They stayed two days in the desert.
Yara needed one full day of stabilization work before her channels could hold the white fire independently. Xin guided her through the same basic circulation that Master Zhou had tried to teach him in the training courtyard — the technique that had taken him three frustrated hours to even partially grasp.
Yara managed it in forty minutes.
"She is faster than you were," Ren observed helpfully.
"I noticed," Xin said.
"Significantly faster."
"Thank you, Ren."
Yara looked between them. "Is that unusual?"
"Each fragment responds differently to its carrier," Xin said. "Your affinity is clearly strong." He watched her move the white fire through a basic circulation without difficulty. "What did you do before this? The irrigation work — how did you learn
