The next morning you return to the chief's chamber to find an occult diagram drawn on the stone floor in dried blood. Lines spiral out from a clay pot containing a young oak sapling on one side of the diagram to a clay pot that apears to contain nothing but dirt. Chief Thuen Gor sits at the edge of the diagram across from you, a fresh bandage around one wrist.

"Have a seat."

Once you are seated, the chief begins. "You wish to learn about the Nakta. I must wonder if you really understand what it is you ask. The Nakta is not something that one can just explain. What it does? That can be shown and explained, yes, but that does not mean you understand why the Nakta does what it does or how necessary it is."

He reaches out and lays one hand on the edge of the diagram. The redish-brown lines deepen in color to a rich chocolate brown, spreading out from his touch until the color encompasses the whole. "The Atka is the flow of life. It is the heartbeat of our land. Where the Atka is, our land flourishes." A small sprout, growing before your eyes, pokes up out of the pot of soil and puts out a pair of small leaves.

The sapling's leaves, however, have turned from a healthy green to a sickly yellow, growing worse by the second. "The Nakta is not so kind. The Nakta takes life instead of giving it. The unenlightened would think that this makes the Nakta undesirable, a plague to be rid of. Such fools they are."

"The Nakta is like the space between heartbeats. Too long, and death is inevitable." The brown color beneath his hand fades back to its original color and with it the sapling's condition immediately begins to improve. However, the new sprout immediately turns yellow and wilting. "Shorten it and life blooms." A second ripple of brown spreads through the diagram, a brown so dark it is almost black, and health returns to the new sprout. Several more break free of the soil, all growing into full blossoming sunflowers in a matter of heartbeats.

"But shorten it too much and you invite disaster." The diagram darkens all the way to black and the flowers go wild. One turns purple, a second grows teeth and begins to devour a third, and then the whole pot catches fire. The color fades from the diagram, leaving lines of ash upon the floor, a burning pot of sunflowers, and the dessicated husk of the sapling.

"Without the Nakta to balance the Atka, our lands would have fallen away into the Wyld centuries ago. In its own way, it provides for us. Through it, our ancestors may pass down their wisdom though they have been gone for generations. It warns us when our petty squabbles have gone too far. And for those that have the strength of will to master it, it serves us as a useful tool."

"But it is not a tool to be used indescriminately. Each use can upset the balance of life. One must learn wisdom when one seeks to master the Nakta or disaster will surely follow in your footsteps."

"Still, all of this barely begins to scratch the surface of what the Nakta truly is. If you truly wish to understand, you must learn it for yourself. Because Tetrada has chosen to sponsor you, I have agreed to teach you, but if you wish to learn you will do as I say for as long as you are my student. Do you still wish to continue?"

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If we're going to roleplay out the trials, then I'll need a few things from both Sijian and Alshen. What would drive your characters to absolute rock bottom emotionally? That is perhaps one of the hardest trials to figure out, especially since you are both Solar Exalts. Nothing phases Solars for too long.

In the meantime, Tetrada has a solid amount of free time now. Jukashi, you can have her do whatever would be in character for her to do.