How was one supposed to react to one of the heads of a foreign state baring their soul with a completely straight face, then simply going back to her work? After saying her piece, Hayakawa had promptly ignored Jia and Eui’s presence and returned to finishing her paperwork—a clear dismissal. Jia had no idea what to do—she wanted to protest in defense of her actions, or perhaps apologize, or maybe give Hayakawa a hug. The woman obviously needed it. Yet none of that felt appropriate—as upset as she was to hear it laid out like that, she really didn’t have a defense for her behavior, but she also didn’t feel like it was something she needed to apologize for. She and Hayakawa had just—not gotten along. Like oil and water, they had just failed to find common ground. Even now, they were essentially just allies of circumstance—they each had something to gain from the other.

Or so Jia had thought. Clearly, Hayakawa hadn’t been looking at it that way, and suddenly Jia was the one being callous and mercenary towards someone who had been trying to form a connection in good faith. It was too much to take in at once—too big a problem to be solved in a single conversation. Perhaps that was why Hayakawa had dismissed them. Regardless, Eui seemed like she was about to explode, so Jia quickly made the executive decision to put this matter aside for later—after she’d worked her way through it with Eui. Jia bowed at ninety degrees.

“Thank you for sharing that with us. We appreciate your candor, and we’ll take your words into consideration in the future.”

Jia reflected Hayakawa’s own mask of formality back at her—a barrier between them and their emotions. Eui ground her teeth a bit, refusing to copy Jia’s bow, but remained silent—better than shouting Hayakawa down, at least. Hayakawa made a noncommittal grunt of acknowledgement and Jia filed out of the room with Eui following right behind her. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Eui’s voice rang out in Jia’s mind.

“What the fuck was that?! Are you just going to let her get away with shit-talking you like that?”

Jia shrugged, doing her best to hold back an exasperated sigh—not that it did her any good, since Eui could feel every tiny impulse, and sense her emotions directly.

“She wasn’t really wrong, Eui. I don’t know—I need more time to think about it. We have been kind of bitchy to her lately. It’s kind of like Yue all over again.”

Eui snorted derisively, and Jia could feel the raw contempt coming off of her.

“Yue fucking deserved it, and so does Hayakawa. I’ll admit that I came around to Yue eventually, but she had to work her ass off to earn that, and Hayakawa just hasn’t. I don’t really care what kind of self-reflection she’s done—good for her or whatever—but where’s the action?”

“I mean—didn’t she say she was going to put all of her resources into helping us with the Sovereign’s Tear? Maybe I was reading too far into it, but it sounded like she was even willing to oppose her own father if it came down to it. That’s...pretty big.”

Eui paused, scrunching her face up into the cute scowl she did whenever she had to confront her own conflicting views.

“Fuck—maybe. That’s still just talk, but I guess it’s worth thinking about at least. She’s also the one who pulled the strings to get Sun to send over her little lapdog to help get me into the country—even if Tae is the one who did all the work. Ugh, why does this have to be so complicated? It would be so much easier if she just let me keep hating her.”

Jia covered her mouth and giggled—that was a very Eui thing to say.

“I’m not suggesting we start bowing and scraping or anything. Let’s just—I don’t know—try to be more aware of the things she’s doing for us? Keep her feelings in mind, I guess? I’m not sure we can ever really be friends with her, but if she’s going to put in the effort, maybe we should too.”

“Tch, not like our entire cultivation revolves around it or anything. Yeah, alright. I’ll try to tone down the bitchiness, I guess.”

Jia gave Eui a playful smirk.

“No need to change who you are, Eui.”

Eui snorted in amusement and rolled her eyes.

“Oh, fuck off. You’re gonna pay for that one later.”

Jia felt her face heating up, knowing exactly where that sort of promise tended to lead. She coughed once and tried to change the subject.

“A-anyway, let’s go make sure Jung and Narae are packed and ready to leave.”

Eui cackled menacingly as Jia hurried ahead back to their room. She wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or disappointed at the fact that they’d be on the road by nightfall—safe from Eui’s reprisal...for now at least.

Gathered outside the gates of Yangye City, the caravan was making its final preparations to leave for the capital. Jia had paid out of her own pocket to hire a private wagon to spare Lee Jung the burden of travel, much to her sister’s chagrin.

“Jia, you didn’t need to do all this just for me. I’m feeling much better now, I can walk on my own.”

Jung’s constitution had improved significantly since her healing, thanks in no small part to Eui’s regular treatments and the robust diet that Jia had been providing to help her recover her strength, but Jia didn’t want to take any chances.

“If we run into another emergency on the road, I want you to be in the best possible condition. You haven’t seen what martial artists are capable of when they really need to move. Even being carried would be really hard on you.”

Jia’s adopted older sister sighed and shook her head, but didn’t argue any further.

“Whatever you say, sweetie. What kind of danger are we going to encounter in the heart of Goryeo, surrounded by mages, martial artists, and—whatever you and your partner are?”

“I don’t know—probably nothing, but I don’t want to take my chances. I want you and Narae to be as safe as possible.”

Lee Jung nodded in understanding.

“Speaking of which, perhaps you should go save that nice young man from her.”

She gestured with her head to where Lee Narae was pestering Dae with an endless barrage of questions.

“Why call qi, ki, and mana different things? Big sis Jia said that they are all the same.”

Dae chuckled goodnaturedly as he answered the little girl’s innocent interrogation.

“That’s true, but there’s still some utility in differentiation between sources—at the very least, each of the three core disciplines structures essence in dramatically different ways.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just put it all together?”

“Perhaps, if anyone could discover a way to do so—your sister has come as close as anyone I know of, but even she has had to rely on a combination of the conventional methods of the known disciplines.”

Narae crossed her arms and raised her chin impetuously.

“I’ll be the first then! I’m gonna be even better than big sis, she said so herself.”

“Did I now?”

Jia’s voice caused Narae to jump in surprise, whirling around to face where her big sister had snuck up on her. Jia flicked her gently in the forehead.

“I said you might have a stronger latent mana sense than I did. Don’t get all arrogant just because you have a strong potential—you have to realize it first. If you have time to brag about things you haven’t done yet, maybe you should get to work on your meditation?”

Narae winced as Jia called her out for slacking, but rallied quickly, nodding with enthusiasm.

“Okay! I’ll awaken before we get to the city, you watch!”

Jia watched her little sister run off to join her mother in the wagon, then turned to address Dae.

“Sorry about that. She’s really excited about learning cultivation.”

Dae smiled gently and shook his head.

“Not a problem, Miss Jia. She reminds me a bit of Princess Seong Haeun—she also had a lot of questions I didn’t know how to answer. The next generation of cultivators will be very interesting, I think.”

Jia shrugged. As long as her little sister could defend herself, she didn’t really care.

“Maybe. Did you finish up your business with Hayakawa?”

“I did, yes. It wasn’t much—just a minor warning.”

“Oh?”

Dae scratched the back of his head, shrugging one shoulder hesitantly.

“Nothing dire. We’ve been working on extracting information from the former gang lord, and as he intimated during your confrontation with him, Seung does likely have some powerful backers. It’s possible that his gang might have even been sponsored by one or more high noble houses, and we've learned from our interrogations that those houses have been working quite closely with the descended elementals. We’re still not certain what the elementals want, but you may find yourselves facing unexpected political opposition in Songdo.”

Jia frowned. Of all the otherworldly invaders, the elementals were the strangest to her. The demons and immortals she could understand easily enough. The demons wanted power, and the immortals wanted to keep that power away from their enemies—especially the demons. The dragons—if they had even descended—hadn’t made an appearance yet, but according to Jianmo, they’d have similar motivations to the immortals.

The elementals on the other hand, Jianmo had never even bothered to mention. She mentally kicked herself for not asking Jianmo’s illusory projection about them when she’d had the chance—maybe her elusive mentor would make another surprise appearance on the road. As far as Jia knew, the elementals hadn’t played any part in sealing away the legacy of Jianmo’s master. Perhaps they were simply opportunistically seeking the power for themselves, but beyond that their motivations were entirely alien to her.

“Miss Jia?”

Jia shook her head as Dae addressed her, realizing she’d gone entirely silent.

“Sorry, just thinking. Thanks for letting me know.”

“Of course. I actually had something to discuss with Miss An before seeing you off, but I haven’t seen her. It’s rather unusual to see the two of you apart.”

“Eui? We don’t do everything together, you know. Just...most things, I guess. Anyway, she’s helping Rika bully Ja Yun.”

Dae gave her a sardonic smile.

“Already training this early? Try not to be too hard on the poor woman—she’s just suffered a rather significant demotion on your account.”

“Oh, I know. Don’t worry, she likes it. Anyway, I can relay a message for you—though actually, Eui can already hear you.”

Jia waggled her ears as if to demonstrate and Dae blinked at her.

“Ah! I see—it did not occur to me that your shared senses might extend beyond when the two of you were merged as Yoshika. Unless...?”

Dae let the question hang unspoken, and Jia shrugged.

“No, we’re not secretly merged and just pretending otherwise. Even while separate, we share each other’s senses within about a mile of each other. Though I’d prefer if you didn’t go spreading those kinds of details around.”

“Of course not, Miss Lee. Well then I suppose I will simply tell you directly—I mentioned before that Miss An’s family had been relocated for their own safety after we discovered that they were being harassed. You might also recall that the paperwork for your family estate had been completed months ago?”

Jia furrowed her brows, piecing together how those two pieces of information might be connected. Yoshika froze, stopping Eui in the middle of shouting ‘encouragement’ at Ja Yun in order to give Dae her full attention. Dae noticed the change in Jia’s body language, his eyes widening as they met hers.

“Oh, that is a fascinating process to witness like that. You really do become a whole other person.”

Yoshika shook Jia’s head and frowned.

“Cut the bullshit, Dae. Are you telling me our family is in Songdo?”

Dae nodded with a grin.

“Indeed they are! Well, the An family in specific. Obviously the Lees are still here with you. They are in fact living in the very same estate that we acquired under your name. Do say hello to Missus An for me—she’s a very sweet lady.”