Once they had gotten back to Orillia's estate, things should have calmed down, but Zae Zin Nim radiated constant tension. Kai made sure that Orillia had everything she needed and the supplies were secured, then he headed back to their chambers. When he sat down opposite Zae Zin Nim his intention must have been obvious, because she took a deep breath and spoke quietly.
"I am even more certain that they were looking for me. They may have been sent to sell goods as a secondary objective, but they'll pursue if they notice me." She closed her eyes and clasped her hands in her lap carefully. "I may be able to cultivate if I'm far enough away from them. But we can't be too careful."
"Let's assume you're right about their goals," Kai said. "What exactly are you expecting to happen? You think if they notice you they'll drag you back home in chains?"
"I believe they will try. My father may have underestimated me, sending cultivators at my same stage, or we may have chanced on a weaker group. But if they realize I'm here, they'll do everything they can to detain me, or worse contact my father. This cannot be allowed to happen."
"So you say, but why won't you tell me what you're so afraid of?"
"It is not fear, it is rational concern." Her breaths were coming faster, though. Kai took a deep breath and thought through his next words carefully.
"Zae Zin Nim. Have I ever been anything but an ally to you?" He leaned forward, trying to capture her gaze. "I want to help. Tell me what's going on."
She stared back at him for a time, sighed, and answered slowly. "I already told you the truth. My father treats everyone as a tool, and if he gets his hands on me, I'll become a pawn for him again. The longer I've been away, the more I feel I can't go back... not until I'm strong enough to fight him."
"Alright, I understand that. As I said, I want to help. But what do you intend to do, leave the city to dodge them?"
"If we can. But first you have to understand: they don't care about the things you do. They'll kill anyone who gets in their way, even without knowing about me. You have to be prepared to kill them, which means breaking through to-"
"Wait. Isn't fighting them already a bad scenario? Even if we win, your father will notice that the people he sent out to Yulthens didn't come back, then he'll send stronger cultivators."
"Yes, but that would buy us a long time compared to being discovered." Zae Zin Nim met his gaze fiercely. "We have to be prepared for all possibilities. That's why you need to reach the Body Refinement stage. Forget about the money. I'll pay the rest, or we can steal it, or whatever is necessary. Right now we need power."
"What about you?"
"All I can do is cultivate and hope that I can reach the Earth Soul stage before my father sends more of his servants."
Kai was about to argue otherwise when there was a knock on the door. Both of them leapt, ready to fight, and only later realized there was no dangerous opponent. Just one of Orillia's servants, who poked her head in to look at them.
"Very sorry to disturb you, my lord, my lady, but there's something of a problem. A very large barbarian man wants to talk to you and he seems rather impatient."
After everything else, that threw them completely. They glanced at one another, then followed the servant out to the main courtyard of Orillia's estate. Zae Zin Nim remained back, as if convinced that her father's agents would be waiting around every corner.
Instead, Tareth Nordulind was waiting for them. He'd put his Direboar hide on over his expensive tunic, which was a strange look for him, but the hard expression in his eyes made it impossible to laugh.
"Are the two of you willing to contribute to the defense of Yulthens?" he asked.
"That's an aggressive start," Kai said. "Why would you come to us first, out of everyone you could ask?"
"Well, you see, the theft at the auction was worse than anyone guessed. An item was stolen, but fuck me if that wasn't a distraction. Our guests from Cloudspire are claiming that valuable resources were stolen from them while everyone was busy, and they're not happy about it. By 'not happy' I mean they're threatening to kill city leaders unless the criminals are brought to them for punishment."
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"That still didn't answer the question. We aren't suspects, are we?"
"What? No. Well, one of Suortril's crystalliers claimed you were suspicious, but the merchants are throwing around all kinds of false accusations." Tareth readjusted his boar-hide uncomfortably. "The truth is that we need someone to calm down all these foreign cultivators. Obviously I asked Ren Ziq Quen first, but he said he was from a different sect and they didn't mix. So... you're the only other Cloudspire cultivator I know who's around the same level."
"I fear that I cannot be of service to you." Zae Zin Nim gave a smooth bow, as polite and calm as if she hadn't been planning war minutes earlier. "I fear my sect is actually a rival of your visitors', so my presence would only cause further trouble."
"Damn. I guess that would have been too easy."
Kai was impressed with how quickly Zae Zin Nim had deflected. He'd been wondering if she was determined to fight it out, but she was too smart to throw them into battle carelessly. If that had been all, it would have ended smoothly enough, but then Tareth turned to look at Kai.
"What about you? Would you be willing to take a serious risk? You'd be well-compensated, but..."
"What kind of risk?" Kai asked. "I'm not from Cloudspire, I don't know anything about this."
"If we can't pacify the foreigners, then our next bet is to actually find the thief." Tareth folded his arms across his chest and his tunic strained with the movement. "Here's the problem: all the merchants are blaming one another. I can't get a single commitment from anyone tied to them, and that's most of the city. But I need crystalliers - decent ones, mind you - for a potential bad job."
"You mean you think you know something about who was responsible?"
"Everybody in charge thinks so, anyway. But this isn't about tonight. Tonight we have to stop fights and get the merchants under control and calm down those damn cultivators. I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to risk your life for this. You'd be well-compensated by the city, tens of thousands."
It was another abrupt shift in a night that had included too many, but Kai forced himself to adjust. "What exactly would it involve?" he asked. "We're obviously dealing with problems of our own."
Tareth shrugged his massive shoulders. "It depends. Most likely we'll need to investigate the foreigners and their ship, because that's where the theft happened. But then the bad part: we'll probably be breaking into one of the guest estates. All our visitors are imprisoned in the city until the theft gets figured out, ya see. We're going to break into one to find proof, and we'll probably find a fight too."
It seemed like unnecessary trouble to Kai, but he saw that Zae Zin Nim was looking at him insistently. Why would she want to encourage this? Perhaps it had to do with investigating the ship from Cloudspire, or it was part of her scheme to fight the cultivators, or something else he couldn't predict. Whatever the reason, Kai had his own concerns.
"I'm willing to help," he said, "but right now I'm not much stronger than your average crystallier. If you pay me the money now, I can complete some important training. With that, I should be able to help you."
"What?" Tareth stared at him several seconds, then laughed and began rooting around in his pack. "Fuck it, I don't care. Consider this a down payment on your service to the city. But you better turn this into some real power, and you'd better be willing to put your life on the line when the time comes."
Eventually he found what he was looking for and put together a pouch of gold, which he hurled at Kai's chest. Not as an act of aggression, just using his full strength without thinking. Kai automatically caught it with one hand and was surprised at how Behemoth's Heart absorbed the impact.
"Five days, six at most." Tareth waved a hand behind him. "Be ready."
He left the estate in a single bound and was off into the night. That left Kai standing there with Zae Zin Nim, even less sure what to make of everything. It felt like the pouch was surprisingly heavy... when he counted out the coins, he was sure that it contained at least 20,000 Eagles.
Was that really how his work would end? Then again, if this all proved as dangerous as expected, he'd be glad to break through as soon as possible.
"I don't know anything about the theft," Zae Zin Nim said thoughtfully. "Most likely it's unrelated. But if whatever was stolen was this important, they'll turn the city upside-down looking for it. That's exactly what we need to avoid. If you do this, you might be able to confirm what they know and direct them away."
"I guess that's the ideal outcome." Kai left unsaid that he really doubted everything would go so easily.
"Now, forget all of that. We need to go to the old woman right now and get those resources for you. It's well past time you became a real cultivator."
After so much work to build up 100,000 Goralian Eagles, it ended up as a bizarre mess. With the early payment, Kai had a total of 107,000, and apparently Orillia had actually bought it for 96,000. Rather an anticlimax, but he preferred that to selling his shoes for the final coins and rushing to cultivate at the last second.
Actually, given how the night had gone, Orillia would probably have not been a stickler for the details. Kai still felt better having paid for his advancement properly. For all the work it had taken, he now had access to the finest qi resources that money could buy, even on Cloudspire.
He'd been struggling to cultivate ever since Zae Zin Nim had introduced him to the idea, back before he'd even understood his powers. Now that he was finally here, ready for his first breakthrough, it was no longer his salvation, just another step on his path. Potentially an important step, but only enough to sate his hunger for a while longer.
Given everything bearing down on them, it wasn't a second too soon.