The straight vertical cliffs of Dolomite Harbor were just as impressive as the first time. John doubted that many natural or even manmade phenomenons could match the size of the place, the main lifeblood of the Stone Conglomerate regarding its access across the Shimmering Islands. The stairs carved into the cliffs wound back and forth, descending sharply, while a large series of ramps were used for wagons, taking up the majority of the space between the stairways on either end of the cliff.

Before he even saw the ship, John sensed who he was waiting for. Picking out a water element cultivator on the sea from among many others wasn’t easy, even if that person happened to be a Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator, but there was no way John wouldn’t notice Matayal, even with her power subdued.

As they were more interested in comfort than speed, a Brandle clan ship had been taken along their journey. The Wavecutter and Captain Sohan were reliable and fast, but certainly not representative of comfort.

Seeing them entering the harbor John made his way down from his vantage point. He wanted to run down to meet them, but he had to maintain some dignity. Besides, unless he ran out on the water- which he absolutely could- a more moderate pace would have him arrive at a reasonable time.

The first to disembark from the ship was Ursel, not waiting for things like the anchor, tying up, or the gangway. Instead, she leapt from the ship onto the pier, her body heavily thudding on the stone. “Daaaad~” Ursel came running with her arms out. John prepared to scoop her up, but she came to a screeching halt in front of him. “Mel won’t shut up about that stupid boy.”

So it was to be complaints instead of touching reunion. Melanthina made her own response from the ship’s deck. “Shut up! That’s not true… I just mentioned that I was looking forward to fighting… someone from the Combining Luster Sect. To prove how much better I am.”

John looked at his wife, who shrugged. That and the look of displeasure on the patient Tirto’s face indicated this had been going on for a good majority of the last five months.

Melanthina seemed to think it was undignified to leap off the ship, but barely waited for the gangplank before scurrying down to the docks. Ursel was already further along with some of the other members of the Tenebach clan, likely reveling in the solid land beneath her. “We are going right?” Melanthina asked. “You’re not going to cancel or something?”

“Well, I don’t know…” John stroked his chin. “Maybe I should.” He was more than ninety percent joking, and a small bit serious. He didn’t want Melanthina to get spoiled by just giving her whatever she wanted. Nor was he certain if she would get the results she wanted. “But I’m already here, so we might as well.” Melanthina huffed air and stomped off in the same general direction as her sister, doubtless still pleased despite the teasing.

Finally, Matayal and Tirto disembarked. The former exercised proper demeanor in how she approached, but that didn’t stop her from initiating a passionate if short kiss with her husband. “Good to finally see you again.” Their arrangement left them apart for close to ten months out of the year. If their arranged marriage hadn’t resulted in feelings for each other, then it wouldn’t have been so bad. As it was, they had chosen to actually develop love for each other- it wasn’t something that just happened by accident- and now they could hardly wait for a chance to spend time together.

“Just another decade… or so,” John smiled. “We’re still young.” That was something, at least. Because of their cultivations, they would still be young in their fifties when their children took the reins of the clans. They didn’t want to rush them into anything, but Tirto and Matayal would have to take over at some point. Tirto would honestly be easiest. He could probably step into the role immediately upon reaching adulthood. That wasn’t strictly necessary, but he was almost certain to be ready as long as he kept maturing as he was.

John rubbed Tirto on the head- which was much higher up than he remembered. Then again, both girls were taller than Tirto at the moment. Going into the early teen years, girls generally had their growth first. “How are you doing, putting up with all that?”

“It is exhausting,” Tirto said. “Ursel would also not leave me alone until I learned to control water plants. An exhausting endeavor.”

“She’s excited about her new abilities, and likely assumed you would be interested in the same,” John said.

“Probably,” Tirto admitted. “That did not make it less exhausting. Though it kept me away from Melanthina. She would not cease talking about Nik, whether or not she said his name. I wish she would decide whether she wanted to fight or kiss him.”

“Hmm, is it that obvious?” John asked. “Besides, it can be both.”

“If you say so,” Tirto shrugged. “You and mother do not clash.”

“That’s not quite true,” Matayal admitted. “We’re just less open about it. Personally, I’m hoping she’ll get over all this upon actually seeing the kid again.”

“That would be best for everyone,” John agreed. “But for that, we must be going.”

The plan was to travel south along the western edge of the Darklands. They had no particular history there, so with their strength the roads would be safe enough. Any former allies of the Society of Midnight would simply be glad they hadn’t been around for the battles to take any losses. Nobody should be aware of the specific travel clans anyway- at most, they would have had to hear of the arranged exchange of pointers with the Combining Luster Sect and the Brandle and Tenebach clans.

The distance through the Darklands would be most of their journey, but the most difficult parts would be after that. The most direct route would take them through the Annihilation Strip, and needless to say that was not the planned route. However, the route around to the west wasn’t much better, traveling through the Soulrot Bogs. The distance would be mercifully short, just a few days, but there were reasons travel from south of the Darklands was infrequent. The other option would have been to entirely circumvent the Darklands, which would have meant traveling the entire width of the country back beyond the Tenebach clan then around through the Green Sands and hooking through the Wuthering Steppes. That would be more than twice as long, and the Wuthering Steppes weren’t necessarily safer than the Soulrot Bogs. It was simply a matter of where the danger came from.

-----

“Why can’t we live here?” Melanthina asked after they had crossed the border into the Darklands. “It’s so much nicer and closer to the Brandle clan.”

“Well,” John had been about to spout reasons, but the main one was no longer valid. The Society of Midnight was gone, now. “It’s not easy to just move a clan. Moving to the western Darklands would take us further away from some of our allies. I’d have to convince Ciaritzal and the rest of the clan to move, even if the expenses didn’t exist.”

“You’re the clan head!” Melanthina said. “You can just order everyone.”

“I could,” John said. “And people listen to my orders, but only because they are not unreasonable. A poorly constructed attempt would simply cause a split in the clan, weakening us beyond the expenses. Besides, I doubt the locals would be enthusiastic about us taking up residence.”

“Yeah but it’s flowing with tons of darkness elemental spiritual energy,” Melanthina said. “It’s way better.”

“For you,” John said.

“And the rest of the Tenebach clan!”

“Most of them,” John admitted. “But it’s not something that can be done so easily. We only moved in the first place to avoid extermination.”

“If you won’t do it, I’ll just do it when I take over the clan,” Melanthina declared.

John hadn’t wanted to suggest that option, because she might really do it. “If you still think it’s a good idea at that time, you can look into it.”

John couldn’t just forget about what his daughter said. He truly didn’t think it was a good idea, but whether or not she went through with it the distance between clans still existed. A persistent problem, only part of which would be solved by raising the Shadowhawks they acquired. Communication might be eased by such things, but transport was still an issue. It was becoming ever more important to acquire animals of greater power, for both small and large scale transport of people and goods. The difficulty was finding worthy creatures that could also learn to obey.

-----

Their group wasn’t going to just wander into the Soulrot Bogs and hope they made it through. Chances were, with Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators, they would. But there were to be no chances taken with the triplets, or the other weaker members of the clans. And frankly, it would have been foolish if it were just John and Matayal. Thus, they stopped to meet with the one group they knew in the southern Darklands. The one remaining group they knew, at least.

That group was the Calamitous Swarm. Though John had considered himself the sort of boy that liked bugs, he wasn’t sure he liked swarms of supernatural insects, no matter how well they were controlled. But that was basically just prejudice. Most cultivators of their group looked fairly normal most of the time.

Most of them. Not Bodana, though. She was, by her voice, a middle aged woman. That was about all John could tell through the soft buzzing of insects. They seemed quite well contained, not floating in a cloud about her but instead covering her with wiggling wings. There was not just one sort of bug, John could see various sorts of mosquitoes, locusts, perhaps cockroaches. Centipedes and things with stingers. Maybe even a few small scorpions and spiders also in the mix. Somehow, they didn’t get crushed as Bodana moved about- and when she reached out her hand they pulled away.

John summoned all of his confidence to shake that hand. “I’m glad to have an experienced guide coming with us,” he said. It would be so easy to just burn them away, even with his limited control of fire. A good wind would do just as well to remove them from the area. But of course he did neither. Instead, he paid careful attention to how the swarm moved, little active control keeping them around but instead it seemed to be some sort of longer term change to the insects themselves, likely passed on through generations. He certainly wouldn’t want to spend even a few seconds of effort for each member of that swarm if the whole thing died every few weeks.

“I’ll keep you away from the worst nasties of the Soulrot Bogs,” she said, displaying a single insect on her palm. “Like these.”

“Isn’t that just… a regular mosquito?” John asked.

“Is it?” she raised an eyebrow- or at least that was what he assumed the changing shape of the swarm on her face meant. “Or is it a mosquito carrying Soulrot?”

John frowned. “I don’t know how to tell. But that still makes it kind of a normal mosquito.”

She shrugged. That was obvious enough since it involved a larger body movement. “I suppose so. Except that this little guy can prick you through your energy defenses without you even noticing.”

“Noted,” John said. “Let’s get going.”

While John noticed Ursel shying away from the woman, Melanthina- the more girly of the two- seemed slightly interested. From a distance, at least. It was a novel use of darkness element, so it wasn’t that odd. But neither would he have assumed she would show any interest of the sort at all. Just so long as she kept her insects more removed, John wouldn’t care if she learned such techniques. She wouldn’t get many hugs otherwise.