Kael woke before dawn.
Not because he wanted to—but because his body refused to sleep any longer.
A dull ache throbbed through his limbs, deeper than soreness, heavier than fatigue. It felt as though his bones were packed with wet sand, his muscles stretched too tight over them. Yet beneath the discomfort was something new, awareness.
His breathing became slow and measured, each inhale sinking deeper than before, each exhale carrying a faint warmth through his chest and abdomen. The dual rhythm pulsed quietly within him, uneven but persistent.
> "You are adapting," the relic said, its voice calm and steady.
"Slowly."
Kael opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
"I feel worse," he muttered.
"Of course you do."
Kael snorted weakly. "...was that supposed to be comforting?"
He sat up carefully, rolling his shoulders. The ache sharpened briefly, then dulled again. His body no longer felt fragile, just strained, like a bow pulled too far back.
"So," Kael said, swinging his legs over the bed, "you said today we begin real cultivation."
"Yes."
The relic's presence tightened slightly, focusing more.
"You have endured coexistence. That is rare. Now, we refine it."
Kael swallowed hard.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," the relic replied, "that today you will learn the cost of walking two paths."
~~~
The training chamber beneath the academy had not vanished. Kael discovered this an hour later, standing once more within the ancient circular room, runes faintly glowing as they responded to his presence.
The relic had guided him there quietly, steering him through forgotten corridors and sealed passages while everyone in the academy was asleep. No guards or wards were triggered, that alone unsettled him.
"This place… no one knows it exists?" Kael asked.
"They forgot," the relic replied.
"Forgetting is safer than remembering."
Kael stepped onto the center of the chamber, his heart pounding fast.
"Alright. Teach me."
The runes flared brighter.
> "Your first technique is not Qi," the relic said.
"And it is not Mana."
The air thickened.
"It is Balance."
A pressure settled over Kael's body which was subtle but unmistakable. His breath hitched as awareness flooded inward again, but this time it was deeper and sharper.
He saw it, not with his eyes, but with something else. His Qi pathways was a thin, fragile streams branching hesitantly through his body. Many were still sealed, capped with faint, glowing locks. Between them, his mana circulation pulsed irregularly, constrained by layered suppressions around his heart.
They were close, too close.
"Why do they feel like they're… pushing against each other?" Kael asked, sweat beading on his brow.
"Because they are," the relic said.
"Qi seeks internal dominance. Mana seeks external expansion. Left unchecked, they will collide."
Kael winced as a spike of pain flared in his ribs.
"So what do I do?"
"You separate without dividing."
"…That makes no sense."
"It will."
The relic's presence pressed gently against his awareness, guiding his focus downward.
"Breathe. Let Qi settle into your bones. Let Mana circulate through your blood but do not allow either to cross."
Kael obeyed.
At first, nothing happened. Then suddenly, his body rebelled. Heat surged through his limbs as Qi thickened unnaturally, making his muscles seize. At the same time, mana spiked erratically, hammering against his chest like a trapped animal.
Kael gasped, dropping to one knee.
"It's...too much!"
"You have to endure," the relic said, unyielding.
"This is the price."
Pain lanced through Kael's spine as his vision blurred.
Every instinct screamed at him to release everything, to let one path dominate and crush the other but he didn't.
He clenched his teeth and breathed.
Slow.
Measured.
Again and again.
Gradually, impossibly, the pressure eased. The Qi retreated slightly, settling deeper into his bones. The mana flow stabilized, thinning into a smoother circulation.
Kael collapsed onto both knees, panting.
"That…" he gasped, "felt like I was being torn apart."
"You were," the relic replied calmly.
"And you did not break."
Kael laughed weakly.
"That's… reassuring."
> "Don't misunderstand me," the relic continued.
"This technique does not make you stronger."
Kael looked up sharply. "What?"
"It makes you possible," the relic said.
"Without it, the strength would kill you."
Silence filled the chamber.
Kael bowed his head.
"…How long will this take?"
The relic did not answer immediately.
> "Years," it said at last.
"Unless you are willing to pay more."
Kael's stomach tightened.
"Pay… how?"
The runes around the chamber dimmed.
"Resources," the relic said.
"Time, pain and eventually, attention."
Kael returned to the academy aboveground before sunrise. He attended classes as usual, blending into the background, hiding his exhaustion behind practiced stillness. But something was different today.
He could feel it.
Every time a mage nearby circulated mana, Kael sensed it faintly, a ripple in the air, subtle but undeniable. When a senior practiced elemental shaping in the courtyard, Kael's skin prickled as the mana pressure brushed against his awareness.
"Don't react," the relic warned.
"Your Instinct might betray you."
Kael forced himself to remain still but others began to notice something else. It wasn't power, it was absence.
During a practical session, the instructor paused, frowning slightly as he scanned the room.
"…Did someone disrupt the ambient mana flow?" he muttered.
Students glanced around uneasily.
Kael lowered his head.
"Your balance stabilizes mana around you," the relic said quietly.
"It creates… quiet."
"That sounds bad."
" Yes, and It's noticeable."
Kael's heart sank.
So even doing nothing could expose him.
That evening, Kael sat alone in the dormitory, staring at his meager supply pouch.
Three low-grade mana stones.
Barely enough for a normal initiate's practice session. He picked one up.
"This won't be enough, will it?"
"No," the relic replied.
"Dual cultivation consumes more than either path alone."
Kael sighed. "Figures."
He crushed the mana stone gently between his palms, letting the energy seep out. Instinctively, his mana heart responded, but so did his Qi pathways.
Pain flared throughout his body again.
Kael nearly dropped the fragments.
"Stop!" the relic snapped.
"You are not ready to refine external resources yet."
Kael clenched his teeth. "Then how am I supposed to keep up?"
The relic was silent for a long moment.
"You will need access to more resources," it said at last.
"And allies, eventually."
Kael's lips pressed into a thin line.
"Allies require strength," he said quietly. "Which I don't have yet."
"Then you will endure longer," the relic replied.
"That is your advantage."
Kael leaned back against the wall, exhaustion washing over him.
Outside, the academy lights flickered as night settled fully. But somewhere in the distance, a presence stirred. Far beneath the academy's wards, something ancient shifted, sensing a faint disturbance, a deviation from the world's accepted flow.
A whisper echoed through unseen darkness.
"…A dual resonance?"
The presence stilled.
"Impossible."
But it listened more closely.
~~~
Kael closed his eyes as he thought deeply. Tomorrow, the cost would rise again and he would definitely pay it.