When Yu entered the next test area, the elder immediately started by saying, “As I explained, the last two tests do not involve the spatial sub-elements, but rather the sub-elements of observing and controlling time. I can tell you have used these before so we will see how strong or weak they are.”

Yu was surprised by that and opened her mouth to ask but was cut off before the words could come out.

“No, I will not speak of it.” Yu was disappointed but it couldn’t last because the young woman’s body said, “This test is both easier and harder than the last. Slowing or stopping time is not about projecting power but intent. You must press your will onto the world. You have done this once unintentionally and should be able to again now that you have the tools needed. Release your Qi and. . .”

The test proved that Yu had a high affinity with time control but could not slow it at all. It was fully stop or nothing for her. Elder Jiu apparently found that terribly fascinating and conducted all kinds of experiments that involved throwing objects, dropping things on Yu’s head, and the like. She had to keep refreshing Yu’s Qi because it drained her after only a breath of stopping even just a small pebble, but Yu was told she clearly had the gift for it.

By the end of the test Elder Jiu looked at her oddly and said, “Child, you said both your parents are not Longs? What are their affinities?”

Yu nodded and answered with, “My father is Fire and Metal, my mother is Lightning and Spatial. But according to my master, she is very weak in that last one.”

The woman nodded, clearly pensive, and told Yu to move to the final circle. She did and even reached for the floating crystal but some sort of invisible force kept her hand from touching it before she was pulled into the testing space.

When Yu arrived the woman was standing there waiting for her. She watched Yu for a few breaths in silence, finally saying something Yu had not expected, “I know for a fact you can see into the future.”

Yu shook her head fervently and said, “I don’t want that. I have no desire to go mad.”

The woman let out a bark of laughter which looked odd on the beautiful figure and said, “You have no choice in the matter. Now that you are here, we can recall your real life. Do you remember any incidents when your body did not do what you wanted and no matter how hard you tried it would not act? Or perhaps your body did something and you don’t recall why or when you made the decision for it to do that?”

Yu blinked at her but then stated firmly, “That doesn’t mean anything.”

The elder in a young woman’s body raised a single silver eyebrow and said, “Oh?”

Then she waved her hand and Yu found herself in a forest. She was on a tree branch staring at a younger and smaller version of herself holding a blue leaf, her mouth open and the leaf in it. Then the forest came to life and Yu watched as her hand shook and her mouth started and stopped closing. Then she frustratingly stuffed the leaf in a poorly made pouch of stone dog skin.

The image wavered and she found herself staring at a crack in the wall of a mountain and was about to squeeze in when she froze and then got a branch, causing a centipede to exit it. Next, the illusory world took her to a place where she was about to run away from a trio of hunters but stopped suddenly and turned around.

Again and again, the woman walked through her life, showing times Yu stopped what she was doing and then took another action that either saved her or gave her an advantage later. And not always just her. Sometimes she was able to help others because of her spontaneous choices or actions.

One example stuck out as she watched herself in the black wrappings of her “young master” masquerade running through her home city. She saw herself running and then slowly came to a stop. Yu looked on as her younger self looked around, shrugged, and continued her run except to the left down a random alley where she came upon a pair of young men in ragged clothes attempting to beat and remove the clothes from a teenage girl.

Yu saw herself beat the boys to unconsciousness, pick up the bleeding and nearly unconscious girl and take her to her family’s healers.

The vision changed but Yu recalled how it ended. She had learned that the girl was thrown out of her clan for being accused of sullying one of the married masters of the main family. Surprisingly she had been a Fire Mage of some talent and Yu had convinced her mother to allow her to join the Fenghuang clan. She ended up being one of the many accepted to a blacksmithing sect and had sworn to produce for her new family.

But that wasn’t the last.

Yu watched with growing horror as each vision flashed by. She saw herself stop Gui Ai from walking away and befriending her and more since she’s been at the sect. The last ended at the bees where she suddenly found herself approaching and raising her whip to strike a large black beetle.

Is that why everything happened the way it did? Yu turned to her elder and asked in a pleading voice, “Am I really not responsible for my own actions?”

The woman laid her hands on Yu’s shoulders and stared straight into her eyes. She spoke in a firm but caring tone. “Don’t be absurd. You are entirely responsible. You made those choices.” The woman poked Yu in the center of her chest. “You just didn’t know the motivation at the time. Your power saw into the future and your subconscious told you what was best. How would things be different if you ate that blue leaf instead of the red one and the fruit? Or had you made different choices any of the other times over the last two years? Perhaps it goes back even longer, although I cannot take you back to before your first time successfully cultivating. I ask you, what drove you to that clearing that day at that time? Was it random or was there a reason you had such a strong desire to be there right then?”

Yu swallowed and looked down. “It feels like I was never in control. My whole life, I’ve never had control. My body. My decisions. Why am I like this?”

Was anything about her real?

The woman lifted Yu’s head and said, “You are wrong. You are always in control of your own actions. Always. You made choices. Understand that. You can make any choices you want. Listen to yourself. Listen to your power, yes. But listen to your heart as well. That is one of the reasons people sometimes cannot stay true to themselves when they see the future. They see so many things, so many choices, their minds break under the anguish of that many poor decisions, opportunities lost, or judgments made.”

Then she held Yu at arm’s length while holding her upper arms and stared at her, silver eyes to silver eyes. “Listen to yourself,” her elder repeated.

Across from her, Yu saw sympathy and firmness in matching silver eyes. Then her ancestor cleared her throat, stepped back, and said, “To me, it seems your gift is quite specific. You can see any future in which you have taken actions to have an impact, or will once the decision to do so is made.”

That did indeed seem quite specific. Thinking about it, Yu asked, “What about backward? I heard seeing through time go both ways.”

“It can, but not for you. You cannot see into the past, likely because of your memory. It is impossible to witness something you have not seen when you remember everything you see. It is a strange quirk of the affinity, but there it is. The gift that gives you such an ability with many powers, eliminates your capacity to use others. It is also likely why you cannot slow time and only stop it, although that is probably your overall ability to perceive the world more than your memory.”

Then she smiled and said, “You should not attempt to forcefully view the future yet. Not for many many years and so I will not tell you how. It will happen on its own, as it has, and you should not fight it. When you are strong enough, return and I will teach you. Now you may touch the crystal.”

Yu flashed and found her hand reaching for it and, before she even fully recognized she was back in the library, her hand touched the crystal and she was gone again.

When she appeared, it was not an endless white space, but a grassy clearing in a forest and a fire was crackling away with a tea kettle laid over it. Opposite the fire was not Yu’s future self but an unfamiliar old woman. She looked even more ancient than Grandma Huan. Every visible section of skin was wrinkled. Her hair was a long silver mess, not looking kept. The old woman was wearing a tattered brown cloak that covered everything but her forearms, hands, and head. Yu noticed it had a hood, but it was down. The woman’s wrinkled and liver-spotted hand had a stick in it and was stirring the fire.

Yu spoke tentatively. “Elder?”

The woman looked up at her and showed white eyes, clearly no longer able to see the way most do. “Welcome child, to my home for the last many thousand years.”

“You live here?” Yu asked as she scanned the area.

The ancient woman nodded. “I was one of the greatest of our family. Like you, I could use all of the five child affinities to Spatial. In fact, you match me in all but gravity control. I was looked up to by nearly all of the clan. But when my time came to pass after millennia avoiding the advancement to the immortality stage, I accepted my death. And yet, I loved my family and thus offered my soul to them and joined with this crystal as I foresaw I would. I now test and teach my descendants. Those with the proper power and bloodline can enter here once per year after their testing and I offer to teach.”

Yu blinked at her. All alone in the crystal for thousands of years except when called upon to do work? “That sounds awfully lonely.”

Her elder said, “It can be. Mostly I sleep when not teaching, but I do occasionally wake to see the world change.”

“If I can, I’ll come back and visit. I can’t imagine thousands of years of being alone but I do know what being isolated feels like, if at a much smaller scale.”

The woman smiled and the lines of her wrinkled face strengthened. “That is very sweet dear. But you can only return once a year.”

Yu shrugged and said, “Whatever. I have living people I can learn from. Can I bring anything in? Do you eat? I could bring some tasty food.”

The woman laughed and waved her hand. A bowl of rice and meat with chopsticks laying across the top appeared at the feet of both of them and she said, “I can create whatever food I wish here.”

Yu picked it up and, taking a bite, moaned in pleasure. “This is amazing. Now I might just return for the food. The heck with training.”

The woman lifted her head back and cackled roughly. When she could breathe again, she said, “Thank you for coming to visit me, child. You are a good girl.”

Then her face got serious and she said, “But I have three more things to tell you.” Yu nodded between bites. “First is that you are an exceptionally gifted Spatial cultivator and our family will likely attempt to rope you into any number of things. Listen to your unconscious mind and let your morals guide you. Do not allow yourself to be used in a way that will make you hate yourself later, for they will not care.” She put greater emphasis on the last three words as if saying something more than just the warning itself.

Not sure what else she could mean, Yu said, “I will. Thank you, elder.”

Then the old woman said, “The second is advice. Go slow. Do not attempt to rush your expertise in the Spatial Affinity. It is a delicate balance, attempting to manipulate the rules of the universe. The gods do not treat well those who breach their laws; they may have granted humans the ability, but they also do not abide its abuse. If you had been brought up in the Long family you would have been given many lectures on (and examples of) the gods striking down those who pushed the limits of their power too far. Take your time with it. Understand it. You have high affinity in Spatial folding both directions, low in gravity, high in time control with no slowing, and high but limited in viewing. It is good to know these things so you can understand where you will excel and struggle.

“And my third piece of advice is to put that all aside and relax. For the Heavens’ sake, enjoy your life a little. You are too worried about everything. Life is hard enough without adding your own stress to it.”

Yu listened carefully and nodded but smiled at that last comment. “Thank you, elder. I will go slow and have been trying to have a little fun.”

The woman smiled and nodded back. “I know, but try harder. You will have a difficult life. Live happy while you can. Now, off you go. Thank you for the enjoyable company and lending me your lovely body.”

Then she gave Yu a sly grin and said, “I hope you live long enough to enjoy it too. You don’t know what you’re missing.”

Yu rolled her eyes but laughed. She put down the bowl, stood, bowed to her elder, and turned around to a flash.