Shuixing, Daisy, and Sofiane sat down at a teahouse that overlooked the harbor and the Bay of Sapphires while Zhidao hovered in front of the table.

“So, there’s an annual card tournament, eh? That’s a strange special event,” Sofiane said.

“People love Elements: The Coalescing, you kidding?” Zhidao Replied.

“And I imagine this is at the Heavenly Card Parlor?”

The Parlor in question was an octagonal, thirteen-story pagoda near the center of Tianzhou City whose roof tiles were made of striking lapis blue inlaid with gold leaf. Windchimes of blue jadeite dangled from the eaves causing the whole building to constantly be tinkling.

“Yup!” Zhidao said. “It’s running all through this week starting Sunday. Which is in, what, three days, I think? I’m a fox fairy, we don’t usually care about the day of the week.”

You had to care when you planned around which day the Yishang would send you enough money to survive for another week, Shuixing thought.

“Ugh, Yuna’s gonna be in it, I know she is. There’s a cash prize isn’t there?” Sofiane asked.

“Ten million Ying,” Zhidao said.

“That little?” and “Holy shit!” said Daisy and Sofiane simultaneously.

Daisy crossed her legs and sipped from her cup of Lapsang Souchong. “Yun-chan makes around that in a month just from what the Yishang pay her. What in the dickens is she bothering with a card tournament for?”

“Yuna’s a gambling fiend, like I said. Five Ying says she’ll be hunting for money matches in-between the actual tournament games,” Sofiane said.

“When are we going to have time to talk to her?” Shuixing asked.

Sofiane tilted his seat back into the metal railing of the teashop balcony. “That’s the question, non? She’s gonna have her revolutionary guard there and on top of that, if we don’t corner her, she can just pretend she doesn’t know anything. And if we do corner her, we’ll be drawing attention to your papers, Madame Shui, in a place with a lot of Heroes hanging around. I think we would all rather like to avoid that.”

“I could always just ask to speak with her privately,” Daisy said. “Teasing out what she knows without letting on why I’m there, that sorta thing, y’know?”

“Erm, maybe before that we should ask around to see if Yuna has an alibi for the day we were attacked in the Anomalous Dungeon?”

“Goshes dang, you’re so smart, Shui!” Daisy said.

“She’s not gonna have one, I’m telling you,” Sofiane said. “But you can certainly do that if it makes you feel any better.”

“Oh? What all do you need to speak to Yuna about?” Zhidao asked.

All three of them were startled by his voice. That was something Shuixing had forgotten about the Pengwu fox, that he was sometimes so quiet you forgot he was there until he announced something.

Sofiane was the first to react, with an, “uh, um, uh…”

Shuixing’s throat sealed up entirely, strangling her already quiet voice to death. It was up to Daisy to save the day.

“She… we think she killed one of our teammates as revenge for uh… gambling debts. We think, anyway. We don’t know that it’s her because the attacker was hooded and Natsuko didn’t get a good look before she was resummoned,” Daisy said.

Zhidao gasped, for as much as an ethereal fox spirit could. “No! I didn’t even know Natsuko gambled!”

Sofiane cleared his throat. “A slip of the tongue, I’m sure. Madame Corduroy meant to say Nasira. You know, that 4th-gen Hero from al-Nuwba? We’ve just been traveling with Natsuko for a while, hence the slip.”

“Either way, that’s not good! Heroes killing other Heroes only helps the Entropic Axis achieve their nefarious aims. Would you like my help tracking Yuna down?” Zhidao said.

“We appreciate the offer, Zhidao, but we’re trying to keep this on the down low, y’know? She’s got her own posse, so this might into a whole thing… well, you know how Heroes get when they’re riled up,” Daisy said, looking apologetic.

Zhidao rolled over, exposing his white belly contrasting with the rest of his peach fur. “If you say so! My help is always on offer. You all get by with having the Yishang pay you for your emanations, but us Pengwu have to get by on being helpful.”

“I can buy you food if you’re hungry,” Daisy said.

He rolled back over excitedly. “Really!? I’d like a plate of fried tofu!”

They were in luck and the teahouse had a selection of delicacies including some Shikijiman dishes like fried tofu. Sofiane had an order of water chestnut cake and Daisy and Shuixing split some bao with red-bean paste. All on Daisy’s dime.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Should we wait for Natsu and Pechorin to catch up with us before we start our investigation?” Shuixing asked after clearing her throat with a sip of tea.

“No, they’re probably dead,” Sofiane said.

“Don’t say that!” Daisy replied, throwing one of the buns at his face.

Before it hit him, Sofiane activated his Perfect Parry ability and deflected the bun back onto the table with a spoon.

“Being realistic, they’re #189 and— sorry, #188 and #189 out of 189 Heroes. Unless Natsuko decided she wanted to—” Sofiane paused, glanced at Zhidao, and continued. “—really go all out, they probably got creamed, let’s be honest. There’s no sense in waiting for them when we have urgent business to attend to.”

Zhidao nodded in agreement with that. Shuixing looked at Daisy who shrugged in vague agreement with Sofiane.

Shuixing sighed. “Okay, fair enough. How are we going to delegate duties then?”

Daisy’s hand shot up. “I’ll work on getting a hold of Yun-chan!”

“While you do that, Sofiane and I can ask some people close to her where she was when… w-when Nasira was killed.”

Sofiane held his hands up. “Wait just a minute! I’m in charge of the back-up plan.”

“Back-up plan?” Shuixing asked.

“Obviously! Never assume plan A is going to go correctly. Something’s gonna happen where either Daisy can’t get a meeting with Yuna, or she does and we can’t get any intel out of her. I am planning for that potentiality.”

“How?” Daisy asked.

Sofiane grinned. “I’m gonna learn how to play cards.”

Daisy laughed out loud at that. Shuixing squirmed a little as she realized they were far and away the loudest guests at the teahouse, and there were a lot of eyes on them. Non-Heroes talked. Zhidao was a good example of that.

“So, what, you’re going to meet her head-to-head in a tournament match and interrogate her over cards?” Daisy asked.

“I don’t even need to do that, I’ve just gotta grab her attention somehow and hover around her and she’ll eventually ask to money match me. Simple as,” he said.

Daisy raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to learn how to play Elements: The Coalescing and get good enough to be a tournament contender in two days?”

Sofiane flashed her a thumbs up. “Yeah!”

“Aw, bless your heart,” Daisy said, patting him on the shoulder. “In the meantime, shall we check into our hotel and dump our junk?”

Those words sounded so strange to Shuixing. “Check into our hotel.” Her mind had been so caught up in Natsuko and Yuna and her papers and Zhidao and card games and dimension jumping that she had entirely forgotten that she also required somewhere to sleep that was not the street. Even accounting for that, “check into our hotel” sounded like goblin-speak to her.

“Do we have a reservation?” Shuixing asked.

Daisy blinked. “A what?”

“Oh my dear, dear Shuixing…” Sofiane reached across the table and clasped Shuixing’s hands in his. “Top Ten Heroes don’t need reservations.”

That was news to Shuixing, and she had floated between #6 and #8 on the Use-Rankings for almost two years. The hotel hadn’t even existed when she’d last been in Tianzhou. Nonetheless, they were soon in the lobby of The Yongfu Hotel which was carved straight out of the cliff-face of a mountain overlooking Tianzhou City. The balconies of its suites protruded from the rock like wrought-iron pimples.

Shuixing felt self-conscious standing in the immaculate marble lobby wearing stained scholar’s robes and dirty boots. Despite their grimy appearances, the Non-Hero staff jumped to work taking their packs from them. Shuixing blushed as a porter stuck their hands through the straps across her back sending a ticklish shiver up her spine.

“Mistress Corduroy, a pleasure to see you again! Mint julep for you?” asked one of the hotel attendants.

“Isn’t that drink from Deco Imper—?” Shuixing was halfway through asking before a silver cup with a mint sprig sticking out of the top was thrust into Daisy’s hands. Having spent the last several years in quaint little Vermögenburgh where the height of customer service was Alva giving her an extra slice of smoked salmon on her rye bread, this was utterly alien.

“Want something?” Daisy asked the other two.

“I’ll have a double shot of baijiu with a splash of lavender liqueur and a twist,” Sofiane said. “Chilled but no rocks.”

“And you, Mistress He?” asked the attendant.

“A-Ah, ehehe, erm… a cup of tea?”

“Right away,” the hotel attendant said with a 90-degree bow.

By the time Shuixing had gathered her wits, their packs had disappeared, whisked away by hyper-competent Non-Heroes while Daisy and Sofiane sipped on their drinks by a glowing platform of stone. She took a step forward and found a cup of tea blocking her path.

“Your tea, Mistress He.”

“O-Oh thank you, that was… fast,” she said.

The hotel attendant bowed once again and disappeared just as quickly. Shuixing walked over to Daisy and Sofiane, the nostalgic taste of proper Tianzhounese green tea the only thing that grounded her in this surreal fairy realm.

“Ready to head up?” Sofiane asked.

“I-I guess so… Where did Zhidao go?” Shuixing asked. The fox Pengwu was gone. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for the fairy creature, she had always known it to wander in and out according to its whims, but all this unfamiliar newness was making her jumpy and paranoid.

Sofiane shrugged. “Pengwu things. Who knows?”

Once they were all on the elevator, Sofiane spoke the words, “top floor,” and the platform lurched upwards, almost buckling Shuixing’s knees. A moment later they were in a dimly-lit cave corridor with gorgeous oak double-doors at the end. The doors opened magically for them once Daisy was within range, revealing a two-story room with a mezzanine overhanging the lounge area.

The main lounge area was a sea of carpets and overstuffed furniture with glass doors out to a balcony that had a gorgeous view of all of Tianzhou. The city, the Cerulean Tower, the Heavenly Card Parlor, and the outlying regions. If Shuixing squinted she could even see the isthmus connecting Tianzhou to Vermögenburgh. Somewhere in her vision, hopefully, were two tiny specks walking towards her.

“I call this one!” Sofiane said, stomping up the wrought-iron spiral stairs to an upstairs bedroom, throwing the doors open and flopping onto a silk-clad bed of feathers. Shuixing looked around a bit more and noticed that the suite also had a dining area, study, equipment storage, mini-bar, and three more bedrooms aside from the one Sofiane had claimed.

“What do you think?” Daisy asked her, setting her empty mint julep down on a counter.

“I-I-It’s a lot…”

“Not very comfortable, huh?”

“N-No! I wouldn’t say that, I just…”

Daisy sighed wistfully. “Sleeping on a bedroll under the stars has its charm too. There are nights I want that more than this. But, you’ll get used to it. Plus we’ll need to rest up real good before pursuing Yun-chan, right?”

Shuixing adjusted her glasses and blushed a little. “I promise I don’t mean to be rude, but um… if it’s alright with you, I um… I think I might ask to stay at Tianzhou Academy instead. If that’s okay…”