Willow concentrated on the flow of energy travelling throughout her as a woman in a wide brimmed hat poked and prodded her. Sending out pulses of qi with each poke to get a sense of the elementally attuned currents running through the child while being careful not to disrupt them.

  “It’s beautifully bafflin’ I have to say.” Scholar Mu said as she let out a cloud of sweet smelling smoke that blew away quickly due to the speeds they were currently moving at.

  “But what I’m sensin’ doesn’t make a lick of sense.” She continued as she finished up her daily investigation, writing down her findings in a leatherbound journal with a nub of a pencil. Her curiosity burned bright to Willow’s spiritual sense.

  “What doesn’t make sense?” The girl asked her new mentor. She knew that her “path” as others called it was odd, but it didn’t seem that out of the ordinary to her.

  “It shouldn’t be self sustainin’ like that. I’ve heard of cyclin’ energy from one spirit to another, but it’s a frowned upon technique because it’s often sacrificial in nature. This is somethin’ new.”

  “What’s “sacrificial” mean?” The curious child asked, though she had suspicions.

  Mu grimaced. “It means somethin’ has to be lost or used up. In this case, the life of another spirit.”

  Or another person. Willow thought darkly, the almost accusatory eyes of a desiccated corpse were still burned in her mind. An old woman she had failed to save.

  Noticing the girl’s obvious discomfort the scholar continued. “There’s a reason it’s frowned upon. The majority of people ain’t monsters, and the idea of sacrificin’ a bunch of spirits for the meagre power it offers isn’t somethin’ most are willin’ to tolerate.”

  She puffed on her pipe, generating a haze of smoke around her. “Plus, more often than not, such doings lead to what most consider to be demons. Though I’m not a fan of the term, personally.”

  That really piqued Willow’s curiosity. “Why not?”

  “In my not so humble opinion a demon is just a spirit or beast that has a concept people don’t like or is more inherently destructive. I’ve heard people prattle on about “demonic qi” this or that, but I’ve yet to see anything that actually resembles such a thing.”

  She patted the viridian scales of the great serpent they were currently riding.

  “Take ol’ Rotter here. He’s grasped the concept of Rot, and by most metrics he should be considered a demon. Even had to nab a spirit of spring meself just to counteract the effects of channeling his energies. Yet he’s docile and under my control so no one raises a stink about him.”

  The beast in question rumbled a complaint and Mu just rolled her eyes.

  “My mistake, you’re a wild and independent beasty. Definitely don’t need my help at all for findin’ food or your yearly sheddin’.”

  Rotter grumbled at the reminder, but kept quiet otherwise.

  Her attention shifted back to Willow. “Point I’m really tryin’ to make is don’t be so quick to accept the labels others put on things. There’s a lotta nuance to find if you’re willin’ to look.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Willow nodded to herself, her curls bouncing with the motion. Though something about her teacher's explanation confused the girl.

  “You have a spirit? I thought if you bind a beast you can’t bind a spirit, or the other way around.”

  Scholar Mu laughed. “Where’d ya get an idea like that?”

  She shrugged. “I dunno, just haven’t met anyone that had both so I thought it couldn’t happen.”

  “You really ought to be more curious, girly.” Mu chided her. “The only way to find out more about the world is to constantly be askin’ questions. Even for things that seem obvious.”

  She paused and let out another cloud of smoke.

  “Especially for the things that seem obvious.”

  “Can I meet them?” Willow asked, always eager to see a new spirit.

  Mu sighed at the lack of acknowledgement for her shared wisdom. “Not right now, maybe when it’s time to stop for the night, but there’s not enough space on Rotter’s back.”

  She puffed in thought for a bit.

  “You can meet Huey though. He’s a wee bit intense, but it should be fine.”

  And suddenly a spirit floated above the scholar’s outstretched hand.

  They looked roughly like a large bird made of scraps of paper and too many eyes. Illegible words covered the strange spirit, and they constantly shifted and moved across the surface of their “skin”. It was the gaps in the paper that held the eyes, yellow-green orbs that gazed at the world with intense curiosity, though only one was anywhere close to their “face”.

  The moment they were summoned all of the spirits' eyes locked on the girl and the bird-like being moved closer to investigate.

  “This is He Who Lines His Nest With Knowledge, or Huey if you’re someone who appreciates brevity.”

  The first thing that came to Willow’s mind was that this spirit was likely the source of her teacher’s all consuming curiosity. What she sensed of his nature was an even more intense desire to know as much as he could about the nature of the world.

  The second thing that came to her mind was…

  “Neat!” She stared with a wide smile at the spirit hovering ominously around her. She could tell that he didn’t mean her any harm, and he was awfully interesting to stare at. The shifting script and glowing eyes made for quite the mesmerizing combination.

  “Nice to meet you Huey! I’m Willow!”

  “He was my first spirit, and he’s been with me the longest. Terrible in a fight though, which is why I bound the big guy. Though he wasn’t quite so big when I first got em."

  “My first was Eos!” She said as she summoned her candleflame spirit from their place by her heart.

  One of Huey’s eyes locked on the small flame while the rest continued to observe the child.

  Mu perked up a bit at the new piece of information. “Really? Thought it would’ve been the yin and yang spirits you still haven’t shown me.”

  “Nope! Eos was first. I found Change and Harmony a bit later.” She wanted to trust the wanderer woman, but the twin spirits were on the run from some dangerous people. Willow wanted to be extra sure that it’d be safe to show them to her.

  Her mentor quickly connected some dots.

  “So those core exercises you do were being used to flush out any fire energies you’d gotten in the meantime? Smart plan, still curious about why you were so confident in bindin’ so many wee spirits. If your technique was even a tad more complex you wouldnae have the space for all of them, and then you’da been stuck with an incomplete cycle.”

  The truth was that Harmony and Change had come up with the plan, but she wasn’t gonna tell Mu that. Though with how intensely both the wanderer and her spirit were scrutinising her in this moment she doubted her ability to lie.

  “I wasn’t confident at all. Just wanted to know what would happen if I tried it.” She said with a shrug.

  A grin split her teacher’s face.

  “That’s the spirit! We’ll make a proper scholar of you yet, girly!”