Yi Cao took slid his drink from the bar and turned to make his way towards a corner of Te’klub where he could watch the rest of the room while being out of the way. Only half way there did he realize that the corner was already occupied and he froze to watch the figure half hidden by shadows as twin mechanical arms over the man-thing’s shoulders picked dainties from the plate in front of it and fed them into a mouth hidden in the shadows of a deep hood.

After a moment the figure seemed to realize it was being watched and turned until twin sparks winked out at him from its cowl.

One mechanical arm whined as it lifted a bit of pastry from the plate and fed it into the shadow beneath those eyes.

Yi Cao turned quickly and sat down at another table, one not so obscured by the shadows, but still with a decent view of the rest of the bar and the door with its gray skinned guard. It took an effort of will not to crane his neck around and look at the figure lurking in the shadows behind him, but Yi Cao ignored the hairs standing up on his neck and took a sip from his drink.

The drink was foul. It burned his throat and tongue on its way down and did nothing to quench his sudden thirst. His stomach rumbled and he pushed the cup away on the pitted surface of the table.

He settled in to wait…

And wait…

And wait.

Customers came and went from the bar while he waited. Hunched men with mechanical pieces behind gray beards. Warped creatures with oddly tinted eyes and limbs to long for their bodies. More short little men like the bartender who greeted him in some language only they seemed to know, and others who might have been normal if not for the drab uniforms or oddly tinted hair, skin, and eyes.

Yi Cao absently sipped from the drink in front of him and grimaced again at the burning sensation as it moved down his throat. He dug in his bag, intending to pull out the Welcome book from the little librarian, but what came up in his hand was the gray binding of the Treatise on Soul Oaths instead.

He sat looking at it for a long moment before he removed it from the bag and set it on the table. He looked around, as though anyone here would care if he was reading a book on soul oaths, even peaked behind him at the hooded figure still lurking in the corner, now with one of its arms held out in front of it while it felt slowly over the thing with gloved hands. He ran his hand across the title printed on the gray cloth in red, then peeled it open to the first page and began to read.

Honored elders and disciples, it is an honor to be among you on so auspicious an occasion. To witness the power and glory of your sect, and the superiority of your eponymous techniques. It is no wonder… renown… glory… more of the same.

He took another sip. Grimaced, and massaged his forehead as he leaned over the book to read.

It was brought to my attention by the honored elder Xiaodok that some among the inner disciples have made inquiries of the masters regarding the utility and use of Soul Oaths in your cultivation journey and what impact it might have to make such in, for example, in marriage contracts with the beautiful daughters of members of the sect, or to their fathers in exchange for their hand, or, simply with allies in the political maneuvers constant among sects such as yourselves. I think I need not name the young mistress whom these inquiries have surrounded, but we all know the legendary beauty of the daughters of this sect. Needless to say, I am honored by the request and -

A hand snapped suddenly onto the table with a crack light thunder.

Yi Cao yanked his face off of the table, leaving a layer of his skin adhered to the paint as he jerked awake.

Zihan spilled into the chair opposite him with a smirk.

“So.” The young master said. “You found us a room.”

Yi Cao rubbed his face and stared around at the bar before he shook his head and focused on the master in front of him. “Of course.” He said. “How did you know where to find me?”

Zihan waved a hand. “I followed you of course.”

Yi Cao blinked.

“I never saw you.”

Zihan shrugged. “That would be the point wouldn’t it?” He scooped up Yi Cao’s drink from the center of the table and gave it a swirl, examining it in what little light filtered through Te’klub’s from the glow tubes behind the bar and the few scattered above the tables. “Find anything interesting at that library?” Zihan asked.

Yi Cao felt a cold sweat break out across his back. He put a hand on the treatise and very carefully didn’t look down at it. He reached into his bag instead and pulled out his leather bound copy of The North which he slid over top of the Treatise. “The proprietor wanted to make a copy of this.” He said. “In return for some instructions on finding this place.”

Zihan nodded, then downed what remained of Yi Cao’s drink. He grimaced as he dropped the glass back onto the table and hit his chest a few times. “Wow.” He coughed and a blue flames licked out of his mouth. “Well done.”

He coughed a few more times and looked around. “I was hoping that mercenary from the liner would try and jump you.” He said. “Just followed you though. Shame.”

Yi Cao blinked again. “Why would he jump me?”

Zihan gave Yi Cao a look.

Yi Cao’s hand moved unconsciously up to the pendant still hanging from his neck.

“Right.”

“Right.” Zihan agreed. He looked around the bar. “I thought I’d find you cultivating in our room.” He said.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Yi Cao shook his head. “They wouldn’t take my silver.”

“My silver.” Zihan corrected him. “But that’s fine. I came prepared.” A card roughly two inches by three flashed as Zihan whipped it from an inside pocket and spun it across the table to Yi Cao. Yi Cao slid his books off the table and stuffed them into his bag, careful to keep the title of the bottom title out of view but incapable of keeping from glancing up at a smiling Zihan to see if he’d spotted anything out of the ordinary before he picked up the card and looked at it.

The material was metal, or some particularly strong wood with a film of transparent material above filaments embedded beneath the surface. When one finger found a metal tab at one end the filaments flashed to life, dialing swiftly through artificer numerals until it displayed a number in the thousands.

“What is this?” Yi Cao asked. He spun the artifact in his hands.

“Tech thing.” Zihan replied. “Spirit money or something.” He shrugged. “Who knows. I’m no technomancer. Got it on Elleppu before we came over. Drew on my Dad’s account with one of the merchant clans.”

Yi Cao nodded and spun the card one last time before putting it into Zihan’s waiting hand.

Zihan stood. “Come on.” He said. “Let’s go see what you’ve found us.”

A small room waited for them behind the common room. A narrow corridor ran back from a door in the rear of Te’klub’s lined by even narrower doors, each apparently leading off into a tiny room like the one they’d rented. A glow tube flickered on as they pushed through their door casting the room’s single bed in a sickly glow to match the sickly appearance of the rumpled sheets and narrow time worn chest of drawers.

“Home sweet home.” Zihan said as Yi Cao followed him in.

“Home sweet home.” Yi Cao looked around at what little the room contained in dismay while Zihan pulled his wallet out of his half cloak. He opened it then clapped it shut a few times, cycling through some interface before he whipped the ragged blanket off of the bed and started stuffing it down the wallet’s throat.

“You’ll have the floor of course.” Zihan said as he worked.

“Of course.” Yi Cao squeezed past Zihan to the other side of the bed where he found a patch of carpet just large enough for him to lay down. The smell that rose from the carpet was overpowering now that he was inside. Some combination of piss and pickles or vinegar, probably mostly soaked into the threadbare thing under his feet.

“Toss me that will you?” Zihan asked.

Yi Cao looked and saw him pointing to the sad looking pillow on the bed. He tossed it to Zihan who stuffed it into the wallet after the blanket.

“Thanks.” He tugged at the undersheet of the bed, but left it on. He slapped the wallet shut then dialed something up before opening it again to vomit voluminous folds of cloth onto the emptied bed. Huge pillows, that should never have fit into the Young Master’s wallet in the first place, followed, along with a second even more voluptuous blanket than the first with red patterns stitched across its surface.

The blanket made the quilt sent to Yi Cao by his mother look like a pauper’s rag, and it wasn’t even the only blanket Zihan spread across the bed.

Zihan came around to Yi Cao’s side as he finished straightening the bed, still dialing at his wallet, then he opened it to toss out a second set of blankets and a pillow onto the floor. “Those will be yours.” He said, and clapped the wallet shut.

Yi Cao looked down at the bedding piled on the floor then bent to straighten it into something more resembling the sleeping arrangements he would follow while Zihan flopped onto his bed.

“Ah. That’s much better. Much homeier.” Zihan smiled up at Yi Cao as he finished arranging his sheets and stood. “Don’t you think?”

Yi Cao watched Zihan’s eyes twinkle with mirth. He had to know that the bed he’d just handed to Yi Cao was better than anything he’d slept in since he was a boy, despite the stink of pickles rising from the floor beneath it.

Yi Cao bowed stiffly. “As the Young Master claims.”

Zihan snorted then sat up.“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I could use something to eat, then maybe some relaxation. You could probably use some sleep. First circle and all.”

Yi Cao nodded and looked at his bed for the foreseeable future.

“Come on then.” Zihan said, tossing himself off the bed. “Let’s go and eat. We’ll continue in the morning.”

“Continue what?” Yi Cao asked. He followed and Zihan locked up, but Zihan just looked at him and grinned without answering.

In the common room the shadowed figure in the corner was gone, leaving, so it seemed in the dim light, delicate traceries of dark oil across the surface of the table that might have conformed to the pieces of its mechanical hands. The room bustled now as it hadn’t when Yi Cao arrived, every seat at the bar filled by people or things like people, others at the tables over steaming plates and bowls, glass eyes and metal limbs glinting in the low light while carbon fiber crawled like shadows just beneath the skin.

“Eating or drinking?” The little barkeep asked when he found them at their table and climbed into a chair to stand at head height with them.

“Both.” Zihan replied. “Something fit for human beings, for both of us.” He waved a hand to indicate both himself and Yi Cao.

“Sure.” The bartender said with a nod. “Anything else?”

Zihan smiled and leaned forward. “What’s the strongest least advisable drug or intoxicant you have on hand?”

The ears of the little bartender twitched as he regarded Zihan. “I ain’t got nothing illegal for folks I just met.” He informed him after a minute.

Zihan waved a hand. “Sure, sure. How about that?” He pointed to a man wreathed in smoke at a nearby table coughing into his hand.

“Smokers?” The barkeep asked. “Sure, we got smokers. One or two?”

“Tobacco?” Zihan asked.

“And other things I’ve no doubt.” The barkeep smiled. “I can make sure it’s got the other things, if you know what you’re looking for.”

Zihan fluttered a hand in the air. “Sure sure. Just, make it strong.”

“Strong. Right.” The barkeep raised an eyebrow. “And how many?” He asked again.

Zihan held up a finger. “Just one.”

The barkeep nodded. “Just one.” He glanced at Yi Cao then back to Zihan. “One moment.”

He hopped down from his chair and Yi Cao watched the ears bob away, their tips the only part of the man visible above the table tops.

A machine buzzed by just under the tables vibrating as it rattled and swept at the floor and leaving a trail of what looked like slime in its wake as it wound between the tables.

A few moments later the barkeep returned with a thumb sized tube of brown paper and a tray with two mugs of what looked like water and a pair of glasses full of a liquid so amber it was almost red.

“Strong.” He said as he handed the tube up to Zihan. “And strong drinks, to fit your taste.” He slid the tray onto the table. “Food will be ready shortly.”

He tossed a small device onto the tray next to the drinks then turned and left.

Zihan stuck the tobacco into his mouth then spun the tray so that Yi Cao’s cups were accessible on his side while he fiddled with the little mechanical device, flipping it open to reveal dials and nob’s and a little trigger that all gleamed beneath the light tubes.

Yi Cao took his drinks and watched Zihan fiddle with the device.

“I’ve heard tobacco is bad for your cultivation.” He said after a bit. “Impurities.”

“Oh, it’s terrible.” Zihan agreed. He flicked at the trigger then spun some dials and flipped a few switches to do so again with no result. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

Yi Cao sipped from his water and eyed the amber liquid in front of him. “Then, why try it?” He asked. “It’s probably…” Expensive he wanted to say, remembering Guo Gang’s warnings, but seeing no way to politely bring the subject up.

“Fire,” Zihan replied, “Is very good at getting rid of impurities.”

He spun some of the little wheels then flipped the trigger again and chuckled when a little flame snapped to life at the tip of the device. He lifted it to the tip of the tobacco and charred the end but struggled to get it to light. He sucked at the tobacco stick then dropped the device and popped it out of his mouth to glare at the end.

A shadow loomed over them, and both Zihan and Yi Cao looked up.

“Pardone,” The shadow purred, “but you two look new to the moon.” It grinned, showing a multitude of little sharp teeth in a curving mouth. “I thought I might be of some assistance.”