29. Settlement

Pi Phon was shown into the command tent immediately, where his lord and elder was reviewing reports on – sewage, Pi Phon realized, getting a glance at the back of the page. He averted his eyes, although Di Ram seemed not concerned at all.

“It’s not a secret that we’ve got a problem with people shitting in the streets. I’d love to delegate this report to someone else and never actually have to deal with it, but I’ve learned that some unpleasant truths are best to simply face and get over with,” Di Ram said. “So out with it. You’ve returned empty handed, but before you were set to be recalled. Is this a good or bad sign?”

“I have a great amount of news of the south, although I admit that it all comes from the Raging River Sect,” Pi Phon said.

“Never heard of them,” Di Ram said, turning the page of his report.

“They’ve always been a local power, according to them, but they’ve been making a number of power plays lately which have them very excited. Through them I’ve spoken with a number of their allies who have all pledged support. I am pleased to say that they are sending thousands of bushels of corn and wheat north to us as we speak. I have the documents right here,” Pi Phon said, pulling the agreement from his belt and handing them over.

Di Ram set aside the sewage report and broke the seal on the scroll. He studied the document for a moment, not letting his excitement show, because when a deal was too good to be true it usually was. “It demands in payment ‘services of disciples of the Six Mountain Sect.’ What have you signed us up for?” he asked his subordinate.

“They’re holding a tournament. They need twenty impartial judges. Aside from which, they want instruction for some of their junior members on the use of the Peach Blossom Dream and the other techniques that Little Bug left behind. They’re willing to negotiate the exact number of hours of instructions that we’re committed to, but they’re very adamant that we be the ones to judge their tourney.”

“I see,” Di Ram said. He did the math. Not on what it would cost him, but on how many lives this would save. It was worth the cost at one, but the number he came up with was so much higher than that. “I’m sending you back to negotiate for me, along with the judges they requested. The judges can begin instruction in the techniques that the Raging River Sect requested instructions on immediately, and we’ll come up with some way of tracking their progress, but I want the agreement to show that nobody is a slave or subordinate in this relationship. The instructors are free to leave at any time, even should the debt remain.”

“Of course, Lady Tonilla said she would agree to as much herself. She expressed an interest of holding us as guests, not as hostages. She insists that the supplies for the mortals are being sent out of humanitarian concerns and not as a way of seeking advantage,” Pi Phon said.

Di Ram huffed. “I somewhat doubt that, but for now I have no choice but to take her word for it. Still, this is a significant windfall and I can see why you’ve decided to return rather than proceed with your original mission of investigating the weather. Is there anything else?”

“Yes,” Pi Phon said. “Little Bug will be participating in the tournament.”

~~~~~~

For all my talk of buying Adan’s debt, the truth is that I was broke. So if I was to fulfill my promise, I needed some way of actually making money.

Fortunately, I was a relatively powerful earth cultivator. I had yet to step on the bronze path, because it was not time yet to make the ascension. I cannot explain how I knew this, except to say that it had to do with my ability to see the strings of fate. I had formed attachments in the north despite my best efforts, and some of them were coming south.

I didn’t understand the meaning of that yet, but I got the firm sense from my foresight that I would regret advancing my cultivation before the tournament, so I did not.

Besides which, the tournament had been set up with a cut-off point such that bronze path cultivators were excluded, so unless I wanted to skip participating in the tournament that I had set up for myself, then I would have to delay stepping onto that path.

With the construction of the coliseum, I was able to present myself as a member of their quarry team, and over the next few weeks I spent a significant amount of time pulling rocks out of the earth.

However, the entire issue with Adan’s debt resolved itself while I was occupied.

~~~~~~

Hien Ro blushed as Yara took his hand and pointed at the street performers, not that he needed her help to see them as they danced through the center of the street. In one corner a young girl played a tune on a complicated instrument that Hien Ro hadn’t seen coming south, while her father danced with a large monkey in the street, performing various acrobatics as part of the routine.

“They’re very good,” he said.

“They’re atrocious,” Yara said.

“No, the word for when something is—”

“I know what atrocious means northerner,” she scoffed. “Don’t think that just because I’m still learning your language doesn’t mean that I don’t know when something is atrocious. Your breath, for example—”

“Hey!” he protested, but they both broke into giggles as they walked further down the street. Hien Ro’s heart was fluttering a bit as she continued to hold his hand. Were they, did she, was he her boyfriend, or was she completely oblivious to how he felt about her. Did he just ask, or should he … why were these things so complicated?

“Do you think Little Bug will win the tournament?” she asked.

“If he wants to win then he’ll win, but he might not care if he wins or not,” Hien Ro admitted. “He wants a challenge more than any of the rewards. Besides, he’s the one who put up the grand prize himself, so it might be better if he comes in second.”

“Oh, didn’t you hear? There isn’t a grand prize. Not really. There are five prizes and the winners get to choose from them in order of the rank that they took. So the winner picks first, and second place picks second, and so forth. It would be funny if Little Bug’s prize was picked last,” Yara commented.

“Why would that be funny.”

“Because it would show that all of our peers are idiots,” she explained. “Come on, I want to show you where I used to live.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon together, and as the shadows stretched and the evening approached, he sensed a growing sense of unease come from her.

Maybe this was a date, Hien Ro thought to himself, and maybe she was nervous that he would try to do the sort of things that boys and girls do after dates with her. He decided to put her mind at ease, because while, if she wanted to, he would, he wasn’t going to—

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was a mistake to go home. I’m sorry to drag you into my problems Hien Ro,” she said suddenly.

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“What are you talking about?” he asked, but two burly men blocked their path at that moment. At the same time, three men blocked the street behind them.

“Yara Pocef,” said one of the men. “We have come to collect your father’s debt.”

“I don’t have any money on me,” she protested. “I’m sorry, but—”

“I’m sorry, I misspoke. We’ve come to collect you to settle your father’s debt,” the man repeated. “If you come quietly, then I promise we’ll put you in one of the nice brothels instead of—”

Hien Ro’s heart burst as he realized what was going on and his heart burst. “Shall I kill them all, or do you want to?” he asked his companion.

“I don’t want to involve you in my family’s problems,” she said. “Leave it to me.”

“I’m involved at this point whether you want me to be or not,” he said. “But I’ll let you show off a bit. It’s fun watching you fight in that dress.”

She shot an incredulous look at him, one that said ‘you say that now?’ But as the thugs closed in, she abruptly flared her cultivation. Invoking the Iron Monkey’s Strength technique which she had perfected through long and careful practice, she began to fight.

Hien Ro watched his maybe-girlfriend dance among the five thugs, breaking arms and crushing noses as she beat down men who were more than twice her age and outmassed her by at least double. To Yara, the battle lasted for an eternity. For Hien Ro, it lasted twice that as he debated each moment whether or not to get involve.

To the innocent bystanders who ran once the violence broke out, it was over in seconds. Still they fled rather than be labeled a witness.

Once all of the assailants were on the ground, Yara relaxed, her cultivation returning to its passive state. Hien Ro stepped over to the leader.

“Listen to me you big thug. I don’t really care how much the Pocef family owes. I know how this scheme works. What is the actual amount of money that they borrowed. I don’t care about interest or fees or whatever else you tacked on to make it what you call it today. What did it start out as?”

“T-two hundred,” the thug said, gasping with tears in his eyes.

“That’s it? Good. Now, I have a question. How much is your leg worth?” Hien Ro inquired.

“What?”

“Your leg. I’m taking it from you, but I’ll give you this one chance to buy it from me before I detach it. How much is your leg worth to you? Or shall I add it to my collection?” Hien Ro asked.

The thug sputtered and cried, but there was nobody around to help him as Hien Ro negotiated the end of the Pocef family’s debt problem.

~~~~~~~

Even after the situation with Adan’s debts were resolved, and I never did find out exactly how that happened but didn’t question the matter too much, I continued going to the quarry right up to the day when the foreman said that my efforts weren’t required anymore, as the coliseum was nearly complete. The work lasted for months, and while the pay wasn’t particularly great after I had given away most of it to those less fortunate than I, it was enough to pay for a room and three meals a day for me and my companions.

It would have paid for considerably more than that, as the rocks that I pulled out of the earth built half of the eastern quarter of the coliseum, but I wasn’t greedy and aside from bribing our landlord to not kick us out once the tournament started I had no reason to save money.

Not mortal coinage, at least, as most of the things which could actually help me reach my goals belonged to the local sects and I’d have to negotiate like for like if I were to attain them. At least, if I were to attain them without joining their sect myself and going through their contribution system.

But when the most valuable resource in the world is knowledge, I was perhaps the richest boy alive.

Once I was sent home from the quarry, I began working on a hobby of mine. The idea for the plates came from several of my many past lives, and with my earth manipulation it was fairly simple to create the originals. Once I had the notes transcribed, I tested out the press, and when they worked, I purchased the paper and ink.

And that’s how the printing press was introduced to Atla, with the first document being an instruction manual for the Peach Blossom Dream, as well as my other entry level techniques that I had developed while I had been living with the Six Mountain Sect.

With my pamphlet complete, I hired a bunch of children to hand them out to the cultivators who were coming and going from the registration office at the coliseum.

Which was one of my destinations as well, of course. Hien Ro and Yara were also both participating, since the rules made it clear that seriously injuring your opponent was detrimental to your overall performance.

While Adan had managed to open a few meridians, he wasn’t far enough advanced to take part in the tournament, and felt no particular incentive to push the matter anyway. He assured us that he’d be content with cheering from the stands.

It was with a week to go before the tournament that I received a surprising visitor from my past. A knock at my door, and I opened to find Pi Phon standing there, looking the same as I’d last seen him years ago when he had still been my tutor. I blinked in surprise, and then allowed myself to be enveloped in a hug.

“Your mother and your family is well, Little Bug,” he told me. “Oh it is good that you’re alive. I just got back into the city. Since I’m a judge at the tournament I have access to the registration records, and it took me hours to go through the list to find where you were staying, but I’m glad that I did.”

“It is good to see you, Pi Phon,” I said. “But I’m quite surprised. Why are you here?”

He pulled back to look at me. “Your strangeness? Is it … has it lessened over time?”

“Yes and no,” I said. “But I’m able to make myself better understood than before. What did you say about my family?”

He hesitated, then asked to come inside and tell me all that had happened in the north. My nails bit into the palm of my hand, nearly drawing blood as I suppressed my anger over the lengths that Nadia and her followers would go to chase after me. At the innocent blood that they would spill to end my life. But I turned that anger into resolve.

“I am sorry about Di Phon. I never met him, but he seemed an honorable patriarch,” I said.

“I will convey your words to Di Ram,” Pi Phon said. “Little Bug, I will not ask you not to take part in the tournament, as I think that it is actually a wonderful thing for someone your age to do. But after it is over, will you come back north with us? It is time for you to return home.”

“I do not know. I shall think the matter over,” I promised.

“Please do,” he said. He paused, and pulled a ring from his hand and put it in mine. “Elder Di Ram bid me to give this to you, Little Bug. I don’t know any more than that, other than he made me swear that I would not lose it and that I would wear it until either I placed it on your hand or, if I could not find you, I returned it to Di Ram.”

“Thank you, Pi Phon,” I said, looking at the ring with a shocked expression.

The conversation fell to silence as I studied the gift. He shifted nervously. “Well, I have a lot of things to do in preparing for the tournament,” he admitted. “I will let you be now.”

He rose and left, leaving me alone.

When he was gone, I closed my eyes as I felt fate shifting into a state of flux once more. Things were no longer so certain as they had been, and I knew that this was because of the multitude of options which had just been granted to me.

I channeled my Qi into the ring and entered into the space within the artifact, vanishing from the room. The ring clattered to the floor behind me, and would remain there until Hien Ro picked it up and put it on his hand.

~~~~~~~

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