Phoenix With A Purpose (Part 1)

There were people shouting at her to stop. Frantic voices were screaming.

"Cease!"

This voice had the force of a blizzard and it hit her hard, fire against ice. She screamed, losing control.

"Cease!"

The blizzard voice again. And this time, it had the effect of an ice wall, smacking the young phoenix-woman dead center. She fell from the sky and hit the ground.

Later, as she swam in and out of fevered consciousness, she glimpsed the abbess's stern face.

Then a shroud of cold wrapped around her and she descended into oblivion.

***

She awoke, suspended in clear water.

Falling water thundered about her and she realized, with a gasp, that she was tied and kept afloat in the pool. The water was frigid, fed straight from the mountains. She shivered - they had stripped her of her clothing. Instinctively, she reached for her phoenix flame, only to find that it had been reduced to an ember. She recoiled in instant fear and shock, sobbing.

"You almost burned the nunnery down, your Highness."

The abbess sat on a rattan chair on the edge of the pool. Her expression was inscrutable, but Min Feng could feel her anger. A glacial anger, firmly controlled at the moment.

"I am... sorry," the young woman said sincerely and she remembered so many "sorries", so many apologies. Contrition merged with regret.

"Apologies are not enough," the abbess said, shaking her head slowly, ruefully. "When the damage has already been wrought."

The young woman felt tears emerge from her eyes, streaming down her wet face. The water was frigid, numbing her bones. She wanted so much to get out of the water and dry herself. Warm herself and wear clothes. And she was ashamed.

"What can I do?" She whispered faintly and the abbess heard her.

"Curb your flame. Learn how to control it." The old woman replied and lifted the young woman out of the water with her chi. She covered the shivering girl in a thick towel and led her away from the Crystal Pool tenderly.

"Now your actual training will begin."

***

As they walked away from the Crystal Pool, Min Feng could see the ugly black burn marks on the ground, the wilted trees with charred branches and melted statues with drooping features. She closed her eyes and let her tears fall unchecked. She would have killed someone with her phoenix flame. No. Temper tantrum. She could not restrain her nei huo. She remembered broken shards, scattered on a marbled floor.

It was an awful revelation. It rocked her instantly to her core.

***

The abbess started her on basic meditation. Focusing on her nei huo, her inner flame. She was taught how to visualize placing boundaries around the fire, banking it and still maintaining its heat. She could see the embers within her, glowing a bright pink. Under the guidance of the abbess, she began to cultivate it, calm it and control it.

As her training continued, she grew accustomed to the bland food served in the main dining hall and even grew fond of the sweetness of the bean curds. Her water was the cool fresh water from the Crystal Pool. Her irritation disappeared and was replaced with calm. She soon slept well enough on the rough hard bed. She could balance herself with the numerous meditative poses.

Her dreams were of gentle repose, of a phoenix perched and gazing contemplatively at the moons.

By the fourth month, the young woman walked as quietly and as steadily as the rest of the acolytes, heads bowed in silent contemplation. Her movements were gentle, unhurried. Her phoenix flame was a soft candle fire inside, present yet not wild and destructive.