*** Jia
I asked Kai for the general location of where he was staying and luckily he was able to tell me the name of an inn in a part of the city I was a little familiar with. I walked with Kai and asked him questions about his family to find out more about him.
“So, Kai. What’s your family like?” I asked him. He thought for a moment before speaking.
“They’re nice I guess. I don’t like my big sister, she’s mean and makes me brush my teeth.” He told me. I smiled.
“What’s your family’s name?” I asked him. He looked uncomfortable and didn’t answer. We walked for a little bit in silence but the silence was broken by a borborygmus from Kai’s stomach.
I chuckled and brought him over to a nearby food stall where I urged him to order whatever he liked. After he had his fill, he was much more chipper and I enjoyed the remainder of the walk with him.
We walked up to the Golden Chariot inn together where an elderly man was currently pacing in front of the inn. When he caught sight of us, Kai ran up to him crying. The elderly man, for his part, was just as tearful at the reappearance of Kai.
“Oh Kai, thank the gods you’re alright.” The elderly man said. He looked up to me and remembered his decorum then.
“Thank you young miss for returning Kai to me. I don’t know how I could ever thank you.” He told me. I waved his placations away.
“It’s no trouble, I have brought the people who had taken Kai to justice. I’m just happy to see him reunited with his family.” I told him. He looked a little uncomfortable but spoke up.
“Ah, I’m not Kai’s family. My name is steward Xiang. Kai is my charge, but we are unrelated. And I’m sure you would like some kind of reward for your help in returning Kai to me. Can I offer you anything?” He said. I shook my head at him.
“That would be unnecessary. Like I said, I’m just glad Kai has been reunited with you.” I said, smiling.
“I have somewhere to be, so I will be off now. Stay safe now, Kai.” I told the pair. Kai broke off from steward Xiang’s embrace and ran over to me, hugging me tightly at my waist.
“Thank you miss Jia.” he said, smiling up at me. I smiled back down at him and bent down to hug him back.
“You’re welcome, Kai.” I told him. With a few more goodbyes between the three of us I made my way back to Astra and Mordecai, stopping by a local guard station to send a quick note to my father about Mordecai.
*** Astra
Jia took a while to come back, but when she did she had a bit of a pep in her step. We talked about the day’s events and she went into more detail about her fight in the sewers as we helped Mordecai hand out supplies to the needy. By the time we needed to go home, we were both pretty tired.
We bade Mordecai goodbye and walked back to the city lord’s mansion before it got too dark. Tomorrow we would be starting our next mission so we needed to get to sleep early. We got back to the city lord’s mansion and went immediately to the baths. We had eaten while we worked with Mordecai so we weren’t hungry yet.
After our baths we both went to our rooms and went to sleep, Shimmer cuddled in my arms.
I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and got out of bed to get ready for the day. I donned my black and gold robes and joined Jia and her father for breakfast.
“I heard you two had quite the adventure yesterday.” Jia’s father said. We nodded and both recounted what had happened to us. By the end of the story Jia’s father was beaming at both of us.
“I’m glad to see you both are such upstanding members of our society. Jia, thank you for saving that young boy. I think I have an idea of who he may be, but I’ll leave it at that for now. It’s troublesome that you weren’t able to discover the church’s base of operations but I agree it would have been dangerous for you to go there by yourself.
I’ll alert my spies and watchers to begin searching through the sewers for clues to the headquarters's whereabouts.” He said. He then turned to me.
“As for you Astra, I’m impressed that you were able to set aside your feelings about the church to give this Mordecai a chance. As per Jia’s message from yesterday, I’ll be sending some supplies myself to Mordecai and some helpers to help him in his endeavors. If he is half the man you described him as, I would be remiss if I didn’t help him.” He said. I blushed under his praise and thanked him for his words.
Jia and I left the mansion and headed off to the place mentioned as the meetup point for the escort mission. In a nondescript courtyard within the more affluent part of the city we met a small mercenary group currently surrounding a small carriage. The carriage had two beautiful horses hooked up to it but other than the quality of the animals, the carriage was plain and didn’t draw the eye.
“Hello, we’re two disciples from the Blooming Violet sect. We’ve come to fulfill the escort mission that was requested.” I told the leader of the mercenaries that approached us when we entered the courtyard. The leader was a bulky mountain of a man wearing the fur of a tiger as a cape with the head of the tiger acting as a mask. The rest of his ensemble consisted of a tight fitting pair of shorts and leather straps criss-crossing across his chest.
“My name is Silver Tiger, I’m one of the leaders of the zodiac mercenary group. My five men and I have been hired to assist you in escorting the client to Lu Bian city. I’m glad we will have disciples of the sect to help out. What are your strengths if I may ask? I’m halfway through the body training realm myself.” He told us. We traded a look and I shrugged.
“I’m at the high stage of the foundation establishment realm and my friend here is at the highest stage of the foundation establishment realm.” I told the man. He smiled at us.
“I’m glad the sect sent such powerful cultivators to assist in this escort mission!” He said with exuberance. He laughed heartily and patted me on the back as he spoke. He seemed like a nice guy so I joined in on his laughing and complimented his abilities as someone in the middle of the body training stage. Shimmer for her part growled at him when he got close.
“Shimmer! Behave yourself!” I chided the fox, she slunk back to hide behind Jia’s legs as I apologized for her to Silver Tiger.
“I’m sorry about that, she never growls at anyone.” I told him. For his part, he laughed and waved me off.
“It’s no problem, I’m a scary man so It might just be me.” he said with another hearty laugh.
We tried to spark up a conversation with the remaining mercenaries, but none of them deigned to speak with us except Silver Tiger. They were a prickly bunch of men and women, but I suppose the nerves of the job might be getting to them.
“Who’s our client, can we meet them?” I asked Silver Tiger.
“They’re a secretive client that’s for sure. When we arrived here they were already in the carriage and wouldn’t open the door for us. They spoke to us through the carriage door so I know they’re in there but that’s about all I know.” He told us. We both cocked our heads at the words and were disappointed to hear we wouldn’t be able to meet our clients yet.
As a group, we left the courtyard and moved through the city to the western gate. Jia told me that the closest city to the western continent is Dangsu city, a two week journey by foot from Cheng Lian city. We left the city and traveled through the forest to the west.
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After a few hours of walking, the first set of demon beasts attacked. The mercenaries, Jia, and I all jumped into action and fought off the beasts. They were only a pack of tier two demon beasts so they weren’t dangerous. The problem was we were harried by attacks from demon beasts every few hours while on the road.
Even after we set up camp for the night we were attacked multiple times throughout the night. It was strange behavior from the demon beasts according to Jia. Even Shimmer was acting strangely. She would run off into the woods randomly at times and come back carrying something she had killed, or she would try to dig into the bags of the mercenaries when I wasn’t looking.
After a few days of this, everyone was bedraggled and tired. On the fifth day of traveling toward Dangsu city, Jia was sleeping and I was on watch but I didn’t notice when Shimmer went into the mercenary’s bags and before I could grab her and pull her away she brought out a small bag. When I picked her up, she thrashed in my arms and the bag fell to the ground, opening as it fell.
When it hit the ground, a plume of dust flew out of the bag. Just then Shimmer wriggled out of my grasp and went over to the bag, rolling around in the dust. I woke Jia up and told her about what happened and showed her Shimmer acting so weird. She walked over to the bag and inspected it.
“What the-” She started, but before she could say anything else, we were attacked by another group of demon beasts. A pair of tier two dire wolves jumped at me and I dodged out of the way, bringing out my swords and cutting off their heads. Jia followed suit, taking out the remaining wolves that launched themselves at us with no regard for their own lives.
“What is going on with all of the demon beasts?” I asked out loud to no one.
“I think I know what’s going on.” Jia said. But before she could elaborate, a voice called out to us from the darkness of the mercenaries’s camp.
“Finally figured it out have you?” Silver Tiger asked as he revealed himself from the shadows. He had a grin on his face that made me shiver involuntarily.
Jia and I went on high alert immediately and I sent a command to Shimmer through my qi but she seemed to be enthralled by the dust on the ground.
“Figured out what?” I asked. Looking between Silver Tiger and Jia.
“That powder is called demon calling powder. It has a pungent aroma that demon beasts can’t resist. It’s what’s been drawing the demon beasts towards us this entire time.” She said. I looked back down at Shimmer and the dust. I dismissed her for the first time since calling her out initially and returned to my place next to Jia.
“What’s this about Silver Tiger?” I asked him.
“We’re mercenaries, girl. We work for whoever pays the most. It just turns out that the people that want that brat in the carriage dead pay more than that brat’s family can.” He said. As he spoke the remaining mercenaries made themselves known, surrounding us. I looked around to the other mercenaries who were all in battle positions, ready to strike at any time.
“The person in that carriage is paying you well I assume. Why would you just change allegiances for more money? I don’t understand.” I told him.
“You’re too naive girl.” He said with a shake of his head. I bristled.
“Money makes the world go round, girl. We’ll do anything to make more money and they’re paying us a ton of money to make sure that brat doesn’t make it out of this alive. You two are just unlucky to have accepted the request. Now are you going to give up and make this easy on me or are you going to make it difficult?” He asked us.
I looked at Jia and she looked back at me and nodded. Jia unsheathed her snow white sword and I coalesced my third sword from the qi within my dantian. Knowing Silver Tiger was a steel body cultivator, I held the sword of wind and earth and the sword of metal and wood in my hands and let the sword of fire and water float behind me.
I called Shimmer back out and urged her to focus, trying my best to keep her attention away from the demon calling powder. Once she realized the situation we were all in her attention focused.
A rumbling in the sky above us brought everyone’s attention to the growing clouds gathering in the area. A shock of lightning dropped from the sky like a hammer, illuminating the clearing for a moment, and like the start of a duel, the mercenaries jumped into action.
Jia and I both moved away with our movement techniques. Jia appeared right behind one of the weaker mercenaries and I appeared right behind Silver Tiger. I swung down at him with both of my swords, but he blocked them with one arm coated in silvery steel qi.
“It’s going to take a lot more than that to take me out girl!” He shouted at me. I used soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step toward one of the mercenaries currently targeting Jia, ending up behind him and striking out with my swords. A shield of water appeared between the man and my blades and I clicked my tongue, looking over to see one of the other mercenaries looking at me.
One of the mercenaries was down at this point thanks to Jia’s quick work fighting one of them and she had already appeared next to another and engaged them.
I turned around in time to see a gout of flame flying at me. It was blocked by a shield of water from Shimmer. Silver Tiger and one of the other body cultivators charged at me and I was forced to back away. Shimmer launched a beam of multi-colored light at the pair and hit them both square on.
Whereas Silver Tiger came out from the blast mostly unscathed the other man wasn’t so lucky. Rain was falling down on the battlefield now coating everything in a dense layer of water qi. I absorbed the qi as I backed away from Silver Tiger. It was important I kept my qi reserves high.
I decided I couldn’t keep holding back and suffused my body with the qi drops within the various facets of myself. I felt the increase to my power, speed, and reflexes. I launched myself at Silver Tiger who was still recovering from the concentrated blast of qi Shimmer had launched at him.
He noticed my charge and prepared to engage me. I looked to the side as I charged him and watched Jia cut another of the mercenaries down. Three down, three to go.
I traded blows with Silver Tiger using my swords and despite the difference in our cultivations I was keeping up with him handily. He must have noticed how many of his compatriots were down at this point because he disengaged from me and called out to his people.
“You’re tougher than I originally thought. It’s a good thing I prepared a backup plan. Come on out boys!” He yelled out into the night. Jia and I both froze, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but nothing happened. Another bolt of lightning struck down and another group of men now stood around the clearing we set up for camp. Jia and I both blanched at the sudden change in circumstance. I looked at her and toward the carriage. She nodded and broke off from her fight against the cultivator and used step through ice to appear next to it.
“I think it’s time you came out and escaped.” She said just as Silver Tiger appeared next to her and punched through the side of the carriage, barely missing its occupants. An elderly man and a young boy I recognized made their way out of the carriage into the rain, the elderly man holding up an umbrella to protect the pair.
To my surprise, I recognized the young boy. It was Kai, the young boy Jia had saved yesterday. She seemed to recognize him too, but was brought back to the present by Silver Tiger striking out at her. She blocked the punch and was launched back a few feet.
“Steward Xiang, Kai, Astra. We’re leaving, follow me.” She said before rushing forward and launching a powerful qi infused sword strike at Silver Tiger. He was forced to block it and this gave Jia enough time to grab Kai, sweep him up in her arms and step through ice to the edge of the clearing.
Steward Xiang followed her, his age belying his speed. Finally I appeared behind the cultivator closest to them and cut him down before he could react and attack the others.
“You think we’re just going to let you run away?!” Silver Tiger shouted out to us.
“Get them!” He commanded. We were immediately beset upon by the nearby cultivators. One was a wood cultivator with wooden armor covering his body all over, and another person whose exact affinity I couldn’t pin down just from the color of the qi coating his body.
Jia gave Kai back to steward Jiang and engaged the wood cultivator in a close quarters fight. I handled the other man, using all three of my swords to intercept him. Based on what elements were absorbed from his qi, he was a fire, water, metal triple branch spirit root body cultivator.
I didn’t know what that type combination was called, I would have to ask Text later.
I struck out with my swords, sending one to harry the man from behind. He fell beneath my onslaught, but I took too much time. The remaining cultivators were upon our group now, steward Xiang a little ways deeper into the forest. Jia broke off from her fight with a final stroke, cleaving the man through his wooden armor.
She stepped through ice appearing next to the pair deeper in the forest and I followed suit. Jia stopped for a moment and focused on her sword, infusing it with an immense amount of qi I could feel from where I was standing next to her. She sheathed her sword and lowered her body into a lower stance.
“Abjuration Slice” she said before unsheathing the sword in a single motion causing an arc of icy qi to fly out from the sword and fly toward the oncoming group of cultivators. It sliced through the trees in its path like they weren’t even there. Silver Tiger's eyes widened when he saw the attack and he called out for his group of cultivators to defend themselves.
The arc sliced into the group and exploded against the various defenses put up. This gave us time to run away and we rushed deeper into the forest with steward Xiang and Kai in tow.