Authors Note: I think I am going to have to give up on caring if there is a cliffhanger or not. This story writes itself, so I honestly don't actually have that much control, as silly as that may sound.

LIke any good Wuxia, I guess, there will be parts with a cliffhanger every chapter, and parts with smooth sailing throughout. I wanted to try and avoid them, but I'm failing at that terribly apparently.

“Isa Firehand,” He said the frog-faced man, drawing out the last name, “The Blacksmith,” he didn’t even look at father, sweeping his eyes from mother directly to me. “And the boy.” He stood in the center of the room for a moment as more guards filed in. His tone was neither mocking nor polite, more… uncaring than anything else, but he had a faint accent that somehow reminded me of mother. His clothes were also far more colorful and clean that I had seen any of the other villagers wear, a burgundy robe trimmed with silver and gold thread.

“I will now question the boy. You will either leave the room, or you will swear to be silent.” He said to nobody in particular. I was both confused and mildly offended by his words (and his dismissive tone), but I had as sense that, unlike the guards, this was someone we had to listen to. Mother quickly swore that she would be silent, followed by father. My suspicions were confirmed; this was an important person, probably a noble.

“I am Lord Runax Flameward, Marshal of North Stone Village. Now then, boy, you are supposedly quite clever, for a child. So I hope you understand that your answers here today will be carefully scrutinized, and therefore lying is simply impossible.” He suddenly looked straight at me for the first time, and I felt struck by his gaze and the weight behind his words, like an antelope in front of a lion. He looked away, pacing slowly across the room.

“I have been given reports of odd activities at Smithy where your father works.” He said, looking at me again. “And I have put the clues together.” He looked at my mother again. “Are you aware that Firehand is the name given to those who betray House Flameward?” He asked, again seemingly to the room in general.

It took me a moment to realize that I was supposed to answer. I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I simply shook my head.

“Well, boy, Isa here grew up a Flameward… she was one of my cousins, in fact.” He looked at Jaws, “But she was cast out.” He paused there, continuing to pace slowly across the room. There were now a dozen guards in the room, plus a familiar guard with a bandaged hand standing by the doorway, glaring at mother.

“Did you know that it is against the law for commoners to use, or possess, Cultivation Techniques?” He asked suddenly, turning again to face me. What? Cultivation Techniques… oh holy shit, did he somehow know that I was learning how to read and write alongside Wolfram? We hadn’t gotten to the actual cultivation part yet, but Wolfram had uploaded at least half a dozen books, page by page, into the backlog of our soul-link.

“Wa… what do you mean, sir?” I managed to say.

Lord Runax snorted, reaching into the pocket of his richly decorated robe and drawing out a bundle of cloth wrapped around a small shard of yellow crystal. He unwrapped the crystal, being careful not to touch it, and then moved as if to hand it to me. “Here, take this stone.” He said. It wasn’t a request.

I looked over at mother and father; mother was pale but visibly confused, father had a raised eyebrow and nodded to the crystal. I took a deep breath and reached out to take it, making sure my Ion Shield was active in case it exploded or tried to poison me…

…Which turned out to be a good idea, as the crystal started glowing and shattered with a sharp *CRACK* not even a second after it touched my hand! I was completely unhurt (of course), but Lord Runax (who had been right in front of me) stumbled back a few steps in surprise, beads of blood forming on his neck and hands. “Bloody beast, it’s true!” He exclaimed, ignoring his wounds.

Mother and father had jumped up from their seats, but were quickly subdued by the guards surrounding us. They were both shocked as they looked at me, but neither seemed upset. Lord Runax looked at mother, a strange expression on his face, before looking back at me. He wiped his bloody hands on his robe and sighed, “You are obviously a Cultivator, young man.” His tone had changed somewhat. “But I can see you were not aware that your mother had broken our laws.”

Again, I was supremely confused. What in the name of hell did my mother have to do with this?

“Isa obviously stole a Cultivation Technique from House Flameward before she left, and gave it to you to practice.” He shook his head, letting out another sigh. “Let me advise you, young man.” He said, the change in his attitude towards me even more noticeable. “You had best just admit that you were given the stolen technique by your mother, and that your father had nothing to do with it.”

He looked at my parents, who were looking at each other. Mother was obviously struggling to keep silent, with father holding her hand and shaking his head at her, urging her to keep her word.

“She will be taken to The City and punished appropriately, but as a former noble she is likely to be shown leniency. But your father is a commoner. He would be sent to the Shieldwall.” He said Shieldwall as if it was a prison, but I had never heard of it. “You would never see either of them again, and the remainder of your father’s life would be more difficult than you can imagine.” He shook his head again.

I was shocked, not quite able to believe what I was hearing. What the fuck, do I just start shooting everyone with lightning bolts now? Should I just go crazy, blast my way out of the Fortress and flee somewhere with my parents? Then I was suddenly struck with a thought: That is exactly what Wolfram would do.

That helped me calm down, bringing things into perspective again. Diplomacy was not always Wolframs strong suit (though he did have his rare moments), but I liked to think my way through problems whenever possible. But how the hell could I get out of this one? I assumed that making the crystal explode was more or less a dead giveaway that I cultivate, so I had to somehow roll with this.

“It’s an easy choice, young man.” Lord Runax, his voice surprisingly gentle, “Tell me that Isa gave you the technique without anyone else knowing, and you can leave here with your father. This village needs all the blacksmiths we can get, and Toly is a good man.” His attitude towards me had done a complete reversal, from condescending and cold to warm and caring. “Nothing can be done to help Isa, but I can swear that I will ask for leniency.”

My mind spun, trapped, with no way out of this impossible situation, so I stalled for time. “I didn’t get the Cultivation Technique from my Parents, they know nothing about this.” I said, trying to keep my five year old voice as firm and steady as I could.

Lord Runax sighed again, obviously not believing me, “Then where did you get it from?”

“Merrik”, I said. There was a pause as EVERYBODY in the room stopped breathing.

Oh shit, did I just say that out loud?

Authors Note2: This chapter wraps up this small arc, explaining most (but not all) of what was going on. I expect that some of you guessed where this was heading, but I wanted to wrap it up before speculation went too wild.

I really enjoyed writing the last few chapters, so I hope you like them too! I am also excited for the next ones coming up.

Thanks for reading! [th_084_.gif]