeaked, leaping at Leiyu’s face as she let her lightning Qi run wild, letting it lash out. A golden bolt struck her down from mid air, as she was sent flying.

“You follow the path of lunar thunder. Of Yin and not Yang. Yet, your thunder has not lost it’s temperament. Rule the thunder, little rat, do not let it rule over you. It is not so easy to master the Dragon’s tempest. Your nature as a rat is against the nature of a dragon, you cower and run and hide, where a dragon would stand its ground, and slay all who rise in front of it. Think once more, on whether this truly is the art you wish to master,” Leiyu said, as his body lit up, lightning crackling all around him.

“Leiyu is tired for today. A human form is taxing. Practice on your own now. The faster you reach the third realm, the quicker you’ll be able to gain the form of your desire.”

Labby squeaked as the thunder bird flapped its wings, leaving the chamber with a crackle. She stood on the floor, looking around the chamber in thought. She’d seen Yan Yun perform the Dragon’s Tempest on the very first day she’d begged them to teach her.

The world had crackled with power, as lightning rained down one after the other from the sky above. Labby’s heart had shuddered with fear, as the art had reminded her of the vile tribulation that had struck her master so mercilessly.

Yan Yun’s had been weaker, far weaker, yet the same fear had risen in her heart to see it nonetheless. She knew, to have the form she wished, she would need to go past the form she’d been born with, and to do so, she’d have to stand against the wishes of the Heavens themselves.

It would take a tribulation for Labby to gain the form of her desire, and so she’d set her mind to master the lightning and tame it, so that it could never harm her or her Master ever again.

Or at least, that’s what she’d thought to do. A week had passed and Labby was still stuck trying to gather Qi and somehow have the cultivation art work. She’d failed to even invoke a single spark to appear from the art yet.

“Perhaps Labby is simply not meant for this.”

Labby shook the thought away from her mind. She could not give up! What would she do if the heavens came to strike her Master again? Could she truly bear being cut off and separated from him again? To be made so useless once more?

“No. Labby wishes to gain power. She wished to be strong enough to protect her Master.”

With a squeak, Labby crackled with lightning once more, as she renewed her training.

***

Lightning rose in a rising tide, a thick bolt rushing towards. The bolt of lightning broke around her, flowing through the eight silver needles set around the ground as she continued to cultivate at the center of the formation, powerful lightning spirit stones and herbs surrounding her on all sides.

Qi cycled in her core, thunder waiting to be let off its leash as she sat deep in meditation. The beginning of the fifth realm sat a hair’s width away from her reach, she was close that she knew. Yet the insight she needed refused to come.

Lightning lashed out from the formation once more, breaking apart upon reaching Yan Yun as it was channelled through the needles of silver, filling the air with a burnt smell.

A question continued to haunt Yan Yun.

Why did she cultivate?

“I cultivate… to be stronger than my grandfather,” Yan Yun tried once more, yet the Qi in her core remained still. She bit her lips, frustration mounting. She’d tried every possible answer she could think of.

All the time, she kept returning to her desire for freedom. For her desire to be free of her role as a prodigy, as the granddaughter of the Yan clan, and of the expectations everyone put upon her. To be free of her grandfather.

Is that not why she cultivated? Is that not what her life had been about all this time?

The sound of flapping wings broke Yan Yun’s concentration as she opened her eyes and watched Leiyu fly into the room and perch upon her shoulders.

“Leiyu didn’t mean to interrupt Yan Yun. But from the look on her face, and the feel of her Qi, Leiyu assumed it still hasn’t worked?”

Yan Yun shook her head silently.

“Well, the little rat has already told us all it knew. Of the two sides of lightning, and of the endless cycle of numbers which Leiyu still doesn’t understand. How does nothing add value to something? You cannot take nothing and say join it with something and create more of it,” Leiyu said, squawking as if offended at the idea itself. Yet there was clearly some truth to the words, seeing the little rat’s growth.

“I’ve already asked La Bi everything she knew, yet ultimately, I still fail to grasp the nature of lightning,” Yan Yun said, extending her hand forward as sparks crackled in between her fingers.

“That is not what’s bothering Yan Yun though, is it?”

Yan Yun smiled. “Since when did you become so perceptive?”

“Leiyu can grow too,” the bird said, turning its head away as if offended and Yan Yun let out a quiet giggle.

Her mirth soon began to fade as Yan Yun stared at her surroundings. A moment of quiet later, she turned to look at Leiyu. “Does Leiyu know why he walks his Path?”

The bird turned to look at her, as if confused. “Of course. Leiyu wishes to be the most resplendent spirit amongst all, one that governs the sky and lightning, a glorious marvel for all others to look up to,” Leiyu exclaimed, his feathery chest puffed as if in pride.

“A goal to aspire for,” Yan Yun replied with a little giggle making Leiyu crackle indignantly as he huffed at her.

“Yan Yun may laugh now, but the day shall come one day, and then it will be Leiyu who will be the one laughing.”

“Yes yes, I am sure Leiyu will be a splendid spirit that even dragons will look up to,” Yan Yun said, as Leiyu nodded.

“Indeed, and for this, Yan Yun must work harder too. She cannot lag too far behind when Leiyu excels above all.”

Yan Yun felt her smile slip at the words, as she stared silently at the thunder crackling around her formation.

“I don’t know if I’m capable, Leiyu. Perhaps coming this far was the extent of my talents, and this is where my Path ends.”

Leiyu jumped from Yan Yun’s shoulder, lightning crackling around him as from the light came out human feet, and a young boy of about fifteen staring back at her.

“Do you truly think so?” Leiyu said, crouching down to stare at her with his deep golden eyes.

“I… don’t know,” Yan Yun replied, turning her eyes away from her spirit. “If I’m supposed to follow grandfather’s word, then I would be betrothed to Lord Zhou’s son, and eventually married. Perhaps that is what I should be doing, instead of plotting these silly plans to somehow walk away from these talks and end them before anything more could happen,” Yan Yun said, clenching her fists.

“Does Yan Yun hear herself? Leiyu had never taken her to be so weak. To be one to give up so easily in the face of a challenge.”

“Perhaps I am weak. Perhaps it was all a facade and the mask is slipping now. The world shall see me as nothing but a liar, a failure and a deviant. Someone who let down her family,” Yan Yun spoke, her eyes meeting to look into Leiyu’s as heat seeped into her voice.

“Leiyu thinks Yan Yun is a liar, yes,” Leiyu said and Yan Yun’s eyes widened in surprise. “Only a liar can call all the years of effort she’d put in a facade, and only a liar would utter the words that she did. So yes, Leiyu thinks Yan Yun is a liar. But weak? Yan Yun has never been weak. It is the liar in her that makes her think she is weak, but Leiyu knows better. His eyes see far more than your human eyes. Yan Yun is strong, and Leiyu believes in her.”

Yan Yun felt words getting stuck in her throat as she was swallowed filled with a strange emotion. She moved in, wrapping her hands around Leiyu as the bird squealed, crackling with lightning as his human form broke apart.

“That was inappropriate!” the bird exclaimed in protest as Yan Yun laughed.

“Thank you Leiyu,” she said, as the flustered bird huffed, turning away without replying. She noted the rising feats on his body and the flustered Qi from their bond and smiled.

“Perhaps I should—”

A crack interrupted Yan Yun as the thin wall connecting her meditating chamber to the sparring room broke and a little rat tumbled in.

“La Bi? What are you doing?” Yan Yun asked, staring at the rat who shook her head, before turning towards Leiyu as she crackled excitedly.

“Labby did it! She made the sky crackle!” the rat exclaimed as her Qi pulsed and thin lines of purple lightning crackled around Labby for a brief moment.

It was a spark, something even a mortal would struggle to be injured from, and far from being the Dragon’s tempest, an art even she hadn’t mastered yet, but she had indeed succeeded in using the art.

“Labby was thinking so very hard, on how to make lightning when she remembered her master’s word. She needed to break the balance! So instead of reaching out to gather lightning, she called it instead, gathering the Qi inside her instead of outside, and then letting that Qi quickly move out causing lightning!”

“Leiyu can see that,” Leiyu replied, staring at the rat. A moment later, her spirit flew over to the little rat and perched next to her. “Very well. Even if pathetic and weak, it is indeed the art Leiyu had asked you to learn. And since Leiyu had given his word… you may eat one lightning herb from our garden.”

Hearing the words, a giggle broke out of Yan Yun’s mouth as she stared at the little rat squeaking in joy. Some things truly never changed.

With a smile, she watched the spirits play, forgetting her worries. The path ahead was uncertain and she was afraid of what was to come, but for some reason, the fear didn’t shake her heart as much anymore.

Afterall, she’d finally managed to make some friends.

***

“Should we truly do this, Li? What if she senses us? The Elder would have us both whipped.”

“Be quiet, Lei. No one will know. I already know that she’s trying to hide something, and is not teaching her all she could.”

“She’s merely afraid that we’ll surpass her and take the favor of the clan away from her,” Lei replied, masking his Qi as he quietly moved through the chamber.

“Indeed, a truth that will happen sooner than later. But for now, we need to find something to show the Elder that he should pick us over her. A girl to be married off being the heir would not benefit anyone either,” Li said, grinning as thunder crackled quietly around him.

The two twins stepped into Yan Yun’s chamber, keeping their senses sharp as they inspected the area.

“She barely has anything in here. Does she even do anything besides cultivate?” Li asked, when Lei elbowed him to be quiet.

“Hold on, Li, I found something.”

“What is it brother?” Li asked, walking over when Lei took out a book from a drawer.

“An Alchemist and a Thief’s untold story?” Li read out loud staring at the book. “Some sort of novel perhaps? I don’t think-”

The chamber door rattled, as lightning Qi surged through the twins as they leapt out of the room.

Zu Ri walked into the chamber, glancing around briefly. She looked around for a moment longer, before walking out.

Li and Lei stood breath’s held as they remained just outside the doors. A brief glance later, Li took hold of the book in his hands and the two twins rushed off.