The mountains were growing ever closer as the caravan slowly made their way through the Vale. Rotter cleared a path for the group as they went, and two figures sat on his back.

  Energy swirled and surged through Willow’s pathways as they did their daily core and body tempering exercises. Their body shifted and changed as they flooded it with yin and yang energies, both energy types touched by the accompanying concept their spirits provided.

  Scholar Mu looked on with interest from the side as they did the exercises, but she refrained from the poking and prodding she usually did when studying her student. Instead she just puffed away on her pipe as Huey kept an eye on the process.

  After all, if Willow lost their concentration during these exercises it would be quite catastrophic.

  Or so the child had been told, at least. So far they hadn’t messed it up, even if they had gotten extremely close the first time their body shifted from its original state of being.

  When they had first shifted from girl to boy it had been quite the shock, but by now the child was mostly used to their shifting nature. It had been fun learning about being a boy, even if one of her aunts had gotten uncomfortably upset when she had found out her niece had been “pretending” to be one.

  They still didn’t know why it was such a big deal to her. It didn’t affect her in any way, and the rejection stung. They still didn’t know if her reaction would’ve been better or worse if she ever found out they weren’t just pretending to be a boy.

  Willow’s body was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and their focus was beginning to fail, as demonstrated by their wandering thoughts. So she began to wind down the exercise, settling into her girl form as she did. Not wanting to give Aunt Sarah more of a reason to be upset with her.

  “Still not sure if you should keep doin’ this.” Her teacher said with some concern as she checked over her body and pathways with pulses of qi.

  “It’s a rather crude technique, and I don’t like the strain it puts on you. Even if the results are quite fascinatin’ to observe, you likely don’t need to keep doin’ it to clean out your core anymore since you can just bleed out the excess energy into that cycle you got goin’ on.” She sent a pulse of energy tinged with the renewing properties of spring to a particularly sore spot, which Willow greatly appreciated.

  “It’s fine, doesn’t hurt too bad. Plus it makes me strong!” The small girl flexed her barely existing muscles, frowning slightly because they weren’t as well defined as she felt they should be.

  Mu puffed on her long handled pipe. “Is physical strength that important to you? You have more spirits bound in you than anyone I’ve ever met. Should be trainin’ them to fight on your behalf rather than focusin’ on your own strength of arm.”

  Willow shook her head, her curtain of curls bouncing from the motion, and outrage clear on her face. “That’s not fair to them! If they’re gonna fight then I should be next to them, not letting them do all the work!”

  The wanderer chuckled, a cloud of sweet smoke billowing out as she did. “You’re likely to piss off a lot of binders with that attitude, you know. Nothin’ wrong with lettin’ others fight your battles if you’re not suited for it.”

  Mu took some herbs from a pouch on her belt, sprinkling more into her pipe. “Not gonna be able to teach you much about fightin’ alongside your spirits. More of a support type myself, make the big guy fight, and make sure he’s all patched up both durin’ and after.”

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  She held out her pipe to Willow and she just sighed, quickly summoning Eos to light it for her. Which the little candleflame spirit was happy to do, as they were always eager to help.

  “Much obliged.”

  She puffed for a few moments more. “What I can do is give you some qi control exercises so you can make use of all the energy types you have access to.” A thought occurred to her. “Can you even make use of their energies without pullin’ directly from their supply?”

  Willow nodded, and harmonized with the small flame spirit still in her hand.

  Her body shifted into flame and light, startling both her teacher and her spirit of knowledge, making her face split into a fiery grin.

  “At least warn me first! Watchin’ you burst into flames ain’t good for my heart.”

  The serpent they were riding grumbled his agreement, the wood aligned spirit beast quite uncomfortable with a living flame on his back.

  She switched back to normal, patting Rotter’s rough viridian scales. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to scare you.” The indignant hiss of a reply made it very clear that the snake was not “scared” by her antics.

  She then turned a sheepish smile to her teacher. “Sorry for not warning you either. Should I use someone else instead?”

  Mu was staring at her student thoughtfully, tapping the mouthpiece of her pipe against her teeth.

  “Do you have to be transformed like that to use your spirit’s elements?”

  “Yup!”

  She had experimented with Aunt Jieun when she had first developed this technique. The energy in her core shifted to match the type of the spirit she had harmonized with, and she could draw from her own supply instead of her spirit’s when she did so. However, no matter how hard she tried it couldn’t be done without that step.

  “Can you do that with anyone else’s spirits?”

  That was a good question actually.

  Could she?

  “I don’t… think so? I harmonize with the bond, not the spirit.”

  Yeah, that felt correct.

  “Have you tried?”

  At her continued hesitance, Mu gestured for her spirit of knowledge to float closer to her student.

  “Try it with Huey. Shouldn’t be able to hurt him in any way that matters. Plus he’s practically beggin’ me to let you try it on em.”

  Willow didn’t sense any such intent from the eldritch bird, but maybe this was something that could only be conveyed through their bond.

  “Could this be dangerous?” She sent to Harmony. Not wanting to accidentally hurt Huey after all.

  “I cannot think of a reason for why it should be, but tread with caution, child.” She sent back.

  Willow placed her hand on the paper skin of the strange spirit, with all of his eyes tracking her movement the entire time.

  She attempted to harmonize with them, but it didn’t feel the same as her other transformations.

  It was closer to when she harmonized with the environment, a slight blurring of boundaries, yet ultimately the connection was quite shallow.

  She poured more of her qi into the technique, feeling the boundaries between her and the spirit of knowledge blur further.

  Indecipherable script began floating across her skin originating from the point of contact.

  She felt like she was getting close, and her curiosity burned bright as she poured yet more energy into it.

  A green eye opened on the back of her hand, and suddenly she saw herself as the knowledge spirit saw her. Not as a little girl, but instead a collection of curiosities and datapoints to be deciphered.

  The flood of new information broke her concentration, a discordant note that unravelled the harmony between the two of them.

  The backlash was immediate and violent.