Akiya turned to the servants and escort. "Please inspect the chamber and then allow Princess Hiroko and I to enter," she told the escort.

A pair of soldiers with red turbans on their heads and long curved swords drawn entered the room. She heard them bustling about. A moment later, they emerged.

"Secure, my lady. We have arranged to post two guards on the balcony so that you will not be disturbed from outside."

"Thank you," Akiya said, and ushered Hiroko over the threshold. One of the guards shut the door behind them.

Hiroko found herself in a bright, airy room. The opposite wall was open to a balcony, as the guards had suggested. They were on the second floor of the palace. Pillars lined the edge of the room. The floor was done up in cool terracotta tiles, and the walls were whitewashed, with small, brightly colored pieces of pottery and glass stuck into them to make designs.

Long, low couches covered in silk stood around a depression in the floor, about six inches deep and three feet wide on a side. Hiroko had no idea what it might be for.

There was a woman sitting on one of the couches, studying them as they came in. She was very odd. She didn't wear cultivator robes, which made sense since she was sectless. Instead, she had a form-fitting piece of cloth wrapped all around her body, covering one shoulder, leaving the other free. It was a dark orangey-red color, not quite one of the reserved shades. There was a red dot in the middle of her forehead. Her dark hair was pulled back in a braid, through which she'd woven a golden ribbon. She had sandals on her feet.

She stood up and bowed at the waist like a man as Hiroko and Akiya entered.

"Cultivator Parvah, this is Indigo Princess Hiroko," Akiya said.

"Your Highness," the cultivator said, her tones cool, with a hint of a clipped accent behind them. "I am at your disposal."

Hiroko considered her. "Where are you from?" she asked curiously.

The woman gave a tight smile. Lines appeared at the corners of her eyes. "The far southern isles," she said. "Prandipur Province."

Hiroko nodded. She had met a few women in the Imperial Gardens, brides from the South, who shared a bit of this woman's features. Though, of course, all of the brides and Pearls dressed alike inside the harem. She'd never seen anyone wearing garb like this woman.

"Now," Parvah said briskly, sitting back down and placing her hands on her knees, "I was told you are looking for tutoring in blue lux."

"I am," Hiroko said.

She strode over and sat opposite, not waiting to be invited. Akiya lingered until Parvah shot her a quick glance. "Sit down and stop gawping about like a beached fish," she instructed.

Akiya took a seat beside Hiroko.

"Do you truly understand blue lux, or do you merely think that it makes you sound more exotic, Highness?" Parvah asked abruptly.

Hiroko blinked, taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"You heard my question," Parvah said. "Are you truly a student of blue lux?"

Now Hiroko was annoyed. No one had ever questioned her like this before.

"I am," she said.

"I did not think Imperial children had enough training to make such a declaration."

"I have had a very strong blue lux affinity since I was first taken into my divine grandfather's personal tower," Hiroko said stiffly, holding her head up straight. It wasn't going to be much use having a teacher who so clearly doubted her qualifications. "Since then, I have made use of blue lux to--"

"No!" the woman interrupted. She leaned forward. "No. Tell me something about blue lux."

Hiroko frowned. She'd read very little about blue lux. That was the whole point. There wasn't enough to teach her what she needed. She thought of the disguising technique that Noren had sent her and explained that.

The woman shook her head. "Something you haven't read in a book," she said. "You've never truly used that pattern yet, although it would be a good one to master, I admit."

Hiroko thought for a moment. Then she remembered treating the plague victims back in Vardin City. "With blue lux, I can sense the tiny creatures that sometimes cause sickness and decay," she said. "I can pull their essence from them and use it to heal the one they have attacked."

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Parvah's mouth dropped open a bit. She stared. Then, not rising, she dropped to her knees and prostrated herself.

"Forgive me, Highness. I thought perhaps this was a test of some sort. I meant no offense."

Hiroko rose, astonished by the woman's quick change in attitude. Was this some sort of trick?

"Get up," she instructed.

Parvah rose, looking at her. She looked genuinely shaken. Her eyes went from Hiroko to Akiya, and a quick flash of connection lanced between her and Hiroko, who understood. Parvah didn't want to speak more in front of Akiya. Perhaps she knew great secrets.

Hiroko made a quick decision. "If we now understand each other," she said, "we can begin my lessons."

"Yes," Parvah said, seeming to collect herself. "But you haven't enough lux to do more than listen to theory today. Perhaps after your next visit to the lux Repository, you and I can have another session together."

Hiroko nodded. Of course she would find an excuse to be rid of Akiya and see what this teacher might have for her.

They sat back down. Parvah cleared her throat. "You, Princess, are clearly a cultivator inclined to the spiritual luxes. Even then, it is not common to be so strongly affiliated with blue. Most cultivators who use spiritual luxes require a great deal of green lux to enable them to touch the other three. But it seems with you, that's not the case."

Hiroko shook her head. "I didn't know that that was common. It seemed to me it was just a preference, the way Joshi — ah, someone I knew — cared for red lux."

"Having a physical lux affinity of one specific color is common," the woman observed. "It's a handicap, in fact, that many cultivators never grow out of. Unless they can learn to use all luxes to some extent, their progression is capped. But for the favored lux to be blue, that's very uncommon. And even more uncommon, Highness, is the ability to use it to heal."

"Green lux is for healing," Akiya interjected. "Everyone knows that. My sect had several healing patterns and they all used green lux. Blue is for deception, of course."

"Dowager Pearl," Parvah said politely, "you are correct. But in the case of someone like Hiroko, we can go past common knowledge to more arcane techniques. Because of Hiroko's extreme affinity for blue lux, she may be able to do things that many other cultivators cannot do until they have started on the Lux Endowment tier. Tell me, Hiroko, have you used blue lux in other ways?"

Hiroko closed her eyes, remembering how she and Joshi had fought together in the tower at Golden Moon City, depending on each other to stay alive. Him charging in and striking tower beasts with his bare fists wrapped in lux; her using blue lux to connect him with the life force of one of those creatures, feeding off of its essence to keep him from harm.

"I have," she whispered.

"Then you understand that the healing of green lux and of blue lux are very different things. Green lux connects the body to the natural healing energies of the universe," Parvah said. "It encourages the body to regrow itself in healthy ways. Green lux healing is limited by the body's own resilience, which is why green lux techniques cannot regrow limbs. Once the body has acknowledged a harm, it is hard for green lux to repair the damage. Blue lux has no such limitation because blue lux touches the mind. Blue lux uses mental energies to heal. And therefore it is the most double-edged of swords. A blue lux technique can encourage a patient's body to consume itself in the attempt to repair some modicum of damage. You may drain a man's entire life force to try to grow back his fingers. Hardly a fair trade."

"You're talking of a forbidden technique," Akiya said. Her voice choked with distaste. She rose. "Cultivator Parvah, you are speaking of matters that are bordering on the forbidden."

"Hush, girl," Parvah said. "I am not a member of a sect tied down by the rules of my elders. Nothing I say here is against the Imperial law to discuss. I'm not planning to use these techniques. But the Princess must understand them, if she is to know what it is she must avoid doing." She turned back to Hiroko. "I'm sure you see the possibilities here." She paused and then added, "for danger."

Possibilities that Hiroko had already taken advantage of, without truly realizing what it was she was doing.

"Knowing what is possible is the first step toward doing it," Akiya said, her face scrunched up in distaste.

Parvah sighed. "We're not going to be able to get anywhere with her lessons like this." She rose. "Princess Hiroko, I will present myself here two days from now, ready to give you another lesson, but not with this one present."

She glared at Akiya, then swept from the room before Hiroko could say anything else.

Akiya was on her feet, calling, "Stop her!"

She moved quickly to the door and Hiroko followed.

At the door the guards stood, frowning. "Forgiveness, Dowager Pearl. No one came out."

"But—"

Hiroko interrupted. "She's a blue lux practitioner. They saw what she wanted them to see. Don't scold them."

Akiya turned on Hiroko. "I'll give orders that she is not to be admitted again."

Hiroko shook her head. "On the contrary, I must meet with her, and regularly. I think she's right that my understanding of blue lux is different. Don't worry." Hiroko smiled gently at Akiya. "I'm not planning to use it. But as a high-ranked cultivator and a member of the Gem Court, this is a chance for me to get close enough to a sectless cultivator to determine if she has been practicing forbidden techniques and patterns. Let me speak with her. If I suspect she is breaking any laws, I will be able to report it."

Akiya's face relaxed a bit. "Of course, Princess, you're right. As a sectless, she has no masters, no spouse to keep an eye on her. It would be easy for such a one to pass beyond the restraints of law. I will speak with Governor Jah. "

That, Hiroko did not want at all.

She quickly wove her connection pattern and saw there the strand between herself and Akiya, stronger than any other connection Akiya had. Poor girl, to be so alone.

Then again, Hiroko was just as lonely. But Hiroko had not yet lost all hope for the future, as Akiya clearly had.

Hiroko focused all of her blue lux on that connection, willing it to strengthen. As she did, she instinctively guided its growing. The connection strengthened.

"Trust me," Hiroko whispered. "And think, if we do uncover a cultivator who is violating guidelines, it will be a fine thing for you to report to the governor. You don't want to report mere suspicions. He'll take this cultivator into custody and torture the answer out of her, and then he will get the recognition from the Imperial Court, not you. What need has he of more accolades? No, let us do this together. And when I know the truth, you can report it."

She waited with bated breath as Akiya blinked at her. At last, the woman nodded. "Of course, Princess. What you say makes sense."

Hiroko allowed herself a smile. "Then why don't we walk in the garden again a while, and see if luncheon is ready?"

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