Darius glared at Hector. “Does being a retainer mean I cannot kill you?”

  “That’s generally understood to be a part of it.” Hector held out a hand to Thassily. “Hello. I’m sorry for the intrusion. I gather you get a lot of visits from Volithur’s heirs.”

  Thassily squinted at Hector. “You’re the furthest along I’ve ever seen. What is that? Eight? Nine? I never had much talent for mental sense. Or anything besides a little body enhancement, to be honest.”

  “Level nine. Don’t worry about protocol, though.”

  “Oh, I never worry. My special visitors are all the same. I’m some sort of pilgrimage for them. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one show up with one of his kids, though.”

  Hector pointed with his thumb. “There was only one child. This is Darius.”

  “Hey, I think that was his dad’s name.” As Thassily studied Darius, tears came to his eyes. “It was a terrible thing that happened to us. Everyone we loved put to death and us stolen from our homes. Your dad was the only friend I had in the barracks. He scammed resources from the nobles, then shared them with me.

  “Broke my heart to hear what became of him. He couldn’t rise above the trauma, I gather. Almost drank myself to death, so I understand. Darla put me right, though.” Thassily gestured towards the woman behind the bar, tenderness in his eyes. “Don’t know why she bothered putting up with me all them years, but she did.”

  The woman lifted her nose as if about to share wisdom. “Cause you were good in the sack.”

  The regular customers began to cackle and Thassily kissed his fingers before holding them out to his wife. Darla turned her face slightly as if catching the kiss on her cheek from halfway across the room. “My body enhancement has been declining over the years, so she says ‘were good in the sack’. You know how that is. Come to think of it, you lot probably don’t. I don’t do any cultivating, so I’m regressing back to a normal mortal. Don’t bother me none. See, the things that actually matter in life aren’t being powerful or famous. It’s family. Losing my family broke me. Gaining my family fixed me.”

  “I heard you don’t drink anymore,” Hector said.

  “All you folk meet up with each other and gossip about me? That’s a strange thought. I stopped drinking for a while. Had to get over the dependency. Now it’s only on special occasion. Can’t let myself slip, you see.” Thassily gestured towards the bar. “Drinks on the house. Unless you can pay? Most of my special visitors don’t have local coin, but I’m not shy about taking money if you have it.”

  “I think we have to rely on your charity,” Hector said.

  “You can all have a drink. Not sure the giant will even taste a normal mug.”

  One of the young men raised his mug towards Riley in toast. “Your face is the prettiest I ever saw.” While Riley was blushing and considering her response, the man raised his mug towards Esther. “And your ass is the nicest I ever saw.”

  Thassily took the mug from the man and pushed him towards the door. “You’re cut off early today, Ernie. Get out of here.”

  While everyone was waiting to see how the strangers would react, Esther studied Riley with a serious expression. “You are rather pretty. How does my ass look?”

  Riley giggled. “Very nice.”

  Just as the patrons were relaxing once more, Thassily noticed Zelda for the first time. “What are you? A Jinn?” Several people startled at the accusation.

  “She’s an Arahant,” Hector said. “I left the Jinn behind when I came into the city.”

  Thassily shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter what she is. I never saw a Jinn during my time with the family. Only ever heard stories how they used their bombs and their lasers to kill soldiers.” As the man spoke, he lined up mugs and filled them halfway with liquor. Then he put a squeeze of lime and sprig of mint into each.

  “Did you invent cocktails on this world, Thassily?”

  “I suppose I did for this city.”

  Darius slurped down his beverage and grunted. “It’s not terrible.”

  “Those are words of high praise coming from Darius,” Hector translated.

  “I know I’m no one to you, child of my lost friend, but I would give you some words of advice. There’s plenty of good and bad to be found in life, so make sure to seek which of the two you truly want.”

  Darius rolled his eyes in response.

  “Who is your mother? The noble girl?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Rather than force Darius to deal with an uncomfortable question, Hector provided an answer. “It was Khana Shaocheth. She’s deceased now as well.”

  “That’s a shame. No one should be alone in life.”

  Darius pushed the empty mug away. “I’m not alone.”

  “Good.” Thassily’s eyes went wide as he witnessed Ajax pinch the mug between two fingers to throw it back his throat. “Now that’s a sight. What are you, big guy?”

  Ajax explained Titans to the distillery owner while Darius growled a complaint at Hector. “Stop trying to fix me.”

  “I wanted to see this place with my own eyes. Also, I think it’s important for people to understand where they come from.”

  “I must beware I don’t make the same mistakes as the traitor. I understand the lesson. I’ve moved beyond dreams of vengeance on the Lord General.”

  Hector leaned close. “Are you serious about that?”

  “Yes. Now you can stop mothering me.”

  “What changed?”

  Darius tapped the untouched mug before Hector. “You insisted on coming here. Drink.”

  The beverage proved delicious. Though when he lowered the mug, Darius had moved to place Riley between them. He decided to give his friend some space and instead approached Esther. “Hey, I couldn’t help but notice your shapely behind.”

  “That’s what they tell me,” she said.

  He sighed. “I was hoping this field trip would be more fun.”

  Esther shrugged. “It turned out fine. We were bored on the ship. We’re less bored here. You even gave us a break from Piercing. I’m not sure where we go after New Mart. We’re supposed to follow miasma veins through the primordial to unempowered worlds having invasions. There is a lot of variation out there. We could land somewhere without technology more sophisticated than knapped flint or a place with space travel. Could be a world that knows of our kinds or somewhere ignorant of the multiverse. Whatever the future holds, I don’t expect us to have a lot of nights out.”

  “Still, I think I shouldn’t have made this about meeting someone from my dreams.”

  The woman laughed. “I’m a little jealous you have people to meet. The memories I inherited didn’t lead to anything good. Lynette built a strange little community in the deep forests. She sculpted her followers into beautiful dolls and twisted their minds so they would do anything for her. Then she would send them out to seduce and bring back more victims.

  “If anyone she knew survived the battle with the Wardens that killed her, they would not welcome meeting me. I am not their mistress. Nor would I want to be. The way she used people disgusts me. Why I inherited her memories will never make sense to me.”

  Though he didn’t think she’d appreciate hearing it, Hector did see a common thread. Both Esther and her dream counterpart were community builders. The difference in the means they employed was huge in terms of morality, but the underlying drive to create a home with other people must run deep in both of them.

  When everyone was finished with their drinks, they left the distillery behind to wander back towards their shuttle. The light was fading by the time they docked with Cruiser Erin. Hector went to his private bunk to train. His use of the Shuttle Technique hadn’t been giving him the gains he hoped for, so he switched to using the Bursting Dam Technique for his aura and the Sweaty Fire Technique for his domain.

  An entire night practicing the more energy intensive techniques did not produce any discernible benefit. Hector sighed as he got up for breakfast. The last time he’d successfully trained his aura and domain had been back at level seven. The rapid growth he experienced in the belly of the beast catapulted him forward immediately after his previous advancement. Now he effectively needed four times the energy, time, and effort for progress equivalent to what he achieved before.

  The shortcut he received for his body enhancement would not work for his other apertures. Resources didn’t target the aura, domain, or mind. They could bolster the energy reserves, but Hector had a better way to do that. As for his other apertures… reaching the peak in only a year might be overly ambitious.

  Their morning meal became briefly dramatic when Persuasion and Restoration had a public spat. It boiled down to the fact that Persuasion thought they couldn’t afford to waste any more time on New Mart. Meanwhile, Restoration still had some more work to repair Jemmi’s lame leg. There were threats thrown back and forth – one swearing they didn’t need a Sage healer, the other promising nothing would sway her from what was right.

  The disagreement finally ceased when Captain Devin interrupted. “We will depart this evening for reasons of operational security. If you choose to remain with your patient beyond that point, then we will have to hope that none of our number experiences injury on our journey.”

  Restoration squawked in indignation and stormed out of the vessel. Then Persuasion made a show of thanking Captain Devin for his leadership. The message came across loud and clear to Hector: he should have been the one reining in Restoration. It was a fair criticism. Hector was the leader of this group and it was his responsibility to ensure they stayed on schedule.

  Hector had been spending a lot of time in cultivation, so he didn’t overly mind the delay. That didn’t mean their present circumstances were ideal, though. He should be considering the strength of his retinue as well. His four Xian members would benefit enormously from following him into an environment filled with miasma. The people on those endangered worlds would also benefit from having a force of dedicated warriors appear. What he’d done to save Earth he could now do for dozens of other worlds.

  Until then, he had some other optimizations to make.

  “Isabel? Could I speak to you in private?” When the two of them were alone in the hall, he got straight to the point. “I want to share the techniques from the Azure Spear Maidens with the retinue. Should you refuse, I will respect your wishes, but –”

  “That is fine. I will teach them if you wish.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Isabel tilted her head as she studied him. “We are already fugitives, Hector. Either we become true powers or we fall. Betraying my former sect does not change anything.”

  “Then please teach the others the Bursting Dam and Shuttle Techniques.”

  “Agreed.” Isabel then sighed. “Should you think it necessary, I am also willing to advance prematurely. While I would hate to preclude any chance of ascending to Immortal, the truth is that I never received a key training technique from my elders. Without the ability to grasp the fundamental nature of physical reality, I may survive the Tribulation lightning only to fail to reassemble my corporeal form.”

  Hector grunted. “That explains something I’ve been wondering about for a while now. Don’t give up on reaching level ten yet. I’m going to teach you something called the Twin Touch Game.”

  yikes. There are enough vague and confusing sentences that I'm honestly a bit embarrassed I shared the rough draft. The story flow is rough in a bunch of places. Lots of poor word choices too -- I am writing this note after editing a chapter where I used the word 'fundamentally' six times in just a couple of paragraphs. A lot of stylistic choices evolved over 600,000+ words as well, which means I have to restyle the early chapters to be consistent.