Of course, there were a few more enjoyable things he could be doing. Like coaching Lily through her first formation on actual materials! He’d honestly not expected her to reach that far in the short amount of time they’d had together, but nevertheless he was glad she exceeded his expectations in that regard. Formations on their own were cool, of course, and something he’d put a great deal of effort into as a matter of course— but they weren’t where the totality of his expertise lay. No, it was the confluence of formations and refining and crafting that, come together into a single harmonious whole, made up what he was truly an expert at. To call it smithing would be a reduction of a field with monumental potential… but not entirely wrong, merely looking at its effects— and formations on spiritual materials were one of the most important steps along that path.

He picked up the piece of smooth, slender cordage Lily had placed on his desk, pretending to be impressed by its… lackluster nature. “What can you

tell me about the material?”

Lily scowled at him. “I dunno, I came to ask you for help! I’ve got not a clue!”

“You probably know far more than you think you do.” Lily sighed, and grumbled, but she knew that he was right. Sure he may or may not have been asking her to do a bunch of extra, very difficult work— doubly so for a mortal without any qi sense to speak of— but that would probably help her foundation. Or something. Honestly he needed to think up a better set of excuses soon…

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Another thing to do later. In the moment, however, he focused his gaze on Lily as she carefully picked up the length of cordage, letting the strange, almost plastic thing slip through her fingers like water on a winter day, or clear sunlight cascading down a cliff… it was a difficult one. Not the sort of material he’d have chosen for a cooling formation, but with only a small area to search for suitable materials, it was probably the best they could have gotten.

“It’s…” she paused, almost a little sheepishly, hesitating before actually speaking and only continuing on his prompting— “it feels like… something deep? I don’t really get it, but that’s the impression it gives me. Like a plastic cord that’s just barely lit by a soft light, in the back of a dark room that stretches out to some indiscriminate length.” For a mortal that couldn’t actually parse the actual sensation of qi, that was remarkably good. Maybe… no, that was a thought for another time. Even if it was a really good thought.

He gently plucked the cord from Lily’s hand, holding it up to the sunlight and watching it glitter. “It’s the heart tendon from some deep sea beast. Deep lake beast, as it was, given that its missing the echo of vast wilderness that the wild ocean would have given it.”

“That’s tendon?” Lily stared at it in stunned surprise, before grimacing nauseously. “Like, dead animal tendon?”

“You eat meat, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but…” she turned away, taking a deep breath. “Yes, yes, you’re right. There’s nothing different between eating meat and using a tendon from a monster from the depths of Saffron lake to make a cooling formation.” Exhaled— “alright, how am I going to do it? I don’t want to mess it up…”