Aki was deep into his cycling. His spiritual power washed over the entire town, taking everything in. Since he was the only one he knew of for miles, he didn't bother ever trying to hide his power. There was no point. He felt nothing to concern him when he was stretching out his senses past the border of the town. Or that’s what Aki thought.

There was a small ship docking down at the docks to the town. He couldn't see it, of course, couldn't see its markings. Aki felt something, though. He didn't have time to react. Suddenly, his power was being pushed against. It was being pushed back. There was another cultivator reaching out with his own aura. Realizing his mistake, Aki tried to reel his power back to himself. He tried to hide himself once more.

Then there was a knock on the door. Aki gave a small yelp of surprise as he was knocked from his concentration.

"What? Yes? Enter." Aki responded in a haze of confusion. He shook his head, clearing the fog from his mind at what had just happened.

"You may open the door, come in," Aki said once he got through the fog and looked at the door.

The door opened, and a young boy peeked in. Aki gave a soft smile, he wasn't wearing his sunglasses, so he just stared at the crack in the door with his gray eyes.

"Yes? You can come in."

The door opened a little more, and the boy walked into the room now. Aki could now see he was carrying a clump of cloth that looked about the same colors as his robes. The boy looked about the room slowly and then focused on Aki before setting the clump of clothing on the bed. The boy had to have been Endra’s son. Aki could see the resemblance as soon as he looked the boy over. The soft features of his mother, the piercing green eyes. His skin tone was a little paler though, he supposed Endra had taken a local man for a husband.

"Mom said these are as clean as she could get them. The food cart is out front if you want to come down and place an order for dinner," the boy said. He rushed when he talked, like he couldn't get the words out fast enough. The whole time he was in there, his eyes were darting around, and after he put the robes down, his hands went behind his back. It took him a minute, but then he seemed to remember something, and he bowed to Aki and turned to leave.

Aki stood. He was still wearing the soft white robe that had the Inn's name embroidered on the breast. The beggar looked over at the child and, with a soft word, he told the boy to wait a moment and looked him over. He had dark hair like his mother. Though his hair was short and messy, the boy looked up at Aki with sharp green eyes.

"What's your name?" Aki asked him with a soft smile.

"Liam Zhao," he blurted. The boy was emanating nervousness.

Aki just smiled. "Good to meet you, Liam. I am Aki. Would you like to leave now?"

Liam just nodded his head and before either of them said another word, Liam turned and left. Aki gave a small chuckle and wondered why the boy was so nervous. He was all cleaned up and hadn't seen the boy when he was pretending to be a beggar. He shrugged the thoughts away and moved to one window in his room.

The cultivator looked out the window towards the docks. There was a new ship there, a small private ship. Not one that you normally saw in these big port towns. He stared out, looking for signs of someone new to the village he hadn't seen. Someone who seemed out of place.

Sure enough, there was a man walking up the docks. He was walking by himself, wearing robes from the Northern Islands, beyond the capital region of the Empire. While in the Sasaki Empire proper, the robes tied around the person. Then there was the outer robe, which was a long, flowing coat. Some wore fine silks, but if you were like Aki, you stuck to rougher fabric.

This man's robe was like a long, flowing shirt that reached down to his feet. Over that, he wore a cloak that clasped around his neck. The robes were shades of dark red with black trim. The inner being was a lighter red than the outer. He wasn't wearing the colors of the sects. A wandering cultivator then, a monkey. Aki couldn't tell much more about the cultivator because he was wearing the hood over his head.

He had to be skilled to become so powerful without the backing of a sect. Aki furrowed his brow and shrugged. The man was an enigma, nothing to worry about, he was sure. Just some wandering cultivator out exploring the west. Looking for new cultivation techniques or something, maybe. Or maybe he was looking to contact the tribes out here. It was said they had some kind of magical powers, according to the townspeople here, anyway.

Pushing the stranger from his mind, Aki went over to the bed and dressed in his own robes. He almost didn't want to give up this soft white bathrobe. It was made of the softest fabric he had ever felt on his skin. He looked over himself and marveled at how clean the robes were. They weren't perfectly clean, not like they were new again. It was amazing how clean they were, though. Blood stains that had been there for years, sludge and film from his travels, were gone.

He smoothed out the robes and took one last look down at himself before gathering the items he left on the bed, tucking them away in the various hidden pockets. Making sure the black needles were easily accessible with their tips tucked away so he didn't poke himself with them. Once he had all the papers and stones and needles put away, he smoothed out the arms of his robes and the robes themselves one last time. He took one last look over how clean they were and then slipped his sunglasses back on and left his room.

Using his cane, he once more tapped his way down the hallway and down the stairs. Once downstairs, he saw some people assembled, including Endra and her son. Also in the room was the newly arrived cultivator, the man in the red robe and cloak. On either side of him, were two others in black on either side of him.

The man looked exactly like Aki had seen him when he was first walked up from the docks. Long red cloak under a darker red northern styled robe. The things he didn't notice were that the cloak hood had some fabric that wrapped around his neck. It covered the lower half of the man's face with some buckles that held the cloak closed. He also didn't notice that the man's left arm hung in a sling.

The red cultivator was pale and had short white hair that was spiked up. He stared at everyone in the room with bright blue eyes. Looking at everyone for long moments before he centered on Aki who stood there in his Sasaki Empire styled robes stood out like a sore thumb. Aki wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he pretended to ignore how the one in red was staring at him.

The one in red was grinning. Even his teeth were blaring white. He gave a long look at Aki before he turned and whispered to a person next to him. Aki looked at the motion from behind his sunglasses, keeping the placid, smiling look on his face. He realized only the person by the one in red was a woman. The one he whispered to was the female. The other two kept their cowls over their heads to hide most of their features, but Aki could tell they were as pale as the one in red.

The few others in the room must have just been other occupants of the inn. Aki didn't recognize any of them, so they must just have been people who were passing through. No one stood out or anything, a couple of businessmen in nicer clothing. Then there was a couple wearing the denim and hats of the people who called themselves cowboys. They were all fair-skinned, and obviously from this continent.

Everyone was milling about and making small talk with each other. A couple of them even said hello to Aki and asked him where he had come from and pretended to be interested in Aki's answers. He had told them he was just a traveler from the East looking to explore the continent. They weren't sure if they should believe him since Aki was obviously a blind man. They went along with the story and laughed when Aki nudged them jokingly.

They heard a cart roll up by horse outside. The soft clopping of the hooves on the hard-packed dirt, and a female voice yelling.

"That's a good boy, that's a good boy! Right here now!" in the drawl that most of the people in the town had.

There was then some commotion outside that must have been the female getting ready to serve dinner. Aki felt Endra walk up behind him and grab him gently by the arm while he was speaking to one of the businessmen. He was a trader, trading in medical goods. He was interested if Aki had any contacts so they could get some higher-grade healing elixir from the Alchemists back home.

"Do you mind if I help you outside?" Endra asked Aki. Aki turned his head and nodded and thanked her. Then said his goodbyes to the businessman and he and Endra were heading through the inn and through the door.

Once outside, Aki saw the cart was a small, simple thing. Two wheels dragged by not a horse, but a donkey. The female was a young teenager, with blonde hair and green eyes. She was standing on the cart surrounded by some barrels which held some of the food she had, and others she just used as tables.

"Alright then, first up. What'll ye have? Today's special catch is soft shell crab, or I have the ceviche, which is a favorite of people from the eastern empire. That's where ye come from, I'm guessin', no?" She rushed out, someone who was obviously busy and eager to be done with work for the day. The drawl was so thick it was almost hard for Aki to understand what the woman said.

"Ceviche?" He asked.

Endra patted his arm and explained it was a dish of raw fish. Whatever they had caught that day, mixed with onion and some local herbs and spices. She told him it also came with some fresh crispy fried tortilla chips.

"Ya, mate. It has some shrimp, scallops, a bit of crab in there, and then the main fish is flounder that me da' caught today. It's all served raw, and I know you guys like that raw fish," she explained to him with a huff of impatience.

Aki knew the shellfish she told him, but he wasn't quite sure what a flounder was, or what a tortilla chip was. If it was a favorite among visitors from the Sasaki Empire, though, he figured it would be good enough for him. He told the girl he'd try that and she gave a firm nod of assent.

The teenage girl then reached into a small barrel and grabbed an assortment of fish and started cutting it with a huge cleaver. The sort of knife the aunties and grandmothers used back home. Wood handled and plain, and used for literally everything. The roughest cuts to the smallest, most precise dice. In one barrel was a stack of dishes. She grabbed a cup from inside the barrel and a wooden plate.

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

On the plate, she put some small triangular crispy crisps, which Aki supposed were the chips, then she set the cup. She scooped up the fish she cut up and added it to the cup. Then she worked a red onion, some green leafy herb they called cilantro, and added it to the cup. Then she grabbed some limes, squeezed them over the concoction in the cup and stirred everything up with a spoon she had sitting on a barrel.

She had it all whipped up in a matter of minutes, with the determined grace of someone who was a veteran of their craft. She handed the plate down to Aki, which Endra took for him.

"There ya go, mate, just make Endra or her boy get the plate and cup when you're finished. They give it all back to me next time I stop in. Enjoy the fish." She drawled at Aki before looking around. "Alright then, c'mon, who's next? I got places to be!" she called out.

Endra led Aki away, and Aki tapped his cane around as they walked. Endra led him back inside and behind the counter where she sat to welcome to the inn. There was a sliding door on the opposite side of the wall where the sheet hung that sectioned off where she and Liam lived.

She slid the door open and there were a few tables with chairs set up. It wasn't as nice in here as it was in the rest of the inn. The room had more of a simple tavern quality to everything rather than the upscale polished wood the rest of the inn had. It seemed cozy enough, and she sat Aki down at a table in the corner.

"Liam will be around soon with some drinks for everyone. We have tea, and coffee, or water," Endra informed Aki. She then told him it was good if he dipped the chips in the ceviche or he could use the fork.

Aki smiled and thanked her before she hurried off to help the rest of her guests deal with the impatient food cart girl. He looked down at his dish, which held a fork mixed in with the mess of chips. He picked one of them up and took a small bite from one corner. It was crispy, salty, and pretty good.

He dipped the chip in the ceviche and tried a bite.

He tried to get as much of everything as he could and ate the rest of the chip with the extra food on it. It was a flavor explosion in his mouth. This was nothing like the sushi and raw fish dishes he was used to back home, which relied on simple elegant flavors. This was a punch in the mouth of flavor. The cilantro added the freshness that elevated the dish. Aki gave a groan of pleasure as he chewed the bite before swallowing, then looked around. Thankfully, no one else had entered.

He used the fork then and tried just a bite of the fish dish and ate it. It was good, but the chip added a little extra something. That extra crunch added something to it. He noticed, thanks to the salt and lime juice, there was a liquid forming at the bottom of the cup. Aki worked through his dinner and savored every bite. He ended up saving some chips for the end so he could soak up the juice at the end and eat it.

When Liam came around, Aki ordered some tea from the boy, and when he poured it, others filled the room with their various meals. Aki could smell the cooked onions and garlic and fish, and he wished he wasn't full already. He wanted to try everything.

Liam set a small cup down in front of Aki and poured some tea into the cup for him. Aki gave a small sip as he watched the man in red enter with his two companions following close behind. They all seemed to get the same dish as Aki, and they sat at a table next to Aki. The tea was serviceable, but not as good as he was used to. It was never as good as he liked. The leaves oversteeped, the water boiled too hard. Aki sighed and looked down into his cup.

The man in red had unbuckled the clasps on his cloak so he could eat his dinner when he heard Aki sigh. He looked over at him and gave a small laugh. "They never quite know how to do tea like back home, do they?" he asked Aki with a soft laugh. The man's voice was deeper and more rough than Aki was expecting. The voice of someone much larger than the man was.

Aki looked up and to where the voice came from. Looking at the man from behind his sunglasses giving a smile. "I'm sorry, sir, are you from the Sasaki Empire as well?" Aki bowed his head to the man in greeting.

"Well, sort of. I'm from one of the closer islands to the North of the capital," he explained. "A lot of what we eat and drink comes right from the capital. The name's Axel. Me and my companions are just travelers looking to see what the world offers."

Aki noticed the man didn't introduce the other two people, though. They stayed silent and watchful as they ate their dinner. They never removed their cowls, and the hoods were deep and dark underneath them. All three people gave Aki an uneasy feeling.

"Ah, how nice. I've met a few people from there. Pleasant, hard-working folks. You're probably used to the rough waters it took coming here," Aki told him. The people from the Northern islands were anglers. They were hard-working people who were a little gruff. When the Empire itself was still getting established and the Sasaki family was still battling for the reign of the continent. The men from the Northern Islands would come down in their longboats and raid and pillage.

Axel laughed and nodded his head. "Aye, I got my sea legs when I was still just a boy. Now I'm... much older," he explained before he laughed a little once more. "I didn't catch your name, friend?"

Aki nodded and told him his name, using his family name first like they did in the region he was from. He explained he was from a small village outside of the capital city, where he had lived on the streets. He told him, much like Axel, he was just a traveler exploring the world. Exploring what the world offered and explaining he was looking for something to help his eyesight, which was why he was on the continent.

"You'd think with all the healing we have in the Empire they'd be able to do something for you," Axel tsk'd and clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Well, their tea may be shit, but their food here is amazing." He said as he rubbed his stomach and finished his own meal.

Aki laughed and nodded his head, agreeing with the man. He pretended not to notice Axel standing and approaching the table. Neither man said a word until Axel had a hand on Aki's shoulder and he was leaning in, whispering into Aki's ear.

"I know you aren't some blind fool traveler. I know what you are. It's rude to hide that, where I come from. It's also rude to just stretch your spirit out like you were intruding on everyone," he whispered.

Aki then felt a tremendous amount of spiritual pressure bearing down on him. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. This power was something incredible. Something Aki didn't know was possible. The spiritual sense of the man was not only bearing down on Aki but also reaching out, trying to get a sense of Aki. A sense of his power.

Aki fought back as hard as he could. He shouldn't let this man know that he had a cultivation element from one of the kami. He didn't know who this man was, or what he was doing. His mana cycled around Aki's core, trying to form a shell. It didn't matter, though. The man had him. The man could tell Aki's spirit, and then, as suddenly as the pressure bore down on Aki, it was gone.

"Interesting Mr. Saito Aki, wind. Very, very interesting," the man laughed and patted Aki on the shoulder before walking off, re-buckling the cloak around his neck.

Aki sat there panting, wiping at the sweat that formed on his brow. He watched Axel's companion. They stood and followed him out of the dining area. He just watched the three of them leave, wondering what the hell had just happened.

He was just recovering from the assault on his spirit when he heard a commotion outside. Three horse riders, all shouting and ringing bells. Only a moment later, Endra slid the room door open and walked in, looking frantic. She looked at all of her occupants and spoke.

"You all must leave. I'm sorry. Get out of town. There's a horde coming. The brutes that wander the desert," she was barely breathing as she spoke, trying to get all the information out as quickly as she could.

There were gasps among the occupants and dropped forks and cups as the people heard the news. Aki had heard bits and pieces of the hordes that wandered the deserts. Gruesome barbarians who traveled the sands and were said to have demonic powers. Knowing these people, though, they probably said Aki had demonic powers as well, so who knew?

"It can't be!"

"They never come this close to the coast!"

"What will we do? Where will we go?!"

"They've been moving closer to the coast, as the armies from the capital expand."

Were the various comments from around the room. Aki just furrowed his brow and looked at the people who grew frantic. One or two didn't wait or say anything. They had just run out of the room and up to their rooms to gather their things.

Aki grabbed his cane and stood, cycling his mana. Endra had already left the room to gather her own things. His mind still half on the powerful cultivator in red, he ran from the inn. He didn't bother with the blind act any longer. Not if this town was going to be under attack by a horde. He needed action if that was the case, not deception.

Aki took off running through the building. He heard Endra yelling after him, but he didn't pay her any mind for the time being. He moved outside and saw the horsemen riding about. They were the sheriff's men. They ran past, still yelling, one of them turning back and stopping short just in front of Aki. He yelled down over the yelling and commotion of people in the town.

"You better find a quiet spot to hide, you old blind drunk. They won't bother making a slave of you. They'd just kill your ass," he called. He had the same drawl, but he was gruffer. Able to pronounce his words a bit more than the girl from earlier. The man wore a large-brimmed cowboy hat and a gray mustache that looked as thick as a caterpillar. Aki had seen him around here and there, but they had never interacted.

Aki just looked at him for a moment and then turned and ran off. Aki could hear him grumble something under his breath, but he didn't bother trying to listen to what he said. Instead, the deputy just turned and rode off. Some of the townspeople were coming down from their homes and piling into boats owned by the town or various people willing to help the people. Aki fought his way through the crowd. He wanted to see what was coming, what was going to happen.

There was a small hill just outside of town, and that was where he was heading. His mana cycled through his channels as he pumped his legs up the small hill, asking the wind to tell him what was coming. The only thing the wind had to tell him, though, was danger. Not a good sign. Once he was up on the hill, he scanned the skyline through the dark, and the wind told him to look to the northwest.

He could smell the horses the horde rode, the unwashed smell of the men and women riding hard towards the town. The horde took up the entire night skyline now, torches everywhere, making it look like a small city riding towards the small. Aki looked back at the town, and there were a couple of boats pushing away from the docks.

As he had looked back, though, the wind whispered something to him. He looked past the town down the coast. He saw three figures running away from the town. One in red robes, and two he could barely see because of the black they wore. He spit on the ground in their direction and shook his head.