tejoka

Chapter 164 (Draft)

I really needed to get out of the habit of making promises, especially if they were actually threats I would then have an obligation to carry through.

Of course, the Auditor’s son was probably regretting his actions right about now, anyway.

“Lei, if you would please stop kicking him?” I asked mildly. “Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but I’d like to get a better look at his condition, if nothing else. Seems like there’s some burnover.”

Lei stepped back, rolling his eyes, but didn’t protest that he’d given him only one kick. The other guards also moved a little, but they stayed close enough to be ready for trouble.

I took a step closer. I could sense that there wasn’t much danger, at least given the situation. The Auditor’s son had stopped twitching and was raising his head, blinking, but stayed down. He probably couldn’t affect me, given my stage. I glanced quickly at Yarani, who was wearing a stony expression, her hand hovering near the knife on her belt, but her posture was otherwise relaxed.

“Our enemy knows he’s beaten,” I said. “Doesn’t he? You’ll be a good boy, right?” I stepped around him, still keeping a meter or so away, and he also shifted in my direction.

“Yes, Imperial Princess,” he responded, his voice raspy. His Common was accented, but not bad.

“I believe I said a few words on what you could expect from meeting me again.” I kept my tone calm and even.

He finally raised his eyes to meet mine. Despite the grimace on his face, they were remarkably clear. “Yes, Your Highness. I apologize for the disrespect I showed you. Please be assured I will give you no trouble, if you deign to give me any choice.”

I kept the surprise off my face, although I hadn’t expected him to take this track. It was a pretty stark difference in behavior. “And why would I?” I asked, my tone still mild. I even managed to put a bit of amusement in it. “You haven’t exactly given me a reason to trust you. And quite a few to kill you out of hand. To be perfectly honest, that would make my day.”

Carefully, almost gingerly, he rolled over onto his stomach. After a moment, he lowered his face to the ground. “I can offer nothing, Your Highness. I must throw myself on your mercy. Please, I beg you.”

I couldn’t help a slow smile spreading across my face. This could be pure calculation on his part. In fact, it probably was. If so, I had to admire his adaptability and pragmatism. But it was still kind of nice. I openly disdained the kind of cowering I could get due to my position. If nothing else, I knew if I got it constantly, it would get tiresome. Groveling also made me feel uncomfortable, still, because I knew there was a small part of me that actually enjoyed it. Like this scene. I guess it appeals to the egomaniac in me. But why not? I wouldn’t have thought of it, but he started this himself.

Still smiling, but now with an edge of condescension, I stepped forward, until my shoes almost touched him. “Oh, you do, do you?”

He carefully edged closer until he could kiss one of my shoes. Points for dedication, definitely. “Your Highness, I know I have grievously offended and done harm to you. I know my words must be less than dust in your eyes, but if you will spare a second of your time for this unworthy one, I dare to tell you that it sincerely grieves me. Your will inflict whatever punishment you choose upon me, and I can only hope I can meet it.” He pressed his forehead against the ground again.

I couldn’t help but laugh. The sound didn’t seem to fit the scene around us, carrying an edge of delight, and I cut it off quickly. I didn’t feel the least bit bad about humiliating him. I probably had to be careful not to enjoy it too much, though.

I took a step, resting my foot on his neck and pressing down. He didn’t move. “You do well at seeming sincere,” I mused. “Any closing remarks?”

I took enough pressure off that he could speak, although his voice was a little muffled and hoarse. “This one begs for his unworthy life, Your Highness.”

After a moment, I took my foot off and took a step to the side. He really was doing quite well, and without noticeable hesitation. That said interesting things about his past and the mindset it produced.

“You seem quite adept at debasing yourself,” I said. “Got a lot of practice?”

He didn’t move, but there was a hint of emotion in his voice now that I found difficult to place. “Oh, daughter of the Moon, how could I not have some practice?”

I took a step back, considering him carefully. He seemed perfectly happy to remain prostate on the ground, his face in the dirt. His simple gray clothing was much the worse for wear, and the occasional rips and tears showed skin that was surprisingly pale, which clearly didn’t see the sun often. His nosebleed seemed to have stopped by now, although it had only made the mess worse.

I remained quiet, and everyone else present just kept watching us, not saying anything or even moving. The minutes stretched out, tension steadily building, while I just stood there. He shifted slightly twice, but that was all. He’s probably even more dangerous than I thought, but clearly not exactly very devoted or zealous. And it doesn’t look like any spirit is going to intervene.

“Well, I suppose I’ll let you keep your life long enough to let you talk a bit, if nothing else,” I finally said.

I waited for another few seconds, but he didn’t answer.

“What’s your name, anyway?”

He raised his head slightly. “Ceion, Your Highness.”

“Wait, you’re Ceion?” Elis asked. He frowned faintly, looking at our captive.

“Can’t you tell?” Yarani asked. She’d crossed her arms, but her expression had lost its hardness and was now mostly thoughtful as she looked at Ceion, with a brief glance to Elis.

“We can’t see everything about someone,” Elis answered, sounding a bit cranky.

“His name isn’t really central to his identity,” Elia added. “I can tell that he’s being sincere, or about as sincere as he possibly could. Beyond that, I think he’s committed a few crimes, but most people in this society would agree there were extenuating circumstances.”

I raised an eyebrow. That’s interesting. Even if it doesn’t make my life any easier. “He tried to kill at least two people that we know of, and other people did die in the course of those attempts,” I pointed out.

Elia just shrugged. “I told you, our ability isn’t exactly precise.”

I suppressed a sigh. “So what do you know about him, Elis?”

“Not much, mostly just the name. I thought he was someone at a reasonably important level in the High Temple involved with the temple knights. That’s probably not too far off, actually.”

I nodded. “Well, why were you here, Ceion? And raise your head. This is no way to hold a conversation.”

There was a ghost of a grin on his face when he complied. Perhaps wisely, he chose to stay kneeling, with his hands resting on his knees in plain view.

It was the first time in the encounter I got a good look at his face and the time to consider it. What struck me most was how young he was. I’d eat my spear if he was more than a year or so older than Elia. Almost certainly younger than me mentally. And it wasn’t just because of his high cultivation and how it might slow his apparent aging, that was just the impression I got, based on his look and aura. But however much he looked like just a kid right now, I knew      I shouldn’t let my guard down.

“I wasn’t doing much of anything,” he replied. “No cunning plan or nefarious scheme afoot, alas. I was simply … enjoying the piece and quiet. Communing with the qi.” He grinned a little, shaking his head. “If I’d known, I certainly would have chosen a better spot!”

That probably meant he’d wanted to be alone to deal with something, like the devastation the Zarian had just wrought on the area. I scrutinized his expression again, finding a little shadow behind his almost playful exterior.

“And why didn’t you?” I asked. “Somehow, I can’t imagine you just sat around in a place where you knew the Imperial army wasn’t all that far out without putting up a ward or taking any kind of basic precaution. You thought this was safe, didn’t you?”

“It was supposed to be safe.” There was definitely an edge in his voice and expression now, even if it was subtle.

“Ah.” I started pacing a meter again. “And who gave you that impression? Did perhaps someone tell you they’d make sure it was safe?”

He clamped his jaw shut, glowering. “Yes.”

I stopped and lowered my volume. “I can extract the answer from you one way or another, boy. And if someone like Isuro did let you go here with false assurances, you certainly have no reason to expect things to get better.”

“How do you -” He broke off, then jerked his head in what might have been a nod. “Yes, the Pioneer was here.”

I let out a long, soft sigh, taking a step back. That figured. Although it really doesn’t. What was the point? Why would Isuro set him up like this, if that’s actually what happened?

If I was reading his emotions right, this was a stinging betrayal, which implied that Isuro was closer to the boy than you might expect. Of course, it was hard to draw conclusions from Ceion’s side about how Isuro might view him, but it still suggested the possibility that Isuro might actually have been trying to help him, in a way. That was the first point that jumped out to my intuition, although it was hardly the only consideration.

The tactic of begging my mercy was pretty smart. We weren’t alone, but before an audience that he could assume contained some of my closest followers - some of the people here were clearly not soldiers, but well-dressed youths around my own age. It was reasonable to suppose I might hesitate at cold-bloodedly murdering him after he’d begged for his life in front of them. He hardly had any better alternatives.

But there was a hint of Isuro’s qi around here, too. I knew the not-actually-a-spirit was probably watching us. Which complicated the matter a lot. I’d been - sort off, distantly - working on him for a while. Trying to, at least. But I knew I did not want him to see me act in a way that might, for lack of a better word, estrange us.

And he might know that, and predict how I’d react. Either out of calculation or because he just had a slightly idealized image of me. Which meant this whole thing could easily be part of a plot of his.

It was probably a trap.

I sighed again, then beckoned Aston closer as I stepped away. With spirits around, I didn’t want to just rely on telepathic conversations. He put up a qi shield blocking any sound and a distortion that would prevent lip-reading. I hesitated a moment, then looked at Elia and waved. She rolled her eyes, but joined us.

“You’re the resident expert on possession, Aston,” I said quietly. “How much of a possible entry point is he?”

“That’s hard to say, my lady,” he responded. “A lot will depend on what the spirits on the Zarian side might do, and on what, if I may put it this way, ‘your’ spirits will.” He glanced at the young man, consideringly. “Taking him would certainly be a risk. Of course, it might also present an opportunity.”

“I’d think it depends mostly on him,” Elia said, shaking her head. She looked me in the eyes firmly. “Inaris, that young man is in many ways not a dedicated enemy. He’d probably be better off in many ways if you took him in. I mean, given your record, you could probably handle it. And if he actively resists, it would make things a lot harder for the Storm and the Auditor.”

I frowned thoughtfully. “Can he do that? Work against the psychic bond he has? How far?”

Elia sighed, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m mostly going by feel here, just like you. The Auditor is obviously a very different kettle than your father. And there’s a strong link. But like Aston said …” She raised her shoulders.

“There isa link”, I murmured. “And if we ever need to get to Jideia or at least his enforcer … We’re not going to find a better option.”

“Maybe I just don’t want you to kill him,” Elia admitted. “I know we can’t just let him go. And even if he’s done some bad things …” She grimaced. “It would sit badly with me.”

“I know.”

I started pacing once again, shattering Aston’s shield in the process. The sun was setting, and we really should be going soon. Hanging around here any further was a pointless risk, even with my father’s attention on us.

I know I don’t often ask for your advice,I told my father mentally. But if I’m about to make a horrible mistake, this is the time for you to chime in.

He didn’t give me an answer. This was a decision I had to make for myself. Ironically, that made me feel a lot better about it.

I glanced at Yarani. She caught my eyes and gave me a little shrug. Clearly, whatever issue she might or might not have with Ceion’s brief taking over of her, she didn’t care to protest or demand revenge. She really was a better person than most people might give her credit for.

Unlike me, of course. I smiled a little and stopped in front of the other spirit-child. “I’ll give you your life,” I said, then held up a hand before he could speak. “Understand me, as far as I am concerned, this is a gift. I won’t take it away unless you represent a real danger to me or mine. Of course, that doesn’t mean you get to just go.”

He smiled a dazzling smile and bowed deeply. “Your words are clear as crystal, my lady. I do have to say that is the most marvelous gift I have ever received. A life. Shame I can’t trade it for a different one.”

There was a choking sound from behind me, but I didn’t turn, and I managed not to let my own expression twitch. “I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the possibility,” I said with another smile. “Lots of people might think of starting a new life, you may actually get the option. Of course, a great many things will simply change for you whether you want them to or not. You’ll be coming with us. If I am satisfied about your sincerity and trustworthiness, I may actually allow you to make yourself useful.”

He blinked. “I’m not sure I quite understand you.”

“Don’t worry. For now, you should focus on your immediate concerns,” I advised him. “You’ll be an honored if carefully watched guest. I look forward to talking to you.”

That last part was completely true, and from the way he looked at me, I suspected that he understood that.

“Woohoo,” he said drily. “Not that I’ve ever met someone quite as interesting as you are, Princess Inaris.” Suddenly, he grinned again. “I do think this will be fun!”

He’d probably be a breath of fresh air, too, if nothing else. I wouldn’t forget that he’d tried to kill me and Al, and come remarkably close to succeeding, but the same traits that made him dangerous were part of the reason I wanted him for my side. And besides, I would probably get some nice new insights into spirits, their children, and how they functioned.

At Aston’s orders, several guards stepped forward to put Ceion in chains. He cooperated quite willingly, seeming almost cheerful, which was probably a mask, but better than the alternative. Another guard was already bringing our horses.

“Is this what you wanted?” I murmured so softly none of the people present should hear it. Isuro probably wouldn’t, either, but he just might.

Chapter 163 (Draft)

The village lay empty and silent around us, all life leeched from it as if a painter had just swabbed all the color away with a sponge. Or that was how it seemed, at least. If I focused, I could still sense hints of life, scattered and small, yet remarkably bright for all their casual unobtrusiveness.

I let my horse pick its way forward. She was a spirit beast, much tougher and stronger than a mundane horse, even if she looked like a normal gray, and she didn’t need my help to get around. Absentmindedly, I patted her neck, earning a flick of her ears and a soft snort. I knew they’d actually given her the name White Wind Thundering, but I’d decided I’d just call her White, which wasn’t any worse than that. She’d been a prize captured three cities ago from the stables of the local mayor, who’d fled south in a panic. He might have even passed through this place.

“Scorched earth tactics,” I mused. “Pretty literal. You definitely get a different understanding of them seeing them in action instead of just reading about it.”

“I could have done without seeing this concept in action,” Lei murmured.

“Look on the bright side,” Yarani said. “If we see enough of it, you’ll get used to it quickly and it won’t bother you as much.”

“Oh, thank you very much for that reassurance.”

“I agree we should all strive to prevent that course of things,” I spoke up again before they could really get started. “Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Yarani, do you notice anything out of place, anything we could use?”

My girlfriend swept her gaze around us, grimacing. “Not really, Nari. This is pretty textbook style. If anyone was deranged enough to write a textbook about how to do this.”

We continued forward. Some of the guards flew overhead, but most of the people in this group were on the ground. It was safer that way, since there might still be the equivalent of a sniper hidden farther away, and the qi used here had made the whole location less than stable. The random drafts of cot and hold air against my skin showed that. It would probably settle down soon, though. But I wanted to get a good look, anyway, and we’d been traveling on the ground for a while.

“They can’t do this in too large an area, can they?” Kajare asked. “Slaughtering their own people, or at least their sources of supply, isn’t going to help them against us. I can see them denying us some support and making a sort of firebreak, but up until the next city at minimum, they’ll have to stop the devastation.”

“Probably,” I replied.

I didn’t know if the Zarian had evacuated everyone from this area, and frankly doubted it. Although I knew they would be smart enough to avoid unnecessary mass casualties. It probably didn’t much matter for us, at the moment.

The army could still advance, but we’d have to be careful. While we weren’t very reliant on getting food and other supplies, they’d still denied us resources we’d planned on. Especially given that, with so many Lighters, we were more vulnerable to this sort of thing than normal cultivator armies, and getting water might be a problem. Hardly an unsolvable one, though. But they’d also denied us many of the terrain advantages we could have had, and the potential for fortifications offered by settlements.

This village was pretty big, compared to others we’d passed. There was almost nothing left of it at all, and yet I still fancied I saw some signs of an orderly evacuation. There were too few animal bones, not just in the settlement itself but the surrounding regions, and I found little metal, melted or otherwise, lying around. Of course, that didn’t mean much. I would have been hard-pressed to estimate the prosperity and material belongings of a typical Imperial village, much less a Zarian one.

We continued in silence, slowly making our way forward. The majority of the army was about a hundred kilometers away, but we’d headed out to take a look at the scorched earth ourselves. We could move much faster than the army and roam around, covering more ground, while staying reasonably close to safety. The normal Imperial guard detachment had been augmented with further guards and a squad of elites, so we should be safe enough, and I’d taken Elia and Elis in case they could offer some insight into what had happened. Mostly, I just wanted to get a better sense for this myself. It wasn’t every day you got a use of qi like this, on such a wide geographical scale, and I’d already noted several interesting similarities to qi anomalies.

A gust of wind swept across us, quickly joined by others as the wind changed direction and sped up. It swept dust and flakes of ash over us. I swiped my sleeve over my face to clear it, and blinked against the particles as I looked around. I could just make out the dark band of a brook in the distance to the left, although it was probably not much more than a dry riverbed by now. We should head there and follow it to the next village, and then we could turn around in a wide arc and rejoin the main army, which would have moved far enough forward by then to be close and would be easy to find in this area, anyway.

“Hey.” I raised my voice slightly to be sure everyone heard me. “I think we’ve seen a lot and there’s not much more to do, so we can think about heading back now. We should pick up the pace a little and go … right.”

I paused. I had the distinct feeling that there was something important ahead to the right. A nudge from Rijoko, obviously. He didn’t send me any verbal messages, just the feeling, but I also got the sense that this could be dangerous.

“Are you sure?” Yarani asked. “The army’s towards our left. We could head towards that stream.”

“I’m sure,” I replied, nudging my horse to speed up a little. “My lunar senses are tingling.” I pulled a face. “Ugh, that was a bad one. Anyway, there’s something there. We should be careful.”

Yarani audibly sighed, and from the corner of my eye I saw her exchanging a look with Kajare, but everyone got their own horses or flying swords to speed up and we moved off without further words being exchanged. Aston sent a few of the guards to spread out a little farther, widening the perimeter, and he murmured something into his communication talisman. I didn’t pay much attention to it, and he’d apparently activated the noise-muffling enchantment, anyway.

We traveled onward for maybe ten minutes. I grew steadily more tense as the time and the meters passed. Despite not having any real landmark or target to aim for, we moved in a straight line, as I guided us into the right direction. My feeling intensified a little, but it didn’t really change, not that I would have expected Rijoko to use precise directions when a vague intuition would do. And, of course, it really did work well, as a rule.

Slowly, another structure appeared out of the smoke on the horizon we could see. I only realized it had to be a natural feature of the terrain after a moment, because its straight-lined edges and composition looked like they should have come from human hands. But it was actually something closer to a rocky hill, shaped in what I came to understand must have been a bowl-shaped way. That made it hard to say what might have been over the ridge.

I glanced around, but the flying members or our party were apparently too low down to see any better. For a moment, I considered sending one of the guards up to scout, but dismissed the possibility. Anything they could see would also be able to see - or sense - them. And I felt the definite urge to be careful.

I took a deep breath, focusing on my qi senses again. There was something odd, now. Definitely somewhere up ahead on that ridge. Maybe it actually was a settlement, or had been used as such. Or maybe a shrine? In any case, I was beginning to to pick up hints of spiritual qi, and they felt vaguely familiar.

I held up a hand and we slowed to a stop. I could see the tension in the faces of my companions, probably reflecting the impression they got from me.

“I’m pretty sure there’s something up there. Or perhaps someone,” I said. “I think I’d rather be prepared before rushing in, this time.” That got a few smiles, at least. “I’d like a group of us to split up and circle wide around this feature, then approach from another direction. I guess we should probably curve our path a little, too. And we should observe radio silence unless it’s critical, and even then, please use electromagnetic waves instead of qi.”

“Understood, my lady,” Aston replied seriously. “With your permission, I would detach half of the elite squad along with our picked second team from your guard detail.”

I nodded. “Lei, if it’s alright with you, can I ask you to go with that group, as well? Having a light and darkness cultivator could be helpful, and I’d like you to be as stealthy as possible.”

“Of course, Nari.” Lei smiled with a hint of playfulness in his eyes. Then he turned to Elis. “Would you come along as well? It probably makes sense to split our truth-seers.”

Elis nodded calmly. “Sure.”

We waited for a few minutes while Aston sorted things out with the soldiers. They swapped a few people around to maximize each group’s set of abilities and quickly established the joint chain of command. Then the group moved off. I waited for a moment, looking at Lei and Elis as they trotted away, before I turned back to my own party and continued on.

We moved more slowly now, to give the others time, but I didn’t mind that. I started to lay a technique over our group, though I kept it subtle. Besides the strain on my qi reserves, the problem with these shrouding techniques was that, against some opposition, they might hide our auras only to draw more attention to the light (or darkness) qi used for it. But I’d been taught by the best, and I had some practice in bending the light around people in a surreptitious way.

Our slow speed made the trip seem endless, even though I knew it couldn’t have been that long. The sun barely moved, but it had already been nearing the horizon, and the sky was starting to take on a reddish tint. We didn’t talk, and we didn’t get any communications from the others. That might have been a mistake, but I really didn’t want to do anything that tipped a possible quarry off.

Just as I was thinking that, Aston held up a hand, gesturing to the ground. Everyone dismounted, and the weakest guard took charge of the horses, before we continued on on foot. After a few more minutes of silent travel, still faster than any normal human could have moved, we started to move up the slope of the hilly incline, walking slowly. We were getting somewhere. And the other group had to be in a good position, too.

Just as I was thinking that, I realized that we had moved considerably closer by now and that what I could sense with my spiritual senses was shifting. Or becoming clearer, rather.Is that … Isuro?I frowned, trying to chase the hints I got. The sensation definitely came from further up ahead, although I probably wouldn’t actually find Isuro there. But maybe he had been here. Maybe he was even keeping an eye on the region. But there was something else, as well. I didn’t know why I hadn’t gotten it first, since it was actually stronger.

Aston, who was taking point, abruptly stopped, then slid downward to my side. He touched my wrist in what I’d learned was a trick to use qi without it typically being detectable from the outside. ‘It’s the Auditor’s son, my lady,’he sent. ‘And he may have spotted us, or perhaps Force Two.’

I gritted my teeth. ‘Understood. Let’s hurry up.’

Aston made a hand gesture, and we surged up the hillside, abandoning all attempts at stealth.

I took a moment to take in what we found. This seemed like it really might have been a shrine, before. While it was suspiciously free of devastation from the Zarian’s actions, there were still indirect effects. The center held an open pavilion of stone pillars, the edges of which were connected with stone sculpted to look like artistic lightning bolts, and the clear area in front had been free of plant growth or anything else before scattered debris messed it up. I could tell in an instant that it was where my target had been sitting. He’d bolted upright and was already almost halfway to the other edge of the bowl-shaped depression.

Before any of my soldiers reached him, he slid to a halt. A moment later, I saw the first of Lei’s group crest the ridge.

For an instant, it seemed like everyone had frozen. Then the spirit-child reacted, moving to the side in a big leap. Before he reached the edge, though, Lei appeared close to it, a bolt of lightning dancing from his fingers and into the man. When its flash faded, I saw the Auditor’s son had twitched backwards. He tried to take a step, but half-fell to the floor instead. Lei was there right away, though not before two of the elites beat him to it. One of them jerked, then seemed to collect himself.

I walked forward, instinctively keeping some distance between us. The soldiers seemed just as wary of the fallen enemy, though Lei didn’t share their qualms and kicked him over onto his back.

“Target apprehended, Nari,” Lei reported with a grin, looking up at me.

I nodded, my eyes still fixed on the other spirit-child, as the rest of our parties drew nearer and closed in around the scene. My qi senses were still hard at work, trying to pick up any hint that could help me understand this.

I felt what had to be the Auditor, and obviously the spirit-child. He seemed to have decided he was beaten and that not provoking us was the better part of not getting his head lopped off, although he was still twitching faintly. Blood spurted from his nose, but that had to be from a different cause. There was still the slight hint of Isuro, and by now, definitely the Moon. As if I needed confirmation my father was paying attention to what was happening here.

Well, great, I thought in that timeless instant, looking down at another, vanquished spirit-child. Now what do I do about it?

Chapter 162 (Draft)

“Why do they call it the ‘Basement’, anyway?” I asked. “I can see where It’s kind of snappy, I guess, but it doesn’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of your enemies or lend itself well to passionate exhortations.”

Elis grinned. He leaned back against the stone balustrade of the platform we stood on, blinking against the sunlight shining directly into his eyes. “That’s more or less what I told them the first time I talked to a Basement leader, actually. I think it’s because of what passes for their founders’ sense of humor. Besides, it’s an illustration for their ideology, in a way. It started out as an organization exclusively for and by people in the low tiers, who provide the - under-appreciated and disadvantaged - baseof the Dominion’s society, economy and civilization.”

“I can understand that,” I allowed.

“Plus, I think they were just as happy not to be taken too seriously, at first. At least by the government’s security and intelligence organs. Something like ‘People’s Liberation Front’ might have invited a more strident response, you know?”

I chuckled. “You definitely have a point there! I can just imagine how some people in my own government might react if they heard something like that.”

“Just don’t let anyone in the Basement hear you say that!” Elis shook his head and grinned. “Most of them aren’t and wouldn’t like thinking about how the Empire might have grounds for developing something like that, too.”

I found that thought a lot less amusing. Frowning slightly, I nodded. “But we do provide a lot less cause and should have a lot lower risk for it.”

“That you do,” he agreed, suddenly serious as well. “Mind you, I think a lot of that has to do with economic development and factors, but that’s probably the way these things go. And from what I hear, things have improved a lot in the Empire just in the last few years.”

“Not as much as if the war hadn’t happened.” I sighed softly and shook my head. “Still, I do hope and believe you’re right.”

“In that case, let’s get back on topic,” he replied in a lighter tone. “Any other trivia you want to know about the Basement?”

“Not really,” I replied, smiling faintly, but I quickly turned serious once more. “So, you’re confident you’ve cleared it of any moles Jideia might have set?”

“Within limits,” he replied in a cautious tone. “I didn’t get to some of their cells, especially the more deeply embedded people. But within the structure I did have access to, I’m reasonably sure everyone is sincerely working for their organization and its ideals. There might be some differences of opinion about just what those are, of course, but nothing that would foment a serious split. Of course, I don’t know which of them the Dominion might have identified and put under observation. We’ve been careful not to expose me, as far as we can, but I wouldn’t count on them not noticing our little housecleaning initiative.”

I nodded. That was about what I’d figured, and I couldn’t help but notice how close he seemed to be, and consider himself linked to, the Basement. That was definitely something I needed to keep in mind, but I knew I could hardly keep him from getting invested with them. Nor should I, when it came down to it.

“Keep me informed, please,” I said. “And thank you for everything.”

“My pleasure.” He smiled. “These people are doing good work, Inaris, and under dangerous circumstances. I’m glad to see you recognize that.”

I nodded. I certainly couldn’t disagree with that, even if I didn’t agree with all of the Basement’s methods. Not that I was really in a position to judge them for that.

I said goodbye to Elis and watched him leave. He headed in the direction of the outbuilding the Basement had taken over, I noticed. They’d acted according to the same pattern in all of the bigger cities we’d taken, although I imagined they’d probably switch things around to keep from being too predictable.

Then I shook my head and turned back. I spun a bit of qi around my hands, forming it into the desired shape, then watched as the flick of light absconded and flew through the air. I watched the courtyard of the fortress on Aliatin’s outskirts for a few seconds, glancing at the rush of people and the city beyond.

I didn’t have to wait long. A minute later, a red-robed figure approached quickly, landing lightly on the stones two meters from me. I gave myself another moment, then turned around to see Wei Jun on one knee waiting for my attention.

“Rise, General Wei,” I said.

He stood smoothly. “How can I be of service, Your Highness?”

“I wanted you to drop by to touch base on where we are with the army’s reorganization and its general state.”

He nodded. “The reorganization is going well. It’s really more of an administrative matter than a military shift. Frankly, none of us are used to armies of large groups of weaker cultivators like the Lighters. But we’re getting a handle on it, and I’m confident that the new company structure will hold and prove its worth.”

I looked at him thoughtfully. I’d gotten all of that from the reports I’d read, but I’d still wanted to talk to him about it in person. He stood straight, almost at attention, with his hands clasped behind his back, his posture clearly that of someone used to it giving a briefing. But his eyes were shuttered behind his calm and attentive expression.

“So you’re confident we’re ready to resume the offensive?” I asked.

“If possible, Your Highness, I’d prefer at least a week to iron out remaining details, but if we had to, we could move out tomorrow.”

“Well, we’re not in that much of a hurry. Not that I really need to tell you that, General.”

He nodded again, but stayed silent.

I cocked my head a little, watching him. I didn’t quite feel as badly about him as Wei Young. Partly because he hadn’t been involved in trying to kill his own daughter - even if I knew that was unfair, since neither of them had known about it - and partly because he had been the first to surrender. But that didn’t mean I was ready to forgive and forget.

“I appreciate the work you’ve been doing, great-uncle. I don’t think I’ve told you that before.”

His eyes flickered slightly, but that was the only sign of surprise at my words he showed. “Thank you, my lady.”

“Of course,” I continued, holding his gaze, “that doesn’t mean I can forget that you were actively and willingly involved in the plan to kill my Mother and myself. Even if I recognize that you are making amends.”

He bowed his head. “Of course, Your Highness. I understand.”

I held his gaze for a moment longer, then smiled. “Good.” I took a step back, putting some more distance between us, and looked out over the city. “Don’t mistake me, I don’t have any doubts about your loyalty when it comes to this war, and you are, after all, going to be in command of this offensive.”

“I appreciate your trust, my lady.” He hesitated for a moment, then continued, “As well as the … restraint you have shown.”

I smiled slightly. “Well, however that may be, I have been told you are our most talented general. Or field commander, at least. And I have a feeling we’re going to continue to need our best in the months to come. Especially given what we’re seeing from the south.”

Wei frowned. “May I ask what you mean, Your Highness? We haven’t actually seen much enemy movement. I was under the impression the situation with the Dominion was reasonably quiet.”

“Right. But that’s sort of what I mean.” I pulled a face and leaned with my back against the balustrade, facing him. “If it was me, great-uncle, I’d be thinking very hard about my situation, and about asking the Empire for terms of surrender. We hold all the cards here, or close enough. We almost certainly have more elites, we definitely have more raw numbers and better technology, eighth-stagers are out of play, and we’ve been gobbling up parts of the Storm Continent with no sign of stopping.”

His eyes widened slightly, and his frown turned thoughtful. “I see what you’re saying, my lady. They may just need time to reach that decision, though.”

“The longer they wait, the more they lose.” I shook my head. “No, I think they would have at least sent an envoy by now if they were going to. Their obvious strategy is to sue for peace, consolidate their strength and perhaps come back for revenge if they can later. The more territory they keep losing, the harder it is for them to keep up, or even to keep what they have stable.”

General Wei nodded. “But they aren’t doing that.”

“No, they aren’t, and that suggests that their decisions aren’t being made just by strategists. That there might be … influence, at least, from other sources.” I smiled with a hint of bitterness. “This isn’t just a political war, General - it’s a religious war, in some sense. And for too many of the people involved, it’s also personal.”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “Including you, Your Highness?”

Again, my smile was more of a grimace. “Yes. Of course I take what Jideia has been doing personally. Probably at least as much as hedoes.”

“So, if the Zarian did attempt to negotiate a surrender, would you let them?”

I looked at him in silence for a few seconds. “I’m not sure,” I finally admitted, and shook my head. “It would depend on the situation, I suppose. Personal or not, I wouldn’t let my feelings get in the way, but I do want to settle this.”

He nodded wordlessly, and we stood in silence for a moment.

“Well,” I finally said, pushing off from the stone. “I’m sure you see why I wanted us to discuss this. I want you to be on the same page in this matter. And I need to caution you, especially, not to let your guard down. They’re up to something. The Storm is, at least. It might not hit you or the army - in fact, it probably won’t - but stay sharp. And keep an eye out.”

He half-bowed. “Of course, my lady. I will do my utmost.”

He looked like he was expecting me to dismiss him, and probably wanted to get back to work. I kept him waiting for a bit longer, though, and he was clearly too polite to just leave. I used the time to take a closer look at his aura. He was hiding most of his qi signature, but just the little bit I did see made it clear he’d advanced a bit since the time I first met him. He was actually most of the way through the seventh stage, if I didn’t miss my guess, and would probably reach the point of attempting a breakthrough to the eighth stage in a few more years.

It would probably be a good thing if he succeeded in that, the earlier the better. We needed every eighth-stager of reliable loyalty we could get, especially since we still had the issue of what to do about the Dominion’s eighth-stagers.

“I have some time tomorrow at noon,” I said. “Meet me back here, and we’ll talk about cultivation.”

His eyes widened slightly. He clearly knew what this meant. He bowed his head. “Thank you, Your Highness. I will be there.”

I nodded and waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m sure you have a lot of work to do, General.”

Wei Jun bowed again, then quickly left, returning to the building. I sensed him heading to where the military command post had been set up. Then I turned back and leaned against the stone balustrade again. I could sense Aston and the other guards some distance away, giving me a bit of privacy. The wind was picking up and dark clouds creeping closer from the western horizon. I knew from recent experience that thunderstorms came quickly in this area and season, and it would probably start raining soon. That would be a good thing for the local crops, even if the army could do without. Flying airships in bad weather was always riskier.

‘You’re retaining and strengthening his loyalty,’Mior said. ‘You really are assembling a good following.’

I turned my head to where the spirit was just coalescing into more material existence a few meters away in the shadow of the stone balustrade’s corner. They looked the same as always, and why I’d picked up their presence during the last few sentences of my conversation, they might have been there even a little earlier than that.

‘Who knows, I may be more charismatic than I thought,’I replied. ‘But people’s loyalty is a very useful thing to have, anyway.’

‘You won’t get an argument from me on that, Little Light.’    Mior strolled closer, then leaned against the stone beside me. ‘It’s not why I’m here, though.’

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and instead calmly offered the required question. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I don’t really know, myself.’ Mior shook their head, their face a little more defined and a little more sober than usual. ‘Jideia has reduced his efforts in quite a few areas. I think he’s gathering power. His focus certainly is on the Dominion.’

I frowned. ‘What do you think he’s up to?’

‘I don’t have any idea. But whatever it is, I doubt that you’re going to like it.’

I sighed. That just figured.

‘It’s not all doom and gloom, Little Light.’Mior smiled slightly. ‘None of the other Greater Spirit seems exactly inclined to jump on Jideia’s wagon. And by the way, I’ve heard that your ancestor, the phoenix, has left his mountains and his heading southwest.’

‘Do you know what he wants?’

‘No, but you’ll probably meet him again. And he’s not the only ally you have who’s not a human.’

‘Well, since we have spirit-children to fight now, that’s probably a good thing.’

‘Of course.’ Mior laughed. ‘I do hope no one ever promised you your life would be easy, Inaris.’

“Now that’s reassuring,” I muttered, but without any heat. It wasn’t like the spirit wasn’t right.

Chapter 161 (Draft)

Half of the people in the room looked like they could still scarcely believe how their lives had changed in the last few weeks or months. In my opinion, that didn’t speak highly of them, considering we’d held the city of Aliatin for a week.

I sank deeper into the cushioned seat of my chair. It was a throne, no other word could hope to fit as well. Made out of a dark imported wood and inlaid with gold and precious stones, the actual seat was high enough I was almost as high up as if I was standing, with my feet resting on a footrest at its lower part, and the high back reached farther up than anyone around was tall. I seriously doubted they’d had this standing around in the city, but I didn’t even want to ask where our people had produced it from.

In short, it was about as unsubtle as statements got. But the generals - and Tenira - had apparently decided that was necessary for what for all intents and purposes amounted to the first ‘court’ held in the conquered Zarian territories.

According to Imperial tradition, I didn’t read out the proclamations we started off with myself. Instead, a gong sounded, then a herald stepped forward. In a resonant voice, he began proclaiming the edicts and declarations prepared for the occasion.

I listened quietly, but kept my eyes on the gathered attendees. Most of them were strong cultivators, although there was a sizable group who weren’t. We’d invited not just representatives from the Basement, but also people who had large and successful business empires and the clout to go with them. Most of them were at least in the middle stages, but there were actually a few in the second, who’d only really gotten to their current level after their cities fell to the Empire. Mostly by making the best of the opportunities that came along with that, I suspected, but I wasn’t going to complain. None of them would have had the chance to be anything more than a prosperous tradesperson or shopkeeper under the Dominion’s system. Or possibly a manager for one of the wealthy merchants who owned the bigger trading concerns.

I knew most of what was announced, although I hadn’t had the time to familiarize myself with all of the details. I could tell the interested gazes on me sharpened when they heard that the Lord Regent was coming here, too, but I didn’t let any reaction show. Besides that, none of the attendees seemed surprised by anything they heard. Of course, they would have definitely done their homework before coming. And it was mostly just extending what we’d already been doing, and formalizing a few arrangements we’d been trying out anyway. Like the public education forums we’d set up in all of the towns and cities, mostly as a platform to help the people learn Imperial Common and become familiar with our laws and customs. No one would be forced to visit, and Zarian definitely wouldn’t be forbidden anywhere. For that matter, I thought the explicit permission and recognition of pre-Dominion languages had earned us some goodwill.

After the official announcements, the herald proclaimed that it was now time for petitions to come before the throne. The later part of that would be people seeking the crown’s justice. I had very mixed feelings about that. But the territory was still under martial law and we hadn’t managed to set up proper courts yet, so I’d agreed to sit in judgment of the cases brought here today.

First, though, there were more mundane petitions. It seemed like most of the people in the large audience hall, which used to belong to the Dominion’s local sector governor, were only here to watch. But a few of them did step forward, and more petitioners would be brought into the room from the adjoining chambers. Everyone had had to register and be cleared considerably in advance, of course. My guards weren’t going to take any chances.

As I half-expected, some of the requests were for things I couldn’t or wouldn’t decide on my own. Some were more or less straight charity cases, which I tended to grant after checking with Elia. She was in a seat of honor close to my throne. One time, a shake of her head told me the current petitioner was lying, but otherwise, she seemed unconcerned. I tried my best to listen to my intuition and whatever guidance Rijoko might see fit to offer, but I didn’t find any of those decisions all that hard. Maybe because they only dared this when they were pretty confident it would be granted?

There were a few thornier ones, though. Mostly because they pointed to where our own efforts might have fallen short. I was conscious of the need to avoid showing weakness, but the potential to have problems pointed out to me was one of the reasons I’d agreed to this whole session in the first place.

“I’ve heard your words, good man,” I said to the latest petitioner, in Zarian, of course, and smiling as gracefully as I could. “Be assured that I will take personal note of the individuals involved and step in to ensure the smooth functioning of inter-city trade, as well as the protection of your trading house and whoever else might be affected.” I paused, pursuing a thought, then continued, “The provisional government will be instructed to issue charters to eligible companies that will provide allocated space on our river transports, as well as allow the hiring of additional hands to facilitate transport, including mercenaries of no higher than the blue stage.”

The merchant bowed deeply, a relieved smile on his face. “Many thanks, Your Highness. Your wisdom truly is astounding.”

I managed not to roll my eyes, but instead smiled, and dismissed him with a wave of my hand. Depending on how this turned out, I might have just gotten several birds with one stone. Getting a registry of salient Zarian companies involved in local trade certainly wouldn’t hurt. And since trade with the rest of the Dominion was cut off, we did need to do what we can to facilitate the commerce within the region, not just with the Empire.

It looked like he was the last one for now, so I settled back into my seat and watched as they prepared for the next part. A couple of legal advisers were brought forward, and the space in front of the throne was quickly reorganized. I suppressed a sigh as I waited until I would be called on to dispense justice. I’d considered telling the people they could appeal my decisions through the high courts in the Empire. But anyone with a working brain whose case wasn’t particularly urgent would probably wait until they could go through a proper court of law, anyway. And it would appear to undermine my authority.

Especially since the Empire was still technically an absolute monarchy, with the laws in place because the Empress said so, at least in principle. I’d just do the best I could, with the help of my abilities and Elia, and in any further sessions they might want to hold, Kiyanu could function as the judge.

Since we had to observe at least the bare bones of an actual court of law’s session, these proceedings took a lot longer than the simple petitions. They still struck me as more in the way of settling disputes rather than criminal law or the like. Similar to what you would expect from a medieval king or feudal lord passing judgment in his domain, really. That might be kind of the idea.

The first case was pretty straightforward, all things considered. It really boiled down to which set of laws, Dominion or Imperial, were applicable, and to what extent. That might be why they’d put this case on the agenda here, come to think of it. I sidestepped the issue neatly by deciding that martial law had been declared in Niali, and they’d all been in violation of the curfew, completely regardless of what freedom of assembly and right to demonstration they might otherwise have had. I made a mental note to take a closer look at what we had in the way of freedom of strike.

After a moment of consideration, I added that, generally speaking, everyone in the formerly Zarian territories was entitled to the suite of Imperial basic laws guaranteed for every citizen. It’s not like the Zarian can get any more upset about us blatantly claiming this territory, anyway.So, it followed that people had the right to gather, if they weren’t breaking some other law, and couldn’t be broken up by anyone except proper Imperial authority. Which, in this case, might mean acknowledged local government, too. And it didn’t matter how some big trading houses might have been accustomed to controlling their employees, either.

Everyone seemed happy enough with that ruling, or at least not surprised, and the people were quickly ushered out. I relaxed a little, settling back into my throne and the proceedings of the court.

The next few cases were both smaller and broader in scope. In effect, those came closer to criminal law, although I recognized the potential for setting precedents they offered. I listened to all sides carefully, then pronounced the best judgment I could think of within the limits of Imperial law. Thankfully, given my memory and my sessions with both Mother, her councils and Kiyanu, I was pretty familiar with the laws and its applications. I listened to my intuition and what might be nudges from my father, and made sure to get Elia’s impressions of the speakers. The cases were all more complicated than simply determining if someone was lying about some past misdeed, but it certainly helped.

At least I didn’t have to sign any execution orders. It could all be helped with fines, community service, some prison terms, and the equivalent of a restraining order. That seemed to be a new idea, but considering it would be pretty simple to make a qi bracelet or other talisman that could give an alert when someone entered a certain location or radius, I foresaw that catching on quickly.

I was starting to suspect that the real reasons my ‘advisors’, especially Yarani, Elia, Aston and Hashar, had talked me into doing this, was to show off to everyone how sensible and sagacious my judgment was. What else would you expect from the daughter of the Moon? Luckily for them, people did seem to accept my verdicts quite easily.

I was shaken from my thoughts by the arrival of the next plaintiff. I had to stop myself from showing a reaction as I recognized the formal robes he wore. Blue and gray, with swirls and white streaks branching like lightning strikes. What was a priest of Jideia doing here? I glanced at Aston, but he didn’t show any reaction.

“Your Highness,” the priest said after the introductory formulas were out of the way. He inclined his head and didn’t quite meet my eyes. Despite his obvious age and white hair, he stood quite straight upright, though. “I am here because of the unlawful and flagrantly unethical seizure of property belonging to the High Temple of the Storm.”

I narrowed my eyes. There was something odd about this. Besides the obvious issue of going to me to complain about this. “What exactly are you talking about, good man? What charges are you bringing against whom?”

The priest nodded slightly. “As you know, Your Highness, after the conquest of the city, Imperial soldiers seized the local temple, ransacked its stores and records, and evicted the priests and acolytes before setting fire to it.” He paused and raised an eyebrow, as if giving me the chance to address that point.

I didn’t see any reason to play games with him. “Of course. This happened on my orders,” I acknowledged.

He seemed a little taken aback at my casual response. “You do not consider this to be against the law?” he asked, sounding calm and even curious rather than accusatory. If nothing else, I could see why he must have been successful in his chosen career path.

“Far be it from me to break the news to you, my good man,” I said with a slight twitch of the lips, “but we did conquer you.”

There was a slight echo of laughter from the spectators. I doubted many of them had really found my words all that funny, and to be fair, it was pretty muted.

“I consider the High Temple to be a hostile organization,” I continued. “It, like the spirit it serves, has committed several acts of war against the Empire. Including attempts on my own life. It is therefore a legitimate target in the course of fighting this war. I do recognize that most priests and acolytes are civilians, which is why we have acted scrupulously to avoid casualties among them.”

The priest nodded again, his expression hard. He looked like he might be regretting giving me this platform to talk about it. “I see, Your Highness,” he said, then cleared this throat. “Be that as it may, the remnants of the temple were ransacked again by parties unknown a day later. A cabal of local troublemakers moved in -” he shot a dirty look at the other group who’d come in with him for this case - “and have occupied the site, preventing our people from their work to salvage and sort it.”

I raised an eyebrow before I could stop myself. Why did they even manage that, if you still have an interest in the location?The answer was pretty clear. The priests had actually left, even if they might have come back to see what had happened to it. That just raised another question, though, namely what they had done.

By now, the High Temple clearly knew what was going to happen to every temple the Empire got its hands on, so this wasn’t particularly surprising. In fact, that they hadn’t evacuated beforehand could suggest they were actually hoping to provoke an incident. But priests clearly stayed even in cities about to fall to the Empire, and I didn’t like to think about what they might be up to. Because my intuition was pretty clear on one thing. They had to be up to something. Something big, and probably widespread and slow, but still.

But I chased those thoughts aside and instead focused on the matter at hand. “This location, like the others that have been confiscated, belongs properly to the Empire. This matter will be handled accordingly.”

I turned my attention to the presumed looters and the question of what I should do with them, but in the back of my mind, I kept considering the Zarian temples and how to handle them. We definitely needed a delicate touch. On the other hand, the fact this was playing out at all, in this venue, showed that we were already doing pretty well with it.

Chapter 160 (Draft)

“I have to admit I could get used to this,” Kajare said, stretching out on his divan with a grin.

“I think we’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts,” I answered, plopping myself down on an overstuffed armchair. “Alas, an unbroken string of victories is probably too much to hope for.”

We’d just taken the second major city in as many weeks. Of course, given that the Dominion covered the whole continent and more, it had a lot of major cities. We were far from done. But we were also clearly making progress.

In the last two weeks since our clash with the Zarian, we’d faced little opposition. Once again, we’d decimated their elites, and also struck a blow against their regular army strength. What was left of their forces had probably retreated to regroup.

“I wish we could move faster,” Yarani said, leaning against the windowsill. “But I understand why. There’s no point getting overconfident, and we do need to properly secure any territorial gains.”

I nodded. They’d had enough warning that most of the strong cultivators in these cities who weren’t already with the army had gone south. That would make it easier to hold them, but it also meant the Zarian strength wasn’t as diminished as it might have been. I didn’t see much of a way around that, though.

I looked out the window, watching the newest city to fall to the Empire. It resembled the other ones a great deal. Once again, we were quartered in the largest and shiniest building around, although this time it was actually at the edge of the central district rather than the center. That gave me a good view of the relatively low buildings of the old town. Jideia’s temple was at the other end, and except for a faint plume of smoke, I couldn’t make out anything. The streets were pretty empty, though I noticed a few of the fittings on the lampposts lining them were cracked. That had to be recent. Probably cultivators coming to blows, spurred by the rising tension the city must have felt.

Well, we’d left the city authorities intact enough they should be replaced quickly. And the Basement was strong here, too, which helped keep the low-tier citizens in the less affluent districts and the huts outside the walls from rioting.

Not that there will be tiers here any longer,I reminded myself. I smiled at the thought. If I hadn’t happened to be born a princess in this world, I might have made a fair revolutionary, if I did say so myself. Of course, that occupation would probably not give me much time in the lab, either. Maybe I could have been a philosopher and political thinker for the Enlightenment.

I snorted to myself, then turned my attention back to my surroundings. Yarani left her perch by the window and instead perched herself in my chair. It was just big enough that we could sit side-by-side with a bit of squashing.

“Why don’t you just sit right in my lap?” I grumbled.

“Oh, I’d be happy to.” She grinned and did so.

I sighed. At least I wasn’t crammed into the armchair now. I tickled Yarani for a few moments in revenge, then put an arm around her waist.

“Now I’m rethinking my seating arrangements,” Kajare said.

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him. “I’m not a cushion. And I’d like to see something.”

“Couldn’t you just create eyes on the back of your hand or something?”

I pulled a face. “Yes, in theory. But it’s not as easy as it sounds to get them actually working, and it’s pretty disorienting even then. I’d prefer to let them stay right here in my skull where they belong.”

“If I didn’t love you, you’d be really creepy, sometimes,” Yarani said. “Not that I would judge anyone for their abilities. And I suppose you get used to it.”

I smiled but didn’t say anything. I could take on some forms that would be a lot more creepy, but I didn’t really see the point.

“Speaking of, I just realized something.” Yarani shifted a little and turned to look at me. “The lands we’re taking from the Zarian, there aren’t going to be any nobles here, are there? They’re going to be under the crown directly?”

“Probably, I guess.” I frowned slightly, mentally shifting gears. “We haven’t really made concrete plans yet, and obviously I’ll need to work things out with Kiyanu. It’s possible we’ll work with the local power structure. Of course, there probably will be a pretty great and direct influence of Imperial authority. We could also import the Imperial system - such as it is and what there is of it - and make local cultivators nobles, but I don’t really like that idea.”

“How did you get to this from discussing Nari’s shapeshifting, anyway?” Kajare asked.

“We were discussing ways Nari is creepy.” Yarani sniffed. “If the nobles knew what you were really like, most of them would form a cabal to dethrone you.”

“Baseless accusations and slander,” I huffed. “Besides, some of them probably wouldn’t even if you were right, because they care more about the Empire’s future.”

“You’re really the most incongruous cynic I know,” Yarani said.

I sighed and leaned back into my chair, ignoring the way it shifted Yarani on my lap. Her weight really wasn’t much of an issue given my cultivation-enhanced strength.

We fell silent, all of us sitting quietly in thought for a few minutes. I surreptitiously shifted the chair so I could still look out the window and watched the city. We’d probably be leaving it soon enough, but most of its inhabitants’ lives would change dramatically. I couldn’t help feel a bit of satisfaction. We were definitely getting into the real economic heartland of the Dominion, especially if you only considered the Storm Continent, and the war would probably be effectively decided sometime in the next few months. A year at most. Even if fighting might continue after that.

My army was performing very well. We were still recruiting new Lighters. The recruitment was stalling, but that was probably more because we’d already taken the most obvious and available recruits than because of a dip in popularity. And there were still a lot of them in training camps. Our numerical advantage would only grow, and even if Lighters weren’t in a normal soldier’s weight class, large numbers of them could clearly prove decisive.

“And what will we do after all this?” Kajare asked quietly.

“I want to reach the moon within a hundred years,” I said. “That’s ambitious, but I think we can do it. I want to push the development of new technologies along, especially computers, and the social development we need right along with it. And I think we’ll get at least a bit of a breather after the war, always assuming we’ll win it.”

“As much of one as dealing with the people we conquered will allow,” Yarani pointed out.

I inclined my head. “True. We’re certainly not going to run out of work any time soon.”

“You know, it’s been over a year since your mother ascended,” Yarani said softly. “You might get to see her again at some point.”

I sighed. “It’s probably still going to take a while.” I returned my gaze to the city, staring out at its panorama. “Mior told me that she’s doing well, as these things go. She’s still safe, definitely. Apparently, they’ve even begun to manage rudimentary communication. She’s still not what anyone would call in a stable situation, but at least she managed to get through it.”

Kajare nodded, and we fell silent again for a while. I wished Tenira was here, as well, but I’d talked to her last night in my dreams, and she seemed to be doing well. Her projects were definitely progressing faster than I’d dared to hope.

Eventually, I reluctantly decided that I’d been lazing around for long enough and still had too much work to do. I slithered out from under Yarani, ignoring the playful scowl she shot me, and went into the attached office. Aston had already deposited a number of papers and folders on the desk. I cracked my neck and sat down to go over it. Without Tenira, I definitely had to allow for more time for paperwork. I tried not to complain too much about it, since I knew how much Kiyanu was doing back in the capital.

I had barely gotten started when Aston knocked on the door. After waiting for me to tell him to come in, he stepped inside silently. One look at his expression was enough to let me know we had another complication.

“What is it, Aston?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

“We have the final report from the battle, my lady.” Without waiting for me to respond, he handed me a folder.

I flipped it open and glanced through it, then raised my head again, frowning. “Something in particular I should be looking at?”

“Putting together several of the observations and pieces of data we’ve gotten, my lady, there appears to be something out of the ordinary. Our analysts are fairly confident that there was a large group of Zarian temple fighters, many of the spirit-children, in the city.”

I nodded. Apparently, they’d emerged from recent restructuring as officially what you could translate as ‘temple knights’. I’d just keep calling them templars privately.

“We’re trying to run down more precise information,” Aston continued. “So far, we have several indications that the man we chased in the battle, the son of the Auditor, was here.”

I sat up straighter at that news. That was good to know. It probably didn’t bode well that he was around, though.

“Do you need anything else, my lady?” Aston asked.

I ran a hand through my hair. “No, thank you, Aston.” I hesitated, then asked, “Actually, do you happen to know where Elia is?”

“Last I heard, she was with Lord Lei in the provisional lab,” he answered. “She might have moved on since, though. I would recommend checking the yellow manor, it’s where we quarter the Basement’s liaison and where I’d expect to find her brother.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

Collecting my papers, I stood and headed out. I walked through the building with my eyes and qi senses peeled. It was still a bustle of activity, people settling in and setting up everything we needed. At least all of that seemed to be going well. I didn’t notice any problems, at least.

Apparently, they set up the lab in an outbuilding of this estate. I walked by it, but it didn’t take me long to realize that Elia wasn’t in there. Neither was Lei. I hesitated, but resisted the temptation to head inside. If I started that now, I wouldn’t be back out for hours.

The building Aston had mentioned wasn’t very far, either. It was easy to see where it got its name, since the outer walls and half of the roof had all been dyed a muted yellow just shy of orange. In the otherwise rather gray- and brown- dominated city, that stood out a little.

I found Elia before I even entered the building. She walked slowly towards it from the other direction, talking quietly with Lei. When the two of them noticed me, the looked up and smiled.

“Hey, Nari,” Lei greeted me. “I’m off to the lab. See you later.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and replied with a quick “See you later”, while he was already moving.

“How are things going?” Elia asked. She didn’t quite stop, either, and I quickly joined her in heading into the building.

“Fine, it looks like,” I answered. “Are you doing alright?”

“Sure.” She glanced at me and frowned. “Something the matter?”

“Not really.” I shrugged. “I just wanted to touch base with you.”

“Oh.” She smiled with an edge of embarrassment. “I suppose I haven’t been around much lately, or talked to you or the others.”

“That’s no problem,” I assured her. It was hardly the first time someone got a new relationship and was a little preoccupied with it.

Elia already seemed to know her way around, and led me into a small sitting room with a window looking out over the city and a few closed wooden cabinets. I glanced around, then took a seat in one of the chairs, noting the qi woven into the walls here.

“So, do you deal much with the Basement and all of that?” I asked. “I know Elis is basically working with them full-time now.”

Elia leaned against a table and shrugged. “Not really. I help out occasionally, but mostly I let him deal with that.”

I nodded. “How do you think things are going?”

“Pretty well.” She smiled wryly. “I’m sure if there was a major problem, you’d hear about it.”

“I hope so.” I returned her smile. “By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know much about the Auditor, would you? We’re probably going to run afoul of his son again.”

“I can’t help you much there, I’m afraid. I’ve heard he’s something you could almost call an enforcer for the Storm and his powerbase.” Elia pulled a face. “A little like those temple knights. It’s probably no wonder the bastard would take up with them.”

I leaned back into my chair. “I got the feeling that he might not have been entirely there, mentally. Or it could have been an act.”

Elia frowned, looking as if she was considering something, for a moment. Then she sighed. “It’s possible. I’m not an expert, you understand, but you know as well as I do that spirit-children are a little like spirits, maybe a little susceptible to mental … oddness. I mean, I don’t think the Auditor would be a pleasant fellow to be connected to, you know? It’s possible, even probably, that he’s a little influenced by his father’s state of mind, or whatever it might be. But I doubt he’s actually psychotic or anything like that. And it clearly doesn’t hinder his effectiveness.”

I pulled a face. “Alright. I think I see.” I shook my head and raised an eyebrow. “You’d tell me if you weren’t feeling well, wouldn’t you, El?”

She threw a file folder at me, which I snatched out of the air easily. “Don’t be stupid, Nari.” Then her expression turned serious, and she pushed away from the table to sit in one of the nearby chairs. “Seriously, you shouldn’t worry about it. Our spirits are the Sun and the Moon. If you needed to pick one to get maximum mental stability, they’re the obvious choices. I mean, your father is all about guidance, and Piallara, well, truth and justice.”

“I get it.”

I leaned back in my chair, crossing my hands behind my head. She had a point.

That didn’t really make me feel much better about my opponent - opponents -, though.

Chapter 159 (Draft)

“You know, I almost feel sorry for the Zarian,” Yarani said.

“Why?” I asked. “Because their entire society is doomed to collapse sooner or later? Because they’ll witness its death throes harming their fellows even if they aren’t killed? Because the Dominion is going to be history?”

She blinked. “Uh, I didn’t think of it like that. I was thinking more about the soldiers who are going to die in a more immediate sense because of our efforts.”

I gazed out over the field, green grass and wildflowers rising high enough to reach my knees in places. At first glance, it looked like any other meadow, though a more careful examination would show a few irregularities. Chances were it was going to be unrecognizable at the end of the day. Tomorrow at the latest. “I get that,” I said.

“You really think the Dominion is going down that surely?” she asked.

I shrugged, glancing at Kajare and Elis, and beyond them, at a group of what you could call technicians from the Basement. “I’m pretty sure. Even if they can beat us off - and that’s still more likely than I’d like - the Dominion isn’t going to be the same afterward, in the long term.”

“We’ve only taken a few cities,” she pointed out, but she didn’t sound contentious.

“Sure. But the facade has cracked, Yarani. It might not be as bad as some, but at its core, the Dominion’s a repressive regime.” I shrugged. “They’re not going to win without suffering severe casualties, even if they do. And more importantly, all the lower-tier citizens are going to see what’s happening here. You think the Basement is just going to give up if our army leaves? Especially if things hold on long enough for them to get a taste of life under Imperial conditions? And they’re hardly the only ones.”

Yarani nodded slowly. “I see. I haven’t thought about it like that before, but that makes sense. And I suppose this is part of the reason why you’re so insistent about properly managing and integrating the occupied cities?”

“Right.”

I made a face at the thought. To probably no one’s surprise, managing those cities was proving harder than we’d like. We just didn’t have enough of many things we really needed, like trained translators, supplies for educational efforts and more, reliable police, or even trade opportunities and productive ways to get or make economic incentives. But we were making a lot of progress.

A shout from farther away distracted us and ended the conversation. I walked towards it, carefully picking my way forward, while Yarani and the ever-present guard detail accompanied me.

By the time we reached it, the problem appeared to have been solved. For a moment, I watched the young Lighter standing at attention and trying to pretend he wasn’t watching us getting closer. The earth beside him still looked dug up, but not enough to hint at why. I smiled and changed course, figuring I could spare both of us the embarrassment. Besides, it wasn’t really my place to manage the soldiers here.

I wandered around the field for a few more minutes, checking to make sure that everything was progressing according to plan. Besides a few minor hiccups that the officers in charge took care of quickly, everything was going smoothly. Then I headed back to the corner we’d marked off as an impromptu command post, not that it really deserved that name. Aston, who’d stayed there and conferred with several of the officers and elites, saluted as we came back.

“Everything’s on track, my lady,” he reported. “Site Three just radioed in, they report full readiness.”

I nodded. “Thank you. Good work, everyone.”

I cracked my neck and sat down on one of the folding chairs. With the several sites, contingency sites and detailed planning and positioning of our soldiers, this had taken most of the day. I shuddered to think how long it would have been if we hadn’t had cultivators working on it.

“And enemy movements?” Yarani asked, coming to stand beside my chair.

“They’ve kept moving as projected, my lady,” Aston answered. He nodded to one of the large maps hovering in the air where everyone could see. Various colored markers had been attached to it. “They do seem to have sped up a little, although we still need confirmation on that point. Newest estimates are contact within ten minutes to two hours.”

I raised an eyebrow. Looks like the moment of truth is approaching.No wonder the guards were standing more closely around us, and even watching the regulars finishing up outside with suspicious gazes. The recent attempts on me and Al hadn’t made them any less paranoid. And considering they were squarely in the line of fire, I doubted anyone would blame them.

“I think it’s about time for us to scram, then,” I said. “Aston, you’ll take care of things?”

“Of course, my lady.” He smiled slightly.

It didn’t take long for us to get to the perch we’d previously chosen. It should be some distance away from the fighting, although if things didn’t got exactly according to plan and we had to divert or improvise, we might not be able to see anything from here. Still, I leaned against the towering rock face that crowned the knoll we stood on, gazing out over the cluster of trees below. The upper part was free of trees, just enough to give us a good view while hiding us from casual inspection of someone standing further away.

I wished Kajare was here, but he was off coordinating with the Terbekteri navy again. They’d run into stiffer resistance than anticipated south of the nearby bay, and our planners were adjusting operational plans while we scrambled to build a new, stronger task force of combined Terbekteri and Imperial forces. I didn’t envy him the headache of getting fractious captains to get along, but he was clearly the best person for the job, and probably safer there than he would be here.

We waited for a few minutes, until the communication bracelet I’d wrapped around my wrist chimed. I knew what that meant. We were going to see the start of it any moment now.

I recalled the blueprints once more for a second before dismissing them from my memory. We weren’t entirely sure how things would work, which was one reason we had that many layered plans. Due to the nature of things, field-testing had had to be limited, and we could hardly test against functional Zarian technology in the first place. But I was confident. San Hashar, me and the others had taken the Zarian device the Basement had given us apart down to the smallest piece, made sure we had a good idea what each of the runes did, and put it back together again, several times. There was undoubtedly some way things were going to go pear-shaped, but that was just life.

“The Zarian are moving,” Aston reported a few seconds later. “Apparently, they’re maintaining the same formation as of their last report, and their elite and high stage strike team is sticking with the main army for now.”

I nodded. We’d known there was a chance they wouldn’t actually use their teleport option. We’d just use the grounds we had prepared as best we could. They had to come to us, since we’d occupied a large town at the edge of a low mountain range, at a strategic bottleneck, and put up a fortified base forward of it. That gave us avenues to strike either of two important Zarian cities.

“That information is from Source Beta again?” Yarani asked.

“Yes, my lady.”

Yarani didn’t know who that referred to. For that matter, I wasn’t exactly sure who it was, either. The Basement leader who’d talked to me had been cagey. But I did know the information came from the train of the enemy army.

Unlike the Imperial ones, the Zarian army did bring along people to fill support roles. From what I’d read, half of those were there specifically to service the high-stage senior officers (- seriously, was I the only one who thought bringing servants on campaign was a bad idea?). But from the hints at an unsavory occupation I’d picked up from the Basement member, I suspected the person was either the Zarian army’s main smuggler or madam. Possibly both, I supposed. In any case, she had an in with or maybe dirt on several of the officers, and she’d proved to be well-informed on what the army was doing and where it was going.

Sending us information via her radio was still risky. Even if the Zarian didn’t seem to have figured out how to locate the source of an emission or have cracked our encryption. But when I’d mentioned that, I’d been assured she was aware of the risk and taking it freely.

“I don’t think we need to worry about the reliability of the info,” I said. “But anyway, if they’re moving in together, let’s make sure we can get to the action quickly.”

“We’ve cleared paths, my lady,” Aston said. “The headquarters section is staying with the main base for now, but they’re shifting the right flank. The Basement liasions are falling back.”

I nodded. The Basement leader I’d talked to was a young woman who’d called herself the Zarian word for ‘Spark’, which probably wasn’t her real name. To be fair, she probably hadn’t shown me her real face, either. We weren’t as tightly tapped into the Basement as I’d expected, partly because they’d taken to having Elis do the checking of their members. I was confident he’d tell me anything I really needed to know, and I was okay with it if he wouldn’t give us detailed reports on the Basement’s inner workings. If nothing else, those actually might get leaked.

The Basement was clearly good at operational security. That helped to explain why they were the most prominent and powerful of the ‘underground’ organizations in the Dominion. From what Elis and Kariva had dug up, they had at least connections to several others, too. If I wanted to engineer a regime change, they were where I’d put my money, and the Dominion’s security organs had to know that, too. Under the circumstances, getting Elis and Elia to help them was probably a good idea on its own.

Another chime interrupted my train of thought. I tensed and waited for Aston to check in with his communicator talisman.

“They’ve moved, my lady,” he finally said. “Enemy strike force near Site Two.”

I suppressed a curse. That was some distance from here, and we couldn’t see it from our current vantage point. “Let’s move!”

We wasted no time in taking to the air, although we kept low to the ground while we repositioned. I didn’t need Aston to tell me that the Zarian’s main army had reached the combat zone, too. Smoke was already starting to billow, and I got a good look at the clashing forces around a stony barricade and muddy fields. The sound of explosions reached us as the Zarian soldiers triggered the mines buried there, but their army kept pushing.

The Zarian must have tried for a flanking attack on our main defenses. When we reached the previously agreed upon distance, I slowed down and cycled light qi to my eyes to get a better look.

It appeared they hadn’t quite hit where we’d wanted them. We’d tried to predict the best position for them to emerge and prepared accordingly, but they had come slightly to the side, only partly covered by the prepared field. Maybe our appraisal had been off. Or they could have come at a less than optimal position, by accident or design.

Aston and his guard detail drew the cordon tighter around me and Yarani as we approached. He’d argued against me coming to see the presumed battle in person, but I’d put my foot down. I needed to see with my own eyes how our plan worked out, not to mention poke my own qi senses into the sites to gauge how our hardware performed. I’d take my team to turn over every stone after the battle was over, assuming we could, but right now I was just glad I could be here to see it, anyway.

We were looking down on a roundish approach to the incline housing our main base, flanked by rocky spines. But that meant less than it might have for strong cultivators, and the Zarian elites were already swarming all over the place with scant regard for little things like slopes and cliffs. In this case, though, that arrogance came back to bite them. I could tell many of our buried surprises had already sprung, and they were triggering still more of them, since we hadn’t spared the rougher terrain, either.

Large laser-cannons set up at our firing positions cut into their strike force, depleting their shields. Mines and explosives battered them and churned up the ground, making the footing even worse.

They fought back, of course. Qi attacks, everything from fireballs to ice spears to churning black balls, splattered against the walls, sending dust and debris flying into the air and gouging holes out of the fortifications. But the Imperials kept firing, and kept throwing attacks of their own back.

And then the first Zarian soldiers began to fall.

I advanced carefully, watching them closely. I knew they would have preferred to appear inside our defenses, like they’d done before, but that was out of the cards today. They’d had to divert here, presumably with little notice, and this concerted attack couldn’t be doing their morale any favors. But they were professionals, and they kept fighting fiercely.

I almost fell out of the air when I recognized one of the fighters at the back. Cursing, I grabbed my trusty spyglass from my storage ring and took a closer look. With the battlefield in this state, there was no chance I could pick out his aura with my qi senses, but he hadn’t bothered to disguise his appearance. And the way he moved and fought fit the man I’d seen in Niali.

As I was watching, one of the Imperial soldiers on a rocky protrusion at the edge of the valley stiffened, his eyes starting to roll into the back of his head, his arms starting to twitch. He took a step closer to his companions, then stopped and whirled around.

I turned to Aston. “Quick, get a strike team. That’s the assassin from before! The one in templar robes with blue eyes at the back. We need to cut off his retreat. I’m going in.”

“Your Highness!” Aston managed to catch my arm before I’d taken more than two steps forward along the air corridor he’d created. “We can’t rush in. At least wait for that team.”

“We don’t have time to waste, Aston!” I jerked away from his grasp. “We can’t give him the time to run away. Look, he’s already moving back. We’ll circle around to avoid the battlefield proper. Come on.”

I couldn’t dilute the defenses, and Aston and his detail were the strongest fighters close by. With a burst of focus, I wove a mingled light and darkness technique that should hide us from observations. My guards looked less than happy, but they followed orders, and we started to move closer.

“I’m not sure this is going to work,” Yarani muttered.

She was probably right, but I didn’t say anything.

We moved reasonably quickly, but I could already tell we should have acted earlier. The Zarian were beginning to retreat, maybe even to break. We must have succeeded in blocking teleportation around here, but they could still cut and run the old-fashioned way. And a few were starting to do just that as their casualties mounted, even as most of them held firm and inflicted casualties of our own on the Imperial soldiers.

I dropped the technique I was maintaining as soon as we descended on the area my target was in. It wouldn’t work for much longer, and I needed to use others. Almost immediately, we were pelted by attacks, but the guards kept them off me.

The Auditor’s son looked up and our eyes locked for a moment. His eyes narrowed, and he dashed off. I grew my wings and turned sharply to take up pursuit.

He darted into the cover of the rocks and gorges to the southeast. We had to descend lower than I would have liked not to lose him. But my intuition guided me forward, and while a few of the guards fell back to cover us against the other Zarian, we followed him into the mountains.

I was just starting to catch up to him when something slammed into my arm and deflected it to the side, twisting me around. I spun, beating my wings frantically. A slab of rock loomed to my left. I skimmed against it with my left wing and managed to only impact it with my shoulder, bouncing off. I dismissed my wings and angled myself to land on a flat part of the ground, skimming slightly.

I glanced around, quickly putting the situation together. Yarani had tripped me. Been made to. She landed beside me, her face pale and eyes wide. I stretched out my senses, but I didn’t get a whiff of our quarry.

I swallowed another curse. “We’ve lost him.”

Aston nodded. “We need to leave.”

“Alright.” I took out my flying sword and ascended into the air, arcing back towards the battle. “We should at least make the best of this and catch them in the back.”

Aston looked rebellious. “My lady …”

“I’m not planning to fight myself, don’t worry. Just use a few of your soldiers.”

When we got back closer to the battle, it was pretty clear that it was as good as over. The guards sent a few attacks into them from long range.

That might have been the last straw, and by now most of the Zarian were running. Imperial teams ascended from the base to hunt them down. I noted the number of Zarian who wouldn’t be going anywhere lying on the broken battlefield, but that didn’t lift my mood after our failure. I really wanted to get the Auditor’s son.

Chapter 158 (Draft)

From his expression, I knew right away that Aston wasn’t bringing me good news.

That seemed par for the course. Although he was officially my bodyguard, he’d really been acting as my aide for a long time now. Not that I was going to complain about it. I definitely didn’t want to handle everything he did for me myself.

I sat up straighter and gestured for the scientist I was speaking to to wait. He appeared to have been too caught up in our discussion to notice Aston’s arrival, but now he fell silent and watched with apparent curiosity.

“Bad news, I’m afraid, my lady,” Aston said.

I suppressed a sigh. “Of course they are. I think we’ve covered the high points, anyway, Doctor. I’ll let you get back to work.”

I returned his bow with a nod, then stepped away and out into the corridor. Silently, I followed Aston through the building, until we emerged in the courtyard.

“So, what is this about?” I asked. It couldn’t be good if he didn’t want anyone to listen in.

“I’m afraid the army’s efforts to take Cianing City have failed, Your Highness. In fact, it looks like we suffered a major defeat.”

I pulled a face. That would be our first major defeat of the war, or at least this stage of it. “How bad is it?”

“We only have preliminary appreciations so far, but it seems we’ve lost at least a fifth of the elite force.” Aston didn’t look any happier about the news than I did. “We combined several deployments for this operation, so that force actually represents most of our strength in the south.”

I ran a hand through my hair, scowling at nothing in particular. I knew it could have been worse, but this was already bad enough. We probably still had more elites than the Zarian remaining, but I wouldn’t bet on it, and the reported numbers would probably rise.

Aston led me into the palace proper, and I wasn’t surprised when he turned towards the wing housing our military command. I could already sense Kiyanu there, along with a large number of other strong cultivators.

“Lady Tenira is on her way,” Aston reported. “Do you want me to get Prince Kajare and Lady Yarani, as well?”

I shook my head. “If there’s going to be a larger briefing and meeting later, they should come then, but we should probably keep the attendance lower for this one.”

We reached what appeared to be the designated meeting room quickly. The pair of guards outside came to attention and opened the door for us. I nodded at them and entered, pausing for a moment to get my bearings. It was a pretty large conference room, but it still seemed full with the number of people inside, most of them apparently army officers. Kiyanu, Kariva, Gen, and a few other politicians had gathered at the head of the table, though. I quickly made my way to join them. Before I reached the chair they’d apparently left for me, the door opened again and Tenira entered.

I sank into my seat and waited for everyone to settle down. I could tell that no one was feeling particularly optimistic about this meeting. Instead, by the glances they shot each other and the furtive, hushed conversations that now trailed off, they probably had a good idea what this was about.

Kiyanu cleared his throat, and everyone fell silent. He let us wait for a moment, sweeping his gaze cross the conference table, then spoke. “We have gathered to discuss recent reports from the front. As I understand, our army was defeated outside the city of Cianing. General Tsakan, would you give us the high points?”

The old general sat up straighter and cleared his throat. “Of course, my lord.” He gave the sheet of paper in front of him a short glance. “To put it briefly, our forces were trapped between the defenses of the city and a Zarian task force attacking their rear. We had acquired intelligence about the enemy fortifications, wards and shields, and the plan was to use it to partly bypass them. Apparently, this went wrong. It’s not confirmed yet, but I gather that the Zarian altered their wards in anticipation of our attempts. While our army was mired down trying to take down the qi shield, a force of high-stage soldiers and elites numbering at least two dozen in the seventh stage launched a surprise attack on it. The army had put up defenses to cover their rear, but they were overrun in short order. General Wei led the army through a fighting retreat and fell back to our last secured position in a recently taken town, roughly five leagues towards Niali.”

I leaned back in my chair. That was pretty much what I’d expected. Quietly, I listened as several of the people present asked questions and the news were discussed in more detail. There was nothing particularly surprising about it, although I really didn’t like how badly our alarm wards and defenses had apparently performed.

“It sounds like we’re lucky General Wei got the army out at all,” Tenira said to me in an undertone while they discussed enemy casualty estimates.

I nodded. While I might have mixed feelings about my great-uncle, he’d definitely shown he was a capable general. And we were probably lucky the Zarian had called off the attack, too, although the town’s fortifications would have been much more extensive.

“They’re relying on their elites a lot,” San Hashar noted. She didn’t look nearly as ruffled as many other officers around the table. “That’s very effective against our use of Lighters, since they simply can’t stand up to them. It’s bound to grind away at their elite numbers in the long term, but, of course, that’s mitigated if they can whittle our elites down along with them.”

“It’s an obvious strategy for them, given their teleportation,” I pointed out. “Everything we’ve been able to get indicates that that depends on the number and strength of the cultivators you want to transport. You can think of it like the ‘qi density’ of them. But it’s also more effective for less people. Transporting one elite is easier than transporting ten regulars, even if their strength would amount to exactly the same.”

Heads nodded around the table. Most of them probably knew that already, since the memo I’d written on the topic must have been circulated around the army’s brass.

“How far along are we at turning that particular trump card against them?” Kiyanu asked.

I hesitated and exchanged a glance with San Hashar. “We’re making progress,” I answered. “There’s still quite a lot I’d like to get a handle on, but I suppose we have most of it basically operational. We should be able to start implementing it down south if there’s a pressing need for it.”

“And we could always update our precautions, items, and tactics, as time goes on and we make more progress,” the general added. “Although I’d advocate against wide-scale deployment of our countermeasures yet. They still need refinement and testing.”

“We may not have much time to dither,” General Poteri said. “If your devices are useable, we should start using them as soon as possible, before the momentum turns further against us and the Zarian compound our losses.”

I grimaced. A few other officers spoke up, debating the merits of rushing into things versus wasting time on development. I listened silently, keeping my thoughts to myself.

“Clearly, we need to handle this carefully and make decisions based on individual details,” Kiyanu said. “This is probably a task for a smaller gremium than this meeting. Inaris, do you feel comfortable with taking the results of your efforts south, in principle?”

I frowned, considering the question for a moment. Then I shrugged slightly. “Principally, yes. We shouldn’t rush things, but at the same time, I think trying to be too cautious can hurt us just as much. The first time we use any of our new toys has to be decisive. We don’t want to give them too much time to adapt. I’d like the first indication they have that something is wrong to be catching them in our trap.”

Kiyanu nodded slowly. “That seems ambitious. Of course, this is your project, and I can see the sense in it. I assume you’ll want oversee it personally?”

I nodded. “Yes. I’ll take Tenira and a few of the others, as well, including General San.”

While I wasn’t looking forward to getting back into the thick of the war, or as thick as it ever got for me, this was something I had to do myself.

The meeting continued for over an hour, discussing various aspects of the battle and refining our strategy for the aftermath. I found it harder than usual to sit still and listen attentively. Instead, my mind kept wanting to turn back to my research and development projects and how I might apply them most effectively in the coming conflict. I forced myself to pay attention to the discussion, knowing this wouldn’t be the only meeting today.

It was a little disconcerting to realize I might actually be looking forward to a battle. Not because I was out for revenge against the Zarian or anything like that, but just because it represented an interesting challenge, matching my mind against their military leaders and my team’s efforts against theirs. Well, it probably helped that I wasn’t particularly concerned about my own personal safety. Still, I’d better not make a habit of that.

---

It turned out I was right in my predictions. There were two other meetings I had to attend after this one. The later one was something of a general briefing for everyone who needed to know what had happened and what it could mean, and Kajare and Yarani joined us for that one. Neither of them looked particularly happy about the news, but they didn’t show much surprise, so they must have learned about it before.

Once the meeting was done, the gathered people dispersed. I glanced around as I left. Elia and Lei were heading away together. I couldn’t see Elis, but he might be practicing his shapeshifting and passing for one of the many officials and officers around. I’d pulled my qi senses mostly in because of the number of strong presences around, since I didn’t want to get a headache, and he was good at disguising his aura, anyway.

My three partners and me ended up in my suite. Kajare took a seat while Yarani and Tenira helped me pack my things. I could probably leave the more mundane stuff to the servants, but I needed to sort out my research, paperwork, and various weapons, defensive talismans, and other things I might need. We didn’t talk much.

“It’s a bit of a pain to leave again this soon,” Yarani finally said as we were tidying up the last bits and pieces.

“Yes, I’d hoped we had more time here before we went back,” Kajare agreed.

“It was probably a given we’d have to leave if and when things turned south on us,” I said, sitting down on an armchair.

“That doesn’t mean we need to be happy about it,” Tenira said. “If nothing else, we have things going on.” She glanced at the others, then smiled slightly. “Although, I happen to know Kajare hasn’t visited the Wei townhouse in weeks.”

I raised an eyebrow, looking at my husband. Our conversation on the subject was only a few weeks ago.

Kajare shrugged. “You’re right, I haven’t.”

“Any particular reason?” Yarani asked casually.

He pulled a face, then sighed and sat back in his chair. “You could say I did some soul-searching and thought about what I really wanted. You could say I realized that this wouldn’t be worth it.”

I nodded. Sounds like now that he could have what he wanted, he realized that he’d wanted what he wasn’t supposed to have.But I didn’t say anything about that. I was hardly in a position to be throwing stones.

“That’s probably sensible,” Tenira commented. “Not that I’m any expert on the subject.”

“Deciding that nothing could possibly measure up to Nari, anyway?” Yarani asked. She smirked in my general direction.

Kajare looked a little irked, then he chuckled. “Not really, but now that you mention it, there’s something to that.”

“Uh, thanks for the compliment, you two, I guess?” I said. Were they making fun of me?

At my reaction, Yarani’s smirk widened. “It’s true, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t think I’d be very interested in looking for an illicit liaison, since their performance couldn’t compare, anyway, unless they happen to be a powerful spirit-child.”

One of the disadvantages of having skin this fair was that you blushed easily and obviously. I glowered at Yarani, who looked like a cat who got a whole container of cream at my reaction.

“To get back to the actual subject instead of teasing Nari,” Tenira came to my rescue, “do either of you have anything pressing that you need to complete before we head south?”

They shook their heads, and Kajare stood up, clearly preparing to go pack his things.

“Actually,” I said. “There is one other thing. Tenira, I think it might be better if you stayed home.”

They paused, and she frowned at me. “Why, Nari? I’m going to be of much more help to you if I’m with you, and I’m not letting you go back to war without me.”

I shook my head. “We need to continue with our research projects, especially the stuff we’re putting into use now. I’ll try to get something done, but you know as well as I do that the middle of a war isn’t exactly the best environment for research and development. But I have to go, and so does San Hashar and a few of the others. I need you to stay and keep things going, here.”

Tenira’s frown deepened. She didn’t look happy at that prospect at all. “I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t just let you get back into danger without being there. What if you need me and I’m not there?”

Yarani sighed. “She’s right, Tenira. No offense, but in the war … even without considering the guards, if I can’t help Inaris, you’d just be in the way.”

Tenira made a face. Probably because she knew as well as the rest of us that Yarani was right. “But what if she needs someone with light and darkness affinity qi?” Her tone was just a little petulant.

“Then Lei will be there, and so will several others.”

Tenira sighed, then nodded with obvious unwillingness. “Fine. Alright, I understand. Just come back safely, will you?”

I smiled. “Of course.”

She looked at the others. “That goes for all of you. I’ve strangely grown fond of you.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Yarani said with a wink.

Chapter 157 (Draft)

I stepped forward, took a handful of earth from the pile, and threw it onto the small heap starting to form on top of the coffin. Then I stepped back. The residual dirt clung to my hand, but I resisted the temptation to wipe it off against my pants. Instead, I watched solemnly as the rest of the other people present each added their handful to the grave.

It was a small gathering. Besides me and Al, most of the others were other members of the Imperial guard. I’d been surprised to see San Hashar attend, as well, and she’d even stepped up before most of the others.

Once everyone was done, the closest relation to the deceased, a man who seemed to be in his forties and was apparently a nephew, moved the rest of the earth onto the coffin in one fell swoop with the help of his qi. He stood back and bowed his head. The prayers had all been said, earlier, but now all of the funeral guests took a moment to say their private ones. Except me, since I didn’t really have anything to say, far less anyone I’d have said it to.

There were a few more formulas, and then people slowly started to trickle away. I sighed and looked around. The sun beat down from an annoyingly blue sky. This section of the graveyard, just outside the palace grounds, was reserved for Imperial guards who’d died in the line of duty. Some of the graves held urns filled with ashes instead of coffins, according to their local traditions. Some were empty.

But I didn’t pay them much attention. Instead, I stepped to the side, to the grave directly next to this newest one. Instead of headstones, some regions’ custom was to drive nails into the ground after a set period, spelling out the name of the deceased. I’d missed Lirta Ven’s funeral, just like those of the other guards who’d died with her, since I’d been stranded behind enemy lines at the time.

I looked up to see San Hashar step up to the grave as well, keeping a respectful distance from me, and scatter a handful of dried flowers over it, as you customarily did here instead of using bouquets. She didn’t look at me, but looked silently at the grave. I didn’t know if she was praying, though it didn’t look like it. We stood there for a while without speaking.

“I didn’t know you knew her. Or Ru Lis,” I finally said.

She nodded. “We served together for some time. I’m glad I was able to make it to the funeral.”

The funeral had been delayed because they’d kept Ru Lis’ body for the investigation. Unfortunately, no one had been able to get any further hints of what had happened or how the Auditor’s son had done it, except for the blindingly obvious fact that he used some kind of darkness qi technique. So they’d finally released the body so it could be buried.

“Were you close?” I asked.

San Hashar pulled a face and shrugged. “I kept in contact with Ru Lis, but I wasn’t as close to her as I was to Ven. The two of us actually came from the same neighborhood in Thousand Lights City. The hardscrabble sort that doesn’t give you much in the way of preparation for the army and the social situation we have to deal with.”

“I can imagine,” I commented. “They probably don’t have many real cultivators there.”

“That’s true. Anyway, she somewhat took me under a wing, when we were in the same unit. We actually spent a lot of our time in the army in the same company, until she accepted the transfer to the Imperial guard.” The general smiled wistfully. “I was offered the same opportunity later, but I declined. I’ve always felt my place was with the army’s elites.”

“Well, I think the Imperial guard lost out, but the army is certainly better off for it.” I shook my head. “I never knew her very well, but I’m sorry she had to die that way. I’m sorry for your loss, Hashar.”

Her eyes flickered. That was the first time I’d called her by her first name. While they weren’t considered quite as reserved, especially in the Leri clan, as with old Imperial tradition, it wasn’t the sort of environment where everyone went by given names, either.

“Thank you,” she answered. “I never blamed you for anything, my lady. Ven signed on as a guard gladly, and sometimes things like these just happen.” She sighed, looking at the grave again. “I’m going to miss her, but I think she’d be proud of what she’s accomplished with her life.”

I nodded. “Well, I’m not sure if you heard, but I personally killed the bastard responsible for it, at least.”

The ghost of a smile flickered across her face. “I know.” She hesitated, then shrugged. “I’ve actually opened a school in our old neighborhood, and I named it after her. A boarding school for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, where they can get a good education and help in making something of their lives.”

I blinked, more surprised than I should have been. “That’s certainly a far better tribute.” I chuckled. “And a good legacy. If you want, I could drop by the school. Maybe visit the girls, even give a little speech.”

She smiled. “I’d be honored, and I’m sure everyone in the school will be, too, my lady. I’d be happy to arrange that, when your schedule permits.”

I nodded. I was genuinely impressed with her initiative. A lot of people who’d come up to status and relative wealth wouldn’t have used it for such worthwhile tasks. And she was clearly thinking long-term, trying to get lasting effects. Plus, I would be the first to argue for the value and importance of education. Maybe I should see if the school could use a small donation. And try for something a little more widespread, maybe?

“Well, I’m sure I’ll find the time,” I said. “Especially since our projects seem to be going to well.”

She nodded. “I’d be surprised if it took us more than a few weeks to get the functioning prototype you wanted. I can’t say I’d be unhappy about returning to the front, either.”

“You’ve spent months fighting the Zarian on the Earth Continent, Hashar. I think you deserve a short vacation, or at least time away from the fighting.”

She smiled. “I don’t imagine that means you’ll let me take leave now, does it?”

“Unfortunately not. I’ll try to make it up to you later.”

In fact, although she didn’t know it, a big parcel of the lands fallen to us after the civil war was earmarked for San Hashar. She’d be able to found her own noble clan, if she wanted, and probably open another dozen schools. Of course, I doubted that would be very relaxing.

---

I blinked, waking up slowly, and resisted the urge to turn around. An elbow dug into my left side, and my right leg was trapped under another one. The slow breathing of Yarani and Kajare filled the room, loud in the silence. When I squirmed a little, testing my bonds, Kajare grumbled something in his sleep and shifted, digging his elbow deeper for a moment before his arm slid down my side.

I sighed to myself and carefully extricated myself from the tangle, using my shapeshifting to get my leg out without disturbing Yarani. We didn’t usually all sleep in the same bed, but there’d been a court function yesterday evening. While I’d begged off to work on my research, Kajare and Yarani had attended. They’d both had a little much to drink and apparently decided that it would be a splendid idea to test if my bed was really big and sturdy enough for its lofty role. Being made of qi-infused materials, it had passed with flying colors. They might also have tried to evaluate my own endurance, but I wasn’t sure about that.

I took a quick shower and pulled on a fresh set of clothes, deciding to let them sleep it off. I hadn’t protested (much) when they’d dragged my away from my work, but I should get back to it now. Still, I didn’t feel like heading down to the lab just yet. Instead, I went into the adjacent room and settled into a comfortable armchair, pulling out a few papers from my storage ring. The sun had almost finished rising, giving me more than enough light to read. Although I couldn’t quite muster much enthusiasm for it this morning.

I didn’t get much done by the time I sensed a familiar presence approaching. I put my pen down and waited. Tenira cautiously poked her head into the room from the connecting door to the back passages. I smiled and beckoned her closer, and she returned the smile and entered.

“The other two are still asleep?” she asked quietly as she settled into a sofa.

“Yeah.” I regarded my papers for another moment, then took them, stood up and gave her a kiss before I settled onto the couch with her.

“I might want to try that sometime,” she said. “Sleeping in the same bed, I mean.”

I smiled. “Sure. It’s actually uncomfortable and annoying with several people, even more than one partner. But I guess it can be nice having someone to wake up besides, and the more the merrier, right?”

“As long as the bed will fit us.”

I snorted with a suppressed laugh. “Don’t worry, it will.”

We fell silent, then Tenira busied herself pulling a few papers out of her storage ring. “Anyway, work calls.”

“Doesn’t it always?” I sighed. “I take it there’s something specific you wanted to discuss?”

She nodded. “I’ve been going through the reports of how our people are doing in the newly occupied territories. That led me to take a look at how your strategy with regards to the Storm’s temples in the Empire is progressing.”

“I see. I thought it was going rather well.”

“It is, overall.” She looked up. “I just have a few concerns about what exactly you’re doing, I suppose. I wanted to check back with you in case that was something we should get on top of.”

“Alright. Basically, I still want to do what we’ve been trying all along. Convince people to distance themselves from Jideia and his worship, to accept that we’re putting pressure on them, and steadily increasing that economic and political pressure on the temples.”

“And you’re spreading propaganda in order to influence public opinion.”

“I wouldn’t call it that.” At her look, I cleared my throat and scratched my cheek. “Okay, yes, we are. Mostly just telling the truth, though. But with a concerted PR effect. And, fine, maybe a little less than complete probity in a few cases. But we’re talking about someone who’s routinely been trying to assassinate me, and I’m trying to do what I can to effectively fight back.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, but this one is a little …” She slapped down one of the papers and raised her eyebrows. “I mean, really. ‘Jideia is getting depressed because his Zarian keep losing.’”

I shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

Tenira crossed her arms. “You’re not seriously trying to, what, give the Storm depression by communal belief?”

I grinned. “That’s what they call ‘psychological warfare’, Tenira. Very important facet of warfare, you should look it up.”

She groaned.

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. And it might actually work, at least to some extent. We don’t lose anything by trying.”

Tenira rolled her eyes, but smiled. “I suppose the pun was actually halfway clever. And you’re right. If you’re not afraid of us looking ridiculous, there’s no harm in doing this.”

“Believe me, that’s par for the course in politics and this kind of consideration. You’d be surprised what level of ridiculous people are willing to swallow in large numbers.” I pulled a face. “Actually, considering the difference in education level, people here are probably even more likely to fall for something than what I’m used to. Although I may be doing common sense a disservice.”

Tenira shook her head. “Well, I won’t argue with you about that.”

She put the paper away and sat back in the couch with a little sigh. After a moment, she turned so that she leaned against me. I smiled and lightly ran a hand through her hair. She shifted and settled deeper into me, and I put an arm around her waist. We cuddled silently for a few minutes.

“Have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate you and everything you’ve been doing for me?” I asked.

Tenira chuckled. “I don’t know, love. Feel free to say it some more.”

“Well, I do. Even when you’re getting cheeky with me.”

“Me, cheeky?” she asked in a tone of wounded innocence. “My lady, I would never dream of possibly giving you cheek. Why, the very thought of pointing out when you might act in a less than perfect manner, much less risk making a faulty decision, would never occur to me.”

“Naturally.” I sniffed. “I would never make a wrong decision, now would I?”

Tenira turned so I could see her grin. “Of course not. There’s no way I, being the devoted consort that I am, could dispute such a statement.”

I smiled at her, then sat up a little straighter. I’m not going to get a better moment anytime soon, I think. “And speaking of being a devoted consorts, there was something I wanted to ask you.”

Tenira leaned back so we could see each other better, her expression now serious and expectant. “Yes, Nari?”

I took a deep breath, sternly telling my pulse to slow down. Funny how I felt more nervous than before most battles. But I didn’t let myself hesitate for too long. I’d only start thinking about why it was a bad idea to have this conversation now.

“Will you marry me?”

Tenira’s eyes widened a fraction, then she started to smile. “I’ve been wondering if that was coming,” she said. Hesitantly, she reached out a hand and brushed my cheek. “Are you sure, Nari?”

I nodded firmly. “Of course I am. I’m not saying we should get married right away. I know the timing isn’t good. But later, even if it’s after the war.”

She leaned forward and gave me a lingering kiss. “I’d be happy to, love,” she said softly. “Really happy.”

“Good.” I grinned at her.

She sat back a little and shook her head. “Well, you deciding to marry another woman - or two - isn’t going to fit everyone’s expectations. But, of course, I know better than to expect you to care in the least about honoring tradition or following norms rather than just doing what you want.”

I shrugged, still grinning. “You do know me well.”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “And I suppose you’d want to marry Yarani after you marry me.”

“That would probably be easier,” I agreed.

“Well, I’m alright with it if she and Kajare are.” Tenira smiled again and put a hand at the back of my neck, pulling me towards her. “Now, we have something better to do than discuss the details.”

Work, I decided, really could wait.

Chapter 156 (Draft)

“This is the most complicated piece of formation work I have ever seen, my lady. Few talismans channel that much qi, and they probably invented several completely new patterns.” San Hashar smiled. “It shouldn’t be a problem.”

I returned her smile as she took a step away from the table with the Basement’s gift on it. One of the main reasons I’d decided to come back was to get it to a good team for analysis. San Hashar had just arrived from the Earth Continent, as well, and I hadn’t hesitated to involve her. She might not have more than a basic understanding of formations, but she was one of the people who knew the most about spatial qi. She had the most practical experience, certainly.

“That’s good,” I said. “I agree that compared to this, our own modest efforts look like a child doodling in sand. But I see no reason we shouldn’t be able to figure it out.”

She nodded. “It’s not going to be quick, my lady. But I’m sure we’ll be able to get something from it. Maybe we’ll even be able to reverse-engineer it in time.”

“Actually, right now I’m thinking I’d like to be able to design a method to stabilize space in a location and block them from teleporting in,” I said. “And maybe getting a way to divert one of their transits, if that’s possible.”

San Hashar leaned against the wall, frowning thoughtfully. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and instead gestured invitingly at one of the several chairs standing in the room, while I took a seat in another one. She waited until I’d sat before taking her own chair.

From outside, muted conversations floated in, though we were alone in the room for the moment. Tenira had gone away to check on another project, but would be back shortly. The lab seemed a little less lively than before the war, but if I focused on it, I could still sense the qi of the researchers and some of the things they were working in spread throughout the building. The sun shone through the windows, which offered a glimpse of the courtyard beside the lab, currently empty.

“I can see where that would be extremely useful,” she said. “The Zarian would probably catch on quickly, but if we could divert at least one of their major strikes into a trap …” She shook her head. “And it would force them to be more careful about deploying them, restricting their tactic.”

“Right,” I agreed. “We might not even need something like that for an effective trap, though baiting them into one would be tricky.”

San Hashar nodded thoughtfully. “I couldn’t help but notice that we’ve accelerated production on chemical explosives. Not just grenades for the Lighters, too, but others.”

“Like landmines, yes.” I ran a hand through my hair.

Since the start of the war, my own R&D efforts, and many others, had shifted considerably. That was annoying, of course, but I’d discovered that I could easily roll with it. Designing landmines was about as fun as designing telephone poles, even if I found that a little troubling when I reflected on it. I guess I’m mostly bothered that I’m not really bothered. Which doesn’t make much sense, and I probably shouldn’t worry about it.

“They’re probably not going to be all that effective against Zarian soldiers, especially those in the higher stages,” San Hashar warned. “Qi-based ones one probably be more effective.”

“I know, but they’re going to be less easily detected, aren’t they?”

“It’s relatively common for operations teams to have at least one member who can check the ground, my lady,” she said, then frowned. “Or, at least, it used to be. I suppose there’s not much in that way happening in the current war. It does have different parameters from earlier conflicts. But there’ll still be cultivators with very good senses, who might be able to pick up any traps, unless they’re buried deeply enough that it will make them less effective. But I suppose it’s a different matter when they use spatial transfers.”

I nodded. “That was my thought, too. They almost certainly can’t check the ground before they transit, at least not very well. They’ll have to jump in without being able to sense those sorts of traps.”

She smiled. “Combined with a few other tricks, I think that could make for a very nasty surprise.”

I certainly hoped so. But we had quite a lot of work ahead of us if we wanted that to happen.

A knock on the door interrupted my musings. I turned to see Lei opening the door.

“Sorry to bother you,” he said. “Inaris, you said you wanted to know when Kajare arrived. It seems he just returned. He’s in the main building, according to Li.”

“Oh, good. Thanks.” I looked at San Hashar. “I think we were just about finished here, anyway. Feel free to set up and get with the other members of the team.”

“Of course, my lady.”

My thoughts were already turning to my husband as I left the room and hurried out of the lab building, greeting the people I met in the corridors with absent nods. Aston was on break at the moment, but my current guards fell in around me. We quickly made our way up to the main building, and I headed for where I could sense my husband, in his private quarters. The guards peeled off to stand watch outside as I knocked.

“Come in,” he called.

I entered to find Kajare rising from a comfortable armchair, his outer robe draped across another chair’s back and his shoes kicked off to the side.

“Nari.” He smiled and extended his arms, but there was a question in his eyes. “It’s good to see you. You must have missed me more than I thought.”

I returned his smile, reciprocated the hug and gave him a quick kiss. Then I stepped back and settled into one of the chairs, waiting until he sat down again, as well.

“I know you weren’t gone that long, Kajare,” I said. “But it seems there’s a few things we should talk about.”

His face tightened. Of course, no one would be happy to hear a ‘we should talk’ from their partner. “Has something happened?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Not really, this is more about what happened before you left. And before I say anything else, just to be clear, I’m not accusing you of anything. But I’ve been approached by someone because they were concerned about your actions, and how they might be perceived. So I thought we should talk it out and decide how to handle it.”

He nodded slowly. From his expression, he suspected where this was going. “Of course.”

“Apparently, you’ve been visiting the Wei,” I continued. “And you’ve spent a lot of time with a girl from that clan, a Wei Shu. Enough to attract notice, it seems.”

Kajare shook his head. “This is from Wei Min, isn’t it?”

I shrugged, not answering the question. “Is there anything to these suspicions?” I asked. I noticed his face tightening and raised a hand. “I’m not angry, Kajare. I’m certainly not going to rip your head off, literally or otherwise, even if there is.” I paused. “But I do want you to be honest with me.”

He looked at me in silence for a few seconds, clearly considering his answer. Finally, his shoulders relaxed a little and he sank backwards into his chair. “Yes and no, Nari,” he said. “I’m not particularly interested in Wei Shu. If anything, I was using her as a cover, for her brother, Wei Qiang.”

I sat up straighter in surprise and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were interested in men,” I commented, keeping my tone light.

He pulled a face and shrugged. “Well, I’ve had a little experience being with other men, back home,” he acknowledged. “But I prefer women. Pretty conclusively, or so I would have said until recently.”

That didn’t really surprise me, and I’d even suspected he was less than completely straight. But that didn’t matter much at the moment. “So you tried to hide that with the help of his sister?” I couldn’t help but sound dubious. This didn’t make much sense to me.

“You know as well as I do that the idea of two men together is still less accepted than a traditional couple in the Empire, or even two women, even if it’s not as bad as in Terbekteri.” He shrugged. “Well, she’s beautiful and charming. I figured it wouldn’t really seem strange if I were to be taken by her a little.”

I frowned. This was all well and good, but I still felt a cold little ball inside me that kept growing while we talked. “And what did you actually do?” I asked.

He met my gaze as calmly as he probably could under the circumstances. “Nothing happened, Inaris. Not like that.” He hesitated, then admitted, “Well, we did kiss.”

I didn’t like the idea of him kissing someone else, I discovered, but it wasn’t exactly a vehement reaction, at least. I felt more annoyed than affronted. I sighed. “Okay. Thanks for being honest about it. We still need to decide what happens now.”

“I didn’t expect it to blow up like this,” he admitted after a moment. “I didn’t think people would be this touchy about what I might do.I mean, it’s not like anyone saw me actually do anything untoward with Wei Shu. Sure, we were together in relative privacy, a few times, but still … “

Oh, come on. I snorted. “And how would you expect Salira to react in a situation like this?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“You’re in a woman’s position now, Kajare,” I said more gently. “Or what’s traditionally one, anyway.”

“I didn’t think I was that sexist.” He smiled wryly and shook his head.

“You’re not that sexist,” I assured him. I shrugged. “You’re thinking like a Terbekteri prince instead of an Imperial consort.”

He nodded, a bit glumly. We fell silent. After a moment, I caught him muttering to himself. “This is rubbish. It’s not …” He trailed off.

“Fair?” I asked. “It’s not fair that supposedly I can have several partners but you can’t?”

There was another moment of silence, more fraught this time. He pulled a face. “I didn’t mean it like that, Nari.”

“I thought you didn’t have a problem with my consorts.”

“I don’t, really.” He shrugged. “I like them. I don’t have a problem with you being with them. I just, I don’t know, I don’t like being someone whose lady has other consorts?”

So he was okay with it personally, but didn’t like it in terms of status, in a social sense? I supposed that was fair enough. I let the silence drag on for a bit, considering what to do, how I felt.

“Our marriage vows didn’t stipulate faithfulness,” I finally said.

“I know.” Kajare frowned. “I knew what I was getting into, Inaris. I’m not complaining about that.”

I sighed again, running a hand through my hair. I really wished I could avoid this entire conversation, but unfortunately, just up and leaving wouldn’t take care of the problem. And it was pretty clear I couldn’t just ignore this issue.

“I can’t pretend I wouldn’t be jealous,” I said after a while. “I’m already feeling a little annoyed. But I could get used to it. I suppose, if you reallywant to be with this Wei Qiang, I’m not going to stop you. As long as you’re careful.”

His eyes widened a little. “Really? You’d be alright with it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t like it, but still. I want you to be happy more than I want to keep you for myself, or to avert any possible scandal.”

He sat back in his chair, just looking at me for a second. Then he shook his head. “I’m not sure what to say, Nari.” His lips twisted a little. “Or what to do, actually.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” I smiled again, trying not to show how I was less than pleased by this whole thing. “Just don’t sneak around and make trouble behind my back.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I assure you you don’t need to worry about that!” Then his expression turned serious again. “You’ve given me quite a bit to think about, Nari.”

I stood up, sensing that the conversation was at its end. “I’ve heard somewhere that thinking is supposed to be good for you. I’ll see you around, Kajare.”

“Of course, Nari.”

Once I left the room, I took a deep breath and folded my hands as I started walking. Maybe I hadn’t realized quite how much I actually cared about Kajare. I’d known it was more than that, but I definitely wouldn’t be feeling like this if it was still only friendship and occasional fun between us. Well, that’s probably a good thing, given that we’re married and all. I snorted, smiling to myself a little.

I shook my head and decided to go back to the lab. I still had other meetings to go to later, but I had enough time to get a bit of work done. Although, later I’d drop by AIki Ilia and see what information she could give me on the situation in the Wei clan. The more I understood about it, the better.

And maybe I should talk to Gen, as well, and let him know the situation was being handled. I’d never really liked the man, since we seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot when Mother was in closed cultivation, but he had acted pretty decently in this case. I should try to cultivate a good relationship with him, anyway.

I sighed and ran hand through my hair, absentmindedly nodding at the people getting out of my way. When did my life get so complicated?

Chapter 155 (Draft)

Little An whooped, laughing and squirming enough that I had to carefully adjust my position to avoid overbalancing.

“This is great, Big Sister!” she called.

I grinned, not that she could see it. The wind rushed past my face, and I had to shake my head to get a few errant strands of hair out of my eyes. “Careful, or I might drop you,” I warned her.

My little sister didn’t seem to hear me. Instead, she turned her head from side to side, clearly watching the countryside rushing past us. We were coming upon the mountains, so I pumped my wings harder, rising further into the air. Since I was carrying her weight in addition to my own, I was using a bit of air qi to help me fly.

A few guards accompanied us, though they kept some distance. I hadn’t argued with Aston about that. If I should by some freak chance drop An, I wanted them able to catch her. Not that that was likely. I’d lengthened and modified my arms and legs somewhat to suit my current occupation, and she was held securely within a set of bird-like claws with comfortably soft lining.

“Hold still for a moment, and I’ll try something new,” I suggested, slowing down and coming to a stop in midair.

She nodded and actually managed to hold still long enough for me to disengage one of my arms, grab two lengths of rope from my storage ring, and get them in place with the help of my domain. I could have tried to use shapeshifting, but the more I diverged from a normal humanoid form, the harder it was for me, and I probably wouldn’t be able to handle moving these extra protrusions in more complex motions very well. After a minute, I had the base of my wings tethered to her arms.

“Now you can actually guide our flight yourself,” I said. “I’ll move with you. Come on, try it out.”

She didn’t leave me waiting, and immediately flapped her arms a little too quickly. I had to compensate for her motions myself before we went spiraling off. It took a few tries for An to get the hang of it, but soon, we were gliding through the air, only a little more wobbly than before.

“This is awesome!” she called.

I smiled again, and resolved to find other fun things to do. After months in the south, going from the jungle to army camps to battlefields, playing with my little sister was a great way to get some rest and relaxation.

We looped and twisted our way through the air for over an hour, until the sun started to paint the horizon red and the sky noticeably darkened. Despite An’s protests, I turned to head back. While the dark wouldn’t be a problem for me, it would take half the fun out of it and she should get back inside.

As we landed on an outer terrace of the palace, Yarani pushed off the wall and ambled towards us. “You look like you had fun,” she commented.

“It was great, Aunt Yarani!” An exclaimed.

My girlfriend winced theatrically. “Please, don’t call me that, I don’t feel that old. Yarani, or Sister Yarani if you want, that would be more fitting, I think.” She smiled at me. “But you really made me think about trying that for myself at some point.”

“You should,” An agreed. “It’s a lot of fun. I’m sure Nari would take you, right?”

“Of course.”

“And I see youfound a good use for that rope you carry around,” Yarani said with a twinkle in her eyes.

I glared at her for a moment, but luckily, An didn’t seem inclined to ask why Yarani knew I carried rope. “I try to be prepared, and it can come in useful.” Of course, I hadn’t before I started venturing into rough living without the convenience of my own quarters, but a lot of boring waiting, accompanied by my partners.

“I know,” Yarani agreed seriously. “You’re always prepared totake on trouble.”

An seemed to get bored of the conversation and started to amble away, so I stepped closer to Yarani. I allowed myself a small smirk and said in a quieter voice, “You’re just asking to get to know it even better, aren’t you?”

Yarani smiled with a less than repentant gleam in her eyes. “Tonight?”

Before we could make any plans, Aston cleared his throat. If he hadn’t pulled his aura in a little further than usual, I wouldn’t have realized he felt anything besides boredom listening to us. “Your Highness, we’ve just received a message. The Chancellor requests your presence at your earliest convenience.”

I rolled my eyes, but nodded. “Alright, I’m on my way.”

I bid a quick goodbye to Xiaodan, who was now examining a particularly pretty flower, and left. Yarani stayed behind and started to talk to her, but I only picked up the first few words before I focused my attention on other matters. I hurried up, since this sounded like it might be urgent. The Chancellor’s aura was easy to locate, around where his office would be in the main building.

When I arrived, his secretary ushered me into the office right away while Aston and the others peeled off to stand guard, and Gen rose from behind his desk with a smile. It was quite big and cluttered with papers, but still looked small in the large space.

He bowed. “Imperial Princess. Thank you for coming so promptly. Please, have a seat if you’d like. Would you care for refreshments?”

I sat down and shook my head. “No, thank you. It sounded like this was urgent.”

He chose a chair facing me at an angle in a more comfortable nook rather than sitting behind his desk. “I suppose it’s not all that urgent, really, Your Highness, but I would prefer to deal with this matter right away. It concerns your husband, Prince Kajare.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I thought he’d integrated rather well into Imperial society and the court.”

“He has,” the Chancellor agreed, “in general. He’s quite popular with most of the younger nobles, even if some of the more conservative elements dislike his foreign origins. Or question his masculinity or backbone, not to put too fine a point on it, given the … situation with your consorts.” He cleared his throat.

I pulled a face, but nodded. I didn’t like it if some sexist old nationalists wanted to denigrate Kajare, but it didn’t sound like a big problem, and he’d probably want me to stay out of it and let him handle himself.

“Be that as it may, Your Highness,” Gen continued, “he has always behaved in just the proper way. Until recently, at least. Some recent events have been brought to my attention that might prove to be a problem, especially if they came to be commonly known.” He looked even more uncomfortable. “I would hesitate to cast any aspersions on his honesty or fidelity, of course. Nevertheless, I’m sorry to say there seems to be at least the possibility that there is reason for concern.”

I frowned. Hopefully he wasn’t trying to tell me that Kajare had cheated on me? For a given definition of ‘cheating’. I leaned back in my chair and cocked an eyebrow. “How so?”

He seemed to take some heart from my calm reaction. “He has spent quite a lot of time with a young lady, especially in a private setting. Strolls through her clan’sgardens, that sort of thing. On two occasions, he even sent his guards away to ensure privacy.”

I frowned again. “I don’t really see a problem. But, Chancellor, why are you the one telling me this? And where did you learn of it?”

“I was approached by Wei Min,” he confessed. He shrugged a little. “The young lady in question is Lord Wei’s first cousin, Wei Shu. He was honestly concerned, and given the delicate situation, I completely understand why he would worry. He said that given that, and the scope of the matter, he didn’t quite feel he should bother the Regent with it.”

“And I presume he didn’t go to Kariva with it because he was afraid how she would react and wanted to protect his clan,” I realized. And she might really think in terms of removing the offending woman. I tapped my fingers on my chair, considering Gen.

I think I may have underestimated him.I wouldn’t have expected him to take the role of go-between for such a delicate matter, or the delicate touch it required.

“I’m far from convinced that there’s anything to worry about,” I said. “But thank you for bringing it to my attention, and I’ll talk to Kajare about it as soon as he gets back from the coast. I suppose I should talk to Wei Min, as well. Is he here?”

Gen shook his head. “No, Your Highness. He was called away on an urgent matter to clan Wei’s estate. He informed me that he’d returned soon. Likely around the same time that His Highness will. That is why I intended to talk to you now.”

I nodded. If there might be even a small chance of some kind of confrontation between them, that made sense. And he might want to let me keep this meeting discreet, come to think of it.

“Well, I should probably talk to Kariva, then. Not to be rude, but if you know about this, I wouldn’t bet against her knowing, as well.” I stood up.

Gen rose politely. “Of course, Your Highness. I’m at your service if there’s anything else I can do.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember that.” I smiled at him, then turned and left the office.

As I walked through the corridors of the palace, trailed by Aston, I barely noticed the passing officials and secretaries. This sounded like it had the possibility to be a bit tricky. I really should have talked things out with Kajare, made sure we have established guidelines and boundaries, I told myself, frowning a little to myself. But this is probably more of a problem in terms of public perception and reputation.

I blinked, realizing that I’d taken a right turn only a second after I actually had. The way to Kariva’s office would have been straight ahead, but I could dimly sense her presence ahead and above. I hurried up a little and left the building through a side door onto an upper terrace.

Kariva didn’t see particularly surprised to see me when I joined her on a little alcove that was positioned to overlook most of the palace grounds and the side of the mountain. It was sheltered by a few trees, and I felt her put up a qi shield as she turned to see me.

She bowed. “My lady.”

I smiled and inclined my head. “Kariva. Do you have a minute?”

She returned the smile. “I’ll take that as a rhetorical question.”

I settled down on a conveniently placed boulder, watching as Aston and his guard detail distanced themselves somewhat. Kariva looked at me with an expressionless face.

“Do you know anything about why Wei Min might have conferred with someone at the palace?” I asked bluntly.

She didn’t twitch at all. “I suspect I do, yes. If he has concerns about the company your husband has recently kept among his clan, when he dropped by their townhouse. Who did he talk to? Kiyanu? No, I don’t suppose so. Gen?”

I raised an eyebrow, suitably impressed. It was probably proof of his own old skills that Wei Min had managed a private conversation here without her knowledge. Unless she’d known all along and was putting on a show. I wouldn’t put it past her.

“So do I have any reason to worry?” I asked.

“I can’t be entirely sure what would prompt you to worry, my lady.” Kariva smiled with what might be genuine humor. “But I doubt it. He hasn’t done anything very indecorous.” She paused, and her gaze sharpened. “Or did you mean me? I rather dislike being thought of a loose cannon, you know.”

I crossed my legs, waving my hand dismissively. “I don’t, of course.”

“Of course.” Kariva smiled again. “And it was simply caution and curiosity that caused you to go straight to me, to see if I might know or have acted on something further.”

“Pretty much.” I met her gaze steadily. I really didn’t think of her as a loose cannon. The idea was ridiculous. She was too cold and calculating for that. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t act on her own.

“Oh, I know.” She took a step closer, crossing her hands behind her back. “And I don’t suppose I should be surprised, given everything. You do handle your people well, generally.”

I narrowed my eyes. Ever since our last somewhat blunt conversation, I felt like the dynamic between us had shifted a little. I didn’t know if she felt we were in a pissing contest, or she was testing me, or just messing around. Maybe all of it. But I didn’t really mind.

“How so?” I asked.

Kariva raised an eyebrow. “Did you think it wouldn’t occur to me to wonder how a naturally reclusive introvert,” she said drily, “managed to, somehow, form a friendship with the sea dragons, get not one but three romantic partners, build and effectively lead several research teams, gain the loyalty of various highly skilled people, and actually defeat much stronger cultivators using nothing but words on several occasions?”

I paused. Laid out like that, it sounded pretty conspicuous. And I couldn’t really quibble with any of her points. “Because of the Moon’s bloodline, obviously?” I suggested.

She waved a hand dismissively. “That might be, but it’s beside the point and not of much practical relevance here.”

I suspected her point was to show that she’d figured me out. “So, you think I’m secretly a good manipulator, or what? Or that I lack strength?”

Kariva rolled her eyes. “You’re never going to be more than middling as a fighter, Princess Inaris. Oh, your talents and abilities let you compensate for that very well. But if someone like, say, your little brother, had your bloodline abilities, then in a match, he could kill you in five different ways before you finished your first attack. And I could care less about it, personally. But face up to it, my lady. Your real strength is in inventing things and in getting people to do what she wants.”

I looked at her thoughtfully. She was the first person who’d ever said that in so many words, but it wasn’t like her words came as a complete shock to me. “And that’s obviously better?” I asked, more of a rhetorical question.

“Well, which skillset do you think is more useful for an empress, that or a warrior’s?” Kariva shook her head and stepped back. “I do have work to get back to. If you’ll excuse me, my lady?”

I nodded and watched her go for a few seconds. I think she has figured me out pretty well. Not that that should come as a surprise.

Chapter 154 (Draft)

I was right. By the time soldiers reached where the attacker had to have been, he had disappeared and left no clues behind. Maybe it would have been different if the kilometers between us had been open field, but this was a city. And a foreign, newly occupied one at that.

I stayed at the scene of the crime, jumping down from the roof and joining Al and the soldiers around him.

“Well, at least no one else died,” my brother said. He conspicuously didn’t look at the body of his bodyguard. “But this won’t be the last we see of this, will it?”

“Xiaodan!” I turned to Aston, as always my trusty shadow. “Pass the message. I want her security on high alert. And her guard detail increased. They can pull guards from the palace if they have to. In fact, tighten security around everyone who could be considered part of my inner circle.”

“Yes, my lady.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, glancing at the sky, which was clear except for a few clouds. I wanted to find a quiet place and go to sleep. But it was mid-morning here, and it would be the middle of the day at Xiaodan’s location, which meant no one I wanted to talk to would be asleep.

I’d made sure the estate housing my little sister had a telephone, of course. But our new communications infrastructure was still restricted to the Empire proper, without a connection to or through the Yellow Graves. Still, word would be passed quickly. And I didn’t really think she was in danger, not just because my intuition didn’t send any warnings, but because of the distance and logistical difficulties that would be involved in any attack on her.

But even if she was safe, the fact that the Storm’s people had struck at Al represented a new level of escalation. It clearly wouldn’t fulfill their primary goal of taking me out, but they might want to put me off balance for new attempts on me. Assuming this wasn’t just a political move.

We waited in silence for further news. As expected, the patrols sent out failed to turn up any sign of the other Auditor’s son. At least we can be fairly sure he isn’t hanging around to try for a follow-up attempt.

“Kiyanu is not going to be pleased at the idea of you going deeper into the Dominion with the soldiers,” Al finally said.

I pulled a face and nodded. “Yes. And he’d probably have a point. In fact, I’mnot happy about you being this close to them.”

Al’s eyes widened. “But, Nari …”

“No,” I cut him off. “They tried to kill you, Al. They’ll try again if they have the opportunity. I’m sending you north for now.”

He frowned, looking like he really didn’t like that idea but couldn’t deny the logic behind it. “But I like being here, and I’m learning a lot. I don’t want to give that up.”

“I know, but your safety takes priority. We’ll figure something out, Al. Maybe we can find a place for you somewhere in one of the other territories close to the action but reasonably safe. For that matter, maybe a stint with the development and production facilities or the training camps would do you good, if you’re serious about learning. But you’re not staying here, and that’s final.”

He was still frowning, but nodded. “Yes, Elder Sister.”

And I may just go with you, I thought. For all that I’d threatened the attacker, and I definitely intended on following through with those threats, I didn’t particularly feel like staying and presenting a target for further attacks, myself. And more importantly, I wanted to touch base, and it was about time for me to get back to the capital, anyway.

Before I could continue the conversation, a stir in the people surrounding us captured my attention, and I turned just in time to watch Tenira land and pack up her flying sword. A group of guards accompanied her and spread out, now. A moment later, Elia and Yarani touched down, as well.

Tenira headed straight for us. She laid a hand on Al’s shoulder, but looked at me when she spoke. “It looks like things are getting dangerous here.”

“Yeah.” I smiled just a bit grimly. “They definitely are. Still, I suppose we could take it as a good sign. After all, the Zarian wouldn’t go to these extremes if they were confident of a military victory, would they?”

Tenira and Al both nodded, but from their expressions, it was clear they weren’t about to start singing and dancing for joy at that observation.

---

“It’s good to see you again, Inaris.” Kiyanu’s smile appeared completely genuine, but there was still a bit of tension around his eyes.

I smiled back. “Same, Kiyanu. I hope things have been going well here?”

“Not quite as well as your campaign, I’m afraid,” he replied. “But well enough.”

He sat down in an armchair and waved at the other seats. I chose a chair and settled down, glancing around. He appeared to share Mother’s fondness for open sky. We were sitting on an open terrace on the upper level of the palace, although someone had erected a wall made of qi that acted as a one-way mirror, allowing us to look outside, and probably shielding our conversation.

“I didn’t expect you to come back this quickly,” he said. “But given what happened, I’m glad you did. Do you have any new information on that assassin?”

I shook my head. “Nothing you haven’t already had a report on, I’m sure.”

I’d headed home quickly, and took along all of my partners and friends, plus Elis. It wasn’t like the army really needed me to be there, and I could tell Kiyanu meant what he said.

“It’s certainly a concerning development,” he said. “We’ll have to increase our security arrangements, if nothing else. Whatever technique or ability they used is going to make this difficult. If they can control anyone …”

“It is,” I agreed. “So far, the victims have been in the low stages. That’s probably a limit imposed by the spirit-child’s ability. But if it is, then it might shift if he grows stronger. Or with help.”

Kiyanu frowned. “You’re probably right. Do you think our present guard details are effective?”

“Yes. I very much doubt that they could subvert an Imperial guard. Those are all in much higher stages, and I wouldn’t write off their resistance training, either. Besides, if my enemies could have done that, they would have. As the first strike, before we knew it was possible.”

He nodded slowly. “Certainly a good point. And I imagine they might find it a bit difficult to get to you within the Empire proper, too. Do you think this man is acting alone?”

I snorted. “I definitely hope so. But I don’t think there’s any question he was working for Jideia. Again. And it’s at least possible that he was intentionally meant to be a weapon for the Storm.” I pulled a face. “In which case, his father is likely to have produced a few other children, too. So there may be more people with an ability like that.”

Kiyanu nodded. “True.”

We were both silent for a minute, contemplating that prospect and the situation. I looked out over the palace, which was still bustling, and felt a bit of wistfulness. I hadn’t been gone all that long, but a lot had happened over the last few months. For that matter, a lot had happened over the last two years. It was a little odd to realize that it had only been a little over two years since my soul journey, considering everything that had taken place since then. I’d almost died several times, learned and done a lot of things and met a lot of people, and even the geopolitical situation on Aran had shifted greatly.

“Things are under control here?” I asked.

“Of course. No noble is going to take any chances for the foreseeable future.” His lips curled a little, I noticed. “And while we’ve had a few more visits from foreign envoys, there haven’t been any notable developments.”

I nodded. He’d kept me informed, so I knew what was going on in that regard. “I guess the Empire is attracting more attention because of the way things are going. As long as they don’t try to steal data on our innovations, it shouldn’t matter.”

Kiyanu snorted. “They’re probably going to try. But Kariva has taken comprehensive measures to protect sensitive information. We probably won’t be able to keep everything we have a mystery, but the truly critical parts should be safe enough.” He paused for a moment. “You should probably speak to her, yourself. In regards to the situation down south, too.”

“I will, of course.”

We kept talking for a few more minutes, getting into a few details, but it was apparent that we’d said what we really wanted to say. Kiyanu excused himself for a meeting with the Chancellor quickly. I smiled to myself as I stood and left the terrace. He was clearly keeping just as busy as Mother had, but that was a good thing. And we are working well together.

I decided to take his advice and go talk to Kariva, so I headed to the building which housed her organization. I considered waiting for Tenira, but she was probably busy enough already, and I usually preferred dealing with Kariva on my own. Not because there would be any problem between the two, they were actually relatively closely related for a clan like this and seemed to work together well, but it was simply easier if I didn’t have to think about managing the reactions and perceptions of anyone else.

Again, Kariva’s subordinates greeted me with exquisite courtesy and showed me into her office, which was currently empty. I took a seat and waited for her to come back, but I didn’t have to wait long. Two minutes later, she entered and bowed deeply.

“It’s good to see you again, my lady,” she greeted me.

I nodded. “Same. First off, is there anything urgent you need to tell me?”

“There are several things I should mention, but I’m sure we’ll get to that,” she replied, taking a chair opposite me.

We paused while she waved her hand and got a teapot and two cups flying out of a closet onto a side table. I watched as she poured tea for me, then nodded my thanks and took a sip. Adzurian black, as expected.

Kariva poured herself another cup and sipped from it with every evidence of enjoyment. Which I wouldn’t take as any kind of proof that she didn’t actually hate it. I waited for another moment, measuring how long I should take before I spoke. I knew neither of us really cared about the window dressing, but we were both sending the appropriate signals to each other, anyway.

“Thank you for your work down south,” I finally said. “How would you assess Elis and what he brings to the table?”

“He’s quite good, especially for what’s essentially a self-taught amateur,” she answered promptly. “And it’s not simply his bloodline abilities, either. Unfortunately, I don’t think he hardened his network enough against disruptions, like his unanticipated departure and what went with it, so the actual value of what intelligence assets he has is going to be limited. The Zarian will either purge his contacts, block his connections, or subvert them, depending on the details of the situation. Obviously, the information he’s already gathered and passed on to us is a different matter, but anything they can easily modify, they will.”

“I understand.” I took another sip and watched her watching me with a properly attentive expression. “I have every confidence in your ability. Don’t let him be harmed or turn him against us, but you have a free hand in working with him otherwise.”

“Of course, my lady.” She smiled slightly.

I sat back and considered for a moment. I wouldn’t usually call talking to Kariva simple. If I met her without a clear game plan and attention, she’d bend me into a pretzel and then eat me for breakfast. But in a way, it was almost relaxing. Some of the parameters I had to pay attention to for normal conversations were missing, even if there were others instead.

At least there’s no need to waste much time on niceties or frills, I reflected.I don’t need to pretend that we’re friends, we can just get down to working with each other. I could, of course, but that would just complicate things. And it’s one more way to show that I know what I’m about. Even if she knows perfectly well that I’m deliberately trying to show strength and control, that doesn’t mean those aren’t real.

I knew Tenira and the others had trouble trying to grasp my relationship with Kariva, and I wouldn’t have expected otherwise. Even if I suspected some, like Kajare, might be a little concerned. I did, in fact, trust Kariva about as far as I could throw her — which was pretty far, all things considered. That didn’t mean I would ever trust her implicitly. I knew perfectly well that she followed me because she thought I was the best option she had, to benefit her goals, herself or at least our family. And that could change.

“And Kiyanu?” I asked.

She tilted her head a little. “The Lord Regent is doing his duty conscientiously and well. There may be a few little points of friction, but we’re working together well.”

“Good.”

She inclined her head a little, but didn’t verbalize a response. We fell silent again, patiently waiting.

“You know, I’ve been wondering what rules you might follow,” I said almost whimsically. She didn’t show any reaction, and I smiled and waved my hand. “Oh, you don’t need to tell me. If you did, it would probably be lies, anyway. But I’ve been wondering. Something making you inclined to follow directives?”

“If you considered me a danger - or a significant one - I doubt you would be here, Inaris,” she said calmly.

“Of course,” I acknowledged with a slight smile.

I was pretty sure she was somewhere on the psychopathic spectrum, though I didn’t know how far. Her reaction made me suspect it was more than a few points, though. She wore a good mask, with a good amount of detachment and calm patience. It might even be real.

Of course, while I doubted Mother had ever looked this far into her, Kariva hadn’t really made it difficult.

“I get the feeling Kiyanu doesn’t particularly like you,” I continued in a conversational tone. “If you two locked horns or had a falling out, it would be … annoying. So, obviously, I don’t want you to. You don’t need to pander to him, but exercise some caution.”

She nodded. “Is that all, my lady?”

I leaned back into my chair. “Go ahead and brief me on the situation in the Dominion.”

She did so with her usual efficiency and thoroughness, and I listened to her explanations carefully. We’d discuss this more at later dates, of course, either in person or with written communications. But it was good to get an overview from her like this.

Just as she was finishing up, we were interrupted by a knock on the door as one of her subordinates wanted her for something important. I stood and said my goodbyes with a smile. On the way out of the building, I noted that she seemed to have expanded again.

Well, things seemed to have gone rather well.

When I stepped out into the sunlight and fresh air of the palace courtyard, I took a deep breath, then turned to head back to the main building. I’d sent for Xiaodan to join us here, and if she hadn’t arrived yet, she would soon. I was looking forward to seeing her again.

Chapter 153 (Draft)

I looked at the city stretching out in front of me, and I couldn’t help but wonder, for a moment, how I’d gotten here. Parts of it were still smoking, though luckily those were very small, easily contained ones, all things considered. A large hole gaped in the wall, with the stone that used to fill it scattered widely through the field outside and the street below the wall inside the city. A lot of rickety houses stood outside the walls, and their owners could probably count themselves lucky that the vast majority were indeed still standing.

I sighed and lightly pushed my lower legs into my horse’s sides, getting it to move. A lot of people had gathered outside their homes, and it felt like half the city was watching me. They didn’t cheer, of course, but they also didn’t jeer or shout or throw things. They simply watching in silence. I could almost imagine I could taste the fear in the air coating the back of my tongue when I swallowed.

This was the second city we’d conquered in the Dominion, a bit over a hundred kilometers southeast of the first. Though not the last, hopefully. The battle had been short and vicious, but not as bad as it could have been. While the Zarian had hardly left us the city uncontested, the caliber of resistance we’d found showed they hadn’t seriously intended it to hold against us.

There’d been almost no resistance worth speaking of in the towns and villages around here and Niali. That was to be expected. The Zarian had to have some sort of plan, though, and I had to assume they were working on it. Maybe we’d manage to disrupt it. Maybe not. There isn’t much I can do about that but just try my best to meet the challenges in front of me.

I smiled slightly, gazing out over the watching crowd. They weren’t as hostile as they could have been. Probably the Basement’s efforts, in combination with whatever rumors trickled across the border, anyway. It’s sometimes easy to forget that this war is less than two years old. There might have been tensions before that, but there was also some trade. And that always carries information.

At my entourage’s fast pace, it didn’t take long until we reached the center of the city. I dismounted in front of a castle the soldiers had secured to use as my base, and headed inside, trailed by my companions and guards. The army was still sorting things out, and I’d stay out of their way for now.

The building was obviously older than my last abode, but the previous owners had tried to compensate with thick carpets, ostentatious furniture, and paintings. My guards would be either happy or anxious about the hollow walls and concealed entrances I sensed, but I walked past them.

Tenira finally broke the silence. “What now?”

I turned my head, but kept walking. “I guess we take some time to settle down. You all can probably use a bit of downtime, anyway. Personally, I feel like I need to do some deep cultivation.”

The old castle had an open roof, and I managed to find my way there without taking a single wrong turn. There was a balustrade with crenellations and empty spots where they used to keep siege engines. A few weeds clung tenaciously to life between the stones. It was a remarkably peaceful setting given the outside.

I stepped closer to the balustrade, looking out over the city. The castle was built atop a small hill, which gave me a good view. Another one, on the other side of the city, housed the temple of the Storm. At this moment, soldiers were probably still rounding up priests and acolytes, trying to get at their records and gather information about the Dominion’s new High Temple. And also getting everyone outside before they set the fires. I might feel bad about costing these people their jobs, if their organization hadn’t agitated against us. And half of them would probably get new jobs with the other temples in the city. Recent efforts or not, the Dominion was still just as polytheistic as the Empire in the end.

Once I saw the first plumes of smoke drifting up into the air, I stepped back and chose a nice sunlit spot on the stones of the keep’s roof to sit down. I closed my eyes and started to focus on the world around me, beginning to pull in qi.

I’d been nearing my next breakthrough, the qi already contained in my dantian filling it up and creating a subtle sense of pressure that I recognized well by now. Over the last few days, it had gotten both less intense and more. I felt like it had lost some stiffness, though that was probably … well, whatever you called the cultivation equivalent of ‘psychosomatic’.

Slowly, I sank deeper and deeper into my cultivation, pulling in qi and sending it through its paths through my body. Ever since I’d mastered my shapeshifting to the extent I had, and especially since the I’d had the crap burned out of me and survived, I’d come to realize how much my body was not quite a physical vessel. Or not just one, at least. But as I cultivated closer and closer to a breakthrough, with the qi straining against my core, I pondered how that related to the less visible aspects of what made me the person I was.

As I sent my qi crashing through my channels, sending spikes of pain through me, before crushing it into an expanded core for the first time, I still pondered the issue. I knew there were questions I’d never be able to answer. I wasn’t entirely human, only partly. I’m not human,I let the thought linger in my mind, despite my instinctive need to weaken it. Usually, I was a very good facsimile of a normal human, but in the end, it was a pretense. Not entirely, of course. But hard to define exactly. I didn’t know if some things in which I might diverge from the population average were just effects of my personality.

What I could probably never be sure was exactly how things you might consider as belonging to personality related to my spirit nature. Factors like the shapeshifting and dreams and immortality and even intuition were clear and far easier to deal with, in that sense.

Maybe it took riding triumphant into a vanquished city and feeling only muted triumph, a hint of satisfaction, and considering the inhabitants’ reaction that pushed me to this contemplation. Because I wasn’t even trying to make myself feel remorseful or constrained. Not that it would have changed much.

I continued cultivating, feeling the new stage begin to settle in my core and channels. I could not deny that my emotions, or emotional capacity, were somewhat … dim. Not to the extent of genuine sociopathy. But it was, for all the rare blinding flashes of anger, a dull painting. Oh, I knew I was capable of it. If nothing else, I held deep and genuine affection for some people. Something I would not call anything less than love, for a select few. But I could not deny that I only cared about other causes or people, even my subjects, in an abstract way. In a sense, that caring was simply my choice, for it would need little but some mental readjustment for me to simply stop.

I exhaled and opened my eyes, looking up into the stars in the night sky for a moment, before I stood. Almost instinctively, my senses reached out and found Tenira close by, in one of the upper floors not far from me. I smiled to myself, dusted my robe off and started walking. I wouldn’t bring light to the mysteries of my spirit heritage, or my father’s design choices, in one session. But I was okay with the resulting amalgamation, more or less. At this moment, standing under the stars in the middle of an enemy city while the sun started to rise on its eastern side, I felt perhaps more free than I ever had.

That feeling only lasted until I encountered Tenira. She pushed a stack of folders towards me, barely looking up from the documents she was working on in the large office off the suite they’d given me. “You have a lot to do,” she commented.

I sighed and sank into the chair at the other side of the table, taking the papers. “What’s the time?”

“You were out for about a day,” she answered. “Congratulations.”

I nodded and started reading the first report. I should probably have known better than to do this right after the army won a battle. They appeared to have done fairly well at containing the city, and there was no major outbreak of resistance. I still wished Kiyanu was here. But he seemed to be staying in the capital for now.

We worked quietly together for a few hours. I read reports, penned short answers on occasion, and checked some of Tenira’s work. As always, she was a great help, and the stack of documents shrank easily. Despite the paperwork, I realized I enjoyed this quiet time together.

I looked up, watching my girlfriend for a moment as she sat frowning slightly at the sheet of paper she was reading. I’d gotten an idea, but I needed to find the right words if I was going to pursue it.

Before I could, the door opened and Aston walked in, followed by two more guards. His expression and the feel of his aura had me shooting out of my chair right away.

“Your Highness,” he reported, “there appears to have been an attack on Prince Alaster.”

I stared at him for a moment, before I hurriedly stepped closer, as if that could help me get answers. “What? What happened? How is he?” I’d left Al behind in Niali. The city should have been secured.

“We’re unsure, my lady,” he answered quietly. “The prince appears to be alive, but we only have confused reports so far.”

I nodded, still feeling like someone had just emptied an icy lake on my head, then took off.

The corridors of the palace blurred past and I ascended the steps four at a time. I ripped my outer robe and wings were already growing from my shoulders and back when I reached the roof. I took a running start, then jumped upwards with all of my enhanced muscles. Flapping my wings let me quickly rise over the city, already angling in the right direction. As soon as I was past the qi shield, I breathed in deeply and gathered air qi, forming it into a technique that helped propel me forward.

Aston had kept up with me easily, not surprising considering his cultivation. A few other guards trailed me as well. He pulled up beside me close enough he had to mind my wings, looking like he was going for a light jog in the air. “Your Highness, that was unwise.”

I glanced at him. With my wings and air qi, I was quicker like this than if I used a flying sword. The other city wasn’t that far away, and we were still picking up speed. It wouldn’t take long. I took a moment to change my wings to a sky-blue color, then did the same with my hair. Unfortunately, my clothes were less malleable. Though I was wearing blue, so that should be okay. Like I did often enough not even Kajare had asked me about my favorite color (which was actually red, as it happened, I just didn’t like how I looked in it.)

I forced my mind back on task and focused on Aston. “I doubt anyone expected me to rush off like a headless chicken after my brother,” I answered. “If they have a strike team in place, they probably deserve to take a fair shot.” I paused and forced myself to think past the moment. I winced a little. “Raise the alert with the other guards, and make sure security around my companions is heightened.”

“Of course, my lady. Measures are already being taken.”

“Good. Now, speed me up,” I demanded.

Aston sighed but circulated some qi. It felt like I was picked up by a wind corridor even stronger than what I’d been using.

The flight passed in a blur of adrenaline, and not soon enough we slowed down and descended over Niali. I didn’t even need to focus on my qi senses to know where to go. We flew towards a section close to the docks by the river, which was bustling like a kicked beehive. Soldiers had established a perimeter and were herding people out, as well as gathering inside. They cleared a space for us to land quickly. I barely remembered to change my coloring back to normal.

I looked around, and quickly found Al, who was sitting on the ground in the middle of a cluster of guards and soldiers. I started walking forward, staggered, then shook my head and dispersed my wings. They shifted my balance and made walking harder.

“Al! Are you alright?”

Al jumped up and tried to push past the soldiers, who retreated to let me reach him. He basically jumped into my arms, and I hugged him hard enough to make him wheeze.

I looked past him and my gaze stuck to the body lying in a pool of blood close by, still undisturbed. Ru Lis’ empty eyes gazed at the sky. I’d assigned her to my little brother before we started this push, since I’d have Aston with me.

It seemed it was a good thing I had. One more life lost to Jideia’s attacks on me. I’m really getting tired of this. Well, I suppose I’ll have to arrange a proper funeral.She was actually some verydistant relation, not that it mattered. After Kei Weriga, I’d made a point of asking for the dossiers of new guards. So I knew the Empire had lost out, since she might actually have made it into the eighth stage.

“What happened?” I asked.

Al stepped out of the hug, and one of his other guards spoke up. “It was a surprise attack by what appears to have been one of the regular dockworkers, Your Highness.” He gestured at the remains of another person, less recognizable ones, a short distance away. “He had to have been in the first stage, but suddenly moved far more quickly than he should have been able to. Captain Ru managed to intercept his attack, and our response eliminated him.”

“I see.”

I stepped closer, straining my senses. From his description, this was the same method they used in the attempt on my life earlier. Probably done by the same person.

Aston moved in front of me, and I rolled my eyes. “Don’t fret, Aston. I’m not in any danger.” I moved around him and besides the corpse of the probably unwitting attacker.

The reason I’d come here like this, besides wanting to be with Al, was because I might catch things other people would miss. There was a lot of what I could only call qi residue here, but my intuition was definitely starting to twitch.

I swept the body and grounds carefully with both my eyes and qi senses, but I could tell I wasn’t on the right track. This had all happened very recently, and while it would probably be too much to hope for that the perpetrator was still close by, they couldn’t have gone far, and didn’t have much time to cover their tracks.

I looked upward, turned around, then frowned and moved my head back around as I realized what I’d almost missed. A leap brought me on top of a nearby building, probably a warehouse, and I quickly erected a net of qi around a spot just past the edge of the roof, where you’d have a good view of events below. It was little more than a pinprick in space a little darker than the surrounding air, and even this close, I only picked up the faintest whisper of its qi presence. But I didn’t need more than that.

I took a deep breath and carefully crafted a shell of qi, laying intricate patterns around the working. I hadn’t quite realized I even knew this one before today, but now I recalled a moonlit night about five years ago and the guiding touch of Mother’s qi. She’d taught me this personally. It was a technique that mainly used light qi, but there was also a component of darkness, which made it one of the secretive techniques passed down by the Leri clan.

With a last flourish, I finished the technique, and the hole in the air in front of me ripped open. It constituted one end of a link stretching a few kilometers away, to its creator, and now my technique reversed it. I only got a blurry picture, with dampened and distorted sounds filtering through the connection, but it allowed me to get a good look at the man behind it. A young man, with dark hair and a nondescript appearance, but bright blue eyes. Although I didn’t get much of a sense of his aura through this, I did sense his qi through his technique, and I knew I was dealing with another spirit-child.

His eyes widened for a moment, then they narrowed and his lips twisted in a smile. “I’m impressed, Princess Inaris,” he drawled in Zarian. “I guess today is your lucky day.”

I met his gaze calmly, showing no reaction. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn yourself in now,” I said. “Since my brother survived, I’m inclined to be merciful. If you make me hunt you down, the consequences will be on your head. You might be the child of a spirit, but that’s not going to help you.”

He laughed, as if I’d told the funniest joke he’d ever heard, loudly and with no apparent restraint. “A child of the Auditor doesn’t just surrender,” he told me, suddenly serious again. “Where would be the fun in that, sweetheart?”

I raised an eyebrow. I’d heard that name before. Not a Greater Spirit, but powerful, and an ally of the Storm. Probably about in the same position as Mior for the Moon.

“I assure you, this is anything but fun,” I answered. “And I expect you won’t be laughing for much longer.”

“Promises, promises,” the man said. Then he made a cutting gesture and the qi forming the technique ripped apart.

I took a deep breath, then turned. “Canvass the city,” I said to Aston, who’d followed me but stood outside the field of view. I created an illusion showing the spirit-child.

But I had a sinking feeling he was going to be long gone by the time we reached his current location. He wouldn’t go down that easily.

Chapter 152 (Draft)

The three remaining members of the basement flinched slightly at my approach. I didn’t know how much of it was because of the attack or because they’d just seen me shrug off a hole in my torso. From their expressions, they were probably in too much shock to differentiate much, anyway. Not that it mattered.

I glanced at what remained of my assailant, lying in a small puddle of blood. Her eyes stared upwards, still wide open, her face distorted in a grimace.

“Now what am I going to do with you?” I mused in a casual tone, looking at her comrades. The two men flinched again.

“They weren’t involved,” Elis spoke up. His own gaze was hard.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

Elia shook her head. “Their surprise is real. As far as I can tell, they didn’t know anything about this.” She grimaced. “Of course, we couldn’t tell what was about to happen with the other one, either.”

I nodded. That was really concerning. “You didn’t catch any hostility?”

They shook their heads, and Elia’s grimace deepened. “As far as our ability knows, there was nothing to see, because until that moment, she didn’t haveany intention of killing you.”

I nodded and stepped back from the remaining Basement members. I’d decide what to do about them later. For now, I looked at Tenira and Aston, who was standing there with his hands crossed behind his backs and a stony face.

“Do you think she was controlled?”

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Tenira said, “but given what happened …”

“Hm.” I frowned. “This sudden increase in her strength was something else. It took us all by surprise. Well, except Aston, I guess.”

My bodyguard inclined his head. “That’s because I knew to watch out for something like this, my lady, so I didn’t stop seeing these people as potential threats.” From the way he looked at his subordinates, butts were going to be kicked.

“From your own experience?”

Aston nodded. “Yes, I learned about it from Mior. This wasn’t outright possession, I don’t think, but not a normal technique.”

I sighed. “Well, we do have a number of spirit-children among the opposition now. One of them was probably involved. Who knows what sort of abilities they might have?”

Tenira drew in a sharp breath. “That is a scary prospect. You think there are more like this just waiting for us?”

I shook my head. “This was probably done by someone close by, though not anyone we’d see. I don’t think there are any real long-term sleeper agents. That ability would be too game-breaking.”

“What?”

“Sorry, just an expression.” I ran a hand through my hair, watching as Aston sent out guards from the room. “There are limits to spirits’ descendants’ abilities. Whether that comes from the Greater Spirits or just because of how much qi it takes, doesn’t really matter. But I doubt anyone of the Zarian wannabe templars is a child of a Greater Spirit, certainly not a direct child.”

Tenira nodded slowly. “So, they’ll be weaker than you.”

I smiled wryly. “Oh, I’m probably right at the upper end of the curve of what’s possible for spirit-children, given the details of my origin. And most abilities seem to be more ‘non-combat’ focused. Their shapeshifting is going to be a lot worse, at least. Not to sound arrogant, but you need more than a little mental fortitude to get to use shapeshifting at my level, not to mention knowledge and training.”

“We can only speculate,” Kajare said. “For now, we have more pressing concerns to attend to.”

“Right.” I turned back to the Zarian we’d been talking to.

They still looked like they could hardly believe what had happened. Not that I could blame them. Coping with assassination attempts out of the blue was nothing new for me, by now, and I managed to roll with it pretty well, all things considered. That didn’t make them any less shocking, or dangerous.

“We’ll need to go through your organization with a fine-toothed comb,” I told them. “I want you to work with us on that.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the older man answered. “We need to find out everything about how this could have happened, and if there are any further traitors in our ranks.”

I nodded. “Frankly, I’m not sure you have the expertise in terms of cultivation to investigate this properly. Oh, I’m sure you must have sympathizers higher up in the Dominion, or you wouldn’t be standing here. But not the kind of strong cultivators with experience you need.”

They exchanged another one of those looks, and inclined their heads. “Of course, Your Highness,” the younger woman repeated. “We’ll be glad to work with your people.”

“Good. This might lead to a closer contact and look into your organization than without this unfortunate turn of events, but we should make the best of it. And I also intend to make proper use of you going forward.”

The older woman looked up, her eyes brightening. “You will?”

I smiled thinly. “Oh, yes. I’llwork with you.” One of Jideia’s goals in this must have been to sour my relationship with the Basement and prevent us from working together. I wouldn’t let him succeed in this. As I’d mentioned, we would probably come in closer contact, and I’d take control of them a little more than I might have wished, after this, but the attack had changed the parameters of the situation. It might be a calculated risk, but I think it’ll work out. And if not … so long as we’re careful not to make ourselves truly vulnerable to them, we’ll always be the ones with the strength to crush them.

“You won’t regret it,” the older woman swore.

I smiled again. “I look forward to working with you.” It wasn’t a lie.

---

The sound of conversation, laughter and clinking of glasses and cutlery echoed down the building, still too close for comfort. Or at least, too close for me to feel comfortable, though I’d gotten my introverted aversion to crowds and parties under control.

“They seem to be enjoying themselves,” Yarani observed.

I grinned. “See, I told you this was a good idea.”

We stood in the palace that used to belong to the mayor of the city, where someone had decided to quarter me, and managed it in a remarkably short time. I wasn’t above taking advantage of it, and had decided throw a dinner for my senior officers, the leaders of the army, and a few other guests. We had, after all, successfully conquered the city, more or less, even if it hadn’t been very hard. And after that, I’d decided on a feast with a broader guest list, inviting some of the important Zarian who’d found themselves in our care.

Of course, I was only technically throwing the party. In reality, I’d simply said what I wanted and let other people make it a reality. Tenira had rolled her eyes and complained about more work, but so half-heartedly that I knew she thought it was a good idea.

She shook her head now, declining to comment on that. “It certainly helps to take our thoughts off the fact that someone tried to kill you. Again.”

Yarani tugged at the sleeves of her gorgeous blue dress. “I don’t think there’s any question that the Storm was behind it. Again, as you said. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick of it.”

“Of course.” I pulled a face. “And I know it will be far from the last time. He’s not losing much, is he? He’ll just keep trying. Keep me on edge. Eventually, he might find a way. There’s not much I can do to hurt him in return. I can’t really strike at him, certainly not with anything I’m not doing anyway.”

Tenira frowned deeply. “Yes, it’s not a pleasant prospect. You don’t sound very afraid of dying, though.”

I sighed, watching rain patter against the window of the corridor we were standing in. We hadn’t planned to meet here, it had just happened that way. Even in a back corridor few guests would see, the window was patterned with delicate patterns of flower petals, the frame gilded. It showed the age of this building, and its city.

“Jideia might be trying to kill me, but I have a Greater Spirit protecting me, too,” I answered Tenira after a moment. “I’ve survived everything so far. Maybe Rijoko wouldn’t expend too much effort, if a time comes where he’d have to, but the Storm’s limited himself to working indirectly so far, too. And there’s always Mior. Somehow, I doubt they would just let me die even if Rijoko decided to write me off.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Yarani muttered.

I nodded soberly. “Yeah. I guess the better things go for us, the more we risk pushing Jideia into taking new risks.”

We all fell silent for a moment, considering that. I took Tenira’s hand and felt her give me a reassuring squeeze. Even though they would be in danger too, the two of them and the rest of my companions were clearly concerned for me, not for themselves. I appreciated that more than I could properly express.

“We should go back to the party,” Tenira finally said.

We started walking and accepted her change of subject easily. “I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to invite Basement members as well as city functionaries,” Yarani said. “But at least there hasn’t been any violence.”

I nodded. “I was afraid the latter would see it as an insult. But I suppose that has its good side, too. It lets us see who’s going to be openly offended, and who’s smart and cool-headed enough not to act on it.”

Tenira chuckled. “You might be underestimating the effect of being violently conquered, love.”

I pulled a face. While it was undoubtedly true, the notion that I was leading a conquering army that would, by its very nature, subjugate the conquered territory and people took some getting used to.

The concert of voices in the hall took a noticeable dip when we entered. The people closer to us bowed deeply, some quickly, and some took longer to notice us or react, so the effect looked a little odd. I nodded and made my way through the hall with my girlfriends at my side. The guests parted in front of us like the red sea. Most of them wore a shimmering rainbow of silk, other previous fabrics, gold, jewels, and things I couldn’t name and wasn’t very interested in.

At moments like this, I was very glad my own wardrobe and cosmetics were handled by professionals. This evening, I wore a set of blue and silver robes with lots of gold thread and pearls, which still somehow managed to seem elegant instead of overdone. At least the party gave me the opportunity to see Tenira and Yarani equally prettied up. It was worth it for that sight alone.

I didn’t recognize many of the people filling the hall, but of course my own identity would be rather obvious. I wore a slim golden circlet set with gemstones for the occasion, and its weight seemed to increase on my head under the regard of the guests. But I looked past them to the main table, where Kajare stood and turned towards us. Instead of robes, he wore an outfit more like a suit of shimmering dark silk, which emphasized the set of his shoulders a lot better. I knew he’d caught my gaze when his lips twitched slightly as he bowed and offered me his arm.

“You still look gorgeous, Inaris,” he said. I’d officially been gone to change my outfit, although I’d only exchanged the shoes.

“Funny, I was about to say the same,” I replied and smiled at him.

“You as well, Tenira, Yarani.” He nodded at them. “The party seems to be a rousing success.”

“Hmm.” I turned to look over the guests again.

Many of the movers and shakers of the city had fled along with most of the people in the high stages, but a surprising number had remained and surrendered without putting up a fight. It might be that they’d been too distracted by the Basement to get clear in time. And clearly some stayed because this was their home and they felt honor-bound to remain instead of run away.

Niali was the administrative capital of a province, or at least a sector, which constituted a smaller unit. The governor had fled, but apparently, he had less actual power than the major, who was from an old and wealthy family. That one numbered among those who’d stayed.

After a moment, I shook my head and turned back to the others. It would probably be better to talk to him in a more private setting later.

“You know what the party is missing?” I asked, grinning. Then I captured Kajare’s hand. “You have the honor of the first dance, my prince. Come on.”

At my discreet wave, the attending servants removed one of the lower, now empty tables and cleared space for a dance floor. Someone brought in a recording crystal and music started to resound through the room. I pulled Kajare to the center of the dance floor, and he put his hands around me with twinkle in his eyes. Then the music swelled and we started moving.

I’d had the way he placed his hands to warn me we were going to do a Terbekteri dance. Kajare was a good dancer, and guided me through the steps with a light but safe touch. The people watching us faded into the background of my awareness. Cultivator dances were nothing for the faint of heart, and could only be performed by the best dancers and acrobats on Earth. One time, he lifted me into the air with one hand, and I jumped clear over him for the next move. My body seemed to know the steps. As we danced, I recalled glimpses of a sunlit hall, strands of music and an instructor calling moves. Apparently, dancing had been part of my education just like riding and poetry. Not that I needed resurfacing memories to know I couldn’t pen a good sonnet if someone held a gun to my head.

When we stopped, more couples had joined us on the dance floor. The next song was a quick one in three-eight time, and I grinned at Kajare, then adjusted our position before starting to move in a dance from Earth. He didn’t know the steps, of course, but he followed my lead well, and it was simple enough, since I’d only chosen a basic waltz. I had never been much of a dancer and would have been hard-pressed to do more, anyway, but my cultivation gave me enough grace to hide that fact.

When we finally stopped after several more dances, over half of the guests were dancing, and I was surprised to realize how much I’d been enjoying myself. I left Kajare to Tenira, who cut in with a grin, and ambled across the room.

I paused close to one of the large windows offering a nice view over the city, lit by thousands of lamps that spread out like a sea of fireflies. Yarani joined me there not two seconds later.

“Should I be offended you didn’t ask me to dance?” she teased.

I smiled. “Later. I need a break.”

My girlfriend followed my gaze out the window. “It’s a nice view,” she conceded. “Although it’s going to be a little brighter than usual tonight.”

“Oh?”

She pointed, and as I followed, I found a warmer spot than most not too far away from the palace. It quickly grew, until there could be no doubt this was no lamp or lightstone.

The sight quickly destroyed my good mood. I sighed. “You disapprove?”

Yarani shook her head. “No. On the contrary. But many people will. Especially of those you’ve gathered here.”

Already, the fire was starting to be noticed. I watched as more and more of the guests paused to look out the window. The mayor turned unerringly to me, his dark eyes glinting in the light of the lamps. I met his gaze calmly, held it for a few seconds, until he bowed is head and glanced away.

“No doubt burning the Temple of the Storm will foster resentment, even hate,” I agreed. “But I’m hoping that once people realize how much our system offers them, the effect will reverse.”

“You could have waited until then,” she pointed out.

I shook my head. “That would be an uncertain gamble. Better to get it out of the way now, while we’re still in the ‘conquer and occupy the city’ phase. That’ll make it more clearly a part of this war. Plus, at least we made sure no one could be caught in the flames.”

Yarani nodded. “I suppose it sends a pretty clear message, too. Especially after the assassination attempt.”

“Yes, though I hope that won’t become public knowledge.”

We watched the fire for a moment, before Yarani laid a hand on my arm. “So, how about that dance you just promised me?”

I smiled and took her hand, turning to head back to the dance floor. “Your wish is my command.”

I tried to put the issue out of my mind and get back to enjoying the evening. After cycling through my three partners and roping in Lei and Elis, who turned out to be pretty good, I even managed that.

Chapter 151 (Draft)

The whole way further into the city, Aston was looking like he’d taken an overdose of caffeine and awakened from a nightmare at the same time, unable to keep his hands still or his face as sober as usual.

I could understand why his professional paranoia had to be screaming at him, but there was nothing for it. The people we’d met were hardly in a league to threaten my guards, and none of us could sense any hidden traps. Besides, I didn’t want to dither around, look like a coward, or appear too mistrustful. Not that I would have trusted them too far, but diplomacy worked better if you didn’t shout that from the rooftops.

We reached what must have been the city hall or a similar building quickly, and the only one of the original group I’d met who hadn’t made themselves scarce at some point, a girl in the first stage, showed me into a comfortably appointed room. I took a seat in the chair I assumed had been left for me, since it had a bit too much gold compared to cushions. The other chairs were empty when we entered, though Tenira and Kajare quickly took the two beside me. A few moments later, Elis finally appeared, though he didn’t sit down.

Then the large doors opened and four people filed into the room. They all wore simple, practical clothing in dark tones, and ranged in age from around twenty to a gnarled old man stooping over a cane. They were all in the second stage, with nature and earth affinities, just as you would expect from your average commoner. They probably could have walked through almost anywhere in the Dominion without getting a second glance. I wouldn’t underestimate them.

The people had barely entered the room before they threw themselves to the ground until they were lying prostate on the floor facing me.

Surprise stole my voice for a moment, then I said, “Please, get up. No need for quite that much deference.” I smiled at them.

They stood up and stepped closer. From the way they were acting, I gathered this wasn’t some particularly fraught gesture. Probably just what people of their status were usually supposed to do when they met someone of very high status in the Dominion. I found it interesting that they followed such a custom based on strength like most things in the Dominion even here, but that kind of thing was probably normal for them. And I imagine they aren’t exactly familiar with Imperial customs or social norms.

One of the women had been among the group I’d first met, but I hadn’t seen the others before. They all returned my smile with varying degrees of warmth. Then the older woman spoke up. “Thank you, Imperial Princess Inaris. We’re all honored to meet you.”

I nodded. “Sit if you like, please. I think we have a lot to talk about.”

They did, pulling up chairs so we sat facing each other. “Your people clearly knew enough to deal with the city’s wards. Are you familiar with our organization, Your Highness?” the woman asked.

I shook my head. “I can make a few obvious guesses, but no. I’ll have to have words with my informant.”

I glanced at Elis, who only shrugged and smirked. “I didn’t know the Basement would be here in such strength, or try to take the city.”

A few of the Zarian smiled a little. The younger woman inclined her head in his direction. “We didn’t expect you to come with the Empire’s army, Elis Arialko, though perhaps we should have.”

I raised an eyebrow. He’d mentioned the so-called Basement, but only in passing, and I didn’t know much about them. Still, the situation lent itself to some obvious inferences. It was pretty remarkable that a group clearly composed mostly if not solely of low-cultivation members had managed to take this city, or given it such a good try, at least.

“How did you know we’d be coming here?” I asked.

The younger of the two men shrugged. “We didn’t know for sure, of course. We knew that the Imperials would invade, and we narrowed down the options we believed made sense as targets for an attack. This was one of the major possibilities. We’ve been concentrating our strength here over the last while, and stepped it up once we knew the Empire made its move.”

I nodded slowly. They’d clearly acted according to an established plan. Most likely, they’d wanted to make a point. To show their strength to us, maybe? It could be they wanted to persuade us to work together, and helping us get the city like this would make a pretty good offer.

The other obvious take-away was how well informed they’d been, and clearly still were. Not that I found that surprising.

“I can see that. I imagine you know a lot more about what’s going on in the Dominion than most people would believe possible,” I commented.

They froze and exchanged a quick look. Then the younger man cleared his throat. “Indeed, Your Highness?”

I smiled with as much charm as I could muster. “If my own experience with Imperial nobles is anything to go by,” or more likely stories I’d read, “then any normal patrician would be hard-pressed to see how someone in a low stage could possibly threaten their interests. I would assume you have quite a few members working as servants in noble households, don’t you? Placed where they’d be able to overhear some interesting details.” I thoughtfully tapped my finger. “Not to mention a few clerks, dockworkers, prostitutes around army bases, probably others.”

They exchanged another look. The woman bowed to me. “And astute supposition, Your Highness.”

I got the feeling they weren’t entirely pleased by the way I was talking, or at least a little off-balance. They probably thought they’d have to face an entitled princess who didn’t know how a bunch of unwashed peasants could possibly be useful to her.

“How did you manage to shake this city like that, by the way?” I asked. “Did you suborn some of the soldiers? Or something more indirect? Poison?”

They shifted a little, before the older woman spoke up. “It was mostly poison, yes. We accumulated a little store of some very potent stuff over time. We also managed to subvert some of the wards and other formations around the city.”

I nodded. That made some sense, although it still couldn’t have been an easy proposition. Still, I had to remind myself these people obviously weren’t lacking in guts or organizational capabilities. And you could still learn about formations even if you didn’t have the qi to make or use them yourselves.

“You obviously put quite a lot of resources into this operation,” Kajare said, gazing at them thoughtfully. “Which leaves the question, why? If you’d taken another city, the Dominion’s soldiers would have taken it back in short order, and this one is now in the Empire’s grasp. Effectively, you simply helped us against the Dominion. Why?”

I was happy to notice that he didn’t talk to them with any condescension. Instead, he sounded honestly curious, as if he was carefully considering the situation’s politics.

I decided it was time to join him and push a little. “You also took a risk. You’ve put yourselves within our power, along with many of your members. And there’s also the chance that we would decide to simply burn the city.”

The shifted a little at the last sentence, and several of them weren’t quite good enough at hiding their surprise.

“We were quite certain you wouldn’t do that, Imperial Princess,” the older man answered.

I smiled thinly. Ah. It was probably a matter of reputation. I guess they’re right. I’m Rijoko’s daughter. They might have cause to worry if it was the Storm, but the Moon isn’t exactly the type for violent overkill.

“I’m honored by your high opinion of me,” I answered. “Am I to assume that you have an equally high opinion of the Empire in general?”

“It can hardly be much worse than the Dominion,” the younger man muttered under his breath.

“From what I understand, everyone within the Empire of the Sky is given basic rights that protect them, their property and certain individual freedoms,” the younger woman said. She raised an eyebrow. “Am I wrong, Your Highness?”

I shook my head. They probably kept switching speakers to keep me from guessing who, if anyone, was their leader. “Of course not. Every citizen of the Empire has unassailable civil rights, such as the right for a fair trial, with the same consideration as a noble.” I hesitated, then added, “We also don’t restrict who may own land or property, taxes are based on wealth and income, and anyone can visit public schools. Or marry whoever they like.”

It seemed I’d hit a sore spot with that. The way the younger man looked, it wasn’t hard to guess his problem.

“That alone would be more than worth it,” the other man said.

I smiled and leaned back in my chair. From my reading, I knew marriage was generally restricted to the same stage or the immediately adjacent ones, though there were a few exceptions. Cultivators in the seventh and eighth stage could marry anyone from the fifth up, not that they did that often, those in the second only up to the early part of the third, and there was a hard limit between the third and fourth stage. It was a prime example of the way the Dominion kept everyone at their ‘proper’ place.

“Well,” the older woman said, “a few of us are pretty taken with that idea.”

“And many of the rest just think the Empire’s going to win, anyway,” Elis commented.

She hesitated for a moment, before she shrugged. “Yes, that’s right, too.”

I exchanged a glance with Tenira. The four of them might as well have written ‘please recruit us’ on their foreheads.

But I didn’t jump on the chance. It wasn’t just the unease in the back of my mind, which had been steadily growing the longer we talked. It was still very limited. I didn’t think I was in any immediate danger, but my intuition was putting up warning signs.

“We’re certainly eager to find any support we can,” I said slowly, “but I can’t promise you anything. I’ll have to discuss this with my advisers and generals, you understand, not to mention the Regent.”

They looked a little disappointed, but not very surprised. I smiled to take a possible sting out of my words. We really could use their help, not just with the fighting, but more importantly what came after. After all, in the end, we were here to stay. Which meant somehow trying to fit the local population into the Empire, in all the ways that mattered. It might be a little early to worry about that, but on the other hand, I couldn’t afford not to worry about it. Having a well-organized group of ‘normal people’ who supported the Imperial occupation and could help us handle problematic issues would be a blessing.

But that was why I had to be careful. After all, they had their own agenda, and I’d have to be sure what I was getting into. I didn’t want to win this war, come to rely on them, just for them to turn around and demand the death of every patrician down to the children. Or the complete abolition of private property. Or who knew what their goals might be.

“I hope you’ll keep in mind the many ways in which we could help you, if the Empire chooses to take us into the fold,” the older man answered. “We could help your agents get many places they would never otherwise reach, provide information on the inner workings and going-ons in the Dominion, help you take further cities, and help the people accept you.”

“And we can offer some more concrete support, as well,” the younger woman said. She smiled, then reached into the bag she’d put down behind her chair, forgotten, and pulled something out. “We brought this as a little demonstration.”

I leaned forward, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as I tensed. It was a wooden box, of simple make but inlaid with a few runes, and I could faintly sense the qi of what it contained. It felt like darkness and space.

“What is it?” I asked, as my guards drew closer.

“Something we took from the castle in the confusion,” the other woman answered. “You must have noticed the soldiers’ new ability to move places? Well, they need certain devices for it. Spatial anchors. Some of them mark an area where you can teleport to, others are used to travel, unless you have one of the reallygood experts with you.”

I leaned forward, intrigued despite the unease that had sharply stepped up a notch. I didn’t need that feeling to realize this device was dangerous. “Give it here, please,” I said.

One of my guards stepped up, and the younger woman stood, opened the case and took out a complicated mechanism of metal and precious stones. She set the case on the floor and stepped forward to hand it to the guard. The sixth-stage light cultivator scrutinized it closely for a moment, with a brush of qi, before he turned to hand it to me.

I reached out to take it, surprised at the weight. Its qi seemed to flicker a little as it connected, and touched my own briefly. It settled down after a moment, and I started turning it around analyze it more closely. Then the feeling of unease morphed into a sudden, abrupt spike of danger.

For a moment, I was almost paralyzed by conflicting impulses. I glanced up, the still calm qi of the device fading into the background of my awareness, just in time to watch the young Zarian woman come at me with a dagger so black it sucked in the light. It came from a storage ring that must have been in the box as well, I realized, my mind moving at lightning speed while my body could barely begin to react. Everyone’s attention had been diverted by the device.

The woman was only in the second stage, or so I could have sworn a second ago. But she moved with unnatural speed, as if she was at least in the fourth. I started to step back and to the side, but I barely managed to shift my weight before she’d crossed most of the short distance between us.

Then suddenly, so quickly I couldn’t really perceive it, Aston was there, his qi flashing outward in a stony defense.

The dagger cut through it like it was butter, but at least the impact seemed to slow it. The woman twisted, her arm bending too far, and the dagger slid into my chest with a hiss.

But she’d been aiming for my head originally, and I’d moved enough to blunt the attack. Blinding pain seized me, and I screamed, before some vestige of control shut down all sensation south of my neck.

I stumbled backward, barely noticing how Aston took care of the assassin or the rest of the guards moved forward. There was darkness qi, some technique in the weapon, which was burning through not just my flesh, but seemed to attack my qi itself. Similar to my own greatest technique, though not quite the same. More parasitic, less contained.

I turned and fixed my gaze on Tenira. “Burn it out,” I said, my voice hoarse.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t stop to question me. Instead, my girlfriend held out her hand and formed a swirling mass of black qi composing the Void’s Nibble above it. Then she stuck out her hand.

I moved forward just enough. Her technique burned even worse, but it attacked the foreign qi more than my own, since there was more of it.

I took a deep breath and cast my affected areas out. It wouldn’t have worked for a normal person, but there was too much qi woven into my body. I fed it into the furnace enough so it burned all of the tissue along with it and scoured out the attack’s qi.

I swayed on my feet, but didn’t look down. I could feel the large hole in my torso. My heart had a chunk missing, enough to ensure it would never pump. But I was the Moon’s daughter and my body was mine to shape. Even as I felt the onset of the price blood loss and lack of oxygen would demand, I took a step back and focused my will on repairing the damage. New tissue and bone formed where it had been lost, and qi crept in to fill it.

I exhaled and looked down. There was no sign but the large hole cut out of my clothing. Although now what had happened was really starting to set in, and I bit my tongue to keep from cursing.

Jideia must have infiltrated the Basement. Oh shit.

Chapter 150 (Draft)

“Once we cross this line, things are going to change,” Tenira said quietly.

I looked at her, suppressing a smile at the sight of her gazing thoughtfully south, the sun dancing in her hair. We’d been separated for too long lately. But the gravity of the subject swallowed my bout of levity quickly.

“It was called ‘crossing the Rubicon’, I guess,” I said. “After a general who took his army into his empire’s heartland and took power from their senate for himself. He got himself murdered pretty quickly, but it was the death knell of their republic, and his successor eventually became the first emperor out of many.” I smiled wryly. “Even over a thousand years later people were still styling themselves as successors to the Roman emperors. I guess this may be a more fitting parallel than I thought.”

“Well, I’m not sure if crossing this river is going to turn into a proverb, but it’s certainly going to have enough impact for one,” Tenira said. “There has never been an Imperial army who truly crossed into the Dominion’s heartland, Inaris. Ever.”

“Oh, yet another first.” I grinned playfully. Then I turned serious once more. “Do you think we’re ready?”

Tenira hesitated a little, then shrugged. “I think so. We may have slowed down, but we needed the breather. The Zarian have already had enough time to fortify themselves. And we need too many new things, in too large amounts, to have pushed right on south. We’re still setting up new factories.”

I nodded. There were a lot of things that were a strain in the logistics and supply department. We were training new Lighters by the hundreds, with every instructor we could scrape together. We were also building and running new factories to produce all of their equipment and more. Many of them had been set up in the newly liberated south. They were making weapons, but they also needed to churn out huge amounts of other material, like ammunition and explosives, or plates for formation arrays, and many other things.

“It hasn’t always been easy, and none of it is cheap,” Tenira continued.

I nodded. “I think in that regard other measures have probably cost more, but that’s not saying much.”

In addition to creating new airplanes, weapons and so on, we were also trying to raise our conventional strength. The Empire was buying up cultivation aids and materials, trying to get as many fighters as possible to as high a stage as possible. I would have bet the Zarian were doing the same thing.

“We’re probably going to have to substantially raise taxes soon, in any case,” I said. “That’s not going to do the economy any favors.”

Tenira pulled a face. “Right. Do you have any details on that?”

I shrugged. “Not really. Kiyanu has a surprisingly good head for finances, and is much more familiar with the Empire’sfinances, so I’m leaving it to him to figure out how we’re going to pay for this war.” I shot her a meaningful look. “Besides, I rather doubt I’d be able to sneak anything like that past you even if I wanted to, and you probably know more about this sort of thing than I do.”

She grinned and raised a hand. “All right. Just checking.”

We fell silent and watched the drawn-out dark blob of our army wind its way south. It looked deceptively slow from here, although our elevated position allowed us to see everything clearly. We were standing on a mountain trailing the edge of the Yellow Graves’ mountain range like a last, lone sentinel. The wind blew loudly enough to cover the sounds those of my guards standing further down might have made, but I could hear the faint swish of clothing as Aston shifted his position beside me.

The dark spots of airships dotted the sky above the cultivators and wagons on the ground, and if I strained my eyes, I could just see the sails of a few ships out on the ocean, as well. Some more would be trying to find their way inland using a river, although they were under orders to withdraw if they faced stiff resistance. They were mostly there to probe the Zarian’s defenses. So far, no army had come out to meet us, though I hadn’t expected one. An open field, even one as hilly as this, would be a good battleground for our Lighters, and we could get support pretty easily here.

“I just wish we had better communications with our other territories,” I finally said. “It’s hard to get any details on how the war is going there.”

Tenira shrugged. “This is the territory that really matters, although I suppose I can see what you mean. It would be nice if they were doing just as well against the Zarian as we are.”

“Yeah. I wish we were better prepared there.”

“That’s jut how it goes.” Tenira pulled a face. “The Sky Continent is the more important area, and it’s where we are, and most of our research teams. Of course there’s going to be a lag in enlisting Lighters and getting production of our new weapons, planes and whatever else set up and churning out material there. At least we do have the infrastructure to do that, on the whole.”

“Yeah.” I sighed.

I couldn’t help but think that in a way, the fact that the overseas territories of the Empire were as integrated and prosperous had its drawbacks. We had to put effort into defending these areas and their citizens, and taking care of their economy. The Zarian would probably have an easier time writing off colonies, even if that cost them in the long run. Not that I really wanted to change places with them. And in the end, it probably wasn’t a big difference.

“Let’s just hope our allies’ ships keep the Zarian outside the continent on their toes,” I said.

We’d planned on using a sizable chunk of the Terbekteri fleet for that, and were already starting with it. They were supposed to strike at Zarian territories all across the Dominion. That might divert forces there, but even more importantly, I wanted to keep them on the defensive. It would be a pain if the Zarian started sending out their own ships more aggressively to hit Imperial territories.

“Stop worrying,” Tenira chided me. “Really, Inaris, things are going to be fine. Don’t fret.”

I smiled. “Yes, love.”

We fell silent and watched as the army continued to wind its way south. This area was sparsely populated, if it was populated at all. I supposed it was possible the Zarian had evacuated people from our path. I would have done it in their place, but I was hesitant about trying to say what they would do.

After a few more minutes, we decided that it was time to move. We would still keep behind the army, but we couldn’t let it get too far away from us. Aston would probably manage that.

I cracked my shoulders and grew a set of wings, smiling as I felt the wind rustle through my feathers, which were white this time. I crouched, then jumped into the air, beating my wings at the highest point of my leap, and kept soaring. I caught Tenira’s chuckle as she rose into the air herself on her flying sword.

I could have used one, too, but I liked flying this way better. Not just because I’d never managed to reach the degree of skill she showed with one. There was something better about flying on my own power, without the aid of any sort of tool except for my inborn abilities.

We flew south-south-east, closing on the army’s path from a shallow angle. I watched thoughtfully as they grew in my sight, and I could make out more details of their formation. This was an army not quite like any the continent had seen before. Almost half of all of its soldiers were Lighters, although of course their actual strength was far lower than that. But it did make it one big army by local standards. And pretty much all the forces involved in this war had been big. It was a clash between two great powers. But the army was also accompanied by heavy equipment, weapons new to the waging of war on this planet. A few planes flew with the airships, though more of them were carried along on large wagons and some on the ships.

“What are you going to do if we lose?” Tenira asked after a while.

I turned my head to look at her. Her voice had carried clearly over the wind, but she was watching the army instead of looking at me.

“In what sense? Lose the next battle, or lose the war?” I asked.

She glanced at me and shrugged. “In general. The former, I suppose.”

I frowned. “Well, if we take heavy losses, if it turns out that we’re outmatched after all, we’ll retreat and reconsider our options. Don’t worry, I’m not riding this idea down in flames.” I snorted. “Not that Kiyanu would let me.”

Tenira smiled slightly. “Alright. Look, we’re making good progress.”

I nodded and turned my attention back to the army, which was just crossing the river we’d mentioned earlier. A few minutes later, we reached it ourselves, and flew over it. I looked down at the raging waters, heavy with last week’s rain, grateful that at least it wasn’t much of an obstacle for cultivators. But now we had definitely crossed into Zarian heartlands.

Behind the river, I was starting to see signs of civilization. The landscape still had rolling hills, though those weren’t as high or rugged as further north, and we mostly saw fields interspersed with a few small forests.

I cycled a bit of qi to my eyes to get a better look. This was definitely cultivated land, and we passed a few villages from a distance. They seemed to be empty, or at least I couldn’t make out anyone moving. But I suspected that they were abandoned quickly, since there were still cattle grazing on a few meadows, and fields that were obviously in the process of being tended. Whatever work farmers did in spring seemed to be mostly taken care of, but that people had definitely put in the effort of working on it meant this area hadn’t been evacuated for too long.

Eventually, the land smoothed out further, leading into a plain, and we saw the broad, dark band of a river at the horizon. I looked more closely and found a dark blob on its banks. As we traveled towards it, that structure grew larger in my view, until I could recognize the city surrounded by its tall, gray walls. They reached high enough that I didn’t get a good look at the houses behind them, although we weren’t flying very high. I gained some altitude and took a closer look. The city was big, its center neatly organized but its outskirts a warren of streets and passageways.

It didn’t look very different from an Imperial city.

The army slowed down as it approached, and I descended, pulling in my wings as I landed on the ground, before I started jogging. Tenira accompanied me on her flying sword, flying low to the ground, while the guards surrounded us. We made our way to the head of the army quickly. I nodded at General Wei and the other leaders, but watched in silence as they got our fighters organized.

It didn’t take long, since the army wasn’t that large, really, and the soldiers functioned as a well-oiled machine. Earth cultivators put up provisional fortifications, while a group of water cultivators went off to check out the river upstream, guarded by some elites. This wasn’t supposed to turn into a long siege, but it might, and the generals clearly believed in being prepared. We didn’t start setting up tents, though.

I turned to look at the city, then froze in surprise. “Aston, is that … smoke?”

He followed my gaze and frowned. “Indeed, my lady. Quite a bit more smoke than you would expect to see from any chimney. I’d wager to say there is at least one whole building on fire in there.”

I exchanged a glance with Tenira, then hurried to join the generals, who were just finishing their preparations. “What do you think is going on there?” I asked.

Wei Jun shook his head. “I don’t know, Your Highness. But it almost has to have something to do with our arrival, given the timing. I doubt that there’s a faction fighting to open the city to us, but I hesitate to guess what it could be.”

The other high-ranking officers nodded in general agreement. I looked at the smoke again, which, if anything, was getting thicker. The generals quickly came to the conclusion that we shouldn’t waste any more time. If this was a bad sign, better to find out what was going on quickly. I stretched out my senses, looking at the walls and what I could get from behind it, and considered the possibility that we were walking into a trap. But I seriously doubted they’d be able to conceal any formation arrays well enough that we’d blindly stumble into it. And they shouldn’t have the facility with chemical explosives    to really threaten strong cultivators.

We started advancing carefully, the stronger soldiers in the front, while I kept back with my friends and a large group of Imperial guards. The smooth walls of the city, which I knew from my maps was called Niali, were occasionally topped by parapets with a few siege weapons. As our army advanced under the cover of qi shields, they fired at us. I watched carefully as the flares of qi impacted on our shields, dispersing in bursts of light. But the fire seemed scattered, and I noticed that a few towers only joined in a few seconds late.

There had to be quite a commotion inside for them to consider the hostile army camping outside a lower priority. Most likely, their leadership structure, civilian or military, was being disrupted. Or maybe they just want to suck us in. It’s possible, I guess.

We kept advancing, and I frowned to myself. I didn’t feel like I was in danger, really. I was only a few hundred meters from walls presumably containing an army of people eager to do me harm, and for all the sensation I got from Rijoko, I could be watching a movie safely at home. Of course, I knew I couldn’t rely on that, but even what I saw as mostly my own intuition was silent, certainly not screaming at me as if I was walking into a trap.

As we closed, I focused on the wards around the city. Elis had been able to give us some details on them. Analyzing them now, I could tell they’d made an effort to change the patterns, but they’d only altered parts of the shields. Our elites were already securing the base of the walls, and I approached carefully, reaching out a hand to touch them as I concentrated. Together with the other formation masters, I wormed my way into the city’s defenses. It took long minutes during which I had to rely on my soldiers, and of course Aston’s guard detail, to protect me, but we worked our way through the wards. We let parts of the qi shield stand, but now our forces could easily enter the city.

I shook my head, pulling my attention back to my surroundings. I barely had time to take them in before Aston grabbed me and levitated me onto the top of the wall. I nodded at him, looking around to see that the soldiers were all making their way onto the wall and into the city.

I joined the generals and their guards, who were now close to the front, though we’d still sent elites ranging out. The occasional flashes and thunder of fighting showed where our forces were encountering resistance. I was beginning to suspect the Zarian might have pulled most of their forces out of the city, although some of the buildings we passed looked a little too battered, and there was still smoke rising from several places further in.

Then we reached the first plaza, and I suppressed a gasp of surprise as I realized why the soldiers were slowing. Facing us across the city was a group of Zarian. None of them was higher than the fifth stage, with at least half of them in the first or second. A profoundly strange composition in the Dominion. They wore simple clothing and most didn’t carry any weapons beside maybe a knife.

Sensing that this wasn’t about to get violent, I pushed my way forward, with Aston and my stronger guards keeping close, while Tenira slid into place to my right.

“Welcome to Niali, Imperials,” a man with gray-streaked hair who seemed to be in the second stage called out.

I took another step forward and let my gaze sweep over them.

“Welcome, indeed,” I finally answered. “I take it there won’t be much fighting today.”

“We sure don’t want to be your enemies. You’re welcome to take custody of the city.” He smiled. “I’m sure we’ll come to a meeting of the minds.”

I smiled back. Well, this is shaping up to be interesting. And definitely better than fighting a bloody conquest.

Chapter 149 (Draft)

By the time we’d sorted out the aftermath of the battle, Elis seemed to have clamped up. I tried to press him — gently, I didn’t want to alienate him — but he evaded my questions and gave noncommittal answers.

I could understand why he might not trust me, of course, but I still found it pretty irritating. The information he had on the Zarian could make our campaign a lot easier, and the insight into their social dynamics and current upheaval might be invaluable. Not to mention that he was the brother of my friend, and he’d been supposedly investigating their father’s death.

In the end, I surrendered to the inevitable and let him and Elia catch up while I talked to the Imperial army officers to sort things out. The one-star general, who was apparently named Ling Juan, had things well in hand, although there was some uncertainty about how many soldiers to send out as scouts to see if we could confirm that the Zarian were really gone.

When I rejoined the others, they’d taken over some space in one of the rough houses, and Elia and Elis were talking while Lei lounged next to Elia, watching her brother with pretty well concealed wariness. I entered the room and shut the door behind me quietly, listening to their conversation, which appeared to have gotten heated.

“I can’t believe you just up and left them!” Elis shook his head. “And in an occupied foreign city.”

“Look who’s talking.” Elia snorted. “You’re in no position to cast aspersions about leaving your family. Besides, you weren’t there. You don’t know how things had gotten.” She sighed. “I do wish I could go back and get them, but what can we do?”

He pulled a face. “You’re right that I wasn’t there. And I knew Ki was a little hellion, but I would never have thought he’d actually say thatto a Zarian officer.”

Elia nodded. “It’s a good thing we all got out of that in one piece, even if we lost the estate. And that’s just the tip of the hill, really.”

“Is Ki one of your other brothers?” I asked, choosing a chair.

Elia nodded. “Yes. Well, half-brother.”

“Oh?” I cocked an eyebrow.

“It’s not important,” Elis said.

Elia frowned a little. “Only Elis and me are actually my father’s children, if you must know. The younger two, well, aren’t. I guess things weren’t well between our parents, with him being gone all the time and everything.”

“And your father knew about that and actually stayed?” I asked. There was no way a child of the Sun didn’t know, but I still found that a little shocking.

“Well, they weren’t exactly together a lot of the time, anyway,” Elis said with a grimace. “But they stayed married. Dad mostly did that for our sake, I think. He even made every effort to treat the other two well. People back home weren’t especially fond of adulterers or their bastard children, but while there were rumors, no one ever talked too loudly about it.”

I was tempted to ask when the two of them found out, if it was because of their bloodline, but suppressed the urge. Clearly, their family was a sensitive subject, and I didn’t know Elis that well.

“Our family wasn’t exactly perfect even before his death,” Elia said, looking at her brother. “And it only got worse once you left, Elis. I regret what happened and the way it did, but I don’t think I was wrong to leave them.”

“I know. I’m glad at least I got to see you now.”

I shook my head. And I thought my family was a little dysfunctional.But I put that thought aside and instead watched silently as they shared a smile. It was pretty plain to see that Elis and Elia had been close, and that some of that still lingered.

Lei had watched and listened to all of this in silence. His expression had remained even throughout, though he’d taken Elia’s hand at some point. She must have talked to him about this before. Now he stirred, and looked at me. “What are we going to do now?”

I sighed. “We’re probably going to leave and go further north. We can’t guarantee that they’re not going to come back in force to get Elis. Or me. Leaving might help that. This outpost is still going to need reinforcements from wherever we can find some.” I pulled a face. We had too few soldiers to go around in the first place.

“Makes sense,” Lei said. “Are we going to leave by ship?”

“Yeah.”

It didn’t take long until we were ready to go, in fact. None of us exactly had much to pack. I talked to the officers in charge a bit more and spent some time with the formations. We needed to salvage the wards or put new ones up quickly, and my knowledge and skill was helpful. But there were enough soldiers with the necessary ability here that they could do without me, so once Aston got impatient, I excused myself.

We took one of the faster Imperial ships. I stood on deck and watched it navigate away from the rocky coast, while Aston beside me scanned the horizon. There was no sign of any hostile ships, or airships for that matter. These waters had gotten dangerous for them, especially since we had not just the sea dragons, but Terbekteri ships on our side.

I got distracted from my thoughts when I noticed Elis off to one side, hanging over the railing. He heaved, although not much came out. I suppressed a grin and went over.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

He glanced at me, then turned his head back. “I hope so.” I heard him swallow. “You know, this is only the second time in my life I’ve been on a ship. I don’t think I’ve missed out.”

I smiled, trying to look sympathetic. “Well, I doubt it’s going to be the last time. But we do have some good airships in the Empire. Those tend to sway a little less.”

“Sun, I hope so.” He groaned.

“I have some pills that might help with your nausea,” I offered.

“Yes, please. I didn’t really have a chance to pack a lot of what I might need when I left.”

I passed him a pill from my always-prepared storage ring and watched as he swallowed it with a sip of water from a bottle he pulled from his own. Clearly, he got to take at least some things.

“I’m impressed that you managed to escape from the grasp of those wannabe paladins at all,” I said. “Did you have a bit of warning?”

“Ugh, this is better.” He shot me a sideways look. “Yes, a friend of mine told me they were, well, turning hostile. I didn’t think they’d strike that quickly, but I moved to a safehouse and hired a few local muscle as guards. They managed to pass me the word in time for me to slip into the sewer system and sneak out of the city. And before you ask, no, that’s not going to work as an entry point for Imperial soldiers.”

I nodded, not reacting to his last statement.

“It was about time for me to leave anyway,” he finally continued. I had the impression he was deliberately keeping his tone casual and diffident. “I was actually going to go back to the Earth Continent and visit my family.” He chuckled. “Well, at least that part took care of itself.”

I waited beside him in silence for a while. He didn’t seem to mind my company. While he was clearly feeling better, he didn’t move away from the railing.

“What are you going to do now?” I finally asked.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you not going to insist that I stay with you? I wouldn’t be in much of a position to refuse if you were to be … assertive about my seeking sanctuary within the Empire.”

I smiled and shook my head. “No doubt. I think you could be very useful for the Empire, Elis. But I’m hardly going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.” I shrugged. “I’m not an idiot, and trying to coerce a descendant of the Sun, especially one with your experience, strikes me as a stupid idea. Which isn’t even mentioning Elia’s reaction. I do value her friendship, believe it or not.”

He regarded me silently for a moment or two. I met his gaze calmly, watching the thoughts flitting through his eyes. I couldn’t help looking at him with some curiosity. Elis wasn’t as handsome as Kajare, but there was something about him. I wasn’t sure exactly what to think of it.

“I see,” he finally said with a slight smile. “I suppose I should be grateful my little sister is so good at making friends. But to answer your question, I suppose I am going to stay. It’s not like there’s anywhere else I can go, and I don’t want to leave Elia this soon after we’re finally reunited. Besides, I can’t say I dislike the prospect of maybe getting a little of my own back from the people who put me in this situation.”

I returned his smile. “I’m glad to hear that. I think I should introduce you to my cousin Kariva, I expect you’ll see there’s a lot of common ground to find.”

His expression brightened. “Lady Leri Kariva? I’ve heard of her. Yes, I would certainly like the opportunity to meet her. Her reputation in the right circles is quite something.”

“Good. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to meet you.” Or if not, she’ll certainly pretend like she is.

Silence descended again, though it was less tense this time. I looked out over the sea, as did Elis, but I also kept a metaphorical eye on him. His aura was pretty interesting, although I didn’t manage to get much of an idea for what abilities his bloodline might have given him.

“You’re going to invade the Dominion,” he finally said, calmly. “Attempt to conquer it. Aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am.”

He nodded, as if he’d expected that answer.

“Do you think we’re strong enough to do it?” I asked.

He turned his head to face me more fully and raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bit of an odd question to ask. If you weren’t confident in your victory, why would you even try it?”

I shrugged. “I certainly am, but that’s neither here nor there. You can’t know everything about the situation in the Empire and what constitutes our strength. I’m interested in getting your opinion, from your perspective.” And I wanted to know what his attitude was to know what I should expect from him.

“Well, I’m not in the Zarian military and hardly privy to their strategic deliberations or assessments. But you’re right, I do know some things about their strength in the northern cities.” He paused for a moment. “Yes, I think you can do it. It’s not going to be easy, but I wouldn’t bet against it. Unless the Storm or certain of his supporters decide they don’t like that prospect and do something about it.”

“Good to know.” I smiled at him, showing that I wasn’t concerned. We were almost certainly stronger than he knew, and if Jideia had been able or willing to intervene too directly, the Zarian would already have conquered the Empire.

The conversation trailed off there, though I stayed to look out at the sea some more. A sea dragon would probably come to talk to me soon. They always seemed to find me and show up whenever I was at sea.

Finally, Elis wandered away, and I made my way across the deck, as well. I could sense that Elia had joined her brother, they were probably talking again. Before I could decide what I wanted to do with my time, I happened upon Lei.

He was sitting cross-legged in a little corner of the deck, beside the cabin and where the ship started to narrow. I paused and watched with my qi senses as he sank deeper into meditation, and I felt the flow of qi joining the circulation in his body. He went into a deep meditative state quickly, and judging from the force I could dimly sensed, I knew this was more than ordinary cultivation. He was finally breaking through to the fifth stage. Maybe the fight gave him some impulse? Or talking with Elia and Elis.

I leaned against the railing a short distance away from Lei, where I could keep an eye on him, even though I knew he was perfectly safe here.

And I had no doubt about his ability to break through. He might do it at a higher age than Tenira, but I knew that wasn’t because he was in any way lacking in ability. He simply devote as much effort to his cultivation as some. And even then, the fifth stage at his age is still an accomplishment.

It would be nice to have him in that stage. I had no fear of what might happen if Elis turned on us, considering the presence of my guards and soldiers, but Lei would be able to keep up more, like Tenira. And Kajare could very well have broken through the next time I saw him, too.

I shook my head. I knew my standards were pretty warped, even if you didn’t count my own unnatural progression. Lots of nobles didn’t even reach the fourth stage at Lei’s age. But everyone around me seems to be advancing quickly. I wonder if I’m just that inspirational?

I frowned and took a step further away, letting the sensation of the ocean’s tide wash over me. For all I knew, I might have some passive aura that helped the people around me progress in their cultivation more quickly. Or, what was probably more likely, my father might be subtly giving them some help.

Not that I was about to complain.

Chapter 148 (Draft)

If I’d had any time to do it, I would have cursed at my misfortune in getting attacked again, and at the Zarian who were doing it. But I couldn’t spare the attention. I barely even noticed what the people around me were doing. The formations around the camp held all of my focus.

Trying to repair formations suffering damage from attacks on the fly would be a hellish challenge even for an experienced formations master. Even reinforcing them wasn’t easy. A little like trying to repaint a chalk drawing, with acidic chalk, while someone kept splashing water all over it. While you were tied to your spot and couldn’t move. In reality, I couldn’t go haring off all over and outside the base to work on the formations.

But I could tell that my efforts helped. The formations were well-done, poured in stone deep into the earth and into plates of reinforced metal inlaid with conductive metals. They buckled under the assault and the overflow of qi from other, failing formations, but the basis held, and there was enough redundancy that the system didn’t break down. It wouldn’t stand up to a concentrated barrage for long, but while the attackers were content to stay back, it held.

The strain started to slowly lessen, and I finally raised my head to look up and take in the situation. The ballistas on the gate had scored on the hostile spirit beast a few times, according to the bloody gashes in its side. One of the tusks was half broken off. It was stumbling back, and after it shook its head and roared again, it turned and staggered back into the shelter of the thickest patch of trees.

I set down my chisel and pen and took a step away from my workplace, closer to the walls. Aston moved with me. After a moment of hesitation, I jumped onto the low battlements where Lei and Elia were standing. Elis was beside them, still a little more closely guarded by soldiers from my detail.

“You think it’s over?” Lei asked, sounding doubtful.

“Of course not,” Elia said. She glanced at her brother. “They want Elis, don’t they? Maybe they’ll try talking now?”

I frowned, glancing outside, where I could feel several powerful cultivators moving. “They’re Zarian. We’re still at war. They’re not going to just stop by to chat with us.”

As if to give the lie to my words, a cultivator stepped out onto the path. He wore dark robes, and while he kept his aura veiled, I was pretty sure he was in the seventh stage.

We waited in tense silence as he moved closer. A few other cultivators followed after him, but they kept to the trees, so I didn’t get a good look at any of them. The other one strolled in a manner that tried just a bit to hard to project relaxation and confidence. I focused on his presence in my qi senses. He was definitely a spirit-child, although I couldn’t tell which spirit, it probably wasn’t anyone I’d recognize, or even how strong they were. Although I’d be surprised if it wasn’t a follower of Jideia.

He stopped some distance from the gate and let the silence drag on for a few moments, apparently for dramatic effect. Then he spoke. “Imperials! Your defense has been commendably strong. But you should know you have little hope of standing us off. You can take heart, though. This does not need to come to a pitched battle.”

He’d spoken in Zarian. I glanced at the others. They should all understand the language at least somewhat, though I knew Lei hadn’t put much effort into studying it, and he was frowning at the enemy cultivator. Elia leaned over to whisper to him.

After a moment of consideration, I turned, and waved at the most senior of the officers gathered below to approach. The woman landed on the battlements and bowed.

“If they don’t know I’m here yet, it’s probably better not to tell them,” I said. “You should answer him. Ask him to elaborate, if you would.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” The officer hesitated. “I should get back down. May I contact you telepathically for further instructions?”

“Of course, General.” I made a mental note to learn her name.

She rejoined the rest of her staff and stepped up behind the gate, climbing one of the half-towers at its sides, which would give her a good view of the situation and also allow them to see her.

“What do you mean, Zarian?” she called out. “Clearly, you and your strike force have come here to attack us.”

The other spirit-child smiled. “Your little outpost does not concern me much, Imperial. In fact, we are not part of the Dominion’s armed forces. Instead, I have been sent here to deal with a domestic matter. We are chasing a wanted criminal. If you hand him over, we will have no reason to squander our strength against your walls.”

I felt the officer’s touch, and sent her a message back. Ask him about this criminal.

She nodded minutely. “A criminal? What sort of crimes has this man you’re chasing committed?”

“Treason against the state,” the Zarian answered after a momentary pause. “You do not need to know this, but I can tell you. Also incitement to sedition and espionage.”

I whistled silently. A glance at Elis showed him grinding his teeth, but he remained silent. I smiled at him for a moment. That Zarian could be lying through his teeth, or more likely, has been sent on thin pretenses to eliminate Elis. It’s not like we have any way to check what they’re telling us.

But if this was as ugly as the picture was shaping up to look like to me, I could understand why Jideia’s faction, or others, hadn’t wanted a truth-teller strolling around in the middle of it.

I gave the general another short message, and she followed my directions. “The man in question is not a Zarian citizen. Furthermore, he has appealed to the Empire for sanctuary. I’m afraid we cannot give him up just like that, especially given your nation’s record of gross miscarriage of justice.”

The Zarian’s face tightened, more at the last part than hearing that we wouldn’t give Elis up. “That’s unfortunate,” he replied. “I might prefer to avoid bloodshed, but I am perfectly able and willing to use force to back up our demand.” His eyes swept over the wall. “By the way, you should give up the pretense. I can feel there is a powerful spirit child hiding within your camp. Perhaps even …” he trailed off, but I didn’t like the look on his face.

“Who is that, Elis?” I asked.

The young man stepped closer and pulled a face. “I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t met him before, personally. I imagine he is one of Aralo’s — that’s the new Security Director, in case you didn’t know — helping hands. Although it might be just as accurate to call him a hound of the Temple. This has to be one of the armed groups they sponsor.”

I grimaced. I’d read about this in one of the reports Aiki had shown me. Apparently, it had recently become fashionable for young nobles, or rather people from the Dominion’s leading patrician families, to enroll in those sort of groups. I got the impression they were somewhere in the uncomfortable middle between a knightly order, a political militia or armed group dedicated to their faction, like the Nazi’s SA before they came to power, and an unofficial security apparatus of the state. Or ‘security’, as these things go.Anyway, clearly a number of the people facing us now were such talented if perhaps not possessed of good judgment nobles, but many of them, on the other hand, clearly had spirit ancestry. Which no doubt helped explain why they were all pretty strong.

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided not to reveal my presence. They might have realized I was here already, but if not, there was no reason to do it. Who knew what they might get up to if they thought they could take me out here.

‘Tell them no again. Warn them off,’I ordered the officer.

“Who might or might not be in our camp is no concern of yours,” she responded promptly. Not that it made up for our time of deliberation beforehand. “I am warning you, we will not give in to such high-handed demands from an agent of our enemy. I suggest you turn around and leave. Clearly, you were sent out to hunt down a lone person, not assault an Imperial base. If you persist in this, though, we are more than capable of making you leave the hard way.”

She was probably right in that assessment, I reflected, although the amount of force they’d assembled to chase Elis certainly suggested they weren’t taking this lightly. Clearly, whoever gave his orders wanted to be perfectly sure that they could bring him in, even if he got help from the Sun.

The Zarian’s face hardened. “If you insist on being difficult,” he said in a tone that had finally crossed into being openly derisive. “The hard way it is, then. You have only yourself to blame. Or your hidden master.”

The others finally left the sparse shelter of the trees and moved into position for an attack, forming a half-circle around the camp. The theatrics made me snort. It was pretty obvious these weren’t professional soldiers. Trying to intimidate your enemy like that might make sense if you were chasing some ‘undesirable’ or cowing rebellious elements, but it was pretty out of touch for a regular battle between units of enemy nations.

They didn’t mess around for long, though. After they’d assembled and allowed us a moment to bask in their presence, they attacked. This time, I wouldn’t be able to man the wards against them.

Their first attack made that abundantly clear. They straight up blew away the outermost layer of the protective wards, and scrambled all of our alarm and perimeter marking formations in the process. The inner shield held, luckily, but I could sense how much strain it had to withstand.

“Return fire!” the general bellowed before it had ended, and started by sending a large spear of ice at the previous speaker herself.

The Zarian evaded that with a quick sidestep, and returned one of his own. By this point, the rest of the fighters joined the attacks, and the space between the camp and the attackers turned into a chaotic melange of different qi-based attacks. What felt like half of the trees in the vicinity went up in flames or were just ripped apart.

I glanced at the Lighters, who had taken their positions behind the walls, as well. Their officers were directing them to make concentrated attacks on targets as the shifting battlefield allowed. As I watched, one squad managed to nail one of the Zarian spirit-children, overwhelming his qi shield with their weapons, and blowing him back with a chemical grenade. They didn’t manage to follow it up effectively, though, given the way their line of fire was being blocked by the earthen wall another Zarian had put up, and when their opponent came back into sight, he was already healing, probably from a pill he’d taken.

I flinched as I sensed the qi shield finally break. An electric tingle swept over us, then the Zarian’s attacks started crashing into the wall and its defenders. Aston grabbed my shoulder and pulled be back deeper into the camp. I instinctively tried to struggle at first, but I didn’t manage to budge him a centimeter. Elia and Lei followed, though the guard at least allowed them to move under their own power.

“What about the soldiers from those ships?” Lei asked.

That was a very good question. They had to have noticed what was going on here.

“They’re coming up,” Aston answered. “Parts of the enemy force are turning to face them.”

It wasn’t a large fleet, and the cultivators on board the ships weren’t that strong, but this definitely swung the odds more in our direction.

Elis appeared at the edge of the battlements. “Aren’t you going to fight?” he called to us.

“My bodyguards would get violent if I tried,” I replied. “You should probably get back, too.”

He shook his head. “They’re here for me. I’m going to be showing them why that’s a bad idea.”

I sighed but nodded. I couldn’t stop him from doing that, and even if I could I would probably respect his decision. Unlike Elia, he was in the middle of the fifth stage, so he could actually do some good here. Especially if he had some abilities from his bloodline that were suited to combat.

I didn’t have to ponder that question for long. Just after Elis returned, I could sense a large attack shotting out from his position towards two of the Zarian fighters. It was a combined technique using fire and light qi, looking a bit like a solar flare. The plasma burned through his enemies’ shields in a matter of seconds, and with the sudden focus of a number of Lighters on them, they disappeared into a conflagration.

I sent a bit of my own qi up into a technique that would act as a mirror and reflect light so I had a good view of the battlefield. I caught the soldiers from the ships anchored off the nearby coast as they started their attack. Steam erupted over the battlefield as the water they brought mixed with the fires already smoldering in several places. But I didn’t need to see everything to tell what was happening. The attacks of the camp let up, a good thing since the walls were barely holding together even in the strongest spots. Our own soldiers didn’t let the opportunity go to waste, but redoubled their own attacks on the Zarian.

I caught Elis using his attack technique three more times before he stopped, visibly panting. About a quarter of our Lighters had been killed, and a somewhat smaller percentage of the regular soldiers. But the Zarian seemed to have fared at least as badly. The walls might not be much, but they offered at least some protection, and the attackers had been caught between two forces.

I wondered if they would fight to the bitter end. For a moment, it seemed like it. But then I realized that they were actually concentrating again, not just to shore up their defenses, but they were only attacking enough to provide themselves cover fire. Then qi started to swirl around them.

I began to bark out orders to take cover, and lost my view of the field as two guards moved in front of me. But it didn’t matter, because the wave of qi crested the next instant, and with it came a faint sensation I’d sensed often enough now, as if space was being warped and stretched slightly before it snapped into place. When I got a view of the battlefield again, it only confirmed what my other senses told me, that the Zarian were gone.

Elis jumped down from the wall and ambled in our direction, still a bit pale, but with a smile on his face. It was clear he was relieved.

“Well, that was an adventure,” he commented lightly. “I apologize for the interruption of our conversation, Princess.”

I nodded, not bothering to hide that I was watching him closely. “Maybe now that we have some time to talk, you can tell me why they wanted you so badly, Elis.”

He shrugged, but I could see the tension still simmering under the surface. “I suppose those sorts of people don’t like who they consider traitors.”

I narrowed my eyes, looking at him thoughtfully. “You were one of them?”

He pulled a face. “No. But they thought I would be. And I might have encouraged that. I was seriously considering it.” He sighed. “They’re quite eager to recruit spirit-children and ‘build a community’ for them. But anyway, that was before I realized how they treated those they didn’t want or get to join their club.”

“I didn’t know you where that comfortable in the Dominion, Elis,” Elia said, frowning a little.

He snorted. “That’s nothing. By the time you took Blue Valley City back, I was one of the best unofficial players in the intelligence game and even not insignificant in the broader political game in the north of the Dominion.”

I whistled. It certainly sounded like we had a lot to talk about.

Chapter 147 (Draft)

I’d been skeptical that we were even going to find what Elia was supposed to be after, given the paucity of the description she had from the Sun. But it seemed to be enough, and as we traveled closer, I even got the now-familiar tingle of intuition that meant Rijoko was helping out, too.

Not that we had many places to look, I had to admit. Our destination was the farthest south I’d ever traveled, beyond the Yellow Graves proper. Two days after Elia first told me about it, we were approaching our first and only outpost in the region, within shouting distance of the Zarian Dominion proper. Well, for strong cultivators, at least.

The jungle of the Yellow Graves had had to leave this are behind, but it hadn’t given up without a fight. Instead of the dense, old trees and variety of lifeforms using qi, this was a sparser, almost nonmagical wood. The terrain was odd, too, with hills and ridges going mostly in a north to south direction. The landmass had narrowed enough you were never far from the ocean, although our actual position was more of a protrusion off the direct path to the Storm Continent, sheltered from both the Yellow Graves and, especially, the southern continent, but close to the sea. The small fleet of Imperial and Terbekteri ships anchored off the rocky coast attested to that.

“Weird that we’re this close to the Zarian homeland,” Elia said, gazing south, although there wasn’t much to see. “I never would have thought that I’d see the Storm Continent before I actually got to their colonies on the Earth Continent.”

“We’re not quite there yet,” I replied, “but I understand what you mean. Especially given we were both in Zarian-occupied territory on the Earth Continent. I’m just as happy it turned out this way, though.”

“Oh, so am I.” Elia smiled. “I didn’t leave much behind on the Earth Continent, either.” Her face darkened as she said it, though, and I caught a flicker in her eyes. She was probably thinking of her family.

I almost said something, but clenched my teeth and only nodded. I knew Kariva hadn’t been able to locate Elia’s family, not surprising since they were stuck among many displaced people deep in Zarian-occupied territory. Even if Elia wanted to go back to them, there wasn’t much she could do. And our departure had been hurried enough I wasn’t even sure if she’d said goodbye to them. Although, on closer reflection, she had been gone for a while before we kicked off our plan, so she probably had, or at least left them a message or something.

Our vehicle slowed down as we passed the outer perimeter of the base. It looked a bit like an open-topped van, with broad wheels that let it drive in difficult terrain. A second one with the other part of my guard detail followed, kicking up a bit of dust behind us. The soldiers standing guard over the base saluted as we passed, while the barriers before the gate had been quickly pulled out of the way. I felt a slight tingle as we passed the formations of a ward perimeter.

The security measures were more impressive than the base itself, which amounted to little more than a collection of huts and a few dirt grounds for drilling soldiers or parking vehicles or airships. Out arrival caused a bit of a stir, and I had to bite back a grin as I listened to officers and noncoms haranguing soldiers to get back to their training.

A surprising number of them were Lighters. I would have expected those to stay further north, but on second thought, it was probably easier to drill them here than in the Yellow Graves, while they’d still be potentially useful. We’d finally cleared everything north of the short-lived wall, so most of our soldiers had been trickling south. We’d even traveled with some of them, until we’d picked up these vehicles at our last stop. They must have been shipped in by ship or airship, I didn’t think they’d have survived crossing the Yellow Graves.

“You take me to the nicest places, Inaris,” Elia muttered.

“That’s Lei’s job, not mine,” I countered. I grinned as she sighed theatrically. If I hadn’t known she was so straight you could use her as a ruler, I might have found it less funny.

“Did someone say my name?” Lei asked, popping his head up from the second vehicle.

“You need to take your girlfriend somewhere nice once this is done,” I said. “For now, let’s see what’s going on, though.”

I jumped down and waited for the two of them to join me. Once he’d heard what Elia intended, Lei had insisted on coming along. Not that I minded. He was good in a fight, and while he could be a little careless, it wasn’t anywhere to the point where you’d consider him a liability.

It didn’t seem like we’d have any trouble finding the reason we were coming here. We’d barely come to a stop in the center of the base before we were approached by a nervous-looking colonel. My attention drifted to him almost before I realized it, and I knew it was related. Sometimes, it felt disconcerting to have something resembling a video game quest system stuck in my head. But at least it could be really useful.

“Your Highness, my lord, my lady,” the officer said, kneeling and bowing his head. “I am glad you came. We have something that could use your personal attention.”

“Rise.” I stepped closer. “Why’s that?”

The officer stood up, and his gaze drifted to Elia. “The man in question demanded to speak to Lady Elia of Arialko. He’s quite insistent about it.”

We started walking, and I smoothed out a frown. “Back up a little. Who’s that man, and where did he come from?”

The officer hesitated. “Perhaps it’s best to show you, Your Highness. We picked him up in the forest not far from here, but he was clearly approaching the base on purpose. After a bit of turmoil, we brought him into the base. We’re keeping him in a secure building for now. He’s refused to answer most of our questions.”

I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything else, as we were arriving at the building in question now. It looked sturdier than the rest, and I could sense the formations built into and inside it. There was also a tightly coiled aura that nevertheless drew my attention almost automatically, in a strangely familiar way.

Elia pushed ahead of us, rushing into the building. I hurried up to follow her. We brushed past two soldiers guarding the entrance room and then past a couple more in the ground floor, before Elia pushed open a door with so much energy it banged against the wall, and I followed her into the room.

As soon as I saw the person inside, I realized several things at once. The first was why Aston hadn’t crowded around us more closely. The second was an inkling of why the officer, a seasoned professional, had been so off balance. The third was that I might just find out more of what had been going on down south. But none of that captured my focus.

“Elis!” Elia rushed forward, starting to extend her arms as if to hug him, then faltered.

I slowly stepped closer, examining him. He was a young man, probably no older than my mental age, if even that. He had brown hair and a skin tone that looked like it could have come from almost anywhere in Eurasia. But there was a definite resemblance to my friend. Anyone would have known they were brother and sister just from looking at them.

“Elia,” he replied softly. He smiled, although there was a bit of strain visible in the expression.

Hesitantly, he stepped forward and put his arms around her. As if that had broken a barrier, Elia returned the hug and to him fiercely.

I waited quietly as the siblings reunited, shooting Lei a sharp look when it looked like he’d speak up. But after half a minute, they separated, though I noticed they kept holding onto each other’s sleeves. Elis turned to look at us curiously.

“A direct child of a powerful spirit,” he said. His gaze sharpened on me. “Ah. You’re the Imperial Princess. I see the rumors are true.”

“Elis of Arialko, I presume,” I replied. “You’re right, I am a daughter of the Moon.”

“And I’m Leri Akilei, but everyone calls me Lei.” Lei regarded Elia’s brother at least as curiously as he did us. He stepped towards his girlfriend. “Your sister told me about you, but not much.”

“Did she?” His eyes narrowed, and he glanced from Lei to Elia.

She stepped back a little, not quite touching Lei, but the way they stood was pretty clear, and I didn’t have to be a genius to recognize the defensiveness Lei showed, or the protectiveness towards Elia.

“I knew you’d grown up, little sister,” he said, his tone a little more playful now, though his expression hadn’t softened much. “I knew you might find a man. I didn’t think it would be an Imperial princeling, though.” The way he said it carried an undertone of what might be ‘you should know better’, unless I was reading too much into it.

“So what if it was?” Elia retorted. She glared at her older brother. “This sort of thing is my decision, not yours. Especially not if you come back years after you left us just to lecture me about it.”

Elis winced a little. He bowed his head for a moment. “I know. I’m sorry.” He glanced at Lei again, and there was still steel in his gaze. “Still, if I find you disrespecting her or treating her like a common toy for your amusement, you’ll regret it.”

“I’d never do that. You don’t know me. Don’t act like you do.” Lei extended his arm and Elia took his hand, taking step back to snuggle closer to him.

I cleared my throat, bringing all of their eyes back to me. I regarded the young spirit-descendant for a moment. He was in the fifth stage, stronger than Elia. Clearly, he was more familiar with his abilities than she’d been when I met her, too. He’d also picked up Imperial Common somewhere, though he wasn’t quite as good at it as her, his accent more noticeable.

“How did you know she was with us in the first place?” I asked.

“It’s not a secret.” He shrugged. “The Zarian learned about it some time ago, seeing her with you and probably getting information from sources within the Empire. I picked up a few things here and there.”

I raised an eyebrow. This sounded pretty interesting, even if he was weaseling his answers. “We’ll have to talk about this in more detail,” I said. “But for now, the way you showed up here, I imagine you were in a hurry. Trouble with those changes down in the Zarian Dominion I’ve heard about?”

“You could say that.” He smiled wryly. “Yes, I was running away, hoping the Empire would offer me safety, especially given Elia was here.” He smiled at his sister for a moment. “You might say they’re not happy to let me go.”

I nodded, taking a step closer myself.

“Did you find out anything about Father’s death?” Elia asked. “What did you do down there? How much danger have you been in?”

He laughed. “One thing at a time, Elia.” But he quickly turned serious. “I’m glad you came so quickly. I didn’t find out much regarding Dad, though there’s definitely a few things we should talk about. As for these changes, as you called them, Princess Inaris,” he nodded at me, “they’re probably more sweeping than you realize, and they caught me unprepared. I got caught up more deeply, more quickly than I realized, I suppose. I don’t think I’m out of danger, but just getting away took all of my skill and a little help from Grandmother …”

He trailed off. A wail had started to sound and was quickly growing louder, filling the room so much I was almost surprised nothing vibrated. I flinched and brushed my finger against my storage ring. That was an alarm. I could sense one of the perimeter wards pulsing, and the others were activating, too.

Elis cursed in his native language. “It looks like Niordo doesn’t want to let me get away, and sent his men after me.”

I glanced around, then turned to leave. The others were hot on my heels as we hurried out of the room, down the corridor and out of the building. Elis did well at seeming calm, but his aura felt too rigid to fool me.

Soldiers were hurrying around everywhere. Lighters crowded around what I realized was an armory and munitions depot, while their officers sorted them quickly. Only some of them had their weapons on hand. The regular soldiers were better prepared, probably because they all carried storage rings. I took a moment to look around, then hurried to the closest gate, which led roughly south. Aston overtook me without a word while other guards closed in around us. A few of them positioned themselves to cut Elis off from me and my companions.

I could sense our attackers. There weren’t that many, but almost all of them were strong. Crap. This is just an outpost. It’s not supposed to stand up to a concentrated invasion or elite strike.

I took a deep breath as we reached the wall. There was something odd about the attackers. A few of them seemed a little strange to me. Or, at least, different than usual. Not necessarily all that strange.

“There are quite a few spirit-children among these people,” Elia muttered, a deep frown on her face as she gazed out.

I nodded, not taking my eyes from the trees. There wasn’t much we could see, yet. Soldiers took defensive positions, and the ballistas and other defensive installations were readied.

Then a roar shook the earth, and a new presence approached quickly. I winced. A large spirit beast, twice as big as an elephant, trampled through the path in the forest, tearing down young trees, before it thundered towards us. It slammed to a halt as it reached walls, shaking the earth, but the qi running through it trembled and I could sense a few other runes burning out.

Clearly, we weren’t in for a friendly chat.

Chapter 146 (Draft)

I’d been in the jungle too long. That must be why, getting out of it now, it took me a moment to get my bearings. I blinked, my eyes adjusting themselves to the differing light levels.

Not that I was entirely done with the jungle yet. For that matter, I’d spent some time in the other ecosystems of the Yellow Graves, though they all had a tendency to seem cluttered. The desert that technically covered more of the Graves’ land area, especially. It was a rocky desert instead of sand, although ‘craggy, rocky, treacherous maze’ would be a better description, as far as I was concerned. You had rocks towering into the horizon at one spot and deep chasms winding into arcane squiggles ten meters farther. It held so little water even cultivators tended to prefer the jungle to live in, though that might also have to do with the nasty scorpions, snakes, dust storms, qi drains, stone spirits, and assorted monsters.

We’d done pretty well, all things considered, and I felt a momentary stir of pride as I thought about it. Over the past months or so, we’d established control of most areas of the Yellow Graves, and even started sending Zarieni north. And I even managed to avoid getting bitten by anything bigger than an insect — okay, a giant insect, but still — or getting lost or getting in a fight with a spirit.

“I can’t decide which is worse,” Yarani beside me said, clearly thinking along the same lines. “The jungle or the desert.”

“The jungle,” Lei replied with conviction. “I hate having my lines of sight cluttered like this, and all the life around just makes it hard to sense anything. At least in the desert, you know if you sense something dangerous.”

“You mean if you sense any lifeform at all?”

He grinned and shrugged. “Hey, if the rule works, it works. Besides, some places in the desert were really interesting. Are you sure we can’t go back, Inaris? We haven’t spent nearly enough time there to get a good opportunity to look around.”

“I’m sure,” I replied firmly. “Besides, if you want to get yourself killed traipsing around the Yellow Graves’ desert, do it after the war is over, I still have a use for you.”

“Ooh, that was a good one!” Elia smirked at us. “Not that the Graves aren’t interesting, but I prefer places with a little less things trying to kill me.”

“Then you’re probably out of luck,” I said, smiling a little. “After all, we’re going to be getting into the Zarian’s real estate soon, and they’ll probably want you dead, too.” I glanced at my guards. “But don’t worry. Aston, you’ll protect us, won’t you?”

“Of course, my lady,” he assured me, then smirked a little. “It’s my solemn duty to protect you, however hopeless the task may seem.”

The others laughed, and I scowled playfully at him. “A few assassination attempts and you’re this distraught? For shame, Aston. Where does one get bodyguards with a spine around here?”

“On the throne, one assumes, my lady,” he replied serenely.

We all laughed again, and I allowed myself to enjoy the warmth and companionship, before I turned my mind back to serious matters. Unfortunately, there was no lack of them to keep me occupied.

“Exactly where are we going, anyway?” Lei asked.

I sighed and refrained from rolling my eyes. “Do you ever pay attention at briefings? Wait, don’t answer that, it was a rhetorical question. We’re going to a major army camp just north of here. There, we’re going to find both Al and a company of Lighters, who are about to be taken through the jungle.”

“Hopefully,” Yarani said. “I can’t help but feel a bit like we’re just sending them to gauge throughput, and probably losses.”

“Hey, it’s not like that,” I protested. “Sure, the trip will be dangerous, but it’s always going to be, and we can’t afford to completely forgo a land route through the Graves. Besides, they’ll have a big enough escort to make sure it’s safe. You don’t think I’d let Al waltz into somewhere very dangerous, do you?”

“Of course not, I didn’t mean it like that.” Yarani smiled apologetically.

Before we could continue the conversation, we came upon our destination. The camp was a little more sprawling and less fortified than I would have expected before our recent push, but the area should be safe enough now. Besides, with the way we were putting up training camps for Lighters, I could understand it. The Imperial army wasn’t really used to such manpower-intensive states of affairs, but it was adjusting.

We were escorted through the camp quickly. My gaze lingered on the central buildings while I couldn’t help but think wistfully of proper bathing facilities. Conjuring my own water and having self-cleaning clothes were all well and good, and absolutely great for a campaign like this, but I’d found an all new appreciation for my quarters in the Imperial Palace.

We met Al in the front yard of the main complex, easy to find with his escort of Imperial guards. He was kicking his legs on a low fence whose precise purpose eluded me, but sprang up with a grin as soon as he saw us.

“Finally, Big Sister!” he exclaimed as I pulled him into a hug. “If you were in the jungle any longer, they might think you’d decided to emigrate to the Zarieni! So, can I finally go in?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Maybe if you’ve behaved yourself and eaten all your vegetables. We’ll see.” I wanted him there only if it was safe, and in truth I hadn’t quite decided, yet.

Al didn’t look happy at my answer, but he had the sense not to push. Instead, he exchanged hugs with the others. Meanwhile, I looked at his guard detail, noting their positions and expressions. From the way their captain looked into the distance, I could tell Aston had already engaged him in a mental conversation. I’d get the details from him later. I hadn’t been entirely joking with Al, I did want to know whether he’d behaved himself and how he’d acted in general, and it would be a factor in any decision.

Man, look at me, trying to act like I’m a responsible legal guardian and everything.I snorted to myself. Not that I’m likely to fool anyone, and this job is a lot more difficult than I would have liked, too. Pity I can’t quit it.

At least Little An had Kei Yating. If I had my way, she’d spend the entire war safely ensconced well away from the front. Even if that meant I’d only get to see her very rarely. I would have liked to do the same with Al, but I knew he wouldn’t thank me for it in the long run. Besides, as much as I might not like to think about it, he was my heir. If anything happened to me, like Jideia or Isuro, better if he knew what was what. Sure, things would probably get royally screwed up all around, but there was at least a chance Kariva and Kiyanu could keep the whole thing running, so …

A discreet elbow in the side from Yarani brought my attention back to the conversation.

“Where’s Tenira, anyway?” Al was asking.

“Further up north,” I said. “She’s been overseeing our technical projects, and she’s taking care of something for me there.”

Elia cocked her head. “What something? I don’t think you ever explained.”

I shook my head. “Let’s get inside, and we can talk.”

We trooped into the building to the left, which looked a little less busy, and Al showed us to what looked a bit like a communal office. I sank into a comfortable chair with a suppressed sigh and gathered a few of the papers I found.

“As you know, we’ve had the help of the Terbekteri fleet the last few months,” I explained while I did. “They’ve been good at keeping the Zarian off our backs, but their value is limited so far.”

“I know,” Al said. He frowned a little. “I’ve heard their ships are better than ours, but I don’t quite get why they don’t send more soldiers instead. Or airships.”

I looked up and frowned thoughtfully. I’d just been thinking about this, so I supposed this was a good opportunity to teach him something.

“They have a different focus than us, owing to their geographical and political situation.”

“Why?”

I glanced at Kajare, who was already starting to answer Al. “Terbekteri is based on the Water Continent, and we have a long naval tradition. In contrast, the Empire’s navy is nothing to write home about. But I suppose we also never got as good at airships, maybe because the water gave us convenient routs of transportation already.”

“Trying to conquer Terbekteri by sea is the local equivalent of invading Russia in winter,” I added. “Actually, I guess the Empire is probably the one power with a realistic chance of conquering it if it wanted to. Maybe that’s part of the reason we always had friendly relations.”

Al seemed to be listening intently, with a slight frown on his face. “If their defenses are that good, why get involved with us or the Zarian at all?”

“Terbekteri has colonies that are a lot more vulnerable to conquest,” Kajare answered. “And there are economic considerations. Namely, trade with the Empire. Besides, it’s not just about what they stand to lose, but what they stand to gain, too.” He shrugged. “But in the end, they aren’t as involved in the war as the Empire is, obviously.”

Elia sighed and plopped herself down on one of the tables. “This is all well and good, but what do Terbekteri ships have to do with what we were talking about?”

I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair. “We’re planning to use them to raid along the Zarian coast,” I explained. “But there’s one obvious issue, in that there’s actually two coasts, southeast and southwest of the Yellow Graves. We’d have to split the fleet and they couldn’t support each other, at least not easily.”

Lei looked up now. “This is why you wanted to find a path through the Yellow Graves, right? Definitely an interesting challenge.”

I nodded at him. “It would be nice, and we’re going to send surveyors in. But it would be a dangerous route, even if we found a navigable passage. So we’re also looking up north in the Empire. It would be great if we had a way for the Terbekteri fleet, or Imperial ships for that matter, to cross the Sky Continent in the south.”

“Isn’t there something like that already?” Yarani asked.

“Not quite, but probably close. We could definitely use the Blue River from the Blue Lake to the eastern ocean. We could get there from Ru Shu Canal, though we’d probably have to broaden one of its tributaries.” I unfolded a map on the table. “It’s not quite enough from the west, though. We might have to build a new canal.”

Yarani was frowning. “You have to be really careful. Playing with waterways like that could lead to droughts or floods in the region.”

I nodded. “Definitely. Which is probably the main advantage of the last plans Tenira sent me. I was actually going north in part because of that.”

I took the plans from my storage ring and spread them on the table. Lei leaned forward, eagerly scanning them. Yarani had to lean around him to get a look, though I noted with some amusement that Elia didn’t need to, although she only seemed to skim the papers.

“Basically, the idea is to build what might as well be a railroad track,” I explained. “I guess there’s no reason we can’t use those more intensively in the Empire, anyway. It’s not a long distance and mostly downhill, so we don’t even need particularly strong engines for this one.”

“What’re those?” Yarani asked, eyes on the plans. “Looks like little more than sleighs that you want to put the ships onto.”

“Yeah.” I grimaced a little. “I’m not too happy about how much it would rely on qi, but Tenira pointed out, quite rightly, that those ships will be crewed by cultivators, who are more than capable of lifting them. At least for the short while it would need.”

Yarani snorted. “Technically, she’s right about that, but I wouldn’t want to be on the crew trying to lift a ship out of water. Though I guess the Terbekteri will have a lot of water cultivators on board. Most merchant vessels won’t have that strong a crew, though.”

I nodded and lifted my hands. I agreed with her, but this still bore consideration.

“You could raise another mechanism for lifting them,” Lei suggested, still reading the papers with obviously avid interest. “Basically, just a scoop that’ll get them up from the water. You wouldn’t even need anything more complicated than a cable pulley.”

“And if we build the tracks close enough to the waterfront, we could probably just transfer them,” I said thoughtfully, then smiled. “Very good point. Thanks, Lei.”

I shook my head to myself. The idea was more than a little ridiculous, really. But with how quickly cultivators built things, there was no reason not to pursue this. We could afford to try it.

Elia stood up and stretched. “Well, if you’re going to go into technical detail, I think I’m out of here.”

I shook my head and scooped up the papers, making sure to leave Lei the one he was currently scrutinizing. “No, I’m tired, too. I can pick Lei’s brain about this after we get a bath and a hot meal.”

“And a real bed,” Yarani added. Her longing look switched to me after a moment and was complimented by a twinkle. I caught the look she shot me and swallowed a grin. It would be nice to have a proper bed again, even if I’d slept enough in the jungle, just to coordinate with other people.

As a group, we ambled out of the room. Even the ever-present guards looked like they could hardly wait for the comforts to come. I was just walking down the corridor when something tickled the edge of my awareness. It took me a moment to realize something must have tripped my spiritual senses. I looked around, and stopped as I noticed Elia’s expression. She’d slowed down, and the others were pulling ahead.

“Something up?” I asked.

She frowned. “Apparently. I just got a message from Piallara.”

I raised an eyebrow. So was it the Sun I’d sensed? “Really? What did your grandmother say?”

“Well, she didn’t exactly give me many details. It was no more than a feeling and a few words.”

I nodded. I knew exactly what she meant.

“Anyway, I’m going south. It seems there’s … something she wants me there for, or something she thinks I should see, at any rate.” Elia frowned a little. “Maybe someone? I didn’t get the impression there was any danger, at least.”

“Alright.” I glanced at the others. Lei and Yarani were waiting for us a bit further down. “Give me some time to settle a few things, and I’ll be ready to go with you. Just how urgent it this?”

Elia hesitated. “You want to come with me? What about those ship train tracks?”

I waved dismissively. “Tenira can handle that. I’m not letting you wander this close to the Zarian on your own, and I’m not really needed up here. Besides, this is bound to be interesting.”

Elia nodded slowly and smiled. “Alright.”

Chapter 145 (Draft)

“Well, if the Storm had any intention to leave you alone, I somehow doubt he would now,” Kajare commented.

I glanced at him and shrugged. He’d spoken lightly, with more casual humor than I could probably have expected from an Imperial. But Terbekteri didn’t have a long tradition of venerating Jideia. In fact, he’d never been particularly popular there, from what I understood.

“If I thought he would, I wouldn’t be doing this,” I replied. Then I grinned. “At least we have a nice bonfire on this cold night, don’t we?”

Wars were fought differently in the Yellow Graves. Even sacred sites weren’t immune to violence. Burning down an altar to the Storm might not precisely be an everyday occurrence, but given the scale of the war, the bitterness it was being fought with, and my personal involvement, me doing it didn’t appear exactly out of line. It wasn’t even the first altar to be burned this decade, according to what I’d been told.

Which might explain why the Imperial soldiers guarding the perimeter actually seemed more ill at ease with it than our Zarieni allies. Sure, it might be a crude shrine built by barbarians, but it was still a shrine to the Storm. My heart bleeds for them.I snorted to myself. Maybe it was better to start here and get them used to the idea before I began burning down temples on the Storm Continent.

“It is a nice fire,” Kajare conceded.

He reached out and took my hand. We watched the burning building in silence for a while. A fire at this scale had something almost magnetic, I couldn’t help but think, and watching the flames crackle and eat my enemy’s place of worship was surprisingly serene. The occasional sparks flew a pretty long distance, but we’d drenched the surroundings with water, and there were enough cultivators ready to put out any budding wildfires I wasn’t worried about that. The wood they’d used to build it being burned had a smell I hadn’t encountered before, although it wasn’t exactly unpleasant. A little like that aromatic stuff people might have back on Earth, not that I’d ever cared about things like that.

“You seem to have done a lot here in the little time we were apart,” Kajare commented.

I shrugged. “You certainly helped, coming to our air like the cavalry in our hour of need!”

“Cavalry? But it was ships?”

“Never mind.” I shook my head. “I’m glad your ships made it, in any case. Or most of them.”

His expression darkened a little, and I squeezed his hand. I knew what he was thinking. One of the ships they’d taken along hadn’t made it. The combination of dangerous rapids and a sea monster had stopped it permanently, and killed a good part of its crew. But the others had arrived, in time to turn the battle into a crushing defeat for the Zarian-aligned nomads, and demolish the offensive they’d been planning before it began.

“It’s war,” he finally said, a little brusquely. “At least most of them made it out.” He smiled wryly, though it didn’t quite cover the shadow in his eyes. “And at least there were no civilians involved.”

I returned his smile and finally turned away from the fire. He’d definitely matured since the start of the war. I was glad to see it.

“Anyway, let’s go,” he said, his tone lighter. “We don’t need to watch it burn completely down, and I know I have enough other things to see to.”

I nodded and turned around to leave with him, feeling the warmth of the fire recede against my back. We were a few hundred meters away from our main camp, which was itself beside the mostly destroyed site of the Zarieni camp. There were sentries and the usual group of guards accompanying us, but most soldiers seemed to have turned in for the night after the battle, now that the small celebrations we’d permitted had wound down.

“Would you mind if we go by the medical tent?” I asked.

“Of course not, I wouldn’t have expected anything else.”

We were already close to it, and reached the place shortly. While it would have been easy to build at least a rough structure out of sturdier materials, the cloth and poles of the tent were densely covered in formations, so it was actually sturdier than any quickly built hut, and they helped with things like regulating the temperature and airflow. It meant you couldn’t knock, though, and one of my guards disappeared inside without a word, before Kajare and me followed him.

I would have found who I was looking for immediately, even without my qi senses, since they’d given him something of a private alcove set apart by a wall of cloth, and the hospital bed’s frame was covered in runes. Aston looked up and tried to stand as soon as we entered, and I quickly hurried forward.

“Don’t!” I said. “Just lie down.”

He sank back into his bed from the half-upright posture he’d managed. I didn’t know why he’d tried in the first place, considering there was still only a stump where his left leg should have been.

“How are you, Aston?” Kajare asked as he joined us and pulled a curtain shut. “In a lot of pain?”

“It’s alright, my prince. I’ve had worse,” Aston answered.

I suppressed a grimace as I looked more closely at his injury. The healers were clearly in the process of regrowing it, but it was slow going. I felt another stab of guilt. If not for my brilliant idea, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

And the two other guards who hadn’t survived the fight would still be here.

“Don’t blame yourself, my lady,” Aston said, as if he’d read my thoughts. I must have let my expression slip. “You made the right call, and I’ll be good as new in a few days.”

I gave him a small smile and nodded, then turned to examine the apparatuses set against the wall and ask for a report. Aston settled back down into the sheets, which told me how tired he really was.

I was just talking to a doctor when the curtain lifted and Tenira looked inside. She nodded at us and stepped inside, greeting Aston in a quiet voice.

I waited until she was done before speaking, “Tenira, good to see you. I didn’t know you’d already arrived.”

She smiled and came over to give me a hug. “We just got here. Yarani will drop by right away, too.”

“Maybe we’re getting to be a little too much for Aston,” I said, glancing at him in concern.

“Don’t, my lady,” he grumbled. “I’m not an invalid.” He paused for a moment. “I mean, I’m not on my deathbed.”

But despite his protests, I could see he was still pale and he still had a lot of foreign qi in his bod to purge. So I gave the others meaningful looks and we excused ourselves quickly. I’d catch Yarani later, or more likely, she’d find me. Lei joked that the way she found her way (and anyone she wanted) in even the most confusing war camp showed she’d colluded with dark powers, but I found it more likely she had spies in the camp.

That thought reminded me where to go next. Kariva had stayed behind, focusing on managing her network in the Empire and her efforts to infiltrate the Dominion, but we did have a few of her people along. Tenira and Kajare followed me without comment to the central complex we’d set up to house our administrative needs and meetings. To one side, there was a hut set aside for the use of the intelligence people, with a side entrance connecting to the larger main building. All of this was built of planks and blocks you could assemble and pack up quickly, but considering we didn’t exactly have a large army to manage, it was more than enough.

I found Aiki Ilia in one of the main offices, pouring over sheets of paper. She stood and sank to her knees as we entered, but I waved her back into her chair.

“I had a few questions about our probable opposition,” I said.

“Of course, Your Highness,” she answered, nodding. “How may I help?”

I chose a seat for myself, while Kajare took the one beside it and Tenira ambled to the table to look at the folders and documents on it. “I noticed that we’ve only really faced Zarieni so far,” I said slowly. “You’ve all surely realized the same thing. And this is definitely a good thing for us, considering our numerical and technical advantage. We’ve pushed several dozen kilometers south so far and are poised to take the rest of the Graves just as easily.”

“Actually, Your Highness, we have forward positions about halfway through the Yellow Graves’ length in some areas,” Aiki said. “Especially in the middle of our operational area.”

“Really? I didn’t realize.” I leaned forward, distracted from my point by this information. “This is from our newest correspondence?”

She handed me several reports, and I glanced over them, focusing on the map someone had put together. It showed our deployments and where we knew or suspected significant opposition. We really had gone further than I’d thought, although it had been a while since I’d looked at the latest information.

“That only adds to what I meant,” I finally said, shaking my head. “The Zarian are giving us a golden opportunity — okay, given this is the Yellow Graves, maybe a bronze opportunity — to take the Graves and push forward up to the border of the Dominion. They’re not stupid enough to do it by accident, and I doubt they’re counting on the nomads or the jungle to take our soldiers out, so what is it they’re trying?”

Aiki Ilia hesitated for a moment. “Actually, Your Highness, part of it might be that they’re expecting the Yellow Graves to thin our numbers for them. Even if we ultimately conquer it all, this is difficult territory to hold, and the Zarieni are generally good at fighting against a numerical disadvantage. Besides, they’re rather loose and somewhat problematic allies. Getting rid of them might actually be something of a bonus, or at least not seen as a big loss for the Dominion.”

I nodded. She had a few good points there. “Granted. I still have trouble believing there isn’t more to it, though.”

“That’s a thought many of us share, my lady, including Lady Kariva herself, from what I understand.” The agent shrugged slightly. “It’s been hard to pin down a specific cause, though. We have little more than speculation.”

“Go on.” I leaned back in my chair and cocked my head.

“This speculation concerns internal political factors more than strategic ones, my lady. We’ve had hints of a restructuring of sorts among parts of the Zarian government. There are persistent rumors that Security Director of the Dominion has been arrested, though they’ve given no official confirmation so far. I personally suspect that the Princeps is consolidating his power and expanding his authority, although I have to admit that others offer different interpretations. Some even say that someone else has expanded their influence, effectively cutting into the Princeps’ authority. But whatever the case may be, a shift in policy could certainly lead to new strategic considerations or priorities.”

I frowned thoughtfully. “I see.”

“This all sounds very vague,” Tenira commented.

Aiki Ilia inclined her head. “It is, my lady, but I wouldn’t want to present anything like solid information when we don’t haveanything solid. I’ve got several reports here that offer further insight into these matters.” She paused for a moment. “One thing of interest, though, is that we have fairly conclusive evidence that the priesthood is at least peripherally involved. There’s been a drive to centralize worship — to be precise, the Storm’s worship — for over a decade, and the outbreak of the war has only accelerated it. Now, the formal establishment of a so-called ‘high temple’, shortly after this purported change in the government, implies they’re not content to let politics and religion stay separate.”

I shivered. Is Jideia tightening his control over the Zarian Dominion?I wondered. If he’s been occupied with that, it might explain why I haven’t seen or heard much from him lately.I shook my head. I doubt this is good news for us in the long run.

“This is all very interesting,” Kajare put in. “But what does it mean for the war?”

Aiki Ilia raised her hands, palms up. “I don’t know, Your Highness. I feel confident we can expect the Zarian’s present strategic directions to hold. I’d certainly expect stiffer resistance once we actually cross into the Storm Continent.”

“And we can’t preclude any unfortunate surprises,” Tenira commented. “They have to be working on something to help them fight. Like their new teleportation ability. We haven’t seen much of it, but I doubt that’s going to last.”

“You don’t expect a surprise attack behind our lines, do you?” I asked, looking from her to the agent.

She shook her head. “No, my lady. Transporting any force large enough to be a credible threat over such large distances would use far too much qi. It’s not impossible, I suppose, but I doubt they’d weaker the defense of their northern bastions so much. I’d be more concerned about their new maneuverability in the battles ahead of us.”

I pulled a face. Yes, that figured.

“There’s no point worrying too much about it now,” Tenira said, walking over and putting a hand on my arm for a moment. “We have to actually get there first.”

“Clearing the Yellow Graves, at least sufficiently to let convoys traverse them safely, should take no more than a month or two, my lady,” Aiki Ilia offered. “I don’t anticipate strong resistance.”

I nodded. “Zarieni scattering and hiding for guerilla tactics might be a problem, but I think we can deal with that. I’ll certainly have my hands full for a while.”

Kajare and Tenira smiled. Aiki Ilia nodded and sorted a few documents from her table.

“Well,” Kajare said, “at least you’ll have the opportunity to burn down a few more shrines.”

Chapter 144 (Draft)

When the army Commander called a halt, I dropped onto a convenient nearby fallen tree without bothering to keep up pretenses. We were moving quickly enough that even the increased toughness and stamina of my cultivator’s body couldn’t protect me from the strain of it, and I breathed deeply, sucking in much-needed oxygen.

But after a moment, I turned my head to look at Yarani, who’d plopped down beside me and was half lying off the tree trunk. If this was a strain for me, it had to be exponentially worse for her, since she was still in the fourth stage.

I straightened up and focused on the qi in my surroundings, quickly pulling in some of the abundant nature affinity qi. I carefully shaped it and then let it flow into her, watching closely with my qi senses as it settled into her body and soothed burning muscles and calmed her racing heart.

Yarani sat up, giving me a quick smile. “Thanks, Nari.”

I nodded. Healing techniques were pretty difficult, not least because you had to deal with your patient’s natural defense against the intrusion of foreign qi, but this one was simple enough. Once we started running again, she’d get another air technique that assisted her in moving.

“Path clear!” The cry cut through our heavy breathing.

I suppressed a groan and levered myself to my feet again, stretching my arms and legs for a second before I started moving. Yarani fell in beside me, and I felt Aston behind us manipulating a small flow of air.

The short rest had helped, though, and I found it easier to manage as we continued on our way. When I glanced around, I noticed that we weren’t the only ones showing some strain from our pace. Some of the weaker soldiers had a bit of sweat on their forehead or were breathing more heavily, and of course Jin actually had two of the Imperial soldiers helping him along with subtle techniques.

The Zarieni I’d brought with me didn’t seem to care for him much. I didn’t know if it was his stage, coupled with his age, or the fact that he was a civilian. At least they stuck to mostly ignoring him rather than trying to insult him for living in the Empire or anything like that. But the reinforcements he’d guided here for me were mostly Imperial soldiers, so the composition of this task force had changed considerably again. I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved by that.

“My lady, we’re getting close,” Aston spoke up.

I glanced at him, then quickly returned my attention to the path ahead. We were moving through some fairly dense underbrush, and especially at our speed, it wouldn’t be wise to take your eyes off it for long. “Finally,” I mumbled.

It didn’t take long until the lead elements of our force started to slow down, and the rest quickly followed. We were moving faintly downhill at the moment, and when I drew in a deep breath, I could just make out a river somewhere to our right. My qi senses showed that the area was mostly deserted of spirit beasts, which had obvious benefits, but also meant that the risk of us being discovered increased.

I glanced around, then took a deep breath and focused on my body and the qi in it. Shapeshifting while walking was a pain, so I did it slowly and carefully. I had considerably fairer skin then most of the people here, and my hair wasn’t making it any better. So I changed it until it was a dirty brown with greenish patches, then darkened my skin and experimented a little until I got something vaguely resembling camouflage patterns, though I kept the coloring muted and mostly natural. It blended with my grown and gray clothes.

“You look weird,” Yarani mumbled. “Good thought, though.”

I smiled at her, then focused on making my way through the jungle. By now, I could sense our destination in the distance. We slowed down further, drew together and increased our concealment efforts, putting a bit more qi into our shroud. It probably wouldn’t hold up too long, especially if our enemies had a reason to suspect that someone was coming from here, so we’d have to move quickly. I sensed more people ahead than there’d been even in the hidden base of our Zarieni allies, though I doubted that all of them would be in a high stage.

We continued to sneak closer, using the cover of the dense forest. It should help that we came from the direction of a section that was ‘known’ to be impenetrable. If I didn’t have a cultivator’s reflexes and the subtle help of my domain, the underbrush here would have been a severe hindrance. As it was, it was just an annoyance. We’d had worse during our hurried journey here.

I glanced at the people with me. The Zarieni looked focused, moving with the grace of long practice through the forest. My soldiers weren’t as good, but they managed to keep a loose formation, and their movements still betrayed their discipline. No one made any sound or gave off anything that could have betrayed us.

Of course, our enemies weren’t amateurs, either. I knew they probably had scouts patrolling the forest, who should also be hiding their presence. That was why I listened keenly to my intuition, as well as kept a sharp eye out and tried to stay alert to any change I could detect with my qi senses. It was wearying to keep that level of alertness up, but it had to be done.

Luck, or perhaps Rijoko’s influence, was indeed with us, and we managed to get pretty close without being detected. At least that we knew about. It was still possible that they had actually seen us and were preparing to take us unaware with an ambush. But I can’t worry about that too much, or I’ll drive myself crazy.

Still, when we stopped that time, I almost jumped out of my skin at the rustle of a nearby bush, which I realized after a second was just a small animal running away. I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down.

“Any sign of the others?” I asked quietly.

Aston looked into the distance for a moment longer, then exchanged hurried words with the other officers, before he returned to me. “We’re not certain yet, my lady.”

I frowned, and saw that Yarani and even Aston himself mirrored the expression. We had too few fighters to launch a successful attack on our own, and the longer we stayed close to our target, the higher the chances that we would be discovered. If something had happened that prevented our other forces from attacking — or if they’d called the whole operation off — things could get dicey. I wasn’t too worried about my safety, but I did want this thing to happen.

“Let’s sneak a little closer,” I said. “Quietly and carefully. And keep a close eye on the surrounding area.”

I wasn’t entirely sure from where the attack would be launched if it did come. I hadn’t had time to worry about that and it wasn’t something I should or could decide, anyway. So I let my gaze sweep over the tops of the trees I could see from our slightly elevated position, whatever peeked through the foliage of the vegetation around us, and focused on my qi senses.

We stopped a little further in. Going any further would mean too high a risk of being discovered. But we were still too far to launch a real surprise attack, especially without anyone else’s support.

“Let’s wait,” Yarani said quietly. “There isn’t anything else we can do.”

“Indeed, my lady,” the Imperial commander, who’d joined us, agreed quietly. He looked at me. “Your Highness, with your permission, I’ll ready the soldiers for an assault.”

I nodded and watched him for a moment as he withdrew to talk to his officers and the Zarieni, then returned my gaze to our enemies. We’d found a pretty good hiding spot that still allowed a mostly unobstructed view of the main part of their camp, and I paid careful attention to their watchtowers and patrol patterns.

For at least half an hour, we waited there, our nerves gradually wearing thinner as we watched them go about their business. There was clearly a gathering of leaders in one of the large central huts, with a few people occasionally coming and going, and polished fighters standing guards. Mostly Zarieni themselves, just a few Zarian. But we didn’t see anyone else closing in on them, although from the distances we had to cross, they should have arrived before us. And they knew our hiding techniques and should be able to see through them, at least well enough to be aware we were there, if they were.

Finally, guards and fighters on the right edge of the camp began to stir. Quickly, the commotion spread, until soldiers on that side grabbed their weapons and hustled to gather in an open area by their walls. I frowned, trying to make out what prompted that.

“Look up!” Yarani hissed. “There’s a cultivator up there. Is he harassing them or something?”

My frown deepened. I could see it now, little more than a black spot even to my vision, but more importantly, I could feel their presence faintly.

“Is that Regent Kiyanu?” Aston asked, his eyes widening.

I shook my head but didn’t answer, not because he was wrong but because I didn’t know what Kiyanu was doing here. It really was him, and he seemed to be deliberately drawing attention to himself. But without, quite, attacking the Zarieni directly.

“My lady!” Commander Aiki was back, his expression tight. “What should we do? Launch the attack?”

I frowned again and eyed Kiyanu’s distant figure as I considered. He has to know we’re here, and he’s obviously creating a distraction for us. An opening. It would still be a huge risk to fight them like this.I chewed my lips. But if he’s doing this, he must be doing it because he thinks it would succeed. So he probably knows that the others are here or at least getting close, or he wouldn’t be provoking a fight.

“Yes,” I decided, putting all the calm and confidence I felt into my voice. “We’ll attack now. Make it happen, Commander.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” He saluted and moved off, though his tightness hadn’t faded.

“Why didn’t he come talk to us?” Yarani asked quietly, as we stood up and prepared for the charge.

I shrugged. “Probably because he didn’t want to take the risk of them discovering us,” I answered. “He’s probably right. And that we don’t see any eighth stagers fighting down there doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

The order to advance came, and I watched Aston carefully as he guided me and Yarani into our proper place towards the back of our force. It was hard to hold formation while running down a forested hill, but our soldiers managed the best they could.

Personally, I was a little more interested in why Kiyanu hadn’t contacted us telepathically, even if qi or radio waves would have been too risky. I knew he was good at using telepathy. But from everything I’d been able to figure out, even with strong cultivators all seeming to be reluctant to discuss the subject, someone’s telepathic range depended on the individual. This indicated that Kiyanu’s wasn’t exceptionally high.

I tucked that speculation neatly away at the back of my mind as we closed the distance to the Zarieni camp. By now, they’d spotted us, but their reaction seemed slow, perhaps because they were preoccupied with Kiyanu. Our first fighters, the strongest elites, reached the outer guard posts before they’d properly taken any defensive formations. I sensed the discharge of qi as one of them burned out a formation array. That, at least, was one area where we had far less to worry about than with the Zarian, considering the nomads’ lack of any long-term settlements in need of defense. Their formations tended towards the quick-and-dirty.

I slowed down as we reached the outer ward perimeter and sent some of my own qi into the wards, trying to get a feel for the formations. Aston and the other guards formed up in a protective formation around me, while further out, our soldiers clashed with the enemy tribes.

By the time I moved on, leaving the alarm wards a smoking ruin behind me, our people had managed to clear the outer posts and taken the wall. It was little better than a palisade, but some of them hunkered down now to cover the rest while they advanced further into the camp. Aston made room for us at one of the main strong points at the base of a watchtower. I knew he’d have felt better about me staying back, but under the circumstances, that would have been at least as dangerous. I’d rather not open myself to attack by them like that.

Before I could continue that thought, I finally felt the brush of a familiar mind against mine. I opened myself to the contact. ‘Kiyanu?’

‘Inaris. What are you doing here?’

I rolled my eyes to myself. ‘Well, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a battle going on here. What are youdoing here? Distracting the nomads?’

I almost felt Kiyanu’s mental sigh. ‘Yes. I apologize for not rendezvousing with you sooner, but I felt I needed to move quickly.’He paused for a moment. ‘This battle isn’t going well, as you can see.’

I looked up and frowned. After a moment, I realized he was right. Our advance had stalled, and Zarieni defense had firmed up. They still had an advantage in numbers, and it was beginning to tell.

‘I wish I could do more to help, but I can’t,’Kiyanu said.

I glanced around for a moment and sighed. Aston was still sticking close to me, and so were most of the Imperial guard who’d come along on the trip with me.

‘If you’re alright with the idea, you could come and get me and Yarani, then Aston and my guards could join the fighting,’I offered. ‘It wouldn’t make much of a difference, but better than nothing.’

‘Alright.’Something changed in the sensation of the telepathic link, and I realized he’d opened it to Aston and established a three-way connection. ‘Captain, I’ll take Inaris and Yarani and keep them safe,’he said. ‘I won’t allow her to run off. Take your soldiers into battle, and make them count.’

After a moment, Aston replied, his voice expressionless, ‘Yes, my lord.’

Before we could continue the conversation, a slight woosh of air made me look up. Kiyanu landed beside us. He nodded at Aston, then reached out his hands to me and Yarani. I barely had time to grip on tightly before I felt the ground under my feet drop away as what felt like a living gust of wind lifted us off.

Kiyanu stopped at a point just low enough we still had a view of the battlefield, and I clenched my fists as I watched the battle. I didn’t like sending my guards, people I’d come to know, into this kind of danger, especially when I was hiding away myself. But I knew I had to be able to ask the same things of them as I did my regular soldiers. Besides, they’re good. Aston especially. He’ll make it through this.

But even with them, I could tell this wasn’t going too well. “There are too many of them, and we may have come in too fast,” I muttered.

“We can’t pull out now,” Yarani said.

She looked a little pale, and I absentmindedly took the hand Kiyanu had let go of. I winced as a large explosion tossed several Imperials soldiers as well as a wooden hut around like bowling pins. I’d lost track of my guards in the confusion of the battle.

“We haven’t lost yet,” Kiyanu replied. Suddenly, he grinned. “And I’d say we aren’t going to.”

“What?” I asked.

He nodded at a point beyond the camp. “It looks like your husband came through after all.”

I sucked in a sharp breath as I saw what he meant. I’d been too focused on the forest around the camp and had almost missed the glittering band of the river. Which now had black spots snaking their way towards us.

I snatched my spyglass out of my storage ring and took a closer look. The ships had a low, sleek look, almost reminding me of Viking ships. Although I could barely make out the arrangement of the sails and qi machinery that marked it as the kind of vessels Terbekteri built to be able to take to the air in short bursts. Not like our ships could have made it here.

As I watched, they coasted to a stop and ramps lowered onto the ground while cultivators lifted off the ships like a murder of crows. Our enemies’ hastily assembled, distracted resistance at the riverside fell before the last ship had even disgorged all of its soldiers.

Chapter 143 (Draft)

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I accidentally scheduled this post for today instead of yesterday.

To my own surprise, I’d discovered that I actually liked the Yellow Graves.

The sea would always have its place in my heart, but there was a beauty in forests, too. And there was just so much life here. A living, vibrant piece of nature. Maybe I’d hate the other parts of the Graves, if I actually got to see them, but still.

It might have had something to do with the fact that here, there wasn’t much to deal with in the way of paperwork, nobles, or - so far - actual fighting. Imperials who dismissed the Zarieni as barbarians might have been surprised to see how deep and involved their culture was. Once they’d decided to cooperate, they did it pretty well. Before we arrived at the base where some of our allied clans had gathered, they’d formed a war council, elected a chief to oversee everything, and set up quite thorough guard and patrol patterns, not to mention logistics support. I wondered if the Zarian made full use of their capabilities.

But that had been yesterday, and now, we were leaving the base again to head into danger. Aston wasn’t happy about this, and I’d told Tenira and Lei to stay back with the rest of the Zarieni. But we had enough of our soldiers and nomad fighters along that this shouldn’t be very dangerous.

Something trickled my qi senses, and I raised my hand. “Halt.”

The guards and the section of fighters around me slowed and looked around. I stepped forward, my eyes focusing on where my other senses could feel something even before it became visible to them. A moment later, a wispy figure materialized in front of a tree, looking like it stepped out or through it.

“Greetings, spirit.” I inclined my head.

The spirit nodded. Their mostly featureless face made its lips more prominent and smiled at me. ‘Little Light. I am happy to meet you.’

I returned the smile. ‘I see this is your home. If you have no objection, we will be passing through here.’

‘No objection. I have known of your coming. My fellows are excited that you are here.’

I nodded. ‘Is the area ahead safe?’

‘Safe for you, yes, yes. The dangerous beasties are gone or withdrawn. The other humans aren’t walking here.’

‘Thank you.’I hesitated for a moment. ‘Have you seen Kiyanu? The man in the black stage who was with me?’

He still hadn’t shown up at the base. I knew he could take care of himself. He could probably even kill that spirit beast without using letting his presence shine through too much. I wasn’t too worried, but a little irritated. He was probably taking care of other things on his own somewhere.

The spirit shook a little, mostly with its head, but as if it spilled over the rest of their body, too. ‘No, no. He isn’t close by here. I last heard he walked somewhere nearer to the rising of the sun over the great mountain.’

So, the east, maybe northeast, I translated. I nodded. ‘I see. I appreciate it.’

The spirit grinned. ‘Luck-luck, Little Light!’With that, they took a step back and dissolved back into the tree. I could sense their presence receding.

“I have never heard a ghost of the land be so free with information,” a Zarieni elder said. The middle-aged man with long hair had come up beside me while we were talking. He frowned at the tree. “Usually, they need much more propitiating until one talks to us.”

I shrugged. Good, then I hope the Zarian don’t get info from them as easily. “Let’s keep going.”

I started walking again, and the rest of the group moved with me. I kept my senses peeled for further spirits and spirit beasts, but no one else approached us. Now that I was paying attention, I caught the occasional flicker that might be a spirit watching me, though they kept themselves pretty well hidden if that was the case. But in a place like this, it was almost a guarantee that something would be watching us, so I didn’t let it bother me.

After about an hour of moving quickly through the forest, we came to our destination. As we approached it, we slowed down, and some of the Zarieni peeled off to go ahead. They’d look for and deal with enemy guards, or at least the ones patrolling the outer perimeter.

Through a gap in the foliage and with the help of a little technique that reflected light, I managed to get a glimpse of their camp. It was pretty small, made of huts that looked like they were assembled from premade parts of wood and woven reeds. They’d set up in a clearing, but the outer parts of the camp still brushed up against the trees. I could see a lot of sentinels. Several of them wore pretty distinct jewelry, sorting themselves into groups.

Scouting reports from our Zarieni allies indicated that this camp might host a gathering of enemy leaders, and this seemed to confirm it. There were probably some more hidden fighters. All of this could be a trap to bait us into an attack, but my intuition spoke against that. Apparently, gathering this information had been hard for our scouts, and the enemy couldn’t have guaranteed that we would get it. Plus, there were a lot of better options if that was their plan.

We hid behind some dense undergrowth, with our auras pulled in tightly, and a few techniques to help us blend into the background. I put a curtain of invisibility above us, a small layer of light qi that would redirect light around us. It probably wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny, but that wasn’t the point.

The scouts were gone long enough that my nerves and anticipation had made way to boredom, and I was mentally rereading one of my favorite novels when they finally reported back. I forced myself to stay back and let the officers and elders handle things, although I listened in.

From the scouts’ reports, they’d made an effort to secure their camp, but our raiding force was big enough it shouldn’t be much of a problem to catch them. Some might escape, though, which meant any subsequent strikes would be harder. I’d expected that, though. They discussed the camp’s layout and which famous warriors were where, then we prepared for the attack.

Of course, Aston wouldn’t let me actually charge into enemy fire, even if I’d wanted to. I was mostly along because I couldn’t just sit in the base all day, and to show the Zarieni that I was serious. Well, and because the situation was fluid and opportunities might arise to step up our game.

“The Moon guide you,” I said to the fighters.

A few of them made what must have been a religious gesture, and the Imperials bowed. Then they were off. We’d only taken people at least in the fifth stage along for this, so they moved quickly and quietly through the trees. A few moments later, a stifled cry rose from the direction of the camp, showing that the fight had begun.

I took a step to the side and took out my trusty old spyglass to get a better look. Our soldiers had taken most of the sentries watching the camp’s edges by surprise, and started brief, violent fights that were already winding down. By now, Zarieni were pouring out of the huts.

I pulled a bit of my light qi and carefully integrated a technique with my tool, shifting the light until I had rudimentary thermal imaging. Carefully, I swept over the camp, looking for more enemies. As it turned out, I’d been right.

“Tell them that there are several warriors hidden underground, in what might be cellars or trenches, and sneaking up,” I said. “There are also still some in the huts and a few hidden in the trees.”

Aston passed my message, but I’d already returned my attention to the fight. It was in full swing now, and we could easily hear it and even feel it from here, with the way the wind and trees carried signs of the impacts. Our side had the numerical advantage, and from what I could tell, the enemies were about equal in composition when it came to different stages of cultivation. Unsurprisingly, our fighters kept pushing into their camp.

A flutter of qi beside me made me lower the telescope. I wasn’t quite alone with my guards, since a few Zarieni seemed to have elected to also wait here. Probably to keep an eye on me. Now, I met the gaze of the strongest one, the chief of a major clan, and saw him curl his lip.

“Enjoying the view, Imperial Princess?” he asked.

I gave him a flat look. “I’m watching the battle and seeing if I can spot anything that might be of use.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re all very relieved to hear that,” he said, tone still derisive. “After all, ‘watching the battle’ is clearly the most important task a warrior could do to contribute. Especially a war chief.”

“Might want to tone it done a little, Kevels,” one of the others said in their language. “Don’t piss them off too much.”

“Why should I tiptoe around their pride?” Kevels retorted. “The mighty Empire doesn’t seem to capable or eager to prove their strength, does it?” His lip curled again as he looked at me. “How fortunate that you have our warriors to actually fight that battle.”

I lowered the spyglass and frowned at him, careful to keep my tone and expression mild. “If you insist on staying here because you don’t trust us, then don’t blame me for not getting to fight in the battle. Unless you actually don’t want to. I assure you, we’re going to stay put here. In case you have never heard of it, keeping a strategic reserve is usually good tactics, and my guards are also serving that function here.”

He spit on the ground and grumbled something in Zarieni that I didn’t quite catch. But the other guy stepped closer and grabbed his sleeve, hissing something in a low voice. The belligerent chief gave me another dark look, then moved off with him, behind another cluster of dense vegetation. A few seconds later, I sensed an attack of concentrated qi shooting off to impact what might have been a watchtower at the edge of the enemy camp, catching one of the remaining hostile Zarieni.

We watched the rest of the fight in tense silence. Yarani stepped up beside me, covering where the Zarieni had been, and I couldn’t help but notice that she kept her hands free and had tucked a dagger into her robe. In addition to what she might have had anyway.

Finally, it was over. I sighed, straightened my shoulders, and walked forward into the camp. Or what had been the camp, it was pretty well destroyed by now. A lot of Zarieni lay dead on the ground, and others knelt in the largest clear area, hands behind their heads, as Imperial soldiers and allied fighters guarded them. I nodded at them as I passed, then joined a group of chieftains or elders and officers. They were currently questioning what I assumed to be an enemy chieftain.

“What have we got so far?” I asked quietly.

One of the officers, an elite commander named Lisi, answered. “There was indeed a meeting. We’ve also gotten hints of a larger gathering up east, close to the Green River. It seems like most of the clans allied with the Zarian are sending at least some envoys and fighters there.”

I nodded slowly. That might be an opportunity, but it was also a concern. They wouldn’t gather their forces like this without a purpose, and holding strategic meetings meant they weren’t going to just sit around down here. An attack on the Empire? Or just a distraction to stop our advance? I suppose it doesn’t matter if we manage to stop their plan in its tracks.

I kept quiet and let them conduct the interrogation, though we didn’t get much more. Apparently, what Lisi had just told me was pieced together from snippets the Zarieni fighters had let slip, and their leaders were too strong-willed or stubborn to reveal anything. Maybe they thought we’d just kill them after, which wasn’t exactly an unreasonable concern.

Before I could even speak up to ask what we were going to do with the man, one of the Zarieni elders stepped forward and crashed a fist suddenly covered in rock into his head. The captive sacked down, and the man crushed his throat with his boot.

I scowled. “What was that?”

“We were finished interrogating him,” another Zarieni said.

“There wasnothing useful left we could get from him, Your Highness,” Lisi quietly spoke up.

I shot her a sharp glare, then turned it on the Zarieni. But I chose my words carefully. “I still don’t appreciate this sort of behavior. Don’t just make decisions like this on your own. We’re a team here.”

A few of the Zarieni grumbled, but the man who’d done it simply nodded. “Sorry, I will next time,” he said with a heavy accent.

I closed my eyes for a moment, centering myself, then nodded. “Well, if we’re done here, it’s time to move on.”

They packed up quickly. The nomads were probably used to this. The weaker fighters rounded up the captives and hearded them into the jungle. Meanwhile, I talked to the officers and a few of the elders.

They weren’t happy at my decision to strike out with a group on my own, but there wasn’t much they could do about it, since the Zarieni fighters from the tribes I’d asked were happy to come along. We’d talked about the possibility of splitting up before, anyway.

Soon, my smaller band was on the move again. We moved quickly, guided by the locals familiar with the region, and using game paths and even the occasional brook to make our way through the jungle. We were probably moving away from any enemy presence, so we didn’t have to be as careful, though I made sure that we still kept our auras tightly veiled. A few stronger spirit beasts took objection to us passing through their territories, but we either passed through or around them quickly enough or they were scarred off by our numbers and, on two occasions, a demonstration of our strength.

But after a while, we started to enter a region where the trees grew more tightly together as the ground started to rise and become a little rockier. I could feel the change in the qi of the area. We had to slow down.

“Go left,” I called to our lead elements, then cocked my head and nodded to myself. “To that thicket there, I guess.”

From there, I managed to guide us onto something vaguely resembling a useable path through the area. I couldn’t have done it without having descriptions, and still had to use my intuition to fill in quite a bit.

Finally, we reached a somewhat more open part, close to a quickly flowing river. I called the fighters ranging further around us back in and sped up to get to the front. Carefully pushing my way through the undergrowth, stretching my senses, I finally found what I was looking for. In a small clearing in the shelter of what might have been a hunk of limestone, we encountered another group of cultivators. They met us weapons in hand, a few people I almost missed hidden in the trees close by and probably more I hadn’t found. I raised my hand and stepped forward, letting my aura be felt a little more clearly.

As soon as they recognized me, they put away their weapons and most of them went to their knees.

“Rise, please,” I said. “No need to stand on ceremony here.” I smiled. “It’s good to see you made it here successfully, though. You have my thanks, Elder Jin.”

The old Zarieni bowed his head. “I’m glad I could be of service, Your Highness.”

I let my gaze sweep over the assembled group and nodded at the officers. Judging by what I’d seen and sensed on the way here, even the spirit beast and spirits in the area barely knew they were here. We could be pretty sure our enemies wouldn’t. And with Jin’s help, I planned on keeping it that way for as long as possible. After all, attacking your enemy with a second thrust worked much better if they didn’t expect it.

“We should hurry,” I said. “The Zarieni are all ready for a party, and we have some gate-crashing to do. Let’s see how they feel about getting a surprise party.”

That got some polite chuckles, but it seemed to have worked in breaking the ice, and the two groups started to merge.

Chapter 142 (Draft)

When I’d first seen the Yellow Graves, I would never have thought that I’d come back at the head of an army less than two years later. The jungle didn’t look quite the same, but that was probably because of the different season. Even this far south, spring was arriving, but winter had still left its marks, and the characteristic yellow trees looked sparser. The singing of birds was both familiar and strange, and I took a moment to listen to it and try to pinpoint different birds. I didn’t know enough to tell what each sound was, though, or even which might be produced by insects or other animals.

Aston stepping up beside me brought me from my thoughts. He seemed tense, barely keeping his eyes off the forest, even though we hadn’t even entered it yet. Some distance to the sides, the remnants of our fortifications threw long shadows, but the Zarian had pulled the wall down over long swathes, and stones lay scattered far and wide over the grass and the outskirts of the jungle.

“My lady, we got an update from General Poteri,” Aston said. “They’ve finished securing their assigned zone and are moving in. We expect reinforcements in two days, but most of them will go to the eastern prong.”

I nodded. While we’d reached the Yellow Graves, not every bit of land north of it had been cleared by our soldiers, and many of them were still sweeping south. It had still been a very successful campaign, so far.

“I feel like we’re almost too successful,” I muttered.

Aston nodded, his expression serious. “The Zarian haven’t really contested our advance, my lady.”

“They’re conserving their forces,” I said. “Any soldier we don’t face now is one more fighter they’ll have defending their strongholds down south.”

“But that also means they’re surrendering the initiative,” Yarani said, stepping up on my other side.

I glanced at her. “I guess you’re right, but they’re not really losing much. We’ve pretty much had the initiative for a while now.”

She was right that the next move was ours, though. We’d finally switched from defense to offense entirely. But taking our own towns back wouldn’t be much against pushing through the Yellow Graves, then assaulting their own cities. Assuming we got that far, of course, though I didn’t doubt that.

We stood there for a while, watching the Yellow Graves and our own people moving towards it. It was a pretty small convoy, for an army, and many of them flew on flying swords. But my gaze stopped at the group walking in the middle, most of them in their traditional clothes rather than the uniforms of the surrounding soldiers. We’d meet other Zarieni inside, those who’d stayed, kept watch on and needled the Zarian and their allied tribes.

“The Terbekteri are still sending ships,” Yarani finally said. “Even if they don’t want to push too far into the Graves.”

“They shouldn’t,” I replied. There wasn’t exactly an abundance of navigable rivers in the Yellow Graves, especially if you needed to go through or around the mountains, but even if there had been, I wouldn’t want to risk them. There were more dangers than the nomads in there, and monsters were at least as much of a danger in the water.

“Just using them to ferry our soldiers seems like a waste, though,” Yarani said.

I shrugged. We were going to send most of the army, the soldiers in the lower stages, around the Yellow Graves by ship. That would probably be safer and easier than trying to march a large army through. “We could have just used our own ships, but this way, even if the Zarian decide to launch an attack with their own navy, they’re well protected,” I pointed out. “And it’ll discourage such an attack in the first place.”

By now, we were reaching the outskirts. I watched as the army split, with one group heading southwest, curving around the edge of the jungle at a comfortable distance. The other one gathered around us.

“I just feel like this is weird,” I finally continued the conversation, glancing at Aston and Yarani. Tenira and Lei were overseeing the weapons teams, and spirits only knew where Elia had gone off to. “The Zarian fought hard for this land, pushing into the Empire. And now they’re just letting us take it all back. I know we’re in the advantageous position, but that didn’t really stop them before. I mean, we had the alliance with Terbekteri and everything. If anything, they were pushing this hard because of it.”

Aston nodded, a faint frown on his face. “I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing. It occurred to me that we may be seeing the effects of an internal shift in the Dominion, or their strategizing. Perhaps between different factions.”

“Hmm. Good point.” I frowned at the jungle. I hadn’t heard about that from Kariva or anyone else, but I’d definitely take another look at the reports she sent and maybe ask her the next time I saw her.

Then, finally, it was time to go. I walked forward at a quick pace, surrounded by my guards and a section of our elites, and looked up as the trees closed around us. The faint scent of wet vegetation reached me, and the chirping and buzzing got louder. But we had a pretty clear path, for now, and made good progress.

About an hour into the forest, we found our first contacts. A group of Zarieni raiders, with small bones and shells stitched to their clothing, waited for us in a small clearing. I went to meet them, but let Kiyanu do most of the talking. He would obviously get more respect from them.

“The other tribes are one the move,” one of them, a chief going by the intricately braided hairstyle, said. He spoke their own tongue, but I’d spent some time familiarizing myself with it, and with its similarity to Zarian, I understood it pretty well.

“We’ll let you and your people guide us,” Kiyanu answered in, as far as I could tell, perfect Zarieni.

The chief nodded. He motioned, and the stronger ones of his followers stepped forward, seeking out our elite officers. I focused my hearing and listened in a little as they discussed the terrain, the enemy forces, and what to do here.

It didn’t take long until we moved out. This time, our force spread out a little farther, though I stayed with the largest clump, of course. Aston was watching the jungle around us intently and rarely strayed more than a meter from my side. He clearly didn’t like the situation at all, though he didn’t complain. Perhaps because Kiyanu also stayed pretty close to us.

“Have you been here before?” I asked Kiyanu quietly after a while.

He nodded. “Three times total. I never actually crossed through the Yellow Graves, though.”

That was still probably more than anyone else here aside from the Zarieni. And I doubted many of them had crossed the height of the Graves, either. Luckily this peninsula or whatever you call it isn’t actually that big.

For the next while, we walked in silence. I eyed the nomads curiously, but didn’t approach. They talked among themselves, but their voices never rose very high, and seemed to be swallowed by the foliage around us. Still, they looked pretty relaxed, and were actually laughing and joking. In contrast, the Imperial soldiers appeared tenser, and most of them kept their weapons close. The ones who didn’t were mostly those carrying the formation plates, spread in an oval around our group. I didn’t know if it was going to be enough to hide us from our enemies, but so far, it seemed to work.

My attention was brought back to the path in front of us when the people ahead slowed down. After a moment, I realized two scouts had returned. I sharpened my hearing, then took in a calming breath. We’d spotted our first enemy camp.

I sped up a little and caught up to the officers in charge, plus Kiyanu. They were already arguing about this. It seemed like some wanted to completely circle around them, while others said we should take the opportunity to take this group out now.

“How assured would a victory be?” Kiyanu asked.

“Very assured, Your Grace,” the scout, a woman in the sixth stage with nature affinity, replied. “It’s a relatively small camp, with few people above the fifth stage.”

“They’re all like that now,” the Zarieni chief commented from where he was leaning against a tree trunk a few meters away. “A lot of the people’s strength is gathered with the Zarian.” He smiled humorlessly. “Or the Empire.”

“Then we don’t need to all go,” I said. “A smaller group that could move more quickly might be better.”

Most of them nodded, and in the end, we decided to send a team of elites after the camp while the rest of us avoided it. They’d be able to catch up quickly, and we’d still have enough strength if we were surprised by another group.

That didn’t happen, though. The first few minutes as we continued walking were tense,    and I looked in the camp’s direction more than once even though I couldn’t see anything. But about half an hour later, the elites caught up to us again, and we continued moving without a pause.

That set a pattern for our time going through the jungle. On a few occasions, we’d locate other camps of Zarieni, and usually detail forces to take them out. A few of them were ready for an attack, though the Imperials still beat them, but most apparently didn’t present too much trouble.

We also didn’t encounter many spirit beasts. Maybe it was just that our group had too many people, so they steered clear of it. And I guessed the nomads were guiding us around the more dangerous ones’ territories. We certainly didn’t walk in a straight line, but curved around a lot.

Although we were all technically walking, our speed was higher than a jogging pace for a non-cultivator. At this point, we must have been more than a dozen kilometers inside the border even in a straight line. At a guess, the Yellow Graves were about three or four hundred kilometers from continent to continent at the narrowest point, which was a little east of our position, though there were bulges on both sides of the actual pass, with the eastern one a lot wider than here. It would take us a few days to cross if we didn’t speed up.

Although speed isn’t the issue,I reminded myself. We want to clear this, or at least make sure the Zarieni or Zarian can’t launch an attack on the Empire while we’re fighting down south.That was why we were split into several forces moving south and sweeping through the peninsula.

I was beginning to think that I had been nervous for nothing and this would continue to be smooth sailing, when we encountered our first real spirit beast attack. Our first warning was a roar echoing through the jungle. The acoustics made it hard to tell where it came from, but it sounded like it was still some distance away to me. The soldiers drew a little tighter together. But only two minutes later, the roar sounded again, much closer, and I felt a faint vibration of the ground beneath my feet.

When we finally saw the monster, I sucked in a surprised breath. And it definitely was a monster, not an intelligent spirit beast. It looked like a larger version of those furred elephants I’d seen once, except with red fur and tusks that spread out into a tangle of pointy bits. Its head was comically small compared to its huge body, and it crashed forward with no care in the world, but a lot of speed.

One of the elites launched a spear that seemed to grow out of a nearby tree at it, but the beast barely seemed to notice as the weapon broke against its side. It had definitely noticed us, though. It altered course slightly and stomped down with enough force to shake the ground. A few trees creaked and groaned, and pretty much every small winged flying thing in the trees around us fled.

Aston caught me and pulled me aside, sidestepping ten meters in a few moments, just as the monster altered course so it would have hit us. It turned and stomped down. A pair of soldiers in the fifth stage dodged to the side so they avoided its stomp, but then a wave of earth and greenery rose from the ground and engulfed them, ripping into them.

I stumbled back, looking around.

“If I fight it, everyone in the area will know we are here,” Kiyanu said. But I noticed from his aura that he was gathering his qi.

I hesitated, grimacing as it tangled with another group of soldiers, who got the bad end of it. All of this was happening in seconds.

“Can you lead it away?” I asked.”Without announcing our presence too much.”

Kiyanu’s face tightened, but he nodded. “I will. Move quickly, Inaris.”

The spirit beast was in the equivalent of the seventh stage, at least. Only our strongest elites could actually hurt it, and it was really tough. I got all that from the short fight. But when Kiyanu used a bit of qi to form a razor-thin blade of wind that hurled at it with extreme speed, it actually cut into the side of its head, causing a wound that bled considerably. The other soldiers backed away as it roared again and focused on its new attacker.

Kiyanu rose into the air, shot it again, and turned, curving away. The beast trampled after him. It barreled into another soldier who’d been too slow to get out of the way and barely missed three others. Then it was leaving.

We stood in silence for a moment, then I cleared my throat and started walking. “We need to get moving. Quickly now.”

The officers organized the force, and we set out again, jogging this time. The Zarieni, who had seemed content to stay back out of the fight, led us through narrow paths between the trees. I could still sense Kiyanu and his opponent, who was wobbling around in my senses enough I could tell he was having trouble keeping it focused and on track going after him. But he managed. I didn’t want to bet that no one had noticed the fight, though.

A few more times, I senses powerful spirit beasts. Maybe the recent upheaval had stirred them up. But we managed to avoid all of them, even if it was narrow in the last case. We picked up the pace again, and our rearguard was starting to lag behind. But we were almost there.

I was breathing heavily when we finally stumbled into the largest clearing yet. It was actually more like an earthy mound raised over a steep incline with a river flowing through a waterfall at the bottom, bigger than anything of the kind I’d seen so far. The rocky ground bulged up in places and several holes were dotted through it, leading into a cave system. I could see a smoothed out area with a dock and a few shelters built of wooden planks below, coming out from another hole. But my attention was focused on the several hundred people clustered through the caves.

“Well, we should be safe for now,” Aston said.

I took a deep breath and straightened. “Yeah. Let’s go in.”

This was the first and only real base we’d find in the Graves, as much of a safe spot as there could be here. We’d need to leave it soon enough, but for now, I forced my tense muscles to relax. This could have gone better, but it could have gone a lot worse, too.

Chapter 141 (Draft)

I folded my binoculars and put them away in a pocket, then sighed softly as I gazed out over the walls of the town of Bastion. Then I turned around and met Kiyanu’s gaze.

“Something important must have happened if you’re coming to talk to me in person,” I said.

Kiyanu shrugged a little, glancing down at the courtyard. “I could just be coming to take a look, like you obviously have.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, then looked down as well for a moment. A company of Lighters was drilling on the paved field, and I’d been watching them with interest before I started to check out the countryside.

It was the first batch of new recruits, only released into active service three days ago. They’d arrived here yesterday. Although this base had only been cleared the day before that, it was probably the safest of our outposts close to the front. While the fighting had spread out enough we didn’t really have one army gathered together, the highest concentration of our forces was here, so both Kiyanu and me had come here as well.

“The Lotus Confederation has sent a special envoy to Thousand Lights City,” Kiyanu said.

I raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t what I had expected to hear. “For what?”

“Presumably, the war,” he shrugged. “They haven’t given us a clearer answer, at any rate. But it’s an official envoy, and the delegation is apparently full of relatives of important people of its prominent members.”

I shook my head. “They actually pulled their heads out of their backsides and stopped squabbling long enough to make a move on the international stage? I’d hardly believe it if you hadn’t just told me.”

Kiyanu chuckled. “It’s not that surprising. Their foreign affairs are less of a mess than their internals. Somewhat. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t the only country to show a sharp interest in our situation.”

I frowned, leaning back against the battlements and running a hand through my hair. “We’re on a timetable, aren’t we?”

He nodded, expression serious. “This delegation won’t amount to much, if I’m any judge. They’re probably just trying to get inside information and establish their presence.” He paused, furrowing his brow. “The Confederates are pretty harmless, all things considered. Some of the other nations are a very different matter. The war has shaken things up, still is, and our technological jumps aren’t helping.”

I cocked my head. “So we want to discourage them from trying anything but without appearing too threatening. Isn’t that the foundation of your strategy, anyway?”

Kiyanu pulled a face. “It is, but there’s only so much we can do to mitigate things, Inaris. At some point, we’ll have to show them that we’re not going to be a problem. And the best way is probably releasing some of our technology.”

I crossed my arms. Despite my general approval of spreading innovation, I didn’t like that idea at all. “That means giving away some of our advantages. We’d need to be in a very good place with the war for that not to be a huge risk.”

While there wasn’t much trade between the large countries of Aran, I didn’t doubt the Zarian would find ways to get their hands on technology we made available. And it wasn’t like some others having shiny new weapons or things that would strengthen them and their armies wouldn’t be a problem.

“I know.” He didn’t look any happier about it than I was. “That’s why I’d prefer to wait until we have secured our position. But if the others are too concerned, they might start interfering in the war. Giving aid to the Zarian, overtly or not. Even just increasing trade or getting them mercenaries from their lands could be a big headache for us.”

I nodded. “So, are you going to go talk to them, then?”

“No, this doesn’t need my personal attention. The Chancellor and the elders of your clan should be more than capable of handling it.”

I pushed myself away from the battlements and rolled my shoulders. “There isn’t anything we need from the Confederation, is there?”

“Not really. They have a large population and thus a lot of cultivators. If they want to get in good with us now that our alliance is on the rise, they might shake some of them loose. But I’d rather not push for that as things stand.”

“Then there’s nothing else to say, I guess.”

Kiyanu nodded slowly. He stopped me as I made to leave, though. “Actually, there’s something else I wanted to discuss with you.”

I paused. “Alright, what’s up?”

“How sure are you that you can trust Kariva?”

I blinked. “Uh, pretty sure. Why do you ask? Is something up with her?”

“Not as such.” Kiyanu frowned a little. “But she and her people are consolidating their power, and they’ve been accumulating quite a lot of influence. Obviously, with the war against the traitors, that was only to be expected, and I won’t dismiss their contributions. But Kariva is well placed to do some serious damage if the mood took her. And while she’s always been respectful, I don’t think she’s particularly devoted to me.”

I tapped my fingers against my legs, considering what he was saying, and the way he said it.

“No doubt you’re right,” I finally said. “But I’m confident of her loyalty to me. She won’t betray us, and I doubt she’s after personal power. If she was, she let the best opportunity she’s likely to get pass her by.”

Kiyanu nodded, but he didn’t seem entirely convinced. “That’s right, but she might still be playing a long game, or simply change her mind at some point. You’re certain of her loyalty to you, Inaris?”

“No one can ever be truly certain of things like that.” I made a dismissive gesture. “I know it’s not personal loyalty. To be honest, I’m not even sure she feels that sort of bond to anyone at all. But she’s committed to doing her job, which is protecting her family. Ourfamily. And given what she knows, I’m the best person to lead our clan, and the Empire, in the long term.” I’d never talked to her about that, but I’d pieced things together, and I thought I’d gotten a pretty good picture. Besides, my intuition was pretty clear on the matter.

“Alright.” Kiyanu sighed. “I’ll trust you on this. And I should get back, anyway. There’s still a lot of paperwork to do.”

“Have fun.” I grinned at him and waved, ignoring the look he shot me before he rose into the air to make his way back to the administrative center. I really wasn’t eager to get his job and deal with all that paperwork.

Which reminded me, I really should get some cultivation time in. Looking around, I gestured at Aston, then took out my flying sword and took off. There was a nice spot on the roof of one of the base’s buildings, where I’d get a lot of sunlight and sharp shadows from the wall on one side. I settled down and started pulling in qi as I sank into a meditative state.

I could feel myself nearing the middle part of the fifth stage. It would still take a while, probably, but it was in reach. With a bit of dedicated cultivation, I’d have enough qi to push through. What concerned me more was that I didn’t quite feel ready for it. In previous breakthroughs, it had been easy, almost as simple as barreling through a barrier. But I was closing in on the higher stages, and the requirements were getting steeper. Not just in terms of what qi I needed, but the more ‘metaphysical’ aspects. I thought it had to do with the way the qi was transforming your body, and to some extent, your mind. You needed to guide that somewhat, not just throw more power at the problem.

I hadn’t needed much in the ways of epiphanies previously. Generally, I knew who I was and what I wanted. The breakthrough to the fifth stage might have been the first real hurdle, and the way it happened, with everything that came before it, had given me more than enough impetus, since I had quite a bit of ‘enlightenment’ both in guiding Mother and dealing with my relationship with her. This next part wouldn’t be that difficult, I could tell. Nothing a bit of focused reflection couldn’t manage. But it was a good reminder to keep that sort of thing in mind as I progressed into the higher stages.

After a few hours, I shook those thoughts off, opened my eyes and stood up. The sun was setting now, dyeing the western horizon in shades of orange, and I’d felt the shadows passing over where I sat. The camp was still bustling, if a little less than this morning, and I noticed a few squads traveling back towards it from the countryside.

I jumped down and started walking slowly, taking a look around. Then I looked at Aston. “Do I have anything else on my agenda right now?”

“Not that I know of, Your Highness,” he answered. “I believe you mentioned wanting to work on your weapons projects. There are no meetings scheduled for this evening. Although you also intended to talk to Wei Min, didn’t you?”

I nodded. Now that he mentioned it, I’d planned to check in with him regularly, and it was about time to talk to Wei Min again.

I found him in the corner of the camp that the noble fighters had taken for themselves. Some of them came from clans allied to the Leri or who just wanted to prove their loyalty to the Empire, or defend their home, but a few were taken from clans who’d acted against us and were now obligated to make up for it. It didn’t surprise me that those were at the edge, with a slightly bigger lane between their tents and the others’ dwellings than usual. The Wei made up the largest group of them by far. Their fighters knelt as soon as they saw me, and I reached the central tent just as Wei Min appeared in the tent flap.

“Your Highness. Please come in. Would you care for refreshments?”

“Cousin Min,” I greeted him quietly as I stepped inside. Everyone here already knew about that, so there was no point trying to conceal it. “Some tea would be nice. Then I’d like to keep working on cultivation.”

He smiled and gestured to a pair of chairs close to a small table. This tent seemed to be his personal quarters and office in one. I watched as he poured tea and raised an eyebrow as the smell hit me.

“Adzurian black tea?” I asked, as I took a cup. “Nice.”

I’d grown fond of it. He must have noticed that I liked it and gone to the trouble of acquiring some. How thoughtful.

Wei Min smiled and ducked his head. “Thank you, my lady.”

We finished our tea quickly and then started talking about cultivation. I’d given him some pointers here and there, but a bit of dedicated time to discussing it and observing his cultivation would be good. Wei Min’s techniques were remarkable blends of destructive and supportive, as you’d expect from his affinities. I knew he was a passable healer, but his real interest lay elsewhere, so I didn’t focus on that. Going your own way was just as important as getting good techniques.

“And how are things going with your family?” I asked. “Did you get any more emotional closure?” He hesitated, so I continued, “You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to. But understanding and dealing with these things is also important for cultivation, and I may be able to offer some guidance, in any case.”

He shook his head. “All due respect, my lady, I don’t think that’s necessary. There’s nothing new, and I’m fairly sure of where I stand and what I should do. If I reach a hurdle in my cultivation, I doubt it will be related to that.”

I regarded him for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, Cousin.” Following an impulse, I stood up. “Let’s go for a stroll. We can continue our conversation while we walk.”

He didn’t object, of course, and I stepped out of his tent, noting that Aston and my guards had taken positions to cover me from possible angles of attack. I didn’t say anything, but started walking at a leisurely pace. I could tell Wei Min was a little tense, but not as much as he would have been before. My attention was more focused on the other Wei. Most of them were at least as strong as me, but I noticed a few presences that were much weaker. And they were quite close. I cocked my head, considering them more deeply. Were there children in the base?

My question answered itself when we came to the next intersection and I took a turn left. There was a bit of a secluded yard between several tents and wooden buildings, and two kids came running right down the path we’d just turned onto. The younger one almost collided with me.

“Cousin Min!” She called out, smiling up at him. Then her gaze moved on to me. She frowned a little. “You seem familiar. Oh, uh, excuse me.”

“That’s the Imperial Princess, Mei,” the other one said. He bowed deeply. “Your Highness. It is an honor to meet you. I am named Wei Jun. This is my sister, Wei Mei.”

My smile froze on my face. While his words were polite, the boy’s tone was tight with strain, the delivery wooden. They also dispelled any doubt about who those were. They both resembled their father, Wei Yong, enough, anyway. The girl was probably a little younger than Xiaodan, while the boy looked about twelve.

“It’s good to meet you both,” I said quietly. That was mostly a lie. I could have done without meeting them, even if they were technically my aunt and uncle. And isn’t that weird enough on its own.

She looked up at me, a scowl on her face, and I mentally revised my estimate of her age downwards by a year. “You’re the one who took Uncle and got our soldiers killed? I won’t let you take Father! He should be clan head, anyway, not cousin Min! It’s not fair!”

“Mei,” her brother chided, “one doesn’t say such things.”

Which was just about the worst way of reprimanding her, since it clearly implied he didn’t actually disagree. I took a deep breath and tried to think of how to respond.

Before I could, I heard a startled gasp and turned to see an older woman hurry through the yard, reaching us a moment later. I’d have recognized her from a picture in a dossier even without her aura or the children.

“Your Highness.” She knelt down, pushing her children down as well, and bowed her head. “Please forgive the children, Imperial Princess. They didn’t mean anything by it.”

This situation just went from awkward to even more awkward. I cleared my throat. “It’s alright. Please stand. Alco Ilia, I assume?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” She kept her gaze down, but I suspected that was more to stop me from seeing the ice in it than out of deference. She hid it better than her kids, but I could still tell her feelings from her tone, posture and even the way she drew in her aura.

Not that I could really blame her. She might have only married Wei Yong after his dalliance with my grandmother, and her children were obviously much younger, but it would still not be an easy revelation to deal with, especially with the civil war.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said again, although I probably didn’t seem any more sincere. “I wasn’t aware you were here. Or the children.”

“They’re only here for a short visit,” Wei Min finally put in. “As Uncle Yong is also here and we’re still a ways from the front, it was judged safe enough.”

I nodded. I’d been distantly aware of Wei Yong’s presence, although he kept his presence veiled so well that I couldn’t sense him, and it had mostly slipped my mind.

“Well, perhaps we will get to meet for a little longer at some point,” I said. “I won’t keep you.”

I stepped around them, Wei Min on my heels. She breathed a sigh of relief, which I pretended not to notice. We quickly left them behind us, but my shoulders only relaxed their tension a few minutes later.

It had given me food for thought, anyway. If even the kids were talking like that, Wei Min’s position was probably less assured than I’d hoped. But that was why I was here. So I turned my thoughts back to cultivation and resumed the conversation with Wei Min. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help searching for my grandfather, though, and made sure we stayed well clear of him.

Chapter 140 (Draft)

“You’re not leaving me enough air, Nari,” Al said.

I snorted but loosened my hug slightly. “If your cultivation couldn’t even stand up to a little hug from your big sister, I’d really have to worry. Besides, you can obviously give me cheek just fine.”

He laughed and gave me a squeeze before letting go. I took a step back and gave him another assessing glance. I was glad he’d made it out of the siege alright, without being in any danger. He still wore armor, even though that really wasn’t necessary anymore. Not a full suit, but a breastplate, grieves and vambraces of dark, qi-touched metal. Maybe he just thought he looked dashing in them, which, if pressed, I might admit he did.

“The city seems to be putting itself back together again quickly,” he commented.

I stepped over to the window and glanced out. “Yeah, it really does. I guess cultivation is almost as good at building things up as it is at battering them down.”

Al had arrived with a company of soldiers from an outpost to the east that wasn’t needed anymore, now that the city was back in our hands. I could see a few airships in the sky outside, and soldiers moving below. Taking the city hadn’t stopped our troop movements.

“This is only the start, isn’t it?” he asked, following my gaze.

“General Poteri said we’ll keep pushing, move the rest of the frontline,” I said. “Apparently, with the city gone and the Zarian defense here broken, that should be a lot easier than before. But it’s still only one location, and we don’t want the frontline to be stretched too far.”

“But aren’t they also sending soldiers south from here?” he asked, frowning.

I nodded. “They’re clearing the area around the city and preparing for us to move further south. I want to reach the Yellow Graves quickly, if we can.”

Al whistled. “That’s basically all the territory they took from us in the first place. Ambitious.”

I shrugged. “We’ll see how it goes.” But the Zarian had lost quite a few of their elites here, and with the help of the Terbekteri, I didn’t think it was overly ambitious.

The door to the room we were standing in opened, and Aston looked inside. “My lady, we found who you were looking for.”

I nodded and turned around, glancing around the room again. It was elaborately furnished and decorated, but I didn’t spare the tapestries any attention as I looked at the others. Elia was sitting on one of the seats, bouncing her toes and scribbling on what looked like three sheets of paper at the same time, while Yarani was half-lying on one of the divans with her eyes closed. Tenira and Lei were still with what remained of our siege engines, or maybe one of the other projects by now.

Al accompanied me, while the other two stayed behind. I noted the guards surrounding us and guarding the door. The Imperial Guard was out in force. Probably a good thing, and I definitely wanted my friends and family protected. They saluted when they saw me looking, and I nodded at them as I left.

Once we stepped outside into the courtyard of the keep at the center of the city, I slowed down. It was bustling with soldiers, but a few of them in black uniforms caught me eyes. I couldn’t tell if they were actually supposed to be there or just loitering around. But I recognized a few of the faces from the Lighters who had escaped the Zarian elites. No wonder one of them, a young man, kept nervously darting his gaze about.

They noticed when I came closer. Half of them snapped to attention while the other half bowed or knelt. I bit off my grin at the sight. It wasn’t like regular soldiers were very consistent about that.

“Good morning, soldiers,” I said, ignoring the way Al straightened up and stood still at my shoulder.

“Good morning, Your Highness,” a few of them answered, looking cautious. Well, I supposed it was probably known that I usually didn’t try to engage with the soldiers.

“Your units did very well in the battle,” I said. Which was true; they’d shown their worth fighting Zarian regulars on the streets of the city. “I’m pleased at the way you handled yourselves.”

I could see the effect my compliment had in the way they stood straighter, lifting their shoulders and heads slightly, their eyes smiling at the praise.

“Thank you, Your Highness, we are honored,” one of the men said with a bow. Probably the most senior one, though only a corporal, if I read the uniform markings right. They differed a little from the regular army.

“What were your impressions of the fight and your performance against regular soldiers? Did your equipment hold up well? Anything you noticed regarding the weapons?” I saw their surprise and hesitation, and smiled. “You might not know it, but my team and I are responsible for the tech the Lighters are based on. I’d like personal feedback, especially if there is room for improvement.”

The corporal’s eyes sharpened a little. I could guess what he was thinking. Their performance reflects on me, and I’m going to take their successes for my own.

“They worked quite well, Your Highness,” he answered. “Clearly not as powerful as a proper attack technique of a Zarian soldiers, but shots have a higher throughput.”

“Plus, the fact that you can’t dodge them is pretty good,” another soldier added. “Though    you need to pay a lot of attention to where you’re aiming.”

The next few minutes, I got some good feedback, once they got over their hesitation and started talking with a bit more engagement. I nodded and tried to seem encouraging. There were no groundbreaking suggestions, but I still found it useful to get the opinions of those who’d actually tried to use the things in combat. I made a mental note to talk to the generals about choosing a few of them as instructors for training new recruits.

Then I bid them goodbye and continued on my way, Al following me. He’d listened to our conversation with strained patience, but at least he’d waited and hadn’t interrupted.

“So, who are we going to talk to?” he asked.

I shot him a look. “Ideally, you’re not going to talk much. But to answer your question, you’ll see. We should be almost there.”

I didn’t actually know where I was supposed to go, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. There was a building beside the main keep where both our intelligence efforts and some general odds and ends had ended up. Aston didn’t speak up to correct my path as I walked there, but when we reached the building he turned to the left, so I slowed down and let him guide us.

The room we ended up in was pretty bare, just a table and a few chairs between beige walls. When we entered, the people inside rose from the chairs and knelt. I took a moment to look them over, before I stepped further inside and told them to rise. Beside me, I could feel Al tensing up.

The first man was a young NCO in the fifth stage, who I actually recalled from my first campaign, though I hadn’t heard his name. The other one was more interesting, since his orderly Imperial clothes contrasted with the bits of shells and carved wood he’d put on them as decorations in Zarieni fashion. He was older, probably at least eighty, but only in the early part of the fourth stage.

“Thank you for answering my summons so promptly,” I said. “I see you’ve moved up the ranks since I last saw you, Sergeant …?”

“Sergeant Lin, my lady,” he answered. “This is Elder Jin, one of the heads of the largest settlement of Zarieni outside the camps.”

Probably a good sign that he’d assumed an Imperial name. I nodded. I’d known where they were from, of course, or they wouldn’t be here. Just like I was aware that the half-Zarieni Lin had been assigned as a liaison.

“I hope you’ve integrated well,” I said. “If you have any concerns or grievances, I’d be happy to hear them.”

The elder shook his head, his expression guarded but not hostile. “Thank you, Your Highness. We have indeed settled into the Empire as well as could be expected. I have nothing to complain about.” His Common had a noticeable accent, but he spoke fluently.

“Good,” I said. “I won’t waste too much of your time with niceties. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I wanted to talk to you because of the war, and the way it promises to head towards the Yellow Graves.”

The Zarieni frowned. “We live in the Empire now, not the Graves, and know little about what has gone on there recently. But hasn’t the Empire allies among the People that could prove more helpful, Your Highness?”

I nodded. “Certainly we do, and we are also talking to them. But the reason I wanted to talk to you, or someone knowledgeable from your camp, is that the rising Storm Tribe was, as far as we know, the last tribe to occupy the western reaches of the Yellow Graves. As well as the paths it is said to know in the region.”

They exchanged a look. “Your Highness, another tribe could have moved in over the last months,” Lin said.

“Please allow me to speak openly, Your Highness,” Jin said. At my nod, he continued, “the remnants of our old tribe, our new village, are workers, not warriors. We don’t have the strength or skill to fight against the other tribes, even if we were inclined. Most of us just want to build our new life in the Empire in peace.”

I smiled, happy to hear of that attitude. “I know. I only seek information, I will not draft your people as fighters.”

That seemed to satisfy him, and he relaxed slightly.

“We will, of course, be happy to help,” he said after a look from his companion. “I cannot guarantee that the paths are still there and usable, as things have a tendency to change quickly in the jungle.”

“I realize that,” I said. “We’ll also have the help of others, and our own scouts are good, plus we can come from the sea.”

The elder looked at me thoughtfully, then nodded. “Of course. When the time comes, I will accompany you and do my best to guide your forces, Your Highness. I was once one of the best foragers in our tribe.”

I smiled. “That would be perfect.”

We talked for a few more minutes. Somewhat to my surprise, I got the impression that they really had settled in well. Of course, there was huge social upheaval, since not only had they lost most of their stronger members and warriors, but their whole situation had changed. But I suspected the warriors were those more enamored with their previous dangerous, bellicose lifestyle, surviving in a jungle full of qi and spirit beasts and raiding each other or the Empire occasionally. The ‘civilians’, who had less status in their society, but probably still gotten the burden of the raids, probably appreciated the peaceful life more.

To be fair, no other people had as high a fraction of cultivators in the higher stages as the Zarieni. And it probably wasn’t onlybecause of all the qi and natural treasures in their home.

Eventually, I bid goodbye to the two men and left the room, Al with me. He looked thoughtful. I was a little surprised that he hadn’t said much during the entire conversation, but he’d clearly listened.

“I guess your decision to take them with you after the war paid off,” he finally said as we left the building.

“Maybe. They could have been a lot of trouble. I guess they still can.”

“There aren’t that many of them, Nari.” Al shook his head. “I didn’t expect them to be so respectful and eager to integrate. I guess that’s what I get for judging them by the reputation they get from raiders …”

He trailed off, half-turning his head. After a moment, I realized it had to be the clamor coming from outside the compound. I’d been tuning it out, but now that I focused, I could make out the shouts and jeers.

“It looks like Zun Chao is dead,” I commented quietly.

Al’s eyes widened. He glanced in that direction, than back to me. His expression turned considering. “And how long did that take, Nari?”

I shrugged. He’d been bled to death. Cultivators were very hardy, but even they couldn’t just create new blood out of thin air. At least without techniques. Blood loss would kill even a seventh-stager, especially with their qi suppressed. It wasn’t a nice way to go, although I supposed he could count himself lucky I hadn’t demanded impalement or crucifixion.

“You didn’t want me to see it, did you?” Al asked, eyes narrowed.

I snorted. “Come on, we’ve still got stuff to do.”

He was right. I hadn’t wanted him to see it. Even if, or especially because, Lord Zun had been in part responsible for Mother’s absence and the stuff with his father. That was why I’d taken Al along and taken my time. I hadn’t invited him, but I’d known he’d want to come along, just because of his curiosity.

“You know it was probably recorded,” he pointed out.

I sighed. “If you really need to see him die, I guess you can go ahead and get a recording crystal.” Although I would quietly let people know I disapproved of that idea, so it wouldn’t be easy. “Now let’s get back.”

He watched me in silence for another moment, then sighed. “Alright, Big Sister. Do you want to spar?”

I smiled. “Okay.”

Chapter 139 (Draft)

The soldiers reacted quickly, and the Dominion attackers had barely stepped out of the spot their teleportation brought them to before they were attacked. Of course, in that time they’d already done a lot of damage.

I backed away, suddenly grateful for Aston’s solid presence shielding me from the fight, but I didn’t run away. I needed to know what was happening. Besides, he probably agreed that I was safest close to the group of high-stage cultivators, or he’d already be trying to move me. Worst case, I guess Kiyanu can just run and carry me. But that would still be a disaster.

Not to mention I didn’t want to leave anyone behind I didn’t have to.

I shook those thoughts off as another loud bang echoed through the camp, and one of the towers at the corner sacked downwards. It stabilized quickly, only half-caved in, but that wasn’t a good sign. The Zarian had caught us by surprise, and I saw too many of our soldiers dying before they even got off a good attack. I swallowed hard and had to resist the urge to retch as the wind once more carried the scent of burning flesh and hair to my nose.

The officers behind and around me were shouting, more or less coherently and in a semblance of order. Some of them vanished from the tent as they charged towards the intruders, and a portion of the Zarian split off to focus on the incoming elites. I barely caught their fight, but it produced a blast wave that leveled a few of the closer prebuilt structures.

“Keep the siege weapons firing at the walls,” I heard Poteri order. “There’s nothing they can do here expect wait to be destroyed.”

I grimaced at the thought, but I knew he was right. We didn’t want to level our own camp, and even getting a few more shots in before they were destroyed was better than not getting those.

Under other circumstances, I might have advocated for pressing a charge at one of the other cardinal locations to take pressure off this one. But we were sieging a fortified city, and any half-baked attempt at an attack would invite brutal punishment. Instead, I had to wait and watch as the fight spread through this camp. The Zarian broke their formation quickly, fighting as the individual heavyweights they were. Kiyanu stepped up beside me, clenching his fingers into fists, and I spared him a brief smile. Knowing you could fight this but were unable to had to burn like nothing else.

Heart beating into my throat, I watched as one of the Zarian faced off against a group of Lighters that had been caught at the edge of the developing struggle. There were two squads, but the enemy soldier was in the sixth stage, and he tore through them like they were cardboard figures. They barely got a shot off. The spray of blood and the screams of the dying and wounded made my stomach twist.

“Withdraw the Lighters!” I called in the direction of the officers. “All of them! They’re useless here.”

They were supposed to fight against regular soldiers. The plan was that a squad of Lighters should be able to take on a fighter in the fourth stage and come out ahead. And unlike normal cultivators, they would have barely used their qi, so they’d be ready to do it again, and again. But putting them up against elites would be like trying to set rabbits against a bear.

Maybe I wasn’t the first to give that order, but the rest of their company withdrew quickly, and what remained of the squads engaged with the Zarian tried to disengage, as well. He was hit by one of the Imperial elites, and they managed to scamper away. The few that remained, at least. I bit my lip.

Breathing out deeply, I focused on the world around me, the heat of the sun and the surrounding people, and pulled fire qi in, ignoring the way it burned against my meridians. Closing my eyes for a moment, I shaped it, using the time I needed to make sure the technique was perfect, then opened my eyes and focused on a target. I exhaled and launched the technique, and a group of Zarian soldiers in the fifth stage stumbled in their bloody dance as the fireball exploded in their midst, sending burning pieces everywhere. A few soldiers close to them cried out as the Scattering Wrath of the Inferno landed on them and starting burning through their defenses.

I took a few deep breaths and gave my channels a moment of rest. Other Imperial soldiers took the opening I’d created and launched their own attacks against the Zarian. More and more, the central area of the camp was descending into chaos. With all the qi that was thrown around, I had a hard time keeping track of the details.

I shook my head and focused on light qi. Then I started laying my Light’s Speed technique over as many Imperial fighters as were feasible. I left the stronger elites, since my boost wouldn’t be able to do much for them, but I buffed quite a few regular soldiers. I could feel the drain on my dantian, which was draining far quicker than I could have pulled in new qi even if I didn’t have to maintain the technique. But that was alright. This fight would be over soon, one way or another.

“Come on, at least a few of you can go fight,” I said with a glance at my guards. “Aston won’t let me get hurt, and neither will Kiyanu. But we’ll all be safer if more elites fight the Zarian.”

Aston pulled a face, and while a few guards glanced at the fight, none of them moved. “My lady, I’m not sure that’s wise,” he said.

“Aston.” I I regarded him steadily. “If you won’t, I’ll give explicit orders. Your choice.”

After a moment, he lowered his gaze and bowed. “Yes, Your Highness.” He straightened and started naming guards, while I turned my attention back to the fight.

The Imperial soldiers were finally beginning to fight back as a coherent whole, and the Zarian attackers were being stopped and even driven back. I caught some movement behind me and turned just in time to glimpse Kiyanu rising into the air. He was probably checking for other forces or hidden surprises. It’s not directly fighting, but I doubt the Zarian will get anything past him. Well, anything else.

“Inaris!” Tenira called as she finally joined me. “Looks like you finally learned not to go haring off into fights.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” I replied drily. “Where’ve you been?”

“Looking after our projects,” she said more seriously. “Everything’s in order, more or less. I thought it was about time we did something about this.”

I sighed. I didn’t want to waste the advantage of surprise we still had. But she was right. I couldn’t let this go on much longer, or the Zarian would capitalize on it and dislodging them from the city would get a lot harder. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have a follow-up planned, or at least prepared if they got the opportunity.

We didn’t have many good options, either, but we’d deal with it.

I turned back, Tenira at my side. “Kiyanu, Poteri,” I called. “We need to start the air strikes. They’ll push them to recall this force, and it would be good cover.”

The two of them turned to me. General Poteri frowned, but nodded after a moment. “Waiting any longer would demand too steep a cost. With your permission, my lord?”

Kiyanu nodded, but didn’t stop looking at me. “You seem like you have something on your mind, Inaris,” he noted. He cocked an eyebrow. “Another attack?”

My smile widened. “Not really, but I do have an idea.”

It took a minute to explain what I wanted before we could set things in motion. Slowly, I walked back to the edge of the pavilion, sweeping my senses through the area to try and get a better idea of how the battle was going. Large parts of the fortifications were smoking ruins by now, or twisted beyond any hint of effectiveness. Bodies littered the ground, and not all of them were showing any signs of life, though some were groaning and dragging themselves off and others being carefully picked up by healers. More than once, I saw a healer getting attacked before they could get to their prospective patient. It was a little hard to say how the battle as a whole unfolded. It was hard to believe it had only been a few minutes since the start.

Then, finally, the crackle of radio chatter informed me that things were starting. I stepped back and glanced at the screens, some of which had shifted, and nodded as I saw what I expected to find. Our planes, cultivators on flying swords, and even a few of the more maneuverable airships had taken to the skies and were finishing their approach. The dome of energy over the city flashed in spots as they started to drop bombs.

I couldn’t help a smile as I watched. The spots spread out quickly, appearing in a patter all over, and even from the distance a few dark shapes were clearly visible as they dropped from the sky and onto the shield, larger than any of the bombs. Those were no joke, either, and one of the outbuildings close to the city walls descended into a blazing inferno, flinging scraps of burning wood and stone into its surroundings, as if to punctuate the danger.

But I wrenched my gaze away and to the fights happening outside. Immediately, I could tell that the Zarian had realized what was happening. Their advance had stopped, and if anything, they were drawing more tightly together. Preparing for a possible retreat.

Our bombings were threatening the integrity of the shield, and if it fell, we’d be free to bomb the walls and their defensive fortifications, not to mention wherever they might have assembled soldiers in preparation for the battle. The only way to stop that was in the air, and for that, the Zarian needed their elites. The same, I figured, who were merrily wreaking havoc in our camp.

I glanced upwards again, then tried to run a hand through my hair but instead brushed it past my shoulder. Yarani had helped me with putting it into a slightly complicated braid, since I’d put my foot down about not bringing servants into a war camp. And seeing what’s happening, I can definitely say I told them so.

I considered the state of the fight for another moment, then turned to my guards. “Aston, hold them down.”

He nodded and his aura seemed to rumble a little as he used his earth qi. I stepped back, watching. Aston and Ru Lis, who’d just joined us out front, together with a few strong earth cultivators, struck at the Zarian. The ground boiled up around them, clinging to them and drowning their feet and legs. The fight seemed to stutter for a moment as Imperial soldiers fled the area while the Zarian contended with the techniques. Most of the seventh-stagers broke free, but I watched with narrow eyes as many others were caught.

Then the slightest shift in my senses provided a split second of warning before the bombs fell from the sky, the bombers too high in the air for the Zarian to sense. A large rock sank into the middle of the space, barely missing a Zarian soldier, and then the explosives followed.

I had to shield my eyes and took another step back. Waves of force and heat rolled over the camp. I could sense soldiers dying. Mostly Zarian, but also a few Imperials who’d been caught on the edges. That whole part of the camp was almost leveled, walls and several of our siege engines blowing apart or going up in flames. Smoke started to choke the air.

But it had worked. The Zarian might have been able to defend against it more properly, but they hadn’t looked up or guarded themselves against above well enough, too distracted by the fight and the earth.

“Finish them off,” I said. But it barely mattered. Officers were already bellowing orders, and the Imperial soldiers returned, this time a little more organized.

I watched impassively as a dozen more Zarian were cut down, while the remainder of their force took to the air and escaped. I’d known we’d only get one chance, planes on a strafing run continuing their course from the city. We’d made it count.

“I think we may have just won the battle,” Tenira said, blinking her eyes against the dust.

I shrugged, and turned to get back into the pavilion while the soldiers started the clean-up. It was a buzz of activity, and I stopped to linger at the edges.

“I guess they didn’t expect us to bomb our own camp,” I mused. “Well, joke’s on them. I’d happily blow our own fortifications if the Zarian elites are caught in them, assuming we wouldn’t slaughter our own soldiers.”

“I suppose they are certainly easier to replace,” Tenira said.

I glanced around, and after a moment, I frowned. “We’re pressing the attack now?” The frequency or our bombardment of the shield, especially from the other positions, had only increased, and I could see soldiers mustering.

“We are, Your Highness.” General Poteri looked at me and bowed his head. “Their shield has been stressed enough, and we have the advantage now.”

I nodded. In silence, we watched as the shield started to become ever more visible, and more flickering. Finally, sections of it started outright collapsing. Then our planes went in for another attack run. This time, they encountered stiffer resistance. I suppressed a wince as one of the planes was blown out of the sky by some kind of projectile weapon and another hurled to the ground by an enemy air cultivator. But even with the losses we took, the stress was too much for the drained qi shield. It disappeared in a flash of light and a wave of wind that rustled trees all over the city, and a moment later the bombs started hitting the walls and fortifications.

By the time our planes had to withdraw, the bombs and the siege weapons had reduced the walls to little better than rubble in some spots, and barracks, fields and gatehouses were burning, taking Zarian soldiers with them.

“It looks like there won’t be another decisive fight,” Tenira commented.

I frowned, but didn’t say anything as Imperial soldiers advanced. The city still sent out some shots, but they were too scattered to have any hope of halting our advance. Then I could see them taking the walls, and setting up beachheads.

“This battle is over,” Kiyanu said, coming over to join me. “The Zarian are probably focusing on getting as much as they can out and bleeding us.”

“That means this will get ugly.” I grimaced.

But he was right. It took hours of bloody street fighting before we could secure the central government buildings. I paced up and down, watching and gritting my teeth most of that time. Smoke was rising from the city in more than one spot, and enough buildings had collapsed they could fill an entire village.

It wasn’t the clean victory I’d hoped for, and I knew its aftermath would be a problem, not least because we’d shown some of our cards and expended a lot of explosives. But in the end, we held Blue Valley City once more.

Chapter 138 (Draft)

Blue Valley City hadn’t suffered from the occupation, at least not visibly. The city still stood, its walls rising as high as ever, some chimneys sending up smoke. Obviously, the Zarian had changed the wards and defenses enough that we couldn’t simply barge in, but a casual observer might not have noticed anything from this distance.

Until you looked closely enough to see the Dominion’s flag raised over the city.

It was early morning, and the horizon behind the city was still dyed in warm tones, though from my position it hid the sun from view. My surroundings were alive with activity, though. I’d rarely sensed this many soldiers in one location, and it was only one of several camps we’d erected, anchoring the defensive fortifications set up encircling the city. The siege was in motion, but one way or another, I doubted it would last long.

We couldn’t starve them out, and trying that would only hit the civilian population far harder than the Zarian soldiers. It was an open question which side would get reinforcements first, at least in significant numbers. The walls were big enough and packed with enough qi that we couldn’t simply knock them down, but they weren’t as much of an obstacle as they would have been for an actual medieval army. The qi shield covering the city was a larger problem, since it meant we couldn’t use our planes or fliers to bomb them from above.

“This is going to be my first real battle,” Elia said, fidgeting as she looked at the city. “Any tips?”

“Don’t drive yourself crazy over it,” Lei said. “It’s not such a big deal.”

“And we won’t get near the thick of the fighting, anyway,” Yarani added. “Besides, I’ve been in a few battles, and they’re scary whether it’s your first one or not.”

“Right, you used to be a soldier, didn’t you?” Elia asked, brightening up a little. “Did you fight a lot?”

“Not really, mostly against the nomads and then on the Earth Continent like the others. Things used to be peaceful around here.”

“Good times,” I muttered.

“I remember my commander’s face when I explained how I was leaving, after I accepted your offer.” Yarani smiled. “That was kind of fun.”

“You must have left a lot behind,” Lei commented. “Did you stay in touch with your comrades?”

She shrugged. “A little, but not much, to be honest.” She glanced outside the base’s window at the commotion. “Some of my old comrades are here now, actually.”

I presumed that more would have been here but didn’t make it. Perhaps the thought occurred to her, too, since after a moment her expression darkened. We stood in silence for a few seconds.

“Where’s Kajare, anyway?” Elia finally asked.

“Talking to the commander of the Terbekteri troops,” I answered.

My mood brightened a little as I thought of my husband. I’d spent last night with him, and we’d taken some time to catch up. it was good to be reunited with him, not just for that.

“I doubt they’re going to be much help for this one,” Yarani commented. “Although they’re instrumental for keeping the river clear, I’ll give them that.”

I nodded. The last thing we needed was for the Zarian to land reinforcements on the coast by ships, and preventing that was what I really wanted Terbekteri reinforcements for, at the moment. Help in the assault was a bonus.

“I think it’s about time now, isn’t it?” Lei asked.

Elia jerked and looked outside, clearly surprised. I just nodded. “Let’s join Kiyanu and the generals.”

We left the room where we’d been watching the city and walked down the corridor, then out the door. They’d put up a pavilion outside, with a good view of our positions as well as the city. Off to the side, a light cultivator had set up a shimmering screen hanging in the air that showed a close-up of the city walls, while smaller windows showed us the other Imperial forces.

Everyone rose and bowed when we entered, but I waved them back to their positions. Kiyanu was in the center, flanked by the highest-ranking generals of this army. And also Wei Jun. He was too valuable to keep out of the war, but no one trusted him to lead the vanguard, so he just kind of hovered here and helped with the planning even as the army officers gave him some space. His clan’s fighters had been broken up into smaller groups and put where they couldn’t do too much damage if they turned, but would still fight effectively.

I personally thought those precautions were a little too paranoid, but the coup had been sponsored by Zarian, so I could see the point.

“Your Grace,” the officer overseeing the radios and communications talismans said, “all siege positions report ready. The weapons are primed and targeted.”

Kiyanu nodded. “Good. There’s no point hesitating. Begin the first phase, generals.”

I narrowed my eyes and watched attentively as the siege truly began. Formation array-covered shields withdrew from walls and emplacements, showing equally rune-covered barrels. That was all we could actually see, though, since they were laser weapons. Basically, they were just larger, stationary versions of the laser guns we’d tested before. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to overcome the dependency on qi, so they still used some, in the formations, but the main power source of the actual attacks was electric.

Two dozen siege weapons scattered around the city began their barrage, and we could see the city’s shields shimmer like a heat haze as it tried to deal with the high intensity electromagnetic radiation. This wasn’t the first time we’d used the concept, so obviously the Zarian would have their shields ready, but our main goal was putting a strain on those, anyway.

“They’re working well,” Tenira commented. She’d quietly stepped up beside me. “A little too much heat on the delta versions, but manageable.”

“We could stand here all day and just batter away at their shields,” Yarani said. “I’m curious how long they’ll just sit there.”

“Well, we have other tools, too,” I said. “Although I’m hoping it will be a bit longer until they muster for a counter-attack.”

Of course, I didn’t get the siege-breaking charge I’d been hoping for. Instead, large qi attacks began to arc out of the city, targeted at the positions of our guns. I sighed and crossed my arms, watching on the screens and listening in to the chatter in the command pavilion with half an ear.

We had thick walls and formation shields to protect our weapons, of course, but I knew they wouldn’t stand up to a concentrated barrage. That was the trade-off here. The whole point was not to get into a slugging match of how much qi each side could put up.

“Let’s try out Project Smite,” I suggested.

Kiyanu glanced at me, then nodded. “Do it, General Poteri.”

Poteri talked into another communications device, and one of the screen shifted to show the sky above the city. A few seconds later, a boulder double as large as the city walls entered the picture, arcing towards Blue Valley City.

Smite was a very simple concept. I’d chosen the name appropriately, in my own opinion. With a mix of complicated pulley and launcher frames, somewhat like a catapult turned up to eleven, and clever uses of spatial qi, it enabled attacks of pure, extensive brute force. These boulders, stone wrapped around heavy metal, couldn’t be stopped easily, but would crash forward to flatten anything in their path. At the moment of impact with the city’s qi shield, they would have enough energy to produce massive craters if they actually hit the ground, and the shield would definitively have to bear it. Even better, they weren’t going to go away after their momentum was arrested, they’d just be hanging there, and the shield or the Zarian cultivators would have to keep them aloft until they could move them aside safely.

We didn’t have many of the projectiles, but they were totally worth it.

And I hadn’t even put any effortinto these tricks. It was just the first real battle of a longer campaign, after all. These were probably our simplest tools.

“I think we can safely consider those to be an unmitigated success,” Tenira said. Despite her words, she wasn’t smiling, just looking at the unfolding scenes with intense focus.

“Your team has truly risen to the occasion, Lady Tenira,” General Poteri agreed.

“How’s the situation inside the city unfolding?” I asked.

“We can’t be sure of the details,” Kiyanu answered. “We have little more than long-distance imagery. This isn’t exactly the time for anyone inside to be sending reports. But I’m sure you know that better than me, don’t you, Inaris?”

I shrugged. I had done my best to use my abilities to help our preparations, and spent hours asleep, sending my dreaming mind into the city’s counterpart in the weird space I experienced dreams to be in. I had successfully contacted a few of the people Kariva had placed in the city. They were all essentially deep-cover agents, who had realized that the best thing they could do was lie low and not fought the Zarian conquest and occupation at all. Except for these dreams, they’d had very little contact with anyone else, and been very careful about gathering information.

As a result, we had a general idea of how the Zarian had appropriated the city’s magical defenses and their military positions, but they wouldn’t be able to do much sabotage even if we were willing to risk it.

I just hoped that the city would come out of this okay. They Zarian had only occupied it for a short time, after all. From what they’d told me, and my own impressions, it was confirmed that the invaders had not been able to put down roots in any meaningful sense. The people of the south simply hated the Zarian too much. Of course, I knew better than to think there would be no lasting damage.

“They’re starting to move,” one of the other officers reported. She looked up and gestured at one of the screens, causing the view to zoom in, and made a few red circles appear to point out movement.

I leaned forward. “Are they starting an attack?”

Poteri frowned. “Might be, my lady. They seem to be gathering strength to the north.”

I frowned, and saw that Kiyanu did the same. We were in the south, while the river had roughly an east-west orientation, so this was directly opposite. And, incidentally, far from our strongest concentration of forces, which the Zarian had to know. It made sense to me, butit shouldn’t; even if they managed to break through our encirclement to the north, it wouldn’t matter. With cultivators, both sides were too mobile in combat and pinning a force down was a lot harder than that.

“Let’s muster our defenses,” Kiyanu decided. “Everywhere, this may well be a faint or distraction. We have time, people. We don’t need to rush a storm of their walls.”

Everyone nodded, and the officers set about implementing his direction. I ran a hand through my hair, then noticed I was doing it and made myself stop. I was feeling uneasy, although I didn’t know if that was something connected to my bloodline or just the general situation. Certainly, I’d never been relaxed during a battle, and sitting on the sidelines watching didn’t make it easier.

“Should we scramble the Lighters, as well?” General Wu asked.

“Yes, let’s do that,” Poteri answered. “They’ll have their chance to prove themselves today.”

“Lighters?” I questioned.

An explosion shook the view through one of the screens, and another defensive emplacement went up in flames, its energy cannon turned to slack. We were losing too many of them, I couldn’t help but feel, even as elsewhere, cultivators were trying to repair others or setting up replacements.

Kiyanu glanced at me. “It’s what the soldiers have taken to calling our new units. Simpler than Imperial Army Auxiliary Corps, I suppose. It doesn’t hurt that most of them carry your laser rifles.”

I nodded. As if she was sensing my thoughts, Tenira passed me a sheet of paper. Glancing at it, I saw a breakdown of the company and its armaments. Besides the laser rifles, a few of the fighters had more conventional gunpowder firearms, others more versatile tools like grenades. All of them working with no or only minimal qi.

“There’s only about a hundred soldiers,” I noted.

Kiyanu shrugged. “We’ve only had the weapons finished and fully past their tests for a short time. These are all prospects who’ve failed out of joining the army or the scraps of local garrisons. People who’ve had enough military training they only need a week or two of supplementary teaching to be combat-ready.”

“Even for the weakest ones, almost all soldiers are employed elsewhere,” Tenira added. “On the front or taking the places of stronger soldiers inside the Empire. Monster attacks don’t stop just because there’s a war on.”

“But don’t worry.” Kiyanu smiled faintly. “If this works out, their numbers will swell explosively.”

I nodded, frowning in thought as I looked at Tenira’s papers and glanced at the squads I could see in a viewscreen on the left. “I know. We have the production capacity.” I chewd my lip. “Assuming we give them a few months of boot camp, we could have double the numbers of our regular army in auxiliaries in six months. If we can muster the recruitment?”

We could have a lot more people with guns, if we didn’t restrict recruitment to the third stage. And maybe if things turned dire, I would accept weaker cultivators. But they just didn’t have the same physical strength and speed. It wouldn’t be worth it, not unless I want fodder to throw into a meat grinder. No thanks.

“That depends on how things turn out here,” Kiyanu replied. “If they prove themselves, I doubt it will be a problem.”

I looked back at one of the squads of Lighters waiting in formation behind a defensive emplacement. Their uniforms were black with the Imperial phoenix in red embroidered one one shoulder, and a flame focused through a lens on the other. They looked snazzy in the new uniforms, but the fighters inside them didn’t quite measure up. They shifted around more than regular soldiers, eying their surroundings with wariness and in a few cases barely concealed apprehension, gripping their weapons tightly. This would be a trial by fire, I knew.

I turned around, but before I could continue the conversation, a loud sound came from one of the communication devices, and a hush fell over the room. I looked around, noting that a few of the view screens were flickering, and for others, the view was shaking, even though I could sense there was no earthquake.

Aston materialized beside me, his aura rolling off him like an angry cloud. I barely noticed it, or the way the officers in the pavilion were starting to swarm, those more accustomed to being in combat pulling out weapons.

I winced as something inside my senses seemed to twist, as if the world was folding in on itself in a spot just a hundred meters away from me. I stepped forward on legs I suddenly had to steady, to the edge of the pavilion, and saw what I had failed to expect to ever come from our enemies.

We weren’t the only ones who had developed new tricks.

But while I and my companions had turned to our memories of other worlds, of advanced technology and physical cleverness, the Zarian hadn’t lost their focus on qi. Yet instead of something completely new they had chosen an old, problematic field, and breathed new life into it. The boom echoing through the air, vibrating in my bones, proclaimed their success.

An open area between the buildings and the beginnings of the defensive emplacements shimmered and twisted as a flood of qi rushed out, and turned on itself. Then everything snapped into place, and ranks upon ranks of Zarian cultivators marched out, every one of them in a higher stage than me.

Officers and guards around me formed up, and Aston started edging me away, but I kept my focus on trying to see as much of what was happening as I could. The Zarian force wasted no time in attacking. Hastily raised buildings blew apart and crashed down, and a defensive position anchoring wards and abutting large guns followed a moment later. A squad of Dominion elites stepped through the flames they’d just created, and one of the Smite constructs crumpled in on itself.

They’d managed to surprise us, and now, the fight was on.

Chapter 137 (Draft)

“You’re growing up way too quickly,” I commented.

Elia, Lei and Yarani, who were talking further down, threw glances at me but ignored me. Since I’d spoken in English, they couldn’t understand me anyway. Al, on the other hand, just grinned up at me and straightened up further.

“I’d say I’m not growing nearly quickly enough.”

His voice had started to break, I noticed. The kid I’d first met coming back from my soul journey really wasn’t that child anymore, even in appearance. He’d had a growth spurt recently, and his face had hollowed out a little. Well, he was fourteen biologically, and probably about nineteen by his memories. The cheeky grin and the sparkle in his blue eyes had changed remarkably little, at least.

Al got back to the katas he’d been doing, and I bit down on the urge to tell him the deck of an airship wasn’t the best place for it. He wasn’t a novice anymore, and actually controlled his movements tightly in response to the cramped room. He moved with fluid grace, his weapons whirling around him and switching seamlessly. Displaying more talent than I’d ever shown for fighting, if I was honest.

By the time the airship slowed down and started losing altitude, he was covered in sweat, but still moving smoothly.

I threw a towel at him. “Get yourself cleaned up. I’ll conjure some water to dunk you in if needed. Can’t have you make me look bad.”

“Screw you,” he retorted, but rubbed his face with the towel. “I’ll go get washed up in the cabin.”

“And watch your language,” I threw after him. “I can freeze that water, too.”

Al disappeared into the airship’s cabin and I turned around, joining the others as we descended above the town. It had been a sleepy provincial settlement, at least before the war. Now, newly raised fortifications and buildings of smooth stone raised by earth cultivators sprawled along one side of it, only leaving gaps for air fields. Our airship set down one the largest one, which was set up in a central location.

When we disembarked, Al rushing out of the cabin in new robes just in time, the bustle of the military base around us continued. But I barely noticed it, since I was focused on one man waiting by its side. When I jumped down from the railing, he hurried forward, a smile on his face.

“Inaris,” Kajare called. “It’s been too long.”

I grinned and caught him in a hug. “Not as long as last time, but yes, it certainly has. Good to see you again.”

I let him go so he could greet the others and looked around. A few officers were waiting for us, but no one I recognized. Focusing on my senses, I recognized both Kariva and Kiyanu, along with some vaguely familiar presences, in two of the nearby buildings. It didn’t surprise me that we were led to the latter first. Elia peeled off on the way there and Lei vanished once we entered the building, but I wouldn’t have expected anything else.

Kiyanu was in a meeting with several of the generals, but when we entered, he dismissed them and greeted me with a smile. I nodded at the retreating officers and returned the regent’s greeting. He wore a slightly more elaborate robe today, in blue with white highlights, but he’d let his beard grow out a little.

“It’s good to see you again,” he said, sweeping his gaze over the others. “All of you.”

The rest of them bowed, but I simply nodded. I was never quite sure how much respect I was supposed to show or expect from him, especially in formal situations, which this luckily wasn’t. “Likewise,” I replied. “It seems like things are going well here.”

“No major problems have shown up yet,” he said with a wry twist of his lips.

We spent the next few minutes generally catching up on everyone’s situation. I’d read reports on the campaign, so little of what he said was actually news to me, but I paid attention to what he chose to talk about.

After a bit, Al cleared his throat. “I was going to catch some of the guard officers who arranged a training exercise, if that’s alright?”

After a glance at Kiyanu, I nodded. “Sure.”

“I’ll come along, if you don’t mind,” Kajare said. “That should be interesting.”

“Me too,” Yarani spoke up.

I watched them go, then turned back to Kiyanu, who shook his head. “At least they showed up,” he said. “I don’t envy your position, dealing with three partners, to be honest.”

I shrugged, glancing at Tenira for a moment. “It’s not that hard, they’re all really great and understanding.”

He nodded. “I was hoping Lady Elia would be here, though, if we’re to discuss the events in Adzur.”

I took note of him using that respectful title. Maybe because as an eighth-stager, he thought long-term, and expected spirit-children to grow powerful in time.

“She’s not the type for meetings,” I said. “Too much sitting still and taking in information.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Like young Akilei? He seems quite disinterested in such things, too.”

“Not really, Lei’s just indifferent,” I shrugged. “If I wasn’t the Imperial Princess, I’d probably act much the same, just focusing on the lab. Alas.”

Actually, with the way Elia seemed to have trouble paying attention to anything for long and was always wanting to move around, I suspected she had ADHD. She had a perfect memory, which clearly helped her deal with it. Anyway, anyone underestimating her intellect or acumen because of that would be in for a rude surprise. Lei just couldn’t be bothered, most of the time.

Kiyanu smiled crookedly. “Lucky for all of us you don’t.” He walked over to one of the chairs, gesturing us to the others. I took the one beside him.

Standing beside him for a moment, I was a little surprised to realize that I was actually slightly taller than him. I’d never thought of Kiyanu as short. He had too much presence. Of course, he was one of the few Imperials in the late part of the eighth stage. In a way, ruling the Empire had actually gotten easier with him front and center instead of Mother, at least when it came to dealing with them.

“Everything is ready for us to finally dislodge the Zarian from Blue Valley City militarily, but we should discuss the internal situation,” he said.

I nodded. “There was something concerning that, actually.” I handed him a folder, looking briefly at Tenira as I did. She’d come through and collected enough information to help me turn this into a workable proposal.

“This is about the temples, as you mentioned?” Kiyanu leafed through the sheets of paper. “We’ll need to discuss with with several other people to work out what’s feasible, but in principle I’m inclined to go along with it.”

I leaned back into my chair. “Then you wanted to talk about other issues?”

He nodded, leaning back in his chair. “Before we get into the details of this campaign, we need to sort out the aftermath of the Ten Lords’ Strife.”

I raised an eyebrow, quizzically.

“That’s what they’ve taken to calling our brief civil war,” Tenira explained. “The Strife of Ten Lords and Two Kings, or alternatively Ten Lords’ Strife for short. Doesn’t seem to matter that the numbers don’t match up if you lump the ‘kings’ with the ‘lords’, but no one agrees on who the ten total are, anyway.”

I rolled my eyes. “And the kings are Wei and Zun, I suppose?” I glanced at Kiyanu. “Well, they have been fighting each other at the end here. It’s truly finished, then.”

“Yes. The fighting concluded weeks ago,” he confirmed. “Zun Chao is in our hands. The Wei rooted out the last of the Zun and other traitor clans’ fighters, losing a good chunk of their strength in the process. But even after everything, they’re still one of the strongest clans in the Empire’s center.”

“They’re like the proverbial cockroaches, always coming back in numbers,” I sighed. They’d lost a lot of territory after the last civil war and still been one of the pillars of this one.

Tenira snorted. “Considering your relation, maybe you want to amend that metaphor?”

“Yes, I don’t think there are fire-using cockroaches even in this world.” I grinned at her.

“Just please don’t have a child with one of them,” Kiyanu said, a slight smirk on his face. “But in all seriousness, we need to decide what to do with both them and the other clans involved in the rebellion.”

“I take it executing Wei Yong and Wei Jun is off the table now?” I asked, with a bit of relief.

“Yes,” Kiyanu said. “That would not be a good idea. Not after they fought hard for us, not considering your blood relation.”

“Wei Min did send us regular reports on the internal happenings in the Wei and has done a good job of keeping the clan together, pointed at the Zun and cooperating,” Tenira said.

“His cultivation is still relatively weak, but he is the best candidate for taking over the clan,” Kiyanu said.

I smiled. “Alright. I’ll make some time to give him a few tips and hopefully help him break through to the next stage. We can confirm him in his role officially at the end of this campaign, unless you want to do it sooner?”

He shook his head. “That’s for the best. I would like to hold Zun Chao’s execution before that, though. Do you want to preside over his trial?”

I considered it for a moment, then shook my head. “No. You can do it, but do give him a proper and fair trial.” We all knew he’d be found guilty of high treason, his actions were clear, and I would have been very surprised if Kiyanu wanted to let him live. I wasn’t about to object, but I still wanted proper justice.

Kiyanu nodded. “We’ve drafted plans for what territory we should take from the Wei and other clans as sanctions. We’ll need to confirm that and how it will be distributed.”

He slid a few sheets of paper to me, maps and listings. I frowned and read through them. it looked like some of the clans, including Zun, would be pretty much destroyed and their properties parceled up, while others were heavily sanctioned but left alive. They’d lose territory, wealth and valuable items.

“Their lands will go to local settlements and to clans that fought steadfastly for us,” Tenira said. “The biggest chunk to clan Aiki. I’d also suggest lands for new universities.”

The Aiki were essentially a branch clan of the Leri and had lost a number of their members to fighting the coup, so that made sense. I saw her suggestion marked on the papers and nodded.

“Definitely,” I said. “Besides that, I would reserve some lands for common-born soldiers who prove themselves in the war against the Zarian. They could be allowed to found new clans, or at least be given the properties.”

Kiyanu smiled. “A good thought. We should certainly work that into our plans.”

The way he looked, he might have had the same thought himself. “I’ll let you and Gen handle those,” I said. “I don’t know enough to decide the details.”

“Of course. The only other point of interest is clan Tener.”

I ran a hand through my hair, glancing at the paper again, before I turned in my chair. “Aston?”

He opened the door and stepped in. “My lady?” His eyes flickered to Kiyanu briefly.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take over your clan?”

He shook his head. “No, my lady. My niece is more than competent, and a much better pick than me.”

I shrugged. “Alright, if you’re sure.”

He stepped out of the room again, and I caught Tenira hiding a smile. “They won’t let him get off that easily.”

“So long as they pay their taxes and provide fighters, they can handle their own matters, I don’t care,” Kiyanu said. “If you want to reward your guard, you could approve a marriage with a good prospect from one of the strong loyal families like Aiki, or even your own clan. That would give him status but bind him less tightly to his clan.”

I blinked and shook my head. “If one of my great aunts or cousins wants that, I wouldn’t mind, but let’s not jump into the ocean without checking the tide.” That was a saying from the clan, as far as I knew. I found it funny because I never needed to check the tide.

“We have a proverb like that where I’m from,” Kiyanu mentioned, his tone a little wistful.

“The Empire’s province in the Forest Continent?” I asked.

He nodded and shrugged. “It wasn’t when I was born — I suppose I’m actually from outside the Empire — but my home was incorporated when I was a teenager and I’d already been living in the largest Imperial city for a decade, by then.” He shook his head. “It was a long time ago, anyway.”

“The Forest Continent has barely been touched by the fighting, hasn’t it?” Tenira asked.

“That’s right,” Kiyanu said. “Although I doubt it will stay that way for long. Especially if our current campaign is a success. The introduction of our new auxiliaries will shift the war, anyway, and I hesitate to try to predict all of the changes it will bring.”

“Many of them won’t be visible until later,” I agreed. “But that’s life. Progress marches on.”

And even on Aran, war and society had already changed long before I came along. A bit like in the middle ages on Earth, actually. It used to be carried by noble families, who could afford the training and resources to raise knights. Cultivation aids instead of heavy cavalry, here, but the same principle. But those had faded in favor of more professional armies, because of social and technological changes. We were only continuing the trend.

“We’re about ready to begin the siege of Blue Valley City, anyway,” Kiyanu said. “I’ll continue to accompany our forces personally.”

“And you’re telling me this because you’ll keep an eye on me and stop me from doing something stupid and rushing into danger,” I sighed.

Kiyanu smiled serenely.

“We’ll have more than enough technology to keep her happy,” Tenira told him, smirking at me.

I rolled my eyes. At least she was right.

Chapter 136 (Draft)

Seeing the Sky Continent again felt good, even if it also seemed like the appearance of expectations and responsibility to me. I watched the green fields unfolding in front of us, after the scraggly cliffs, and curled my fingers around my sleeves. Sometimes, it hit me like a sudden impact. All of this continent starting to spread out below us was mine in an intangible but real way. Thousands of towns and cities, millions of people. It was enough to choke anyone, and yet looking at the continent I couldn’t help but think of how much better it could be, one day.

We’d left Adzur by ship, then boarded an airship in a port city in an Imperial province on the southern coast. Crossing the ocean had been mercifully quick and carefree this time, with Aston gently nudging away the only storm that threatened to get close to us before it could really pick up steam. High-stage air cultivators could be pretty impressive, especially with help. I knew there was still more travel in my future, but I was really starting to miss just living in the Imperial palace.

Our first stop was in a medium-sized city in the northeast, going by the unfortunate name of Blackdown City. We set down at an airfield a little outside the city proper, though I stayed on deck and watched as servants, guards and others bustled about.

“Glad to be rid of the extra passengers?” Yarani asked, stepping up beside me.

I turned my gaze from the freed slaves who were assembling below. We’d dropped some off on our transit stop, but most of them were coming along to the Sky Continent. “Not really,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t mind their presence.”

“You never even talked to any of them except the one that sought you out, and you’ve barely even looked at them,” Yarani said, folding her arms.

I hesitated, then decided trying to argue that would be pointless. “And? Doesn’t mean I have anything against them.”

“Maybe not,” she admitted, “I just don’t understand why you avoid them.”

I suppressed a sigh and watched them again, frowning. After a moment, I reluctantly spoke. “I don’t really know, it just seemed better that way. In Adzur, I still legally owned them like they were pieces of furniture I could break if I wanted to. I thought they’d be more at ease if they didn’t see me.”

Yarani nodded, her expression echoing the distaste in my voice. “And after they got their freedom?” she prompted.

I sighed. “I guess I was just more comfortable keeping the matter abstract, to me. I mean, what if I had gone to them? Gone to bask in their adoration?” I pulled a face. “I didn’t do this just so I could feel good about myself. Making a point of how benevolent I was would have kind of cheapened it to my own mind.” I didn’t need that kind of hollow emotional boost, not that it would do much for me.

Yarani watched me for a moment with a complicated expression. She gave a little sigh and smiled softly at me. “It’s perfectly alright to acknowledge that you did something nice that helped people, Inaris.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “There’s no need to make that sort of face, Yarani. I really don’tcare, I’m not just saying that.”

She shrugged and leaned against the railing, then pointed out one of the people below. “That seventeen-year-old boy was sold into slavery at age ten, and ended up in a very dubious leisure establishment until he was sold to the company a few years later. He almost cried when he got the paperwork, and he’s shown interest in joining the Imperial army or other enforcement institutions.”

The wooden railing creaked loudly as my fingers dug into it at her first words, and I forced myself to relax my fists and calmed my spurt of anger. “Freaking hells. What do you want from me here, Yarani?”

She backed off, raising a hand. “Nothing. It’s alright. I’ll go make sure everything’s going alright.”

I shook my head and headed back into the cabin.

She’d reminded me to make sure they got the help they needed for their mental health, at least. For better or worse, I’d made them my responsibility, so I should take care of that.

We were soon in the air again and continued our journey. A few hours later, we reached lake He. I felt my spirits lift as soon as the airship slowed down. I’d finally get to see my siblings again, and maybe even others I’d missed.

From the air, I could see the landscape spread out below us, the lake bordering the meadows and fields. This far north, there was only a light dusting of snow on the crowns of a few trees and the lake hadn’t frozen over. The estate was in a secluded corner, far from the nearest town, but it had a wall around sprawling grounds ringing the central palace. It looked vaguely familiar, especially as we lost altitude and came in for the landing.

We’d called ahead and the airship wasn’t exactly hard to miss, so we were expected. Still, they’d at least halfway followed my wish to avoid making a large fuss. Which meant there were only a few dozen kneeling people waiting for me, not every servant and courtier in the estate.

I went through the greetings mostly on autopilot, counting the seconds until I got to hug my little sister. When we finally did, with my guards around us keeping the rest of the people away and blocking their sight — I really needed to look into giving Aston a raise, he earned it — she clung to me like she never wanted to let me go. I was careful of my supernatural strength, but embraced her just as fervently.

“I missed you, Little An,” I said. “How have you been?”

“Fine,” she mumbled into my robe. “I’m glad you’re back, Big Sister.”

When we’d finished our greetings and the other people were dispersing, a familiar presence captured my attention, coming out of the main house. I sped up and felt a large smile settling into place as I drew closer to Tenira.

“Inaris,” she grinned, catching me in her arms as I came to a stop. “Welcome back.”

I kissed her, letting the other people around us fade from my awareness. It was a long kiss, passionate, but the romantic kind instead of sensual, like it always was with her. When we finally let go, I took a step back and looked around while Tenira greeted the others, exchanging hugs with Lei and Yarani.

“Al is coming tomorrow,” she finally told me, probably noticing my gaze. “Kajare might come too, or we’ll meet him at the staging point, depending on how things work out for him.”

I nodded and smiled. As a group, we made our way into the summer palace and settled into a sitting room where servants had arranged refreshments. I noticed a game table in the corner, and wasn’t surprised when Xiaodan dragged me there to a chessboard a few minutes later. While Lei and Tenira caught up and Elia poked through the Estate, we played and talked, mostly about what she’d been doing. An had gotten better, and I had to work to beat her. I gave her a proud smile and ruffled her hair, pretending not to know that her attempts to brush me off were just a pretense.

I wished I could just stay here for a few weeks, have a good time with my siblings and my partners and friends, but I knew it was not to be. Events were being set in motion, and the war didn’t rest, even if the fronts had been quiet recently. I wasn’t the only one aware of that, of course, and so no one seemed surprised when we ended up in a conference room decked out with maps and correspondence after a while. Kei Yating took Xiaodan outside, but I didn’t spare him more than a brief smile and a nod before I focused on the room and the others.

“What happened in Adzur?” Tenira asked.

I took a seat and leaned back in my chair, starting to recount the events of our trip with occasional help from Lei and Elia. Yarani seemed content to let us talk. I didn’t say much about my meeting with my father, since I wanted to talk to her more in depth about that in private later, but focused on the political parts.

“And what did you guys do?” I finally asked.

Yarani had a thoughtful frown on her face, but answered my question easily. “About what you would expect. I developed our projects further. Field testing for Smite and Radiant is finished, and we’ve made some progress with Warstar, but none of the other projects had a major breakthrough or are got ready for further steps during this time. We should probably go over our progress more in depth later.”

I nodded. I knew I’d left our technological efforts in good hands with her, but it would probably get too technical for Elia and Yarani quickly if we dived into the details now.

“Things also settled down on the Earth Continent, in case you haven’t heard,” she continued. “Kajare settled some matters and established a framework for coordination and a network of liasons. We also got confirmation that their warships are mobilizing. Most of the Terbekteri navy could join the fight within a few months, although I don’t know how many ships they’ll actually send here.”

“They’ll come in useful even if the Terbekteri act on their own,” Yarani put in, smiling slightly. “They could for example raid the Dominion’s more outlying colonies while we pressure them here at home.”

“That’s more or less the plan,” I confirmed. “Terki has been a little cagey, but it definitely looks like the Kingdom is entering the war more seriously now.”

“And just in time,” Tenira said. “This won’t be easy going, even with their support. And we can’t afford to keep all our attention on the Sky and Storm Continents, anyway.”

I nodded. “I know. Are you all comfortable with this, so far? I’m expecting you to come with, or at least contribute in other ways, but I don’t want to presume. If you have concerns, now’s the time to raise them, so we can talk about it before the inevitable meetings and war councils.”

I looked at the others, but it didn’t seem like any of them had something to add. Lei shrugged, Elia seemed more interested in the maps and only gave an absent nod, Yarani looked like she couldn’t wait for things to start and Tenira was simply watching me with a small smile. It looked like they were all on board. Good.

I took a large map showing the Sky and Storm Continents and spread it over the table. Someone had traced the current front and large troop concentrations with a marker, but it was focused on the geography, rather than a political map, and I paid attention to it as my gaze trailed down the map. Nothing there was new, but I found myself considering what I’d learned about the continent.

I tended to think about it in terms of what I knew from Earth in my mind. The Sky Continent’s climate was similar to Central Europe in the southern part, and more like the Mediterranean in the north. The Yellow Graves had a jungle, but it wasn’t tropical, more like the forests that used to cover large parts of Central Europe before the middle ages. At least it would be without the qi. For the Storm Continent, the northern, or at the least coastal, part was very similar to its counterpart in the Sky Continent’s south. But the further you went, the colder it got. Eventually, the south of the Storm Continent was more similar to Siberia. Of course, the details depended on where you were compared to the sea, mountains and rivers, but this was correct in general. Maybe it’s no wonder why the Zarian have kept pushing north.

Obviously, the northern part of the Dominion was its breadbasket and also population center. That meant it would be over if you reached the Whitecaps and old core cities. Everything further south would either fall in line or get strangled.

“But first we need to get there,” I muttered to myself.

“Considering the campaign, or something deeper?” Tenira asked.

I looked up, realizing they were looking at me, so I outlined what I was thinking. “It does mean we have the most prosperous, and most heavily defended, part to deal with,” I concluded.

They exchanged glances, and no one spoke at first. Tenira looked at the map with a faint frown, Elia let out a little sigh, and Lei fiddled with something.

“What?” I asked. “Something the matter?”

“Not at all, Nari,” Yarani said, giving me smile probably meant to be reassuring. “We just weren’t sure of the scope of your intentions.”

“You just made it clear you actually intend to conquer the Zarian,” Tenira elaborated. “Don’t you? You don’t just want to push them back, maybe gain a foothold south, and settle things, I suppose? Some might expect that.”

I frowned and scratched my cheek. “Right. No, I want to finish things. Even if we didn’t have Jideia to worry about — and he’s definitely a problem — I don’t see such a situation being very stable. If we can gain the initiative, build and consolidate our advantage, I think it’s best to keep pushing now. Not when they’ve had time to adapt and build new defenses.”

“Makes sense,” Lei said, glancing up for a moment.

“Besides, a relatively swift win would help our position much more when it comes to other nations,” I said. “We’re about to show strength, and that means being a threat. Better to show enough of it, not give any potential enemies and vultures pause.”

“You’re right,” Tenira said. She looked concerned.

“Things are never going to go back to the way the used to be, are they?” Elia asked, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Probably not,” I admitted.

There was a moment of silence. As if by an unspoken agreement, the conversation then shifted to lighter topics. We talked about the past weeks in more detail. But no one seemed inclined to talk much, the conversation quickly faltered again, getting growing periods of silence. Finally, Elia stood up, and Lei pushed out his chair after her.

“Would you guys mind going ahead?” I asked, looking at Tenira and tilting my head to indicate I wanted to talk to her.

“Back only a few hours and we’re already being set aside,” Elia teased me, shaking her head with exaggerated sadness. “Yarani, you be strong now.”

“Glad to know you have such a high opinion of me, Elia,” Yarani retorted, rolling her eyes. Then she looked at me. “We get it, you have things to discuss with your right hand. Come on.”

They left, and I turned back to Tenira. I guess you could consider her my right hand, actually. Huh.

She watched me with a small smile that said she guessed what I was thinking. “I take it this is indeed business, Inaris?” she asked.

I took out a few sheets of paper and pushed them towards her. “I wanted to get your opinion on that.”

She took them and started reading. After a few moments, she glanced up, frowning again. “Inaris, this is … different.”

“I know,” I said.

“You’ll need to discuss this with Kiyanu.”

“I will, of course.” I sighed. “But I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I’m not proposing burning down any temples. Well, not here, anyway.” I waved that away. “Just some minor, basically legal moves to increase the pressure on the Storm and put a check on his worship in the Empire. Taxes, properties, PR. This is the best time for it, Tenira. With my connection to the Moon and his worship and popularity surging, we’re well positioned for it. Especially if we emphasize how the Zarian worship the Storm and hint at the deeper conflict causing this war.”

Tenira nodded slowly. “I see what you mean. I’ll consult with a few others and get back to you with comments on the practical details.”

“You’re not going to warn me against this course of action?” I asked, feeling a bit of my tension relax.

She smiled. “No. I’m glad you’re being more proactive and defending your interests, love.”

I returned her smile, then leaned over to kiss her.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time, and Tenira got up to get to work. I watched her walk out of the room and stretched before standing up myself. It was good to have her back.

Chapter 135 (Draft)

The tense silence was broken by the ringing of the communications device, and it seemed like everyone let out a collective breath. It was an affectation, since this wasn’t actually a telephone, just a qi communication talisman, but I’d added the sound effect on a whim.

We were gathered in another sitting room, since the last one still bore the marks of the explosion, but it had come to resemble it quickly, complete with stacks of papers strewn around. Aston leaned against the wall close to me and Yarani was sitting beside and had been talking with Elia, who kept exchanging glances with Lei.

I picked up. “Yes, Director?”

“Your Highness,” the voice of Director Ariand’le of the Alchemical Consortium answered. “The motion to restrict trade with the Empire was taken to the Chamber, but not carried, with a majority voting against.”

“I see. Thank you, Director Ariand’le.” I hung up and smiled, even as I saw the others start to smile as well.

It was no surprise to anyone that the Consortium had enough pull to get this result quickly, even thought the Chamber, the Adzurian parliament elected by property owning citizens, was supposed to hold closed sessions. She’d even influenced the results, as had high priest Moongrace and their allies.

“That’s it, then,” I said. “We’re done here. Time to head back home.”

Lei and Yarani frowned at this. They weren’t happy at the lackluster results of our diplomatic visit. While we’d averted the danger of the embargo pushed by the Zarian, we didn’t have much to show that we’d achieved for ourselves. I shared their sentiment, even if I tried not to let it show. But I had to weigh the time we’d have to spend here chasing other achievements against other considerations.

“We might even get back in time for the offensive in the south,” Aston said.

I gave him a quick smile. “We’ll miss its start, they might have even begun already. As intended. But we’ll probably be there for its finale, which is what we wanted.”

“Retaking Blue Valley City,” Yarani murmured, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Yep.” I stood and stretched. “We still need to prepare a few things.”

In the end, it took until the end of the day for everything to be ready. I had a brief conversation with the Premier over another qi talisman, but didn’t meet with anyone else. We wanted our departure to be quiet. I’d talk to the sea dragons on the way, once we were on the ship and the open ocean, and ask them to stop. They would … probably.

A surprising number of the slaves from the Consortium wanted to stay in Adzur. I’d offered all of them to take them with me to the Empire and get them settled there, but I supposed moving to another country was not an easy decision. At least Adli had decided to come with minimal prompting and the prospect of employment in the Empire’s intelligence community. If they’d wanted to go their own way, I wasn’t sure if I should or would have brought them along, anyway. They were a valuable asset and a potential liability, but I still didn’t like the thought of essentially kidnapping someone. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have to make that decision.

Some of the members of my diplomatic retinue — no surprise there — and a few agents Kariva had placed in the city before had wrung every bit of information they could out of the former slave, and then hatched a plan for stomping on the ZCA presence in the City-State. I was only aware of the general outline, but I’d helped them find a few safehouses and pointed out a few angles. Some of that hadn’t even been on purpose. At least not entirely. I had focused on my connection to Rijoko and tried to let my instincts guide me the whole time. But a few offhand comments and questions had apparently been enough to stop the agents stumbling into a problem, pointed them in the direction of a Zarian agent we hadn’t uncovered before, and got them to scrap and remake a plan that would have probably failed otherwise.

Sometimes, my bloodline was just weird. Although Rijoko had probably taken a bit of a hand in this, I couldn’t be sure. For all I knew, just talking about the plan and asking questions would have done the same thing anyway.

But my father is very helpful towards me. He definitely is.I focused on the thought for a moment, trying to believe it. It left me feeling vaguely ill-at-ease. My teachers back on Earth would have chased me out of the classroom, I couldn’t help but think. Well, not really, but I still strove to be rational and trying to manipulate my own beliefs went against the grain for me. That it would actually workjust kind of made it worse, in some sense.

I shook my head and focused on my surroundings. We were finally leaving Adzur behind, the ship had just pulled out of the harbor. I leaned against the railing and watched the flags of the nearby ships flap in the wind. It had picked up, and judging by the dark clouds gathering on the horizon a storm was on its way. But the ship still made good time away from the island.

“I can’t wait to get back home,” Yarani said, flicking her hand and creating a qi shield against the beginning drizzle. “We’ve been away for too long.”

“Yes, definitely.” I sighed and shook the hair out of my eyes. “I haven’t seen my siblings in ages. I kind of feel like I’m a crap sister.”

Yarani laid a hand on my arm. I shifted and took it with my own. “We’re visiting them now?” she asked.

I nodded. “I sent word a while ago, sending An to the Empress’ summer palace by Lake He. Kei Yating would have come along, of course, and I imagine enough people for a miniature court. But it’s still far more quiet and peaceful than the Imperial Palace, and she should get to relax and play without being bothered. Al is spending some time there, as well.”

The crown had dozens of these scattered around the continent, but I knew I’d spent time at that one myself, growing up. I looked into the distance, seeing a glimpse of deep blue water and vibrant meadows. It was only a vague recollection, but I still smiled.

“That’s probably best for everyone,” Yarani said. “So we’ll stop by there on the way?”

“Yeah. I wish I could retreat to some country home and cultivate in peace for a while, honestly, but we have too much to do.” I shrugged. “At least we’ll see Tenira and Kajare again, and the rest.”

We stood in silence for a bit, watching as the islands of the Chain shrunk behind the ship. I got lost in my thoughts deeply enough that I flinched when a change in the qi around us broke me out of my ruminations. I glanced at the other side of the ship, even though I couldn’t see what was happening from here through the cabin. But I could sense that it was Elia. She’d said that she wanted to break through to the fourth stage soon. It looked like she wasn’t wasting any time, although it would still take her a few hours, at least. I shivered and pulled my robe tighter around me, the hairs on my arms standing up from sensing what might be the attention of the Sun.

“I sometimes forget how young she is,” Yarani commented.

I snorted. Elia had only turned twenty-one a few weeks ago, so she was still a year older than me, at least physically. She was also advancing quickly. Reaching the fourth stage at barely twenty-one was pretty impressive, if you weren’t a cheat existence like me. Even Tenira had only done it a little earlier because of the boost from her soul journey.

The cabin door opened and Lei stumbled out, still looking back. He shook his head and ambled forward in our direction.

“Hey, Lei,” I called. “Do you have a minute?”

He looked towards me, looked like he wanted to sigh and came closer. “Sure.”

Yarani gave my hand a squeeze, then discretely withdrew to the lower deck to leave the two of us alone. Lei leaned against the railing and raised an eyebrow at me.

I gave him my best serious look. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for her?”

He winced and ran a hand through his hair. “Uh, well, I’m not really that much older, I mean, if you consider my mental age with my soul journey, I’m only really twenty-three, not twenty-five, so it’s only a few years …”

I grinned. “Relax. Even if it wasn’t for that, I trust Elia to handle herself. A few more years won’t help you with her.”

Lei leaned back and gave me an annoyed look. “Fine. Then what do you want, Nari?”

“I just wanted to talk.” I shrugged and smiled at him.

He looked at me for a moment longer, his eyebrows drawn down, until he twitched a little and lowered his gaze, staring at the other railing of the ship. “I’m actually serious about this, Inaris. Her. It’s not just some game. I might not have much experience with relationships, but I want to try my best. And I think she feels the same way. I don’t know if it will lead anywhere. Though to be honest, I hope it will. I know it’s probably not …” he trailed off, shrugging.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” I said, placing a hand on his arm. “I’m happy for the two of you, really.”

He looked back up at me and his expression brightened. “Thanks, Nari.”

I shrugged and leaned back against the railing. For a while, we were both silent, watching the waves and the ship. I could tell that Lei was still a little tense, and I didn’t really know what to say, how to broach what I wanted to talk about.

Finally, he spoke up. “I’m sorry about the thing with the Consortium. Even if it turned out well, I know I shouldn’t have done that. I let myself get carried away.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate you saying that, and I accept your apology.”

He smiled, clearly relieved. It made me wonder if he’d expected me to carry a grudge. That didn’t seem to fit, though.

“I’m sorry if this is a stupid question,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “But, why do you do this? Follow me, I guess. I know we’re friends, I’m just wondering if there’s more to it.”

Lei tilted his head, looking at me thoughtfully. “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just realized I don’t understand. I mean, I’m not sure what you want.”

He nodded. “Well, I don’t know what you expect, but there’s nothing really to it. I mostly just do what I want. What I like. I understand my situation and that you’re in charge, that doesn’t bother me, but I don’t really care.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You mean, about the political situation, the war, or the Empire?”

Lei shrugged. “Yes, all of that, really. I don’t feel some special need to protect or help the Empire. Let me put it like this: I wouldn’t really care about the Empire, except it would be hard to get funding for my experiments without it and it’s where my friends are. And I have no intention of getting anywhere near the throne, so you don’t need to worry about me becoming a rival or anything.”

I frowned, looking at him for a moment. Lei was probably best positioned for someone within the clan to actually challenge me. He was one of the most closely related, descended from my grandmother’s brother and the nephew who’d been supposed to be her heir, and a talented scion of the clan. It had never really occurred to me to worry about him, though.

Looking at him now, the casual indifference he portrayed, I couldn’t help but think of Kariva. He hadn’t been quite as young as her when he’d died on his soul journey, sixteen, coming back to the life of an eighteen-year-old. Although he remembered even less of this life, almost as little as me. I felt like I could see some scars in him now, brought to my attention by the conversation, although that might just be an overdramatic reaction to what was simply his personality.

“You still care about us, though?” I said.

“Of course.” Lei met my eyes squarely. “Tenira and you are the most important people in my life. I love you both. Platonically. Don’t get any ideas.”

I grinned. “Aww. I’m touched, Lei. And I feel the same.” I shrugged. “Then that’s all I need to know, I don’t care about the rest.”

He nodded, leaning back. “Then if that’s all you wanted to talk about, I feel like I need to burn something. I’ll go see if Yarani’s up for a spar.”

“You do that.”

I watched him walk away, thinking about the conversation, then shook my head. It hadn’t escaped my attention that Lei hadn’t asked me what Iwanted. Probably because he really didn’t care.

A touch on my mind wrested me out of those thoughts. I breathed out and closed my eyes, focusing on my mental senses and tracing the contact back.

‘You’re done in Adzur.’

‘Yes, I am, Flame-In-Dark-Waters,’I answered. ‘Things turned out alright, if not quite the way I wanted.’

‘That’s good to hear,’he said. ‘Zarian have been sniffing around these waters, but we’ll make sure nothing bothers you on your journey back. Just so you know, we’re also founding new nesting-places on the reefs you’ve cleared for us. Things are going well.’

‘That’s good to hear.’I smiled, transporting the sensation through the telepathic link. ‘Regarding Adzur, would you stop bothering them? Please.’

Flame-In-Dark-Waters sent the sensation of moving his tentacles to make a swirling gust of water, what I’d learned was his version of a shrug. ‘I’ll tell them all we’re no longer hostile and that there’s no reason to continue. A few might keep going anyway.’

‘Can you stop them?’ I asked. ‘I don’t want this to make trouble for either of us.’

‘I’ll make sure they know that I’ll be displeased by any further hostilities,’he answered, with the sense of a faint sigh. ‘That should do it.’

‘Thanks, Flame-In-Dark-Waters. I don’t deserve you guys.’

‘Don’t forget that,’he replied, sending a ripple of water and the sensation of amusement. ‘Good luck back home, Inaris.’

I smiled to myself as I felt his mind withdraw, knowing he was diving back deep into the ocean. Contacting the sea dragons might have been one of the best decisions Mother had made.

If only everyone was so reasonable and easy to deal with as the sea monsters.