Joshi had been given opulent quarters above one of the taverns. To his east were the cultivation offices and army structures, and just to the west, the cluster of buildings taken by the sects. Each of the three major sects represented here at this tower cull had leased a headquarters compound from the officials in charge of the camp, giving their students and disciples a place to stay, lodging and offices for their functionaries, private practice grounds, and training facilities. Several similar buildings stood empty, ready to receive more sects.

Joshi, being placed adjacent to the sects meant that the powers that be at least pretended to believe his cover story. He was under no illusion that he was safe. When his claimed sect failed to arrive in a few days, there would be more questions. Meanwhile, he was being watched. A pair of guards had escorted him from the inquisitor's hearing back to his inn, then loitered nearby. He could see them from the window of his room. That was fine. When he was ready to make his move, they would not stand in his way. The floor guardian's promise still rang in his ears: No bond shall hold you. He would not be placed in chains again.

However, there were preparations he should make, and he still longed to find a solution that would allow him to continue cultivating. The license Chang-li had produced had satisfied the inquisitor, but Joshi was certain it was a forgery. Could he persuade his sometimes ally to assist him in acquiring such a license? If he could present himself at a different tower as a sect-less cultivator, he might be able to prove his worth to a sect and be allowed to join them. Then he could continue cultivating.

If all else failed, he could return home to his father. Having achieved the Peak of Bodily Refinement, he would at least be a valuable Darwur warrior. He hated the thought. He would not go home until he could return in triumph.

A knock came at his door. A camp worker stood outside his room carrying a parcel for him.

"The Dowager Pearl requests that you attend the evening festivities hosted by the gem court tonight alongside the other cultivators of your rank," the servant said, not meeting Joshi's eyes.

Joshi saw no slave collar around the man's neck. He was a free worker, one who would have considered himself too far above Joshi even to notice him prior to this. "What's that?" Joshi indicated the bundle.

"The dowager has sent robes. She does not know your sect’s pattern, so has had them done in simple grey."

Joshi accepted the bundle. "I have heard your message. Go.”

The servant departed, and Joshi considered if he wanted to continue this ruse at least for long enough to acquire a few supplies and perhaps a forged license, he would need to play the part, which meant accepting the summons. It would be incredibly dangerous.

He was certain the Dowager Pearl and other officials suspected his story. They could tell he had reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement, at least, and he had been caught cultivating without a license. While reaching Bodily Refinement proved he was a cultivator, he’d been inside a tower without authorization, and now he was claiming to belong to a sect that didn’t exist. He wasn’t sure what the penalties for either were. Having escaped slavery, little the Imperials could threaten him with scared him.

Except the idea of not being permitted to cultivate.

He would have to keep up the ruse that he did indeed belong to a sect. While sect-less cultivators were permitted to join in tower expeditions, they needed to have a license and permission from the cultivating official. Claiming to belong to a sect had gotten Joshi some grace. Everyone knew ambitious young cultivators would seek whatever advancement they could. A Young Master leaving his disciples and functionaries behind in order to begin his next round of cultivating a little earlier was plausible and might be overlooked the way a parent would indulge a favored child. That indulgence would go away as soon as Joshi's claimed sect failed to appear.

The servant had included a sharpened razor and a bar of soap. Joshi used the basin of water in his chamber and the bronzed mirror to remove the stubble from his face and head until his head was properly bald again. Until he had avenged his past shame, he could not grow his hair out. Though there were no other Darwurs here to know the customs, Joshi would follow them. Then he washed the rest of his body as best he could in the basin. He longed for the cool river pools he had bathed in as a child, but compared to the filth he’d endured as a slave, this was marvelous.

Joshi dressed himself in the cultivator's robes, marveling at how smooth the silk felt against his skin. It had been a long time since he'd had clean clothes, anything approaching decency. Joshi considered what the monks of Harupa had told him about the Gem Court and how it interacted with cultivators. They had warned that if he ever proved himself as a cultivator in the empire, he would find himself interacting with the gem nobles. They were one of the ways the emperor controlled cultivators, by requiring anyone who showed promise to marry one of his own descendants.

Should a promising cultivator already be married, he would be required to take a second spouse anyway, and the Gem noble spouse would always be considered as primary, displacing the prior spouse. As a Darwur man, Joshi was not too bothered with that thought. His own mother had been the Khan's second wife, pushed around and bullied by his first wife, Joshi having a lower status reflected from that. But he didn’t want any wives at all, at least not right now.

If he were planning to stay in the Empire for long, he would have to be careful of entanglements with the Gem Court. It would not do to get saddled with a wife who would report his secrets and plans back to the Emperor.

For tonight, Joshi's goals were simple: try to keep anyone from becoming more suspicious about himself while determining if there was anything here he could make use of. He almost certainly had to give up cultivating and flee this place. But if there was any other way…

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When he had donned the robe, he found it uncomfortable. Joshi had worn little more than a vest on his torso during his time as a slave. The long sleeves of the cultivator's robes that fell past his wrists were awkward and hampering. The voluminous skirts threatened to trip him up as he walked. Joshi tied and retied the belt several times until it was more or less comfortable. He wore the leggings that came with the robe but discarded the undertunic entirely, as its cut was poor for his chest and shoulders. It made him feel bound up.

Magen appeared, perching on his shoulder with one of those buzzes which was almost a chirp. Joshi reached up and passed his fingers through the little lux creature. He imagined he could feel a thickening of the air where its body hung. "Are you doing well?" he asked his friend gravely.

Magen chirped again. Joshi fed the creature a little of his stored yellow lux. Magen accepted it with an ungrateful feeling. Then he chirped again at Joshi, questioningly. Joshi considered. "Yes, you should come," he said at last.

Lux familiars were not uncommon, and he suspected the higher ranks might sense his bond with Magen, whether he tried to hide it or not. It would give the other cultivators yet another curiosity to consider. A bonded lux creature did seem more suited to an ambitious Young Master from an obscure sect than to the sectless cultivator he truly was.

His ablutions completed, he presented himself at the gates behind the Jade Lotus sect. All three of their Young Masters were present behind the sect elder, and they had a swath of attendants with them. Their cultivators' robes were brilliant shades of green and yellow, so Joshi couldn't exactly blend in. However, he stuck close to them as he passed through the gate. Perhaps he could avoid attention by arriving in unison.

That hope, however, was dashed as a pair of brown-robed servitors hurried forward and separated the groups out. One of them went and announced the Jade Lotus cultivators. Joshi tucked away their names for future reference. Then the second urged him forward and proclaimed loudly, "From the Sect of Morning Mist, Young Master Joshi, the hero of the Tower Cull.”

There was polite applause as Joshi took stock. The secluded section of camp belonging to the Court of Gems was a well-maintained garden. Four long, low buildings framed a courtyard with blossoming trees everywhere and colored lanterns hanging from their branches. A tall pagoda rose at the far end of the courtyard, and in front of that stood an assortment of tall chairs in which the Grand Master of the Jade Lotus sect was being seated. The Dowager Pearl and the Master of Cultivation were already present, as was the Grand Master of the Soaring Heavens sect.

Joshi made his bows and tried to fade into a crowd of lower-ranked disciples and guests, but he was immediately surrounded by a bevy of the young nobles. They stood out from the crowd in their white robes with a band of color around the edge. None of them were Hiroko.

"Young Master Joshi," the orange-ranked woman said, "I am Nima, and I am so pleased to meet you. Everyone here has heard about you, how you heroically saved the Indigo Princess."

"And me as well, of course,” one of the red-robed women said, a bit of a sardonic edge to her voice. She was the girl he had seen with Hiroko. She wore her hair pulled up in a pair of braids that coiled atop her head, much less elaborate than the other women, with their raven-dark hair swooping in, wings down to their shoulders, then held back with pins in their rank color.

"I'm Min," the red woman told Joshi, "and thank you for your aid."

He bowed. "I am only glad I was there to help."

"So, Morning Mist. None of us have ever heard of that sect," Nima continued.

A man in red spoke up. "Yes, do tell. And wherever did you acquire that lux spirit? I’ve never seen one so indistinct before.”

"Jai-Lin, give him space," Min snapped. There were three other women here, all pressing in eagerly, leaving Jai-lin on the outskirts of the crowd. Joshi would have found the attention flattering if he could shake off the knowledge that a month ago any of these women would have rather stepped in dung than speak to him.

The crowd fell silent then parted as Princess Hiroko approached.

Joshi caught his breath. He had never seen her like this. Her indigo robes seemed to fit her better than the other women's robes did. Her hair was swept up and pinned with tiny amethyst-tipped clips. She wore just enough makeup that it hardly looked as if she were wearing any at all, but Joshi had seen her often enough under the lux-tinted sky to know what she looked like without it. She seemed calm and unperturbed as she pressed her hands together and inclined her head.

"Young Master Joshi, my thanks for your aid," she said.

He bowed low. "It was my pleasure to be of service, Highness."

Hiroko turned to the others. "Do not press our new acquaintance with too many questions. He will think you are all clamoring like a pack of dogs over a hunk of meat."

Two of the women turned beet-red. "Your Highness, we—"

"Young Master Joshi, might I perhaps introduce you to a few of the other Young Masters who you may not have met?" Hiroko offered her arm.

Joshi took it. He saw the ripple of disapproval across the other nobles and realized that Hiroko had just set his own status significantly higher by marking him out as someone that an Indigo princess was interested in. She had made it much harder for any of these red or orange ladies to get their claws in him.

To his surprise, Min's expression wasn't perturbed, but curious. Her look was intent as she glanced between him and Hiroko. He didn't like how perceptive she seemed, but a moment later, the woman tugged at the sleeve of the red-robed man, and the two disappeared.

Hiroko led Joshi a little away from the others, somewhat to his relief. "Be careful of those vultures," she hissed. "All of them are looking to get their claws in a cultivator."

"From an unknown sect?" he muttered back. He was surprised at just how happy he was to have her at his side, helping him. It made him feel less alone.

"A cultivator who shows up out of nowhere and saves the day, performing heroically? That's like half the stories this lot has been raised on since childhood. Don't let yourself get alone with them, or you may find yourself with a warmer welcome than you'd expect. Come."

She led him over to a pair of young cultivators in blue and yellow striped robes. "Li Jen, Li Jiya. This is Young Master Joshi," Hiroko said. "Of the Morning Mist sect. Joshi, Li Jen, and Li Jiya are the most promising acolytes that Moon Whispers has seen in two generations."

The man blushed. The woman nodded appreciatively. "I was impressed by the brief glimpse I had of your abilities," Li Jen told him. "You are a martial-focused cultivator. Is that your sect's specialty?"

"My sect is eclectic," Joshi said. “I have no particular speciality.”

“I would —” Li Jiya broke off. “Forgive me, but I have promised an introduction of my own and he’s just arrived. My apologies.” She bowed to Joshi before hurrying off. To his astonishment, as the crowd shifted, she approached Chang-li, who was wearing a dark robe and a worried expression. What was he doing here?

Joshi glanced at Hiroko and saw the same worry in her face. Just as they had in the tower, they were forced to trust each other If any of them let slip their secrets, it could have disastrous repercussions.

This was not going to be a pleasant evening, by any measure.