No Need for a Core?

Moriko smiled at the grumpy older woman. “Aww, don’t you want to help a blushing young bride find a belated wedding present for her beloveds?” Now that got Chaxiss’s full attention, and the cat woman opened both eyes to stare at her suspiciously.

“You better not be trying to pull one over on me. I haven’t gotten so old I can’t tan the hide of a kid like you.” She growled at Moriko, who answered with a widening grin.

“Not at all. Happily married, to two lovely if rather strange people.” She raised her left hand to wiggle her fingers and show off the gleam of gold and purple. The felinoid’s eyes locked onto that glitter and widened, though not for the reason Moriko anticipated.

“That ring,” by the time those two words were spoken Chaxiss had risen and closed the distance between them, grasping Moriko’s wrist. “it can’t be taken off.” The words were hissed, and Chaxiss stared intently into Moriko’s eyes. “What have you truly gotten yourself into, child?”

The reaction took Moriko by surprise, but she recovered with a sudden laugh. “I hadn’t realized you could see auras that clearly. You’re right, it can’t be removed, and I kind of am in over my head, but it’s okay, truly.” It warmed her to see that the older woman cared for all her grumpiness. “Though it appears that word of exactly why I was staying away for longer had been kept private. I got involved with a strange dungeon that has a twin core, and I am married to them. It, well, it started as something due to circumstances, but honestly, it’s come to be completely sincere. And I am here to ask for a present for them, though I was being flippant about it being a wedding present.”

Chaxiss held her gaze for a few moments longer, then sighed and let go of her wrist. “I see no compulsions upon you, though there are strange bindings that influence you. But I think you are well aware of those. And if you entered such bindings of your own will, it is not my business to interfere. So, what did you come to ask for?”

“Well, I did say they were a dungeon, did I not? Newly born, well, reborn, near both Riverbridge and Azeria forest. And as a young dungeon, they can use what seems to be a dungeon’s favorite thing: samples!” Moriko shrugged and smiled. “Seeds, saplings, and cuttings of all the things. Well, maybe not quite all, I don’t think the temple is offering up any gifts, so this is coming out of my savings. I’d like to get them everything, but even without expensive hobbies, I only have so much. And they are getting samples from both my parent’s garden and from a clan druid’s garden, so I guess focus on the stuff you don’t think they’d have?” She didn’t really know plants that well, beyond a few basics for common, easily used medicinal ones. She could ask for details over their bond and try to create lists from their knowledge, but that seemed like it’d take forever

“Reborn? Wait, no, forget I asked.” Chaxiss waved her hand. “I don’t want to know. Though I think I am now curious about what they’ve already collected. I might need to give them a visit myself in the future. Very well, I’ll do my best and see what I can get for you. What is your schedule?”

“I’m going to be here for two days at least I think, though I am not certain exactly how long.” It was money that had come from the church going back to the church, but this was for her personal purposes, not part of her duties, so she had to at least cover the monastery's cost. “And thank you, I appreciate it.” She gave Chaxiss a quick hug, ignoring the grumbled threats of bodily harm, before she continued on her way to the baths.

The luxury of perfectly controlled temperature for her baths back at the dungeon became more obvious when Moriko had to deal with the less refined water heating methods in the bathhouse here, but at least she did have hot water available. When she was done and had given her traveling clothes a quick wash, and wrung most of the water out, she headed back to her small room here to stow her bag and hang up her damp clothes to finish drying, and then went out to the main hall to grab some breakfast.

There was plenty of greeting to go about as she had been gone for a few weeks, and for the most part there was a feeling of familiar belonging setting into place. Some of that familiarity wore off when she realized that somehow the table she’d sat at was mostly women instead of the normally more even mix, and the few guys there were amongst the worst gossips. Moriko hadn’t noticed the forming gang of people intent on getting the scoop on her marriage, but she was trapped now. Fine, if she was going to be coerced this way, she was going to get something out of it, and demanded food from everyone else’s plates before she was going to spill.

Her normal quick breakfast turned into nearly two hours as she repeated her story nearly three times before enough groups had cycled through the hall and she refused to tell any more. She did however continue to demand more food from each group, that run had left her starving. Moriko made sure to be accurate in getting the order and nature of major events right while skimming over lesser details. So much of what had happened could be misinterpreted if she wasn’t accurate, and there were still going to be misunderstandings due to the nature of rumors, but she could at least do her best to start with getting the record straight.

When she was finally able to free herself from the attention of her peers, Moriko made her way towards the quarters of the High Masters to see if Master Theodoric was in. He was not, and she was informed by a younger monk on cleaning duty that he was training a class of second-year recruits. So off to the training yards she went instead.

When she found him and his class, she made herself discreetly available by simply standing off to the side where he could see her, and practicing katas alongside the trainees. She rarely worked through this set, it was still part of the general training before one started finding their path, but it never hurt to work on one’s fundamentals.

As Moriko expected, Master Theodoric called upon her to help with training and demonstrations and she managed to restrain herself from showing off. At least, until her master opened up the option of letting some of them spar with her, and asking Moriko how many she felt comfortable taking on.

“Up to five, given the space to work with.” If push came to shove, she could probably handle seven and still win, but it would be harder to do without hurting someone. Theodoric raised a brow at her phrasing, then nodded.

“Very well, set your conditions, and we’ll let five sort themselves out to challenge you.”

She started 30 feet away from the group of five, with the other students forming a loose ring around them. That group took a moment to sort out, as more than five wanted to try and challenge her, but that just gave Moriko a chance to fully settle into her stance, drawing air chi close to her. None of the five noticed the tale-tell signs of wind whispering around her, but she saw Theodoric's blue-grey eyes follow a ripple of dust and then snap back to her. Moriko grinned, and her Master announced, “Begin!”

The group started off doing the right thing by trying to spread out before approaching her, but unfortunately for them, they were already in her range. Her fist snapped forward at one of the trainees at the edge, and a bullet of wind took him in the gut, with a second punch of air smashing into his face and knocking him onto his back.

There was a brief hesitation from shock, but the remaining four still chose the least bad of their options and charged instead of trying to continue repositioning themselves. It still gave her time to take out the one on the opposite edge of their formation before they got close enough to strike at her themselves.

It was even easier than she anticipated to glide out of the way of the first punch, her right hand brushing the outside of his arm to redirect him into the path of her second attacker while her left arm came up to deflect the third blow. Moriko didn’t wait for them to recover however, and stepped towards her third foe to ram her knee into his belly. She then grabbed him and spun back to face the first two, using his body as a brief shield. That gave her victim the time to force air into his lungs, a testament to his training so far, but he wasn’t fast enough to keep her from palm striking his chest and sending him flying towards her other opponents. Sadly, this cost him the air he’d just fought so hard to draw in.

They sidestepped their companion’s flung form and moved in with as much composure as they could, one dropping low to sweep at her legs with a kick while the other reached out to try and grab her. Moriko hopped as the kick came in, and her own hands closed on the forearm of the one trying to grab her, using the momentum of her hop to swing in on that pivot and land both her feet into his chest.

She launched backward in a flip to land several feet away, and decided it was time to try out her ‘wedding gift’. There was a subtle shift to her balance as Moriko adjusted the flow of her chi, and reached out to grab the one who had tried to sweep her before he was quite close enough. Her shadow covered the remaining distance, eliciting a yelp of surprise as she dragged the hapless student to the ground in a pin before he was close enough to try and touch her.

The first couple of trainees had regained their wind and their feet, and the one she’d kicked in the chest had recovered his balance while he forced air back into his lungs, but she hadn’t even heavily exerted herself yet. Theodoric’s voice rolled over them, “Stop.” She immediately let go of the boy on the ground and stepped back, her shadow withdrawing with her, though she didn’t let go of this formation of chi just yet, her shadow rippling slightly with life.

Moriko couldn’t do much more than what she’d just done, Mordecai had seemed to have much more refined control over his shadow, and that point was driven home when she realized her last victim, err, trainee was rubbing at what looked almost like frost burns, but without any sign of ice.

Master Theodoric dismissed the class and instructed her sparring partners to get checked out, then turned to her with a judicial gaze. “I am glad to see you have progressed upon your path reaching for the skies, but I am very certain that you have not been trained here by any following the path of shadows. The foundation work alone should have taken you weeks if not months, and taken away from your mastery over the air.”

Moriko smiled and bowed to him as she released her flow of chi. “I have had some interesting experiences, Master, and my message could hardly tell everything. In this case, it was a gift by The Lady’s brother.” Now that got a look of curiosity from him.

“Well, this should be interesting. Walk with me, and tell me what you can. I do not expect you to break any confidences, of course.”