Rather than setting up a proper camp, a process that involved various arrays which Lu was entirely too aggravated to fiddle with, he simply found a section of the clearing – the word clearing being used only in comparison to the rest of the forest; it was still fairly tree-filled, just not enough to block out the entire sky – where his carriage would fit, and threw down the strongest single-step concealment array he had.
“So…” The plush seats and decadent decor did little to lighten his mood, though they were certainly trying. On the table the sharpie squirmed, bound with rope and gagged as best they could manage given the shape of its skull. It had been well-suited to its surroundings, with green-brown and subtly bark-textured skin, which was far from the worst Lu had seen where Salt warriors were concerned. Actually, it doesn’t look half bad. If a human had that skin tone, I’d probably consider them attractive. Could do without the mottled look, though. “Do we actually need to go back for this?” He raised his arm, warding off protests before they could begin. “And before you say anything, I should mention that Elder Aiya Yu revealed to me that they were finding some already, on the coast, so it isn’t like this is a grand revelation.
“I think a reasonable reaction would be to send one or two people back with the gremlin, while the rest of us stay here.” His eyes scanned the compartment. Lan and Jiendao seemed more concerned, the latter of which was slightly surprising, while Bull and Cobo were mostly blasé. Given Jiendao’s very driven attitude, I’d have thought she’d prefer to get as many cores as possible. “Alright, one at a time.”
Just outside the open window, the other three listened in. Bo seemed interested, while Stingy’s crocodilian expression was as indecipherable as Tai Sho’s bland smile.
Lan began. “While the juvenile itself isn’t a big issue, I’m more concerned with where it came from. Given the shortness of their life cycle and the abundant food the forest provides, it can’t have been here more than a handful of days.”
Lu’s features tightened. “I… hadn’t considered that. But still, there’s no reason to panic-”
Stingy’s snout poked through the window, interrupting. “It’s a bit less than a day old. I can smell it.” Lu looked from the woman’s nose back to the sharpie, his eyes widening. “I don’t know the mother, though. Smells sort of tree-y? Maybe Hem’s End. Or maybe that’s just what it’s been eating, I’m not sure.” She sniffed, like a dog inspecting something new. “Could be from farther away, I suppose.”
“It’s big,” Cobo broke in. “Thin, but tall, with thick bones. Not close to pupating.”
The snout disappeared as Stingy retreated, replaced a moment later by a slitted eye, pointing down to peer through the small window. Maybe I should have made them larger- ah, but no, these are meant to be super durable! Having windows at all was already a concession to my aesthetic sense. “Yeah, you’re right! It’s probably really fresh, then.”
Bull rubbed his chin. “So either the mother is around, or there’s another breach under our noses.”
“Or the original one to the west opened back up, and the containment team were slaughtered.” Jiendao’s face was grim, her normally serious expression even more pronounced. “Should senior brother Sho go and check?”
Their collective eyes turned to Tai Sho. “…I believe I could, junior sister. Though I think it would be prudent for Lady Stingy to try and pick up a trail, as well.”
Lan nodded. “Good idea. I’ll go with you, while the warriors try to follow its path and the rest of us head back to the sect.” For a moment his bearing held firm, before he realised he was the focus of attention and his head lowered. “If everyone agrees, that is.”
I… really don’t want to go back early. But at the same time, not doing so would be irresponsible; just one Salt woman might be many times more difficult to deal with than the spirit beasts we’ve been fighting, to say nothing of another invasion force. Lu opened his mouth, but before he could add his assent Bull spoke out.
“Hang on. We should verify if the quarantined zone is still there before anything else. If not, then even one of us staying nearby is too dangerous – and if everything’s fine, then we can just bring this little guy,” he nudged the sharpie, which squirmed harder as it eyed him hungrily, “Over there. It’s much closer, so unless everything’s gone to Hell again, we should be able to keep hunting.”
Lu’s worries immediately vanished. “Good point, Bull, good point! Tai Sho, you shouldn’t have any trouble making it there and back quickly, correct?”
The man’s smile remained static on his face. “That shouldn’t be beyond me. Give me…” His eyes tilted skyward in thought. “Two hours. No, three; they may take my skulking about poorly.”
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“So, a thought occurs.”
Bull paused, lowering the scroll in his hands. Like all the others Lu had piled on the carriage’s table, it was almost nonsensical; a tangle of forms weaving around each other with frankly unnecessary complexity, the accompanying text about as dry as burnt toast.
“Hm?”
“The Moving Waters women stopped producing sharpies a few days after they arrived on Earth. That implies a new breach.”
Bull shrugged. “I suppose it does.” I know… about half of these forms, speaking generously. “Or the sect poisoned them to keep their population from exploding.”
The way his friend stilled, his expression tightening, told Bull that he had never even considered the possibility. “…Do you think so?”
With another shrug, he tossed the scroll back into its pile. Completely unusable. I would need to concentrate for over a minute to cast this, an eternity in the middle of a fight, and that's assuming I spent however many hours it would take to get it down. I have no idea how he memorizes so many of these unholy things. “Could be. Probably not; not even Goldenseed would be able to brew an entirely new contraceptive, for an entirely new alien species, within such a short span of time.” He nudged another scroll open, but his motivation had disappeared about twenty minutes in. “Most likely it was exactly what it looked like; something about Earth failed to agree with their biology, and their reproductive systems stopped churning out teeth with legs.” Oh, this one is even worse. What even is the point of such long, convoluted spellforms? It isn’t even much better than a normal art.
With a huff, he cast the scroll down like he had its brothers. “I give up. These are too advanced for me.” He threw his hands up, exaggerating his exasperation as he stood. “I’m going to go out and cultivate. The air in here is too intelligent for my barbarous spirit.”
Lu barely acknowledged his words, too busy puzzling through the moral conundrum of hypothetical poisonings. “Ah? Sure, sure. As long as you’re inside the array.”
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The forest’s air was fresh, lush and moist despite – because of? – the gloom cast by the thick canopy. He took a moment simply to stare upwards, spotting small birds hunting for grubs and other insects in the green-tinted light.
Stingy and Bo were amusing themselves by flinging tiny chunks of meat for the little beast to run after, its gait unbalanced with its arms still firmly secured by ropes. It really did look like the mythological goblin, with its childish proportions supporting that monstrous maw. Cob sat to the side, apparently too mature to join in the fun.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Enjoying yourselves?”
Bo looked up. “Yeah. Healthy little guy, good teeth.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Flashing a grin, he leaped up to the roof of the huge mass of steel. “I’ll be stealing your seat for a while, hope you don’t mind.”
Bo grunted, and Bull allowed his awareness to narrow as he sat, his eyes closing and his sense turning inwards. His dantian filled his vision, the orb coloured like a pomegranate and covered in sharp whorls. It was an affectation he could never give up, no matter how silly he knew it was; nobody was going to be physically stealing the thing, so making it hard to grip was completely pointless.
Today, those defences seemed especially insecure, almost childish. Ah, but when you want to compliment someone’s enthusiasm, wouldn’t you say they’re young at heart? A man should have room for a bit of childishness in his personality.
His grin widened. There was the tiniest, most prideful part of him that felt cheated by fate. The rest of him was simply ecstatic; watching Tai Sho be reduced to a half-alive scarecrow set his heart at ease, and warmed him down to the bone. He had never properly believed in karma or universal justice, but it seemed that lately reality was trying to change his mind.
His grin couldn’t widen any more, so he was forced to express his amusement with a quiet chuckle instead. Behind him his Path glided, in perfect sync with the motions of his breath, the beating of his heart, the circulation of qi in his veins.
Maybe I should take Lu’s advice. Just let him wither on the vine. It would be poetic, in its own way; despite sacrificing Bull in his bid to reach the core sect, Tai Sho would die by his own hand before taking a single step beyond.
…But no. Poetic or not, deserved or not, that wasn’t the sort of ending Bull wanted. He wanted to feel it, to build Tai’s end with his own two hands. It was selfish, and prideful, and yet the thought made him feel light and airy. He breathed in, cycled the qi over minutes that felt like seconds, and breathed out.
In, and out. In, and out.
When the time arrived, it was late afternoon. Bull couldn’t have said how he knew – the man was well outside both the concealing array and the reach of his sense – but he did.
The shark opened its eyes, sighting the bleeding whale from below. Tai Sho stepped lightly into camp, the middle-aged figure of a core realm array master following a second behind.
“Here we are, sister Sheh.”
The woman’s eyes darted, taking in the camp. Bo paused, looking away from the sharpie as it jumped for the sliver of meat held between his fingers – at some point it had lost the ropes, and Stingy was nowhere to be seen. “I see. I’ll set up my instruments; please gather the rest of your group, brother Sho.”
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Lu was interrupted in his reading by a knock on the wall beside his head. Startling, he sent a nasty look out the window. “Bull! Don’t hit the walls, you’ll break them.”
The man was unrepentant. “High praise, junior brother. Tai Sho’s returned with some backup in tow; it seems the breach site wasn’t overrun by marauding hordes. Good news!”
“Ah!” Lu nearly dropped the scroll in his haste, stuffing it into his purse as he hopped out the door. “That is good news!” A pause. “Though I suppose that means there’s still a mystery to be solved. What kind of backup?”
Bull tossed his head, drawing Lu’s gaze to a spot where the vegetation had been cleared away. There was an unfamiliar woman setting down plate-shaped flags as Bo watched from the side, the sharpie peeking out from behind his leg. “Some old array witch. Probably one of Persimmon’s apprentices. Come on, she wanted us all together for something.”
It took a moment for everyone to assemble; Cobo and Stingy had apparently been out hunting despite the firm implication that everyone was to stay within sight of the camp, and Lan and Jiendao… Well, let’s just ignore that. Good for them, moving on. When the entire group of eight was present, the core disciple – who had yet to introduce herself, mildly rude – had them stand on a large wooden circle, its surface engraved with silver-painted forms.
It was a tight fit, but the circle was quite large, wider than his carriage even. I recognise some of these forms along the edge. Now where have I seen those- ah, the blood-keyed teleporter. Should I be worried?
Any anxiety he felt turned out to be misplaced; all that occurred was a brief stifling feeling, and then the woman gestured for them to step away.
Her voice has a certain unimpressed quality to it. It suites her role as a scholar, though I could easily picture her as a doctor or clerk as well. “Alright, now the juvenile. Has it eaten or drunk anything since you captured it?”
Bo blinked. “…Yes?”
The woman sighed. “What did it eat? Be as specific as possible.” A half-minute of explanation, during which her annoyed look retreated some, and then she performed some sort of adjustment on the plate with her spiritual sense. “You’re certain it was all meat from the same animal?”
A nod.
“Put it on the plate, then. And step away.”
Bo pushed the sharpie down until it was solidly pressed to the wood, then gave it a stern look and backed off the flag. The little thing looked mostly confused, though it jumped almost a full metre into the air when the diagnostic effect passed over it.
“Alright, you can restrain it now. It looks,” she adjusted her spectacles, empty of glass as was the modern fashion, “Like it started existing about twenty hours ago. There’s some plant matter inside it, though I can’t seem to pinpoint where, which matches local flora.” The sharpie gladly returned to its spot behind Bo’s leg, eyeing the wooden circle distrustfully.
She continued. “No liminal residue. Minimal Sixth Reality qi in its system. Based on these readings, it seems reasonable to conclude that it was born here, rather than being sent through a breach.”
Jiendao hummed. “So there is a mother around. Any idea where?”
The array master picked up the flag by its side, an action that looked incongruous despite the intellectual knowledge that she was absurdly strong. It shrunk in her grip until it was the size of her palm, and she slipped it into her robes before replying. “I’ll leave that for the ghosts to answer. Unless you were thinking of going after it yourself?”
“No, senior sister,” Lu hurriedly answered. “We’ll be moving off further to the east; I doubt the sharpie travelled very far before it stumbled into us.” Not in this environment, where it would need to navigate the underbrush and avoid predators.
“As you will…” Her eyes moved to the sharpie, which recoiled as though struck. “I believe that’s my part done. I’ll get this data back to the quarantine zone, along with the ankle biter.” Her expression tightened minutely. “A stasis formation might damage it. I suppose I’ll just have to carry the thing…”
“Uh,” Bo spoke, hesitant. “I can come with you? I know how to handle it.”
Bo, what?
The woman’s eyes narrowed, before she seemed to dismiss her own skepticism as an act of will. “Very well, I’d prefer to keep all my fingers.” She gave the group another once-over. “Will there be anything else before I leave?”
“One moment, one moment.” Lu slid close, his voice dropping low. “Bo, what’s all this?”
The man shrugged, and Lu cast a minor illusion for privacy before he could attempt his poor imitation of a whisper. “I dunno. I figure I should make sure it gets there safely?” His hand went down, patting the sharpie on the head – a gesture it seemed to take with grudging acceptance. “I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I think you were right? About the way we treat sharpies. Maybe.” He shrugged again. “Or maybe I’m just attached to this one. Whatever reason, I don’t wanna’ let it get cut up or anything. You can do the rest without me, right?”
Lu looked up at the man. Ah. This is… a good thing? I suppose? “Yes, we should manage. I’m…” Would it be strange to say I’m proud? Am I proud? I’ve kind of been putting the cannibalization issue in a box at the back of the shelf, so to speak… “Glad. Go on, I’ll be just fine.”
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Lu watched them depart. The core disciple had, miraculously, had a flying treasure on her person capable of carrying the warrior’s bulk. Lu eyed the head-sized ring with undisguised envy as it retreated from view, Bo dangling by two fingers as the disciple stood atop the thin edge with seemingly limitless poise. Not as fast as mine. Yes, and decidedly unwieldy in comparison. The disparaging thoughts did little to dispel the greed in his heart.
Beside him, Lan wiped his brow. “That seems to be the matter settled, unless we get unlucky and stumble into the mother as well.”
Bull punched the man’s shoulder. “Don’t say it out loud, junior brother, or Hell’s Monkey will hear and make it happen.” Despite his admonishing tone, the smile on his face did not recede even a millimetre. “Though I think we’d be able to take this mystery woman anyway. We have one of our own, after all – you’re not afraid of your countryman, are you Stingy?”
Stingy remained silent a moment, continuing to watch the trio disappear into the forest – something told Lu she could see much further than he could. “Hm? Oh, no. I’m pretty strong.” She paused a moment. “Though I’ve never actually fought another woman? They’d be bigger and stronger than me, unless they were also delaying their final moult.”
Jiendao’s eyebrows rose. “You aren’t at your full size yet?”
A shake of the head. “Nope! I don’t want to have to deal with sharpies, so I’ve been putting it off. Though maybe that won’t be an issue on this planet?” Her head tilted. “Eh. Better not to gamble on it. I don’t wanna mess my body up and not be able to make any sharpies ever, so I’ll just wait ‘till I’m back in Salt.”
Lu worried his lip, just lightly. “That might be a way’s off, Stingy.”
Cobo grunted. “It’ll happen when it happens. I can tell you I don’t plan on dying on this weird planet, and I’m pretty sure Still Water feels the same.” He turned away. “So we moving or what? I didn’t get to taste any of that fluffy thing since Bo gave it all away; let’s get back to hunting before all the other predators wake up.”
Lu turned away himself. Bo will be fine. In actuality, he’s probably safer now than he was with us; between our core disciple and his, I know which one I trust more strongly. “Yes, we should get going. Only thirteen days left.”