After a very uncomfortable half hour of interviews, the inspector turned Chang-li over to a trio of lower-ranked officials. These bowed and scraped around Chang-li, explaining that they were lux technicians and would be using a series of instruments to thoroughly test his lux abilities.
Chang-li hoped they would not be able to detect the lens he had incorporated into his new lux-based body. He didn’t really want that information to be written down anywhere.
They took him to a private garden, blank walls on three sides and the door they came in on the fourth. The garden was about fifteen feet square, lined with gravel, with a single tree standing over a trickling pool. Water ran into the pool and then ran out before disappearing, pouring into a pipe that dove under the building. It was, he supposed, restful.
They sat him on a bench and set up various instruments all around him, asking him not to cycle while they did so. When the instruments were in place, they had him conduct a series of tests, first cycling in any pattern he wanted, then performing specific tasks such as cycling blue lux from his core to his left thumb.
Finally, they brought forth an empty lux battery.
“Do you know what this is?” one of them asked.
Chang-li did. He had found a handful of such crystals in the last tower they had entered. They would store lux of a particular color, either when it was deposited in them by a cultivator who knew the trick of it, or by gradually filling in a lux-dense environment.
“That’s right,” one of the technicians said when he described what he thought it was. “Now, this one’s been adapted so that anyone can use it as long as they have a basic cycling technique. Place your hands on the crystal and use your favorite cycling technique. We want you to fill it with lux as fast as you possibly can.”
“Any particular color?”
“Whatever you like,” the technician said expansively.
Chang-li smiled to himself. He seated himself, took the battery in his hands, and began cycling lux into it. It filled in about three heartbeats. Then the battery exploded.
The Lux technicians scrambled back, exclaiming.
“Ah, my apologies,” Chang-li said, though he didn’t mean a bit of it. They had been testing him in more ways than one, and he wasn’t amused. “Perhaps you should give me a battery designed for someone at the Lux Embodiment level.”
The trio looked at each other. One dashed back into the building while the other two looked embarrassed.
“Really, that’s how you were going to testify I’m at Lux Embodiment?” Chang-li asked. “You’re not going to say, find some way to tell that my body now has partially become made of lux?”
“Forgive us, great one.” The two remaining technicians dropped to their knees in the gravel, pressing their foreheads to the dirt.
Chang-li started back. He hadn’t expected this much of a reaction. “The Inspector said we needed to be certain you were not exaggerating your capabilities. We will conduct the proper test immediately.”
“Get up,” Chang-li said in disgust. “You can’t test anything when you’re groveling in the gravel like that.”
He waited as they pulled out a different set of instruments and began thoroughly examining his body. When the third technician returned, he performed their test, filling the new lux battery in half a minute rather than the two seconds it had taken with the previous. He was deliberate to fill it only with red lux, the most common. He didn’t want to give away any real secrets about himself.
When the trio finished their tests, they began putting away their instruments, then paused.
“Is something the matter?” Chang-li asked.
“Ah, most cultivators ask us for their lux back,” one of the technicians said. “And then we have to explain that it’s to be taken away for purity testing and so we can assign a proper grade.”
Chang-li had already assumed as much. He realized that to most cultivators losing a significant portion of their lux, he estimated it to be about ten percent of his, would be a serious handicap. He had never truly appreciated the fact that most cultivators, unlike him, spent the majority of their time outside of towers in lux-poor environments.
However, the Morning Mist headquarters had access to a precious artifact, a Lux Well, which allowed the sect access to lux even outside a tower. More importantly, the Lux Well could be used to fill lux batteries of their own, and Noren and the sect had arrived with trunks full of them.
Now Chang-li realized that he might be able to convert that lux into wealth to pay off the huge fines that the sect was about to incur. He might need to send an expedition back to the headquarters for another batch.
“It makes sense to me that they would need to test my lux,” he said mildly. “What’s next?”
When the lux technicians were finished with him, one of the three led him through the confusing corridors to a room where scribes were busy filling out papers.
"Your license will be ready for you shortly," the man assured him. "There is only the final interview with our senior examiner.”
He ushered Chang-li into a back room. Chang-li felt the lux density increasing as he stepped over the threshold. There were lux concentrators at work here. He took the opportunity to add more lux to his own core. Breathing felt better; his body felt lighter, more agile.
The room itself was well lit, with gently glowing lights hanging from above and an array of potted plants all around the edge of the room. The walls were hung with crimson and gold curtains, almost hiding the fact that the room had no windows.
After a moment, a senior scribe entered, holding a wax-covered board and a stylus. He looked at Chang-li. "Cultivator Wu, are you prepared to meet with our senior examiner?"
Chang-li kept himself from shrugging. "Whoever I need to speak to and finish this.”
The scribe nodded. He went to a plinth standing in front of the curtains, and touched something. A moment later, a figure took shape there, the ghostly blue and white outlines of a wizened man, shown seated in a lotus posture, his hands folded neatly in front of him. A cultivator’s shade. Chang-li had met several of them, had been unwillingly bonded to one for several months. He bowed politely.
The scribe seemed slightly disappointed by his lack of response. "Cultivator Wu, this is Senior Examiner Lu Han, who will be conducting the final stage of your interview. The Office of Cultivation has found that, in some cases, members of sects have been known to bribe officials. To ensure that our final judgment is made by an unbribable individual, we have recruited several former cultivators of high rank to assist us with our examinations."
Chang-li was pretty certain he could think of two or three ways to bribe lux shades just from the little he knew of them. But if that made the Office of Cultivation happy, so be it. He bowed politely. "Greetings, Master Lu."
The wizened figure peered at him as the scribe took up a post just to his left. "State your stature, name, and sect affiliation for the record."
"I am Cultivator Wu Chang-li of the Morning Mist Sect."
The ghost jerked at that, his eyes widening. "Morning Mist? That's a name I haven't heard in a very long time. Are you certain?"
Chang-li resisted a smile at the absurdity of the question, "I am," he said evenly.
"Who's the Grand Master now?" the ghost asked, a note of interest in his voice. "Is it still one of the Kang family? My understanding was their scion had proved himself unsuitable. But that was shortly before the sect was destroyed. Oh, that must have been a hundred years ago, perhaps more."
"Much more," Chang-li agreed. "But the sect is restored now."
"Ah, well, always good to hear of the classic cultivation sects making a mark on the modern world," the ghost went on. "Let's see. Your rank?"
"I have reached the Lux Embodiment stage," Chang-li said.
The scribe interrupted. "Master Lu, this is why we have referred the matter to you. We have verified his lux concentrations to be too dense for any cultivator on the first tier, and the tests do indicate his body shows signs of having been remade with lux. But his cultivation record is incomplete, and we are forced to rely on his own accounting."
The ghost held up a hand. "Hush," he told the scribe before peering at Chang-li. "Tell me, how did you master the Lux Endowment stage? By introspection or by forceful will?"
The Lux Endowment stage was the first stage on the second tier of cultivation. Lux Endowment required the cultivator to perfect the art of using lux. Chang-li's mastery had been tied up in him learning to understand each of the subtleties of the subshades of Lux, what he believed was what the ghost meant by “introspection”. He knew there was at least one other valid path toward mastery. It was the one Joshi had taken: instead of becoming an expert on how to see each subshade of lux and which was better for which application, the external method of Lux mastery involved using your will to accomplish what Chang-li would manage by subtlety.
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"Introspection I believe. I have mastered the different shades of lux," Chang-li stated. He didn’t fully understand the question but it sounded like the difference between how he had achieved it and the way Joshi pursued his own path.
"Demonstrate," Master Lu said. "I want to see you compose a weave that uses three shades of green and two different aspects of red. The lux density in this room should be sufficient for that."
It was more than sufficient. Chang-li took a moment to compose himself before weaving the requested combination. Green wasn't one of his preferred shades, but he picked a reddish-hued green and matched it to a green-tinged red. Then he combined another red and green, which both had overtones of blue, before binding them together with the purest green lux he could manage. The result was a weave which, he could tell by feel, would strengthen whoever received it, at least temporarily. Without a great deal more power, its use would be limited.
At Master Lu's gesture, he allowed it to diminish. "You have certainly achieved Lux Endowment. Let's see if you rate any better certifications in your license," Master Lu said. He cleared his throat. "I will give you a tone, and you give me the lux shade most associated with it."
He let out a long, single clear note. Chang-li listened. It was definitely in the blue subspectrum, somewhere tinging toward purple. Chang-li didn’t like working with indigo or violet lux, from a lifetime of being told that violet lux was forbidden and indigo beyond the command of any but the most experienced cultivators, but his sense of lux pitch was enough to allow him to determine the subshade. He carefully mixed and separated, pulling it out of his own core. "I haven’t got much blue lux in reserve," he said apologetically.
"Yes, they keep this chamber weak on the blue and the spiritual shades of lux," the ghost said. "I think they don't trust us shades with the mix. It's not like I've ever tried to ensorcle living humans and convince them to work as my pawns." He focused his eyes briefly on the scribe, who looked studiously blank. Chang-li guessed there was something here he was missing, but it wasn't important.
“And again?” The ghost gave him another note, and Chang-li produced a yellow-tinged orange mixture that would be suitable for enchanting a weapon to have aspects of elemental magic in it.
"Excellent command," the ghost said. "Certainly Two-Star rank in Lux Endowment. Let's see if you can take a third."
The scribe’s stylus slipped, scraping against the board with an unpleasant note jarring to Chang-li. He turned as the ghost eyed the scribe.
"Something the matter, my junior?" the ghost asked.
The scribe shook his head. "No, not at all."
"Why don’t you go ahead and raise your objection, where Cultivator Wu can hear it?" Master Lu declared.
"Not an objection, sir. Just... well," he cleared his throat. "I don't think I've seen anyone with three stars on their Lux Endowment license come through here. Anyone with that sort of talent has usually got their paperwork in better order."
"Very true," Master Lu said cheerfully. "But nevertheless, you will humor me." He turned to Chang-li. "For your third star, I want you to examine the lux construct which binds me and tell me exactly which shades are used in its weave."
Chang-li opened his lux sights, relying heavily on the skills he had developed while reaching the Peak of Mental Refinement. He focused on the complex weave feeding into the ghost’s pedestal and realized there was a cloaking weave over top of it, a shifting haze of blue and yellow designed to obscure a casual look or, he guessed, anyone interfering with the weave. He had not seen something like this on lux technology before, but then he hadn’t spent much time examining the works of a lux technician.
He focused his mind and peered past the obscuring veil, seeking what lay beneath. Slowly he studied. "There’s more blue than I would have guessed, considering the ambient lux in the room," he said, "and a great deal of violet. The two are bound up together in a loop of sorts. I think that must be how they are sustaining your existence." It was only his recent understandings of the purpose of violet lux, that the manipulation of time could be used to affect other weaves in subtle ways, that gave him this insight.
"I think the blue is serving the way green would in a traditional weave, stabilizing it and holding it together. There are several different shades of yellow here, but no orange or red whatsoever. I'm guessing those are antithetical to either the lux technology, or perhaps to your existence as a lux shade."
The shade looked pensive. “Yes yes, of course. Oh, I mean well done, well done indeed," said the shade, as he sat up straight and applauded. "Yes. Cultivator Wu will receive the third star on his Lux Endowment certification. As to Lux Embodiment... well, we’ll need to see." He pointed one insubstantial finger at Chang-li. "You will explain in great detail how you achieved Lux Embodiment. Was it according to your sect's path? If so, we’ll need a copy of your path manual to put on record here. Don't worry. These archives are open only to high-level officials in the Office of Cultivation and are protected. Why, the senior cultivators of the greater sects are only caught five or six times a year breaking into these records to look for ways to best their rivals."
The scribe protested. "Master Lu, that is unfair. Our security measures have improved immensely in the past decades."
"Or they've slipped and we're not catching the thieves in the act," the ghost retorted. He leaned in closer. "So, go ahead. Share your secrets. They probably won't go anywhere."
Chang-li most assuredly did not want to share his secrets. "I reached Lux Embodiment through my own efforts,” he said. "I have demonstrated to the lux technicians that my body is indeed remade with lux, which means we know that I have reached the Lux Embodiment stage. I refuse to disclose anything further."
"Not even for a chance at a star or two on your record, hmm?" the ghost asked, smiling and leaning in toward Chang-li. "Come, lad, this is the most fun I'll be having all week. Go ahead, share."
Chang-li shook his head. "I don't care what my license says." With a shock, he realized it was true. He knew exactly what he was capable of, and what his friends knew was enough. None of the rest of this mattered at all. He cleared his throat. "I’ll be taking my license and going now."
The shade shrugged as if losing interested, then turned away and stared at the lux construct that restrained it. The scribe led Chang-li back out, and after another round of waiting, he was presented with a new copy of his license, a fresh red cover with gold around the edges, three times thicker than his old license had been.
He was flipping through it to ensure no mistakes had been made, ignoring the glares of the clerks and scribes waiting for him to get out of their fiefdom, when a short, bald man in the nondescript gray robes entered the room. Chang-li only noticed when everyone else in the room went still.
He put the license down carefully as the man approached him. The new official twitched back his concealing outer robe to reveal a badge around his neck. Seven colors filled a circle, with a starburst around the edges.
This was an Imperial official. He held a small metal-wooden plaque out to Chang-li, which bore the same symbol. "This is a summons from the Emperor to Cultivator…” The scribe glanced at the back of the plaque: "Wu Chang-li of Morning Mist, to be answered upon the instant of your reception of this."
Chang-li stared. The man proffered the wooden device again. "You are risking the Emperor’s displeasure with each second that you delay in your reception of his orders."
Chang-li reached out and took the plaque with one shaking hand.
"What am I..." he began.
There was a flash of light, and the room was gone.
Chang-li blinked.
He was standing in a lush garden. Manicured paths led between carefully tended trees. Low walls and benches stood at intervals, and everywhere bore the mark of the obvious care of many talented hands. The sky overhead was a pale blue with a few hints of clouds in it.
Instinctively, he cycled. The lux here was no more dense than the room he had just left. This wasn't the inside of a tower.
He was still clutching the wooden tablet between thumb and forefinger. He looked down, as though it would hold the answers he was seeking. But it was a plain tablet with nothing more than the Imperial logo on him.
An intense presence washed over him. It was like clouds had just passed in front of the sun. He recognized that feeling at once. He'd felt it before, and dropped to his knees as the Emperor appeared.
The Emperor wore iridescent robes. His bearded face showed something like irritation and impatience. "Remind me which one you are again," he said.
Chang-li cleared his throat. Not looking up, he answered, "Your Divinity, your humble servant is Wu Chang-li of Morning Mist."
"Chang-li, Chang-li..." The Emperor frowned. "Ah yes, you were on the schedule for this afternoon. Very well. Get on with it."
Chang-li dared to look up. The Emperor was staring down at him expectantly. Chang-li had no idea what he was supposed to do.
"Forgive me, Your Greatness, but I am not sure why you summoned me here."
The Emperor actually rolled his eyes.
Chang-li felt somehow even more terrified to see such an ordinary human expression on the face of the man he had grown up knowing was the Chosen of Heaven, the Arbiter of all Law, whose divine word resolved any conflict. "The Lumos business," he said, with a gesture of impatience. "You are one who can split Lumos. So, get on. Give me a demonstration. I haven't got all day. I have several hundred Prism candidates to work with.”
Understanding and terror washed over Chang-li. "Your forgiveness, Your Majesty. There may have been some mistake. Uh, perhaps it is my Sectmaster Noren who you wished to see. He perhaps can split Lumos, but I surely cannot. I am merely at Lux Embodiment."
"Do you think I am a fool?" the Emperor demanded. "I can see what's inside your chest. Your potential for splitting Lumos is obvious. Do you wish to disagree with me?"
Chang-li dropped low, pressing his head against the ground. “Forgive me —”
“Show me what you can do,” the emperor demanded.
Chang-li returned to his knees, then cupped his hands together in front of his core, and began cycling Purification of Heaven and Earth as he desperately tried to think. He wasn't permitted to crack Lumos. Was this some sort of trap?
He reached out his senses, trying to sense if there actually was any Lumos in the area, and found a trickle coming off of a nearby tower. He could sense it, but not see it. It couldn't be more than a few hundred yards away, but must be concealed by the garden.
Chang-li took a deep breath, clearing his throat. He touched the Lumos with his senses, but nothing seemed to happen.
The Emperor was staring at him. Chang-li glanced up, then glanced rapidly away, lest he offend the Imperial Presence.
"That's enough," the Emperor said, and gratefully, Chang-li dropped his cycling. "Yes, it's clear you don't actually know how to crack Lumos, though that thing inside you does give you the opportunity. This offends me. While I expect only those whom I have granted permission to crack Lumos to actually do so, the idea that there are cultivators in my realm capable of doing it who don't even know how is offensive. This will be remedied. You are henceforth granted permission to take lessons on the nature of Lumos, its singularity and its multiplicity from the cultivation library here in the capital. With all of the uproar this Prism business is causing, I expect your sect, like the other charter sects, will remain here for some time. You'll have plenty of opportunity to try again, but it's clear you won't be due for a Prism at this time. Perhaps in fifty years or so we will speak again."
He snapped his fingers.
The wooden token in Chang-li's hands glowed again.
He was back in the Office of Cultivation, right where he'd been when he left.
The small grey man stood in front of him. He reached out , and without asking, plucked the plaque from Chang-li’s hands. The man held it to his forehead, then turned to the scribe standing over Chang-li.
"Our Imperial Master has one last change before you present Cultivator Wu with his license," the little man said.
Five minutes later, Chang-li, clutching his new license, stumbled out of the office glass to be done and away. His mind was a whirl.
He was going to have a lot to tell Min and the others tonight.
