The ring glittered silver on Kai's right hand.

He twisted his wrist again, staring into that shimmering metal and trying to find the hidden dimension he knew lay inside. Unlike bags and similar spatial items, he couldn't just reach inside to get items. Instead he needed to gain a sense for the ring's connection to its pocket dimension and how to access it. There were several ways, he just needed to...

Abruptly it worked: when Kai moved his wrist he was suddenly holding the elvish sword that he'd placed within the ring. He repeated the process and it vanished again. The movement to and from the ring was a bit too slow to use for trickery in combat, but quite fast for all other purposes. It was getting easier and easier to use it, too.

Once he had that down, Kai used the other method to access the space. Instead of summoning an item he'd placed in the ring directly, he looked into the extra-dimensional space. In his mind's eye he could see an expansive golden chamber, which had astonished him the first time he saw it. The previous spatial item he'd used was Juray's bag, which was just about the size of five bags put together. Inside the ring lay a chamber large enough to house the diamond star, which would make Zae Zin Nim quite happy. This spatial ring should be more than he ever needed unless he tried to start his own shipping business or something else absurd.

He'd been prepared to train for days, but he'd mastered the ring before the others even got back from Roseport. Perhaps his mental training made him suited for it or perhaps this one was just easy to use. The elves had seemed to spare no expense in fulfilling their boon.

Kai raised his hand and looked at the ring again. From a distance it looked like a plain silver ring, but it had been carved with intricate symbols that looked like a cross between smoke and jaws. He wasn't sure if Ceryyn had made them carve it that way, but he liked the result. More practically, the metal wasn't true silver, but something far more durable. It might not stand up to a massive attack, but it wasn't going to break if scratched in combat.

"Hello!" Ceryyn's head appeared around the side of the door as she peered at him. "Figuring it out?"

"I think so." Kai made a piece of fruit appear and disappear. "Thanks for helping us."

"No, no, we should thank you. That demon artifact is more potent than we expected. If they're using such resources, this could become a real problem, so it's good that we started learning about it early."

They stood together for a few seconds, the awkwardness increasing. He'd gotten along fine with Ceryyn when they'd been in the elven village, but now they were in her home city, where apparently she was one of the five strongest people. Even though she seemed to be the same person, there was obviously so much of herself she hadn't discussed. Then again, he had some secrets of his own...

"I hope we've persuaded you and your friends to stay." Ceryyn tucked some of her hair back behind her ear, where it seemed likely to stay given the length. "I honestly believe the Council needs more foreign allies. We've been looking inward for too long and the other powers are still advancing."

"Assuming that the others get back safe, we're planning to stay," Kai told her. "At minimum, Zae Zin Nim will need months to cultivate to the next stage."

"But what about you and Omilaena?"

"We have plenty of other work to do. Too much, really."

"Why are you pushing so hard? Because of the pursuers she's worried about?"

Kai hesitated before responding, because those weren't his secrets to tell. Zae Zin Nim had already been forced to share more than she wanted to so that the elves could help her avoid the Brightwind sect. He decided to stick to himself.

"We all have goals we can't get close to reaching," he said. "For me it's about saving my home. We still have five years until the next incursion, but if it's as bad as the last one, my current strength won't be enough."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I understand." Ceryyn patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. "I want to be on the Council of Elders one day, but it's not a path you can rush in a year or two. It can be strange in the interim, can't it? You have to keep running forward even if you can't see your destination."

"Yeah. That's... a good way to put it." Kai smiled back at her and he didn't think it was just her glamour.

"I feel so lucky I met you," Ceryyn said quietly. "Not just because of the obelisk mission. There are a lot of people who think humans are inferior, and it's hard to get through to them. But... I hope..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the air in the nearest room distorted with an audible clap. Kai had been expecting the group to return in his current room, from which they'd left, so he had to walk over. When he stepped through the door he immediately saw the reason they'd returned to the larger room: Zae Zin Nim was sitting in the diamond star, which looked intact. Omilaena perched on one side, while the elven teleporter crouched in the back. The man looked exhausted from transporting something so large.

"Don't worry," Omilaena told them, "it worked perfectly. We chartered an elven ship to Cloudspire and departed on it. Once we were out to sea, we all teleported back."

"There was no sign of the Brightwind sect." Zae Zin Nim stood up in the back of the diamond star. Her expression was neutral, but Kai thought he saw some satisfaction underneath. "We may have saved more time taking the Blood Current than we thought."

"Oh, wonderful!" Ceryyn clapped her hands. "You don't have to worry about cultivators getting any information from the ship crew. They'll definitely uncover that you left, but they wouldn't dare attack or torture our agents. Not when they think they have an answer. Does this mean you're free?"

Omilaena shrugged. "She's not free until we hide her qi completely. But this is a good step."

"I would like to go to the Sapphire Wind Oasis now," Zae Zin Nim said.

"Easy, easy!" Ceryyn waved her hands. "It's your boon, so you'll definitely get your time there, but you don't need to rush so much!"

It looked like Zae Zin Nim disagreed, but she wasn't going to argue about it. Instead she approached Kai and looked up at him. Something about the way she walked over made it clear that she wanted a more private conversation, so Omilaena moved off with Ceryyn to discuss their travel plans.

"Have you been working with the spatial ring?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"I think I have the trick," Kai said with a shrug.

"Then please place the crystal ship inside, unless you think you might break it. We will be traveling in dangerous territory and I do not want it to be damaged."

"I'm pretty sure the elves would give us a new one."

"I have seen the flying vehicles on Rosemount and they are disagreeable. We should keep this one."

Once he was close to the diamond star, Kai raised his left hand and concentrated on the ring. In theory a large object was no different from a small one, but he might focus on the wrong part and break something. On second thought, maybe it was a mistake to try this on Zae Zin Nim's favorite ship now...

Too late, it swept into his ring. Kai glanced into the extra-dimensional space and was relieved to see that the diamond star sat in the center of the golden chamber. The process had been easy enough that he was sure he could take it back out again as necessary. At the moment the elves were hosting them, but when they went into the desert he'd be glad they had a vehicle.

"Do you feel relieved?" Kai asked quietly. Zae Zin Nim didn't respond at all at first, like she hadn't heard, but eventually she nodded.

"This is better than being chased. But by sending so many cultivators, my father has made it clear that he is willing to spend great resources to imprison me again. The more strength I gain, the more willing he'll be to spend more." She looked up at him with dark eyes. "This won't end until we confront him directly, and my father is a power on par with the greatest on Rosemount. I think you understand how great the threat is."

"I understood before, when he was even further above us. My answer hasn't changed."

"Good." She smiled slightly and turned away with her hair covering her face. Kai wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that. It was a nice moment, and maybe that was all it needed to be. Sometimes he wondered just what she wanted and whether or not he was misreading her signals.

Before the silence could stretch too long, Omilaena approached them alone. "Ceryyn is arranging rooms for us tonight," she said. "Reading between the lines, I think the elves are heavily invested in getting us to keep working for them. Not invested enough to give us any great boons, but it might be worth exploiting."

"I thought you didn't want to get entrenched here," Zae Zin Nim said, all business again.

"My old logic still stands, but apparently there's a possibility they could send us on an undercover mission into the Commonwealth. If that works out, we could both get what we want."

"Assuming we survive," Kai pointed out. "With demons running the Commonwealth, we can't just waltz in. Even if they don't suspect anything, they could target us just for power. Traveling there would only be safe until it really, really wasn't."

"Which is why we need to get stronger." As she spoke, Omilaena manifested a new needle and flipped it around her fingers, flashing a reddish silver. "Zae Zin Nim has a clear path forward, but it will take a while, so we'd better work hard to make sure she doesn't surpass us."

Kai grinned and cracked his knuckles. "When have we ever been afraid of hard work?"