Bo leaned against the table with his elbows resting on it, a chewed on chicken bone sticking out of his mouth as he watched the townspeople go about their day. He had gotten bored of bickering with Ji Ying, and it had felt like someone was missing from the equation. Whenever he argued with someone, there was another person's voice that would sputter in to try calming everyone. But that voice was no longer there. The face was gone.

He shook his head and the thought fell away back into his heart while he reached back into his bag and pulled out a slightly squashed lychee.

The town was still doing well, he thought. Nobody was starving, there was enough food to sell to travelers, the streets were bustling. Except for the silent southern quarter of the city, which just seemed to be used as the spot for street hawkers to go quietly count out their profit or check their goods to make sure nothing had been pickpocketed. Liu Xie had slipped away at some point to go gather supplies and had given a very sternly worded order that they were all to remain at the table. It was fine by Bo since he felt a bit too full to go wandering around at the moment. Rui Yifu was reading something that had him snickering occasionally, while Ji Ying was brushing out Zhu'er's hair, who just seemed to forlornly sulk at her situation.

"Hey Rui?" Bo turned on his seat so he could face Rui Yifu more easily. "You're from the North right? Have you been here before?"

Rui Yifu looked away from the paper he was holding, "hm? No. I've never been here specifically. I was once at another town that lead into the Silent Mountains, but it was just a place to house farmers who fed the garrison that guarded the path into it. It had not built on an industry for catering to travelers."

"There's more places like this?" Bo asked, casting a glance back at the massive looming shape of the mountains. Their suffocating presence remained, waiting patiently for them.

"Like this town in specific? I would assume so, but from what I experienced most towns were simply there to support the garrisons. If travelers were passing through they would not be able to buy anything from the farmers, although I have no doubt the garrisons would sell some provisions," Rui Yifu placed the paper back into his sleeve. "When I still worked as a bureaucrat, the rate of desertion was fairly high for those assigned to those places. If it was not desertion, it was madness. The third Wei clan king had specialized homes built just to deal with it, since the number had risen sharply during his father's reign. The problem had not been told to the majority of the army or the citizens, and the families whose sons lost their minds were all given generous stipends or, later the option to move into towns built around these homes to help support the growing number of inmates. I don't remember if any of them ever recovered, but I do remember the costs of repairs for damages they could inflict on the buildings."

Bo squinted into the distance, focusing on nothing in particular. "Isn't madness caused by ghosts?" He asked. Would having a lot of ghosts in one place really be the safest decision?

Rui Yifu snorted, "of course you would think this. Madness is an illness of the mind, usually. The only ghosts are the ones that your mind makes. If it was really ghosts, that would be easier to deal with. It was never ghosts though, after all, how could it be ghosts if there's no death beyond the Mountains?"

Staring at the shark, Bo felt a chill down his spine.

"Ah, there he is," Rui Yifu muttered, pointing behind Bo to the approaching form of Liu Xie. Liu Xie stood nearly a head and shoulders over a little more than half the crowd he was moving through, and his white clothes made him stick out all the more despite the tattered and fraying edges of it. He was carrying a simple bag of undyed hempen cloth with him. "You're back," Rui Yifu greeted languidly.

"And none of you have gone missing," Liu Xie observed with slight surprise in his voice. "...Ji Ying, are you messing with her hair again?"

Ji Ying and Zhu'er, who had been mostly quiet, both looked up at Liu Xie at the same time. "It came loose, so I'm redoing it again. Do you know how hard her hair is to handle? It's all... curly."

Zhu'er crossed her arms but said nothing.

"Don't rip her hair out from her scalp," Liu Xie warned before holding out the bag he brought to Bo, "here, this is for you and Zhu'er. Put it in the bag with the fruits."

"What's in it?" Bo asked, comparing the sizes of the two bags. They were both the same! "Boss, is this going to fit?"

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"Yes," Liu Xie said. "And it just has supplies. Sesame seed cakes, water gourds, and a few other things."

"Huh," Bo tried to remember if he had ever eaten sesame seed cakes before as he opened up his fruit bag as wide as possible, then shoving the new bag in. With some effort, the bag went through the top and settled somehow comfortably among the rest of the fruit. Bo blinked as he looked in the bag. The more he looked the more his head hurt so he closed the bag and got back to his feet. Rui Yifu also stood up and with some grumbling Ji Ying agreed to relinquish Zhu'er from her lap back to Liu Xie and stood up as well.

"I asked around and the people said that the guards at the gates will give us no trouble. They're all Shen Guang's men. The garrison that should be here was recalled some time ago to deal with bandits near the Western Kingdom border, and apparently have not returned," Liu Xie explained and he led them away from the tables and back onto the streets.

"...I wonder if it's because of what Shen Guang and Spear-Breaker said. Maybe the recalled garrison was killed," Rui Yifu muttered.

Bo could hear people calling out to them, 'come try this', 'don't leave without some emergency medicine!' but ignored them. He pulled the wooden talisman out again and jogged up to Rui Yifu's side. "Hey, what do you think this is?" He asked, holding it up in Rui Yifu's face.

"Trash."

"No, I mean, no it's not!" Bo grumbled. "It's a magic talisman! Anyway, what's this thing on it?"

Rui Yifu stared at it as they continued walking, "hmmm. A horse with a horn. I heard these exist somewhere and that their meat can cure the worst poisons, but they'll kill anyone who comes bearing weapons towards it."

Bo scratched his chin in thought and wondered why such a talisman existed suddenly. If Rui Yifu did not know where they came from then why would they be carved and sold as protection charms? Part of him began to suspect he had been scammed, but his pride immediately flared up in defense. How could he be scammed? He knew better than that! He was not nearly so gullible. Rather than continue to dwell on the thought his mind latched onto a subject Rui Yifu had brought up. His eyes swept to the swords Liu Xie and Rui Yifu had, then over to the bow and quiver of arrows Ji Ying held. He then looked at his own sickle. It was a nice sickle, it was true, nicely sharp with a better handle, but what good would that be in a fight? It was for plants, not skin. "Hey Boss?" He called out.

"What is it?" Liu Xie looked over his shoulder, still managing to move out of the way of an old woman who came toddering by with a chirping basket without looking at her.

"Should... should I have a sword too?" Bo asked hopeful.

"You don't need a sword," Liu Xie said, looking back ahead.

"Why not?"

"Swords are the most useless things in the world, if mankind had any sense it would take all the swords and turn them into plows and decorative gate designs," Liu Xie stated plainly, as though he were simply speaking of the weather. "Swords are only for idiots."

Bo felt his mouth drop. How could Liu Xie say something like that, so easily? He had a sword! Did that mean he was an idiot? "That's not true, I mean, lots of people use swords. If people are using them for things like protecting others then they can't be useless." He spoke.

Liu Xie set Zhu'er back on the ground and Rui Yifu seemed to take this moment to speed up his step to grab the little girl up. Ji Ying made a sound like an aggrieved cat as she watched. "Bo, a sword can't protect anyone," Liu Xie explained, turning on his heel to look Bo in the face. "A sword once drawn can only maim or kill."

"Well, yes, that's what I mean-"

Liu Xie's apathetic face changed into one of deep disappointment, and Bo suddenly felt both ashamed and small under his gaze. "You aren't listening to me. You see a sword as an item of usefulness. I will tell you that it is not. Every human who has ever picked up a sword has been cursed by it. It only causes harm, and the wounds you make will follow you after you die. An arrow is more useful than a sword, a spear is more useful than a sword. These items can be used to hunt food. But that's not the purpose of a sword. The only thing a sword can do is kill other people. If it does not kill, it is a failure of a sword. Therefore, a sword is useless, I will not get you a sword, and I will not teach you to ever use one. I never taught Gu, and I will not teach you." Liu Xie's voice was harsh and cold. "If you have any sense as my student, you would know that your sickle is worth a thousand swords."

"Boss-"

"If you ever find yourself in a position to use a sword, you will never return to the person you once were."

Bo's eyes went back to the sword at Liu Xie's side. It did not look well maintained he realized, the hilt itself had more in common with some bizarre nightmarish fish's spine than anything else he had seen before.

"Move faster!" Ji Ying practically barked behind him, shoving him forward before she walked around him to continue following the others.

Bo considered throwing a rock at her head, but found his own head was hurting a little too much to aim right. At some point they had walked back into the silent part of the town, where a group of street hawkers sat in a lone patch of sunlight that the mountains had not snuffed out, talking quietly to themselves. Bo was grateful that they were walking fast, fast enough that the cold silence of the mountains did not seep so fast into his body like a slowly growing pressure.

The group of soldiers with spears near the half opened gates lethargically regarded them. They had commandeered several tables from somewhere and had several games of dice or other things laid out now. One of them waved the group towards the gates with a nod, and Liu Xie's thanks was quick as he speed-walked towards the gates. Bo followed in the rear of the group, walking slowly enough he heard one of the guards call out.

"Good luck!"