Voices faded in and out along with Yu’s consciousness, too muffled to recognize.

“… irresponsible! …”

“… apologize…”

“… result …”

“… warn you …”

***

Yu felt awareness suddenly and with discomfort. The peaceful darkness had been overwhelmed by a near painful brightness which seemed to pierce into her brain. Wincing, Yu blinked repeatedly and jerked her head to get away from the light.

“Finally awake then?” the familiar voice of her master asked impatiently.

Yu examined her surroundings, trying to figure out where she was. It did not take more a few breaths to recognize the familiar herbal smells, shelves of bandages and healing implements, and bland walls and curtain.

Healers… Why am I in a healing center?

Falling back on long-worn habits, Yu flipped through her memories.

Right. The garden. The music. Those words.

“Caught up, have you?” Yu turned her head just in time to see her master shaking his head in obvious disapproval or disappointment. She wasn’t sure which.

“I’m glad to see you have awoken,” said a new voice as the curtain was thrust aside. Her clansman who had caused all this stepped forward to stand at her side. “I owe you an apology.”

Her master humphed, but was ignored by both Yu and her cousin who she still had not learned the name of.

“My name is Long Fengdu, and please accept my sincere apologies for what happened earlier. I forgot certain things, and you fell victim to my poor choices.”

Confused, Yu looked between her master and Long Fengdu. It was her master that answered, still looking annoyed.

“You fell victim to a bit a prank our clan tends to play on its youth,” her master explained with irritation.

Yu blinked. “Wait. That wasn’t an attack?”

Fengdu chuckled. “No, my dear. Our clan tends to welcome our young with a little… test I guess. Well, it is more of a trick we welcome our young with when they arrive at a new clan conclave for the first time. Unfortunately, forgot that you were new to Spatial Qi and went a little too hard on you. You are a bit on the… ummm… weaker side?” Seeing her scowl, he hurriedly added, “No offense intended. You have, after all, not been raised within our clan and have only been studying our own special skills for a few short years.”

“Are you saying,” Yu asked, “that this was all planned?”

Fengdu coughed into his hand and looked sheepish as he nodded.

Yu dropped her head back onto the table with a light thump. “Why doesn’t my foresight ever warn me about these things? Isn’t it supposed to help? What good is it if it never works when I actually need it!” Yu exclaimed angrily.

Apparently her master took what she had intended to be a rhetorical question and decided it wasn’t one. “Interesting premise to bring up. Besides the fact that you are abysmal at using the skill, I have to admit that it likely would have at least given you a modicum of warning. You likely would have sensed it through a prickling of the skin or a nagging feeling in your mind, as you have experienced in the past when it self-activates. Of course, none of that applies while your powers are being suppressed.”

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“Suppressed?” Yu asked.

“It is all part of the prank,” Fengdu answered. “We lightly suppress the powers of the youth, giving them the opportunity to sense it and break out or suffer the consequences of failing to do so. It is all in good fun.”

Yu was not pleased at all that she had just essentially been hazed into unconsciousness for “good fun.” She had spent the first thirteen years of her life being “pranked” by the children of her clan, including her brothers and did not find this joke the least be funny.

However, she forced her indignation down, despite the desire to snap her the man, and asked for an answer to an important question that had more impact on her future. “How was I suppressed? I didn’t feel anything.”

If she could learn this, it might help her in many ways – not the least of which was how to better use her Spatial Affinity powers. Creating voids was really the only one she was proficient at.

Fengdu sighed, looking a mix of sad and frustrated. “You have so much to learn, cousin. Were you raised by the clan, you would have been exposed to training exercises of similar bent when you were little, and then in greater and greater detail as you aged and grew in strength. It is all very structured and controlled, dependent on things like affinity strength, sub-skill compatibility, Qi type, meridian count, and more. We Long have, after all, been raising youth with the Spatial Affinity for hundreds of millennia.”

Thinking about that, Yu supposed she had to accept at least that last part as logical. Reluctantly, she tried to release her frustration and focus on something more important, or at least more immediate.

“I assume I’m healed?” she looked at her master for an answer. At his nod, she examined herself and found nothing amiss, her sect robes unblemished.

To her cousin, she asked, “So what now? You’ve made be bleed from my nose and knocked me out with your special music. Using music as an attack is new for me, by the way, so thanks for that exposure, I suppose. Is there anything I should know? Is there someone around here with a sword ready to chop off pieces as some test or something?”

Okay, maybe she wasn’t as over it as she had thought.

“No,” he answered with a wince. “No more of that.”

“Indeed not,” her master interjected. “Now, onto more important things. You had a message for my disciple from the clan? Deliver it so we can leave. Your interference has already cost time I had planned for more important things.”

He sighed. “Fine. I do indeed have a specific message for you. The first is that you are… invited to meet certain members of the clan upon your return from the spirit realm.” He stops there, clearly waiting for me to acknowledge his statement.

“That doesn’t sound so much like an invite,” Yu said back. She heard her master grumble something unintelligible.

“Good,” Fengdu nodded.

Yeah, that was no request.

Then he stood and stepped back. Her master stood as well and began walking away. Yu sat up, turned so her legs dangled off the edge of the bed, and dropped to the floor.

She was prepared to feel some form of discomfort, but did not experience even the slightest dizziness as she settled onto her feet. Thankful once again at the sturdiness of her body and ready to move on from this place, she followed after her master and cousin.

“Your rooms are prepared and servants have been assigned to each of you,” Fengdu said as they walked together out of the healing rooms. Yu was not too sure about staying in the place given her experiences to date, however, the moment they stepped through the door into the hallway, Yu froze.

Everything was different. The repetitive blandness was gone, replaced by what she would consider normal if expensive coloring, designs, art and furnishings. Yu looked left and right and saw that the previous maze-like halls were now just standard halls with turns and ends like any other large structure.

“Ah, yes. Your Qi signature has been added to the defensive formations, so now you can freely move about. One of your assigned maids will provide a tour so you will know your way around. Then have been informed that once that is complete, you will no longer need a guide.”

For the first time since they left the healing center, Fengdu looked at her. “I must admit a bit of envy towards your eidetic memory. Although, I do imagine it has some interesting consequences in regards to your time manipulation skills.”

Yu was about to confirm that it did when her master piped in. “Enough poking into my business.”

“Fine. Can’t fault me for trying though,” Fengdu said good-naturedly.

Yu narrowed her eyes at him. She realized then that he had just attempted to find out about her Spatial Affinity specializations and strength. And worse, she had been about to give that information away. Worse, neither he nor her master seemed to find anything particularly wrong with the attempt. Sure, her master had stopped it, but he did not do more than just basically say, “stop.” It wasn’t even very forceful.

It was like they both felt Fengdu’s behavior was completely normal. Expected even.

Before Yu could think further on it, they met up with the butler from before and Fengdu spoke again to both her and her master equally. “Time for us to part ways here. I leave you in the head butler’s capable hands.” Then directly to Yu he said, “As I have many duties with the tournament, we will likely not see each other until after it’s end. I look forward to seeing you at the ball.”

Then he turned and walked off.

Yu halted in her steps, agape.

“Wait. What ball?”