The snow elf, adorned with an aura of wings, took flight in my inner sea, dancing and cavorting with glee at being given shape and substance. Once I had finished the ritual and released the Qi I had used for each geometric form, the summoning circle and ritual room collapsed. The energy I had used to maintain both restored and reabsorbed to the waters of my inner ocean.

"Hello?" I called, gaining the snow elf's attention. "I am Jai Myche, a cultivator at the Qi Gathering Realm, Baroness of Fief Myche. You are?"

I didn't feel the same emotional connection with the spirit I had with Storm. There was a bond, but it didn't allow us to share emotions and thoughts. There was a connection, something tenuous and hard to define, but perhaps that would strengthen given enough time.

For now, it was more akin to an itch in the back of my mind. It reminded me of those instances when you saw something on the edge of your vision, but nothing was there when you turned to look. Or those moments of certainty, you felt that someone was watching you, but when you searched the area, nothing or no one seemed to stand out.

I hoped it wouldn't take long to get used to. It would be tiresome to live in a perpetual state of awareness, constantly monitoring the area around me for dangers that didn't exist. There were enough real dangers I had to worry about.

"Baroness," the elf replied, flying closer and allowing me to understand better what I was dealing with. While the spirit did have shape and substance, it didn't have the solidity of mortal flesh.

It was only when she focused and sent energy down an astral cord, submerging it in my inner ocean, that she was able to draw enough energy to manifest completely. Only then was I able to make out features and identify gender. She was beautiful, and the aura that made it seem like she had wings glowed with a shifting and cascading change in colors that changed as she moved.

"I am Toi, a Spirit with abilities that relates to fog, snow, and ice."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"My greatest ability is in stealth and illusion. I can make and use billowing banks of fog to hide, confuse, and trap."

"I wonder how your abilities differ from mine. I have the same affinities and have used fog to confuse and disorient people in the past."

"I would have to see how you used your abilities to say for sure. I can tell you that I don't simply create fog, snow, or ice. I become those elements. They become appendages of my spirit body, a part of me that I have had to exercise to master," Toi explained.

"Do you feel pain or become wounded if the elements you control are damaged? A powerful fire-aligned cultivator can counter fog and ice easily."

"I can be damaged, but only if the attack is a targeted soul attack. The dispersal of fog and ice leaves me weakened, not from pain or wounds but because the expenditure of energy I exerted is lost," Toi explained.

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"How do you restore lost soul resources?"

"Part of the agreement you made when you summoned me was to supply me with a small amount of Qi as you cultivate. The amount is negligible. You lose more than I will need simply by breathing.

"I can convert the siphoned Qi I receive from you to restore my soul reserves."

The conversation we were having might have seemed innocent enough, but both of us were testing the other, both of us using perception to weigh the truth of the other's words. I also used Storm and her empathic abilities to 'feel' out Toi and see if she noticed anything harmful.

Storm didn't act as a lie detector, but she was empathic enough to notice and interpret the subtle fluctuation of the aura Toi projected. I had grown to rely on her impressions of a person's character.

Toi's spirit aura was fascinating, a construct using a layered effect, so it appeared she was a spark of Qi protected by a shell of spirit. The closest I could come was that she seemed to be more golem than anything else- fog, snow, and ice animated and programmed to function.

"Sister is safe," Storm informed me through our bond. "Sister Toi will be a new sister. Storm is the first sister. Storm is older. Storm will help sister. Sisters help each other."

Her concept of sister and family might be rudimentary, but that didn't make them any less valid. If she identified with Toi and recognized her as a sister, that was good enough for me. I would trust the spirit, accept her as more than a resource to be exploited, and share ideas and problems, relying on her intelligence and experience to add a different perspective to issues and events.

"I do have an immediate benefit I can offer," Toi said, gaining my attention. "I have skills that will help with certain professions. If you have some land, I can use it. A place where I can create a persistent weather pattern of fog and ice, I can develop that area to grow herbs and crops that you gather from this area.

"If you have access to a body of water, I can also create an ice float that can be harvested for ore used for ice smelting."

"Sister, what about the torc," Storm suggested.

It should work, and if Toi could enter and exit as easily as Storm, it would make the perfect place to grow and protect the ingredients I would need for the new skills and professions I had gained.

I entered the torc from within my inner ocean, giving no thought to how the torc and the Mystic Realm might interact or conflict with each other until after I had arrived. I noticed no difference or increased resistance as I quickly tried to enter or exit. Once I realized that the Mystic Realm might consider my entering the torc a violation of the rules established when the rift opened.

The world around me was the same as it had been. The city of ice was as pristine and beautiful as before. Once I had satisfied myself that I hadn't triggered an event that would have me booted from the rift, I reentered the torc, asking Toi to join me as we began searching for an area that would suit her purpose.

"The lake's shore will work," Toi said as she floated beside me. "Is there any place you'd consider off-limits?"

"The island in the lake is home to a herd of animals I am breeding," I replied. "And the cave on the northern shore is home to a rare plant. A plant that filters impurities from the surrounding environment and forms a core that can be harvested from each seedpod."

"Does it filter spirit?" Toi asked, her voice laced with an emotion somewhere between hopeful and disbelief.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "Today is the first time I knew enough about spirit and spirit summoning to even consider spirit energy as something that could be exploited, used, and nourished."

"If it filters spirit, it could be a great weapon in the arsenal against demon cultists and invasion," Toi pointed out.

"I wonder if the plant can be nurtured and adapted for the area I will create? Can it be mutated? If it could be grown to form an ice core and hybridized to cleanse the air, it could be instrumental in keeping mines clean of dangerous gases, reducing pollutants in the air, and serve as a balm when healers are working to reduce fevers of fight infections."