Book 2 Chapter 74

Figuring out everyone’s sleeping arrangements for the night was a less than smooth experience, but after a bit of fussing the four of them had places to rest their heads.

The two sisters were sharing a space in the main room, using Mu and Willow’s bedrolls to create a nest of bedding for them to sleep on temporarily. While the wanderer woman was given a spare room that Grandma Thea had made with no real purpose in mind. However, with some pelts and effort it was made comfortable enough that Willow didn’t feel as guilty about leaving her without a bedroll.

Yet still she tossed and turned throughout the night, not really getting a good amount of sleep, but trying her best not to wake her older sister with her movements.

For reasons unknown her mind would not let her rest despite the busy day she’d had.

Eventually Willow gave up and decided a bit of fresh air would do her some good, the sound of her feet padding across the stone floor as silent as she could make it without harmonizing herself with her environment.

As she exited the dark cave using nothing but her sensory abilities she took in the full moon and ocean of stars in the sky above, a beautiful sight that she rarely grew tired of. Rotter briefly raised his head and flicked his great tongue in greeting, but quickly went back to his resting state when he confirmed that it was just her.

After a small prod of her will to make sure they weren’t caught off guard, she brought out Phoebe to stargaze with her. The small stone spirit was always happy to gaze at the celestial bodies, and this time was no exception. They took their customary place at the top of her head, the weight completely negligible to Willow despite her friends’ increased density.

She would’ve also brought out some of her other friends as they would almost definitely enjoy this view just as much, but she wanted to make sure her friends got some one on one time with her, and since she was gonna be learning how to better work with Phoebe in the foreseeable future she thought it was best to start with her thoughtful stone.

Willow had her senses extended as far as she could as her eyes were on the beauty of the night sky, since Mu had long since drilled into her that she should be constantly vigilant when out in the wilderness. Rotter scared away most threats just by his presence alone, but it was always best to be careful.

“Are you all right, child?” Harmony voiced her concern from her space in Willow’s crown.

“Yeah, friend, normally you’re sound asleep by now.” Change chimed in as well.

Willow shrugged and sent a hug both of their ways, happy that they cared. “My mind just can’t rest right now, it’s not a big deal.”

She was worried about her grandmother, sad that her sister would have to leave soon for her job, and missed the one friend she’d managed to make in her time since she’d left home. Not to mention her worry about being prepared for the inevitable meeting with the Wanderer’s Sect.

A constant shadow hanging over her time with Miss Mu. If she didn’t prove her strength and ability in protecting the twins from outside threats then they’d be taken away from her.

It was all so much at times.

Maybe moving her body would help.

She dropped into her martial forms without thought, with Phoebe being surprised but happy to be along for the ride.

It wasn’t that strenuous, she lacked the weights from her training and the movements themselves didn’t provide much of a challenge to her reinforced body.

What could she do to fix that?

Oh! Maybe tomorrow she could ask her grandmother to use that weight technique on her while she trained, that’d be like having a bunch of weights strapped to her.

For right now though, what was the solution? It was difficult to clear her mind with just the movements alone, and she didn’t feel safe going for a run in the middle of nowhere when she was unaware of any potential dangers.

Which did leave one final option.

“Would it be safe to do some core training right now?” She asked her friends, hoping for an affirmative. Her core felt completely healed up after her session earlier in the day, but she knew that it wasn’t a good idea to over train.

The twin spirits silently communicated in a way Willow still didn’t understand before Harmony hesitantly answered her in the affirmative.

“It should be safe enough now, but are you sure you want to push yourself like this? Rest is very important, and you seem to be disregarding that.”

Willow nodded, almost knocking Phoebe from her head, which the little stone found more amusing than anything.

“Just trying to make myself tired so I can rest. I feel like this should do the trick.”

Another thought occurred to her as she sat down cross legged with her earth spirit friend still on the top of her head.

“Would it be all right if Phoebe stayed out while I did it? They wouldn’t lose out on the conceptual energy or anything, right?”

She felt Harmony consider the question before shaking her head. “The energy moves along your bonds, so it should reach them regardless. Some might be lost due to not being contained by the internal space, but it should be negligible enough to go unnoticed.”

That was good, she didn’t want to disrupt their time together, but she also didn’t want them to lose out on any benefits being baptised in the twins' energy granted them.

They began to cycle the energies of yin and yang under the light of the moon as their form shifted in response to the dominant energy type flowing through their pathways.

The strain was more than manageable for several of the initial cycles so they could still pay attention to their surroundings as they were going through the motions of tempering their body and core.

Which allowed them to notice the moonlight gathering around Phoebe whenever they channeled yin energy into the small rock spirit. The moon attuned qi pooled in some of the symbols they’d carved into themself and Willow felt the seed of something try to take root in their friend’s being as they continued to train their core.

Eventually she settled back into her girl form as she completed the exercise. The strain on her core simultaneously more and less than usual since she’d done less cycles, but there was less of a break since the last time.

She picked up her friend from the top of her head and looked at them closely. The symbols that she’d felt the moonlight flow into were now inert, and the seed of a concept had mostly dissipated.

But a trace of moonlight remained in her thoughtful stone, and a smile spread on her face as she held her friend close to her chest.

“Decided on one of your concepts, Phoebe?” She asked them, and got a steadfast burst of qi from her friend in response.

It made sense to her, the little stone was born from a former celestial body so their obsession with the night sky was almost inevitable.

Willow went back inside the cave and collapsed in her bedding, sleep feeling much more within her reach now.

She slept clutching her moon-touched rock tight to her chest.