The group spent the night drinking and playing cards in Te’klub after the last candidate failed their test with the cube. The games had an air of celebration to them, as though they’d already finished the heist they hadn’t yet begun, while the drinking had an edge to it that suggested most of them knew that they could die in the attempt.

“When we’re rich… “They said those words a lot as they passed the cards back and forth across the table, fairly throwing them when the energy ran high and the liquor flowed from their cups like water down a stream.

At one point the smart Kabi started crying while his beefy hands fumbled at the cards in an attempt to shuffle them.

Zihan did a double take when he saw the tears. He turned to the rest of the group as though for confirmation of the sobbing monster of a man sitting next to him. Agate met his gaze and rolled his eyes and eventually Zihan thumped the big man on his back.

“Leave me be.” The Kabi snarled.

“Oh shut up.” The Lucky Kabi told him.

“You shut up!” Cards flew as the Smart Kabi pushed himself to his feet then stopped himself before he’d thrown himself at his twin.

He sniffed, wiped his eyes with one huge forearm and sat down.

“What’s the matter big man?” Zihan asked. “You think we won’t pull this off?”

“No.” The Smart One said. He pulled his cards back to his hand.

“Kabi always gets like this when he drinks.” His twin muttered from his other side.

“We’re gonna get out of this place.” The Smart Kabi said. “Finally. We’re gonna leave.”

Yi Cao, who still hovered at the edge of the group, watching them drink while he picked at a wrap of protein cubes and sauce, looked up at that. “You couldn’t leave?” He asked.

To his surprise it was the Lucky Kabi who answered. “Sure we could leave. But go where? And with what?” He scooped up half the cards scattered on his side of the table and started shuffling them back into a deck. “Aarrppaa credits don’t transfer nowhere, and we ain’t got no one to run to nowhere else.”

He started dealing, ignoring the rest of the cards still scattered on the table.

“A good rule of thumb for a pirate.” Agate told him. “Never run away. Always pick your destination before hand, or you’ll just wind up right where you started in the first place.”

The Smart Kabi raised his glass. “Truer words.” he said, then downed his drink and roared for another from the bartender.

Yi Cao didn’t join in the game. He remained on the sidelines and watched. Watched the players, more than the cards. Saw the excitement wane as the night wore on and the alcohol took its toll. By that time they were the only ones in the bar, the light tubes in the ceiling somehow dimmer without the crowd to fill the little hostel, only the spiderlike cyborg who’d replaced Izzi hours earlier behind the bar, and a little cleaning construct buzzing around the floor bumping into the chairs.

Eventually the Androgyn stood.

“It’s been a long day.” He said. “We have much to prepare. We’ll be putting our lives on the line soon. I think it’s time we return to the Teet’s for some sleep.”

The Lucky Kabi rumbled deep in his chest. “Teets make for the best pillow.”

Shockstick snorted, but he scooped up the cards as the others stood to go and Zihan sat smoking in his chair.

“We’ll be in touch when everything is in place.” Agate told him. Blue sparks trailed through the air as he pushed his chair into the table. “I wish you luck with your immortal, if things go well.”

“And you with your… in laws.” Zihan replied.

Agate smiled thinly. “We’ll be in touch.”

He left.

Zihan sat smoking after the four of them left. The smoke curled lazily above him in the twilight silence of the bar. With his back to Yi Cao, Yi couldn’t see the Young Master’s expression to gauge what he was thinking, but there was a stillness to him beneath the curling smoke, an introspection.

Eventually the bartender crawled across the tables toward them, one brass hand plucking the cups and stubs left by the other patrons in total silence.

“Can I get you… anything?” It asked in its slow way.

“No.” Zihan replied. “No thank you.”

The thing bobbed, like a nod made with its whole body, and one of its free hands twitched. “Just… let me… know.” It whispered.

It left. In the silence, Yi Cao stood from his chair and made his way to the seat vacated by Agate.

He sat, and Zihan’s eyes moved to meet his behind the ribbon of smoke rising from his tobacco stick.

They regarded one another for a long moment. Yi Cao searched his face.

“There is no immortal,” he said, “is there?”

Zihan shifted. He deliberately dabbed ash off the tip of his smoke stick then regarded the tip. “No.” He said after a moment. His eyes moved back to meet Yi Cao’s as he took a hit from his stick and blew smoke across the table between them. “No there is not.”

Yi Cao waited but Zihan didn’t seem inclined to say more. The two sat watching one another while the coal moved slowly up the smoke stick in Zihan’s fingers.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You said you’d be telling lies.” Yi Cao said eventually. He glanced in the direction of the spider like cyborg at the bar, but it sat twitching at the far end of the room. Silent as a machine. He turned back to the table, then looked at Zihan and switched from Urdul to the language they’d spoken in the sect. The language they shared. “If you’re lying to them, it’s hard to believe you aren’t lying to me too.”

“I haven’t lied to you yet.”

Machines in the ceiling hummed to life in the silence, stirring the smoke that swirled along the ceiling as vents churned the air.

“I’d like to believe you.”

They studied each other through the smoke.

“You can leave.” Zihan told him. “I told you that before. There’s nothing stopping you. If you don’t believe me, then go. You’ll lose nothing substantial in leaving. Nothing you didn’t gain by accepting the oath.”

Yi Cao frowned. “I’m not the only one who could lose his cultivation, if the oath is broken.”

Zihan gave him a thin smile. “So you were listening when Feiruhn dropped that tidbit.” He sucked on his smoker and seemed to think. “If I was lying to you,” he said as he exhaled, “what would I be lying about?”

Yi Cao didn’t respond for a moment. “Eight.” He said. “Eight nodes.”

Zihan snorted. Smoke billowed around his face and he knocked more ash from his smoker. “You truly think of nothing else, do you?”

Yi Cao didn’t respond and Zihan sucked at the end of his smoker until there was just a nub left with a glowing coal at its point. He held the smoke in his mouth and studied the coal for a moment, fiddling with the nub until he exhaled.

“Let me tell you a secret.” Zihan said. He pinched his stub between the tips of two fingers to get a last puff of smoke then flicked the stub at Yi Cao’s face. It flared and dissolved in a puff of smoke and fire aspected Ki before it could reach him.

“We aren’t going to rob the ship.” Zihan told him. He leaned forward and his eyes glittered with mischief. “We’re going to steal it.”

Yi Cao scowled as the smoke from the stub dissipated around him. “How are we going to do that?”

Zihan waved a hand and sat back. “The same way I told them we’re going to rob it.” He said. “Only I’m not just going to threaten the captain, I’m going to kill him so I can replace him.”

Yi Cao opened his mouth to protest but it took a moment for the words to penetrate his rising sense of panic.

“But it’s technomancy.” He said. “How are you going to replace the captain when you don’t even know how to open their doors?”

“I’m not.” Zihan replied. “I’m going to give the ship to one of the girls.”

Yi Cao rocked back in his chair and stared at the man across from him. “And, Agate?” He asked, before his brain could catch up. “Hao Dong? Feiruhn?”

Zihan picked up what remained of his drink and swilled it before he answered. “That’s up to fate.” He said.

“It sounds like you’ve already decided their fate.” Yi Cao replied.

Zihan shrugged. “Maybe I have.” He downed the rest of his drink and leaned forward.

“What do you think of the girls?” He asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, which do you think would be the best suited to take over a ship. We are talking about the equivalent of elevating a peasant to the power of an immortal, after all. It would be a shame if they decided they didn’t need us afterwards.”

Yi Cao put one hand to his forehead for a moment until he caught up. “They’re whores.” He blurted. “They aren’t… aren’t…” He struggled for the word in his own language and found himself reverting to Urdul. “They aren’t pilots!”

Zihan studied the backs of his fingernails. “Kal strikes me as the most, tractable.” He said. “She doesn’t like violence. Just the threat of it is enough to bring her in line most of the time, particularly if you make it easier for her to do what you ask than to offend you.”

“Aren’t you talking about bringing her right into the heart of violence?” Yi Cao asked. “If you want her to help you steal the ship.”

Zihan raised an eyebrow. “The heart of violence? No. I am the heart of violence, when I want to be, they’ll just be watching from the sidelines.”

“Still seems like a risk.”

“So you’d take Bealtiel.”

Yi Cao shook his head. “I wouldn’t take any of them!” He snapped.

Zihan shrugged and regarded the table. “Bealtiel is the more desperate of the two. She acts like she’ll be whatever you want her to be, but there’s a streak of pride in her that runs deeper than she tries to show. She tries to hide it.” He ran a finger over his lips as he thought. “I can use that.” He mused. “But pride is a fickle tool. When it’s satisfied there’s no telling what such a person might do. Threats wouldn’t work. Then again, fear is just as unreliable, when you feed them power.” He tapped his fingers on the table and frowned. “But Bealtiel would probably need… more than threats, to control her. Once she didn’t need me for anything more.”

He looked up and grinned at Zihnan. “Then again, Kalemal is a lot of fun. Not that you’d know about that sort of thing.”

Yi Cao frowned. “Why did you even get two girls in the first place?” he asked. “If this was your plan from the start.”

Zihan smiled with half his face. “They came to me.” He said. “Fate has its jokes.”

“I don’t like either of them.” Yi Cao replied.

Zihan chuckled. “You wouldn’t.” He said. “Have you ever even been with a woman?”

Yi Cao’s scowl deepened. He stood to go but stopped himself before he’d left the table.

“Why even do this?” He asked. “Why…” Zihan looked up at him and Yi Cao bit his lip, remembering his oath of service. “Why the lies?” He asked eventually.

The humor left Zihan’s expression. “I’m not an evil man.” Zihan told him. “I do have a purpose. An important one. To me.” He looked away.

Yi Cao studied him and remembered the way he’d saved him, put a blade to his throat and claimed him with an oath that could have backfired and ripped him apart more easily than it could have bound Yi Cao to the Young Master in service.

“I believe you.” Yi Cao replied.

Zihan turned away. “Is it so wrong to put my own interests over others?” Zihan asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his subpspace wallet, but he didn’t open it. He just set it in his lap and stared at it.

Yi Cao thought about it for a moment in silence.

“If I thought my cousin was going to die, if I didn’t return home,” he said, “I’d go home. Even if it meant losing my cultivation forever.”

Zihan touched the wallet, then shoved it back into his pocket and sat tapping it for a moment. “I suppose that’s the only answer there is, isn’t it.” He looked up at Yi Cao, then off into the darkness of the bar. “No right or wrong, good or bad, just… what we do… and what we don’t. There is no justifying the means.”

Yi Cao snorted. “I don’t think you care what I think.” He replied.

Zihan smiled up at him. “Then you’re learning.” He said.

Yi Cao turned to go.

“What will you do?” Zihan asked, before he could leave.

Yi Cao stopped. “What do you mean?”

Zihan tilted his head to regard him. “Will you leave?”

Yi Cao looked away. He felt the source at his throat like an anchor around his neck. A promise of power if he stayed, or a useless stone if he returned home. “I don’t know.” He said.

“You’ll have other opportunities.” The Young Master told him. “This won’t be the last time, but, it will be the last time I bring it up.” He looked at his hands, studied finger stained yellow from tobacco, wiped them on his technomancer robes. “I don’t care one way or another, but don’t play games with me. Don’t leave when I ask something of you. If you’re going to go, leave now, before we take the ship. Right now, you can climb on any liner home and it will only take you a couple of hours to get there. Once we take the ship and pass through one of the rifts, it gets a lot more complicated to go home.”

“Where are you going to go?” Yi Cao asked, turning back to look at the Young Master.

Zihan smiled. “To visit the eight.” He said. “Eight worlds. Not eight nodes.”

Yi Cao studied him in the dim light.

“I don’t want you to tell anyone about this conversation.” Zihan told him. “And that is an order.”

Yi Cao snorted and looked away. “Kalemal struggles just to control her hair.” He said. “What makes you think she’ll be able to handle a void ship?”

Zihnan waved a hand. “You’re right.” He said. “Lots to prepare. Busy days, for both of us, in the next ten days. Lots of… decisions… to be made, by everyone.” He knocked on his glass and turned to the bar as the spider like bartender jerked into motion.

“Sleep on it. Maybe I’ll see you in the morning. Maybe not.”

Yi Cao left him there and returned to the dark little room filled by the snoring of the two girls who occupied the bed’s tangled sheets.