Despite the amount of time that had passed, despite how far she had advanced, when Zae Zin Nim saw her father's cultivators she shivered. All six of them had reached the Earth Soul stage and they were important pillars of the sect. She even recognized one of them, an older man who had always been a stern disciplinarian. There had been a time when he bowed to her and called her "Little Mistress."

He wasn't bowing now.

"It was clever of you to run off where they wouldn't follow," Anaelina was saying. "When the Brightwind sect began asking around, offering substantial rewards, something sounded familiar but I couldn't do anything about it."

"You mean this was really a coincidence?" Omilaena asked.

"More like the inevitable. You got lucky for over a year, slipping past everyone, but it looks like your luck has run out."

The warriors from Rosemount were talking to one another, but all the cultivators ignored them. Zae Zin Nim stared back at the six, ready to move at any time and yet not wanting to start the violence. If they had been caught a year ago, the fight would have been hopeless, whereas now they had a chance. Technically her plan had worked, but it still felt too early...

"Mistress Zae Zin Nim." It wasn't the man she knew, instead a younger one who stepped out of the group with hard eyes. "Your father is pleased by your advancement, but your tantrums are growing beyond his ability to forgive. Come with us and you can be restored to your rightful place."

"In order to be married to a young master from the Coiling Island sect?" Zae Zin Nim swept her eyes over the group, looking for weaknesses. "Or has he lost interest?"

"On the contrary, your willfulness has only attracted his attention. Now, lower your defenses and drop to your knees. We heard what happened to the last group and will not allow such to happen again."

Zae Zin Nim lowered herself into a fighting stance.

"This is for your own good." The older man frowned in her direction. "It is impressive that you overcame your blockage, but on your own you've misstepped. The Blackblood Physique was meant to cleanse your body and then be removed, leaving you completely pure. Instead you've retained it... the time left to correct this error is drawing shorter every day."

It was like he could see her deepest fears. She knew she was strong, stronger than any of these Earth Soul cultivators individually, but had she gained that strength by sacrificing her future? Only discipline allowed her to smooth her mind, preparing for their first movement.

Omilaena was glancing toward her, looking for a cue at how to proceed. Yet Zae Zin Nim didn't know how to answer her.

"No, no, no!" Lilaetiel skidded into the marble plaza, arms and legs scrabbling like a beast. "She's mine! You can't just sell her to these fools!"

"Lilaetiel, wait." For the first time Anaelina looked less confident and she raised a hand. "These are delicate negotiations with a powerful sect on Cloudspire, you need t-"

Lilaetiel snarled, leapt forward, and unleashed all the violence in the plaza at once.

The Brightwind sect cultivators moved as one, spreading out into a formation that reinforced their qi. It seemed like they were moving to surround Zae Zin Nim, and they might have succeeded if Omilaena hadn't moved first: she unleashed a burst of needles, disrupting their formation and scattering them.

Her movement inspired Zae Zin Nim into action and she sent qi attacks at all the cultivators, knocking them further apart. For just a moment she maintained the upper hand, then she felt a horrible presence looming. Only combat-won instincts allowed her to duck and she saw Lilaetiel's claws pass just over her as the demon flew overhead.

The demoness nearly ran into one of the Brightwind sect and tried to knock him aside, but the others in the formation struck her from behind. They hurled out glowing lines of qi to bind her in place, and for a moment it seemed like their combined might could pin even the demoness.

Except the next line hit Zae Zin Nim. She gasped as she felt her qi start to freeze up, the beginning of a sealing technique. Another line lashed out at her and she caught this one, but even in her hand it tried to seal her meridians. The others were turning away from Lilaetiel, as if their plan had always been to bind her instead.

They might have succeeded if not for Omilaena, who injected one of them from behind. The cultivator staggered, nearly overwhelmed by her poison... and Omilaena stumbled next, grimacing in pain.

Zae Zin Nim realized too late that Anaelina had held back and waited for her moment. Now her claws tore into Omilaena's back, driving her far from the battle. Her only ally was being forced away and everyone else wanted to claim her for themselves.

This was the critical moment - she knew that and she knew that she needed to act. If Zae Zin Nim had one more second, she could have thrown off the qi binding and tried to turn the tide. But in that moment Lilaetiel attacked again. Her claws would have torn deep into Zae Zin Nim's flesh if the Earth Soul cultivators hadn't unleashed ranged techniques at her again, driving her off. The tip of one claw grazed Zae Zin Nim's stomach and she felt not just her qi but her confidence leaking out of her.

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Her robe parted and a thin line of blood formed on her skin. It was black. They were right, she'd failed to purge the Blackblood Physique.

Another line of qi hit her, coming closer to binding her cultivation. She realized that she was just a foolish girl whose only value was being claimed by others. Her freedom had been nothing but a temporary outburst, but now she would be taken back and made subservient to her father and used and used and used...

Zae Zin Nim desperately wanted someone to save her in that moment, even Omilaena. But there was no one, just the cultivators closing their formation. Another line of qi wrapped around her waist, joining with the blood. Just a few more and they would bind her entirely, leaving her nothing but a woman...

A hot wind swept cross the plaza and a new power made the air tremble. When Zae Zin Nim heard a roar, she gasped and her heart leapt before she even saw him.

.

..

.

Lady Ceryyn Sandflower respected the strength of her allies, of course. They had come remarkably far, for humans who had endured such trials and spent so much time on Deadwaste. But this was Rosemount and they were vulnerable here, so she had desperately used her last teleportation totem in order to bring Kai back to retrieve the others so they could all retreat.

When she arrived, she saw what she had expected: Zae Zin Nim should have been able to fight back, but she was faltering emotionally. The majority of some sort of Cloudspire technique had closed around her, designed to seal off her power. Clearly, the first priority would be to rescue the cultivator.

Kai entered the battle beside her, charging forward, and Ceryyn assumed he had the same intent. But when he let out a frankly horrifying roar, something in the air of the battlefield changed.

Zae Zin Nim straightened for one moment, a new light in her eyes. Then a mantle of blue flame lit up around her, consuming the binding technique. The cultivators attempting to bind her reeled back, shocked by the sudden explosion of strength.

The next moment Zae Zin Nim dropped to one knee, minimizing her profile. It looked like a mistake or an injury until Ceryyn understood: Kai had crossed the distance and joined the battle. He swung his arm and unleashed a massive spiritual claw that tore through the plaza. Two of the cultivators staggered, covered in blood, and even those who blocked it were pushed back.

Somehow the lines of force had passed around Zae Zin Nim, leaving gashes through the marble on either side of her. She rose as if they'd planned it, pushing off her back foot and crossing the distance to one of the injured cultivators. When she struck his chest with a palm, blood began pouring from his mouth and eyes as he collapsed backward.

"You!" A demonic arts user in silver saw Kai's arrival and her eyes lit up in something between fear and fury. She leapt with a rush of silver power and he barely blocked the blow, the impact driving them across the plaza.

Ceryyn took a deep breath and gathered the power of her soul, prepared to act. Now that Zae Zin Nim had been separated again, presumably her spirit would falter and she would desperately need help.

Except she didn't. Three uninjured cultivators closed on her, palms flying in strikes just like Zae Zin Nim's own, and somehow she resisted them. She wasn't much faster than them, simply more graceful and efficient, her flowing movements throwing back all six arms attempting to strike her. Ceryyn stared in shock at the change that had come over her.

A true demoness lunged into the battle, attempting to take Zae Zin Nim from behind. This time Ceryyn was too slow, taken off guard by the raw speed. But Zae Zin Nim moved with almost equal speed, flipping back over the clawing strike and touching her palm to her opponent's back. A sound like a bell rang over the battlefield and the demoness hurtled forward, colliding with one of the cultivators and sending them both tumbling to the ground.

This maneuver left Zae Zin Nim vulnerable and Ceryyn prepared to act again, only to once again be too slow. The cultivator who was moving toward her back suddenly fell, pierced by several thrown needles. Omilaena rejoined the battle, bleeding but still moving smoothly. She and Zae Zin Nim moved back to back, and seconds later Kai lunged in to join them.

The three didn't even need to look at one another, they simply fell into a formation naturally. It was only three of them against seven remaining opponents, who ranged from nearly their strength to greater, and yet in that moment it seemed like they could win.

Finally Ceryyn threw off her awe and forced herself to act: it wasn't three of them on their side, she was the fourth. She intercepted one of the young male cultivators and unleashed all of the power she had been building up to that point.

As a cultivator at the Earth Soul stage, he had some resistance to her aura, and his qi was very strange compared to the chakra she knew. And yet she could feel the fragility of his mind, the susceptibility to her power. He tried to marshal a defense at first, then he simply stared, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.

There were only six opponents now and their victory seemed ever likelier. Ceryyn remained at a distance from the three, since she didn't want to interfere with their coordination. They moved together like elven veterans, preventing their opponents from exploiting their superior numbers and even managing to make the two demons interfere with one another. At a distance Ceryyn could only contribute bursts of chakra and the occasional weight of her presence to stagger one of the cultivators.

Despite the brilliance of their coordination, they couldn't entirely ignore so much power arrayed against them. The demoness who seemed to hunger for Zae Zin Nim's cultivation drew back, gathered up her power, and then executed a vicious charge.

Ceryyn realized that this was the moment she needed. When the demoness lunged at Zae Zin Nim's back, Ceryyn leapt into her path. She collided with the dark power with all her soul and the two of them slid away across the marble.

"Elven cultivation?" The demoness overhead gave her a bloody grin and then gripped her head with both hands. "I'll take that too!"

"Take it all," Ceryyn said, and unleashed the full glory of her soul.

The demoness roared back in pain, her hands smoking. Ceryyn's soul burned against her corruption, trying to burn it out entirely, driving her back... but not far enough.

She had suspected it would come to this: even though her soul could resist a demon, that didn't mean Ceryyn could stand up to someone with so much physical strength. The demoness tore a claw through her stomach and Ceryyn cried out in pain as her aura faltered. Next a slash crossed her face, tearing apart her beauty and leaving her open for the killing blow.

Instead a bell rang just beside them and the demoness vanished in a second. Ceryyn looked up at Zae Zin Nim, hovering over her in concern, and smiled weakly as she realized their positions had been reversed. She had been the one to be rescued.

"Are you alright?" Zae Zin Nim asked. "No, what's our plan?"

"Retreat to... the embassy..." Ceryyn managed to say. "Or the... northern point... emergency totem..."

Despite her best counter, the demon had still tried to drain her cultivation. The combination of the physical injuries and that weariness overwhelmed her. Ceryyn fell into unconsciousness trying to warn them that the real threat was lurking so close...