"Stand still, Little Qīwù," I instructed for the umpteenth time. It was like trying to deal with a toddler who wanted to go play or something, she just wouldn't stay put.

"Your eyes," she said, wiggling again. "Are you a nature spirit?"

"It would not be wrong to consider Benefactor as such," said the 'Ancient One', cutting me off. I was sure Celistar had her reasons, so I just left it be.

I was examining Qīwù with my aura vision, and I had it cranked up to eleven again, essentially turning my eyes into spotlights from the sheer concentration of Nebula. I was also making no effort to suppress the glow, so instead of the usual shimmer, Qīwù was getting the full-up Char flashlight treatment, and she was kinda freaking out about it.

"The nature of my being is irrelevant," I said, looking directly into her eyes as I did so, which probably wasn't a great idea, all things considered. "I'm trying to figure out what has happened to you.

"Your body seems to have remnants of your Nebula, but it's as though your Core has gone dormant. Can you try stepping back outside the city limits?" I said after a fashion, and then pointed at the edge of the stone pavers. I followed her as she did so, and at the exact moment her Core crossed over, it burst back into activity, flooding her body with Nebula.

"It's back!"

"Yes, now return," I instructed, earning a pout.

"I don't get why you're fine but I'm not," she said, moving back into the city. Upon entry, the flow from her Core immediately ceased, although it didn't happen immediately after the propulsive power withdrew. It seemed like the momentum kept things going for a few seconds.

I wasn't sure what it said about Qīwù that we'd been in the city for several minutes before she noticed she didn't have any Nebula to speak of.

But then again, if it weren't for how much of it I used - almost constantly - then I probably would take a while to notice myself.

I heard Celistar's voice in my head again, although it had that same distant, almost scratchy sound to it from before. Like it had to go through a sort of conversion or cross a barrier to get to me.

She's the only one who hasn't been to your world.

Very true. I assumed she could still discern my general thoughts, and she said no more, so that was likely still the case on some level. I put my hand on Qīwù's back and pushed some Nebula into her body, directing it at her Core.

"Eeeeeee!" she squealed. It was a very nails-on-a-chalkboard noise, and I almost lost my concentration.

"You are too jumpy, grasshopper." I said with a bit of a smirk. "But the real question is: can you use it?"

"Use what?" She asked, looking back at me in confusion. "Your hand is just as cold as ice!"

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Maybe you need a drink cooled or something," I retorted, kind of losing my patience. Nebula exploded outward from me, and I more or less bolted her into place with it, watching the hairs on her neck stand on end as I did so. I can't imagine it was a comfortable feeling. "Is that better?"

"N-n-... Yes." She said. "What am I trying to use?"

"I've put some of my own Nebula into your Core."

Her eyes widened. "You can do that? I mean…" I watched her catch herself mid-thought, then concentrate. I could feel the Nebula move around of its own accord - or rather, of her accord. Celistar and István were watching with rapt attention to the goings-on. I couldn't even sense Viktor; he'd wandered off somewhere.

I'd have worried about him, but I was pretty sure he was the scariest thing in the city right now. 'I'm not trapped in here with you…' and all that.

Qīwù managed to form a few light attacks with it, the edges of her hands gaining a faint glow that looked not unlike my own aura. I pushed in some more then released my grasp on her. "Can you still use it now?"

"I can… It's dissipating, but very slowly." Her observations matched my own; she seemed to have a good grasp on her internal state, now that she was concentrating on it. It was as one would expect from someone raised with excellent mentors essentially from birth.

Now if only she could get the maturity and concentration to make use of all that talent and hard work.

You've shown me another technique I previously thought impossible, Celistar said to just me, This seems to be a thing for you and yours.

We like to have fun, I replied in my own head, assuming she could hear it. I got a gentle smile from the Moon Fairy.

"Hang onto that as long as you can," I said to Qīwù, referring to my power. "I should be able to top you up if you start running low. Wouldn't do to have you defenseless." I gave her a bit of a grin. "But at the same time I don't want to give you so much you pop!"

The look on her face was worth a thousand words.

Despite my previous thoughts about Viktor, I was starting to get worried when we still hadn't found him half an hour later.

"Do you think Elder Mountain is okay?" Qīwù asked, echoing my internal concerns.

"He is fine," István told her, without backing it up with anything tangible. Even so, having 'Elder Scholar' tell her so seemed to mollify her somewhat.

It did for me as well, if I'm being honest. There was something about my two 'Elders' that I found inherently trustworthy. I wasn't sure where it stemmed from, be it all the adventures and face punching we'd done together or if it was just my vibes, like always. Either way, I believed in them when they told me 'what for', as Grandpa put it.

We were traveling down a side street, looking much the same as the others, when suddenly a wall to our right burst. I immediately went on guard, but István didn't. I realized a moment later what was going on when Viktor stepped out of the dust.

He was always a little hard to read in my aura vision, since he only tended to apply Nebula just before a strike - which made me wonder how István had known it was him. Though I suppose that to be fair, an equation of 'random wall exploding equals Viktor' would be pretty reliable calculus in anyone's book.

"Damn, missed it." He said, looking around at us, a light layer of the dust formerly known as a wall covering his shoulders.

"Missed what?" I asked the obvious question.

"The shadow," he replied, brushing off himself in the process of extracting himself from the rest of the rubble. It kicked up a cloud, and I was about to blow it away when István beat me to the punch. Probably didn't want any of it ending up on his clothes. Not that it seemed likely to happen either way. Pretty sure his entire person was some sort of non-stick material heretofore unknown to science.

"You punched a shadow?" Qīwù asked, scattering my already astray thoughts.

"Yeah, but I missed it," he said, as if doing so was totally normal. "I think it went outside somewhere. Did you see it?"

We all shook our heads, having not seen a thing from our perspective.

"Oh, I am sure I will find it again," he said, joining the group.

"No doubt," I said, looking at the remains of the wall. I definitely didn't want to be that shadow once Viktor caught up with it.

Most dangerous thing in the city, indeed.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.