Before sleeping he worked on the Torrential Cycle. Despite the earlier practice, it took him some time to find his rhythm again. Like his past efforts with the Breath Bridge, the mental fatigue had a cumulative effect, and he'd already exerted himself significantly that day.

Fortunately, in the solitude of his cell he was able to take his time with it. Here there was no Breaker staring down at him, no entropy field setting fire to his nerves. He began by not even trying to hit the point of drawing in qi. He just sat with the two parts of the technique, the cycle and the visualization, studying the sensation of them, the way they responded to small changes.

The Torrential Cycle was a far more complex beast than the Breath Bridge. This was most evident in the fact that it had two parts — the image and the cycle — which required him to split his focus, and it was there he found some difficulty. Despite his small success earlier in the day, and Breaker's suggested modification, he still felt a fundamental sense of disconnection between the technique's two elements. He suspected that to truly master it, he would need to solve that dissonance, and the earlier he did that, the better. As Master Zhen had taught him, to build upon a shaky foundation was asking for everything to come toppling down.

Part of the problem was that he'd never seen a true whirlpool before. He figured perhaps he was simply imagining it incorrectly. He toyed with the visualization, making it smaller, bigger, playing with its environment and intensity. On one attempt, he pictured a small spiral in a sedate stream, the next a thunderous vortex in the deep sea capable of swallowing an entire fleet of boats whole. With each try, he modulated the flow of qi to match the rhythm of the image, but nothing seemed to make a difference. It still didn't feel right.

Frustration began to bubble in his chest, but he quelled it. Breaker had warned him not to judge the process of learning a new technique. "It will take as long as it needs to," he'd said, though Rix did find himself wondering if the man would be quite so serene about it now with their accelerated deadline.

Drawing a deep breath to center himself, he went back to absolute basics. He dropped the cycle entirely, focusing solely on the visualization. When he'd made progress with the Breath Bridge it had been because he'd made the visualization more tangible, which had solidified his belief in the reality he was creating. With the bridge, that was easy enough. It was a static image. A simple conduit whose only job was to exist and allow qi to flow where it already wanted to go.

But the Torrential Cycle was something else entirely. It was a thing in motion. He'd been treating that motion as just part of the image, like a picture brought to life, but thinking more deeply on the technique and the way it functioned, he realized he was missing a crucial part. The motion was more than just aesthetics. It was the mechanism that allowed the technique to reach out into the world.

This time when he performed the visualization, he built it out more fully. It wasn't just an image any longer. He pictured the crash of the water as it was drawn downward, the salt of the air on his tongue. He felt the howl of the wind that buffeted him from all sides.

Most importantly, he imagined the sheer unrivalled force of the vortex. It was no longer merely the illusion of movement. It now had an inexorable gravity that drew in everything around it.

It was an entirely different experience. What had been a flat image had become something with weight and depth. Something living. If visualization was about imposing some part of yourself on the world, this felt much more capable of making an impact.

This more complete scene required considerably more mental effort to maintain, but still he sat with it for some time, committing the sensation to memory. He could tell intuitively that this was the correct approach and he wanted to feel and understand every part of it.

When he felt ready, he seized his qi and resumed cycling. The improvement was stark. Almost immediately, the pull of his whirlpool began to act upon his qi. Without really trying, he found the cycle now slipped naturally into rhythm with the image, dragged into time by the force he'd created as if that's what it wanted all along. Where previously he'd been thinking of the cycle and the visualization as two distinct elements of the technique, he began to see how, with enough experience, they would become one. Any sense of dissonance had disappeared entirely.

By this point, both his body and mind cried out for sleep, but he wanted to at least try to draw in qi once more. Slowly, he increased the pace. With the improvements he'd made, this came more easily. It still required some mental effort to increase the flow of qi, but speeding up the whirlpool also contributed.

He felt the sense of gravity building inside him. His repeat attempts with Breaker had given him a good idea of how that would feel and the threshold where it would begin gathering. He knew he was close. With as much care as he could muster, he increased the speed further still, and with a rush of warmth, qi flowed into him.

Without the entropy field acting upon it, it came a little more slowly, which actually made it marginally easier to control, but still the newfound energy sent his concentration into disarray. He managed to maintain the technique for a full ten seconds before the visualization shattered. He recoiled momentarily at the sudden shift, but knowing what to expect let him recover quickly and guide his qi back to a standstill.

He opened his eyes and let out a long breath. It wasn't a big difference, but it was progress. And the entire technique just felt better in a way that he knew would serve him well down the line.

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***

The next morning, Rix woke feeling a degree of mental sluggishness. He'd pushed himself yesterday, and while he was far more robust than his old mortal self, he did still have limits. He ran through a few orbits of the Torrential Cycle just to get some more practice, but didn't speed up to the point of gathering. Breaker would see him do plenty of that later in the day.

Once his cell door unlocked, he headed straight for the training yard to meet Luna. They'd stockpiled some breakfast buns the previous day so they wouldn't waste any time, and judging by the steady flow of prisoners headed the same way, that was a common approach.

He arrived to find Luna had already claimed one of the rapidly filling cells.

"I'll guard this, you go get Old Grumpy," she said.

Rix nodded. Despite his promise to Breaker, he had no intention of skipping out on his training entirely. Also, he had a few questions for the Weaponmaster.

Master Zhen was seated at his usual station between the two halves of the prison, a steaming cup of tea in hand. He kept his expression neutral as Rix approached, though there was a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

"So, against all odds the two of you live," he said.

Rix shrugged. "Seems so. Truth be told, I didn't particularly care for the alternative."

"I know that Cloudpiercer has few teachers who are my equal," Master Zhen said, "but to see the two of you still standing…well, I may need to rethink even my own lofty estimations of my talents."

Rix grinned. "We surely owe our lives to your wisdom, elder."

The man gave a self-satisfied nod. "I assume you would like to continue your lessons?"

"If we could, elder."

The man followed Rix back to the cell.

"How have you found the Cauldron so far?" he asked them, once he and Luna had greeted one another.

The two prisoners shared a glance.

"The fades are tougher, but the food's worse, so I'd call it a wash," said Luna.

"We did have something of an interesting diversion when we first arrived," Rix added, watching the older man carefully.

If the Weaponmaster had any idea what he was talking about, he gave no sign. "Is that so?"

Rix nodded. "Didn't you notice we were missing for a week?"

Master Zhen made a show of considering this. "A week, you say? Well, I had noted a marginal improvement in the training yard's ambient intelligence, but I attributed it to a favorable wind."

Rix let out a good-natured scoff. "They threw us in the tank for a week."

Master Zhen's expression darkened. "An unpleasant place, by all accounts."

"It is." Rix glanced around then dropped his voice lower. "We'd probably still be there, but somebody with some sway in Ironguard Enterprises intervened on our behalf."

Master Zhen didn't miss a beat. He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Someone intervened? For you? Boy, you have a more inflated sense of self-worth than a Thousand-Year Patriarch. Who in their right mind would waste a shred of political capital on the likes of you two?"

"I don't know, elder," Rix replied. "A mystery, I guess."

"A mystery indeed." Master Zhen glanced away, seeming to study one of the other pairs of prisoners training in the next cell. Rix briefly thought that was going to be all he said on the matter. But after a few seconds, he continued. "Hypothetically, if somebody did decide that your...unique brand of incompetence was worth preserving, I imagine that person must have seen something in you two that was worth saving. The organization is full of people who possess a level of judgment I would expect from a particularly dense fog, so such a blunder would not surprise me."

The elder turned back to face them. "If this lost soul does indeed exist, I suspect they would not wish to see you waste the opportunity you've been granted. You may even find them willing to help again, should the need arise, which I imagine it will given the situation you now find yourselves in."

He spoke casually, his expression still conveying his usual mild disdain, but there was no mistaking his meaning. For the first time since they'd been thrown in the tank, Rix felt a genuine flicker of hope. He met Luna's gaze, and in the slight, almost imperceptible nod she gave him, he saw his own relief mirrored back. Not only had Master Zhen all but confirmed that he'd been their savior, but he was offering more aid in the future. Rix wasn't sure exactly what the man knew about the situation with Han and Sho, but an ally within the prison staff could be a difference-maker when it came to actually escaping.

"We'll keep that in mind, elder," Rix said.

"See that you do." Master Zhen gave a dismissive wave. "Or don't. Such petty politicking holds no interest for me. I am merely a humble yet grossly overqualified teacher."

Luna laughed. "Your humbleness knows no bounds, elder."

The man clapped his hands. "Speaking of teaching, all this conversation is eating into your precious hour. What is it you wish to work on?"

Rix took a moment to order his thoughts. "We actually have some questions," he said. "Luna knows a little more about the Martial Path than me—"

Luna snorted. "Yeah, a little."

"—so I've already asked her to tell me what she can about the requirements to jump from Spark to Nova." He gave her a pointed look. "Unfortunately, she could only answer at a high level. No details. So I figured we should ask someone truly qualified."

Luna's cheeks flushed and she glanced at the ground. "Knowledge about the higher tiers was reserved for full sect members," she mumbled.

Master Zhen let out a wry chuckle. "You have just succeeded in taking your first ungainly steps and already you ask what is needed to run."

"We simply want to know what to be working toward, elder," said Rix. While the Martial Path was the lowest of Rix's current priorities, he still wanted to understand what his next steps would be. He might not be able to dedicate significant time to them now, but he also wouldn't have a resource like Master Zhen at his disposal forever. It made sense to take advantage of that while he could.

The Weaponmaster studied them. "Very well. I will indulge you. Let's assume for the sake of the lesson that you both know nothing." He cleared his throat. "Much like progressing from Whisper to Spark, the step from Spark to Nova asks several things of you. One is something that should be familiar — further mastery of your weapon. A High-rank style is generally regarded as the minimum threshold the System will accept."

He looked specifically at Luna. "We can discuss what this means for your unique situation at a later date."

She nodded. "Thank you, elder." Rix had no idea if Luna would be able to keep forging ahead with her self-taught style, but it hadn't stopped her so far.

"The second requirement is far more interesting," said Master Zhen, a twinkle entering his eye. "You must assemble your class."

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