Alex sighed and shook his head, chuckling softly at what truly had been an eventful day. And as much as there were things he was eager to follow up on, including touching base with Nili and giving a certain bounty to the tiny grove he had discretely created in the shell of an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the city… he knew what he needed to focus on, more than anything else.

  So, after using Qi perception to make sure none were watching, and a discretely positioned leather recliner to assure a trip and stumble for anyone unexpectedly entering… Alex assumed the lotus position and began replaying in his mind the duels he had so recently fought. Not just today, but since first stumbling into the corrupted underground wing of gentle vice that had become a deadly purgatory for so many.

  Yet whereas so many memories were tinged with vague uncertainties, despite how sharply his mind had grown over his trials in his latest handful of lives, he could still recall so clearly in his mind’s eye what it felt like to become one with the storm.

  To sense the howling winds both deflecting his enemy’s blows and aiding his ability to weave and slip past his opponents’ desperate rebuttals. To feel the crashing of stormy seas echoing nearly perfectly the roaring of ancient rivers empowering his hands and feet with all the devastating power of a typhoon. He could sense it, even taste it, how close his newly forged art was to Silver Swan. And a tiny part of him that wasn’t worried about alerting ancient sleeping dragons was eager to rip open carefully placed veils and fully embrace ancient arts… even if he somehow knew that taking the slower path, the more comprehensive path, would not only assure his safety as he deliberately avoided triggering peril… but would only enhance his power in the long run.

  For just he could sense the pristine majesty of Silver Swan, he could now perceive that it was but a part of a whole. Originally an art based on Water alone, he had somehow enhanced it to fully incorporate metal in ways that were perhaps never intended… simply by visualizing the sea. The perfect art for the girl he would have so dearly loved to marry, had the fates not forced him ever forward, a hapless piece upon the game board of the gods until he had claimed a seat at the table for himself. Yet as a fellow Contender, the fierce pressure that hostile parties had put him under had only grown.

  Grown like stormy seas crackling with Lightning that had become his and Hao Chan’s own.

  Grown like the howling winds that were the harbingers of the most fearsome storms. The twin of water with Lightning being the pristine fusion of their bonding, metallic salts emblematic of the bitter tears of strife, struggle, and retribution, carrying their will through all currents.

  The Dark Qi of chaos, change, and transformation. Depicting the stormiest of all seas from which there was no warding the howling winds that sheared right through poorly secured sails and rigging, and the waves that would sink even the largest of galleons.

  And finally… the rocky shoals that would slice open the hull of any ship as Alex found himself walking a stormy path, or now, flowing through the forms of an art so very like Silver Swan, yet with added twists and innovations that had been modified out of what he now realized was a streamlined Silver Tier art. For Silver Swan was absolutely perfect for Water aligned concubines, all the more so when reinforced with Metal’s resilience. It wasn’t so surprising that an imperial princess could incorporate Lightning’s call in such wild seas of potential… yet how common was the cultivator who had access to Air and Earth as well?

  Yet Alex did. And in so doing, he made full use of the spacious chamber to embrace the steps to an ancient, primal art where Water’s force and fury was made all the greater by Wind, Lightning was generated effortlessly through their fusion, conducted with devastating force through metallic-salt infused waters shimmering with Darkest retribution, and the moment one’s opponent lost their focus or balance for even a second, rocky shoals of hidden Earth would tear through the bulwark of their strongest defenses and send them flying, no matter how strong they were.

  Faster and faster Alex flowed through his forms, all the furniture somehow finding itself on top of his bed now in the center of his spacious quarters as Alex continued embracing his dance around that inviolate demarcation, flowing from strike to parry to counter to devastating rebuttal. Angle kicks flowing into wheel kicks, and spinning backfists, a flurry of jabs, crosses, and hooks cutting through the air with no trace of Adder Strike, yet the weight of crackling potential, of Wind and Water and pristine deadly fury made it clear that Alex’s path was a potent one. And the powerful uppercut that rose like a reef ready to tear through all resistance made it clear that Alex could now unleash Avalanche while flowing in and out of the stormy sea’s gentle embrace, without any long buildup at all.

  As surprising and sudden as a ship of war running aground.

  Before stormy seas shattered cracked foundations to kindling and there was nothing left but the skeleton of the once mighty ship drowning in the depths of the sea.

  Alex could now so viscerally picture himself riding those doomed ships, dancing through the stormy sky, channeling that devastating lightning conveyed with each crescent kick and spinning backfist. He wanted to howl with delight and wonder, epiphanies roaring through him even as he made the best of his limited quarters, trusting in Lini’s final shadowy blessing to mitigate the spiritual thrum of his epiphany as he became one with the storm howling through him.

  When at last he closed his eyes, shivering with revelations, he did it floating a foot off the naked stone floor, the crackle of lightning caressing his form brighter than the dimmed blue lights his spiritual discharges had already shattered.

  In the twilight moments he slipped into dreams that were an even more visceral version of the dance he sought to master, he gazed with wonder at the massive super cable spinning so monstrously fast about his soul that space and time seemed to warp and stretch as the countless regrets he had yet to consume were wound about ever tighter to the brilliant accretion disk of his soul.

  Besides the horror of that which he refused to see as anything more than metaphor and dream, he was consoled by several priceless revelations.

  One was that whatever minute wobbles he had dreaded forming when he had dared to ascend two ranks in such a terrifyingly short period of time had stabilized to the point of pristine perfection. And he suspected it was because he had poured every last level up point into claiming not just one but two full rank ups of his primary physical attributes. Eight ranks to stabilize his foundation, where even the most gifted Silvers who were destined for Gold never had more than two, lest imperial blood or a true genius’s gifts flowed through their veins.

  The other was that communing with the path he was on was paying profound dividends as multiple skills ranked up, without him having to shed a single drop of blood.

  And that was when he sensed it.

  A promise temporarily deferred. Yet what he had thought would be only hours had been several days. Fortunately, the forest was resilient. Even the tiny grove he had nurtured from dead husks and ancient seeds. Yet not so resilient was the pair of souls trapped within it.

  The souls of his friends.

  Ya Ling. The desert princess he had communed with so deeply. Once dancing upon the desert winds in a dance that could have led a courtship as old as time. And Linnea. His battle-sister and gestalt companion. A girl who’s smile warmed his heart just as Ya Ling’s had. A girl he could have so easily claimed as his own. And when they fought, it truly was as one.

  Even now, they were racing with growing panic through a forest they didn’t understand.

  It didn’t even matter, the sheer improbability of it. Because in very short order, it would be as if they had never existed at all.

  Alex bolted awake with a gasp, knowing he was running out of time.

  He darted toward the door as fast as his feet could take him, yanking it open so fast that Nili, features set in a worried frown, lurched back in surprise.

  “Alex?” Her look of concern turned to dismay. “Alex, what the hell happened to your…” She paled. “Come on. This way. We have to leave now!”

  Alex didn’t bother arguing, happily stepping in Nili’s shadow as they slipped along gloomy corridors that somehow left plenty of room to slip past angrily cursing cultivators.

  “Did you find the source of the spiritual energy fluctuations? No Silver was recorded as renting a breakthrough chamber!”

  “Honored senior, there are no records of anyone being in this wing whatsoever.”

  “Did we have guests last night?”

  “Uncertain, master.”

  “How the hell is it uncertain? This room was destroyed! And why… why does it smell so strange?”

  Like the sea, Alex realized the man wanted to say with a sad smile, realizing that his breakthrough had been perhaps a touch more profound than even he had realized. Even if he was still just a Rank 2 Silver, Storm Wing, Storm Swan, and Avalanche had each ascended to the next rank. And clearly his breakthrough hadn’t been quite as discrete as he had thought.

  “You are beyond lucky that my daughter sensed something was happening just as she left, and that we were intending to meet up with you anyway, Alex. What were you doing?”

  Alex shook his head. “No time. We have to head to the warehouse, now.”

  Her glared turned to a look of concern when she saw the intensity of his gaze. “Alex?”

  His lips pressed tight with concern. “I just… please, trust me. I have to go there. I have a promise to keep, and maybe it will help.”

  Nili cursed softly under his breath. “If you hadn’t saved both me and my daughter…” she sighed. “If only you knew the headaches you were causing, hero.” Her exasperation turned to a soft chuckle. “I had always wondered what it would be like to live a life of excitement and peril, like in the stories my sisters and I used to read late into the night. Now I realize what a foolish kit I truly was. Come, Alex. This way.”

  When a crack could be seen in the side of the passageway that he knew would lead right under the shadows of a large date palm that should never have been allowed to grow quite so close to the quartz tower’s foundations yet somehow was, he didn’t complain or question it, simply allowed himself to slip through shadow before taking a deep relieved breath of fresh morning air alight with the scents of the hot desert sands and the lush fecund valley filled with a life-giving bounty of crops supporting an entire city in the caldera basin.

  He took a relieved breath as the growing pressure of angry, confused Silvers was suddenly a thing of the past as he and Nili casually stepped out of the shelter of the date palm’s unusually long fronds and began a leisurely walk toward the center of the city. A walk that soon turned to an all out sprint as they left the domain of cultivators and the elite, Nili now cloaking them so well that all most mortals sensed was a powerful breeze passing them by.

  Soon the fine marble-faced buildings gave way to sturdy and practical plane-faced brownstone as they went from central boulevard to one of a handful of parallel streets where the shadows effortlessly hid so many secrets, before at last arriving at the warehouse that had transformed so utterly that even Nili stopped to gaze up at the stout structure for long moments, muttering softly under her breath.

  “There’s something very strange about this building, Alex.”

  Alex just smiled. With a single press of his hand, the door that absolutely refused to budge for Nili gently eased open and the pair were struck with the lush fecund air of primal woodland, smelling of citrus blossoms, wildflowers, forest loam, and rich arboreal life.

  Nili’s eyes widened with awe as she gazed straight up towards the heavens, her face caressed by shafts of emerald tinted light piercing the thick forest canopy.

  “Angels mercy, there’s no roof. This truly is a miniature grove!” She turned to look back the way she came, cursing softly as she noted both door and wooden paneling from this angle. “It’s all alive… Alex, all the planks have sprouted branches, roots, and… the walls are alive. Entire building truly is alive!”

  Alex instantly raised his fist, silencing his friend as his ears cocked, his smile of joyful wonder turning to anxious concern as he listened to odd rustles that writhed with a desperate growing thirst, his heart immediately going out to the miniature grove that had blossomed to his desperate plea, saved his life… and now desperately needed him to hold up his end of the bargain.

  And so he revealed just one of the prizes he had kept out of the hands of a certain hungry headmistress.

  Nili gasped. “That’s the life of a city you hold in your hands, Alex!”

  Alex smirked. “Not really. Unlike the prize you hold so close yourself, this is a just a fragment, one that we know from bitter experience that the caldera will not accept. But just because it can’t be used to empower rifts and waterfalls doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it’s uses,” he quietly said as he hesitated from placing the ice chip willy-nilly and tried to really listen to the excited rustles of the branches. To not rely simply on insights gleaned as an apothecary with biochemical mastery but rather to what the forest itself was trying to tell him.

  Before his heart lurched in his chest, realizing that what he had prayed was just him jolting out of nightmare was anything but.

  Such that when he gently placed a single icy sliver six inches under a cluster of happily writhing copperthorn vines that he knew would distribute the water to a good-sized portion of the grove, he sensed by the excited rustle of countless other branches exactly where he needed to place the next fragment he held.

  So he did all he could to focus on the gentle susurrations of tree limb, twig, and branch, and distract himself from the desperate sobs of a pair of girls he sensed rapidly running out of time.

  Because a certain pair of lost companions weren’t alone as they wound about countless woodland trails.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  And they weren’t meandering along.

  They were racing for all they were worth, and rapidly running out of steam.

  And time.

  “Hold on Linea! Guard her well, Ya Ling. I’m coming!” Alex dared to whisper aloud as he gently patted a second ice sliver exactly 90 degrees to the north of the first.

  “Alex, intact core or not, those things are precious! Surely you don’t need more than one… wait, what’s this about your friends in Liushi?”

  But Alex paid hjer no mind.

  His gentle meandering steps of moments ago had become a race against time, effortlessly springing from branch to branch as he forged his third anchor between tree bough and eager vine, Nili looking on in helpless exasperation he sprung through the air before placing a fourth ice-blue sliver several feet from true West.

  Then he stiffened, frozen with anxious worry, realizing he wasn’t quite sure where hep needed to be.

  “Alex?”

  “Sorry.” Anxious eyes gazed past his worried-looking friend. “I just have to find the fifth locus point.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  Alex shook his head. “The point where all four cardinal directions meet up to….”

  “To what?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not entirely certain.”

  “Then why do you look like you’re about to explode with anxiety?”

  “Because a shadow cat is about to eat my—wait, there it is!”

  “Where is what?”

  But Alex had already sprung through the trees, placing a final ice chip at a point equidistant to all others.

  And that’s when he felt it, as the sapphire chip sunk into the roots of a tiny sapling and the air itself seemed to grow thick with night’s gloom and the distant cries of his friends.

  Nili’s ears perked, slipping free of her carefully pinned curls, such was her alarm. “Alex! What did you do?”

  Alex swallowed even as his heart began to pound, equal parts awe, wonder, and trepidation. “I’m not sure, but you might want to hide.”

  “Alex!”

  But there was no more time to do anything but brace himself as the entire grove seemed to rustle and bend in directions at right angles to any Alex had known before, and the entire world seemed to snap into a new configuration. Alex felt like a massive wave of something had slammed into him, without a single hair on either of their heads being sent askew.

  And then he saw it as Nili lurched back in shocked surprise. The tiny cluster of knotted samplings that Alex could have sworn hadn’t been there, just seconds ago. Saplings that seemed to twist together to form a tunnel through the wood. A tunnel that stayed the same no matter what angle he approached, as if all directions were the same.

  Somehow he knew, that should he dare to enter that strange portal, everything would change.

  “Alex!” Nili spoke in hushed tones that conveyed a sense of awed disbelief. “How? How did you actually manage… just, how?”

  His heart began to pound with exhilaration and dread in equal measure.

  “Alex!”

  Nili blinked, as startled as he was by the utterance.

  He recognized that voice. Just as he did the distant cries he heard as little more than rustles in the leaves.

  A panicked cry. A throaty growl. And a brilliant flash of flame.

  Then, so fast that Nili stumbled back with a soft curse, Linnea and Ya Ling dove through the portal of vines before stumbling to their feet, looking wildly around.

  “Linnea! Do you sense it? Is it still—” Ya Ling’s eyes widened in wonder when she caught sight of a grim-faced Alex, holding his fangtian ji high.

  “Alex, it’s me! Please don’t—”

  At that very moment, a panicked Linnea, hands white-hot with arcane energies, spun around to catch sight of Alex as well, face lightening with joy before seeing the expression on his face. “Aelx, it’s us! How did we—”

  Her eyes widened in a desperate plea, having just time enough to see the razor sharp steel in his hand before it flashed through the air.

  And before she could offer a single panicked protest, it was done, Nili’s cry resonating with the spray of blood covering all three women as a massive skull was cleaved free of feline flesh, Ya Ling desperately tumbling through the air she had mastered so well as a massive Shadow Puma slammed to the ground right where she had been standing, minus the head rolling into the thick undergrowth.

  You have successfully decapitated your opponent! (Rank 1 Silver-tier Shadow Puma)

  Experience earned!

  Ya Ling stumbled back in horror that quickly transformed to exhausted sobs of relief. “It was hounding us through the rift. A rift we thought finally clean, finally tamed! Then it separated us from the rest of the party and…” Her panicked explanation turned to wonder, cheeks flushing as she flashed Alex an enormous heartfelt smile. “You’re actually here. You’re actually alive!”

  “And he did it!” Linnea squealed happily, caring nothing for the bloodied weapon he held as she happily dived into Alex’s arms. “We thought we were done for, and our hero killed the monster that was hounding us with a single swipe!”

  Ya Ling wrung her hands, pinning him with her gaze. “I had feared the worst, Alex. We all did. But Linnea was so desperate to explore the rifts, even though everyone knows that there’s only the tiniest chance that any delver’s explorations could possibly link with any other. But since she was a part of your gestalt? She said she could sense you, Alex. Even when the rest of us had feared the worst, she swore that you weren’t dead!”

  Alex couldn’t help chuckling as a trembling Linnea squeezed him as tightly as hse could, his weapon already stored away as he gently returning the hug.

  “You’re alive, Alex! I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t die on us! You’re too strong. Too vital. You’re story’s too important!” Beautiful emerald green eyes peered deeply into his own. “And you’ve only grown stronger. So much stronger, in just a handful of days.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alex whispered to his friend, surprised and humbled to realize how much he had missed both her bright chipper smile and quirky mannerisms. He was grateful to see that she was healthy and hale and, he was quite certain, had recently ranked up herself. Equally, he was relieved to see that Ya Ling’s earlier ambivalence, where warmth and gratitude had been tainted by fear, had been replaced by heartfelt concern when they had all feared the worst.

  “It’s um… good to see you in one peace, Alex,” Ya Ling said with the softest of smiles, a slight flush coming to her cheeks as she turned to gaze at the fallen Shadow Puma larger than any Earth bound tiger had ever been. She shuddered at the sight. “And your timing was impeccable. As always, now that I think about it.”

  Alex grinned. “It’s good to see you too, Ya Ling. It’s good to see you both. Are you alright?”

  “Now I am,” she assured, before giving rueful chuckle. “Though I’m not looking forward to another four hours of wandering through this endless jungle to get out of here. But at least the fruit’s exquisite and at least I get to do it in the company of someone I had feared lost to me forever.”

  Alex winked. “All’s well that ends well, isn’t it?”

  Her features grew solemn. She inhaled as if compelled by hear heart to speak. “Alex, there’s something I need to—”

  “But the good news is that you won’t have to backtrack for four hours,” he said, casually holding out his hand as a warmly rustling branch dropped a cluster of lychee he happily shared with his friends. “The door out of here’s just a few feet away.”

  Both girls gave him a strange look. Alex exchanged smiles with Nili. “And a certain boon companion is with me as well. Which means your timing is perfect! We’re right about to get to the crux of another adventure. Another city to save!”

  Linnea and Ya Ling exchanged a confused look.

  “Alex, what are you talking about?”

  “He means that you’re not in Liushi at all,” Nili said. “Welcome to Wanshi, children. We’re currently under siege by a powerful contingent of Silvers and thousands of soldiers, our city warded by nothing more than a dying water core that will soon spell utter doom for us all.” She flashed the pair of stunned girls a rueful smile. “Whether folly or the Fox’s fortune, you both certainly have a knack for popping up at the most ‘interesting’ of times.”

  Alex winked when it looked like Ya Ling was about to burst into tears. “But the good news is that we’re about to secure another water core at Wanshi’s ritual site. And once that’s complete, the city’s water supplies will be secure.”

  Nili nodded. “Water Supplies and wards both will be reinforced. It won’t make us impervious of course. But Golds are beyond rare, and with the tactical advantages of unlimited water and the steep caldera slopes, this will vastly improve the city’s odds of surviving any conflict. If fortune truly favors us, our foes will leave under pretexts of having only come this far to establish favorable trade relations with our city. And our prince is a practical man. He has absolutely no problems establishing trade relations, or even paying token tribute, to our would-be conquerors. But we shall keep our hard-fought sovereignty, no matter what else happens. For so long as we draw breath, our flag shall fly free of anyone else’s banner.”

  “Ooh, this is so exciting, Alex! Another city to save and more experience to earn! What if we level up again? With the potency of an entire city paying us spiritual tribute if we can pull off a second win… that could be two entire levels!”

  Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at Linnea’s enthusiasm. “I see you still enjoy walking the Path of Peril,” Alex noted, giving his friend a warm kiss on her forehead. “Honestly, after being hounded by a Shadow Puma that I’m betting only your infravision and fires kept at bay, I’m surprised you don’t want to rest.”

  “Well of course I’d love to rest, Alex,” Linnea huffed. “Preferably with you in my arms. But earning potency while playing the hero is a thrill like no other!”

  “She’s right about that,” Ya Ling said with a rueful smile. “I grew more by your side, Alex, perilous as it was, than I ever have, before or since. And as much as I’ve learned to truly savor the desert night when all is peaceful and quiet… sometimes the heart craves more.” Warm amber eyes met his own. “Far more than even desert sands can deliver. And when fate finds you flying head first into the arms of a beloved adventuring companion with a neighboring city hanging in the balance… how can any delver who took even a single step along Peril’s Path say no to an adventure as grand as that?”

  Nili’s eyes widened, genuinely surprised by their answers. Then her lips curved in an approving grin. “Wonderful. Because all three of you are about to sign up for the afternoon delve hosted by the Spring Clan.”

  Ya Ling paled only slightly, realizing that what she had perhaps meant in the abstract was about to take place here and now. “Another Delve,” she said softly, yet Linnea’s eyes were all but twinkling with excitement.

  “Ooh. The Spring clan won this year, that’s wonderful! They offer the best rates to Ruidians out of all the seasonal clans of Wanshi! At least, that’s what Uncle used to say!”

  She turned to give her friend’s hand an enthusiastic squeeze. “You’ll love it, Ya Ling! It’s basically four delves all at one sight! You branch off inside, and you can enter Winter’s Icy Wasteland, Summer’s dry desert, Spring’s lush jungles...though maybe we can skip that one, ha ha, or Autumn’s rich forest of widely spaced fruit grove and that’s where most of the spirit fruit they eat here come from! Too bad it’s not practical to feed a hundred thousand with the limited amount of produce that a handful of delvers can pluck before they grow sick with Waste Qi, but my uncle’s pretty sure they unlocked exotic techniques beyond baking yourself in the sun! Not that I’m supposed to know, or they have anything on Alex’s pristine technique, but delvers might safely dare the rifts ever six or seven weeks here, instead of every two months!”

  Linnea’s eyes widened at that. “That’s both remarkable, so remarkable that I’m surprised Liushi hasn’t paid a fortune to acquire that technique for themselves… and sadly not nearly enough of an improvement to make that much of a difference.”

  “I can answer that question, dears,” Nili said as they left the warehouse, Alex giving the doors a friendly pat that would ensure they would open for no one below Rank 5 Silver Strength, lest they burn or chop through it over what would be a very, very long and painful day. “The techniques will indeed shave at multiple weeks from the idealized recovery time of two months it takes most of those who dare caldera rifts. It will even allow one to push harder, as is needed all too often in these desperate times, delving every month, perhaps even twice a month, for an extended period with much less risk of permanent damage to one’s foundation than one might suffer using the Sun alone as your balm. Even if you must spend half a year or longer recuperating when the peril has passed. But the price of learning those techniques is becoming a member of one of the four sects and declaring Wanshi your home.” She flashed a sad smile. “There’s no other way without breaking multiple cultivator’s oaths, I’m afraid.”

  She then turned to Alex. “Alex…”

  “Don’t worry. The far side of the portal’s now covered in copperthorn vines, and very thoroughly shut. And there’s way any shadow puma’s slipping past the doors. At least not if their stats aren’t higher than mine.”

  Nili gazed at Alex for long moments as they made their way along the central boulevard. “Alex, if you actually built what I think you built…”

  Alex shrugged. “It wasn’t really me, Nili. I was just responding to the grove.”

  She blinked, shaking her head. “Truly a wonder.”

  “Oh, he is. He totally is,” Linnea assured with a pleased grin. “Ooh, look. They’re selling my favorite figs and dates!” She then raced to the nearest stand with the happy owner filling a large frond with a bounty of smoked figs and nuts sprinkled with salt and honey that looked absolutely decadent, a treat he hadn’t even seen in the lower part of the city at all. Within moments, Linnea was bouncing cheerfully back and more than happy to share her bounty.

  Alex couldn’t help smiling at the taste of salty sweet cashews and figs, even if it cost twice as many copper feathers as the equivalent might have in Liushi.

  “But after so many hours traipsing around a hot steamy jungle, its worth every copper!” Linnea happily declared before taking a sip from Alex’s water flask, her friends nodding in agreement.

  “Perhaps it is, at that,” Nili concurred, her gentle smile firming. “I can only imagine how exhausted both of you girls must be. Come, let’s get to the tower and get you accommodations worthy of your station.” She gazed thoughtfully at the trio. “Hmm… we’ll imply you three are friends who met along the road and that you, Ya Ling, frequently delve with your companions. If we assure that you three are a set item, it will decrease the likelihood that they split you up or even refuse Ya Ling entrance altogether.”

  Ya Ling’s eyes widened. “They would do that?”

  Nili shrugged and sighed. “Tensions are running high, and for all that Waste Qi is developing in quite a number of Spring and Autumn’s elites no matter their exotic purging techniques, politics is always a factor. Just be gracious and think before you act, and all should be well. Now, the plan is simple. We’ll slip you in before another change in shift so that Alex doesn’t run into the same confused man he was first greeted by, for that would be a strain to hide, even for my arts. Once Alex is grounded in academy life, however, that shouldn’t be a problem. Early tomorrow the princess and the rest of our band will join you for a single short delve to establish both our credentials, boost morale, and of course, because we’re still in desperate need of a Water core.”

  The look she flashed them sent volumes, and for all that they were cloaked in Shadow, Alex noted that there was still plenty that Nili wasn’t saying. Linnea looked confused for just a second, before Alex squeezed her hand. Because what he had dared to softly say in proximity to friendly trees whose rustles would confuse any outsider listening in, he had no intention of saying out loud where they presently walked, an area of the city without any trees at all.

  “Nili has a Bronze Water core. Dongfang Hong’s spies have infiltrated the court and probably the academy. If everyone sees the princess doing even a token delve, then no one will suspect us of getting ready to plant the core they will secure to Liushi’s ritual sight in the dead of night, in the very near future. In short, we’re assuaging our enemies’ fears so they feel no need to squeeze tight their gentle grip upon Wanshi’s throat, which is right now so light that most don’t even feel it. Yet. Because Dongfang Hong’s emissaries are going for a diplomatic win here. But if they sense us immediately racing for the Northern Ritual Sight, they’ll move to intercept, and it will be all out war.”

  Linnea nodded her understanding while devouring her honeyed treats. Fortunately, Ya Ling’s jaded smile made it clear that she understood the situation every bit as well as Linnea, and understood as well just how perilously high the stakes truly were.

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