The following few days weren’t the best for their little group, despite the reunion of missed family and friends.

  The loss of the Faber family's portion of the relocation funds was devastating for their established plans and the need to scramble and find replacement locations hadn’t been going well, despite Maple’s best efforts.

  She’d charge off ahead each day to check on the settlements ahead of time, and more often than not, return with nothing to show for her troubles. Even when she found something there’d inevitably be some sort of issue that’d make it difficult for them to settle there.

  Willow was upset that her sister was now so busy after spending so much time apart. Made worse by the knowledge she’d be leaving her family behind soon after they had a permanent home, and so each moment they were apart was one that she’d never get back.

  It was something she kept trying not to think about, but as each day passed without real progress the thought continued to fester in the back of her mind.

  Just like she tried not to dwell on Remy not waving back to her.

  The rest of her family wasn’t much better.

  Jieun and Yew were spending more time with Uncle Lin and Bai than they were with her, and her Da was too worried about the move to focus on her at all.

  She understood why it was happening for both, but it still hurt.

  Since everyone was busy, Willow decided to throw herself into solving the crowd problem while getting all she could out of her mentor’s lessons as they wandered in search of a home.

  Both weren’t showing much progress, despite how important it was to her that she made some kind of progress.

  Andrea was still too small and weak, and the majority of exercises she was being taught were little better than the ones her aunt had taught her previously. So while she was getting plenty of instruction on how to make use of the Wood element conceptually, she wasn’t able to do much practically just yet due to both her and her friend lacking the strength.

  It was a problem that would be solved with more time, but it still made her frustration mount further.

  Made even worse by her continued failure to find a solution to the crowd problem. She tried so many different combinations of energies, and none of them felt correct. Her emotions always tumbled out of balance in one way or another, either too much or too little.

  If this kept up then she’d likely have to start from scratch in creating her own mental technique, which was supposedly far more difficult than modifying an existing one. Her family and friends were already hesitant about her messing with her own mind in the way that she was so she was doubtful they’d let her test completely unknown qi patterns on herself.

  It was shortly after one of her failed sessions that Bai approached Willow and Mu. With the girl being vaguely surprised that her brother wasn’t lurking somewhere nearby as he’d hardly left his remaining friend’s side since they’d reunited.

  She was also confused by the cocktail of emotions she sensed brewing in the young teen, the majority of which weren’t being shown on her face.

  “Master Mu, is it alright if I borrow Willow for a few moments?” Bai asked sweetly.

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  The girl tilted her head in confusion. “We never really talk, though?”

  At least no more than necessary at the gatherings they used to have back in the Vale. The older girl hadn’t ever been mean to her, but she never went out of her way to talk with her like this either.

  The two of them had at best viewed each other with mutual disinterest before now.

  So why did she now feel anger directed her way? Mixed with jealousy of all things?

  “But I’ve been hearing so much about you lately! Figured it would be best to hear things from the girl herself.” Bai said with a false smile.

  Mu looked at the interplay between the two children and noticed something was off from her apprentice's demeanor.

  “She’s not goin’ anywhere unless she’s comfortable with it. So either tell us exactly what you want from her, or leave her to her training.”

  Bai dropped the pleasant facade. “Fine. My mother told me that you bound what remained of her spirits after she was captured by the Bloom, is that true?”

  Willow blinked, unsure where the other girl was going with this.

  “Yes? That’s how I got Calypso.”

  “It should’ve been mine, give it to me.”

  Willow crossed her arms and knit her brows. Not only was Bai being rude in how she was asking for a favor, the way she was referring to her friend bothered her quite a bit.

  “Calypso’s my friend, not a toy to take.” She told the older girl, some of her frustrations from constantly failing leaked out into her voice. “Besides, Aunt Jieun seemed to be all right with me binding them, so why are you so upset?”

  “You didn’t have to go through my mother’s hellish training!” She all but screamed as she drew closer to Willow. “Those spirits were supposed to be mine by right, but now I’m not even getting their scraps? Because you just happened to be there, while I was stuck at an inn bored out of my mind? That’s not fair!”

  At this point her face was inches from the other girls as her frustration continued to rise.

  “Bai! Step away from her.” Aunt Jieun called, having noticed the growing commotion and moving to intervene.

  The teen closed her eyes and grit her teeth.

  “Now!”

  She let out an angry breath and began storming off away from everyone.

  Aunt Jieun watched her go with a tired expression, and Mu puffed on her pipe nearby.

  “Why didn’t you intervene before?” Her aunt questioned the wanderer.

  Mu shrugged. “Not my brat, not my problem. Plus I was curious where she was goin’ with her argument. Would’ve stopped her if she resorted to violence, but thankfully it hadn’t gotten to that point.”

  Jieun grumbled, but dropped the matter.

  “Are you alright, Willow?” She asked with concern.

  Was she?

  Not particularly, but she didn’t want to complain right now.

  Frankly she just wanted something to go right for her soon. Since they’d left the Vale things had just gotten worse and worse in her eyes.

  She drew on her bonds a bit for warmth and support from her friends.

  She flashed her aunt a gap-toothed smile. “I’m fine, Aunt Jieun. I’m more confused than upset.”

  Not that having Bai in her face yelling hadn’t been unnerving, but it kind of paled in comparison to facing down a flower demon intent on killing her.

  Jieun observed her niece for a few moments before nodding to herself. “If you’re sure. I’m going to search for Bai before she gets herself lost. It’s not safe to wander off in unfamiliar territory.”

  As her aunt strode off in search of her wayward daughter, Willow and her mentor continued to try and solve the issues of her spiritually sensitive nature.

  And yet another day of frustration and failure passed.