"Shhyeah. Maybe try it when we're well on the way to Cloudsoar City, on an unremarkable basic blade that nobody would really notice. Then again, being noticeable could bring you great opportunity. I just have an instinctive feeling that... I want to look impressive and valuable. But not that impressive and valuable."

"Mm. And if I am to show my hand, it should be deliberate to the right audience, not a moment of carelessness."

Well, what's the agenda for the new day?

"A meeting with Three Jades Sect Martial Pavilion, presented by one Cao Lan. And general training from same for both of us, to 'explore new martial styles and broaden our foundations'. We'll see if we can swing you a copy of a good Metal style- Maybe Ardent Mirror Edge. For all this consideration, naturally, we're expected to spread around spirit stones like rice seeds for a little bit."

"It's hardly skin off our backs." She's looking forward to finally meeting a disciple of a sect properly. There's nothing that can replace a face-to-face meeting for getting a player's measure. "And picking a fight with Shun Kun for the afternoon, to make a full schedule."

"Sounds like a plan. After this, I don't think there's much more left to do in the city? Maybe you want to check out the hints of dissent, but I'd just as soon leave them to their scheme, whatever it is."

Does she want to?

It sounds interesting, but it doesn't sound important. And it'll be troublesome, certainly. Moving on sounds like a more compelling prospect.

"I don't feel a need to," she decides.

Wen imagines this 'mysterious visitor' pouting in disappointment that the fish didn't bite and pretending she didn't need Rebecca's help anyway.

She chuckles.

"Let's walk to the sect gates. Poise and dignity on."

Rebecca can poise and dignify with the best of them. Yesterday she was testing the waters, playing tourist; today, she is a wealthy but respectful supplicant to the great and venerable Three Jades Sect. Or acting it, in any case.

What do their gates and sect grounds look like?

They exchange pleasantries with the gate guard and are welcomed in. Wen offers a small spirit stone in exchange for being escorted to the combat pavilion, and also name-drops the people she met before.

It looks like a fort. There is a lot of jade decoration everywhere, as trim, as jewelry, as inlay or ornamentation and even as structural material on the fanciest buildings. The qi is subtly different in here- A bit denser and stabler, stiller.

It also, somehow, looks like a branch office, or maybe a garrison? It's a pretty large place, and something about it, despite the huge curtain wall and clean internal walkways, seems to say 'secondary location'. Maybe it's just the attitude of those they pass. Brisk and businesslike, and almost all in the same style robes, being polite to each other and to the guests. It feels like a place where people work, not a home.

"Cao Lan, there you are!"

The martial pavilion is a tall pagoda like structure surrounded by a lot of practice fields. Maybe two dozen people are scattered around, and Wen goes straight for one. Cao Lan is a grinning and wiry man, with a runner or swimmer build. He is wearing a gi and holding a sword, winging at air until he turns to see them.

"Ah, my guests have arrived! Thank you for escorting them, Shao." The bribed escort bows and smiles. "We're always glad to work with fellow righteous cultivators, miss Reb Ka. Welcome! I am Cao Lan, two stone rank in the Three Jades Sect, the lowest level of our inner disciples. It's good to make your acquaintance."

Rebecca bows.

"Likewise, mister Lan. I look forward to learning from you."

"Wen Huli tells me you hope to be introduced to a wide base of martial styles, if only to broaden the horizons. My opinion on weapon styles is to keep your motions clean and simple. A clear will and strong foundation will shine through. But I can certainly demonstrate basic forms of quite a few, if you're still searching for one that speaks to you."

"I'm interested in adopting a style and weapon that... scales well to higher levels, so to speak, closes power differentials with mastery, and provides more versatility than hand-to-hand combat, which is what I am currently trained in. I understand this is obviously underspecified, so I would be keen to see demonstrations of a range, if you do not have specific recommendations."

"Well... Let's discuss your consideration, and then I'll give you the most important lesson. Even if you've already heard it before, I insist we start with the basic jian."

"As far as consideration goes, we have leave to be generous."

Wen pulls out a medium sized spirit stone. "You were praised by the venerable elder, so I expect good insight, even if you cannot promise it."

Cao Lan takes the stone with a smile. He goes to a nearby weapon rack and gives them both idential jians, double-edged swords, and picks one up himself.

"Tell me, what is the purpose of a sword?"

She likes this sort of riddle. He called this the "most important lesson" before selecting the jian, so it's not sword-specific. It's basic, it's common, since he said she might have heard it—it must be simple. Not overly strategic, not "constrain your opponents' viable action space to converge the field towards your victory state." Not overly philosophical or personalized, not "art" or "violence" or "to realize a vision".

The simplest truisms are almost tautologically true.

"To win," she says. "In most cases, to kill, or present a credible threat of it."

Second on the shortlist was "to kill", which she used to do in safety lectures, and a more distant third was "to cut", which is arguably a special case of her description, so that's multiple bases covered. She'd still be unsurprised to be wrong.

He nods. "Not bad. But not quite. A fist, qi technique, words, or even a rope can win. An alchemist's knife or an axe or saber can cut. But a sword is ultimately meant for one thing. Killing. I see far too many people overcomplicate it, saying a sword is to display your intent, or to protect others, or even, indeed, to win. 

Remember this: A sword is for killing. To become one with the sword, you must cut with intent to kill and truly mean it."

And then he takes them through a series of forms, while also giving Socratic style lessons on them. This thrust threatens the foe. That parry opens up a vulnerability. Do not hesitate. It seems to be trying to lead towards a certain meditative state.

After a while they switch to different weapons. An axe, he insists, is not a sword and is not a saber and is not a staff. The weapons have different natures and different Daos.

Fair enough. There's a reason heroes—even many villains—don't tend to use blades unless there are strong branding or mechanical reasons for it.

She follows the lesson closely. Combined with the primer she had from the Five Ways Forge yesterday, she's getting a good handle of the flow, but it doesn't speak to her, really. It feels very—prescriptive, though perhaps that's only the low levels.

The axe didn't make her shortlist before, but she'll see what there is to say.

Wen seems to be deep in thought while wielding the sword. She accepts adjustments to her pose with good grace, trying to find a comfortable stance.

The axe is the same way, practice stances and swings, and a simple kata. He focuses on philosophy, mindset, and intent, saying that they can practice on their journey..

And then the saber- What a single-edged blade is is far different than a double-edged one, which is different from an axe, which is different from a glaive, which is different from a staff... There may be one true Path of Weapons, but mortals are so often better at grasping more specific and esoteric paths. Not the Dao of Heaven, and not even the Dao of Water, but perhaps the Dao of a swift, deep river where silt and rocks are carried along and laminar flow is uninterrupted is easier to understand, and from there you can extend your understanding to greater Daos.

Every time Cao Lan swings, a clear and precise sheath of sword qi forms, even extending slightly from the blade of whatever weapon he's holding. Even on a blunt staff, sword qi forms. As his two students, Wen and Rebecca don't manage it as often, mostly just flickers. Wen compares sword intent to biting and clawing. To master a weapon it needs to stop being something you do, and become something you are. Cao Lan nods thoughtfully at this.

Biting and clawing is probably not the correct kinesthetic metaphor for her.

When Alexandria strikes with full force, she doesn't intend to hit her target: she moves to pass through it. It's both a visualization aid and simply how her type of Mover/Brute works. You don't strike with only the power of your muscles; you strike with the thrust of your flight, like a normal person can punch with the torque of their whole body. As she says in her seminars: if you can fly at the speed of sound, you can punch at the speed of sound.

Stop being something you do, and become something you are.

She used a staff before to attenuate the force of her strikes. That is not the objective here. She tries using her weapon not as a thing she wields, but as a resistanceless extension of her limbs. She does not perform a thrust; she extends the blade through the intervening space where a foe would stand, to the exact speed and distance she desires, just as she would reach through the osmiridium chassis of a rogue mech to pluck out its core. Natural, precise and unforgiving.

This is much better than what she was doing before. The sword qi, if anything, feels approving of this decisiveness. There's something else here, something about how the qi reacts and how it feels that hints at a deeper order, at how feeling and being are so crucial.

Wen and Cao Lan watch her, anticipating, as if they can feel this too, and fear interrupting.

Something you are.

The sword qi is reactive, not just an energy to sheathe the blade or a resource to use. She pays attention to how it acts as she moves and performs. Can she—synchronize, commune with it—make it her as much as the qi in her spirit and meridians—

This doesn't seem to be the right track. She's losing it by focusing on the sword qi.

The reverse, then.

One does not pay attention to every muscle and twitch of their own body. She tries to recover her earlier state: natural, effortless. Can she fade it out even more? Stop thinking, stop doing, move the same way she draws breath without thought. A swift, deep river, he said: let the current guide her motion.