With Elis’ and my senses, we managed to avoid the people in the building quite well as we hurried through it. I knew we wouldn’t be able to fool everyone, and I preferred speed over complete stealth, anyway, given the circumstances. We should still be gone before any of the Zarian inside thought to check what was going on.
Unless we were stopped, at least.
It was obvious that Elis didn’t have much qi. They’d clearly drained him, and he couldn’t exactly recover a lot of it right now. I knew he wouldn’t be much use in a fight, and we would probably be lucky if he could use his bloodline abilities intensively. But at least he could move without being hindered by an injury, and his body was hardened by qi enough that his speed matched ours. I still kept him between myself and Aston.
We moved quickly and soon reached the door. This would be the trickiest part. I put a bit of darkness qi around us to cover our walk from the actual building to the gate of the compound, but I saw that it had been closed and locked again. There might be alarms when we opened it. Ordinarily, I could check and probably disable them, but I didn’t want to risk the time that would take right now.
“They might feel this,” I warned the others in a low voice. “Be prepared.” Then I used my qi to cut through the formations I could sense covering the doors, while at the same time putting newly grown spiky outgrowths through the lock and twisting it open.
A quick pulse of qi got out. It might have been an alarm. Aston pulled the door open and we rushed through it, emerging onto the street. It wasn’t quite empty, though I didn’t see many people on it. A few of them paused and looked as we came out of the compound.
I suppressed a grimace and took off at a quick walk, the others following. Running would probably just attract more attention. And trying to sneak invisibly through a crowded city wasn’t a good idea, at least when you had to be quick. We’d need to get lost among the crowd somehow.
That turned out to be both harder and easier than I’d thought. Harder because we always seemed to attract some attention. I guess the mix of apparent ethnicities and the cultivation levels don’t help. Easier because this was still a big city, and people generally minded their own business, and because we were lucky enough to get into rush time with a lot of people out and about. Some things, I’d realized some time ago, were universal between worlds.
We didn’t head directly for Vana’s safehouse, of course. While I kept an eye out, not to mention my qi senses, I couldn’t be sure we weren’t followed. The last thing I wanted was to lead any pursuers to our base. I considered sending a message to it to get in contact with Elia and the rest of our people, but refrained for the same reason.
We left the quarter and turned into another one, and I still couldn’t sense anyone pursuing us. That made me uneasy. Maybe Elis had been wrong and Isuro wasn’t actually going to come for him. Or maybe he just hadn’t arrived yet or had even lost our trail. But I didn’t pin too much hope on that. My connection to Rijoko was cracked open, and I felt a constant sense of low, simmering tension.
“Where are we going?” Tenira finally asked in a low voice.
I glanced around, sighing. “I’m not sure what’s best,” I answered quietly. “Maybe we should head out of the city? That way, even if some strong enemy catches us, at least we wouldn’t risk people in the city getting caught in it.”
Aston cleared his throat quietly. “I don’t want to be callous, my lady, but I feel I need to point out that it works the other way, too. An altercation in the city might be more restrained, to limit collateral damage.”
I nodded, frowning. “You’re right. And it’s probably going to be easier to hide us, anyway.” I didn’t mention that I wouldn’t trust Jideia to care much about collateral damage. Isuro was a lot more honorable, or at least liked to act like he was, anyhow.
“Just follow me,” Elis spoke up. “I think I can guide us pretty well. It’s not my first time in this city, and, no offense, but none of you know as much about blending in or hiding in an urban environment.”
I nodded. That made sense. And if it’s his fault we’re in this situation, at least he can help out with getting us out of it. Of course, I kept that uncharitable thought to myself. It wasn’t like anyone had forced me to come try to rescue him, after all.
Elis actually had us slow down, and at his hissed words, we spread out farther. He strolled down the street, looking at the surrounding shops with just the right mix of curiosity and boredom. I tried to mimic his demeanor and considered whether we should send someone to contact the rest of our group at the safehouse.
In hindsight, I really should have had Vana point out a secondary safehouse. It was a shame we couldn’t use our radios to communicate here. While there was always a chance the Zarian hadn’t actually set up anything to detect radio waves here, they were definitely detectable by cultivators in principle, and if someone did catch us, we might as well have written ‘we’re Imperials’ on our foreheads. Though, actually, that would probably just be dismissed as a prank, so it was in fact worse.
“No one’s attacked us yet,” I murmured. “They’re probably not going to. If someone is actually following us, they’re waiting for us to lead them to our base.”
Kajare pulled a face. “Wandering around the city aimlessly forever isn’t an option either,” he commented.
I nodded and glanced around again, as surreptitiously as I could. I’d been keeping my qi senses out as much as I could, trying to catch any hint of Isuro bearing down on us. It was wearing on my nerves. Kajare was right, we really needed to decide on a destination. It might be best to take a very circuitous route, maybe with changing disguises, to our safehouse.
“Where is your base, anyway?” Elis asked quietly. “How did you even know where to find me?”
“A good dose of luck, and the help of our mutual friend,” I answered. Better not to name names if there was any chance of being overheard. “We should be heading towards the northwest if we want to get there.”
“Then I can lead us there the long way round,” Elis said with a nod. “Take a left over there.”
“Alright.” That would take us south, but I trusted him to know better. This time, my own intuition was pretty silent about where to go, and I probably would just be leading us in circles if I tried to rely on it.
Before I could continue the conversation, I paused as I noticed something in a corner of my awareness. I hadn’t paid as much attention to my qi senses while I was talking, but now they recaptured my attention. There was a familiar sensation originating not too far away from us. Coming closer, actually.
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“Wait,” I said. The others slowed and I noticed them tense up at my tone. But I kept walking, glancing around. After a moment, I sped up.
Then we rounded another corner into a decently wide side street lined by brick townhouses, and I came to a stop as I found myself facing a familiar figure.
“Ceion?” I asked. I started to move my hands into position to quickly grab my weapon from my storage ring automatically.
“There you are!” He hurried closer and smiled. “You didn’t make it easy to find you.” His gaze moved to Elis, and his smile widened. “I see they found you. Wonderful. Are you alright?”
Elis looked a bit confused, almost annoyed at not knowing what was going on. “Yes, I’m fine. So they didn’t take you along? Is that…” He glanced at me, and I could tell what he was thinking: Is it safe to have Ceion here?
I wished I could be completely sure of that, but I couldn’t. I was confident, though. After the incident where his father had tried to take control of him, I felt like he was well defended against something like that happening. I could also still faintly sense the blessings of the Moon I’d laid on him, or at least some qi.
“It’s good to see you made it into the city safe and sound,” I said to Ceion. “We should get going, though.”
I turned to resume our walk, then froze. It felt like the city around us was being stretched away from us. Qi hung heavy in the air, with a familiar flavor.
‘It is good to see.’
I took a step back and swallowed heavily as I saw the figure stepping out of the crowd, where no one should have been able to hide, and coming into the open to face us. Isuro didn’t look completely material, with still a hint of qi in his form, as if his body was permeated with streams of it, but he did look quite physical. His appearance hadn’t changed a bit since the first time I saw him, though his expression was different. His attention seemed focused on Ceion, with some of it resting on me. It was like a subtler version of the way a cultivator’s presence could suppress someone. He seemed to ignore the rest of our companions.
Ceion couldn’t quite suppress a flinch. He took a step closer to me, his posture tenser than I’d ever seen him. I couldn’t fault that reaction, and I felt my own heartbeat pound in my ears and my breaths speed up.
“Isuro.” Ceion’s voice was tight.
The other people around seemed to flow around the Pioneer, as if he wasn’t even there, none of them getting too close. My companions had drawn weapons, but they had to know we wouldn’t have good odds in a fight.
‘You were foolish to return, Ceion, after you betrayed us.’ Isuro stepped closer, still leaving a large empty space in the middle of a bustling city around him.
I took a step forward, putting myself between them. “He didn’t choose to leave you, I captured him. It’s hardly our fault if that leaves him better off than the treatment he got here. And it’s funny that you should be talking about betrayal when it comes to this matter.”
Isuro’s gaze shifted to me, and his lips curled slightly, but the expression in his eyes was harder to read. ‘Little Light. Bold as ever, even in the heart of your enemy’s power.’
I ignored that. “I mean, I have to admit I didn’t get it. But I think you have personal reasons not to want to see Ceion here. After all, you were the one who got him out, ultimately. Maybe you expected I’d kill him. Still, this is really your fault.”
Ceion tightened his grip on the sword he’d pulled out. “Inaris is right. You think I didn’t wonder about this?” He exhaled heavily, shaking his head. “You were the only one of them who was ever decent to me. And you set me up to be taken by our enemies.”
Something flickered in Isuro’s eyes, but he didn’t lose his vaguely contemptuous facade. ‘Even if I did any such thing, it would hardly mean more than that we were disappointed with your efforts and did not mind getting rid of you.’
“Very honorable,” I commented. “Are you just going to stand there and be haughty, or did you actually want anything from us?” I almost winced as soon as the words were out. Provoking the powerful pseudo-spirit didn’t seem like a wise choice under the circumstances. Still, I wanted him distracted from Ceion, and being somewhat confrontational had worked well with him so far.
Isuro cocked his head slightly. ‘You’re quite brash, considering where you stand, Inaris. You do know how vulnerable your position is, don’t you? Or do I really need to explain?’
I surreptitiously took a deep breath, but my words were confident. “You could definitely defeat us under normal circumstances. And you might be able to beat me, but only if the Moon doesn’t grant me his protection, which he likely would. And then where would you be, Isuro?” I smiled. “We haven’t seen each other in a while, but it’s not like you were ever bold enough to actually attack me in person.”
It was true that it had been pretty long since our last confrontation. I thought that was telling. He’d probably kept arranging things to have me killed, but still. He acted a lot less … casual with me now than the last time we talked, and it probably wasn’t just because of the witnesses, but I had a feeling it only concealed his own inner conflict. He’s trying to retreat into his role, perhaps.
‘In the middle of our capital?’ Isuro shrugged slightly. His fingers played over the shaft of the spear in his hands, which he’d started materializing at some point. ‘I suppose. It might be likely that Rijoko would act to preserve your life. But his?’ He shifted, pointing at Ceion.
I gritted my teeth, trying to suppress any sign of the cold shiver that went down my spine. “And what would that get you?” I asked quietly. I took another half step forward. “I will not abandon him to you. If you will strike at any of my companions, you need to go through me.”
I heard a soft sound from someone else, maybe Tenira, but I didn’t turn to look at the others. I knew they were only this quiet because they recognized the danger and trusted that I would know the best thing to do. Still, having all of them here, within reach of the Pioneer, made my heart feel like someone was dunking it in ice water. I ignored that and focused on the situation.
Isuro almost sighed. ‘Oh, Little Light. And to think I always though of you as smart and ruthless when you needed to be. Do you simply want me to strike and get it over with? Because I can oblige you.’
I smiled, trying not to show the strain behind the expression. Funnily enough, it seemed easier. While I still felt the same tension as before, it was fading into the background more, my focus fixed on my opponent. Or my target. “Will you?” I asked.
There was a moment of what felt like startlement from everyone, although the air was still filled with the sound of people going about their business, oblivious to this scene. Isuro drew back just the tightest bit. ‘You actually want me to?’
“You could kill me, if you can.” I took another slow step forward, then another.
Isuro looked like he wanted to step back as I approached him, but didn’t. Instead, he watched with a hard expression as I drew close. He was slightly taller than me, but I still leaned forward a bit, looking into his face.
“Kill me, then,” I said. “I am here. You have me. Go ahead.”
“Nari!” Someone uttered behind me, half whisper, half cry. I could have placed the voice, but didn’t want to. In that moment, they were a distraction. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing, except that I had to keep going with it.
I laid a hand on Isuro’s weapon, slowly. I made no sudden moves, showing that it wasn’t an attack. My heartbeat galloped in my throat like a panicked horse, and I could distantly feel sweat start gathering on my skin. But my hand was steady. I pulled the Pioneer’s weapon up, letting the point rest against my throat. Cutting off the supply of blood and oxygen to my brain would kill me quicker than destroying my heart.
“Kill me,” I repeated, staring into Isuro’s eyes. They had color, a wispy blue untouched by his qi.
I felt his weapon tremble for a moment. A second passed, a second that stretched into half of forever.
Then Isuro stepped back slightly, the pressure fading. He tilted his spear back. ‘Do you think I am that easy to fool? Ha!’ A sneer twisted his features, but I knew it was just a facade. ‘Enjoy your father’s protection while it lasts, girl. Take your little friends and go. It will be amusing to see how you flail against the Storm.’
Then he started dissolving. There were cries from the pedestrians as they saw a wispy qi figure fading. I stared at it with narrowed eyes.
He could pretend all he wanted that he’d only refused to do it because of my father’s protection, for fear of provoking his power. We both knew better.