The party was at last winding down. To Chang-li's relief, the Dowager Pearl had swept her charges from the courtyard with no more than a brief word of farewell to Min. The other cultivators excused themselves in ones and twos. The servitors began cleaning up, while the three supposed disciples were over in a corner, seated beside a keg with mugs in their hands as they laughed together.

It felt as though he and Min had been standing here in this place of honor for a day and a half instead of perhaps two hours at most. Chang-li stretched and stepped down. Min let out a sigh of relief and followed him down onto the grass, reaching down to adjust her sandal as she did.

Joshi came to greet them. He had been exchanging a few quick words with Li Jiya as her sect took their leave. "Well done," he told Chang-li. "I think we have —“

Young Master Feng stepped out from behind a tree. Chang hadn't seen him in the darkness. Now, he emerged to stand in a pool of light cast by the hanging lanterns. Joshi fell into an aggressive stance, one foot forward, body tense, hands in fists. Chang-li cycled his lux, checking how much was available to him in his core.

"My felicitations on your marriage," Young Master Feng said, not to him, but to Min, who stiffened at once. Chang-li stepped in front of her, holding an arm out protectively as Feng continued. "I must admit, from the way everyone in the camp speaks about your brotherhood, I had expected more from you. Is this what a noble backed by the Oaken Band Brotherhood can manage?" His lips curled up. "A mere scribe? And here I thought you were aiming for him." He gestured toward Joshi. "But I suppose with an indigo princess in the race, you had no more chance of getting your hooks into a real cultivator than your sect has of winning this Tower Boon."

"This reception is over," Joshi said. "We are honored by your presence, and thank you for your good wishes. Good night."

Chang-li seethed, but despite the provocation they couldn’t afford to give Feng a reason to challenge them.

"Oh, but I am not done just yet." Feng took a step toward Joshi. "I suppose you've heard that the fourth floor opens in a matter of days."

"I have heard that," Joshi acknowledged.

"I am here to warn you that the Soaring Heavens sect will win the floor and the Tower Boon as well, after which I shall claim my reward — the hand of the princess. If you dare to step in my way, you will be destroyed."

"Is that a threat?" Joshi asked. His calm demeanor amazed Chang-li. For a former slave Joshi kept impressing Chang-li with his imperious bearing.

“Merely a promise. I suggest you would be wise to reconsider any plans you had for entering that floor, because my disciples and I will be the only ones who leave it alive."

"Thank you for your warning," Joshi said. "But this party is concluded. Good evening, Young Master Feng."

When at last Feng had disappeared into the darkness, Joshi’s facade dropped and he seethed. "I shall take him apart with my bare hands."

"He's a whole tier higher than you," Min said. "And he has a sect at his back. By the Emperor's grace, he has half a dozen disciples at the Peak of Bodily Refinement at this point."

“Nevertheless.” Joshi punched his open palm with his balled fist. "I shall be there when the tower opens."

Chang-li shook his head. “Four days is not enough time. Even if I could translate enough of the records to find techniques we could use, we'll have no time to actually learn them."

"Then we shall learn them as we go," Joshi declared. "At dawn tomorrow, we enter the tower and train as hard and fast as we can."

"It's not enough time," Chang-li insisted again. He and Joshi stared at each other, their minds clearly racing through the same thoughts.

"We need more time," Joshi whispered.

Chang-li turned to Min. "How long was it between the caravan being attacked and Princess Hiroko stumbling into camp?" he asked urgently.

"What?" Min blinked at him. "Why does that matter?”

“How long?"

Her eyes went distant as though she was trying to remember. "Two days, I think. Two days."

Chang-li looked back at Joshi. The bald barbarian was glowing with excitement. "It might be enough."

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"Yes. We should set out at once. Just the two of us."

"What are you talking about?" Min asked. She grabbed Chang-li's sleeve. "Let me help."

Chang-li shook her off. "This doesn't concern you."

"Oh, yes, it does," she snapped back. She held up fingers, ticking off her points. "First, I'm your wife now, and so everything you choose to do concerns me. Second, I am the only cultivator spouse the Morning Mist sect has, which means most of our sect's other duties fall on my shoulders. Third, and more importantly, if you have a plan that will result in humiliating that snake Feng, then I want a part of it."

Joshi shrugged. "It's up to you," he told Chang-li.

Chang-li looked from Min to the disciples in the corner of the yard, who were now singing a drinking song together, arms around each other's shoulders. "Let's go back into the house," he said. "I want us to look at the records."

It was an excuse, a chance to let him clear his thoughts. He led them inside and upstairs to the largest room, which had been made over for him and Min. Earlier, while the servants prepared for the party, he'd hauled all of the records up here. They made a substantial collection. Chang-li had looked over enough of them to start understanding their classification.

"Anything with this symbol is a technique suitable for cultivators trying to reach the Peak of Mental Refinement," he said, holding up one of the journals and indicating a seven-point star with two circles around it. "Anything with this mark, I believe, is talking about cultivation theory in general, and these ones written in plain text seem to be sect records. Those are the ones we should concentrate on."

Min must have seen his point at once. She began sorting through the records, making piles, setting aside the ones that seemed to represent a higher tier.

"What do we know about the fourth floor?" Chang-li asked Joshi.

The barbarian cultivator shrugged. "Not much. It seems the other sects know what to expect. There's a single Tower Boon to be won, and when the cultivators have appeased the Guardian, the tower will be open for others to enter. I don’t know who or why.”

“Lux technicians," Min said, not looking up from her work. "Imperial workers trained to use lux storage crystals. They will come and tap the tower's lux reserves, draining them away once the tower guardian has been convinced to stand aside and allow the harvest. It's like beekeepers at a hive. That's the other reason why you have tower culls, besides preventing an eruption. This tower’s harvest is ready to tap."

"That's how places like the cultivator library in Fai-lan City are able to infuse lux into their air?” Chang-li guessed.

"Exactly," Min agreed.

“How do you know all this?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It is common knowledge aoung nobles.”

"Do you know what we'll face on the fourth floor?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. That's not the sort of thing that gets discussed in the gem court. We're usually too busy arguing over whether Joshi or Feng has the more impressive biceps. Even my brother agrees it's you," she added to the former slave.

Joshi looked irritated but merely growled, "We should grab a handful of these scrolls and be off."

Chang-li hesitated. Joshi was right — if their only goal was to progress their own advancement. The first floor of this tower, as he and Joshi both knew, had some strange effect at work. They had been there for weeks, cultivating and searching for a way out, but when they emerged, only two days had passed on the outside. There had been no similar effect on the third floor. If they retraced their steps to the secret first-floor entrance, they could win themselves the time they needed to cultivate.

On the other hand… “Feng isn't going into the fourth floor alone," he said. "He'll have disciples to aid him. We are outmatched enough. We need an edge. What if we stand on the brink of reaching the Peak of Mental Refinement and are backed by cultivators who have attained the Peak of Bodily Refinement?"

Joshi looked wary. "You are saying we should bring the false disciples?"

"I am saying they should be real disciples," Chang-li snapped. "Like I said before, we can't afford to have a false sect. We need to make it real."

“And you would risk taking them, even knowing what could happen?” Joshi challenged. He met Chang-li’s gaze and unspoken, the shared worries settled between them. The tower’s entrance was a valuable secret they would be entrusting to the Brotherhood men. The time dilation effect, even more valuable, and one that could well get them inquisited.

"Yes, we bring them. We bring Brother Stone, if he'll come. Now that Min is associated with the sect of Morning Mist openly, there's no reason he can't join us, and he's nearly reached Bodily Refinement already. He could be training Mental Refinement techniques along with us."

"Brother Stone is loyal," Min said, still not looking up from her task. "And he hates Feng. If you're going to go up against the Soaring Heavens, he'll be a good man to have at your side."

Joshi shook his head. "You forget, none of them have reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement. They cannot stay inside a tower for long."

"Not without purification rations," Chang-li agreed. "Rations which a representative of a sect is entitled to request. We'll say that we are conducting training sessions and requisition purification rations, and food as well."

"Can they be trusted with the secret?" Joshi glanced at Min.

"If you mean the fact that you and Chang-li have clearly found a lost entrance into the tower, I'll give orders that no one is to speak of it."

Joshi hesitated. Chang-li could tell what he was thinking. That wasn't the only secret they'd be sharing. It would be impossible to hide the fact that the time dilation was in effect and that they had expected it.

It felt like they were getting dangerously close to willingly using the forbidden violet lux. But he could play ignorant, claim that he didn't know why the tower had that effect. Everyone had heard stories of cultivators entering towers and leaving a hundred years later, no older than they'd come in, or stepping into one tower and emerging from another 500 miles away. It was the sort of thing that happened, at least in legends.

"Very well," Joshi agreed. "Then we had better prepare ourselves."

"I'll send word to Brother Stone," Min said. "And then I'll get to work packing my own set of records to study.”

Chang-li looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"I will accompany you," she said. "After all, as your spouse, it's time I began my own cultivation. I don't want to fall too far behind."