Just her and a predator that could disembowel her in an instant. No, she wasn’t nervous at all! Swallowing— hopefully noticeably, but probably very noticeably if the way Avyr’s gaze darted up to her neck… hopefully that wasn’t for other reasons— she carefully considered how to start the conversation.

  Then, because she was a super idiot, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Can you even actually use those?” She flushed, voice magically adopting into the same pitch and cadence of a squeaky toy. “The keys! I mean the keys… because, um. Your paws? Don’t look like they’re the best for…”

  The cat chirped out a strange, lyrical sound. “I’m not going to eat you.” A laugh, she realized— that had been a laugh. “And yes. It can be a bit difficult sometimes, and doesn’t come quite as naturally to us as it does you, but my paws are more dexterous than you might think. A key is no trouble to use.”

  Lily heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank the immortals, I was worried for a second.” Then, with her safety assured— she found herself curious. “Are you… from what Mr. Leng said, are you a cultivator?” The cat nodded, and she fought down the urge to squeal, or run— either or. A real, actual cultivator! “What level? Do you know any awesome techniques? Ooh, what spiritual tools do you have—”

  “I’m only Shedding, unfortunately. I don’t have anything like that.” A brief touch of something— bitterness maybe? Flashed through his voice, but it was gone before she could do more than note its presence. “That’s largely why I came here. I’ve heard great things about the meritocracy of East Saffron, and hope to— eventually— join the Bloody Saffron Sect to continue my path. And you?”

  “Same! That’s always been my greatest dream. One day, I will join the Bloody Saffron Sect. I won’t let anything stand in my way.” She waited for the usual denial— but of course there wasn’t anything. For once, she shared the room with someone with both her same goal and the means to actually achieve it— someone with that same drive.

  Huh. Maybe Mr. Leng had been right when he’d said they could help each other. They were similar, after all.

  “I study formations, by the way. Do you have any interest in the art?”

  The cat cocked his head, tapping a paw against the hardwood floor for a second. “I never considered it before, but I don’t hold any aversion to the art. It’s been suggested to me before, by the kinder of your kind, that with my scholarly sort of bent I could progress a long way down that path—”

  “But you want to join a Sect.”

  “You understand entirely.” He chirped with laughter again, then stood— which while a little threatening, given just how big he was, wasn’t quite as threatening as it’d been before. Not now that she knew a little more about him. “Could you show me one of your formations? I’ve never actually gotten to see one being created.”

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  “Only if you show me your cool cultivator powers.”

  He laughed again, but nodded, which was so exciting! “I don’t have cool cultivator powers, as such— you can’t carve meridians in Shedding, which means you can’t carve techniques either—” ah, unfortunate— “but I can still do some unstructured techniques, and I’ve got all the physical benefits of a first step cultivator.”

  She paused, hand half outstretched to the obvious formation brushes left in a cup on Mr. Leng’s desk, an idea sparking in her mind. “By unstructured techniques, you mean…”

  “Pushing qi, pulling qi… I’ve been working on making qi threads, but I’ve not been seeing much success on it. I know it’s theoretically possible to make them without a dedicated technique, but…” he did a weird shuffle with his front legs that she tentatively interpreted as a shrug. “It might just be something that I’ve got to wait until I reach a higher step for. Sorry.”

  “No! No—” she was going to make something completely different. “That’s perfect actually! The biggest problem I have with formations is that— because I’m a mortal— I’ve got to rely on just… the ambient qi, and whatever the qi flows are at the moment.” With this… she grabbed a brush and rummaged around for an inkpot, then pulled out a piece of paper and started scribing. Well, if she was being generous she’d call it that— it was more like scribbling actually, as she hastily sketched out a formation, using the energy modification runes and the standard connections to shift, and, the rune for fire, which was the easiest when it came to pure energy, and— “here!”

  Proudly, she presented her first— proper name pending— continuous firespitter talisman to Avyr who— gently— reached up and grasped it with a paw. “What does it do?”

  “Once you tear off the limiter at the top—” which was a fast and dirty way of doing them, but at least for this one she didn’t need anything more complicated— “if you push qi through from the back, here, then so long as you keep the pressure going, it’ll make a flame about an inch above the talisman. The qi pressure will keep the flame away from the delicate paper, so— theoretically— you could use it as long as you wanted to.”

  Avyr’s eyes widened a bit before he nodded appreciatively. “Impressive.”

  Then he activated the talisman, which she should’ve probably anticipated before she gave it to him. Whoops!

  A flash of light— of boiling flame white hot— washing out over the room, and— sound, and color, and the impact of her back hitting the floor as she shrieked in surprise, all fast enough that it blended into a single moment of utter confusion.

  Then— silence, for a long moment as she laid there, blinking up at Avyr as he loomed above her. “Are you… okay?” He nudged her with a paw, gently. Now that she looked at it a little closer, threatening though he might look, he also looked kind of cute. Like a cat.

  She giggled, grinning so broadly it almost hurt. “I’m fine.” More than fine. She was excited. “I think…” she pushed herself to her feet, glancing around the room— protected, thankfully, by some formation or another, the flame dispersed into so many sparks glittering softly, like flakes of incandescent snow falling away— “I think that you and I are going to get along wonderfully.”

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