Radeon watched her work. Flickers of flames moved first, teal and holy, threading through her like ribboned fire.
Nature followed, green yet sparse, life clinging in thin patches like it was afraid to take up space.
Then the ghostly energy rolled in. Cold. Thick. Dead. Not the clean chill of yin, not the quiet of night, but something unliving that made her skin prickle and her breath feel borrowed.
Fay drew it in anyway. All of it became qi inside her, and it went down with unsettling ease, like her body had been waiting for this taste.
This was the Inverted Underworld Seed Arts. Radeon had chosen it because it did not nail her to one road.
It would let her pick her own path and specialization, instead of locking her into sword work or close quarters methods.
Radeon watched the flow of power gather in her and his mouth tightened.
Something in it was wrong. Not dangerous yet, but lacking.
