For Sobon, the real upcoming problem was her lack of time. As such, although it would overstress her body, Sobon decided to move on to attuning her body to Outward Spin aether. The first step in that was creating a number of matched Outward-spin dynamos, by creating a number of matched Left and Right dynamos. Once the attunement process began, Sobon could multitask--but creating precisely matched dynamos required her entire concentration. In general, the process of creating a dynamo, even the simplest, was one that should take her entire concentration, because she had to monitor to prevent any stray intent from being copied into the core--but doing that, while creating threads of perfectly matching length and width, and rings of perfectly matching size and spin, took effort.

More hours than Sobon was happy with flew by, with Sobon secluded in her room. Sobon found herself frustratingly unable to distance herself from anger and hate for the first couple, and found herself resenting flesh again and again, to the point where Alassi's soul began to tune her out. Sobon knew that the anger was real, and legitimate--but it was also tainted. For complex reasons, hate tied one person to another with aether, and Sobon dared not let that seep into the aether she would use to attune herself.

But Sobon knew aether well enough, and was able with time to create a pocket free from all intent and connection, and forged that into threads, and that into dynamos. Although day became night and morning again, Sobon ended up with three perfectly matched, and perfectly pure, dynamos to show for it. It was very tempting to press for a fourth--matching an existing dyanmo was harder once you stepped away from creating it in the first place--but Sobon could sense that others were waiting for her.

When she finally came out into the courtyard, she found Lord Shida sitting on a chair that he had clearly brought with him, taking tea with an embarrassed looking Lui, as Ki'el and Mian practiced fighting in the space beyond. Two of the City Lord's guards were posted by the gate, and another two outside, from what she could sense.

"Lady Alassi." The Lord set down his teacup quickly and turned to bow. "You had said you wished to speak with me. Ah..." He glanced over towards where Sobon had left Mofu Kai Shin's prison. "I hope you don't mind I had ...the invader, moved. Young lady Ki'el was able to understand how to use your scripts to move him, and so he will remain under our guard. You may access him at any time, of course."

"That's just as well." Sobon strained her qi, making sure that she sensed no one and no aether effects which could hear anything within range, but there was nothing. She glanced at Lord Shida. "I trust you can stay for... more than just a few minutes?"

"I am at your disposal for at least the rest of the morning, if necessary," he said, offering a polite half-bow.

So, Sobon threw together another few motes of Oathbinding Qi, and pressed one against him, and two more to the guards by the gate. She forced her voice to carry to those two, as she spoke. "Lord Shida. What I wish to tell you must be kept secret by you, and your guards, on pain of death, from everyone including agents of the Empire. Do you consent?"

Lord Shida had a few moments of apparently mixed loyalty, and she thought perhaps he was weighting the oath against whatever the myth-breaking pattern she had used on him, but in the end, he willingly sealed that oath. "I do."

One of the guards immediately joined as soon as he did, but the other resisted. Sobon turned and glared, but that only made the man squirm against his aether and fate bindings more. "That one does not consent."

"Cang! Swap with Rin." He frowned, then said, lower. "If he didn't consent, given what you've said..."

"Do whatever you think is right." Sobon waited until another guard had come in, and pressed him with Oathbinding Qi as well. This one did consent, once told that the City Lord had.

In brief, Sobon outlined her circumstances. This time, she was fairly explicit--knowing that not only Lord Shida, but Lui, Ki'el, and Mian needed to hear it--what she expected to happen next.

"I don't know how much time I have, and I can't afford to spend decades or centuries climbing the political ladder of the Djang Empire, if I even could as a non-Djang. Now that my existence will be revealed to the kind of people who would insist on exactly that..." She took a deep breath. "Most likely, I'll need to leave this life behind and be reborn. But, it would be a waste to get no information at all out of it. Therefore... I will defeat the Mofu family, then disappear into the wilderness. From there, I will... execute my mission."

"How do you plan to get from the wilderness to--no." Shida Ken's voice was unreasonably excited, until he forced himself to stop. "I suppose I shouldn't let myself even ask. But truly--you think you could match the Diamond Lord, in time?"

"In personal power? Perhaps never. But trust this much, Lord Shida. Qi weapons can be designed that are too powerful for any living being to defend against. Enough power that that channeling sufficient defenses to stop it would destroy any known material, let alone a person. With enough time and resources, I could create such--but I have no desire to do so, and it would not be simple. I would only consider it if the Diamond Lord refuses all other options."

"I see." The man trembled, and Sobon glanced at the guards at the gate, who clearly were focusing as hard as they could to hear what was being said. She didn't really worry or care just how much they heard, not when they were bound not to speak of it. "But... while you don't have that immense power yourself, you are still advancing so quickly, Lady Alassi. This is insight from beyond this world?"

Of course, Sobon had spoken essentially nothing of the Ri'lef, and chose to keep that part of it secret still. "There are specifics to the qi of this world, and how it differs from how I was taught, but the methods I know are fundamental. Before I leave, I intend to grow stronger still, and the growth of my qi core will seem impossible. My methods, however, will not work for just anyone." Sobon gestured to Ki'el, though she knew drawing everyone's attention to her was uncomfortable. "Ki'el is the closest I have to an apprentice for now, and although she is briliant, I cannot teach her much. My own learning took decades, and I cannot afford the time."

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As though to prove it, Ki'el withdrew her dynamos from her core and manifested their thorns in her hands, letting them radiate Left Hand and Right Hand Aether where both the City Lord and his guards could see and feel it. All three seemed suitably impressed.

"All of that said," Sobon said, "in theory, I could say a great deal about how aether advancement works in general. I don't know whether it perfectly matches what people understand in this world, or not, and I was asked not to interfere too much. But core to all of it, core to everything, is being able to create qi that is purified of all other concerns and all other intent. That pure qi is used to prepare the body for more qi, and to tie body, spirit, and soul together. The process can be simplified to just those few words, if one is willing to say nothing at all."

Sobon sensed, offhand, one of the guards' qi cores adjusting by at least one star as he listened. She glanced his way, and the man swallowed nervously, but she ignored him. Lord Shida, for his part, had his eyes closed, focusing on the words, and he trembled, as though on the edge of something, though Sobon didn't imagine that anything she'd just said would push him over an edge.

"All of this brings me to why I need you. Because I will be challenging, and perhaps offending, the empire. And I have people whom I wish to see protected." Sobon's words brought Lord Shida back to the ground, and he looked at her, intense concern in his eyes. "I hope that what I do will not come back to this place, and will not be tied to Shiva Alassi. At the very least, however, I hope that you will be prepared to help them flee should you get any sense at all that danger is coming here. Get them away from the Empire, no matter what it costs."

"If you think you will offend the Empire...?" Lord Shida's voice was full of naked doubt.

"That thing where your qi screams your name at people can be removed," Sobon said, tiredly. "My appearance can be changed. And I do not intend to pass through the empire. Once I am in the wilderness... I can reach my destination from anywhere." That was... not quite correct, but it was all she needed to explain for her purposes.

"I see. So you are hoping that Lady Shiva Alassi, hero of Emerald Valley, vanishes into the wilderness, perhaps... looking for a Starbeast Core, and is presumed dead. And someone unrelated offends the Empire, and there is nothing to tie these together except..."

"Except for a few people who have given me their word that they will speak nothing."

Lord Shida glanced at the guards, and Sobon studied his face, trying to ignore how her body reacted to staring hard at a handsome man's face. She could keep her own thoughts from dwelling on his looks, but some things--some unconscious and half-conscious things--were not easy to interrupt. She couldn't stop those thoughts from existing, only stop them from running off in any direction she didn't want them going.

Whatever Shida Ken saw in his guards, he appeared satisfied. "I will ensure nothing is spoken of. We can even spread the lie that we believe--earnestly believe--you will be out hunting for Starbeast cores, alone. And, if anyone wishes to follow you, I imagine you can leave tracks that lead them in just such a direction."

"Easily," Sobon agreed. "In fact, that is where I will be going, when I leave."

"Then it won't even need to be a lie. Those that wish to search for you will follow, and see nothing. Perhaps even--" Lord Shida's voice caught, and Sobon noted a thoughtful look freeze on his face, before the man cleared it. "Perhaps even up to the rifts that the Starbeasts spawn from."

"Perhaps," Sobon let her voice remain neutral.

"It leads me to wonder, Lady Alassi--you are confident in your ability to kill Starbeasts?"

Sobon chose her words very carefully, not because she needed to lie further about the Ri'lef, but because speaking of them would only complicate things at this stage. "I have access to information that makes it much easier to attack their weak points, and avoid their greatest attacks. So yes, I am confident."

Lord Shida met her eyes, for long enough that Sobon was sure the man understood that she was keeping a secret, before closing his eyes in acceptance. "As you say, Lady."

So Sobon just moved on. "If everything goes to plan, I very much doubt you will ever see Shiva Alassi again. But expect at some time in the future for someone to reappear here with the Mark of Sobon. That person will be me, in another body. It is also possible that you will be contacted... by a strange qi entity." Sobon paused, then pulsed a message to the Corona. "This entity."

As expected, the Corona's AI relayed her pulse message back to Lord Shida after only a moment. She watched the man's eyes widen. "This is..."

"One of a great many secrets that I will hold on to for a while yet." Sobon stood. "For now, Lord Shida, I will need another place to hide my things and my people. As you will see, it will not need to be much. This way."

Sobon led the City Lord to her shed, where she showed the spatially expanded basement--then proved, by prying away a bit of floor, that it was not actually dug into the ground beneath the opening.

"Moving the basement will be a little tricky," she admitted as Shida Ken was desperately trying not to gape like a dying fish at the small quartz frame, "But it can be moved, if one is careful, or even placed in a spatial ring. I am working on a bracelet version that should suffice to carry it, and will get to that when I have time. Wherever it ends up, it needs to be well-secured, and on level ground."

"I will..." he paused, and considered for several moments. "I have a few options, I suppose. But perhaps it would be wisest, if you believe that she can be trusted, to leave it with Lai Shi Po? I believe that there must be some knowledge you could trade her, for which she would gladly hold on to such a thing. And if anyone could keep one specific spatial ring safe, it would be her."

"Perhaps," Sobon agreed. "If she gets here in time to have that discussion."

"You cannot..." he gestured. "Contact her?"

"I had not considered it. Unfortunately, that method requires one to memorize a person's... [qi signature]," she said, and sent, not entirely confident that the words alone conveyed what she meant. "I didn't memorize hers when we met."

Shida Ken closed his eyes and considered her words, before nodding. "You must specify her, and her exactly, with your intent alone."

"Yes. Because the... entity knows me, you could ask it to relay a message to Sobon, and it would. But for just any person in the world, even powerful ones..." Sobon shook her head. "Also, please don't use it for just anything, and don't reveal its existence."

"Of course, Lady Alassi. I wouldn't dare." Lord Shida started to give another subservient half-bow, but to his credit, he was starting to feel embarrassed by all of that. Sobon considered that progress.

"In exchange for all of this, I will do what I can in the time that I have to help you advance. At the very least, I will try to explain things. I believe I can also help with the creation of purified qi, though I will need to carefully design a tool to do it." Sobon took a breath. "I... cannot handle a large circle of trusted people. By necessity, Lord Shida, I will include your guards, since they will keep my secrets. But I have only ever intended to directly protect a few people--those people who I have found to be good and worthy in my own life, without trusting the word of others."

The City Lord looked surprised at first, but then his face fell into an understanding and patient mask. "Yes... those of us who must decide between protecting the many, or the few, end up very conflicted. Given your mission, I understand that you cannot spare the time or resources to care for too many at once."

Sobon nodded at him. "That will be enough for now. Perhaps tomorrow, or in another few days, we can speak again. I have much to do."

"Of course, Lady Alassi." Shida Ken bowed, and departed the house without any further word.