Chapter Thirteen: Who

The admin led Lacy into the building, where they quickly encountered a servant who pointed them toward the Guardian’s official home attendant.

“The Guardian sleeps,” the beautiful woman in similar but different admin robes said simply with a neutral expression. “I recommend returning at dusk, but I imagine the doorman told you the same. Is your business that urgent?”

The admin seemed to hold a bomb behind his cheeks as he took a second to regain his composure.

“Yes, it is urgent, and it is the Guardian’s duty to see us. I might lose my position if I do not see him, low as the chances are.”

The attendant nodded cordially.

“I understand. Please wait in the meeting room while I wake him.”

“Thank you!” the admin growled, before clearing his throat and softly repeating, “Thank you.”

The admin led Lacy into a well-decorated room full of soft materials from beast-skin rugs to velvet chairs, and they waited. A few minutes later, the world shook, and Lacy gasped.

The admin just raised an eyebrow like nothing had happened, at which point the woman realized what had happened.

“I’m sorry, I’m just…very nervous,” Lacy said.

The man didn’t reply audibly, instead giving Lacy a look before closing his eyes. He must have been tired of explaining that they needed to be there.

Soon, a man burst through the meeting room’s double doors, which smacked against the walls, making Administrator Aften jump. Lacy wasn’t surprised because she’d sensed him coming. The man was Yellowvine’s Guardian, a Sapling-realm body cultivator who apparently really didn’t like having his sleep interrupted, judging by the way his aura exploded earlier.

“Your business very well be important!” the large man shouted as he stomped over to sit in a chair across from them. As he did so, his aura suffused the room and fully enveloped them.

“Guardian of Yello—”

The administrator was immediately interrupted by a gesture from the Guardian, who leveled two now curious eyes on Lacy.

“Who might you be?” he asked, calmer than before, though his voice still held an edge. “I do not recognize you at all. Were you sent over by another city?”

The Guardian proved very impatient because Lacy took a second too long to gather her thoughts and he raised his voice.

“Are you deaf, spirit cultivator?”

Administrator Aften’s eyes shot open as he whipped his head to look at Lacy, before clearing his throat and hurriedly saying, “Please excuse her, Guardian! She is simply surprised because she is still mortal! I presumed she had never been checked for the presence of a spirit root, and…it seems I was right.”

Mai Mosa’s eyes narrowed as he looked between Lacy’s faux frightened eyes and Admin Aften.

“Truly?” he asked.

Lacy frantically nodded, and the big man leaned back in his chair.

“Well, this is interesting.”

No one said anything as Mai Mosa sized Lacy up, so she did the same. Yellowvine’s Guardian was a jacked man covered in dirt. His face was framed by unkempt facial hair as though he’d been camping alone for weeks…which he very well might have, considering what Lacy had recently learned about cultivators.

“Could I have missed you?” the Guardian eventually asked. “Where are you from?”

The admin opened his mouth to speak but was hushed again, so Lacy repeated her story. An amnesiac who awoke in a vegetable field in Pole. She was taken care of and tutored by the members of the farm she was found on. She learned of cultivators and did not want to be a farmer or gain material comfort through marriage, either, so she insisted on being allowed to take the guard exams. On their wilderness outing she was abducted by koroths but released with the intention of luring cultivators out into the woods because they had thought she was a body cultivator. Then that day Administrator Aften got back to her about the investigation into her background and came to the conclusion that in the case Lacy wasn’t a human, or that she had a spirit root, it was imperative that she was seen by him, the Guardian, before she left for further guard training.

By the time Lacy finished, Mai Mosa was leaning forward, enraptured by the story.

“Fascinating,” he said, before blinking rapidly and falling back into his chair. “Fascinating.” Then his nose wrinkled up. “Koroths, you said. I don’t know much about them—have not fought one in decades—but your spirit root would explain why they thought you might have been a body cultivator.”

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“What about a demon?” Lacy blurted. “Um, Administrator Aften said I might be a demon, or something? I’m not sure about what he meant or what is possible…”

“You are human,” the Sapling assured with an amused smile. “If not, then you are a demon more powerful than I, because only those would be capable of hiding their natures.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Onto more important matters!” Mai Mosa declared. “You, Initiate, have a spirit root, so rest assured, you will be fostered by Yellowvine. Your options are no longer limited to luck and becoming a guard.”

Lacy gulped. She hadn’t thought this far.

“Um, uhhhh, really?”

The Guardian chuckled.

“Really. So long as you put in even minimal effort, you will forever be useful to the city. Of course, I recommend you put your all into being the best spirit cultivator you can be, but even that is not nearly as difficult as being an average body cultivator.”

Lacy gulped. This was only partly what she wanted.

“I’ve…heard about dual cultivators…”

One of the Guardian’s eyebrows shot up, then he laughed from the belly, shaking the very air. Lacy could only wait for him to finish. When he did, he looked back at Lacy and seemed surprised to see her so serious.

“You don’t jest?” he asked. When Lacy nodded, his face fell. “Why? Why would you desire such a harsh path? If I could live my life again I would wish to be reborn as a spirit cultivator! And I would not dual cultivate!”

Lacy didn’t know how to respond, but thankfully the Guardian let the subject drop.

“Bah! It is your right to dual cultivate, but when you realize the depth of your obstacles you will give up. Whatever. Be on your way, I’ve done my duty. I need sleep!”

And just like that, they were dismissed.

……

Administrator Aften only spent a handful of minutes trying to convince Lacy of Mai Mosa’s point before giving up and going silent for the rest of the return trip, which went a bit faster because he insisted on taking the rickshaw ride out of the rich district straight to the guard headquarters. The cultivator pulling the rickshaw didn’t say anything, but Lacy had the feeling that he was annoyed.

The instant they returned, Admin Aften led Lacy down new corridors that ended in an office. Within was Admin Muriel, who raised an eyebrow at the man’s hurried expression from behind a paperwork-covered desk.

“This little spirit cultivator is now yours to deal with,” the man said. “I am tired. You are very welcome for the fact that I did my job.”

Then he stormed out of the office.

Muriel looked at Lacy, her jaw on the ground, so the young woman explained their adventure as best she could while maintaining the amnesiac-who-didn’t-know-much act.

When Lacy finished, Muriel put a hand to her face and sighed deeply, before erupting into laughter. Her laughs ended after a minute and she began explaining herself.

“I owe that man an apology. That is at least one reason for his unprofessionalism.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Aften is the son of a…not well-received man, but alas, he is powerful, so there is little we can do about him. When Aften’s father assigned Aften his current position everyone assumed it was nepotism, but alas, Aften proved us wrong by working as hard as anyone. Too hard, even. He follows the rules to the letter, often when it is pointless to do so or even sometimes causes harm. Do you understand where I’m headed, young lady?”

Lacy nodded.

“I think so. Uhh, after completing the investigation on me Aften said I needed to be checked by the Guardian for a spirit root, but you…disagreed?”

“A waste of time, were my specific words,” Admin Muriel replied with pursed lips. “And now we all owe him a debt. Had you gone undiscovered for a little while longer you’d have been on track to becoming a body cultivator and might have died too early.”

Lacy shifted uncomfortably.

“But…I still want to become a body cultivator.”

Admin Muriel’s face fell slightly.

“That makes it a lot harder on everyone, Miss Mathews.” It did not escape Lacy’s notice that her form of address had changed with the knowledge of her new status. “I believe I’ve already warned you of how difficult the training to become a body cultivator is. Not only that, but dual cultivation itself is difficult. And that is just how you’d be burdening yourself, because Yellowvine cannot rightfully allow one of its few spirit cultivators to undergo the guard exams without extra protection and a spirit cultivator tutor. You would be diverting important resources to an endeavor very unlikely to succeed.”

Lacy clenched her jaw, refusing to be emotionally manipulated, but also trying not to blame everyone for telling her to take the easier path. After all, even she had wanted things to be easier for her…until the vampires got her. Three Seeds, a Sprout, and a very watchful friend had guarded Lacy and danger still found her! As the vampire dad explained while he carried Lacy back out of the forest, dual cultivation was hard for humans, but the benefits were worth it.

Of course, the vampire dad also had a stake—haha—in whether she became a dual cultivator because dual cultivator blood essences was supposedly far richer than either spirit or body, but still, he had a point. If she wanted to protect herself in this vast, dangerous world, she had to take power where she could get it. That was why she’d been putting herself through the guard exams in the first place. Being a spirit cultivator first only convinced her further that she could cultivate her body.

“I was guarded by four cultivators when the koroth kidnapped me,” Lacy said with as respectful a tone as she could manage. “Since being a dual cultivator is an option, I want to take it.”

To Lacy’s surprise, Admin Muriel didn’t push the subject further.

“That is…fine, Miss Mathews. You may continue your guard exams, but please do not hesitate to drop out of them so you may focus on your strengths.”

After Admin Muriel explained what she could about how Lacy’s future as a guard initiate and a spirit cultivator in training looked, Lacy had one more question.

“Um, I don’t know how to read or write, so can I get help with writing a letter to send back to Pole? Actually, a few letters?”

Lacy hadn’t forgotten that Uru, Thenja’s cultivator husband, had expected her to drop out of the exams. No doubt he wasn’t the only one, so Lacy wanted to reassure her closest friends that she had successfully passed the preliminary tests and was slated to move on with the real guard training. Of course, she intended to leave out the spirit cultivation part. It was going to be super funny when she returned to Pole as an official guard and challenged Uru to a friendly sparring match so that she could whip out a fireball and singe his ass!

“That is no problem,” Admin Muriel assured her. “In fact, let me work on your letters right now so that you may move forward with your training as quickly as possible.”

“Oh, I appreciate that very much!” Lacy beamed with a little bit of surprise in her voice.

“This is only natural,” the much older woman said, shaking her head with a smile. “I imagine you are not much used to preferential treatment, but that will change given your apparent talents.” She then snorted. “Just don’t go getting a big head and turning out like Aften’s father.”