Three Oshpik, or goblins, or Talyaya, or just short people with the huge ears and oversized noses of Izzi the barkeep, stood on boxes in the center of the concourse playing howling instruments of bags and pipes and copper horns as pedestrians streamed around them to either side and one of their number, adorned in hundreds, if not thousands, of dangling golden trinkets and smoking brasiers extolled the passer bys on the virtue of generosity in a high reedy voice that seemed to issue entirely from his nose. Beyond them, the gate to one of the primary concourses stood open like a mouth, a massive set of blades churning lazily above while people streamed through from every wall and ceiling, bumping past the goblins and the other stands that dotted the concourse like stones in a stream.

To Yi Cao’s left as they passed the goblin pulpit, Yi Cao spotted the lesser concourse that led to the library where he’d gotten his proper introduction to life on Aarppaa station before being thrown into the mess to experience it for himself. The sight brought a sudden wave of nostalgia, and he wondered, vaguely, if he could find his way to the port that brought him here if he took the time to try and backtrack the way they came.

Instead he bent his head and trudged on in the wake of the Young Master, followed in turn, by the half-goblin who looked up at the musicians as they made their way back to Te’klub and sneered.

“You’re not in the forest anymore!” TC shouted at the preaching Goblin. The little monster just raised a fist and shouted something back in a buzzing guttural language as TC laughed and turned away.

As they stepped through the transition between one concourse and another, TC quickened his pace until he’d captured Zihans attention and they all three of them stopped in the middle of the bustling hall.

“Shift change.” TC told them. “I have a bed waiting for me.”

“And a task.” Zihan reminded him.

“Of course.” TC nodded, then turned to go.

“I wouldn’t want to find someone else.” Zihan told him before he could go.

TC glanced back and favored them with a smile made menacing by his pointed teeth and the tattoos on either cheek. “So you’ve said.” He replied. “Yet here I am.”

He disappeared into the milling crowd and Zihan glanced at Yi before turning and carrying on.

They passed several mesmeric stones advertising “Virtual visits back home”, as they made their way towards cheaper, and more sparsely traveled, parts of the rock.

Eventually there was room enough for Yi Cao to walk side by side with the Young Master who’d dragged him into this world after, probably, saving his life. Probably.

“Why did you want me there?” Yi Cao asked as they walked.

“Want you where?” Zihan asked.

“There.” Yi Cao replied. “At the meeting.”

Zihan grunted. “Would you rather I’d left you behind?”

Yi Cao thought about it. “No.” He said. “Not really.”

“Then why ask?”

The two walked in silene as Yi Cao considered his answer. “I didn’t do anything there.” He said at last. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Zihan looked at him for the first time since they’d started the conversation. “You did fine.” He replied. He smiled. “An exemplary servant.”

Yi Cao nodded and they walked in silence again for several minutes. Yi Cao thought of the Young Master’s sword at his throat, the fire Ki burning his cheek.

“You said that your business was my own.” He said. “What did you mean by that?”

“You may not have realized it yet, but we’re one person now.” Zihan told him as they walked. “That oath we swore? It might have been about service, but men and women swear the same sorts of oaths when they get married.” He looked at Yi Cao. “Our goals are the same. Our fates intertwined.” He seemed to withdraw into himself then looked away again and kept walking.

“How are our goals the same?” Yi Cao asked after a moment.

Zihan snorted. “All you want is to get stronger, yes? Not, live a life of ease and luxury, or build a family, or a sect, or a nation? Nothing like that?”

Yi Cao looked at his feet but nodded. “Something like that.” He conceded.

“Then that’s all I want for you as well.” Zihan replied. “And I’ll make that happen,” he added after a little while, “All I want, in return, is for you to follow me, do what I ask, and, when necessary, do what it takes to see my larger goals fulfilled.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I still don’t know what those larger goals are.” Yi Cao replied.

“You will.” Zihan replied. “When you’re ready.” The two of them stepped over the threshold between one concourse and the one that served as Te’klub’s home address. Zihan smiled as he glanced in Yi Cao’s direction. “In the meantime, here’s a clue. I’ve made the oath for eight years. What else can you think of that comes in a multiple of eight?”

Yi Cao thought in silence as they walked and a mesmeric stone, louder than the rest and fuzzing with static instead of the usual moving image across its surface, shouted at them about tickets available for entertainments from every world.

“There are eight pillars to the Pillars of Creation scripture.” Yi Cao said.

Zihan barked a laugh, then turned and tapped at Yi Cao’s chest. “You should read that welcome manual you got from the library on our arrival.” He said. “It has some interesting things to say about the sorts of people we’re going to meet on our adventures.”

“And no,” he added as Yi Cao stopped in the middle of the concourse while Zihan carried on. “The eight pillars are not the eight I was referring to. There are pills that can take you all the way through your foundation in a single month of cultivation. An intense month, but a month all the same. If it takes you eight years to complete your foundation I’ll be profoundly disappointed.”

Yi Cao thought of the only other thing he could think of that came in eights. Eight nodes? He shook his head. No. That had nothing to do with anything in the manual. Besides, to finish eight nodes would practically make him an immortal. That sort of thing just didn’t happen in eight years.

Or could it?

His hands shook as he jogged to catch up with Zihan.

He would have to read.

At the bar they found Izzi playing host to something approximating the usual crowd. Half a dozen patrons sat at the bar, while twice their number sat at the tables, alone or in groups, nursing drinks bowls, and fume sticks or, in the case of three slender bald folk who could have been male or female, staring at a game of leaves without any indication of playing their cards onto the table between them.

“No girls.” Zihan noted after surveying the tables.

Yi Cao looked over the room and realized he was right.

“Hey, barkeep!” Yi Cao shouted. “Where are my girls?”

“They left.” Izzi growled. He prowled down the bar and waved a hand. “You’ll be paying for their drinks?”

Zihan flipped his card out of a pocket and tossed it to the Oshpik who touched it to a card of his own before tossing it back. He put his hands on his hips and regarded Zihan cautiously while Yi Cao moved to join them at the bar. Eventually the little man shrugged. “Left with some other patron.” He said. “New guy. Wealthy looking. Never seen him before.”

Zihan’s smile grew sharp. “Did they?” He asked.

The bartender glared at him. “Sure. That’s what I said isn’t it?”

Zihan leaned closer over the bar. “Any idea where they went?” He asked.

The Oshpik shook his head. “Not sure I’d tell you if I did know.” He replied.

Zihan tittered and leaned on elbow on the bar. “They’re in no danger from me.”

They regarded on another for a moment. Izzi pulled his grimy cloth off of his shoulder and plucked a glass from the shelf in front of him to start scrubbing the interior.

“That so?” The goblin asked after a moment.

Zihan leaned back in his stool. “You said you’d never seen this guy before.”

Apparently satisfied with the streaks he’d added to the cup, Izzi tossed his rag back over his shoulder and set the glass back on its shelf. “I suppose so.” He conceded. He looked at Zihan. “Looked inscrypti, like yourself.” He tapped his forehead. “No augments.” He looked Zihan up and down. “Maybe your height, or a little taller.”

“Any distinguishing features?” Zihan asked.

“No augments.” The barkeep said again. “Around here that is a distinguishing feature.”

“You said he looked wealthy.”

“Sure.” Izzi waved a hand. “No jumpsuit. Probably works in an upper level. Administration, or Auditor, maybe a guard.” His ears twitched. “Could have been a guard. He had the look.”

Zihan nodded and pushed away from the bar.

“Them girls don’t need trouble.” Izzi told him. “They just work for a living, like everybody else.”

“And I pay them.” Zihan replied. He glanced at Yi Cao as he made his way back towards the door. “Stay.” He said icily. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Yi Cao and Izzi watched him go, then Yi Cao turned back to the little barkeep who studied him.

“Something off about your friend.” The bartender remarked.

Yi Cao opened his mouth to protest, then hesitated. Eventually he nodded.

“Reckless.” Izzi shook his head. “Oh well. Not my problem. You want to eat?”

Yi Cao nodded.

“Take a seat.” Izzi told him. “Chef’s in so it’ll be crab salad. You ever have crab salad before?”

Yi Cao shook his head. “No.”

Izzi grunted as he turned to prowl back up his bar. “Then I hope you like fish.”

Yi Cao went back to his room for the “Welcome” manual he’d gotten at the library and sat reading as he waited for the crab salad. It was precisely as Izzi described it. Fish. A taste of fish so rich and sweet that it made Yi Cao’ s throat burn after the third bite, and which the alcohol Izzi served alongside did nothing to alleviate.

He was halfway through the bowl, and the chapter on “The Tribes of the Talyaya” when he looked up and felt his heart jump into his throat.

“Ooh!” Bo Bo squealed into his ear. “Danger!”

Framed by the door out of Te’klub stood a man Yi Cao recognized from their trip into Aarrppaa station. Inscrypti, Yi Cao thought, about Zihan’s height or a little taller, no augments.

“I am sensing an accelerated heart rate and other physiological indicators of fear.” Bo Bo said through the clip in Yi Cao’s ear.

Yi Cao chewed, the crab in his mouth suddenly very very dry, and choked it down with a gulp.

Su Xialu gave the room a cursory examination, quickly, before he went to the bar and spoke briefly with the bartender.

Yi Cao felt the safety on the pistol at his hip flip rapidly up and down like a dog frantically wagging its tail. “Now is the time, now the place!” The pistol told him. “Use me and save yourself!”

Yi Cao put a hand on the pistol to still the flipping safety. “Shut up.” He hissed.

He watched the cultivator, stiff with tension, as the man turned and disappeared down the hallway leading back into the rooms.

Izzi caught Yi Cao’s eye with something like pity in his expression.

“Violence is the only rational response to fear.” The pistol told him. “You purchased me to defend you, now let me do it!”

Yi Cao tripped as he pushed himself out of the chair. He spilled to the floor as the chair next to him clattered against the sticky tiling, then picked himself up only to karom off of the table with the three bald androgyns at it as he flailed for the door and fled.