It grew so that Yi Cao struggled to differentiate between his waking and sleeping worlds.

There were differences. In the waking world he stank of impurities, stank of them enough that patrons shied away from him when he went to the bar for his meals, or stopped cold in the hallways to press themselves to the walls so he could pass.

In the waking world he ate, when he remembered too, and had to listen to the pistol humming whenever it thought he needed a reminder of his promise that he would practice with it. He even did, once or twice. He pulled the thing from its holster to point it at the circles that flashed onto the walls while the gun made “pew pew” noises and cackled whenever he pulled the trigger, but he wasn’t there, even awake, he wasn’t fully present. Even awake, he still occupied the place of dreams, the place he went to when he sank into his cultivation and watched his foundation form like sparks carving lines into the sky across a vast and empty horizon, a space devoid of anything but the lines of power he drew into his flesh with his mind. The same place he went to when he dreamed.

He wasn’t visited by memories with this Ki aspect. It was an aspect, of aspects, that he hadn’t expected. They interacted differently with his mind. Where the whirlpool had pulled at him and beaten new paths in his palm while dredging the depths of his mind for the material that made him who he was, the mystery aspect he cultivated with while holding the stone in their tiny rented room simply opened up a space within him, seemed to distance him from the rest of the world, to drain it of all detail and meaning until he sat alone in the midst of nothing while he cut the lines of his new foundation, meshing new lines and old until the old skeleton of the Ancestral Garden scripture disappeared amidst the Pillars of Creation.

Fire Ki had treated him differently as well, in his brief interaction with it. It made him feverish and hot, and drew out memories of violence while aspen leaves rattled in the breeze and willow branches swayed above a gurgling stream that existed, here, only in his mind.

He hadn’t liked that experience.

The emptiness was better. Easier to manage. Easier to get lost in. Easier to forget which was the dream, and which was real, until he woke up.

He woke, when he woke, to find Zihan leaning over him, hand on his shoulder as he shook him awake.

“Time to get up.” He told Yi Cao.

Yi Cao sat up as the empty room in his mind shrank around him until he sat once more in the present, hand sweaty around his source, skin sticky with the impurities he’d pushed out over the latest bout of cultivation.

Zihan straightened to give Yi Cao some space. “TC’s made us a meeting.” He said. “I’d like you to be there. With your gun.”

“Oh goodie.” Bo Bo said from the bed where Yi Cao had left it after humoring it for the training exercise. “I hope they try to kill us.”

Zihan gave it a look then turned back to Yi Cao and threw him his robes. “First, you’ll need a bath.”

Yi Cao wasn’t allowed to wear his brown robes after his “Ki infused” bath. Instead Zihan made him put on some kind of technomancer’s getup that looked like a black version of the red leather Zihan had picked up from the second hand clothes store, like armor, complete with specialized straps for attaching the technomancer’s weapon to his hip.

“Now you look properly dangerous.” Zihan said, giving him an approving once over. He nodded then turned to the girls waiting for them beside the door with TC.

“You look like a matched pair of balls.” Kalemal told them. “Couple of wanna-be toughs.”

“They look like gangsters.” Bealtiel replied quietly.

TC gave Yi Cao an uncomfortable look before turning to the Young Master. “Are you sure it is necessary he accompany us?” He asked. “An armed attendant can give the wrong impression.”

“An impression of strength is only wrong in the case of weakness.” Zihan replied, slapping the mutt’s shoulder hard enough to make the man grimace before Zihan turned to the girls. “Go relax.” He told them. “We’ll find you after.”

TC pushed open the door and held it for them in invitation. “Come then.” He said. “This has been delay enough. It took some doing to get this meeting.”

“Some time, you mean.” Zihan replied.

The section of the station TC led them too was far nicer than the section they were living in. Spheres of white light, like those on Elleppu station, floated among the light bars drifting between the floor they walked on and the floor above their head. Only two of the surfaces in the concourse served as floors, with circular apertures at either end that allowed people to switch from one ceiling to the other. The walls were clean and unmarked by the graffiti and legal warnings about pissing and the signs hanging above each door invariably included terms like “security”, “police”, or “enforcement”.

Some of the signs included urdul sigils that twisted in Yi Cao’s brain as the technomancer’s pill tried to teach him what they meant, dredging up images of walled cities lost in shadow, armored men with crooked spears, and, oddly, fish. It made little sense to Yi Cao.

Halfway along the corridor above he saw a sign for the Nine Spears Security Group.

TC didn’t lead them through one of the dozen frontages for the security groups, but instead, down a side corridor that vibrated with caged mechanisms and the rush of moving air. Two steel doors faced one another at the end, each marked by a different number in Urdul, and TC knocked at the one marked “fifteen”.

They waited while TC twitched nervously next to the door.

“Not the front entrance?” Zihan’s voice warbled in the vibrating air.

“Not for this meeting.” TC replied. He scowled and knocked again, harder this time, and a locking mechanism banged aside. A moment later the door swung open and a man in black body armor and decked out in blunt technomancer weaponry, greeted them.

“Pass code.” The man grunted.

TC cleared his throat. “Cerium Bucket.”

“Mmmm.” The guard eyed them. “Wait here.”

The door slammed shut again leaving them in the buzzing corridor.

“Friendly sort.” Zihan noted as they waited.

“Yes…” TC fiddled nervously with his claws, then glanced at Yi Cao before turning to Zihan. “Last chance to leave him here.” He said.

Zihan eyed him. “Are you trying to get me alone in there without a guard?” He asked.

TC’s eyes widened in horror. “Never.” He replied. “For a friend? I would never dream of such. I simply worry for the etiquette. You are new to the station, so you cannot know how it is usually done.” He waved to the door. “They are a military group. They may not take kindly to anyone else coming, armed, into their sanctum sanctorum.” He looked at Yi Cao again. “It would be best, Young Master, if he remained behind.”

“If they let me in at all they let me in armed.” Zihan replied. He put his hands behind his back and ignored TC.

“But for form’s sake.”

“Enough.” Zihan snapped. “Yi Cao is sworn to me.” He gave Yi Cao a studying look over his shoulder then turned away. “My business is his. Where it is concerned, he goes where I go. End of story.” He glanced back at Yi Cao as though to challenge him and Yi Cao looked away. He straightened though, and felt his posture assume the same rigid image of pride he’d been made to take whenever the junior disciples stood for review by the elders.

“You’re playing guard today.” Zihan told him before turning back to the door as the lock clanked on the other side. “Unless spoken too, don’t say a thing.”

Yi Cao nodded.

The door opened and a woman greeted them this time. A long metallic antennae extended in an arch from a dot in the center of her forehead to a spot somewhere along the vertebrae between her shoulders. She smiled at them as it wobbled above her, then gestured for them to enter while the guard from before stood behind her with his arms crossed.

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“Gentlemen.” She said. “The Commandant is waiting for you.”

Zihan smiled and led the way inside. TC came last, swinging the door closed behind them and cutting off the vibration of the machines outside. The wire on the woman’s head wobbled as she turned her head to look at each of them in turn before nodding and giving them a smile. “If you’ll follow me.” She said, and led the way down the narrow corridor, the guard trailing after.

The “Commandant” waited for them in a spartan receiving room. White unadorned walls surrounded a steel desk pushed against one wall and a collection of steel chairs that faced one another along the walls. A picture on the desk of a planet like the one they’d seen from Elleppu station was the office’s only accession to decoration while a snub nosed technomancer’s weapon far bulkier, if more compact, than anything Yi Cao had tested at the weapon merchant’s stall, hung on the wall opposite the desk, giving more an impression of something waiting to be used than anything like decoration.

“Shades of Ninurta” a placard painted, or projected, onto the otherwise white wall opposite the door read, “First Mercantile Security Division, Aarrppaa station.”

The man at the desk going over paperwork matched the spartan nature of the room. Gray uniform his only adornment, black pistol at his hip, half his face cut away in a jagged lightning bolt of straight edges to reveal ticking and whirring mechanisms in black ceramic underneath, the eye that should have occupied its center replaced by a metallic crater.

“Welcome.” The man said. He stood and set his brush aside then gave all three a tight smile as he ran an eye burning with intensity across each of them and focused on Zihan. “Zihan I presume.” He said. He stepped forward and extended a hand, a hand with no skin on it, or bones beneath, just black metal and burnished bronze with wire traceries running through it . Zihan took it anyways in a greeting foreign to Yi Cao, and returned the commandant’s thin smile.

“And you command this outfit.”

“Command, serve. A full time job I can tell you.” The man said. They released hands and the man gestured to the chairs scattered around the room.

“Shall we sit?” He asked.

“Sure.” Zihan snapped his finger in Yi Cao’s direction as the Commandant grabbed a chair and swung it around. Yi Cao jumped at the unspoken command, then scurried to grab one of the chairs and place it for Zihan to sit in.

Yi Cao didn’t need to be told the invitation was not for him, but that just left him wondering what he should do with himself as Zihan took a seat.

“You’ll have to forgive my face.” The commandant told Zihan as the two sat. “The recruiter said you were new to the rock. I know how disconcerting newbies from your part of the intra-verse can find such…” he gestured to his face, “incompleteness.”

“Not at all.” Zihan replied. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a pair of fume sticks. “I presume there’s a story there.” He extended one to the commandant. “Fume stick?” He asked.

“No, thank you. No smoke in the offices. We prefer not to mess up the ventilation.”

Zihan shrugged and tucked the sticks back into his pocket while the man frowned.

Yi Cao noticed the way TC seemed to fade into the background of the room after the conversation began and decided to follow his example, stepping back from Zihan’s chair and putting his hands behind his back to listen, like a servant, he imagined, which, was precisely what he was. He schooled his features to keep from grimacing, and just stared at the emblem for the unit emblazoned on the wall, trying to fathom the shape at its center, like one of the sigils in urdul, but twisted to look like a fish.

“Shades are what we’d call elite professionals on this rock.” The commandant told them. “Maybe not in System, but we all have some experience in the autonomous zones or among the colonies. I won my class in the Shuruldutu autonomy.” He touched the metal trench in his face with one metal finger. He winked, or blinked, anyways, with his remaining eye. “Easy leveling zone.” He added. “For both sides. Despite the cost.” He tapped the trench a few times then dropped his hand to his knee.

“Why don’t you tell me a bit about your combat experience.” He said. “I’ll warn you ahead of time, we don’t hire many Inscrypti, but we often receive work orders to pacify sects making trouble in different parts of the rock, or to collect the sorts of proscribed artifacts that make their way here from the colony regardless. Kind of crap sensors are useless for and only an Inscrypti contractor or one of the witches can pick up. Your man over there said you were some kind of unregistered professional who might round us out in that regard.”

TC grimaced as the commandant gestured towards him.

Zihan crossed one leg over his knee and regarded the commandant coolly as he leaned back in his chair. “Oh I have plenty of combat experience.” He said. “But, It sounds to me like there might have been a miscommunication somewhere before we got here.”

The commandant frowned, tiny gears and levers flicking in the half of his face lost to technology as the skin around it contorted. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“It sounds to me like your group, what, works for the governor or something?”

The commandant nodded. “We take contracts from the open market, and, occasionally, get closed ones, mostly from the Governor or other peace keeping agencies in its employ.”

“Right, and you said you’re thinking of hiring me, if I prove I have the right qualifications.” Zihan said.

The commandant sat back in his chair. Metallic bits whirling as he inspected Zihan more closely. “If you don’t have the relevant experience, then I’m not sure we have much more to discuss.” The man replied.

Zihan touched a finger to his lips and tittered lightly, making the commandant frown. “Why don’t we change the conversation.” Zihan said suddenly. He jerked and leaned forwards onto his knees. “Can the Governor hear us in here?” He asked, whirling a finger around the room.

“Not to the best of our knowledge.” The Commandant replied, narrowing his single eye. He glanced at Yi Cao and bits in his mechanical hand shifted with an inhuman whine. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really on your mind.”

Zihan grinned. “What would you say, if I tried to hire you?” He asked.

“Then I’d refer you to our legal team.” The Commandant replied with a wave of his hand. “I have some say in the contracts we take but they’re the ones who vet them first. This was supposed to be a hiring interview, which I do control.”

“Not a contract.” Zihan replied. He giggled and shifted in his seat. “What I have in mind involves very little that could ever be considered legal, at least in the Governor’s eyes. See,” he scooted forward in his chair, as though to inch closer to the commandant who eyed him coldly in return. “I’ve heard that there’s a treasure ship parked just beyond the second rock in this mess of a station.” He gestured as though to include everything beyond the four walls of the office in his estimation. “And I’d, like, to steal from it.”

The commandant eyed the grinning Zihan for a moment then snorted in derision. “What makes you think we’d be interested in such a job?” He asked.

“Oh please.” Zihan sat back in his seat. “You’re mercenaries. You can make money at it.”

“And you’d pay us to help you do it.”

Zihan tittered again. “Of course not.” He replied. “We each take a cut, commensurate to our contribution.”

The commandant sighed and stood from his chair. “I think we’ve both wasted our time.” He said. He offered Zihan his hand as the Young Master stood up. The mechanical grip tightened unexpectedly as Zihan took it and the other man leaned in.

“Let this go.” He said. He tried to pull Zihan closer but Zihan jerked him closer instead until they stood nose to nose, glaring at one another. Eventually the commandant yanked his hand free. “You’re a fool.” He said. “By every Asag and city of the abyss, I ought to report your plan to the Governor just to cover my own ass.” Servos in his hand buzzed and he looked at it as the fingers twitched around shallow depressions left by Zihan’s fingers.

Zihan just grinned as the man looked back at him. “I must not know my own strength.”

The Commandant dropped the hand and scowled at Zihan. He moved to his desk where he picked up his brush again without sitting down. “I’m going to limit myself to the warning.” The Commandant told him. “What the Governor chooses to do with you, if it finds out about you in the first place, I won’t make my business, but if you go making a habit of spilling such ridiculous plans to every security agency on this station, it will find out about it. Not even the System could keep the guild in line. Find someone stupid enough to try this exercise with you, and you’ll realize why.”

The door opened behind them, and the woman with the wire in her head appeared to escort them back out through the side corridor they’d entered by.

When the door closed leaving them once again in the hall vibrating with captive engines Zihan just stood looking at TC while TC twitched nervously, eyes darting between the open end of the passage behind Zihan and the Young Master’s face.

“You do recall the nature of the people I asked you to arrange us a meeting with.” Zihan told the mutt.

TC grimaced, showing his sharpened teeth momentarily before he ducked his head. “I did not realize the, ah, dramatic nature, of the Young Master’s plans, before.” He said, slowly rubbing his claws together. “If I had known…”

“Unconcerned with the law or safety.” Zihan told him. “Those were my words, were they not?”

“They… they were.” TC replied.

“And you brought me to a fucking agent of the law on this station?” Zihan demanded.

TC darted a quick look to the hallway. “Perhaps, we should have this conversation elsewhere.” He said.

“Perhaps we don’t need to have this conversation at all.” Zihan replied. “Are you my friend, or have we been wasting our time?”

TC seemed to flinch. “I never promised to serve you.” He said.

“And yet, you promised to introduce me.” Zihan replied. “Not sell me to the highest bidder.” Zihan looked away, then giggled. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“You could do worse than working for an agency like the Shades.”

“I’m not interested in working for anyone.” Zihan snapped. “With? Maybe.” He tilted his hand in a wishy washy gesture as he turned to leave. “But never for. I could have done that at home.”

TC opened his mouth, then hesitated, rubbing his claws together while studying his own thoughts. “You know, that what you wish to do is impossible.” He told Zihan.

“You don’t know what is possible.” Zihan replied icily.

TC flinched again. “If you say so.” He replied. “But, others will agree.”

Zihan turned back to him, all mirth gone. “Then find someone who won’t.” He replied. “Or someone willing to take the risk anyways.”

TC hesitated, then nodded with a sour expression. “As you wish.” He said. “Though it may take more time.”

“Of course.” Zihan replied. He turned without another word and marched out of the tunnel while Yi Cao remained pinned to the spot staring at TC still hunched in a corner of the tunnel.

“What?” The man turned to glare at him then grimaced and spat on the floor between them. “Fucking Inscrypti.” He muttered, then chased after the Young Master while Yi Cao took up the rear.

“That was fun.” The pistol whispered in his ear. “We should visit this place again.”