Shards of Awakening

The door knocks. Quan Jia yawns, blinks, and lazily lifts her head from where she'd been napping on her Comfy Couch. Her furniture had finally arrived.

Thanks pops.

"Would someone get that?" She calls out voice thick with sleep.

Job accomplished, her head falls back to its pillow and her eyes close.

Back to sleep.

The door knocks again. This time Quan Jia yawns, blinks, and frowns. Oh, right. She had stayed behind at the estate because all the other options had sounded boring: her cute maids were shopping for groceries with her frowny chef, Mei Mei was out doing Mei Mei things, and Xiao Lien had left to go find herself. Whatever that was supposed to mean. It was absolutely not because Mei Mei had grounded her for disappearing during their dinner thing the other day. Absolutely not.

Mei Mei doesn't ground me, I ground her. That's how that works. Right?

For a long moment, a debate rages within her and she remains motionless on her Comfy Couch. Perhaps if I just stay here they'll go- the door knocks a third time. Quan Jia sighs. Reluctantly, she flails herself out of fluffy cushions and upright. Even more reluctantly she stands.

Qi twists and bare feet coast along a ripple of sand as she surfs toward the front door.

A yawn cracks her face as she throws open the front door and sees a vaguely familiar girl wearing a dress composed entirely of loose black ribbons. "Oh, hey, it's umm… shadow girl what are you doing here?"

"This one is Ma Liqiu, La-," loose black hair flutters in an aborted bow as shadow girl's words cut off. "Quan Jia."

Silver eyes flicker away from hers as Quan Jia studies the other girl. Why was she… ohh, right. "It's a bit early for dinner but you can come in and hang out if you want to."

"Ahh, that is…," shadow girl inhales deeply and an envelope of cream white parchment sealed with red wax appears in her hands. "If it's not too much trouble, this one would like to offer an invitation to La- Quan Jia."

Manicured fingers pluck the invitation from outstretched hands and with a flicker of qi she removes the seal. To the Illustrious Quan… green eyes rapidly begin to glaze over as she skips past sentence after sentence of flowery prose. Would like to invite… an amused grin steals across Quan Jia's face and the letter disappears into her storage ring, "sure. Let's go now."

"Now?" something like panic flickers across shadow girl's face, "but I don't have a reservation, I'm not even dressed, it's too soon… that is, this one apologizes, but this one is not yet prepared to serve as host."

"What's any of that got to do with anything," Quan Jia reaches out, grabbing the other girl's hands before she can flee and starts dragging. "I know just the place."


"So I know I invited you to dinner after our last spar," Quan Jia takes a sip tea, enjoying the sound the ice cubes made as they clinked against the thick glass of her mug. Clink. Clink. Clink. "But why now?"

"This one had to think about some things," shadow girl dips a piece of fried cauliflower in a bright red sauce and takes a delicate bite. "Elder Brother was most helpful in providing this one some useful advice."

"You've got siblings?" That looks good too. She reaches out, snagging a piece off her new friend's plate and takes a bite. "Wow, this is good... I'm kind of jealous: I don't think I'll ever get a little sister or brother... Pops isn't going to get married again."

"This one could go get another order if Quan Jia wishes?" the words were genuine, but as ever, her long exposure to Mei Mei lets her pick up on the faintest of undertones.

"Nope," she smiles as she liberates another piece, this time with some of that spicy sauce. "It tastes better this way."

Come on, take the bait…

"This one wouldn't know," tendrils of shadow that Quan Jia pretends to not see stretch toward her fried eggplant. "Father was most exacting on proper etiquette and decorum."

"Pops tried that too," a grin, not at all poorly hidden, flickers across her face as a piece of her lunch vanishes into a tiny circle of shadow. "It turns out that I was more stubborn than he was."

"Father would not have approved of that kind of disobedience." Is the response to that, followed by a surreptitious gesture that leaves fried eggplant in her hand. Eggplant that is then dipped in that same red sauce, "this one may have to revise her earlier statement… it does taste better this way."

"See," she pushes her plate toward the middle of the table to more easily share, a gesture shortly mirrored by shadow girl. "So you've got a brother?"

"This one is the youngest of four children: two older brothers and one older sister." a smile, the first one Quan Jia had seen flickers across her new friend's face. "Eldest Brother and Elder Sister have both sought employment as officers in the Imperial Army, but Elder Brother Ma Ru is currently an Inner Sect disciple."

"And he helped you out with some stuff?" she asks and then admits, "Mei Mei normally helps me with tricky things, don't tell her I said that though… she gets snooty really easily."

"Yes," silver eyes meet her own for a moment before flicking away. "Elder brother said that sometimes it was more important to meet people where they were rather than where you wished they would be."

"Sounds deep," Quan Jia hums in approval. Perhaps her brother would be a cool person to meet too. "Is that why you decided to invite me to lunch?"

"Who really invited who," her new friend mutters in a way that she clearly wasn't supposed to hear. "This one wanted to thank Quan Jia: first for saving her from her exploding technique and second for then trusting this one with her vulnerability."

Vulnerability?

"It was a pretty cool looking technique, at least until the… you know," Quan Jia's grin turns a bit awkward at the embarrassment on her friend's face and she continues on with a reassuring, "I'm sure you'll get it right sooner or later though."

"The Crescent Lotus Thrashing technique and its successor, the Scything Crescent Lotus , were gifted to Father by the Ma Patriarch when he established a branch clan in the province." She pauses there. Seems to weigh something within her mind and asks, "if this one were to share something of a personal nature, would Quan Jia be willing to reciprocate?"

"Absolutely," the words are out of her mouth before she can process the question, but it didn't matter, after all, "sharing secrets is really important when making friends."

"I… are we… as easy as… no, I mean yes, I mean," black hair flutters as her friend shakes her head violently, "this one would be glad to call Quan Jia a friend."

"Great, well then I'll start," Quan Jia offers, as much to give the other girl a moment to collect herself as anything. "It may not be super secret, what with that pig wandering around lying about fluffy best friends and all sorts of other things, but… I'm really bad at cultivating things. A bit better with Dream recently maybe. But pops wasted a lot of money on helping me get started."

"Surely it is not so bad as…" her friend's voice trails off and her head tilts to the side, "this one finds it curious that what Quan Jia has shared is so similar in nature to her own secret: that the cultivation of Shadow is more difficult for this one than other things."

"You have an animus for Shadow?" Quan Jia's face twists sympathetically. It wasn't exactly common, but neither was it exceedingly rare for a cultivator to Awaken with a difficulty in cultivating their Resonance. It was, however, almost a guarantee that cultivator would never advance to the Greater Souls.

"It was a great disappointment to Father," Ma Liqiu shrugs awkwardly, "fortunately, this one demonstrated enough potential in other areas to be allowed to attend the sect."

"Well, you're here now and he's far away, so you know what we should do?" Quan Jia practically chirps out the question.

Silver eyes flicker down to the now empty trays, "this one could order a second serving of food?"

"That's a good idea… no wait," blonde hair shakes regretfully as she pulls her friend back down to the table. "We're going to do something more fun than that."

"This one normally practices calligraphy in the evenings to pass time," her friend admits a touch shyly.

"It may be a good way to test…" she trails off, pondering whether calligraphy would lend to her friend being a good pillow, and once again shakes her head. "Maybe not this time… instead we could:"

[] "Have you ever been gambling?" Quan Jia raises an eyebrow at the curious look that flickers across her friend's face. "There's a place nearby where they do cards and dice and that weird spinning wheel with the numbers thing."

[] "Last time I went to the library it was full of scroll-plants and Ninth was being really snooty." with the ease of long practice Quan Jia ignores a confused look on a friend's face. "I think it'll be normal this time, but I kind of want to check and make sure."

[] "I guess we could go practice or something…" Quan Jia trails off at the almost hopeful look that crosses her friend's face. "It's not like I really know that much about qi or anything, but maybe another set of eyes would help?"

[] "Do you think it's naptime, because I think it's naptime," Quan Jia grins at the blank stare she receives in response to her question. "There's a bunch of really nice places nearby, and I've always got my Comfy Pillow and Comfy Blanket with me."

[] "I guess we could go practice or something…" Quan Jia trails off at the almost hopeful look that crosses her friend's face. "It's not like I really know that much about qi or anything, but maybe another set of eyes would help?"


Your new friend tilts her head as though considering the suggestion. Her eyes flicker away from yours and toward the ground before looking somewhere behind your shoulder.

"This one does not wish to be disrespectful, but Father has personally inspected this one's manipulation of qi and he was unable to ascertain the cause of the issue."

You shrug, reach out with a hand tipped in silver fingernails to snag a surprisingly callused hand in your own, and grin. Standing, you pull your friend upright with you and your voice lowers to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Don't tell anyone, but I'm trying to slack off on a Mei Mei task. Maybe we find something and that would be really cool. Maybe we don't though… in which case we'll pick a practice field that's also a good place to nap. In fact, I know just the place, let's go."

With that, you start dragging your friend off toward your destination… That breeze that blows in from the lake in the evening really makes it a top three napping place... A slight noise of protest draws your attention backward, past your outstretched arm and toward fluttering black hair and confused silver eyes.

"A nap? This one appreciates La- Quan Jia's support, but how- that is, this one is unsure how a nap would help?"

The confused and somewhat plaintive note in her voice makes your grin widen, but… oh, fine. It may be a bit soon for all this… you slow down to a speed that's no longer dragging your friend behind you.

"Does it have to help?"

A hand twitches in your own and you look over, but don't let go… it was important not to let friends escape too easily… Though, based on the look on her face, it seems as though your question has your friend a bit stumped.

"No, but this one…"

"Well, it's like I said: maybe we find something today and maybe we don't, in which case we'll just keep looking until we do. But we're friends now, and friends should do more than just work on stuff together… so this time we can nap and maybe next time we can do some calligraphy or something."

You continue walking on for another step or two before the tension as your arm stretches back behind you causes you to turn around and look.

"I don't think- that is, this one is hardly worthy of such a commitment of time."

"But that's my choice to make, isn't it? Unless Ma Liqiu doesn't want to spend time with me…"

Your voice trails off in feigned sadness as you put on your best pout. It works like a charm and you have to swallow a grin as your friend responds somewhat frantically.

"No! I mean, I would- that is, this one appreciates the offer and will strive to be equal to the consideration."

"Great. We'll start today and then hmm… there's a dinner every Sunday at my estate that all my friends come to, so you'll have to start coming too… maybe some of them will help too."

"This one would be honored to attend such an illustrious gathering even if this one is surely unworthy of such an offer."

You hide a scowl behind a smile at your friend's excessively self-effacing response… if her father's the reason she says things like… no that's not important now… maybe later though...

"It's a promise then… so don't be late all the time like Xiao Lien is or I'll have to come drag you there too."


Willow trees grown to near monstrous heights send branches hundreds of feet down to nearly dip into azure blue water. Shadows cast from the afternoon sun paint dappled patterns on a carpet of purple and yellow petals. Beneath it all, the rich feel of green grass tickles at your feet while your shoes sit discarded by one of the sprawling willow trunks.

"Well, here we are… so umm, let's start practicing?"

Your friend nods slightly and adopts a loose, defensive pose. Eww, sparring…

"I meant let's… how about you use that Lotus technique thing and I watch instead?"

"This one's technique is the Crescent Lotus Thrashing."

"Right, that's the one… I think I've got a bit better feel for some things now than I had back then."

Pale skin flushes slightly as equally pale silver eyes flicker away from your own. Ahh, oops...

"This one has not yet mastered that particular attack, but some other aspects of the technique have been revealed through practice. This one must apologize again for that shameful display of technique."

Maybe it'll be better just to pretend like I just don't hear the over the top stuff, at least for today... you decide to ignore the apology and continue on with the conversation.

"Hmm, I don't really have an attack technique… it's way more fun to just kind of drift around someone's attacks and watch them get more and more annoyed, you know."

"There is an elegance to Quan Jia's defensive abilities… Father has not deemed it necessary to reward this one with a Quartz Soul defensive technique though."

"Well, we could always go wander around the library… Dai Qiao found a talking book there the other day and I'm kind of jealous, you know."

Your friend looks up from where she'd been fiddling with her fingers, seemingly entirely focused on you. Does she really like books, or something?

"The sect has access to animated grimoire? This one had not thought border provinces to be so well apportioned."

Is that what they were called? I guess Dai Qiao had said something like that… did Grim come from the Empire or from Lady Shifting Sands, though?

"It does seem like there's a lot of cool stuff, but pops never took me on trips to Shattered Peaks or Fallen Earth, so I don't know if it's normal or not."

"The Main Branch of the Ma have a grimoire of Shadow… it's where the Ma clan techniques come from, but this one does not know if it is animated."

"I must have slept through those lessons… oh well, maybe she'll bring Grim along some time and you can meet him..."

Your friend smiles slightly, almost bashfully. Belatedly, she also seems to realize she's still in a defensive stance, and straightens up with a faintly embarrassed look on her face.

"If we are not to spar… this one can demonstrate some of the lesser manifestations of the Crescent Lotus Thrashing technique for Quan Jia instead?"

You nod and with a breath, she begins.


Sable, dark and rich, swirls into the lighter shade darkness that forms your friend's shadow. Ribbons of darkened color unspool from that pool of shadow, wrap around legs and arms, and thread through the black silk ribbons of your friend's dress. A blade slowly forms from drips of viscous ink-black shadow, but it's all distraction.

You reach within, for a gossamer thin strand of qi that links you to a place of confluence. A breath of Winter brushes across your face, the acrid scent of hibernating animals fills your nose, and you pull. A network of cerulean lines appear overlaid on your friend and your eyes draw naturally to a point just above… there…

Your fingers brush against the underside of your friend's wrist and she stops motionless.

"La- I- what are- that is, this one wonders if Quan Jia has observed something relevant?"

You nod idly, stepping closer so that you can lift your friend's hand and study it a bit more closely. Turning her hand over in your own, you trace a branching line from her palm to forearm and muse aloud.

"There's something… a blockage? No, it's kind of like mine were before I ate that piece of [Dream], but we don't have any shadow here though, so maybe…"

You trail off and refocus on your surroundings. Your friend is flushed a bright red… hopefully that one technique wasn't…. though I guess it could be kind of weird to have someone watch your techniques this closely… and seems to be fidgeting slightly… well, at least I have some good news for her… that should help…

Your fingers trace out three spots: one in the center of her palm, one between the veins on her wrist, and the final one halfway up her forearm.

"I think it will really help with your control if you open meridians here and here and here. Shadow isn't anything like [Dream] but it really helped me, look..."

You pull back loose yellow silk sleeves to reveal three tiny iridescent snowflakes as they flicker into existence on your arm. Rainbow channels fade in, forming a complex web of connections between those three meridians.

"See… it's not exactly the same thing, but maybe it makes sense as an analogy?"

"Shadow isn't… but then again maybe it is... I can see how… if I were to shift… like shadows cast through leaves… yes I think…"

Your friend's murmured words fade below audibility as she stares in turn at her own meridian network and then over at yours. For a long moment you stand there smiling, a bit proudly, a bit smugly, but mostly with genuine happiness at being able to help your friend. Said friend eventually lets your hand fall and meets your smile with her own.

"This one thanks you, Quan Jia. It will take some time, and may not be a perfect solution, but it is a way forward that did not exist prior to this."

Your smile shifts a bit, into a sheepish sort of grin, and you rub at the back of your neck.

"I'm sure you'd have figured it out soon enough… since we're a bit on a roll here, why don't you try again? See if we can figure anything else out?"

She nods in agreement and seems to in that moment take stock of just how close the two of you were standing. Her face flushes a bit pink and she takes a hasty step back.

"O-Ok. This one will try again."


Once again shadow swirls, and threads, and drips, just as it had the first time. Unlike the first time, it wasn't a distraction to what you were looking at, it was the whole thing. This time though, it isn't obvious… it isn't something you can quite put your finger on… heh… but you can still tell, can still feel that something's not quite right.

An idle thought manifests a handful of sand, sand that you let fall through open fingers, sand that you let dance on the afternoon breeze, sand that you form into… oh…

"How do you make shadow?"

Your friend stops, a blade of shadow half formed in her hands. She looks down at it, looks over at you, and then back down to her blade. It oozes back into a pool of blackness in her hand and then slowly begins reforming.

"With qi?"

The blank and almost undetectably sarcastic response causes a grin to flicker across your face.

"Yeah, but where does it come from?"

"From shadow?"

"Like a real shadow or something else?"

A look that you could almost call annoyance crosses your friend's face before it fades back to passiveness.

"This one must apologize, but the direction of these questions is beyond this one's understanding."

"Hmm… one more question then… is shadow easier to shape at noon?"

The look that question elicits isn't quite a look of understanding… but it's the kind of look you would give when you knew there was an answer sitting just beyond your reach.

"It's a bit harder at noon and a bit easier in the morning and evening."

You gesture and a knee high pile of sand appears in front of you. Another gesture and it flows like water into a tiny castle. A third gesture and it's Mei Mei's face caught mid lecture.

"So my sand is sand right. It looks and flows and acts and even tastes like sand… but it's also Dream, right?"

"Tastes like sand?"

Once again you grin in a sheepish kind of way.

"I was curious… and it did, at least until I didn't want it to… then it tasted like maple dumplings."

"This one isn't quite sure what Quan Jia is attempting to convey."

"It's got this fancy term… but my tutors were really boring, and I'm kind of bad with names of things like that so… it's this thing that some cultivators that have… like a cultivator of fire has a difficult time making their fire not hot… I think your shadows are like that."

"Quan Jia is saying that prior awareness of shadow has affected this one's ability to properly manipulate Shadow."

"Exactly, it's a physical manifestation something-something."

"This one will have to conduct research into this phenomena, unless, does Quan Jia know how to overcome this weakness?"

At that question you kind of shrug and admit your ignorance.

"Nope. I cultivate [Dream] and Slumber, neither of which is real in that kind of way. But I'm sure Mei Mei can help."

"In that case, this one may have to impose upon Quan Jia's kindness once again."

There was something almost adorable about the earnest way she said that, if only there wasn't the specter of... the meridian thing could be a recent development, but her father really should have taught her about the physical manifestation thing, especially if they all work with shadow…

"We're two for two so far, want to try for a third?"

A hopeful smile appears at your question before slowly fading away with a shake of the head.

"This one can hardly ask for more support than Quan Jia has already given."

Once again you decide to happily ignore all of your friend's sense of inadequacy and bull ahead.

"In that case let's try it one more time anyway. And If you're really concerned about it… I take payment in the form of pillows, either lap or shoulder, whichever is more comfy."

"I don't think that- that is, this one is concerned that such an act could be construed as inappropriate."

"Well I can hardly force you… Mei Mei says consent is very important… but shouldn't you be making that shadow sword thing?"

She sighs, shakes her head a bit violently, sending black hair fluttering about her face, and settles into the by now familiar pose. For a third time shadow swirls, and threads, and drips, and for a third time a niggling sense of something tickles at your thoughts.


This time, words slip out almost before your mind can consciously process what you think is wrong.

"Is shadow a thing?"

Silver eyes very nearly scowl in annoyance at you as your friend stops once again midway through creating her shadow sword.

"This one is hardly in a position to request anything of Quan Jia, and yet, this one would prefer fewer questions."

"Oh, right… I always hated it when my tutors did things like this, sorry."

"Hmm… this is more about Art than Technique, but whatever: Slumber is a lot of different things to different people. Rejuvenation, exhaustion, a portal to dream… it makes much more sense to me as the last one rather than the others."

"I- this one doesn't know."

It's in that moment of admission that a realization rushes through your mind… Oh, wow... and he never even said a word...

"I've been lucky. Pops is really strong and he understands these things… I think he helped me through all this without even saying anything…"

"Father…"

I think I'm starting to… no, not yet at least… still if it turns out to be that way… you smile encouragingly.

"Well, since neither of us know anything about all this then we can just figure it out together… and if it's too confusing for that we can drag in some other friends and make them help too."

She looks up and matches your smile, a bit hesitantly, maybe, but still smiling.

"I think I would like that."

[+2 to Ma Liqiu's relationship score.]

[So to not at all shoehorn in a vote where one doesn't otherwise exist, have a vote on the bonus action for the turn]

[] It's Library time: maybe Ninth will be there, or maybe they won't, either way it'll be fun.

[] Nature's calling: maybe there will be a spring festival, or maybe it'll be a nice afternoon walk.

[] Wilderness explored: maybe one of Lady Shifting Sands' creations is nearby, or maybe nothing is.