My throat was parched and I wondered if I should not have trauma dumped on her, but she seemed fine.

"Do you want to talk about it, or just vent?" She said.

"I think I'm good. I wish I could do some training but-"

"It's the curse of the dad bod, isn't it? Too hot to train or something?"

"Did Min tell you about that? I told her of my curse in confidence."

"She's pretty forthcoming with information about you. That might work in your favor, but with her classic snark, I doubt that it will ever help you."

Egiya set out to clean up an already tidy pile of scrolls and ink pots. She looked like she might be preparing for something but I had no idea what.

"Anyway," I said,"How are things? Did you father pass a note with the book he sent or did he just send it?"

She had explained that when her parents had diverged-one ascending to the fourth realm and the other breaking their cultivation- that her father had to take on bigger and bigger jobs to keep them afloat. He sent back formation scrolls for her to sell from time to time, but her main business was selling blank scrolls as well as the whole correspondence and copying part. She did enough business that the courier guild regularly sent someone to pick up or deliver things on her behalf.

"I-what he said-it is a bit personal. And no, I didn't explain the concept of divorce to him."

I wondered what he might have said to her briefly, but really it wasn't any of my concern. If she wanted to tell me later, she would.

"But you wanted to? For some reason you thought that one or both of your parents would benefit from this?"

The shop was quiet. I let her sit in it for a little bit.

"You know it's a cultural thing. I didn't understand how it could possibly work for anyone else. When you explained it to me, I immediately thought about them. They- they are not happy together anymore. The times that he's home, they're not happy times for Mom. I mean she's happy for like 5 minutes but then I can see on her face that she wants him to go again. She doesn't want to be a burden . He doesn't want to look like a savior."

"That sounds like they need marital counseling, not a divorce but I expect that it is not a thing here."

"Did you mean to say martial counseling?"

"No. Marital as in for couples that are married. I don't know if this is a good sign that I'm going to have a lot of clients and that Lorenzo and I are going to be raking it in or if we have to convince everyone that this is a good idea. Did you know that Xueyie has been doing great with us as our new apprentice? She has a way about her. I think that she's taking this like an acting role and it is to a certain extent."

"Well that's promising. Are you guys going to set up shop somewhere?"

"We have been doing house calls."

"How is your mother? Lorenzo wants to see her and talk shop. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that but they seemed to get it off last time. He had an old lady back on earth. We haven't actually talked about what happened with his family. I don't actually know what happened with my family. I can only guess and hope that someone will read my will."

Egita looked at me as if I was inventing portmanteaus on the regular. I couldn't help it. If they were specific words that I used regularly that didn't have a context for her, then I would have to go out of my way to explain them.

"She is fine. A bit brighter with the regular visits. You came here for a reason though. You don't just idly drop by, generally."

"I'll have you know that I do sometimes show up without an agenda."

If looks could kill, well I would not be doing so well after the glare she gave me.

"Really! I just wanted to drop by and see how you're doing. It had nothing to do with this package. Or the messenger that conveniently you sent. This is all just a misunderstanding, I swear to you. Can we start over?"

She sighed, smiled and drew out a piece of paper the size of my torso. Then, without preamble she launched into drawing a series of lines, circles and what had to be runes as she drew aura into her. I could tell that she was spending her qi as fast as she drew it, because the world around me got a little bit quieter and less vibrant from the amount that she was taking in.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

This meant that she was able to draw in a staggering amount, or something else was going on here. The aura above her writing was particularly fast moving and with my nascent soul, I could see the turmoil brewing.

The amount of energy she spent on that paper left me feeling like I had if not ran for a mile, at least warmed up. I was getting contact high off what was starting to become a formation.

"This right here is a basic formation to refine and collect aura. This is one of the first that you learn and it requires hours of study to learn each little piece. Thankfully there is a lot of related carry over for other formations, but in my early perusal of this book, it would take a significant investment to do summoning formation. It might be possible for a fifth realm cultivator, but even so that would be someone who specialized in formations from their foundation level."

"And how long did-"

"Two years. This took me two years of study to make this effortless."

I looked around for some water and was irritated that I hadn't brought any.

That idea was immediately out of the window. I was not going to be learning formations anytime soon. Perhaps my best bet was to train her up so that she could learn information and I might be able to find a way out of this place. I don't know if she was going to buy into that idea. I really wanted to go back.

Every day it was a little bit less painful. Still a dad has his duty and mine wants to see if I could reunite with my daughters.

"When I was summoned here, there was nobody around me. This makes a sound like an intentional thing. I should have woken up in a room surrounded by people instead of stepping into a door and then into the wilderness."

I briefly explained how I had arrived to her.

"Have you been back to the place you came from? Not your world but the spot where you arrived?"

"I haven't actually. I guess I just never saw a reason to go back."

I wondered if she would be willing to go back with me. Almost certainly she would. It would be a bit of a hike for me. I would gladly accept the challenge, though it would probably take a better part of two days to walk it. It would be a lot faster if I spent the time healing up.

The time I had gone out in a rush trying to hide two unconscious Red Fang thugs was still fresh in my mind. That had been a harrowing experience and I had thought that they were worthy of my grace. As it turned out, they weren't even worthy of my mercy in the end.

"Do you think we'd find a formation there that summons people from my world?"

"Either that or I don't know what else it could be? You are here and the place you got summoned is in the farthest corner of what we have shielded so anything is possible. The list of candidates for who could do this is short though. It has some overlap with my father actually, though he isn't here. And he wouldn't have been here when you arrived if I understand your timeline."

"That's frustrating. But at least you can help me? I might hold off on this trip for another week as that would be a lot easier."

"How long are you on light duty?"

"Another week or so. We can make a trip of it then."

"Don't you have the ability to fly though?"

"I can make things that I hold fly which is similar. I think I'll be able to fly on my own with a bit more energy."

"You can make things you hold fly?"

"Yeah so long as I hold onto something, I can manipulate it how I want. This doesn't cover stronger cultivators though. I can get them for a split second and make them weightless or something, but if they are strong enough to shut me down, eh?"

I could tell that she wanted a demonstration. I looked around for something sturdy that would actually support my weight. Finding nothing, I made a mental note to show her later.

One of Egiyas assistants walked through with some forms for her to sign.

"They-lots of signatures today, huh?"

"The boarder on the third floor is moving out. That rent payment being the larger part of what keeps us in business until my father sends something back for us. He might be getting paid on honor, but the city taxes are only paid in Waan."

"Are you in a bad spot?"

"We won't be if we get a tenant but we have to charge a lot since we are in the square. This limits the amount of people that would be willing to stay. Usually it's people with no family connections in the city here on a temporary assignment. We just don't have a backfill right now."

I wondered if I could take the spot but then it would put us in an awkward position. I also wondered how much their taxes were and what that even went to the government to fund. Surely it went to buying spiritual treasures to fortify the defenders that kept the monsters at bay or something like that. They were probably buying the fantasy equivalent of used tanks for their local police department.

"I can tell by your face that you want to know how much it is. Well it's too expensive for your blood. You couldn't dream of coughing up the one hundred Waan to pay for it."

"Alright. That's fine. But I know a guy who might need a place and fits your criteria."

"Is his name some ridiculous anagram of yours?"

Somehow this world had anagram puzzles but nary a book for me to read up until today. It made me a bit curious as to where we were and who made books and how.

"I would never talk bad about Schmoseph Ridge. He is a fine upstanding citizen."

"Right."

"Where is the woman I met with the imposter syndrome, the huge bow and the boundary issues?"

"Kinda hard to have imposter syndrome when one has fifteen confirmed demonic cultivator kills. Did you know that the blue robes give you a cash prize for each one?"

"They do what?"

"You have to file the paperwork correctly with the right office but-"

"Tell me everything."