Qi Like Tar

"If you can't tell me, then don't," Taka said, his face placid. It was quite unlike what Paike expected. He still had the image of his brother in his mind that refused to let a question go unanswered. One who dragged him along on adventures, sneaking into parts of the family library that they were not allowed in, getting caught and talking their way out.

He remembered the few times that Taka had not gotten what he wanted. How angry that had left him. Petty and vindictive in a way that only a child could be. After he had awakened early, it had only gotten worse. That was when the real wedge between them had formed. It pushed away many of their childhood friends, or those younger than him, like Liming.

But him just accepting being told no? Even more so when Paike had left room in his refusal for negotiation. It hadn't even been a full rejection. Yet, Taka had backed off.

"Really?" Paike asked, his surprise and disbelief plain on his face. He didn't even try to hide it. It was a little use for Taka to hide his emotions from him. Even after all this time, they were so alike in some ways that reading their faces was trivial.

"Of course, brother. I don't want to put you in an uncomfortable position if it's something you learned in confidence and can't share. I have to keep my fair share of secrets since I got here." Taka said in a too reasonable tone, but Paike didn't sense any of the schemes he expected to get the information from him later. Maybe his brother had gotten better at it since he left. Paike was sure he had, but he would still be able to tell. He just would.

"Not quite. A couple of elders have warned me about sharing the method I'm using. Apparently it can be dangerous for cultivators Emerald and under." Paike said.

"How is it that you are handling it then?" Taka asked instead of pressing for more information right away.

As much as it seemed that Taka had matured and was honestly a better person than when they had parted, Paike wasn't going to explain all the difficulties he had with his qi. Why he had taken so long to awaken, or how it might be something to do with a hidden qi factor making his qi....Different? It would be impossible to say what the effects precisely were until Elder Song's research was done. But that could take a very long time.

Paike was going to keep that to himself as much as he could. But what could he tell Taka? He seemed to be non-malicious, but there was still the doubt that he had just gotten so much better at lying. He had given Taka the benefit of the doubt too many times before.

"You know me too well, brother," Taka said with a small smile. Paike could see a bit of frustration and sadness in that smile. He thought he could at least. "Will you tell me when I reach Sapphire? It should be safe then, right?"

Paike knew that something like internal circulation wouldn't be just handed to all new fourth realm cultivators on their breakthrough. They would need a master to teach it to them, or figure it out from a book or something. But this was the sort of thing families would share. So it actually wasn't something that Taka wouldn't get once the family deemed him ready. They might make him earn it, or maybe they would see it as an investment. Either way, they would get it to him when he was ready.

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So, by agreeing, Paike wasn't actually giving up anything, but was he getting anything but goodwill? He didn't trust goodwill from Taka, not yet.

"Can I even do that? Aren't you charging me for these lessons?"

Taka waved his hand. "Sect rules. You think I'll still be here once I'm Sapphire. I'm already past the mandated three years. Besides, if that happens next year, we'll both be in the inner sect, so even if I stay for a bit after, there won't be any problems."

Paike raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "You are that close?"

"No, but just a hypothetical." Taka didn't elaborate on his level of cultivation, but Paike got the sense that he wasn't actually new to Emerald. But perhaps a bit further down the path.

"Pretty certain that I'm going to be in the inner sect next year," Paike commented.

"I've seen the rankings and some of the dueling results. If you ever decided to stop deferring to our little sister, I think you could easily be number one. And none of the losers from the previous years will pose a challenge to you in a year."

Paike was nowhere near as confident. Taka didn't know all the problems he had to deal with. The hurdles to overcome. He was still making up for things he had missed in Ruby. Taka probably just assumed he was a late bloomer and cultivated normally. Paike wasn't even sure his method for advancing his spiritual cultivation would work in Topaz as it had in Ruby. He hadn't tried to push for advancement yet, as he was too busy with a hundred other things.

"Anyways," Taka said as Paike didn't argue. "I think we can maybe start this lesson with a little verbal instruction while we finish our tea. How has your battle trance been going for the past week?"

Paike hadn't really done any training for it at all. At least not directly. It was a massive oversight. His continued position here in the grand sect hung on it. If they expelled him, he would have to serve the rest of his three years in the military with those unable or unwilling to join the grand sect. The survival rate there wasn't high.

At the time, it seemed that there were so many more pressing things. Like staying in the physical cultivation class. Earning sect points for the next lesson, or discovering new bits of cultivation with Guan Li. He needed to spend more time with Liming as well. She could get distracted without his help.

Still, he wasn't going to say that. Just because he hadn't dedicated any time to it didn't mean he hadn't been making any progress.

"There were no cases where I was in danger of slipping into it. Even when I was pressed in some spars or more serious fights." Part of that was that he wasn't really pressed, like he had been the last time it had come forth. But against the Bloodjade Ants there were a few times where it might have been a problem in the past, but it hadn't even started to come to the forefront of his mind. His control wasn't close to slipping.

Paike did honestly attribute a lot of that to Taka's brutal training in their last session. Repeatedly being pushed to the point of the battle trance taking over had given him more awareness of it, allowing him to have a touch more control.

He was pretty certain that it wouldn't be enough for the elders, though. He was pretty sure they wanted him to have control to activate and deactivate on command. It didn't need to be perfect, at that took years, but the basics were possible. He thought.

"That is progress, certainly," Taka said with a faux sagely nod. "Then we can move on. Next we need to work on getting you in the mental state to activate the trance without being in a fight. I think that should help you have more control as it settles onto you. You need to think of it as part of you. Not something separate that takes over. Just a state of mind. Maybe you are distant, watching your body. So close your eyes and..."

Taka started into a meditative mantra, and Paike followed along, going through the mental exercises as his brother narrated them.

When he first tasted blood, it pulled him out of it. His eyes shot open, and he snapped to his feet, spilling the pot of tea.

His brother looked up at him with a question. Paike spat blood and bared the jagged crust covering his teeth at Taka, a snarl coming to his lips.

"Very good!" Taka said as he clapped his hands. "Now why don't you sit back down?"

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