Growing Pains 316 Book 2 Chapter 10

I didn’t stay to see if there were any ramifications from my edict. The former Baron would either comply, or he would die. I only stayed long enough to make sure there was someone in charge, someone who would make a Cultivator’s Oath before I flung myself into the sky, sending a mental entreaty to Storm.

Mother had called me on her com, frantic that both Geon and Syha were ill. An illness on its own wasn’t any cause for concern. Not with the potions mother could create or the healing services of House Cultivators.

But this illness had stymied both potion and cultivator. The children were burning Qi, a prodigious amount of Qi that neither should be able to gather or process. Na, our House healer, had sent for an awakening device. One that shouldn’t be needed by either child until their eighteenth birthday.

I rode Storm back to Xiwang, adding my own powers and control over wind with hers to increase our rate of travel to outpace our previously fastest speeds. Still, it took most of the day to return the Barony I had had to deal with at the furthest location on the island, relative to Xiwang.

“Na?” I said, entering the hospital room my brother and sister had been moved to.”What have you found?”

“As I mentioned the last time you cammed, the Qi energy being burned is the same type of energy that is released when a person awakens. We are going to use an awakening stone to see if we can either halt the progress or push it into the final stage.

“We aren’t sure why it is happening, but we are confident that this is an early awakening.”

“I think I might know why,” I replied thoughtfully.

“Why?” My mother demanded as she moved to grab at my arm frantically.

Mother was strong, strong enough that her grip would probably have hurt a non-cultivator. And that strength had only increased recently. Ever since she had begun eating the Lodoicea-laced food.

“I think it is the same reason anyone that eats the spirit food Lin Li offers has reached the Body Refinement Realm.”

“But none of the other children are reacting like this,” Na pointed out.

“That may be because the other children hadn’t been offered the same opportunities as Geon and Syha,” I pointed out.

“Both have been allowed to participate in the spirit-claiming ritual. Both have been added to the mind gestalt I have managed to generate. A gestalt that includes all of House Myche’s Cultivators.

“I can’t be certain, but I believe that is a confluence of each of these events that have precipitated an early awakening.”

“Their bodies are strong enough because of the food, their souls are strong enough because of the spirit ritual, and their minds have been enhanced because of the gestalt,” Na summarized thoughtfully.

“I think I have to agree.”

“We need to do further testing, of course, but if the children survive this with their Cultivation active and accessible, it might be something we aggressively pursue,” I added. “Onkei would be stronger if we could increase the ranks of our Cultivators by triggering an awakening.

“And if this method proves more successful, if more people are able to form spirit roots, then our Kingdom garner support and immigrants from the powerful and poor alike.”

“What do you mean if the children survive?” My mother demanded, her face losing all color as the impact of my words seemed to cause her to stagger.

“Mother,” I said, moving to hug and soothe her, “I don’t think Geon or Syha will die; that was just a slip of the tongue.”

“Geon and Syha are strong,” father agreed, “they will survive this, and our biggest challenge will be how to train children to cultivate without transforming into monsters and bullies.”

“Yes, your right,” mother said, clinging desperately to his words, “Geon and Syha are good children. Strong and obedient.  They will get past this, and we will make sure to include a moral compass in any training they undergo. They will learn what strength comes at a cost, and we need to be vigilant that they don’t pay a cost so horrific that we no longer recognize who or what they are.”

“Toi,” I called, summoning my spirit companion, “could you speak with Geon and Syha’s companions to see if they can offer any advice or assurances about their condition?”

“Why didn’t we already do that?” Mother asked.

“Because I haven’t been interested in participating in the ritual to gain a companion,” Na replied regretfully. “I thought, from a practical point of view, that a Healer should be free of any adverse effects that might arise. One that could monitor how other people changed or reacted to the changes formed when a contract with a spirit was initiated.

“We know so little about this newly discovered cultivation practice. I thought caution was advised.”

“You may be right, Na. It doesn’t hurt to be cautious, not as long as you are methodical and certain about the need for caution and how that caution might affect your role as a healer,” I said.

“Toi? Anything?”

“Whatever is happening is affecting the Spirits as well,” Toi replied, her gaze unfocused as she studied what only she could perceive within the spirit world.

“Both Spirits are encased in a cocoon of energy. A Qi construct that has been suffused with enough Spirit Energy to trigger each entity to evolve.  

“The children are awakening, that much is clear, and their awakening has triggered the evolution of the entities they have contracted.”

“What does that mean?” Mother asked.

“It means that their Spirit Companions will adapt, change, and grow as the children grow. They will emerge from the cocoons, having transitioned into a new partner. One best suited to help the children grow and embrace the spirit-roots that are forming.

“Watching as their spirit-roots grow, as they form from the essence of the Spirit world and anchor within the physical world, is amazing. The transition between the spirit and life is a process that is usually only seen when new life is conceived.

“What I am watching is the alignment of [Dao] and the [Heavens]. The bridge between the real and the esoteric has been breached, and the children have this brief moment in time to embrace the changes that the [Dao] offers.