It's the day of their presentation, she notes, as she wakes - once again, vaguely annoyed that she cannot beat her sister to their mutual appointment with the morning sun.  Diamant is worried, as she always is.

There is, admittedly, more that one could justifiably worry about than usual - but to worry now?  It is not yet the correct time, nor the correct place.

She rolls to a standing position in one smooth motion, with grace and precision that she has worked hard to hone.

"Dear younger sister, now is not the time to worry; if you do it now, whatever will you do when it comes time for the main event and you cannot find something to fret over?"

Her voice, on the other hand, the smooth and soft tones that deliver that gentle reassurance that Dia needs, is something that came to her naturally - or as naturally as anything can be, when one considers that thousands of years of techniques have shaped even the average Imperial human in some way or another.

Diamant would like that thought, she thinks.  It goes in her notebook.

Regardless of the past, however, today is a day she looks to the future - and while it is, as always, an uncertain, ever-shifting thing, mercury falling through a forest of ever-shifting glass as the greatest forces of the Empire and elsewhere try to work their will upon it...

She isn't afraid of what's to come.

She is as prepared as she can be, she has her lovely sister on this road with her no matter where it takes them - she is ready to begin this journey of a thousand miles with her own first step.

In the empire, one's first day of cultivation is not, per se, a public event, but it is a special one, and what is the point of being extravagantly aristocratic, from a family that rules over millions of souls, if you cannot throw your beloved grandchildren overwrought parties to celebrate that they are, finally, old enough, sufficiently stable in body, heart and soul,  that they can be granted the secrets of cultivation and be allowed to step on the path to godhood. 

So, there will be a party. All of thier uncles and aunts and cousins of various levels of actual generational remove who are on the estate will be invited, as will many tradditional allies, local neighbours, and childhood friends. It's not the highest-stakes social event that the twins will ever go to, but it's not low stakes, either. Thier grandmother, the current duchess, will have a speech. So, it is likely, will thier father. 

The great hall is, as it always is, lined entirely with seamless mirrors, faceted over every surface to render everything into a constant maddening sparkle of fractal reflections, just like every other room in the building. But the twins are used to it, having been raised largely in strange mirror, designed to madden and confuse until a growing mind adapts to thier ways and a growing soul to thier energies, producing the mirrored eyes distinctive to members of the clan, and an affinity fir the family arts. In the hall, great tables (also mirrored) have been set out, and the mirrored floor has been covered in places with rugs for the comfort of less adapted guests. On the table is a great feast: whole roast animals carved into bite-sized slices and served alongside rich sauces, innumerable platters of elaborate steamed and stir-fried dishes from throughout the empire, each carefully placed in anticipation of making this the best possible meal by an immortal chef of no less than the 4th realm. This is not mere sustenance, but a meal designed to exalt and enhance the spirit, and in particular, the spirit of two girls who today come of age. 

Opal's-Fire is dressed to be the center of attention, her hanfu positively scintillating from both the tiny prismatic beads strung through the silver-blue silks that fall like water over opalescent rocks and from the mirror-scaled carp that try to leap this waterfall; she came up with the design, but it is Diamant Reflections who turned that design from a dream into a plan, and she will talk up her sister's breadth of knowledge to any who ask who made her outfit.

Diamant Reflections, on the other hand, has taken the theme of steady, incremental, inexorable progress and turned that into an outfit - or rather, Opal designed it, and she figured out what went where on the tree of knowledge that grows from earth to the deep-black diamond-studded Heavens.

In all honesty, it is quite possible that this outfit manages to stand out more than Opal's, because of the fact that it is - quiet - but Opal refused to let her change it afterwards.

They know the script, for the formal parts of these events. They're guests of honour, structurally speaking, not hosts, so their job for the first part of the evening is to stand around looking pretty (and deadly, and enlightened and so on, to the extent that non-cultivators can do so without merely resembling a parody of a more enlightened adult in the room), while their grandmother (proud and ancient (despite looking about 30) and long determined to be a better manager than mirror-maker) and their father (fat and jolly with a core of steel, a warrior of no real note, at least by the rarefied standards of warriors of the 4th realm) run the actual show, stirring the pot of socialisation and giving speeches about the wonders and glories of cultivation, the empire, and the house, and how their talented and excellent young children (insert embarrassing anecdote here). Then, there is a ceremony, where they will be presented a symbolic mirror pendant to match the ones in their eyes, a book that notionally contains cultivation techniques but which actually contains the compiled musings and recorded statements of the family founder, the thousand-mirror dragon himself, and a fine wooden box with a mirror-polished lacquer, again, notionally containing cultivation resources but in practice just containing five doses of the family's preferred foundational draught. The real treasures will be distributed in a more private setting - they still have important choices to make, important secrets to be told.

After the gifts, they will be expected to make a statement about their future career and cultivation choices. Normally, this is when you would declare which sect or sects you intended to take the entry exams for (the twins have both received invitations from dozens of sects, some of which are actually impressive enough to be worth considering). But for those who wish to delay entry, or who have other paths in mind, this can be a chance to justify that strangeness to every acquaintance who might question, as a matter of pure polite interest of course, why they have chosen to go against the flow. 

Diamant Reflections hopes she will be strong enough, clever enough, wise enough to follow in their Founder's footsteps - she wants to make a thousand mirrors, if life permits, and many other things besides.  She's always been fascinated by the Weird Things cultivation does, and crafting seems like an avenue with support enough to fund arcane experiments.

It is Opal's Fire, however, who says most of this, when Diamant is too overawed (read: terrified of potential consequences of a social misstep) to speak to some of these august personages.  She isn't the sort to like the spotlight that Opal lives and breathes, and furthermore, Opal is already handling this environment like - well, almost like someone who was raised to an environment of socialization instead of mirrors! 

Opal's plans are honestly less well-defined than her twin's; she certainly does not think she is suited for the important work her elder sister does, but she has yet quite to find the sort of sect that would truly suit her mindset.  She wants to talk to people, solve their problems - make more good things happen.

A representative of a notionally-charitable monastic sect who spends more time drinking than actually converting the proceeds of their wine-sales into kindness will take offence to that! 

"Take what offense you please, but my objection is not to your virtue of charity, however you may practice it; it is instead to the wine.  I much prefer my wits un-dulled."

...Opal why.  Opal.  You can't just kill a man at court because their sect is basically embezzling, Opal.  I know, I'm mad at this guy too and we both hate being drunk but good grief, Opal.

Time for a perceptive and well-adjusted grandmother to intervene! 

"Now, now, sir! You know that we could never speak ill of your wines, that so excellently complement many of our meals. My granddaughter simply is not interested in the long years spent honing the skills needed for your craft, which takes so long to see it's fruits, when other fields are open to them. Perhaps when she has been in the world for longer than your wines, she will appreciate the artistry to them."

"There is most definitively an art to them," she concedes.  "Thank you, grandmother.  Your wisdom is much appreciated."

The winemaker is mollified; the others in the room are, if anything, mildly annoyed at him for his outcry, but overall, everyone is largely interested in finally being able to move on from the speechifying to the actually enjoyable parts of the evening: the feasting and the polite conversation! 

Opal's-Fire grazes much more than what she is doing can be called feasting; she does not wish to be a glutton.

Diamant is honestly a lot more excited by the food than any amount of conversation could possibly make her be.

The food is great, and catered specifically for their tastes, including ensuring they can get a good variety at their preferred portion size (or at least, a negotiated compromise between the chef's soul-deep desire that everyone be well-fed and their preferred portion size). The conversation is good, as you would expect of party whose seating arrangements were determined by one who had multiple centuries of practice and superhuman capacity. In time, the public half of the party will be over, and the *important* half, the real gifts, will occur.

And thank goodness for that.

Even she can get a bit worn out from socializing.

In private, they are quietly and informally granted the real beginners gifts for those of their ranks. Another 95 doses of the foundation draught (if it takes them more than a hundred days and a hundred doses to complete their foundation and enter the first realm, their talent is too little for the family to fund further and they will have to find their own way - while the family won't cast them out it won't throw good cultivation resources after bad), 100 credits of the family scrip to be spent on whatever minor items and techniques, or saved for something greater, one chance to attempt to contact the house founder at the entrance of his mirror-workshop deep within the family mirror-mazed halls. The last and most important gift, however, is a choice, of one of seven family cultivation techniques, and one of seven family supplementary techniques, corresponding to the seven fundamental aspects of cultivation. They are but a sliver of the breadth of techniques the house possesses, but none of them are a mistake to learn.

The Martial foundational technique: The Still Water Reflection Meditation, a training regime which emphasizes flexibility and defence, a flowing style of dodges, redirections and counterattacks, which is a foundation for numerous combat arts in the mirror and water element. The Martial Supplementary technique: Broken Mirror Blade, a technique for conjuring a mirror-blade out of nothing. The blade is on-par with many enchanted blades of the first realm its sheer power, but the blades are cheap to conjure once the technique is integrated into your soul.

The Noble foundational technique: The Reflective Crown Process, which emphasizes reciprocal and equal relationships, symmetries of obligation in theme and terms. It's as egalitarian as a technique intended for a duchess can be, emphasizing fair dealing and strong foundations even in lord-vassal relationships. The Noble Supplementary technique: Silver Scrying of the Righteous, a technique that allows you to view people or places to which you have a bond through mirrored surfaces.

The Hidden foundational technique: Plain Perfection Doesn't See, a foundation for stealth emphasizing hiding in plain sight, manipulating the processes of perception - attention, light, and comprehension - directly. It's a versatile stealth style, but difficult to master, since, especially at the early stages, it only has indirect and subtle effects. The Hidden Supplementary technique: the simply-named Mirror Image, an illusion technique of startling potency, unfortunately limited only to creating visual illusions of things within the user's current perception.

The Virtuous foundational technique: The Ingenious Heart is a spiritual technique designed to reward the virtue of ingenuity. It has meaningful effects at widening cognition as long as you maintain the flow of good ideas, each novel thought chaining into the next in a flow of cleverness that if sustained, can permit rapid planning and the development of counters - or utter and catastrophic distraction. It has strong synergy with academic techniques, because of it's operation on a conceptual rather than a cognitive level. The Virtuous Supplementary technique, Invincible Coyote Prana, is a technique relating to the virtue of intentionality - as long as you're following an intentional, deliberate plan, rather than acting on reflex or impulse, it will give you an inertial physical protection against harm from the failure of this plan, a precious few moments of suspense to reconsider before you plunge off a cliff.

The Academic foundational technique: The Correspondence on Perfection, a technique that emphasizes parallels and symmetries, cached answers and parallel processing, efficiency in thought and motion and a mind of geometry and light. It's straightforward and capable, but it's straightforwardness can make it vulnerable to minds stranger, if less efficient. The Academic Supplementary Technique, Frozen Glass Reflection, which allows you to store reflections of memories or texts in prepared mirrors for later consultation. 

The Beautiful foundational technique: Inward Facet Reflection, a cultivation of self-understanding and flawlessness. Introspection identifies flaws; polish eliminates them. Reflection identifies virtues; silvering shines them to mirror-bright perfection. Compared to other beautiful foundations, it tends to produce human forms and inhuman minds, but it's not particularly exceptional on either axis. The Beautiful Supplementary Technique, Flattering Mimicry Posture, is a technique of imitation, subtle body language and behaviour copying and complimenting the target to elicit sympathy, enhance companionship, and at a high level, enable disguises deepened by familiarity.

The Arcane foundational technique: "On Symmetry in Formations" is one third foundational technique, one third introduction to arcane theory for mirror-aligned crafters, and one third advice and ramblings, straight from the hand of the family founders. Every technique here was designed by him, but this is the first seeds of the techniques that he personally uses. The Arcane Supplementary Technique: The Least Sorcerous Mirror is another seed-art for the family's most famous techniques, an art that can reflect any techniques back on their caster. At this stage, it only works on techniques of the first realm, and only on techniques which have a physical presence to be reflected, but it's still a powerful defensive art. 

And just in case it wasn't clear, they're not allowed to teach each other the techniques they choose. Consider it a test, of their ability to abide by restrictions placed on them by their teachers. Not everyone will be as generous as family to their students, so even if one day they will be true inheritors of these techniques with the right to teach them to anyone they choose, for now they are not. If they want more, they'll have to earn them. 

"If, in seeing the technique practiced or used, either of us manage to understand the other's, would that be a violation of the restriction upon teaching it?"

Opal read her mind again.  Gosh darnit.

"Dears. If an outsider did that, would we or would we not execute them for technique theft?" 

"One has to imagine that it depends upon whether they are a young talent to cultivate or a potential threat to our legacy to eliminate.  I'm quite certain those rules on adoptions do not only exist for our twins.  Point, however, received."

She doesn't like hurting people...

"Technique theft is not such a simple thing, anyhow. You'll understand when you've actually learned one. With that in mind, have you made your decision? Or will you need some more time to think?" 

"...We can't get two foundational techniques for the same reason, I assume?  But I do want to check that."

"I will not forbid it, but I will advise that it's almost entirely suboptimal until you've established yourselves in the first realm - no matter where you are going, you may only step through one door at a time. Besides, if you can't break through to the first realm fast enough to earn a third technique, then you're not the talented young girls I think you are."

She nods.  "I am rather drawn to the synergies between the Virtue technique and the Academic one.  Given that, though...I suppose that the question is which to approach first."

"Virtuous techniques are the ones which grow in strength the better you can live thier virtue, so perhaps it makes sense to cultivate your ingenuity first and the foundation of ingenuity you can cultivate second?" 

"Quite reasonable.  Opal, do you know what you want?"

"I think I have come to a decision, yes."

"I'd like The Correspondence on Perfection, if you please, as well as Invincible Coyote Prana."

"I would like Inward Facet Reflection and Flattering Mimicry Posture, to start with.  I expect that I will desire the Reflective Crown Process next."

The appropriate books are distributed, and thenrest are given to a servant to return to the vaults. 

"Would you like to attempt to contact great-grandfather now? Or are there preparations you still need to make?" 

"Well, that entirely depends upon the amount of time we would be left to prepare, wouldn't it?  Though I do believe dear Diamant has some items to fetch."

She does indeed.

She has a little rolling cart absolutely full of them, in fact; there's a lot of spools of thread, just in case they get lost, as well as cartography supplies; there's some of the twins' samefoods in case they're down there for a while, and she's gotten something for Great-Grandfather - she knows she never remembers she ought to eat when she's really caught up in a project.  ...And they should probably change out of their formalwear first!  If this is going to be an adventure, or they're going to be in a workshop.  Unless, ah, is that contraindicated by social protocol?

...If it proves necessary, they can always change before they encounter hazards to either outfits or people.  If there's not enough time for them to start properly cultivating in their leeway to depart - she'd rather impress, if she can - then they're ready.

They're not going to be heading into danger, you know, they're going into the basement to meet thier ancestor. All the security measures will recognise them as his own blood, and allow them to pass. They should dress to meet thier honoured ancestor, not for an adventure. 

(Thier auntie thinks, privately, that the cart seems awfully inconvenient, but then, many things about mortality are awfully inconvenient. They have presumably considered these things.) 

It's got this neat handle, and wheels and axles and stuff!  She loaded it with a few hundred pounds of rocks once and barely noticed!  Compared to normally definitely noticing moving that much object.  ...That's not a lot to cultivators proper.  But it's still a useful principle!

(...Diamant may have been displacing her "oh gods what will Great-Grandfather think of me" onto "oh no what if dangers", though.  Oops.)

"My dear sister may have read a few too many overly sensationalized stories of hidden realms," she ruffles Diamant's hair in a sisterly-teasing way, to much flustered eeping, "but goodness knows we don't actually know what most of the basement is like, and from that perspective, I can certainly see why she'd pack some 'adventuring equipment', out of what we had readily available.  Plus a gift for Great-Grandfather, you'll note.  I daresay she's trying to impress, in her own way.  Didn't you design that yourself?"

She did!  It's no proper wheelbarrow in terms of carrying capacity, but what it handily beats them out on is ease of traveling over stairs.

"...I must pre-empt your lecture upon its principles; I don't imagine Auntie is very interested in mechanics.  ...My dear sister is quite ingenious, but her words flow like the Yellow River upon the subject that has caught her eye today and we haven't the time for that right now."

(n.b.: The Yellow River, for those of you without the fortune of so knowing, is notable for a), its erratic floods, and b), being perhaps the river with the most widely divergent path over time, due to the mechanism underlying said floods.  The metaphor seemed apt for hyperfixational infodumping.)

"Indeed, we had best set off sooner rather than later. Diamant dear, if you'd like to explain, you can do so *while* we walk."

Then they'd best get going!

And going they do. At first, thier path is largely normal, at least by the standards of the family home - stairways paired with inverted ones on the ceiling and gardens where strange flowers bloom above perfectly reflective pools, but in the bowels of the house things get still stranger, as things are illuminated only by daylight a thousand times reflected and more and more of the structure of the house is impossibly reflective. They cross through a maze, made of dozens of identical rooms walled in mirrors to make it impossible to tell where there are real passages and where there are solid mirrors and where there are mirrors that you must step through to continue your passage in a reflected pocket-world. Eventually, deep in the house, they step out of what seems like the front door of the house, into an eerily silent world where all ground outside the house is a single perfectly flat mirror and the sky above contains a reflection of the real (or realer, at least) compound far away. By the door, there is an ancestral shrine, identical to another more visited one at the entrance of the compound. It's the only thing here which isn't a reflection of something. 

Except that it is in fact a reflection of the exterior shrine this is so cool!

Her sister is having a wonderful time; this is all she needs to see to be glad they are doing this.

Perhaps the shrine is a reflection of the one above - or perhaps the one above is a reflection of this one, or they are both a reflection of some third shrine somewhere else, or perhaps the family architect is merely profoundly unoriginal when it comes to sacred buildings. It is beyond the kenning of a mortal to say. 

The shrine itself is a simple thing, a small pagoda of dark wood and red tile polished to the unnatural sheen common to most materials in the compound, the back wall a single huge mirror etched to show a stylised rendering of a dragon. Either side of it are tablets representing the founder's own ancestors (there is a proper graveyard elsewhere for more modern family members), and an altar in the center, for flowers or incense to be placed - and incense is already here, a single wisp of smoke the only motion in the eerie mirror world. 

Its oddly abnormal 'normalcy' inspires all the more reverence in Opal's-Fire; she kneels before it, memorizes the names of her ancestor's ancestors.  Respect is important.

That has been here so long, hasn't it...

How was it preserved?  Perhaps she'll ask, if she has the time.

Thier family is not exactly an ancient fixture of the empire; certainly this shrine couldn't be a millenia old, even assuming it was made when the founder was first appointed as a duke. But perhaps to one who is barely twenty, even a scant thousand years is a long time. The shrine stands as it always has before them, silent and unmoving. 

After a few minutes, that seems to change. At first, it seems a trick of the light making the etched dragon seem to move, but then it animates itself properly, stretching and flowing, and then peels itself off the glass entirely, a dragon made entirely of mirrors. Specifically, the Thousand-Mirror Dragon, famed artificer and duke of the undying empire. 

"Well, then. Who have you brought for me to talk to today, grandaughter? They seem a slight bit better than the last lot."

(The twins will remember that the last lot were thier cousins, a year older than them, boisterous and martially inclined, who returned from thier trip disappointed but then earned no small honour by being accepted as outer disciples of the Ancient Chivalrous Burden Sect.) 

"I am Opal's-Fire, honored great-grandfather; this is my mirror-sister Diamant Reflections, who is shy but also vibrating out of her skull with questions about your work, if I know her.

"I believe she brought you something?"

"Ah - um - I did!  I heard you were very busy with your work so I, um.  Brought some food that I heard you like because I know I sometimes forget to eat - or, do stuff like that, I suppose - when I'm wrapped up in something."

The immortal dragon laughs like vast and distant windchimes. 

"Ah, I have such helpful descendants. How wonderful. You should be reassured that I have long since automated away the fullfillment of such needs for times of urgency or distraction, but it fills an old man's heart with pleasure to snack with his grandchildren and I would be delighted to indulge while I consider your questions." 

"Yay!"

"Thank you, honored grandfather."

The twins are a study in contrasts as they both react - Diamant, well, vibrating happily, hands clasped together, while Opal's-Fire is much more serene and performative about her happiness, but still genuine.

This extends, too, to how they eat; Diamant is quick, eating like the food will get up and run away if she doesn't eat fast enough - and, well, her honored grandfather is quite busy! - while Opal's-Fire is a lot more measured; she may be as full of questions as her sister, but she is more patient about actually asking them.

Diamant has a lot of questions that are about specific things she read in books that just don't make sense, what her grandfather's life was like growing up, or what it's like being so much of himself.  How did he decide that mirrors were what he wanted to build his life around?  Or within, she supposes?

For the less overtly brainy of the twins, Ophelia's questions are by far the most contemplation-requiring.  What advice does he think they should have, that no-one else will give them?  (She realizes that he hardly knows much of them in particular, but she thinks it's still worth asking.)  If he could change a decision he made at some point, what decision would it be, if any?  If he can tell them.  (What would he do instead?)  What is the most surprisingly useful technique he's seen or heard of?  What about the most surprisingly useful technique he knows, if that's different?

Books written by cultivators make no sense because they were written about subjects which are intensely personal, incredibly heterogeneous, and half the authors are lying for various reasons. Also, the family probably didn't let her have any books with clear insights into how to cultivate as a teen because letting teens cultivate is predictably a disaster, so she's probably missing prerequisite knowledge. He'll help seperate out which books are which sort. 

He grew up in the comfortable middle class as the son of a greenhouse foreman and a silversmith, both petty "citizen" cultivators who never left the first realm, and spent his time practising silversmithing to take after them before the Bank noticed he had a entanglement of karma with one of thier fortress-vaults and offered him a position in thier sect so he could realise that potential. 

He choose mirrors almost by accident - he was already good at working with silver and both destiny and management was pushing him into warding and before he knew it, he had more mirror-aspected meridians than anything else. 

He can't do more than bad metaphor to describe what it's like to be so vast to a mortal, but he supposes one way to put it is that everything he *could have done*, he simply *does* instead. He does not need to leave alternatives unconsidered, in this state. 

Opal's questions do indeed provoke him to perform a moment's consideration. His advice he says, is that, if you're not a martial cultivator (and most people shouldn't be) you will spend your life in fear of them. Sect and family and empire can only do so much in the face of sheer strength, and outthinking and outmanoeuvring them is a constant labour of tremendous difficulty. So his advice is to find a strong fighter that you can trust with your everything, someone you love more than blood who loves you more than life. Nothing less can make you safe, if you are powerful and cannot fight. His regrets, he says, should be quite obvious from that advice. 

On more mundane topics, he says, the technique he personally underestimated was a makeup technique back in first realm. At the time, it seemed like a surreal and vain thing to incorporate into your very soul, but in time he came to understand that other aspects also valued efficiency and artistry when it came to the quality of thier tools, and that a Beautiful cultivator really has no tool ranked higher than thier appearance, so naturally being able to spend half the time taking care of it for twice the benefit is priceless. He's quite certain that technique saved its user's life. But perhaps, he muses, they don't need to learn that lesson, having being raised in high society unlike himself. 

The most useful technique he himself knows is his Grand Worldsoul Mirror, whoss first fumbling version was on thier list of choices. People always underestimate it, assuming that brute force can defeat it, or that there's some kind of trick to it. Which, there is, of course, but it's not the sort of trick you can just worm your way past. 

...would he like a hug?  About the advice.  It seems really sad.

"I think, honored grandfather, that your comment about the makeup technique is quite useful advice because now the scions of our family cannot measure the height of Mount Tai, for they stand upon its slopes - I had not consciously considered the amount of time and effort put into my appearance," which is more than Diamant's, "until Diamant decided that she wished to at least design our presentation gowns herself, and then I failed to extrapolate the logic into our daily activities.  I imagine Diamant is already thinking about equations of time spent per task frequency per unit effort, or something."

Yes, she is, in fact, thinking about that!

Plot (time saved/duration * (1/task-time-to-recur)) against difficulty-of-learning...

She's going to grab her notebook and write this down, actually.  There's more factors than she can keep all in her head at once, right now.  She hasn't even begun thinking about effort magnification.

He would like to be clear that this isn't a metaphor for anything, but his current incarnation before them is too sharp and pointy to safely hug. He appreciates the offer, though. 

... he would also like to suggest that she try not to get too obsessed with efficiency. It's a trap some cultivators fall into trying to get the most out of every day the heavens send, and they exploit too much and explore too little. Cultivation will entail a thousand unknowns and a hundred lifechanging realisations and that's really important. Which is not to say you should spend more time than you have to on makeup, but if that same impulse means you never stop to talk to shopkeepers? That's not a good thing. 

"It stops being efficient to worry about optimizing further at some point!  That's right there in the math!  But really, I hope I - and you - needn't worry; as long as I haven't run out of books to read and things to learn, I don't expect I'll stop taking detours along the Dao."

Opal's-Fire hides her shock at the way Diamant just spoke to their honored grandfather behind a bite of food.  Are they truly worthy of - well, she supposes that there is hardly a possibility that he isn't considering them, given what he just said - but his concern?

Still, she will corroborate that her sister wants to know about everything she can get her hands on.

"I almost expect her to have the opposite problem, really, depending upon how effectively she is able to leverage parallel thought.  She flutters from subject to subject like a butterfly who dreams she is a woman."

Presumably he has many other things that he is doing in parallel, yes, but for now he is happy to be here and talk to them. He will tolerate another half hour of casual discussion of trivialities and tangents, before. 

"I'm glad to see that I have such bright and eager young descendants. I hope to see you again someday, so don't go getting yourselves killed or wasting your potential now." 

"We will do our utmost to that effect, grandfather.  Thank you for your time and wisdom."

"It was nice meeting you!"

And then in synchrony, they give a respectful bow.  Maybe they don't precisely need to need to, but they practiced!

Cute kids! Thier honoured ancestor will retreat back into his mirror, and the world will be still once more, as it was when they arrived but for the addition of a good number of crumbs and wrappers. 

Most of the crumbs are even neatly contained within the wrappers!

And now it is time to return to the other side.  What a conversation that was; she can tell Diamant's head is spinning as much as hers.

Thier return to thier rooms is uneventful - they meet a few wandering family members or retainers who congratulate them, but nobody has anything substantial to keep them from returning to contemplate or rest (or waste the rest of the night tinkering, if the mood has taken them).

They are starting to cultivate properly tomorrow, and no sooner.  She's putting her foot down about it.  Yes, Diamant, it is exciting; qi deviations are not exciting, they are dangerous.  They can skim the texts tonight; that is all.

Diamant can finish her equation/graphy plotty thing, though.

Mmhmm; alright, she'll take the distraction with grace.

X: t-factor: (time saved/duration * 1/avg.-recurrence-period)

Y: work-factor: -log(time-to-learn)

Z: cost-factor: meridians (new required?) * expected resource expenditure

A: effort-factor: effect-out/effort-in.

There we go, a nicely plottable measurement of technique efficiency!

As long as she cares to do the calculations by hand to plot, sure. Or she could go bother one of the house accountants about it, several of them are high enough in realm to be able to just run spreadsheeting software on thier brains.

Whether she attempts to do so, or sleeps properly, or some combination of both, dawn will arrive in a flash, the sun setting the entire mirror-strewn landscape aglitter. 

Or think about how to artifice it!  She doesn't actually have the data for it, anyway.

But she does, eventually, sleep.

Ophelia spent the evening blocking out a schedule of cultivation based on her manual, and cajoles Diamant into filling out an equivalent one - not in more detail than "time, task, location", so as to avoid breaching the strictures laid upon them, but enough that the sisters will know where their twins are and the sorts of things they are doing.

And meet for meals, Diamant.

Sure; she's going to run this not-an-equation-really over to the big number-heads and see what they think of it as a way to categorize things?  But then she'll come down to breakfast!