Book 2 Chapter 73

It took more than a bit of effort to calm down her grandmother after the most recent revelation.

Willow felt quite awful about the whole situation if she was honest. She had already seen signs that her grandmother hadn’t been coping the best in her isolation, yet she still went along with her mentor’s idea of revealing the twins.

The group were now outside of the cave, thinking that some fresh evening air would do some good in helping her calm down, which they were thankfully correct about.

“Sorry again.” Willow said for what felt like the hundredth time with her friends huddled around her like a comforting shroud.

“Yes, apologies for startling you like that. We did not mean any harm with our actions.” Harmony chimed in support of her friend.

“For the last time it’s not either of your faults.” Her grandmother grumped, clearly still upset about her lapsed composure. “I’ve had some… rough days here and there out on my own. The sheer improbability of your situation just made me question my senses again. It’s done, I’m fine now, and we should move on.”

Everyone was uncomfortable about the implications of what the older woman had just said, but decided to respect her wishes for now. There would hopefully be time to help her in the time they would be spending together.

Grandma Thea tried to continue the conversation from earlier, clearly eager to distract from what had just happened. “So, the bedrock of your path isn’t those five little spirits, but these powerfully linked twins?”

Willow nodded after sharing a look with her sister and mentor.

“Yeah, they’re what makes it all possible. Harmony and Change worked together to make the transfer of qi between the younger ones stable. Plus it’s Harmony’s technique that allows me to make use of the different qi types even though my core isn’t attuned to them.”

Her grandmother raised a brow in confusion. “And how exactly does that work? I’ve been curious how you managed to stabilize your core with so many different qi types.”

Willow shifted in place and fidgeted as she tried to think of how to explain herself before centering herself with a breath as she’d been taught by Madame Park. She’d discussed the mechanisms by which she was able to do what she did with Miss Mu many different times while they travelled.

This was just summarizing what they’d gone over, and she could do that easily.

“So, right now my core is made up of multiple yin and yang attuned alternating layers with a center that’s still completely unattuned. Using Harmony’s concept I can harmonize myself with one of my bonds and make the unattuned part temporarily attuned to the element of the bond.”

Grandma Thea nodded hesitantly, but voiced one of her concerns. “Are there not any side effects from doing that? You would need to alter your pathways in addition to your core in order to safely use the qi you now have access to. That would put a lot of strain on your body.”

Willow chuckled nervously at the fact her grandmother had so quickly identified one of the potential issues with the technique as she’d described it.

“The technique applies to my whole body when I use it. I needed to do a lot of core training before it was apparently safe to do so.” She glossed over the fact that she hadn’t confirmed with anyone that it was safe before she’d attempted it the first time.

Aunt Jieun had not been happy about that.

After thinking through the implications again for several moments she glared at Miss Mu. “You’re having her use the concepts of those twin spirits during her core training?! Do you have any idea how reckless that is?”

Before her mentor could defend herself, Change chimed in, surprising both of them. “She wasn’t even involved when we started doing it. It was me and my sister’s idea to start imbuing our concept into our friend as she started her core training. We were also told by Willow’s aunt how dangerous it was after the fact, but by then we couldn’t have her safely stop doing it.”

Her grandmother took several deep breaths to calm herself down again before bowing her head to the wanderer woman in apology. “It seems I was too quick to place the blame at your feet, my apologies Mu.”

Her glare resurfaced, though now it was directed at the twin spirits. “What exactly are your intentions towards my granddaughter? If you’re under the same binding as the rest of her spirits it means you basically have full autonomy, right? So what are the two of you planning?”

Thea started leaking that intense pressure again, with Harmony and Change bearing the brunt of it this time.

“We just want our friend to live as long of a life as we can help her reach!” Harmony tried to defend both herself and her brother’s actions. “She helped hide us in our time of need, and made us an offer of friendship in the process. This felt like the correct way to repay that kindness.”

Willow felt the pressure abate, but her grandmother was still unhappy. “So it was negligence, not malice. Perhaps you match the forms you wear more than I initially assumed, children throwing out power without fully understanding the consequences.”

The older woman sighed and Miss Mu placed a gloved hand on her shoulder, attempting to impart some comfort.

“What’s done is done, Thea. I’ve given the girlie a thorough scan and if she were to stop walkin’ her path then the consequences to her body would be less than kind. The best we can do now is help her reach her full potential.”

Grandma Thea nodded as the sun fully dipped below the horizon. “I know. It’s just a lot for me to take in.”

They watched the warm hues on the horizon slowly shift to the darker blues of night before her grandmother finally let out another breath as she fully calmed down.

She then looked to her granddaughter with amused exasperation. “Do you have any other surprises for me, little one?”

Willow was halfway tempted to harmonize with one of her spirits to show off her shifting, but felt that would be in incredibly poor taste right now.

“The harmonization technique is pretty… thorough in its results. It apparently looks similar to a cladding technique, but it’s been a shock for most people who’ve seen it so far.” She then hesitated at this next part, but felt comfortable enough that her grandmother would likely take whatever she said as well as could be expected at this point.

“I can also shift between boy and girl whenever I do my core training.”

Her grandmother cocked her head to the side as she considered this new piece of information.

“I suppose with the twins concepts in addition to tempering yourself with their energies that would be one of the potential results. I hold some concerns about that, but they’re problems common enough in any binder far enough along on their path so I suppose I can make my peace with it and frankly you’re young enough that it would be silly to worry about such matters.”

Willow was unsure what exactly she was referring to, but took the fact that her grandmother wasn’t reacting negatively as a win and decided to leave it at that.