Chapter 98: Load Test

The bracket arrived on a Tuesday, which Rui announced at breakfast with the same tone she used to announce that it was raining or that the rice was ready.

"We are seeded fourth," she said. "The paired event."

Yua looked up from her bowl.

"Fourth," she said.

"The committee ranks based on the previous three tournaments," Rui said. "We placed second, third, and did not place the third time because of the—"

"I know why we did not place," Yua said.

"Fourth is accurate," Rui said.

"Who is first," Yua said.

"Yanwu Peak," Rui said.

Nobody said anything for a moment.

"The individual event," Yua said.

"You are seeded sixth," Rui said.

"Yanwu Peak’s senior disciple," Yua said.

"First," Rui said.

Yua looked at her bowl.

He watched both of them through the cultivator’s sense out of habit, which he was going to have to stop doing at meals because it was the kind of habit that felt intrusive once he noticed it and he kept noticing it too late.

"The tournament is in seventeen days," Rui said.

"I know," Yua said.

"The shoulder," Rui said.

"I know," Yua said.

Rui looked at him.

He had been following this conversation with the attention of someone watching a sequence he knew the shape of.

"The shoulder is at eighty-one percent structural integrity as of last night," he said.

Both of them looked at him.

"I checked during the session," he said. "The progress has been accelerating slightly each week. Current pace puts full structural integrity at thirteen to fifteen days."

"The tournament is in seventeen days," Rui said.

"Yes," he said.

"So the channel will be at full integrity with two to four days before the tournament," she said.

"If current pace continues," he said. "Yes."

Yua looked at her bowl again, then pushed it slightly to the side, which was how she indicated she had finished with something.

"We need to know if it holds under combat load," she said.

"Yes," he said.

"Today," she said.

Rui set down her chopsticks.

"Yua," she said.

"We need to know," Yua said. "We have seventeen days. If the channel fails under combat load we need to know now, not on day sixteen."

Rui looked at the table.

She was running the logic he could see her running, the methodical way she processed things that were both correct and difficult.

"After training," she said.

"After training," Yua agreed.

***

The combat load test was nothing like the resistance sessions.

The resistance sessions were controlled, predictable, the disruption patterns introduced at a pace both practitioners could manage. The combat load session was Rui opposing Yua at full competitive intensity, no patterns, no predictability, the opposition as close to what a tournament round would ask as two people on a private peak could produce.

He stood at the edge of the training ground with both perceptions open and watched.

The first technique group: clean. The primary channel in Yua’s shoulder handled the load without the bypass engaging. The structural rebuild was present. The Qi circulation ran through the rebuilt section at full capacity.

The second technique group: still clean. He checked the bypass. Dormant. The channel was carrying the load independently.

He had not been certain this would happen.

He had told her he did not know what the channel would do under full load, which was true, and he had privately estimated sixty to seventy percent probability that the channel would handle it based on the pace of the rebuild.

He was watching the seventy percent scenario.

The third technique group involved a motion that put lateral force through the shoulder at the peak of commitment.

The channel handled it.

He let out a breath he had not been aware of holding.

Rui, who had been opposing the sequence with everything she had for three technique groups, noticed the breath.

She did not stop the session.

She was a professional about the session.

But she noticed.

The fourth technique group, and the fifth, and then Yua called the end.

She stood in the center of the training ground and rolled the shoulder once, twice.

"Well," she said.

He ran the cultivator’s sense through the primary channel one more time.

"Eighty-one percent structural integrity," he said. "Under full combat load."

"Functional capacity," she said.

"Approximately eighty-seven percent," he said. "The rebuild provides slightly more structural resilience than the raw percentage suggests."

"Eighty-seven percent," she said.

"Yes," he said.

"What was it before I started training with you," she said.

"You told me ninety percent," he said. "With the original bypass the channel had developed as compensation."

"So I am at eighty-seven percent of the repaired structure," she said. "Which is better than ninety percent of the compensated structure."

"Not directly comparable," he said. "Different architectures. But roughly equivalent functional output, yes."

She looked at Rui.

Rui had been standing at the edge of the training ground since the session ended, very still, with the expression of someone who had been holding something carefully for the last twenty minutes and was now deciding whether to set it down.

"Rui," Yua said.

Rui closed the distance and put both arms around her sister.

Yua accepted this with the specific quality of someone who was allowing it rather than welcoming it, which was still acceptance, which counted.

"I told you," Yua said.

"You did not tell me anything," Rui said. "You said we needed to know. That is not the same as telling me."

"It implied," Yua said.

"It implied nothing except that you had decided," Rui said.

He was watching this exchange through the cultivator’s sense and then stopped watching it through the cultivator’s sense because some things did not benefit from being perceived at the meridian level.

After a moment Rui stepped back and wiped her face with the back of her hand in a way that suggested she was not doing that and they were all going to agree she was not doing that.

"Eighty-seven percent," she said.

"In seventeen days it will be higher," he said.

"How much higher," she said.

"Full structural integrity if current pace holds," he said. "Functional capacity at or above the compensated baseline you had before."

"Above," she said.

"Yes," he said.

She looked at Yua.

Yua looked back at her.

"Above," Yua said.

Rui picked up her notebook from where she had set it at the start of the session and wrote something in it.

"I need to recalculate the training schedule," she said. "If the channel is going to be at full integrity before the tournament we should be training the individual event techniques at closer to full load by week two."

"Tell me what you need from the sessions," he said.

"I will write it out tonight," she said.

She went inside.

Yua looked at him.

"She is going to spend four hours on that schedule," she said.

"Probably," he said.

"It will be the correct schedule," she said. "Every time she spends four hours on something, it is correct."

"I believe that," he said.

She looked at the training ground.

"Eighty-seven percent," she said.

"Today," he said. "It will be higher tomorrow."

She was quiet for a moment.

He ran the cultivator’s sense through the channel one more time without meaning to. Eighty-one percent structural integrity. The bypass dormant. The rebuilt section carrying full load without flinching.

The system sent a notification.

*[Quest update: Save the Two Sisters Beyond the Horizon.]*

*[Current progress: One sister’s combat capability restored and increasing. One sister’s safety from the specific threat addressed — pending.]*

*[Note: "Save" is a flexible word. The system acknowledges you are interpreting it correctly.]*

He closed the notification.

"What," Yua said.

"Nothing," he said.

"You made a face," she said.

"I was thinking about something," he said.

She looked at him.

"The system," she said.

He had not told them about the system.

"Something like that," he said.

She accepted this with the specific patience of someone who had decided to wait for a real answer rather than push for an approximation.

"Seventeen days," she said.

"Yes," he said.

She went inside.

He stood on the training ground in the afternoon light and thought about a quest that said *save* and a channel at eighty-one percent structural integrity that had been at ninety percent compensation for four years, and how the difference between those two things was not a number but an architecture.

The cloud sea moved in the valley below the peak.

He went inside to help with the evening meal.