CHAPTER 63: CHAPTER 58: LESSONS IN BLOOD

Location: Theron’s Cave - Dark Forest | Doha (Lower Realm)

Time: Day 367, Late Morning

The cave entrance appeared through the ferns like salvation.

Jayde stumbled through the protective wards—Theron’s defensive formations recognizing her essence signature and parting without resistance. The moment she crossed the threshold, her legs gave out. She caught herself against the stone wall, leaving a bloody handprint on ancient rock.

Recommendation: Immediate first aid. Blood loss quantified at approximately four hundred milliliters. Shoulder puncture requires priority attention. Forearm lacerations secondary. Thigh scrape tertiary.

(It hurts. Everything hurts.)

Pain acknowledged. Processing.

Jayde made it three more steps before her body decided it was done moving. She collapsed onto the sleeping pallet—Theron’s old bedding, now hers—and just breathed for a moment. In. Out. In. Out.

The adrenaline was draining away, leaving behind the real cost of combat. Her shoulder throbbed with each heartbeat, a deep aching pulse that spoke of tissue damage and potential infection. The claw marks on her forearm burned like fire. Even the minor scrape on her thigh felt like someone had taken sandpaper to her skin.

"Okay," she muttered, forcing herself upright. "Triage. Like the medical corps taught me."

Correct protocol. Assess, stabilize, treat in order of severity.

She accessed her spatial ring—the new one from the Nexus, with vastly more storage—and began extracting supplies. Healing pills first. Green had provided ten mid-grade pills for life-threatening injuries. This wasn’t life-threatening, but it was bad enough.

Jayde swallowed one pill dry.

The effect was immediate. Warmth spread through her chest, then outward like liquid sunlight flowing through her veins. The pill’s essence targeted the worst damage—the shoulder puncture—and began knitting tissue back together from the inside out.

Not instant healing. Not like Federation medkits with their nanobot swarms. But faster than natural recovery by orders of magnitude. The deep aching pain in her shoulder faded to a dull throb. Blood flow slowed. The worst of it sealed itself closed.

Estimated healing: Seventy percent closure in the next hour. Full recovery in twelve hours with adequate rest.

"Good enough."

Next: The armor.

Jayde stripped off the ranger set carefully, wincing as movement pulled at injuries. The leather chest piece came away sticky with blood—hers and the foxes’. Three parallel claw marks scored across the left side where the second fox had raked her. The leather had held, mostly, but the impact had driven claws deep enough to bruise ribs and tear skin underneath.

The shoulder area was worse. Puncture holes from the third fox’s bite, leather torn clear through in two places. Blood had soaked into the material, dark and sticky.

"Damn it." She examined the damage critically. This is repairable, but I need thread and a needle. And proper leather treatment oil. And—

She had all of it. Theron’s supplies included a complete leather-working kit, carefully preserved in a sealed chest. The old hermit had maintained his own equipment for thirty years—of course, he’d left the tools behind.

Practical. Methodical. Prepared for long-term survival. We inherited good habits from Theron.

Jayde pulled out the kit and got to work.

Threading the needle was harder than expected. Her hands shook slightly—residual adrenaline, nothing more—and it took three attempts before the thick thread passed through the eye. But once she started, muscle memory from Federation survival training kicked in. Field repairs on damaged gear. Emergency equipment maintenance. Skills she hadn’t used in decades, still sharp.

Stitch. Pull. Stitch. Pull.

The leather resisted the needle’s passage, requiring real force to punch through. Her forearm protested each motion, claw marks pulling painfully. But she kept working, systematic and methodical.

This would’ve been easier with a mecha’s automated repair systems.

(Or we could just buy new armor with merits,) Jade offered quietly.

Wasteful. This armor is perfectly serviceable with repairs. Merits are better spent on consumables and skill training. Besides— She tied off another stitch. —field repair skills are survival-critical. Can’t always rely on external resources.

Thirty minutes later, the chest piece was patched. Not beautiful, but functional. The stitching would hold. The leather would protect. That was enough.

She moved on to the claw marks, treating them with leather conditioning oil that would keep the material supple and prevent cracking. Then checked the bracers and greaves—minor scuffing, but no serious damage. Finally, she cleaned all the blood off with water and cloth, scrubbing until the leather was as close to its original color as she could manage.

Done.

Jayde set the armor aside to dry properly and turned her attention to her own body.

The healing pill had done its job on the shoulder. The puncture wounds had closed to angry red marks, scabbed over, but no longer bleeding. She cleaned them carefully with water, applied a salve from Theron’s medical supplies—some kind of essence-infused antibacterial ointment—and wrapped them in clean cloth.

The forearm clawing marks got the same treatment. The thigh scrape barely needed attention—already scabbing nicely.

Total time elapsed: One hour, forty-seven minutes. Injury status: Stabilized. Combat readiness: Sixty percent. Full recovery estimated: Twelve to eighteen hours with rest and proper nutrition.

Jayde leaned back against the cave wall, exhaustion settling into her bones like a lead weight.

And for the first time since the fight ended, she let herself think about what had happened.

***

Combat performance analysis, her tactical mind stated clinically. Multiple critical errors identified. Recommend a thorough review.

"Yeah," Jayde muttered. "Let’s do that."

She closed her eyes, replaying the fight in her memory. Every moment. Every decision. Every mistake.

The six foxes surrounding her. The panic—no, not panic. Assessment. The tactical evaluation showed that they were in trouble.

Her initial response: Ember Shield up, defensive posture, scanning for threats.

That was correct. Standard protocol for surrounded position.

Then the first fox had lunged. She’d blocked with the shield—

—and her body had moved wrong.

"There," Jayde said aloud. "Right there. That’s where it started."

Elaborate.

"I moved like I was wearing powered armor. Compensated for weight that wasn’t there. Expected response times from servos that don’t exist in this body." She opened her eyes, staring at her hands. "Sixty years of combat experience. Sixty years of fighting in a mecha suit. And the first time I face something that moves like enemies I’ve fought before—"

(We fell back on old habits,) Jade finished quietly.

Affirmative. Combat doctrine applicable to Federation warfare was inappropriately applied to cultivation-based combat. Result: Tactical inefficiency and increased injury risk.

Jayde stood and began pacing, her body protesting, but her mind needing the movement to think clearly.

"In the Nexus," she said slowly, working through it, "White’s constructs were easy to fight with magic. They moved like training dummies. Predictable. Mechanical. My brain categorized them as ’training equipment,’ so I had no problem using cultivation techniques."

Correct assessment.

"But the foxes..." She turned, paced back. "They moved like animals. Living creatures with flesh and blood and survival instincts. They flanked. They coordinated. They learned. Just like enemy forces I’ve fought in a hundred different engagements across Federation space."

(So your brain thought ’enemy soldiers’ instead of ’spirit beasts’,) Jade said.

"Exactly. And enemy soldiers get fought with blasters, plasma rifles, mecha cannons—technology I understand. Magic?" She laughed bitterly. "Magic is still new. Still foreign. Still something this sixty-year-old tactical mind doesn’t fully trust."

Dangerous cognitive disconnect identified. In situations of high stress, the brain defaults to familiar patterns rather than recently learned techniques. This explains multiple tactical errors during the engagement.

Jayde stopped pacing, ran a hand through her short hair.

"I aimed Flame Spark wrong. Compensated for blaster physics instead of essence projection. Used Ember Shield like an energy barrier instead of a physical defense. Even my blade work—I kept expecting powered armor strength behind the strikes."

She looked at her hands again. Small. Fifteen years old. Scarred from a childhood of abuse.

"This isn’t my body. I know that intellectually. I’ve been in this body for over a year now, training with it, learning its capabilities. But when actual combat started? When blood was on the line? My hindbrain didn’t care about the last year. It cared about the previous sixty years of muscle memory that kept me alive through countless engagements."

Conclusion: Additional training required. Combat doctrine must be thoroughly rewritten to accommodate cultivation-based warfare. Federation tactics are applicable at the strategic level but require a complete overhaul at the tactical execution level.

"Yeah." Jayde sat down heavily. "And I thought I had this figured out in the Nexus. Hundreds of drills. Perfect integration scores. Green called my combat ability expert-level."

(But that was against constructs,) Jade said softly. (Not real enemies.)

"Not enemies that triggered my Federation combat reflexes," Jayde agreed. "The foxes moved like living things. Hunted like a pack. Felt real in a way the constructs never did. And suddenly all my carefully practiced magic integration just... dissolved. Replaced by sixty years of ’shoot the hostile’ conditioning."

She laughed again, no humor in it.

"A plasma rifle would’ve ended that fight in three seconds. Three. Seconds. Instead, it took four minutes, cost me blood and armor damage, and nearly got me killed because I couldn’t stop thinking like a marine and start thinking like a cultivator."

Acknowledge: Fundamental paradigm shift required. Technology and magic are not interchangeable combat systems. Each requires a distinct tactical framework.

"And I need to learn that framework properly," Jayde muttered. "Really learn it. Not just intellectually, but deep down in the reflexes. So when another pack attacks, my first thought isn’t ’where’s my rifle’ but ’which spell fits this situation.’"

(Can you do that?) Jade asked. (Can you really retrain sixty years of habits?)

"I have to." Jayde stood again, energy returning despite her injuries. "Because the alternative is death. Either from enemies or from my own incompetence, getting me killed when it shouldn’t."

She walked to the cave entrance, looked out at the Dark Forest. Green and alive and deadly.

"Three months minimum in here," she said quietly. "That’s what Theron recommended. Three months of hunting. Learning. Adapting. Not just to the forest, but to this new way of fighting. Magic instead of technology. Cultivation instead of cybernetics. Essence manipulation instead of weapon systems."

Training objective identified: Complete cognitive reframing of combat doctrine. Replace Federation military tactics with cultivation warfare methodology.

"Starting now." Jayde turned back to the cave interior. "First step: Stop comparing magic to technology. They’re different. Accept that difference. Work with it instead of fighting against it."

(That makes sense,) Jade said.

"Second step: Practice. Drills. Repetition. Until Flame Spark feels as natural as pulling a trigger. Until Ember Shield is an automatic reflex, not a conscious decision. Until this body’s capabilities are instinctive knowledge, not intellectual understanding."

Agreed. Recommend a structured training program focusing on combat scenario repetition with live targets.

"Third step—" Jayde hesitated. "—we need to talk about something else. About you. About what happened during the fight."

Silence from Jade’s voice.

"Jade," Jayde said gently. "We need to discuss your combat behavior."

(I knew this was coming,) Jade’s voice whispered, small and ashamed.

***

Jayde sat back down on the sleeping pallet, making herself comfortable despite the lingering aches.

"I’m not angry," she said carefully. "I want to be clear about that. You’re not in trouble. This isn’t punishment. This is... a necessary conversation. About how we function together in life-or-death situations."

(I panicked,) Jade admitted. (I know I did. I’m sorry.)

"You did panic. And I understand why. You’re fifteen years old. You’ve spent ten of those years in slave pits where fighting back meant torture or death. Your survival strategy has always been ’run, hide, obey.’ Not ’stand and fight.’"

(But you have sixty years of combat experience,) Jade said miserably. (You know how to fight. You know how to survive. And I just... got in the way. Screaming about dying. Begging us to run. Making everything worse.)

"Not worse," Jayde corrected. "Distracting. There’s a difference."

She took a breath, organizing her thoughts.

"When combat starts, I need focus. Complete, absolute focus. Lives depend on split-second decisions. Tactical assessment. Resource management. Threat prioritization. I can’t do any of that effectively if part of my consciousness is screaming ’we’re going to die’ or ’we need to run.’"

(I’m sorry,) Jade whispered again.

"Stop apologizing and listen. I’m not blaming you for being afraid. Fear is healthy. Fear keeps us alive. But there’s a difference between fear that informs tactical decisions and fear that disrupts tactical decisions."

Jayde leaned forward, speaking earnestly to the voice in her own head.

"When you say ’there’s too many’ or ’this is dangerous’—that’s useful information. That’s emotional wisdom providing data my tactical mind can process. But when you say ’we’re going to die’ or ’we have to run’—that’s panic. That’s fear overriding judgment. And in combat, that gets us killed."

(But I was scared!) Jade’s voice rose. (Really, really scared! They were circling us and attacking from all sides and—)

"And I was handling it," Jayde said firmly. "Not perfectly. Made mistakes, as we discussed. But I was handling it. Assessing threats. Managing Qi. Positioning tactically. Making decisions that kept us alive."

She softened her mental voice slightly.

"I know you were scared. I’d be worried if you weren’t. But Jade—" Pause. "—you have to trust me. When combat starts, you have to trust that I know what I’m doing. That sixty years of surviving impossible situations means something. That my tactical judgment is sound, even when the situation looks hopeless."

Silence for a long moment.

Then: (But what if you’re wrong?)

"Then we die," Jayde said bluntly. "But we’ll die trying. Fighting with everything we have. Using every advantage. Making them pay for every inch. Not running. Not panicking. Not giving up."

(We never run from battle,) Jade repeated slowly, echoing Jayde’s earlier thought. (We stand our ground.)

"Yes. That’s Federation doctrine. That’s warrior culture. That’s how you survive when retreating would just let predators chase you down and kill you from behind. You stand. You fight. You win or you die trying."

Jayde stood, walked to the cave entrance again.

"I’m not asking you to stop being scared. Fear is information. But I am asking you to control how that fear expresses itself. To trust me to do my job when combat starts. To save the emotional processing for after the fight, when we’re safe and can afford to feel everything we need to feel."

(That sounds... hard,) Jade admitted.

"It is hard. Incredibly hard. Especially for someone your age with your history. But Jade—" Jayde turned from the entrance, looking back into the cave’s shadowed interior. "—we’re the same person now. You’re not a passenger. You’re not a weakness. You’re part of me. Part of us. And we need to function as a unified whole, not two minds arguing while enemies attack."

(How do I do that? How do I control being scared when everything in me is screaming to run?)

"Practice," Jayde said simply. "The same way I need to practice magic until it’s instinct, you need to practice emotional regulation until it’s instinct. Recognizing fear. Acknowledging it. Then setting it aside to process later."

She returned to the pallet, sat cross-legged.

"Here’s what I’m proposing: When combat starts, you focus on being my eyes and ears. Notice things my tactical mind might miss because it’s focused on immediate threats. Watch for environmental changes. Track enemy numbers. Provide situational awareness. Use your emotional intelligence to read body language and intent."

(I can do that,) Jade said slowly. (I’m good at reading people. At knowing when someone’s angry or scared, or lying.)

"Exactly. That’s your strength. Emotional intelligence. Social reading. Pattern recognition at a human level that complements my tactical pattern recognition at a military level. Together, we’re stronger than either voice alone."

(But if I see something really wrong? Something you might’ve missed?)

"Then tell me. Concisely. ’Six more enemies approaching from the left’ is useful. ’There’s too many, we’re all going to die’ is not useful. Information versus panic. Data versus emotion."

A pause.

(That makes sense,) Jade admitted. (And... I’m sorry for screaming about running. You’re right. You were handling it. I just... wasn’t trusting you.)

"Because trusting an adult voice to keep you safe is terrifying when every adult you’ve known has hurt you," Jayde finished. "I get it. I understand the psychology. But we need to work past that. Because I’m not every other adult. I’m you. Your own mind. Your own survival instinct. Just with more experience."

(We’re the same person,) Jade said quietly. (Same soul. Two lifetimes, but one consciousness.)

"Yes. Green explained that back in the Pavilion. We’re not two separate entities sharing space. We’re one person who remembers two lives. Child experiences and adult experiences, blending into something new. Something stronger."

(I’ll try to do better,) Jade promised. (To trust you more. To give useful information instead of panicking. To remember we’re in this together.)

"That’s all I ask. Try. Practice. Learn. Same as me with magic. Same as us with everything. We’ll make mistakes. We’ll have setbacks. But we’ll keep improving."

Jayde lay back on the pallet, staring at the cave ceiling. The healing pill’s warmth had faded, leaving behind a pleasant drowsiness. Her body was demanding rest, now that the immediate crisis was over.

"Three months," she murmured. "Three months to really learn this. Magic combat. Emotional regulation. Unified thinking. By the time we leave this forest, we need to be seamless. One mind. One purpose. One warrior."

(I want that,) Jade said. (I want to be strong like you. Confident like you. Unafraid.)

"You are strong. You survived ten years of hell. That takes strength I can barely comprehend. But yeah—confident and unafraid? Those we can learn. Together."

(Together,) Jade echoed.

Jayde closed her eyes.

Tomorrow, she’d hunt again. Practice the lessons learned today. Work on integrating magic into her combat instincts properly. Build the muscle memory that would keep them alive.

But today? Today she’d rest. Heal. Let her body recover from its first real combat as a cultivator.

The forest would still be there in the morning.

And they would be ready.

Training objectives confirmed: Cognitive reframing, emotional regulation, unified combat doctrine. Estimated timeline: Three months of intensive field work. Success probability: High, assuming consistent practice and live-fire engagement.

(We can do this,) Jade said confidently.

"We can," Jayde agreed.

And for the first time since the fight, she actually believed it.