Noem sat and watched the ceiling ripple while the waters of the bath worked into his body. He couldn’t quite make sense of what they were attempting to do, but it felt like they were washing his spirit while the waters washed his body and the vapors seeped into his mind. Though that could’ve been the relaxation talking.

He shifted and held his hand over his mouth, then shaped his Qi into a not-quite-skill. A simple protective film of Qi over his mouth, nose, ears and eyes that the stone tried to siphon from him. To protect the sensitive electronics, of course. Then he lowered his head under the too-warm waters and let them do their thing.

{You’re enjoying the water? Not too hot?} The Artisan asked through Noem’s earpiece. Looks like she hadn’t lied about taking over his system. {I can regulate the temperature if you want.}

“No, I’m very happy with this.” Noem sighed. The water didn’t enter his mouth, but he also didn’t have a whole lot of air to work with. “You know I probably should’ve asked this earlier, but why is there a key to this place? Is it somewhere people go for… I don’t know if ‘trials’ is the right word. Tests of skill? Shows of force?”

The Artisan giggled lightly, and her Qi shone on the bottom of Noem’s vision. It shifted into a small avatar of her fox-mink-cobra statue, then her words shifted to come from it. {Could be. I’m not one-hundred percent sure why things suddenly changed, but they did. It’s probably safe to assume that all the Djinn lairs are going to be something like that.}

But it was still just an assumption. Noem nodded and wiped his hand across his forearm, forcing his Qi into his palm to wipe away anything that had stuck to his skin. The water made it difficult, more so than he’d imagined, and by the time he reached the back of his hand his concentration was completely shot. The coverings for his face-holes began to fade away as well, and Noem pushed himself out of the water before they could get damaged.

{I didn’t think your devices could be water damaged.} The Artisan noted, then blinked as her statue animated with Qi. “Are you just being cautious?”

“Old habits die hard.” Noem confirmed. He leaned back once again, and pulled his arms out of the water to rest on the edge. “Since you can see all the attackers’ interfaces, can you tell when they’re going to leave? Or if they’re going to leave at all?”

“Nineteen days, added to the two they’ve already been here makes twenty one. Someone hired them for three weeks, but they haven’t mentioned anyone by name. Not even once.” The Artisan relayed. She padded closer to Noem and laid her head on his shoulder, which felt strangely like thin fur, not the rock she appeared to be made of. “It’s obviously Ajiana, but we don’t have one-hundred percent confirmation, so there’s room to be wrong.”

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Noem rubbed his chin and tried to think of anyone else that would’ve wanted him dead or captured, but none sprung to mind. If they hadn’t come after him for four years now, the only reason they’d have to do so now would be Ajiana bribing them to do it on her behalf. Or some of his contacts could’ve decided he needed to stop existing, but he had a feeling he’d be soaking in his own blood instead of comforting waters if that was the case.

“So I’m trapped here for nineteen days. That’s not so bad, as long as you have food.” Noem decided with a nod. “You can teach me how to use your Qi, and we can spitball ideas on what to do next. Could be much worse.”

“Much, much worse. You could be stuck on a skyrail to the university right about now.” The Artisan chuckled.

Noem shrugged. “It wouldn’t be that bad. The people there aren’t the worst, but there’s absolutely nothing left for me there. Not after I dropped out to take care of Mona.”

The Artisan blinked at Noem, but decided to hold her tongue. “That’s fair, I guess. You can’t graduate from the base program without breaking through the mortal realm, so it would be impossible for you.”

“Exactly.” Noem confirmed with a nod. “Even if I was stronger than a lot of the extended program students, the university didn’t care. All they cared about was that fucking mortal 9 I couldn’t raise.”

“I’d suggest looking into artificial bonds, but that would assume you didn’t already, and I don’t think you’re that stupid.” The Artisan mused and half insulted at the same time. “What went wrong? Weren’t they made so people who can’t bond can still cultivate beyond the mortal realm?”

Noem raised an eyebrow. “Thought you weren’t asking.”

“I’m asking why it didn’t work, not if you tried it in the first place.” The Artisan said, then grumbled at the look Noem shot her. “I’m just curious. You’re the first person I’ve talked to in the flesh who wasn’t a terrible disappointment.”

A sneer crossed Noem’s lips as a memory crossed his mind. “Yeah. People are disappointing. That sums things up perfectly.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” The Artisan laughed sharply. “If you’re willing to share, though, I would like to know why your artificial bonds didn’t work.”

Noem shrugged. “I don’t have a good reason. They just didn’t. Pretend like I’m my hand, and the bond is the water. For me, it worked like this.” Noem cupped a palmful of water, then pulsed his Qi. The water was pushed out by the protective shell that formed. “For normal people, the bond would get absorbed when they put Qi into it. But mine completely rejects it for some reason. That’s why I can’t internalize any skills, either.”

The Artisan nodded slightly. “I was about to ask. So that ‘only me’ isn’t the same as having a maximum of zero bonds; it’s saying that you can’t have anything but your own Qi in your body. So… how’s this working?”

Noem blinked, then stared into the Artisan’s eyes. “Uh.”

“Okay, since you’re as in the dark as I am, let’s leave it alone for now. Just in case that screws over what we’ve got.” The Artisan withdrew her head from Noem’s shoulder and hopped off the edge of the bath, then looked over her shoulder at him. “Take as long as you want. Because when you get out of there, I’m going to train you until it's safe for you to leave. Maybe we’ll even make a few impossibilities possible.”