I could lie and say that I wasn't attracted to Egiya. I'm not going to say that. And without going into how her sleek black hair was perfectly in place, her work clothes looked more like ceremonial garb, she was lovely. But it was the look in her eyes, the one that told me -combined with her words- that I was probably her latest hyper fixation. It sadly reminded me of Lauren, and Lauren reminded me that I wasn't with my daughters. Safe to say that dropped my mood a few points.

Also, using her as both a reason to visit the tea house as well as getting her as a potential source, well that would be helpful to me.

"Very well. This one must accept your generous offer, Cultivator Pidge. Please permit me the brief time needed to close up the shop."

I was about to do my old thing of asking if she needed help, but stopped. It had taken years of the world beating me down, but I wasn't going to try to help everyone with a sympathetic need. Plus, it would probably have been offensive had I offered. Instead, I took a walk outside and waited, breathing in the aura of the city.

I couldn't pinpoint the particular blend, but I felt like I smelled dreams and hopes in the aura around me. I leaned into that feeling, trying to snatch it from the air.

Whether it was from one person or many peoples dreams merging together, I felt that my body was nudging me to open a way to use the aura. It took me several minutes to absorb the aura that I wanted as I waited for Egiya, and by the time she was in front of me, I had breathed in what felt like small water bottles worth of the aura. There was no physical difference. My soul was holding it, though I knew this was some cultivator thing.

"The tea shop I went to yesterday isn't far from here," I said when she joined me.

"Do you mind if there are questions this one has on the way?" She was all business now.

"Ask away," I replied, "just know...you know what go ahead."

She pulled something out of her left sleeve.

"Have you opened any of your meridians yet?"

"Meridians? What's that?" I asked innocently. Someone long ago told me that the best way to get someone to answer a technical problem was to use one account to ask the question and another to parrot back the wrong answer. People like correcting others, probably too much.

"Your qi pathways, it's something that foundation level cultivators need to do to advance," she said.

I felt the aura I had absorbed sitting there wanting to do something. If it wanted to make a pathway that made sense. But a pathway from where to where? I was stumped.

"Ah. That's interesting. Let's just say that so far I've been self taught.Perhaps a different line of inquiry then?" I said.

She sighed and we turned down a street getting away from the Raven's nest.

"What does it feel like?"

That was not what I expected her to ask. I was consciously slowing my walk so she would stick with me. She probably knew a few cultivators.

"It feels like I'm fake strong. Like it feels unreal. I'm actively trying to slow down to keep pace with you so you're not left behind."

She furrowed her brow. I imagined that she might have been taking notes if we had gotten to the shop. I hoped that I didn't offend her.

"You are at the foundation realm, correct?"

I nodded. That was as far as I knew.

"Then you must be able to do so many things with your Qi..."

"Honestly, right now it just makes me feel stronger and faster. Seriously, I know you think I am sassing you but-"

"Sassing?"

"It means making light of. Generally in a humorous way."

Her narrowed eyes stopped a potential info dump I was brewing. She would still get it, just a bit later.

"Go on."

"I don't know, it feels like I'm tingling all over when I take in too much of the aura around us, and...you don't believe me, do you?"

"Apologies, but my father is a healer, and he achieved the second realm or so... But every time he spoke about Cultivation, he would make such oblique remarks that absolutely made no sense."

"Like what? I don't understand why this has to be so difficult. Draw in aura, use it or expel it ... Or like I recently did, try and store it for later."

She began taking notes furiously on her paper. She interviewed me for five more minutes before we got to Mogui chaguan. Thankfully it was still open and the line was non-existent.

"Oh! You can just buy tea here? What a novel concept!"

"My feelings exactly, kids nowadays have no respect for traditions like never turning a good experience into a commodity," I said, making my best impression of a male Karen.

"What a strange way to put it," she said, "but it makes sense."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar female cultivator leaning against a wall. Angular lines on a face full of stage makeup complemented an outfit that wouldn't have been out of place at a ballet. She was making a statement.

The Taoist woman had her eye on me. It was unsettling, but she wouldn't harm me with this many people around. Of course, she would stake this place out. Or maybe she was waiting for someone else to slander her Sect.

We found an unoccupied booth far from the front door and sat down.

Egiya put some more conventionally sized papers in front of her and began writing.

"You want to know more about the Sects in town. This one wants to know more about your Cultivation. Are we agreed?"

"Agreed. We can go one for one or more freeform."

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Our tea arrived at that moment. The woman bringing it was the Taoist cultivator, Xin Yuexie. So she was either working for the Mogui chaguan or she had asked the proprietor to let her do this? I would have to investigate later.

"Your tea, young master."

"Gratitude," I said, accepting the tray.

Egiya watched her place the tray down but didn't say anything. I couldn't tell if she knew that the tall woman with the dancer's physique was a Cultivator or not. Once Yuexie wasn't looking over the table, Egiya turned to me.

"Cultivators in their first realm have certain strengths, usually. But more than that, they are overconfident. That's not something this one sees in you. We are so far below-the average human versus the average cultivator- that only the fastest and the strongest humans can relate."

I had thoughts that I might be an Olympic caliber sprinter or high jumper with how I felt.

"But you don't know when someone has passed through to the first realm?"

"If there's one thing you will learn, if you don't know someone is a cultivator-they will tell you. You were very candid about your situation. Try to imagine someone less, shall we say magnanimous about their situation?"

I blinked in surprise. The tea was very good with her.

"I try to be honest. If I lie a lot it tends to bite me in the ass."

Sure, I wasn't lying when I told Lauren I was ready to not have kids in the house. I just... The words that spilled out of my mouth afterwards, that wasn't the best version of me. And it sucked that I wouldn't be able to go back and have a do over.

"We don't know generally when someone is in the first realm, unless they say something. It is said that there are a few ways to hide your Qi level and pretend to be normal."

I nodded. It really was good tea. If Egiya had launched into some drama between herself and her dad at the time it would have been double tea, but I didn't know her well enough.

"That's another thing. I need some of these path manuals."

Her eyes widened and her pupils constricted.

"How...? How have you been advancing so far?I l leaned over conspiratorially before placing a rod of graphene onto some paper and writing out a response.

**I haven't.**

She looked relieved before grabbing her own much better looking graphene rod.

**Where are you from? Really?**

**I can't tell you yet. I don't know you well enough.**

She gasped and I realized that the silence between us was getting attention I would rather not have. I grabbed the paper she had written our notes on before she stopped me.

"This one thinks we should go over some calligraphy. The writing style you use... Lacks something?"

While she talked she scribbled furiously onto her side of the scroll before passing it around.

**Let me learn how you awakened your Cultivation and I'll give you a master lesson in calligraphy.**

I tilted my head to her.

**Not here. There's so much mysticism and bullshit around Cultivation that I'm not understanding. My father is a cultivator so I should have the spark to awaken but I keep coming up short.**

The fact that she had begun writing 'I' instead of writing out this one probably meant that I was in. If anyone has the social capital to ask stupid questions to people in power, it would probably be her.

Egiya stocked the small to medium sized sects with their stationery needs. Her other customers were the noble families that ran the city on behalf of the emperor, I found out later.

"I think that we have a deal," I said, taking a cursory glance around our booth towards the front of the shop.

She was gone, but I had been expecting that. Next thing I knew, she would probably be offering me tickets to one of the performances her Sect put on.

"That lady? She is wearing Taoist robes. She probably is a cultivator," Egiya said,"You need help, she probably has access to her clan's records and-The Taoists are an ancient Sect.

They have so many historical records that predate our current emperor.

"The emperor? Is he a cultivator?"

She looked at me askance.

"Of course," she said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Have they not achieved immortal status? Do they step down after some time?"

"Ah, yes that would be a question. How do I put this ... After a point in time, they will ascend to a further realm and pass on the responsibility to another. Often the court rejects their choice, and the once emperor unleashes his fury upon the court. Somewhere around the eighth realm, they ascend."

I couldn't imagine the power that someone would have to have to give up a position as emperor. Maybe they got their own new planet to cultivate?

"There have been two emperors since the formation of the empire. The Taoist Sect...gives a good explanation of how things ran here before that. They explain it in depth while the performance goes on."

"Sounds like I should watch one of those."

It sounded entertaining. I didn't actually know if it would be worthwhile, but I couldn't see a lot of other things to do that didn't directly involve a Sect or family. In fact the secular non private spaces in this city seemed to be few and far between. I had to pay for my room where I lived but there didn't seem to be a public library, hospital or other building. Sure there was the government and the military was apparently a thing here as well, but outside of meeting people through commerce there didn't seem to be a way to meet others.

Egiya brought something out of her robes.

"This is a talisman of Nascent sight. It will let me see how someone cultivates. It's similar to how those who have achieved the Nascent soul can see the world."

"Nascent, meaning what exactly?"

I racked my brain thinking back to my SAT prep course that my mother had insisted on. An altogether inexcusable amount of time was spent on vocabulary and I already read a ton.

"Nascent as in... The budding spirit of an advanced Cultivator."

"Ah," I said,"Understood. Have you used this on your father? Or has this never come up?"

"It has never come up. He...wants me to... He has an idea of what a woman's role is in the world."

"Let me guess. His views don't exactly line up with yours?"

"That's accurate," she said, picking up an empty kettle,"Ah it has been good to talk to you."

"People keep saying that like-"

"You're a good listener."

"-I'm a good listener."

I smirked.

"I'm a good listener, but..."

"No buts, this has been an insightful conversation. This one is warmed by this whole... " She gestured vaguely at the space between us.

"I liked this, but don't get me wrong. It sounds like everyone here is concerned with...like they are all so self absorbed. Where I'm from... We talk to each other and we don't... We don't have this rampant tribalism."

"Tribalism?"

"The society here is so fractured into little interest groups-if I understand this right- that there isn't one thing that everyone... Is there a national identity?"

"I'm not familiar with that word... National?"

"Like a country?"

Her blank stare made me think that this was a moot point.

"Okay we'll need to revisit this later but how does the talisman work then?"

"It uses a small part of the targets Qi to illuminate the dantian. Then the flow of aura to the Cultivator is seen and..."

"You want to watch me cultivate."

"Well yes."

I had to think about this one for a long second. I was just rooting around trying things out. I had been attacked or chased a few times since I had arrived here. I didn't want to just go catatonic, because it was like a focused meditation crossed with a nap. I wasn't fully conscious of the outside world.

"Let's say that I agreed. Where would we do this?"

"Oh! Uh I haven't thought that far ahead but we should be able to use the meditation room in my home."

I was tempted to just give her what she wanted. Also perhaps the Green Air inn had one of these rooms if they were so common. I would have to ask Moon Fei next time I saw him .

"I have another thing that I want to ask you to do if we're going to work together," I said, sketching something out quickly on my page.

I turned it over to her and she got it immediately.

"This is something that we can do."

She smiled widely.