Through the night and the next morning, Sobon used time in which she appeared otherwise idle to review the many documents regarding qi inscriptions. It was very close to being an impossible task; their notes built on top of complex aether geometry where idea that aether spins were actually reality layers was taken as a basic assumption. Although Sobon could do the math in her head, converting their math to the Crestan standard notation, a lot of their fundamental assumptions required her to trust that their math was correct--even when their math and hers differed slightly.

Now, Sobon could accept this--it was a fundamental nature of aether to shape reality according to inbuilt laws. A world in which aether worked one way, and a world in which aether worked similarly, could coexist, and visitors like Sobon could even commute back and forth with regularity. The degree to which her numbers and the Ri'lef numbers differed was less than 5%, though that difference was before a lot of amplification factors were layered on top. As Sobon studied her own mental comparison, side by side, she could even see that in certain ways, the Ri'lef aether patterns made more sense, if one's purpose was to guide an entire civilization into adapting to high aether.

Crestan military aether patterns were solid, though, and they fit his purpose better. The standard cycle and thorn easily paralleled the concept of 'generator and battery' that was fundamental to technology, allowing deep integrations into automated systems. In contrast, the 'layers' model gave people something to explore, which was something Sobon had no interest in.

Sobon wrote a brief argument along those lines and sent it back to K'val, tagged as lowest priority, knowing nothing would come of it even if the Ri'lef engineer had the time to consider her words. Even if the entire engineering crew agreed, trying to change the planet's aether structure was an enormous task; even so, Sobon was curious about their counter-arguments, if not curious enough to cause a fuss in order to get answers.

It took the course of the morning for Sobon to be confident that she understood the fundamentals of the qi inscription language, and from there, very nearly the whole field was open to her. There were some concepts that would be tricky to translate--for example, they insisted on a spatial expansion glyph tied to unmoored pocket dimensions that were loosely bridged, when Crestan standard patterns tied them directly to real space. But overall, Sobon was quite certain that she could translate most Crestan aether patterns to Qi inscriptions.

To confirm that, she traced the outer boundary wall, finding aged protection glyphs, and translated them. It wasn't much--a structural reinforcement set, a noise-deadening set, and a set designed to prevent the wall from being scaled from the outside by making it frictionless, except to those registered to the gate key. That was the most advanced logic she found except for the gate itself, whose logic was bound entirely on a separate block firmly sealed in place. As Sobon had determined the evening before, though, the gate logic was simplistic, with no protections against logical flaws. Especially now that she knew the language, Sobon could disable it in any number of ways, especially once she was close.

By the time she finished examining the plate, it was almost noon, and Lui and Mian had been watching her for a while.

"It's not exactly quality work," Sobon summarized as she turned to the two, "but given the price we paid, it is more than adequate."

Lui looked a bit confused, but Mian snorted, clearly guessing that the house was given freely. The cook coughed slightly to clear his throat. "Do you intend to improve it, then?"

"Yes. A number of things need fixing, and what doesn't need fixing can be... improved." She studied Mian, who still had his large butchering blade sheathed next to him. She eyed the sword. "I suppose I can also improve your weapon, if you like."

Mian turned and looked at it, and Sobon didn't miss the hesitation. "Honestly, Alassi, I'd rather learn whatever I need to learn to grow stronger. The blade will protect me until it breaks. I can't ask much more of it than that."

Sobon tilted her head to the side a bit, reassessing the man, but mostly turned her attention to Lui. "And you, Lui..."

The girl, though, was uncomfortable from the moment Sobon began looking at her, squirming slightly where she sat. "Honestly, Grandma..."

"I know," Sobon cut her off, with a sigh. "You are a kind girl, Lui. I know that you don't wish anyone harm, and all the power in the world wouldn't change you for the better." She came over and sat next to the girl, who raised her shoulders defensively on instinct, but Sobon simply put a hand on her back. "I want to give you the chance to decide your own future, and if that is free from the world of qi, then I will support you. But I want you to understand that there is no escaping--"

"I know," Lui cut her off, the girl showing the first bit of backbone that either Alassi or Sobon had seen. "Whatever those men... whatever men like them wanted from me, it isn't good. And I can't be defenseless. But I don't..." her voice failed her, and she looked down and away, at nothing but dirt.

"There are other ways to fend them off aside from doing it yourself," Mian said, as gently as he could, into the quiet. "If you could learn inscriptions, or something else, from your Grandma, then your best customers will fight to make sure you're protected. A good inscriptionist is worth too much to just end up forgotten." Mian glanced at Sobon as he said that, and Sobon returned the glance.

[ He never did learn why people called me the Blood Witch, ] Alassi thought. Her mind, all through Sobon's study of the modern qi inscriptions, had been quiet, offering only the occasional advice. [ Or at least, not from me. We use the old ways, and those are best with life-rich fluids. But it is possible, if you wish to disguise your nature... ]

But Sobon only mentally shook her head in return, making her mental voice clear. [ I am not a spy, Alassi. I am a warrior. ]

[ If he followed me out of love, he will not be happy that I... ] Alassi's thoughts drifted off, ashamed and unclear.

[ I know. ] Sobon returned to the conversation, but Lui had been silent. "If you want to learn--"

"Not inscriptions," Lui said, sounding strangely tired. "I can see them, Grandma. Even the ones you laid, they are so... cold. Empty. I don't think I could do that."

Sobon sat back slightly, reconsidering. Advanced empathy, then? Interesting. "If you are that sensitive, you could become a healer."

Again, Lui shook her head. "Wounds... they hurt me. Other people's, I mean. Even the dead..." she shook her head to clear it, eyes squeezed firmly shut.

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"Alchemy, then," suggested Mian into the silence. "I don't know much about it, but I lived near an Alchemist, in Russet Vale. Man would know from sniffing the air whether someone had touched his plants overnight. Said everything had to be perfect." The large man chuckled, and held up a single hand, making a plucking motion. "When I was young, I once took a single leaf from one of his plants as I was passing by. The man found me in the city half a day later, fuming. I was sure nobody saw me, and I don't know how he found me. Even I didn't know what I'd be doing that day. But he knew, and he found me."

Lui looked at him, and although Sobon couldn't see her face, she thought the girl was smiling. "If it was a spirit plant... it probably knew on its own."

That surprised them both, and even Alassi, although the old witch spirit was less so. "You've seen a spirit plant before?" Sobon asked, wondering if she had missed something at the inn.

Lui looked back at her. "Traders," she said, simply. "A year ago, in the spring, there was a man bringing a whole load of them in, and he asked me to help carry the plants up to his room, and back down in the morning. I could see depths to them like they were people, almost. They paid attention to the change in location, and they knew I wasn't someone they knew. But they relaxed once they knew I was safe."

[ The girl has talent, ] Alassi thought, satisfied.

[ A talent you were going to let wither, ] Sobon returned sharply, and the witch spirit withdrew instantly. Sobon closed her eyes, though she suspected Lui had seen something of the byplay in her features, somehow. The girl was too sharp. "I will do whatever I can to help you find a place, Lui." That seemed like a good time to let drop another bomb, or two, since Mian was here. "And also... there is likely to be another, though I don't know when."

Lui and Mian both looked at her, confused. "Another?" asked Lui.

"You know this already, Lui," she began, and looked to Mian. "But I am not who I used to be, Mian. A spirit from..." Sobon hesitated, but Alassi helped her find words. "...from distant heavens came to give me purpose, but it has also taken my freedom. That spirit is Sobon, and he is in control of my life, now."

As anyone would have predicted, Mian's fists clenched, and strong feelings surged through him. "So, that morning..."

"In one way, Alassi is dead." Sobon stood, moving in front of the two of them. But Mian wasn't meeting her eyes, and Lui was looking at him instead. "Few can know this truth, Mian. Few, but not none. Before me, there was another. And in that life, there was another innocent caught up in things. Sobon has sent her a message, so that if she wants to meet him again, she can come here. She may come; she may not. But she was a good person, and she deserves to be kept safe, just as Lui does."

The man was silent for a long moment, and Sobon let him think.

"I thought it was odd," Mian said. "Immediately after that morning, you became so strong. Different." He got up, the sword coming to his hand naturally, though still sheathed. He looked at the sheath. "That woman was truly broken by the world, huh?"

Alassi sent Sobon a wordless request, and he let her come forward.

"Yes," Alassi spoke with her own voice, and somehow, Mian knew, looking up at her. "Yes, Mian, I was broken. But not by anything that you saw, or understood. Because one day, in one battle, my life as a warrior was taken away. But less than a week later..." her mouth turned up into a snarl, and images that Sobon didn't want to dwell on, but was not terribly surprised by, either, passed through her mind. "I was betrayed. I could have been healed. The field doctor was a half-noble, and he fancied my body. He would only allow me to heal properly if I..." she shook her head. "And even when I refused, I was attacked. And told that it was all because I was a woman."

Alassi's spiritual pressure, which was still dwarfed by Sobon's own, somehow leaked out, and both Mian and Lui made immediate note of it, stiffening, but not fleeing. Not from her. "In this world, the fact that I am a woman who would not heel to the side of their masters made me worthless. I saw then that even if I regained my strength, it would not be enough. There would always be stronger men, crueler men. Men who would seal away my future to use my womb." The woman looked down, putting one hand on her abdomen, and Sobon felt the stirring currents of qi of the old witch's spirit.

"In a way, I was pleased," she said, "when I passed the age, when my body decided it was finished. If it were only me, alone, then it would be cruel to have my younger body back. To know that it is useful, again." Her fingers, like claws, dug into the flesh of her abdomen, though not strongly enough to do any harm. "But I am not alone. And... and Sobon," she pronounced it slightly wrong, "does not see this flesh as a woman. He sees a warrior. He believes without question that he could make this flesh the better of any man on this planet."

"Yes, Mian, the woman that I was, was broken by the world." Alassi's eyes locked onto the younger man's, and he shivered. "But it is better this way. Because if you had found me when I had been a victim, and if you had avenged me, even if you had brought me back, I would still be second to a man. And somewhere deep inside of me, I would have hated you."

Mian looked back at her, unsure of what to say, but Alassi just took a deep breath.

"But." She let her breath out. "I do not hate you, Mian. And I think that by the time Sobon is done, I will not hate myself. Whether I live on after that, or whether that is the end of my life, I do not know. But Sobon is sure, in the depths of his soul, that while there is man and woman, the truth is that there is cruelty and justice. That when a woman does evil, or a man does evil, evil is done. And when a woman does good, or a man does good, then good is done. In his thoughts, a person is not one or the other. They are their actions. And his mind tore apart my past, and acknowledged evil in others, and acknowledged evil in me, and saw evil as evil."

"If you only came chasing me because I am a woman, Mian, then go." Alassi's voice carried with a hard edge, and although Sobon had not given her authority to say that, he let her speak. "I would sooner carve my uterus out with my own hands than be used to carry children against my will. Even if I live again after this, love and marriage are furthest from my mind. Because I do not wish..." she paused, and Sobon helpfully gave her words. "...I do not wish for my granddaughter, and I would not wish for any new daughters of mine, to live in a world filled with evil men."

There was a short bit of silence, and then Mian spoke up, his voice surprisingly calm.

"Then you should find evil men and kill them. In this life, and in the next."

Alassi blinked, the hard edge of her spirit blunted by his words. "...Yes," she said, a little off guard.

"Because in the end, it is not only women that suffer when evil men do evil things, Alassi." Mian stood up and stepped towards her, but not more than one step. "Because yes, I wished for a world with you in it. But not a world in which you were broken, by me or anyone else. And the world in which you were not broken was taken away by an evil man. And if I had been your son, and not an admirer, I would have said the same. Because I would cease to believe in a world where women can be strong enough on their own. Because that's what I felt when I found you."

Mian half turned away, not seeming to want to look at her any more, and Alassi felt some relief at that. "Because if I couldn't have you, Alassi, I would still want to believe that out there was a strong woman who I could be with. And to see strong women brought low just because someone wished it so... that breaks the souls of men as well as women." He stopped. "I watched you for so long, Alassi. Looking for any sign, any spark of the woman you were."

Alassi was hit hard by that, but Sobon didn't let her reel from the blow, or show it too strongly.

"I suppose if there's one good thing from all of this," he said, finally, "it's believing that you can heal. That I can heal. Because maybe you couldn't on your own. And maybe, without this... Sobon, I wouldn't have, either. But we aren't alone."

Alassi felt like withering, but Sobon pushed back in charge, adjusting her spirit to be the one that was fully in control. Mian and Lui both noticed, she knew. "And that is why I will find others that I want to protect," Sobon said, her voice calm and level, in sharp contrast to everything that had come before. "People like Lui. Like you. And like Ki'el, who may find her way here. I won't find them all, and I won't kill all the evil men in the world who have hurt them. That isn't my mission. But I will help people, save people, and heal people, as I can."

Sobon turned to look at the gate, and the inferior qi inscription at its base. "And if I'm going to do that," she said, "I'm going to need to improve this place."