Chapter 4 - Opening the Gate

Closing her eyes, Ao Wen inhaled deeply, filling her nose and lungs with the rich aroma of Awakening Incense. Across the world there were countless variations of Awakening Incense. While the core ingredients were unchanging, each region used local supplementary ingredients to enhance and refine the power of the incense. In Turning Leaf town, the use of Thundercloud Plum Blossoms gave the incense a fragrance that carried not only the scent of plum blossoms but a sharp ozone like smell of air charged by lightning. A faint wisp of lightning energy followed the smoke of the incense into her Ao Wen's lungs, burning and electrifying as the energy flowed through her meridians.

Her heart beat faster, its rhythm becoming erratic as she struggled to direct the energy inward, to knock upon the door to her inner world. Smoke burned her lungs but no matter how she gasped, she couldn't expel the choking smoke. Each breath only brought more smoke, more lightning, my burning and more pain.

Fighting against disorientation, Ao Wen forced herself to sit up straight and breathe regularly. Distantly, she heard the soft thump of another woman collapsing under the strain of the Awakening Incense. Tears leaked from her eyes, stung by the smoke despite being closed tightly. Blood pounded in her ears, rapid like a drum as her heart pounded faster and faster!

She could feel herself becoming light headed, like she was trapped beneath the surface of a great ocean, tossed by wind and storm, unable to draw fresh breath. Lightning energy rampaged through her meridian pathways, striking mercilessly and randomly at her acupoints. Her muscles twitched in pain, her left leg jerking out of control and sending her tumbling to the ground. Blood flowed where her head struck the hard stone floor of the welcoming hall becoming sticky in her tousled black hair, but Ao Wen had already lost awareness of her twitching body, too consumed by the agony within her body.

'No!' She cried inwardly. She refused to lose control of herself, to be killed by her own out of control body! Desperately, she redoubled her efforts to bring her heart under control, to breathe regularly and to guide the energy moving randomly through her body into a proper flow.

She failed. Any effort to steady her breathing left her heart racing out of control, slowing her heart allowed the lightning to rampage randomly, focusing the energy made her head pound without mercy! There were too many things at once!

Suddenly, a strong presence welled up within her, mighty and… masculine? As though an unknown elder brother lifted her back up, powerful arms ready to fight beside her, broad shoulders there to shield her. 'This isn't the way,' a powerful voice spoke within her. 'A dragon's heart must beat fiercely. Let it! Let your heart pound and lungs burn! Make it your might to break open the door!'

'Where?' Ao Wen cried out to the voice. 'I can't find the door through the smoke!'

'Here,' a young woman's voice replied. In the darkness of her inner vision. Slowly, light began to emerge in her inner vision. Three flames, one crimson red, another azure blue and a third emerald green flame began to flicker before the grand gates of a majestic palace. 'Throw the lightning here.'

Slowly, Ao Wen let go of her efforts to control her heartbeat. She stopped drawing in more incense filled air and let her lungs burn. She poured every ounce of her will into gathering the lightning energy searing her meridians and hurling it towards the palace gate! Within her inner vision she could see the purple lightning gather and flare against the gates, exploding brilliantly with a crackle of thunder.

It wasn't enough. Compared to the mighty palace gates, the lightning strike was far too feeble. Head pounding with blood pooling on the cold stone floor, Ao Wen began to pull herself back upright. "More," she muttered softly, blindly grasping the burning incense with her bare hands, bringing it close to her face to breathe the smoke in deeply.

Across the room, Elder Dong Yu's eyes brightened in pleasant surprise. Perhaps, this year, another Fairy would step out of this hall after all. Glancing at another young girl, she sighed at the sight of crimson smoke flowing thickly and smoothly to surround another young woman. Two Fairies perhaps, but one paying too high a price.

In Ao Wen's inner vision she gathered a greater amount of lightning energy and hurled it towards the palace gate. Still the gates failed to open. The lightning lost too much strength by the time it reached the gates. Clenching her fist on the burning incense she took an even deeper breath, pulling the heat of the burning ember into her flesh.

Inwardly, she felt like she had grown wings, her surroundings bathed in the light of flickering vermilion flames as she leapt towards the mighty gates, hurling an even greater bolt of lightning. Thunder crashed and the palace gates shook with the impact of the latest lightning bolt. Storm clouds gathered within her Inner World, crackling with energy but offering nothing to assist her relentless assault.

It still wasn't enough. Hot tears of frustration burned on her cheeks as she hurled bolt after bolt of clrackling lightning at the mighty palace gates only for the the crackling energy to waste themselves against the majestic gate, shrugging off her efforts with only a trace of scorch marks on the gate's surface to testify to her efforts.

'Together,' the strong masculine voice said beside her. 'Ignore the lightning. It isn't your power to begin with. From the Earth to the Heavens, burn everything you have! Cry out with me and PUSH!'

Feeling her blood surge as her heart pounded, Ao Wen let out a mighty roar, eyes blazing with vermilion light as she pressed against the gates and cried 'OPEN!' Her muscles strained, heart pounding with every ounce of emotion surging within her chest. Fear at being unable to accompany Feng Xi, anger at the gates that stood in her way, frustration that the lightning had proven so ineffective. She fed it all into the fire burning in her chest, feeding the fire until it surged from the pit of her stomach in a throat tearing ROAR!

In the waiting hall, the girl with the crimson incense had already been helped away, the aura of a Dark Moon Crow emanating faintly from her weakened body. In time, she would recover the strength she lost today and gain much more but at least her sacrifice hadn't gone unrewarded.

Suddenly, vermilion light blazed from Ao Wen's body as her throat let loose a dragon's ROAR! The hall shook and incense blew away in a circle spreading out from her. Grandma Yu's eyes widened at the sign of a violent Awakening, one that would likely cost others their chances as the smoke was disrupted but Grandma Yu felt they could only blame their fate for the misfortune.

Following the roar, Ao Wen collapsed weakly, clearly having exhausted her strength. Grandma Yu had begun to gesture to a servant to bring her away when the eyes of the girl to Ao Wen's right opened wide, the icy aura of a Blue Luan surging in her sapphire gaze. Behind Ao Wen another girl's eyes opened, turning from brown to golden as the aura of an Iron Tusk Boar charged forward from her body. Another girl woke from her inner world, and another, and another… "Twin Tailed Lightning Fox?" Grandma Yu said in wonder. "Obsidian Shelled Turtle? These were supposed to be lost bloodlines, too thin to ever awaken again! Tempest Storm Hawk, Midnight Ethereal Viper! Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… Seventeen other awakenings! Out of less than one hundred! Who… who is that girl?"