Dakala crumples to the blade of the spear as they pass through the outer edge of the formation. From the folds of her outfit comes a ding. What would have been a scramble for her phone turns into a slow and steady motion as she strains against the pressure inside the courtyard.
Once she's pulled the phone out it takes her several tries to press the application icons as the screen keeps turning off before she can. When she sees the text message is from her dad, she immediately presses the call contact button and then the speaker phone button.
"Who this?"
Before her dad has a chance to hang up, Dakala says, "Dad, it's me!"
"Dakala, where in gods name have you been?"
"I got kidnapped dad, white van, black bag, the works."
When her dad says nothing, she continues, "I'm ok, the Stellar Empress saved me before they could do anything."
"That's you? I didn't recognise you in them fancy clothes and makeup. The news says she killed people."
Quietly, Dakala says, "My kidnappers." Licking her lips, she adds, "She killed my kidnappers."
Her father is silent for a moment before he says, "May god have mercy on their souls, as they won't find any in mine."
From behind her, the Empress says, "I am the closest thing to a god here, and I had no mercy for them."
"Who's that?"
Dakala looks back briefly, before saying, "Dad, that's the Stellar Empress. She, um. She's offered to teach me, and I accepted."
"What about your schooling? Didn't you want to be a dance instructor?"
"Dad, I, I was kidnapped and nobody did nothing. H-how many people saw me being dragged into the alleyway?"
"Bunny girl, it's just past six, tell me where you are and I can be there in a couple of hours."
Dakala looks back at the Empress, "Empress. I know it's just got dark, but if I show you where I liv… used to live on the phone, would you be able to take us to see my dad and learn to cultivate when we get back?"
The Empress pauses for a second before she says, "You will show me how to use the map and cultivate here for one bell. Then we shall visit your patriarch where you will cultivate for another bell."
Dakala turns back to the phone, "Dad, did you hear that? We'll head over to you soon."
There's the sound of muffled talking on the phone. After a couple of minutes, Dakala's father says, "The boss wants me to finish my shift now I don't have to go to the police. Could you leave it till eight thirty?"
Dakala looks back at the Empress who says, "Whether you spend the bell cultivating before or after meeting your father is no matter to me."
Dakala nods, "I think we can do that."
"I love you, and I'm glad you're safe."
When the call ends Dakala looks back at the Empress, "Thank you."
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The Empress guides the spear into the center of the pagoda where there is a large bronze dragon with a series of xylophone plates surrounding it. Surrounding the dragon is a set of thin cushions.
"Sit upright on one of the cushions while I set up the clock for the remainder of the day."
Dakala groans as she forces herself to shuffle over to the nearest cushion. At the same time the Empress shrinks her spear and stores it in her ring. Walking over to the dragon, she opens a concealed compartment in the bottom and takes out a bronze template, a spool of thread, and a box of incense.
Seeing that Dakala has managed to sit down, she points at a single golden plate, "That is the Noon bell. It has a different tone to all the other bells, there are always nine bells after the noon bell, and up to nine bells before the noon bell. At first light, the senior in charge of the bells will ring the gong over there to signify the start of the day, and start the incense burning."
As the Empress deftly ties thread to three balls, which then get hung in discrete grooves on the back of the dragon, Dakala asks, "Why not just use a clock?"
Amusement dances in the Empress' eyes as she says, "This is a clock."
"I mean a normal clock, with arms."
"Quite simply, we didn't have them. Some cities had water clocks, but sects tended to use incense clocks because it required their students to learn how to calculate the first bell from the position of the stars and the encroaching light. All without an abacus. In the heavens, that tradition stuck, as once you've done something for a few hundred years, it is hard to change."
Dakala goggles at that number, and almost asks about it before changing her mind, "But we have proper clocks here, will you start using one of those here?"
The Empress chuckles, "Of course not. The Dao is a journey, and you need to be able to think, understand, and analyse if you wish to succeed on the journey instead of dying a meaningless death from a foreseeable mistake. If this were a sect, you would be starting as an outer disciple to learn the value of perseverance and hard work. As your cultivation progresses, you would be promoted to inner disciple to learn the value of study. Finally you would be promoted to a core disciple to learn the value of contemplation and stillness. If you progressed beyond that you would be inducted as a Sect Elder and expected to teach in addition to your cultivation. Some sects would allow particularly talented or rich cultivators to skip steps."
The smell of burning incense suddenly reaches Dakala's nose and the Empress continues, "Now that the clock is running, the basic method of cultivation is to put your tongue on the back of your top front teeth and breath in through the nose with your belly muscles. Hold the breath for a couple of seconds and then breath out through your mouth. Most mortals find the next step easier if they close their eyes, as you are trying to feel the qi you're breathing in. Once you feel it, your next task is to try to control it and move it in a cycle up to your head, as you breath in, down your back to your base as you hold, and up your front and out your mouth as you exhale. During this cycle, you will become aware of a sticky place where the qi pauses before carrying on. Once you have identified this, your task is to direct the incoming qi to that location. As soon as you succeed at that you are officially a cultivator, and you have entered the essence gathering stage."
Dakala looks at the Empress with wide eyes as she tries to remember everything, so the Empress chuckles again, "Just focus on the first two steps for the moment. Breathing in the cycle I described, and feeling the qi."
Dakala closes her eyes and starts to breath. A second later she's tapped on the head as the Empress says, "Tongue on teeth."
A moment later she's tapped on the back, and the Empress says, "Sit up straighter."
Another tap on her head, "Breathe in nose, breathe out mouth."
A tap on her belly, "Breathe in with the belly."
Another tap on her back sees her gritting her teeth until the Empress taps her jaw, "Relax, you can't feel it if you're not relaxed."
Dakala opens her eyes and snaps, "It would be easier if you didn't keep distracting me."
The Empress smiles serenely from the other side of the dragon, "I wouldn't need to correct you if you were doing it correctly. Now stand up and find another cushion before you begin again."
As she starts to crawl to another cushion, the Empress adds, "If you want to live past 10 years, you must learn to do this. Now stand and move two cushions to your left. Or do you want me to make it three?"
As Dakala shuffles past her original cushion and the next cushion, she glances at the dragon, only for her eyes to widen as there is an equal amount of burned incense to brown incense till the first thread. As she collapses onto the cushion the Empress says, "Yes, it has been half a bell. Begin once more, and be mindful of what you've learned."
Slightly out of breath, Dakala sullenly sits up straight and starts to breathe again. At some point her eyes flick open wide in surprise as she felt something streaming through her nose. The Empress doesn't open her eyes as she says, "That was qi, you have a little longer to try and feel it again."
Heart beating in excitement, Dakala closes her eyes and tries to find that feeling again. A moment later, she feels a tap over her heart, "Relax, you cannot force it. Let it come to you."
After what feels like both an eternity of trying and just an instant of time, there's a sudden chime followed by a quieter melody of a few notes.
"Come, it is time for you to show me how to use this map you spoke of."
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As the spear comes down into the front yard of her ho… her fathers home, Dakala briefly considers how the Empress seemed to be completely nonplussed about the phone and map app, yet as soon as she saw the field of view icon turning with the phone, it was like she'd had an epiphany and was suddenly able to manipulate the map like she'd been born to it.
Her home address was just as awkward, as she typed it in and brought it up, and the Empress seemed confused until she saw the latitude and longitude numbers that everyone always ignores. And suddenly it's like the world makes sense again.
As a particularly chilly breeze passes across the blade of the spear, she pulls the matching stole to her top around her and looks down at the snow covered roofs below them. "How comes you couldn't understand how to find the address, but latitude and longitude made sense?"
The empress points at the moon that is just disappearing below the horizon, "My Dao is about the universe. Do you think that an address would work up there? While an arbitrary division of perpendicular lines based on the rotation of the planet can be applied anywhere. It is also a method I have passing familiarity with, as grid patterns are useful for searching. However, an address requires comprehension of the local language and customs. Something that is likely to take me normal mortal lengths of time to understand."
"I don't get how you can be so good with some things, and bad with others."
"How old are you child?"
"18, but that's beside the point. Grandma can't understand phones or computers, no matter how much I tried to teach her."
"Dakala, turn to face me and sit down."
Dakala turns around, conscious of the fact that they're nearly 100 feet in the air. On the other end of the spear, the Empress sits down in the lotus position, "At your age your body is still burning away at the excess of qi your birth provided you. This means that it is easier for your brain to work and learn new things. If you still had a mortal constitution, then in slightly less than a decade, that excess would be consumed and your body would be relying on the qi that your soul provided and the qi you take in from your food. To start with, the effects would be minor as learning is an important survival trait, but over time your body would prioritise being able to perform your normal tasks over being able to learn new skills. Eventually, the deficit would become so bad that your body prioritises just staying alive over everything else. If nothing else changes, eventually the body won't even be able to do that. This is all stuff that you may discover while following your Dao. Until then, it is time for you to cultivate."
The empress takes out two sticks of incense, a copper collet with slits on the side, and a metal holder, before handing them over. "These are incense sticks, each one will burn for half a bell. When cultivating on your own it is traditional to time yourself with these if you have a fixed amount of time to cultivate. Some cultivators will also hold the bare end of the incense so that they are burned when their time is up. I will ignite the incense for you, but once you have achieved essence gathering you will be expected to do it yourself."
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As Dakala fails to grasp the umpteenth faint hint of qi she's managed to sense since she started cultivating, she becomes aware of people talking nearby.
"So what exactly is a cultivation art?"
"In general, or specifically for your daughter?"
"For Dakala."
"I suppose you could say it's an inheritance. A Dao passed down from a master to a student. It not only includes details about how they passed the various stages of cultivation, but also notes and observations about their Dao."
"How would that differ generally?"
"In a sect, they would generally practice the same method of cultivation and they would be granted the next step once they completed the previous step. Their Dao would then be something they have to discover for themselves in the sects library. There are benefits to both methods, as with all things. Some cultivators even forge their own paths, though most end in ruin. Ultimately, everyone will end up forging their own path, as it is impossible to walk the path of another person without being that person."
"Then why give an existing path at all?"
"Dakala, join us, we are just enjoying a cup of jasmine tea. Why send people to school when it's better to discover information on your own? It's because providing a well trodden path makes it more likely that the student will succeed and get to the point where they understand how to chart their own path. The Dao I will be giving Dakala is the second Dao I cultivated, and one I made myself after being tricked into believing my first cultivation art would take me to heaven, while instead it was designed to prepare me as a resource to be used and then butchered. But we're not here to talk about the darkest moments in my life as a cultivator."
As Dakala stands up, she staggers to one side as pins and needles floods her leg. Suddenly the Empress is there with her hand between her shoulder and the wall. "Careful, this is a mortal residence, and it is far more fragile than my home."
As the Empress guides her to the couch her father's sitting at, Dakala asks, "Why didn't you tell me dad got home?"
The Empress laughs, "Efrem, it was Efrem wasn't it?"
Efrem nods, "Yes ma'am."
"Efrem was quite loud when he got home, and you didn't stir, so we decided that we'd leave you to it while he told me about his job as the day manager at the cinema."
"Sorry about not replying to your text message earlier Bunny, I ended up having to work through lunch as an extra pair of hands while we moved the projector from screen 1 to screen 4 to make room for the new projector. Besides, I never thought I'd ever see you sit still for more than two hours doing nothing."
The Empress chuckles as Dakala unwraps her stole and puts it on the couch between her father and her. "She wasn't doing nothing, she was cultivating. It may seem like meditation, however it is an activity that rewards doing it correctly. Isn't that right Dakala?"
Dakala nods wryly, "It is, qi. Qi is like that first square of chocolate after Lent. Or at least it is at the Empress' house. Out here it was more like the smell of chocolate fudge cake, the hint of a promise of something delicious."
The Empress nods, "I had forgotten what it was like for mortals at the beginning of their journey. Remember that qi is life, and all living things want to live. That's why it is so alluring. It is also why I am only handing out orthodox methods of cultivation that teach restraint and self control."
Efrem lifts up the stole to have a look at it, "What do you mean… Jesus, what is this thing made from, solid gold?"
The Empress nods, "Yes. In answer to your first question. The existence of qi cannot be hidden, and the levels around Brockton Bay are already starting to rise due to my presence. I am in the process of creating the first heaven for this world while pursuing the faintest hint of portals similar to the portal that brought me here. Even if my presence wasn't increasing the amount of loose qi in the world, people would eventually discover that there are places that are naturally higher in qi than others. There they would set themselves up to try and grasp this new power. Some of the losers are likely to discover that they can steal qi from other living creatures and become demonic cultivators. While I am above the heavens, and technically not subject to their laws. I still prefer to live by them, which will limit my ability to deal with demonic cultivators."
Efrem pushes the stole off his leg and waves his hand, "That mortals deal with mortal affairs stuff you were talking about?"
The Empress nods, "Indeed."
"What does this have to do with my little bunny?"
"If she doesn't become my disciple, then it's likely that she'll end up being the ancestor of her own sect once I enter the first heaven in order to start creating the second heaven. I estimate that the first heaven will be habitable in around five centuries. Things won't be so urgent at that point, so I'll be free to actually explore the universes around this one."
Efrem and Dakala both goggle at the Empress who just gestures at the fragile bone china cups they bought earlier, "Have some tea Dakala. It is an excellent test of your control."
Dakala reaches for the empty cup and puts her thumb through the side. As she's flushing with embarrassment, the Empress just pulls another cup out of her ring and fills it with tea. "That is the other reason why you should let your daughter live with me."
Dakala gingerly takes the cup as it's passed to her, and pretends that it's a priceless ming vase, and she has to pay for it if it gets broken.
After watching Dakala drink half the cup of tea, Efrem asks, "You said that more people would start doing what you're teaching Dakala. What's to stop them from taking over the country?"
The Empress shrugs, "I'll release a basic qi holding formation if it does. That will see most cultivators grouping up to increase the quality of qi in areas a couple of li across. After that, they'll be unlikely to venture out because of the quality of qi in the rest of the mortal world. It's why the heavens are so important. Each one naturally has better quality qi, so it's more comfortable for cultivators to live there than lower down. Once they can survive it that is."