The man took the gold, his eyes darting toward the monk’s Qi palm. "I’m in no condition to fight," he spat, clutching the pouch to his chest. "You can heal and come to collect from me at any time” the monk said.
He gestured sharply to his men. "Let’s go."
As the gang retreated, the guard moved in to unlock the shackles.
The Wanderer slumped forward, his legs buckling, but the monk caught him before he hit the dirt. She looked at the shallow stabs in his side, her brow furrowing. "You should be bleeding more," she murmured in curiosity. "But you are not."
The Wanderer’s eyes remained fixed on the blood-stained stone. "How much do you want?"
The monk smiled. "Not everything has a price, outsider."
"How... much..." he repeated, his voice heavy.
"We can agree on the details later," she replied, stepping closer. "For now, let me keep you from falling apart."
She placed a hand on his shoulder and began to channel. This time, the Qi was thicker, a heavy tide of warmth that surged through his veins. His body swallowed it whole, and asked for more.
Even as the power mended his flesh, his nerves screamed in pain, lingering pain pinned his movements, reminding him of the clubs and the cold iron.
He spent the next few hours in the guard house, dulling the edge of his exhaustion with water and a modest meal. When he could finally stand without the world tilting, the monk returned.
"Do you have a place to stay?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"The Viridian Veil has room. Come to our temple for now."
The Wanderer wiped a smear of dried blood from his chin. "What is this going to cost me?"
She laughed, the sound bright and out of place in the grim room. "You seem more obsessed with debts than they are."
"I learn fast," he replied.
"If you insist," she said, "you can work in the temple gardens as payment for your bed. It’s honest labor."
He nodded.
They walked back through Lythra’s jade streets, but the city had changed in his eyes. The sunlight on the streams felt deceptive, and the heavy scent of blossoms irritated his gut, the jade street was needles in his feet, as if Lythra rejected his presence.
They arrived at the Great Temple of the Viridian Veil.
It was a massive structure where living branches crawled up colorful stone walls, weaving into the architecture. Monks sat in quiet circles, their breathing synchronized with the rustle of the leaves.
Past the main gates, a group of elders met them. At their center stood a man with a long white beard and a perfectly smooth, shaved head. "What have you brought us, Kaelen?" he asked, his voice like the low, steady bell.
"Peace and serenity to you, Elder Tharos," she bowed. "Just a lost soul."
Tharos turned his gaze to the Wanderer checking him as if he noticed something the others didn't.
“ A lost soul huh.”
"What is your name, young man?"
"Wanderer," he replied.
Tharos tilted his head. "An odd name. Where did you come from?"
The Wanderer tried to reach back, to find an answer, but all he got was a pain spiked behind his eyes, sharp enough to steal his breath.
"It doesn't matter," Tharos said, sensing the struggle, but hesitated in suspicion. "You are welcome here, provided you do not disturb our peace."
"I'll take responsibility for him," Kaelen interjected. "Until he learns our ways."
Tharos nodded slowly and turned, the other monks falling into step behind him as they vanished into the temple's inner sanctum.
The Wanderer turned to Kaelen, his voice low. "Can I ask you something?"
She offered a patient smile. "Of course."
"This healing energy you used on me... how do I get more of it?"
"I'll show you," she said, smiling.
As they sat on the grass, she continued, "Lythra is the last sanctuary for Qi users.
We are among the remaining few. There may be others in the world beyond, but I have never met one in my lifetime…until you."
The Wanderer paused, a flicker of doubt in his eyes. "I have Qi?"
"Yes," she said. "You used it back there, in the guard’s courtyard."
He looked confused, the memory of the "flicker" during the beating feeling more like a dream than a skill.
“To me, Qi is a blessing. Like a second heart manifesting our hopes and thoughts gathering in our meridians, pumping it through our bodies when needed”
Sadness crept her face as she continued. “ The world adopted the Qi harmony, at some point everyone was born with meridians, then magic came…”
She paused, pushing a smile back. “ But your presence affirms there is still hope for Qi to rise again. Let's begin, I'll teach you”
The Wanderer’s eyes lit with anticipation.
"Let’s start."
Following her instructions, he sat cross-legged. Kaelen moved behind him, placing her hand against his back.
He felt Qi began to flow from her into him. It felt like a river entering a bare canyon, filling his body with warmth coming back to life as if his limbs were dead before its arrival.
Then, the voice within him woke up.
A hunger in the center of his being, black hole that began to hunt the Qi. It drained the energy from his own limbs and then turned to the source itself.
He began to swallow Kaelen’s Qi against her will. She grunted in sudden agony, her hand locked to his back as if fused by heat. "Stop!" she screamed.
But he didn't hear.
And the hunger didn't care.
Violent sparks began to arc off his skin, hissing through the air. Kaelen shrieked as a sudden, concussive explosion of energy threw her backward across the grass.
The Wanderer snapped out of the state, gasping as he looked at her. She was shivering on the ground, her face pale. "Are you okay?" he shouted, rushing toward her.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide with a new kind of terror. "You... you don't have a Qi meridian." Her voice trembled.
He stopped, confused. "What?"
"You have the stench of magic," she said, pushing herself up with trembling hands. "You have no meridians... how did you use it?"
He paused for a moment.
"I'm sorry," he replied, his voice hollow. "I don't know."
He reached out a hand to help her up, his fingers trembling from the lingering static of the explosion.
Kaelen stretched out her hand, then quickly recoiled in fear, crawling backward through the grass. "Don’t touch me!" she gasped, her voice cracking with a mixture of pain and shock.
She scrambled to her feet, her breathing ragged. "I must report this to Elder Tharos." She turned and fled toward the temple’s inner sanctum, casting a fearful glance back at him with every step.
He stood there looking at his trembling hands, as the void within asked for more
Within minutes, the silence in the garden didn't last. Tharos marched out, his robes billowing, flanked by monks and the pale, shaking Kaelen.
He stopped a few paces from the Wanderer, his eyes narrowed.
"You use magic?" Tharos demanded.
"I don't know how," the Wanderer replied, not sure if he should apologize.
"The stench of it clings to you," Tharos spat. "Come."
The monks closed in, forming a tight circle around the Wanderer, ushering him deep into the temple.
They arrived at a large hall, lit only by the flickering tongues of hundreds of candles. The air was thick with the scent of burning incense, the wind was cold despite being inside.
"Sit," Tharos commanded, pointing to the marble floor.
From a safe distance, the Elder raised his hand and sent a thin thread of Qi toward the Wanderer’s chest.
The moment the energy touched him, the hunger roared again. It tried to pull it all in.
Tharos pulled back in shock. "You have magic, yes. But there is something else inside you. Something that devours Qi and twists it into the rotten breath of mana."
"What does that mean?" the Wanderer asked.
"I do not know yet," Tharos said, a strange, clinical spark entering his eyes.
A monk said, “ this is a disaster, if there is more of him we are doomed.”
“Not particularly.” Said Tharos, then paused for a moment thinking.
"If it can be reversed… it would change everything. It could bring the Qi back to its former glory."
Kaelen said, “ but how? That thing inside him, it's ominous.”
Tharos looked at the Wanderer with hunger that matched his own.
"You are to stay with us until we find out how. But you are forbidden from approaching any Qi users or speaking of this. Kaelen, follow him like a shadow. Do not let him near the others."
Kaelen nodded, her face was a mask of fear.
The days that followed were a blur of isolation. He kept his word, tending to the garden, but the atmosphere had shifted.
The monks avoided him as if he carried a plague, stepping off the jade paths when he approached. If he tried to speak, they looked through him as if he were already a ghost.
Kaelen remained his silent sentinel. Her fear began to fade as the days passed without another explosion, but she still kept a strict distance, watching him from ten feet away, her hand never far from her beads.
His only friend was the roses he carefully trimmed, and began to chat with the lavender that only responded in perfume.
The evenings were the worst. Tharos would summon him to the candle-lit hall for "study." The Elder conducted his experiments, forcing the Wanderer to ingest bitter, glowing herbs or making small, strategic cuts in his flesh to see how wounds reacted to filtered Qi. Each time, the Wanderer felt the void inside him stir, waiting for something that never came.
After one night, after Tharos finished his experiments and left.
Kaelen was the only one there with him. “I'm sorry you have to go through this.”
The Wanderer putting back his clothes, smirked.” Are you now?”
“Excuse Tharos he has a lot to deal with because of the Fang.” She replied.
The Wanderer stood up, “ so you agree with him treating me less than a human?”
Kaelen looked away without giving an answer.
He moved towards the door saying, “ you are not better than the Fang.”
She followed him pacing to catch up. “Tharos is carrying the fate of Qi users on his shoulders, he would do anything to preserve Qi.”
He stopped walking, leaned into her face. “What about me then, a sacrifice to his end goal?”
Kaelen touched his forearm, “I won't let you die, trust me.” Realizing she was touching him, she quickly drew her hand away.
The Wanderer shook his head at her reaction and left for his room.
The next day, as he was moving through the corridors.
He heard Kaelen’s voice coming from Tharos’s room, he moved slowly towards the sound.
Kaelen sounded angry, “Master, you can't keep him like a caged animal.”
Tharos replied, “ I made his stay as comfortable as possible, he should be thankful he isn't rotting in a cell.”
“He is a human!” Kaelen replied.
Tharos sighed, “ would you prefer for the Qi to wither out of this world? For our ancestors to curse us from their graves for not even trying?”
“ There must be another way, your stubbornness is what drove Rohan away” said Kaelen.
The sound of slap followed by Tharos' anger. “Don't mention this thug to me, get out of my room before I throw you out of the whole temple!”
She opened the door to see the Wanderer standing, tears filled her eyes holding her red cheek.
She looked at him, then ran away.
The Wanderer and Tharos exchanged stares, before Tharos stood up, closing the door.