Keir Lao politely accepted the steaming honey wine — a specialty of Panopticon’s — offered to him by Gabriela’s grandmother, Constanza. She looked barely older than Gabriela herself, though shorter and with curling brown hair near to the floor. On the left side of the low and clothed stone table was Just Xin, and on the right, Gabriela. Once Keir Lao held the drink, Constanza returned across from him.

Any other day, he’d enjoy a drink or five while swapping pleasantries and stories. As it was, the nauseatingly sweet taste from the memory still on his tongue, the thought of drinking the wine repulsed him. Though, he also did not want to offend, so drank anyway, angling the ornate cup to hide his grimace as he forced himself to swallow.

Constanza gave him a thin smile, and he found his cup snatched from him as she said, “I’ll fetch you broth, instead.” She went to the stove, a slab of meat boiling within a pot, and poured the broth to a fresh cup. She returned, offering again. She said, “You know, I have some great stories of magical beasts I’ve hunted. My first time…”

Keir Lao took it, wondering how she noticed his distaste, because he was certain he’d hidden it in a natural way. He couldn’t figure out if her perception was a personal trait, or something broader, and planned to ask Gabriela later. He half listened to Costanza as he thought.

“...bounty of two hundred spirit stones for its magical beast core…”

The Sosa clan drinking room was well decorated with exceptional paintings; every hall and room Keir Lao had passed was equally adorned. The size of the entire home astonished him, housing hundreds of clan members in the little he’d seen of the first floor, and even more shocking was its small size compared to the neighboring clans.

“...its terrible, flesh-rending claws, and life-ending poisoned tongue…”

He mulled over his memory a bit more. He’d yet to figure out what it meant, and didn’t entirely trust that he hadn’t been, in some way, evil. He thought it made sense; most cultivators were selfish, and he was especially terrible. He would have been punished for, having his memories removed and forced to become mortal.

“...unlike this other beast, fourth-tier I’ll have you know. I should have died, but…”

It was only a guess, but one that haunted him as much as the memory itself. He wasn’t sure if what Iah and Gabriela had told him was entirely true, though. He considered another possibility that the memory wasn’t the same as the one he’d taken out, and Iah tricked him into accepting it to steal the real glimpse. His scarred hands suggested otherwise, a mystery solved, but he couldn’t discard the possibility.

“...sacrificing a foot to save me. Out of gratitude, I married him…”

His head was abuzz with such theories when three women entered.

Keir Lao recognized Josefina, Gabriela’s mother, in the back. The middle woman was also young looking, and Four-Eyed. The woman in front, however, was decrepit, with gnarled skin and long, emaciated limbs. Constanza and Gabriela kowtowed on sight, declaring, “Matriarch Sosa!” Four of the matriarch’s five eyes regarded a different person in the room, darting wildly, with the lower left clouded over and unmoving. Just Xin kowtowed as well, and Keir Lao followed.

Matriarch Sosa stalked towards them. She asked, “The first thing you return with is guests?” Her voice betrayed no emotion.

Gabriela lifted her head. “On behalf of Six-Eyed Iah,” she said.

“Hmm.” Matriarch Sosa circled around the table, saying, “Yet you have not earned your fourth eye?”

Keir Lao thought, Something’s off. Even Constanza doesn’t have her fourth eye. Why would they expect Gabriela to have hers?

“I am sure I will earn it when—”

“As am I, but in far futures unseen.” The matriarch stopped behind her. “Where is your proof?”

Gabriela did not respond, frustration covering her face.

Proof? Do they think she’s a liar? Although, that does mean she lied to us earlier when she said Iah ‘allowed’ us to stay in her clan home. But why? Keir Lao, in an attempt to learn more, said, “Respectfully, I’m not sure what’s the matter here, but I can confirm she’s working with Six-Eyed Iah.”

Matirarch Sosa stepped onto the table and squatted in front of Keir Lao, grabbing him under the chin and manipulating his head as she pleased, eyes focused on different pieces of him. She was not forceful, but Keir Lao could not form any resistance. “What does a no-core mortal know of the Six-Eyed? Either you came to this home to tell lies, or you belong to some impossibly important foreign clan. By our hospitality I will not have you to answer, but offer more than your word or stay silent.”

Keir Lao realized his mistake, that he could not prove it without a memory he shouldn’t share, and chose silence. She released her hold and returned to the doorway.

Before leaving, she ordered, “You will visit your brother tonight, to remind yourself.” Josefina and the other woman trailed out behind her.

Keir Lao mused, If her family doesn’t trust her, can I trust her? But they’re also cultivators, so is it her family being unreasonable? And what does her brother have to do with it? He couldn’t figure it out with what he knew, thus decided he’d try to learn more later and, for the time being, further interrogate what he learned from glimpse.

Constanza forced them to remain seated and drinking as she continued recounting kills from her one hundred and fifty years of life.

***

Just Xin stretched. His qi rolled through his limbs, cycling from and back to his diantian. It was an exercise for calming himself, that he liked to do before bed. As he focused onto his motions, Keir Lao approached him and said, “I haven’t seen Gabriela in twenty minutes, and I want to know what she’s doing.”

Without doubting, Just Xin agreed. Keir Lao had not yet explained the full situation to him, but he trusted Keir Lao, and believed him when he’d mentioned Six-Eyed Iah. Keir Lao was one of the few that shared his view of the world, that everyone should be doing more to help others. It was the philosophy by which Just Xin found the will to cultivate, and to give assistance his truthful expression.

He further believed Keir Lao would be safe for the night, and went to find Gabriela. He still felt embarrassed for almost attacking her earlier, but was too used to cultivators bullying Keir Lao.

As a Dancer — unlike a Vocalist, Symbolist, or Meditator — his qi was innately visible, but he could sense qi of past and intent, if he’d recently contacted its owner. He had to walk around before feeling the cold prickle of Gabriela’s. He followed it through halls and rooms, occasionally bowing to Sosa clan members, until he found himself descending into the basement.

It was a mausoleum with urns of the dead, each labeled with the name of a Sosa clan member. Fat-burning lanterns shed light. Deep into it, Gabriela’s trail lingered in front of a single urn, the plaque reading ‘Lucas Sosa’. The qi there was brittle with sadness, and Just Xin felt a familiar pang in his heart.

He considered returning to Keir Lao, and leaving Gabriela her secrets. Then he noticed her trail continued back up and, not towards any rooms, but out the home entirely. Just Xin suspected her exit was for another purpose, and a chance to help her or Keir Lao, depending how he could help the most.

Just Xin left and jogged far through the city, trying to go slow enough that there would be hardly a chance they’d encounter each other. After a good amount of time, he found her trail entered a locked office. Peering through the barely illuminated window, he saw a small room with a mess of papers, and could barely feel that she had experienced intense frustration and joy within.

The door was the only exit, so he continued from there. He eventually passed through heavy black smog that made up the city’s forbidden zone. Within, the Library’s tendrils were withered and dead, the buildings crumbling and abandoned, and the obelisks radiated an unusual red light. It was troublesome to breath without giving into the itching need to cough.

Just Xin knew the stories. It was forbidden because living there would surely embed heavy impurities into anyone, which were difficult to remove and, in mere decades, cause death. They came from a nameless cultivator who’d appeared countless years ago and, body wrecked from alchemy abuse, began to refine himself in the city’s hottest fire pit. To that day he remained, purging himself as his miasma spread.

Further in, Just Xin felt a second trail of qi. Both at once confused him at first, but separated them out. He tried to put a face to it, and recalled the orphan girl.

He worried she’d stolen from Gabriela, too, and that Gabriela might hurt her trying to get it back. No longer caring of not being seen, he followed the trails at a sprint, choosing Gabriela’s where they divided. The sensations grew stronger the closer he got, and he began to pick up on current emotions. Gabriela’s was a cold resolve, and the orphan’s a patient panic.

Vision poor, he managed to stop himself a few meters short of running into Gabriela’s back.

She twitched toward him as though to strike, but refrained. “There’s another one,” she said.

Whatever it was that she lost, he thought she should abandon it, and leave the orphans be. He grabbed her by the shoulder and tugged, motioning from where he came. Her intent was imbedded into the floor.

“Another one,” a feminine voice declared. “Why don’t you two useless shits crawl back up whatever pitiful asses crapped you out, and leave we poor orphans alone? It’s not our fault if you’re too exceptional to keep track of your things.” Childish laughter, from much more than two orphans, unfurled from the surroundings.

A heavy wind blew some smog away, and stood there was a teenage girl with a blonde ponytail, and a sneering expression. With one hand she smoked a dark gold, cloth-wrapped medicinal herb, and her other hand rested on the totemistic wooden staff hanging from her back.

She exhaled a large cloud of smoke, dropped the herb, and stomped it out. “Last chance,” she said.

Just Xin squeezed on Gabriela’s shoulder, trying to signal for her to do anything but fight. Several difficult expressions washed over her, and Just Xin had trouble decoding her emotions. Finally, she said, “We’ll leave, but there’s something I absolutely must return with. I could offer you many things in return. Magical food? Weapons? Recommendations to a sect to call home? What is your name?”

The teen sniffed, eyes shimmering, voice shaking as she mocked, “Oh, you’d really help us? Oh, benevolent Many-Eyed. Oh, bless your farts as you pass.” She grinned wildly. “My name is Lilli, and I don’t need your pity, even if you were telling the truth. I’m gonna smack your face ‘til you die of shame, strip your body down to the last crap-covered cloth, and display your ugly corpse for all to see.”

Gabriela made various choking noises, and Just Xin sensed her anger.

Lilli drew her staff, and pointed it towards Just Xin. “Heard what you did, so I’ll spare you that awful fate. It’s against my sense of right and wrong to beat up the severely brain damaged. Leave the incompetent government tool with us.”

Then she lunged forward, staff hurtling sideways towards Gabriela.

With only a needle, Gabriella struck back against the staff, knocking it off course. In the same motion, Lilli’s free hand smacked against Gabriela’s face, leaving her with a red cheek and shocked expression.

To sense her qi, Just Xin extended towards Lilli, but as her staff touched against the ground, she leveraged it to avoid him. He felt Gabriela’s humiliation and growing anger, and that dangerous amounts of qi was gathering into her needle. He whirled between them, forcing her build-up of qi to stop.

Just Xin gambled that if he could get the staff out of the teen’s hand’s, he could use it to negotiate. His qi ribbons shot out, trying to find any hold, but his ribbon passed through the staff like nothing was there. Lilli laughed.

“What’s the matter, you can’t beat a trashy clanless kid like me? Guess that’s make you less than trash.”

Gabriela vaulted over Just Xin’s back. Qi exploded out her needle, forming and expanding it to the size of a spear as she flew through the air. Just Xin reached up with his a ribbon, wrapping it around her weapon, and sent her attack impaling through the earth, just short of Lilli. Gabriela shouted at him, “Who’s side are you on?!”

“Wow, your brain damage is worse than I thought.” Lilli lifted her weapon high, and slammed it down towards Gabriela’s skull. Just Xin used the opportunity, and danced forward to the take the strike on his own head as he grabbed the teen’s elbow. Though he succeeded, the impact made him unusually dizzy, and his vision hazy.

But he didn’t need to see, or plan his movements.

He felt the teen’s intention to wrench from his grasp. He effortlessly timed with her movement, spinning her around. She planned to drop low, and when she did, he reached out with his right foot and grabbed her other arm. He twisted just enough to open a small wound at her shoulder, having her release the staff as she cursed, “Fuck your grandmother!”

He pushed her back and picked up the staff, solid. He tested it with a ribbon again, and it passed through as last time.

Lilli regained her balance, and whistled loudly. Hundreds of orphans burst from the smog in every direction, letting out a high pitched war cry, charging with makeshift weapons and showing off their cultivation techniques, uncoordinated flashes of color and noise.

One moment Gabriela was on the ground, and the next she’d shot in front of Lilli, before Just Xin could react. He could only notice that some of Lilli’s blood bridged the gap. The Three-Eyed captured the teen, and held a needle just against her throat. The orphans slowed, and stopped in a circle surrounding them.

With surprising calmness, Lilli said, “I’ve trained every one of them in cultivation, and they’d murder you easily. But, you’ve sure got me, and could probably kill a lot before they kill you. It’s a standstill.”

“Here is what shall occur,” Gabriela said in a no less calm tone, and yet a harsher one. “I’ll leave with you, and take you to the proper authorities. They will decide what to do with you. Guards will be sent to round up their orphans, and whether they catch them will be another matter. If you return to me what you stole right now, I won’t hold a grudge, and can encourage the guards to give only a token effort.”

The orphans booed.

“Nah,” Lilli remarked. “As long as you try to leave, my buddies will stop you, so don’t try. You can’t hurt me without getting hurt. Here’s how it’ll really go. Your silent buddy over there?” She pointed her middle finger towards Just Xin. “I can tell he’s a big softy based on our fight, wouldn’t dream of doing anything that’d hurt we poor orphans.” She chuckled. “So let him figure out something to break the standstill. No clue what, but I’m betting my life he’d try really hard.”

Just Xin approached the two. Gabriela said, “Fine. Just Xin, I am carrying a scroll, a contract meant for Keir Lao. Take it to him, if he signs it he may be able to resolve this situation in a mutually non-murderous fashion.”

With great concern, Just Xin reached into Gabriela’s uniform. He sensed the slightest hint of her intention guide him, not just to the scroll, but another scrap of paper. He took both, and backed away. Lilli watched him.

He turned and left, through the crowd of orphans parting for him, and eventually out the forbidden zone. He regarded the scrap of paper, a note from Gabriela written in what he could sense was Lilli’s blood.

Please, inform the guards. The orphans won’t be killed if they don’t resist.

Just Xin’s stomach twisted. He didn’t believe things would go that smoothly. He planned to try Keir Lao’s contract first and, meanwhile, weigh the lives of the orphans against Gabriela’s.