Across the mountain to the east

Racha resisted every fiber of his being that wanted to flinch. Doing so would only earn him more time of suffering.

“Are you certain you don’t want to change your story?”

Shaking his head, Racha’s brown eyes never left Xkarn's gaze. The older man stared at him. His soulless black eyes felt like they were tearing into his soul.

“It is as I have spoken,” he managed to get out. “The water cultivators had an easier time getting to where we went. They caught us as we came out of the forest. A path from their city leads into the heart of the place, and wards run along the trail, keeping the chi monsters from coming at the same frequency we faced.”

Xkarn stroked his long black beard with one hand. It was two feet long and hung down to his waist. A few foolish individuals had mocked his desire to grow one, aiming for a return to the style of the masters of old, but they found themselves begging for mercy not long after voicing their thoughts.

It had been unfortunate to lose Kode. His rank was improving at a steady pace. Even if he never achieved the status of heir that he desired, the boy would serve as a pawn in his game.

“Very well… you may go get cleaned up and rest,” the master of the Treeborn estate said quietly. “Eat, change, and then seek out the trainer. He shall give you a pill, and you will need to prepare to grow stronger. We have less than a year before the tower comes, and I aim to climb it.”

Racha gave a deep bow, keeping his eyes on the inconspicuous man. Though his robes were ornate, covered with gold and silver threads, and bearing the family emblem of a massive tree rooted on a giant stone, one wayward glance might cost someone their life. Xkarn was one of the strongest patriarchs in the realm. Every patriarch was trying to make it to the ninth stage so that when the tower came, they might climb its floors, unlock the final stage of cultivation, and advance to a new plane.

“I shall do as you say, father.”

A smirk and the briefest of twitches affected one of Xkarn’s eyebrows as he watched Racha slowly back away.

Countless cuts had been made on the boy's skin, and thousands of strikes from reeds had been given over the last few weeks. Not once had he cried out or changed his mind. It almost made Xkarn believe his story.

Yet the boy had a tell and had not realized it yet. Something was being kept secret. There was a grain of truth to his story, enough that he didn’t call an inquisitor. Their technique could rip the truth from the boy's mind, but doing so would make him worthless outside of a pill furnace. There were already almost a hundred underground, stewing and growing, yet none were strong enough for what he needed right now.

As the door slid shut and a presence came from a shadow, Xkarn saw the green eyes of his commander before the woman’s shape appeared. Skin-tight black clothes formed around her shapely body. Even for one of her age, none would suspect how old she was or the power that was beneath the wraps. That was until she ripped their hearts out and drained their chi.

Erios waited for permission to speak. She always knew how to obey and act. It was one of the reasons he had kept his childhood friend around.

“What did you find?”

“Nothing shows or points to him having been a part of Kode’s death,” the woman spoke, her voice sounding like a quiet stream instead. “No items were in his storage out of the ordinary beyond some advanced pills. He could have easily had them for a while, keeping them hidden and helping him grow. Two wild chi balls were found also, and those were in line with his story. Like you, I’d almost believe he was telling the truth, but we both know that Racha would not have been easy to defeat.”

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The woman moved closer the entire time she spoke until she kneeled a few feet away from her master. Unlike Racha, she bowed her head and didn’t look up. It was pointless to pretend that if she knew an attack was coming, she could evade it. All that would do was lengthen the death that would come if Xkarn willed it.

“I have spoken with a few of the spies I have at the Waterbreast clan. It appears that their group that went out has not returned. One of them was Thomas, the fifth-stage water cultivator. Their father, Maer, is not pleased, but he is currently gone to the west and engaged in talks with Madix. If the Waterbreast clan joins with the Firelance family, things will be even worse for us. Even Serhmy has been rumored to be making moves.”

“What kind of moves?” Xkarn asked, clasping his hand behind his back as he scowled.

“As you know, the tower will be here soon, and many wonder what it will be like when each estate enters. If some are weaker when that time comes, then their hopes of reaching the top will have a higher chance of success.”

“Foolish alliances for but a moment, yet we have those weak strands already in place, do we not?”

Erios nodded and finally looked up, her face not hiding the frown she had been wearing this whole time.

“The Roaringstorm clan elder has supposedly reached the ninth stage.”

Xkarn’s eyes narrowed, and a wave of anger and danger came from him as he scowled.

“The ninth stage?! Impossible!” he shouted. “No one has come close to that in almost the one hundred years since the last tower! To reach it this soon means our information has been wrong for years!”

Without flinching, Erios nodded, her green eyes never letting their attention leave her master’s face.

“Yet you are close. In less than half a year, you should be at that stage. How many other patriarchs will reach the same? If the rumor is true and he is already there, then the winds they command will shift. How long before they seek outright attempts to remove threat or force consessions?”

She paused as Xkarn opened his mouth and closed it, clamping it shut so hard that his teeth clicked and ground together.

“When you and the others make it to the ninth stage, he will no doubt regret the moves made, but they will already have been weakened some.”

Nodding once, Xkarn unclasped his hands and started to stroke his beard again. Erios was right. He had planned on doing the same things had he made it to the ninth stage before the others.

The news that Serhmy and his clan had made it first was unfortunate. That man was a thorn in his side. The fact that his hair was straighter and shinier and the man's beard was longer never set well with Xkarn, but even worse was the way Serhmy spoke. Sometimes, it seemed the bastard tried to sing his words instead of talking like others.

“How long till we should expect moves against us?”

“Four months at the most. Close to the time you should be at the ninth stage.”

Raising an eyebrow, Xkarn’s head cocked sideways as he studied Erios.

“That seems like a very specific time frame and awfully close to my current timeline for growth. Does that mean what I think it does?”

Sighing, Erios nodded and slowly held her hand out with a piece of paper in it.

Taking it from her, Xkarn unfolded the smooth paper and found two names written in a secret language they had created as children. It made no sense to anyone but them and served as the perfect way to communicate from prying eyes.

His eyes felt like they were going to leap from his sockets as he read one of the names.

“Actus.”

Erios finally winced and nodded.

“It appears that he and Zogarth have joined forces and –”

“The Lightning and Metal cultivators have joined forces?!”

Xkarn’s voice sounded like thunder, booming through their small room. It was designed for torturing and questioning people, and while the stone walls were warded to hold back the noise, the chi that came from his shout moved Erios back, sliding her across the floor.

“Yes,” she replied, her voice sounding like a whisper after the storm that had just erupted a second ago.

Xkarn turned and walked to the wall behind him, slamming his fist into the shaped stone.

A hole the size of a man shot forth, creating an opening that moved over fifty yards through the area of the mountain they were dug into. Dust was absent. Not a single thing remained, gone from the show of power that came with that single strike.

“Tell me what they are doing,” Xkarn said, his voice like boulders rubbing against each other.

“They have yet to announce the marriage of their children, but it appears they will be united by blood.”

His whole body trembled as the man who most would never guess feared anything fought back the storm that raged inside him. Kode dying would be a small problem in the much larger battle to come.

“We have three months till the first gathering,” he said, spinning quickly, his dark eyes glowing from the chi he had flowing through his body right now. “I expect a few of our plans to be successful and for us to not be pinched in, cut off from what we have planned.”

Swallowing, Erios bobbed her head a single time and began to move back to the shadows of the room, away from Xkarn.

“I shall make it so.”

She vanished, gone from the room and already moving through their underground palace. He could sense her, moving quickly through the stone as if it were air. She couldn’t keep it up forever, but it was a very special talent she had cultivated, one that frustrated him at not being able to mimic it.

For now, his mind was focused on other things. He needed to reach the ninth stage soon, as too many pieces were moving against him on the board.