During the Reaping, Sunwhisper had jumped on Father Gomen’s back to coat him with sap from the Soma stalks. Though he had been wearing gloves at the time, their brief struggle had still provided him with the opportunity to collect a DNA sample. Sunwhisper had absorbed the sample, adding a new potential identity to those listed in his status screen.

Copy Paste; his transformation was not a cultivation technique. It was a physical action, and an effortful one, like flexing every muscle in his body at once. Once the change was achieved, however, it required no energy to maintain.

The process made him hungry, but the Jin family had no qualms about feeding him, so he had a large meal that evening and waited for them to retire.

It was only twenty-four hours since the festival and the beating, but the harm had been superficial. Damage to his disguise could be repaired as a part of the transformation process, and his internals, though bruised, were not significantly impaired. When he altered his appearance using Gomen’s DNA, there was no longer any visible sign of injury.

Sunwhisper had debated what to wear and settled for cleaning his initiate robes after checking for any distinctive tears or stains from the beating. It wasn’t what one of the Gomen sons would have worn, but he didn’t want to overcomplicate matters by stealing clothes and having to get rid of them afterward. Anyone could get an initiate's robe, and one didn’t throw them away after earning a star. Wearing it would not risk his true identity.

Slipping out of a window and onto the street was effortless, and once he was in town, he didn’t have to worry about being recognized. If people saw him, then all the better, as long as they didn’t get too close a look.

There was no curfew in Fringe Town, and he passed several couples enjoying the night, as well as a group of youths that asked him to join them for a drink, but he begged off. He wasn’t sure if they thought he was a Gomen, or just a new face, but in either case, it would have served his interests to tarry with them.

Most of the town’s supply of spirit fruit was stored in a warehouse behind a tall wooden fence near the First Elder’s villa. The First Elder did not guard the warehouse personally, but his proximity was enough to make most would-be thieves think again.

Sunwhisper had heard that the fence was lined with scripts meant to discourage break-ins. The wards were maintained by the spirit energy of a sacred beast by the gate, but that was as much information as he’d been able to gather from casual conversation. The raven caged there was almost three feet tall, with six wings and violet eyes that glowed dimly in the shade of evening.

It looked cramped and uncomfortable in a space that had been sealed around it when it was a much smaller bird.

"Greetings, elder," Sunwhisper bowed to the animal. "How are you this fine night?"

The raven eyed him coldly.

"I have brought you some meat." This statement garnered more interest from the bird. Sunwhisper had raided the Jin kitchen for strips of raw pork and fish, and he unwrapped the makeshift charcuterie just out of reach of the cage.

"What do you want?" the raven croaked.

"Why should I want anything, other than your friendship?"

It managed to look bored. “Before this, fools have tried to bribe."

"Not a bribe, a gift." Sunwhisper raised his small offering to the edge of the cage. The raven reached its beak through the bars to snatch a strip of meat, throwing its head back to swallow it.

"A paltry gift," the raven said.

"Maybe, but I am not a rich man."

The raven shrugged, a complicated maneuver with so many shoulders and wings to organize, and it ate the rest of the meat out of Sunwhisper’s hands without further conversation. When it was done, it examined him more closely.

"Your core, it’s shriveled."

"A mistake was made, I am working to improve myself."

"Mistake, or deviation? If you can channel at all, very lucky."

Sunwhisper bowed. "I am fortunate, yes."

"You want the fruit? Your condition will improve, you think?"

"That is the truth."

"How predictable. A bribe it was."

"Not a bribe, sacred elder, a gift. I ask for nothing in exchange, but I do have a request as a separate matter."

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"You do?" The raven cawed in a manner parodied laughter. "Whatever could it be?"

"A game, sacred elder."

"What kind of game?"

"You allow me to pass the gate."

"Of course."

"And then you lock me inside."

"When you leave, the wards trigger. Caught in a trap."

"I don’t think I will be caught. Are you saying I can’t do it?"

"As weak as you are? You can’t. I know"

"Then bet against me. If I am caught, I owe you another plate of food, as well as a favor of your choosing, whatever is in my power to give without dishonoring myself or my family. If I am not caught, I owe you nothing. Either way, you will have done your job. The wards will be maintained."

"What of honor?" The raven asked. "What of duty?"

"What is your duty to the village?" Sunwhisper was making this up as he went along. He’d brought the meat on the assumption that a sacred beast would be amenable to snacks, and now he was fact finding. So far, it sounded like it was easy to enter the warehouse, but impossible to leave.

"Watcher over many fruits. Maintain the wards."

"I can see how that would be a conflict. But whether the wards are keeping me in or out, they are being maintained, correct? If I find some way to bypass them, I could do it from the outside as well as from the inside, couldn’t I? That is not within your power to change. What if I make a further promise that I will not make off with any fruit. Let’s say, these hands will not carry a single piece across the fence, even if I find a way to beat the wards."

"A problem."

"Yes?"

"What you ask, beyond my power. The wards run. The wards run. Open or close, I cannot.”

"Ah, I see." It had occurred to him that the sacred beast might not be able to help him, even if it had a reason to. The First Elder seemed to be using the raven more as a battery than a guardian. At least she was approachable, and she hadn’t started squawking an alarm the moment he started asking about getting past the fence. Those were both good signs. The question remained, even if the raven couldn’t directly interfere with the scripts, how much did she know about them?

"An unlocked gate."

"What?" The sacred beasts statement took him by surprise, that and he hadn’t quite adjusted to her habit of speaking in backwards sentences with missing prepositions.

"An unlocked gate. An elder’s humor. This game of yours, already played. Leave, or try, and you are marked.

"Marked? What kind of mark?"

"Tattoo."

"After I’m caught, they’ll mark me with a tattoo?" That didn’t seem too bad.

"No. The wards marks make. No hiding. No escape. Onto your skin, the scripts will scribe. A crime. Your crime, so everyone knows."

“And that’s all? I’ll be marked? There will be no other effect?”

“What else is needed?”

Nothing.

"Thank you for your help, sacred one." Sunwhisper bowed to the raven and strode through the gate. It swung open freely, and was shut behind him by a spring. The scripts activated as a violet march of wards all along the inside of the gate and the fence, but Sunwhisper didn’t look back.

The warehouse was kept cool with more scripts, these powered by mana that bled off from the fruit itself. It was chilly enough that his breath formed a cloud in front of his face. The sheer amount of Soma on display was overwhelming, hundreds of raw fruits, all cleaned and sorted by color.

He had meant what he said about not taking anything with him by hand. Sunwhisper knew his affinities, metal and gold, and he had read that he would get the best results by channeling the energy of Soma that matched his color affinity. The Jin family hadn’t collected any gold fruit, but here, there was more available than he could hope to use.

He opened his chest compartment. It wasn’t a massive space, but there was room for a few spirit fruits along with the sacred compass. He collected three good sized pieces and one runt before shutting the compartment and resealing the skin over top of it.

Then he snatched one more juicy looking globe and ate it as fast as he could, seeds and all. It was rich, spicy like a hot pepper, but also incredibly sweet. It carried warmth down his throat and into his stomach, and in a few seconds after he had finished he was so light headed that he almost fainted.

That would have to do.

If he was caught, it would mean years of indentured servitude, probably for the First Elder. But he did not intend to be caught.

Sunwhisper went around the warehouse and took the back fence at a run. As advertised, the wards flared when he crossed over them, and he felt a searing pain in both his arms. It was a bad enough shock that he faulted his landing and twisted his ankle as he hit the ground.

That was unfortunate. Dark scripts were burning themselves into both his forearms, a record of the date and time of his offense. He stumbled into the woods beyond the fence and kept moving as fast as his ankle would allow.

The pain had to be put aside, and after about thirty seconds, the burn from the marks on his arms had subsided to a tender ache.

Sunwhisper stopped, focused his will, and reactivated Copy Paste. His skin and the layer of soft synthetics just beneath the surface liquified and rearranged. The Gomen and Makoto guises were similar, at least in body type, but whenever he altered himself, it was like being made new.

The tattoos were gone, though here and there, he saw a few dark specks on his skin that might have been ink. It was possible that whatever mana tattoos were actually made of, they couldn’t be completely broken down. Regardless, he was committed now. He could hear the raven cawing madly, still closer than he would have liked as he settled under the broad branches of a nearby tree and tried to channel a portion of the wild mana that was burning his belly.

It took about five minutes for him to be discovered.