David

Together they stood on a sinking ship in silence as the river swallowed up a man. They had misjudged the purported pirate, but that was hindsight. David had liked Jing, so it was difficult to feel like he had deserved death.

But David liked Alice far, far more, so his eyes were now on the shore, searching for any potential witnesses, and for the white bibs of the Jiang family.

The few people on the docks at this hour hadn’t dared to look towards the ship.

At that hour of dawning, fishermen had already set out onto the river, and laborers had already been relieved of work. The only people who watched them fearfully were those opening their shops for the day along the waterfront. When they realized that David was staring at them, they quickly averted their eyes and busied themselves.

When David and Alice had landed on Jing's ship, it had been moving north at full speed - travelling from the south side of Ping'an on course with Sky River. Until Jing's strike had damaged the mast and sent the ship into a spin, they had continued to move at that speed.

Ping'an was divided into quadrants - as Jing had noted when they'd arrived. This northwest side of the Outer city had less industry and shops compared to the southwest where they had docked. There were also fewer buildings with the stone plaque of Jiang over their doors - though one in every five buildings still belonged to that family here.

Those were the more well-made buildings. The other ones were shoddily built shanties, some of them with the same legs that buildings further up the river had to survive flooding.

As David looked for activity on the shore, Alice searched the soon-to-be wreck to see if Jing had lied about selling the saber. After a minute or two passed, the edge of the ship's hull finally dipped past the water's surface and the river began to fill the boat.

Alice angrily slammed her hand into the already damaged mast.

"He really sold it," she said, in disbelief.

David considered the saber for a moment. "I think if I were to get my hands on a weapon that I couldn't draw from its scabbard, I'd probably sell it too," he said.

Alice said nothing but David could hear the sound of silkworms rising. Her Song was agitated - more so than usual, but it still maintained that complex polyphonic rhythm that differentiated it from any other he'd heard yet.

She struck the mast again with an open palm. The crack deepened and the ship groaned in exasperation, rocking heavily. The water that had leaked onboard splashed nearly as high as where David still stood - atop the undamaged mast.

They were attracting more and more attention now.

"We need to get back to shore," he said.

"What if it's still onboard?" Alice asked, of him, of the Heavens.

David shrugged. "If that weapon is really as special as everyone makes it out to be, I think it'll end up somewhere within reach, sooner or later." He gave her a wink - full of reassurance that he didn't actually possess.

There was a bit of a fey expression on Alice's face now. "You always know what to say to me, don't you?"

He heard the biting, crunching, chittering of silkworms yet again as Alice swallowed heavily - an indication that she was still spitting blood from her adventures with the Scripture of the Uprooted. David didn't let that worry him at the moment - he listened for the sound of the Song and mirrored her crouch.

They jumped from different elevations, but Alice had taken a more arcing trajectory, so she met him in the air. With superb control, she spun in the sky, turning to face him and, to his surprise, wrapped her arms around him. She pulled herself against his chest, and stared hopefully into his eyes.

Alice must have found whatever she was looking for, because she suddenly pressed her lips against his.

Behind them, the damaged mast finally split in half and the ship plunged towards the bottom of the river.

Her lips tasted of iron and wine.

Alice had killed a man, but David found it hard to care in this moment, as she looked at him through her too-long dark lashes with those too-clear brown eyes. He was kissing her back.

There was a raw hunger in her gaze, which would have scared him once, and the sound of chewing silkworms grew louder - but it only brought him comfort now. This was who Alice was, and she made no apologies.

When they landed on the cobblestones of the shore, they broke apart, out of breath. The corners of Alice's dark, almost-bruised lips were lifted in triumph to contrast with the faux-shy way she turned her eyes downward to stare at the ground.

Their arms locked them together in a familiar posture. Her wrists had found his shoulders and her hands were clasped just under the back of his neck.

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"Don't let go," she said, mirroring her words from when they had defied the heavens.

They had worldly concerns now - but in this moment, nothing else really mattered.

After a few moments of pause, they broke away.

"We should probably-" David started.

"Check on Wen and figure out where this pavilion is," finished Alice. David nodded and slipped a hand into hers easily as they began walking south along the cobblestone avenue.

David was alert, because he knew a bad neighborhood when he saw one - but this was different than most he'd been to. The truth was a little uncomfortable. The way that people peered at them behind wax-paper windows and ducked behind walls as they passed showed that they thought David and Alice were the 'bad' in the neighborhood.

He supposed it was only fair, if the cultivators that the common folk interacted with were the Jiang family and people like Jing.

And people like Alice, who killed people like Jing and sunk their ships into the river.

And people like David, who held people like Alice in their arms and didn't show remorse when people like Jing drowned.

They arrived at the inn again after several more minutes of walking and came across the balcony they'd leapt onto Jing's ship from. It was a meter off the ground, so they were able to peer into Wen's room easily.

David thought he should have expected it, but it was still somewhat annoying that Wen was on the floor with his head against the side of his bed, snoring gently.

Alice huffed and pulled David with her in a short hop over the railing of the balcony.

She marched up to Wen and gave him yet another hard slap across the face. Wen jerked awake.

"Hello, Path Friends," he greeted, without any of the previous weakness. "My wound has just reopened because of you!" Wen said to Alice - but the wide, exuberant smile gave him away.

Neither David nor Alice paid his words any heed.

"Jing sold the saber," Alice said. "To one Eight Earthly Treasures Pavillion, wherever that is."

Wen shrugged. "Never heard of it. The innkeeper probably has though. It can't be far." He looked at them hopefully. "You should bring me along! I have a lot of experience dealing with pavilions."

David nodded shortly as Wen stood with a slight wince.

"I've never chanted that sutra before, but it's one of the ones that everyone in the True Sutra sect learns when they become an inner disciple," Wen said conversationally as they exited his room into the hallway together.

"There's a few drawbacks to Claiming a sutra," he said, suddenly looking worried. “But they’re worth using if the alternative is death.”

"In fact, I think it's one of the most heavily not recommended sutras available to the disciples of the True Sutra, after, as everyone knows, the other three forbidden-"

David tuned Wen out as he grew more and more animated, when they approached the lobby of the inn.

The innkeeper, now that he realized that the three of them were suddenly friends, looked far more upset than he had the night before.

Alice placed a tael onto the counter. "Where is the Eight Earthly Treasures Pavilion?"

"I don't know!" the innkeeper squeaked immediately, before even considering her question. "It's right outside the inn along the water, two streets south, looks like an old temple, you can't miss it," he said hurriedly.

Wen chatted ceaselessly about the pros and cons of various lifesaving sutras curated by his sect as they made their way towards their destination.

Eight Earthly Treasures Pavilion looked more like a ratty Chinatown pawn shop than an auction house for otherworldly dharmic artifacts. Still, it was a nicer building than most in the area - with a storefront held up by wooden pillars painted in a faded red.

The innkeeper was correct. It looked like it might have once been a temple - it was two stories high but the doors reached all the way up. When they walked inside, it had a very high ceiling, much like the jiulu they'd eaten at yesterday night.

The floor was paneled with an enameled wood which had long taken on cracks and chips. In one corner was a collection of squat, square altars of pine, each with the sculpture of a different deity carefully carved and painted in bright colors. Cauldrons of various sizes and metals lined the walls. Some of them were full of assorted weapons. Most were covered in a thick layer of dust.

On one wall was a glass display with various pieces of jewelry hanging from hooks in front of a mirrored surface. At the bottom of the display was a cheap, uncut block of jade - a light, gaudy green.

The Eight Earthly Treasures Pavilion did not seem to have many treasures.

A single, surly, middle aged woman with spectacles sat on a high chair ten paces from the entrance. There were no counters in sight. Her robe was a little longer than Alice’s.

She'd splayed the book she had been reading open on her lap when the trio had walked inside. The book was without words on the cover - instead, it had an illustration of many men in a crowd before a woman sipping tea beneath a tree.

David thought that she might have been surly because she looked very single. The woman stared at Alice with a strange sort of anger. Alice glowed with youth and beauty - and was flanked by a pair of attractive men.

Alice paid her expression no mind and walked up to her easily.

"This morning, a man with long, unkempt hair sold a saber to you," said Alice. "Where is it?"

The woman scowled at her. "Already sold to another customer."

Alice folded her arms.

"Are you going to buy something or not?" The woman was glaring.

"Who bought the saber?" asked David.

The woman flipped her book back over and began reading again. "Eight Earthly Treasures doesn't give out information about its customers."

Wen jutted in immediately. "Now, old lady," he said, as haughtily as he could, "I might have the gentle air of a scholar, but don't think I won't slaughter you livestock and destroy every single thing of value in this pavilion."

The woman dropped the book and fell backwards with a crash. From the floor, she looked up at Wen, trembling. "I don't know who he was," she promised, her feet askew.

"He was wearing robes with a crest of the Red Wind sect. He's probably here for the Core Formation Ceremony. A bosom friend of the Young Master's looking to give him a gift, I'm sure," she blubbered.

She scrambled to her feet. "Y-you can't hurt me," she decided. "Every treasure pavilion is under the protection of the Jiang family. The Jiang family!" she exclaimed.

Wen scoffed and turned to David. "We're not going to find out anything of importance from this old turtle," he said.

Then Wen turned to the woman he'd called an old turtle with a sunny smile. "Say, how much are you selling pill furnaces for?"