Niska's eyes were squinting at his victim. "Perhaps I need to bring somevone else."

Virgil's eyes sagged with fatigue as he rolled his shoulders and pulled on the restraints. "Why do ya wanna play with others? Thought I was your special friend."

"Oh, you are very special indeed Mr. East." He smiled tightly. "Now vhat...."

"Sir." a guard broke his speech.

"Vhat is it now?!" He snapped.

"We found someone."

Niska's grandfatherly face pulled into a warm, pleased smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Separation, is a right all Long Zhanshi must go through before reaching the higher plane." He told her.

Her eyes grew dark. "I am not a Zhanshi." she murmured, hedged. Grand Master had told her before she had even begun training that it would take at least a year until she was a fully realized Zhanshi, and then decades until she hopefully reached a higher plane and became a Shifu. This, was too soon. Even if she was a prodigy.

"You are, you have been, for quite some time." He acknowledged. "And Separation is a mediative technique that will take all your being, for you are separating your mind, from all emotional, physical and metal attachments in order to become one with the universe."

Her eyes snapped wider, and her ankle twisted to tighten her stance. "I can't detach myself from any attachments..."

"Yes you can.."

"Attachments keep me from shattering. Million pieces of glass scattered in the black.." She explained, distantly, voice low and foreboding as her eyes glossed over. "Found Serenity.... Found the pieces, picked them up, kept them safe. Found the bond to glue the pieces together. Pieces come to be the girl... and she walks... she walks in reality... tangibility." Her voce hitched. "I can't do it."

"You have to." Reaching out, he caught her chin and stared into her eyes as she winced and her mind pounded with thoughts of her friends, family, lover. However he focused on her, wrapped his mind around her own, and felt her slip into the trance state. She became the girl at t