Mai Yen wiped one last tear from her eye as the emerald slippers rushed her forward down the path away from the body of her fallen sister.

She'd had to do what she did to protect herself. There'd been no other choice. Mai Yin hadn't listened to reason. The strange blue lux technique had snared her mind thoroughly. Whoever was using the technique was a master of blue lux. Even Mai Yen had only barely noticed it.

She would find whoever had used that technique, and she would take them apart, limb from limb.

Mai Yen shrugged her shoulders and felt the lux armor there adjust to her body. A new sensation and yet somehow utterly familiar. Mai Yin's death had washed over her like an advancement step. Her sister's perfectly tuned lux flowed into her own core, then out through her channels, broadening them, changing them.

Now Mai Yen brought lux into her body and cycled. She felt, for the first time in her life, complete. Whole. Physical luxes she herself had purified waited in her core for her to tap them. They felt strange compared to the easy familiarity of the spiritual luxes, but they were there. Her sister's death gift.

If Mai Yin had realized before what the truth was, she would have struck. Of that, Mai Yen was certain. Her sister had always been ambitious, pushing, jealous, quick to show contempt for Mai Yen and her softer techniques. Mai Yen had endured decades of scoffing and now it was her turn.

She had the black and red fan in her hand, but no weapon in her right. She felt more comfortable staying with the lux techniques that had served her so well. Mai Yen sent her will and Intent on ahead, questing for whoever had dared to entrap her in a spiritual lux technique.

Her senses found them: cultivators, not tower beasts, which was not entirely a surprise. She and her allies had assumed that some Darwur cultivators, as if that wasn't an absolute oxymoron, had entered the tower. But there had been signs along the way that actual trained cultivators were ahead of them.

Now she sensed each of them out. Two felt fairly strong, though she didn't think they were full Lux Endowment cultivators. The other two were complete non-entities, not even at the Peak of Spiritual Refinement. She had all but dismissed them when she felt a surge of spiritual lux from one of those she'd just dismissed. The lux was aimed for her, following the tiny tendrils that still wrapped around her.

Mai Yen started to cut those tendrils away, then paused. No. She would let them think that she was still under that control. Instead, she blocked the technique with her will, absorbing its luxes into herself, and smiled.

So, a foolish child thought they could face Mai Yen with spiritual luxes. She was going to enjoy taking this one apart. The two more advanced cultivators would not be a problem for her, not now that she had Mai Yin's techniques at her fingertips, and not one, but two divine treasures.

Eagerly, Mai Yen rushed forward into the glade where her enemies waited. It was nice being out from under the overcrowding branches that hung over the forest trail. Here the trees pulled back, leaving an open space fifty or so feet across, perfectly situated for a cultivator duel.

A single man stood in the center of the grove of trees. The other three had concealed themselves. Her will revealed them easily, but it seemed they would try to ambush her. Let them.

She pushed more red lux to her armor, both to strengthen it and to give them the impression that she was an ordinary cultivator favoring the physical luxes.

The man waiting for her was tall, with a bald head. He wore gray and white cultivator's robes and a sect ring on his hands. She recognized those robes. That had been one of the sects participating at the Riceflower Tower in the Emperor's bride selection challenge.

While Eri had taken away her sect before the end, Mai Yen had enjoyed many of the festivities. She had been too high level to help compete, but any sect able to stand and offer up a bridal candidate to the Emperor was worthy of some respect.

Mai Yen placed her hands together and returned his bow.

"I am Cultivator Joshi of the Morning Mist," the man said, speaking clearly. "We are ascending this tower to claim it for the Darwur people and General Li. If you leave now, we will not pursue you."

Mai Yen laughed. "You're not even a Lux Endowment cultivator." Although one of the concealed enemy had reached that rank, she realized. She kept a bead of Intent focused on that one at all times. "I am Cultivator Mai Yen of the Golden Locks School, sent here by Prism Eri to seize this tower in her name. One of your allies killed my sister. I will not permit any of you to live."

There was a glowing ball of light hovering at the man's shoulder. He reached up and touched it with his knuckles. "I saw what happened through Magen's eyes," he said quietly. "You killed your sister."

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"Because of the technique you wrapped around her eyes," Mai Yen snapped.

"It did no more than reveal her true heart." Cultivator Joshi said softly.

And that was true, so Mai Yen had no way to counter it. She didn't need to. She began her own technique, the Fire Wind she'd seen her sister weave a hundred thousand times. It formed a clumsy blast of orange lux, so unlike Main Yin's delicate streams of flame, while with her other hand she snapped open the dragon fan.

The fiery dragon snaked out, accompanied by a pale imitation from Mai Yen's technique. She wasn't strong with physical luxes yet. Despite now having command over them, she hadn't the instincts. That was alright. She would let them think she was weaker, and lure them in.

The cultivator Joshi summoned orange-tipped red lux gauntlets for his hands. So, he was a brawler, like most. This would be simple.

He came rushing at her, dodging the two flaming attacks. Mai Yen let him, then pulsed out her will. It smashed against him and staggered him back.

She was surprised. She'd expected him to fall. Her Intent was strong. Her will should be an iron hammer against a cultivator two ranks lower than her. He came in whirling, throwing out a blue and orange chain that wrapped around her waist. Her red lux armor reacted at once, taking the force of the chains on it. Red lux began draining from her core as she fought to maintain her armor.

She shaped a technique of her own, blue mixed with green in her Spider's Web technique, then activated the slippers on her feet to quick-step behind Joshi. She unleashed another blast of will and her technique at the same time, and both hit him square, again knocking him back.

The Spider's Web wrapped around his face and hung there for a moment before sinking in under his skin. She maintained a steady thread of blue lux into that technique. It would burrow into his mind and begin destroying him from the outside, turning his own fears against him. She felt it settle into place and smiled.

Good. Now this battle was all but won. Only a strongly formed Intent could push out the effects of the Spider's Web technique, and if he'd had a strong Intent, he would have showed it by now.

Joshi could feel the witch had done something to him, even as he turned to face her once more and yanked on the cord. He felt its insidious fingers creeping into his brain. He yanked his Binding Chains, and she stumbled forward two steps before again pulsing out her Intent against him.

He gritted his teeth under the impact of the blow. It was like being trampled by a horse. She was strong, but her physical lux control was poor. From the glimpses he had seen through Magen's eye vision, it was her dead sister who had seemed more comfortable with those luxes, while this one had used spiritual lux to get what she wanted.

He'd expected to have to use his will and Intent to shield against her, looked forward to it as a chance to push himself. But the one-two punch of her Intent followed by a lux technique had been too much.

He had told Chang-li he wanted to be pushed to the brink, forced to reach Lux Endowment or perish. Through Magen's gaze, he saw Chang-li signaling him, asking if it was time to intervene. He gave the hold signal that they'd agreed on. Despite her Intent and her spiritual techniques, she hadn't shown any great physical strength. Joshi thought he still had time to do this.

He could sense Hiroko working her own blue lux technique against the woman. That was fine. His friends needed to be ready to act should he fall.

He wouldn't. He couldn't.

His head spun, and the setting changed.

He was back in front of the horde of his people, fighting inside the ring, facing Temaj, armed with a hide shield and a hook-tipped blade. His brother laughed, and their people cheered.

"Time to show me what you're made of, Joshi," Temaj taunted. "What was it you showed me? Ah, yes."

He smashed Intent hard against Joshi. Joshi tried to use his own Intent to shield, but it cracked. He went down on one knee. Temaj laughed and spat flame at him, a wriggling dragon of fire that raced forward at Joshi's face.

He had just time to slam up a red lux shield. The dragon exploded against it, sending flame shooting out on either side, scorching Joshi's head and shoulders. He scrambled up to his feet as Temaj vanished to appear again behind him.

Joshi whirled. Part of his mind told him this wasn't his brother. It was the cultivator woman he'd been fighting. He couldn't see through her illusion, even knowing that.

Intent slammed against his own. He could tell it wasn't properly formed. His training with Sun Wukong told him that at least. Sun's Intent could be a hammer smash or a dagger wielded with precision. This was just like a child swinging a club a little too big for her. The hits hurt, but they lacked control.

He could do this if he was just a little stronger. If he were only Lux Endowment... He didn't have Chang-li's sensitivity to all the different colors of lux. Chang-li had, for the first time, reached an advancement before Joshi. It wasn't that he minded. It was that he didn't see the path for him to reach Chang-li.

He'd lied when he said he thought it was close. He needed this fight to force him to concentrate, to overcome.

Chang-li had said the secret was in seeing how to use the exact right strand of lux to manipulate what you wanted to do. You had to understand lux, then use it on the world around. But Joshi had only reached the fourth division. The ability to see all the shades of a color was still far off. He would never make that in time.

Sun Wukong had given him a hint. Chang-li's way wasn't the only way. He needed to find the one that matched his own Intent.

What was his Intent?

He'd assumed it was to not be bound, like he'd said. But now he saw, thanks to Hiroko, that had been a shield and a defense, never truly his meaning.

His brother was sneering at him again, came rushing in. Joshi was ready this time. He could do this, push through her illusion somehow.

Temaj laughed. "Your true face is shown! We see how who you are. Weak. Pathetic. Alone."

But he wasn't alone, was he? As he readied himself, he caught sight of Chang-li's face in the crowd. His friends were here with him.

And so was Magen.

Of course!

With a great effort, he switched and saw through Magen's vision, granting him a sort of double sight. He could still see most clearly his brother and the Darwur ring, but superimposed over it was the truth of the world.

The grove. The woman. His friends.

Joshi bared his teeth. His turn.

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