"While I am honored both by your words and Elder Shadow's trust," I hedged, "I am still confused as to what role you hope for me to play. Or what you hope for me to accomplish."

"A stalking horse," Patriarch Umbra admitted candidly. "Your connection to Elder Shadow cannot be hidden, there will be some that believe we have planted you in the Sect to ferret out why these behind the scene machinations are taking place. We want to fan those beliefs.

"As an Inner Sect member, you will have a level of freedom that neither Elder Shadow nor I can enjoy," she began. "As head of Training Hall, he will be under heavy scrutiny. As Patriarch, I will be swamped dealing with the problems leading a new Sect will present.

"An Inner Sect member should be ignored after a cursory examination, especially a member that was elevated to her position from a Sect as insignificant as Flowing Water," she explained not bothering to temper her words.

"They will believe, at least at first, that we have recruited you, spending time and resources trying to understand exactly what your relationship with Elder Shadow might mean for their plans.

"Eventually, they will be forced to conclude that you are exactly what you appear to be, a young protégé that Elder Shadow believes is talented, and nothing more," she finished.

"We don't expect you to play spymaster, your role will be one of misdirection. At least, for the first few years, perhaps even a couple of decades," Elder Shadow said continuing the narrative.

"That is why what we are about to ask may be painful. And one of sacrifice," Elder Shadow warned. "We need you to forfeit your next fight. Accept your ranking in the top one-hundred and your guaranteed spot in the Four Elements Sect, allow them to believe that we have some nefarious plan that revolves around you. We want them to believe we are as duplicitous as they are."

"They believe you a backwater rube. Your choice of weapon odd. Your martial skills were only acquired because of your connection to me. That we rigged circumstance, the same as they have.

"Agreements have been made; bribes made. They have decided who will rank in the top fifty between them. And they have made sure the remaining matches are rigged. Your opponent for this next match is one of those High-tier Sect members that gamed the system in order to compete," Patriarch Umbra warned.

"The work for the past year, all that training was a prelude for me to quit? You invested all that time just so I could serve as bait?" I asked Elder Shadow in disbelief.

"Of course not," he responded emphatically. "The machinations by those powerful Sects had not been discovered when we met. My interest in you and your progress was based on that spark of fire I noticed in that merchant's shop when you denounced Braun.

"I hoped to flame that spark for justice into a blazing bonfire that would rage fiercely. I invested time in training you because I wanted to help you become what your potential suggested you could.

"A Platinum Spirit root. Dual Affinities. A Ruby matrix. A sense of justice. The rare confluence of those variables deserved a chance to be more than you could ever be at Flowing Water Sect," he promised fiercely.

"I don't like the thought of quitting," I admitted too embarrassed to respond to his declaration. "I have ignored so many insults and slights over the last year, I hate to think I am going to get a new start the same way. But I am not so ill-mannered not to know that most of my success in today's martial bouts was possible because of your training.

"If there is no other way, what do I need to do to withdraw? The match should be starting soon, we were only given an hour between bouts."

"A no show is considered a forfeit," Elder Shadow explained. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, Jay. Perhaps you are right, and I am asking too much of you. Having watched as you were forced to endure factional infighting, I understand your concerns.

"We are asking a lot, perhaps more than we should," Umbra conceded. "If you wish to compete, I will have you escorted to the arena.

"The choice is yours, child. We will not coerce you in this matter."

What did I want? I wanted my family safe. I wanted to grow, both with my skills in Alchemy and my cultivation. I wanted to experience that first flight with Storm, once she had grown large enough to support my weight. I wanted to honor Elder Shadow and Elder Tye.

Those were the desires that were foremost in my mind.

But I also wanted to experience what this world had to offer. I wanted to claim my baronetcy and build a thriving city that my family could found a dynasty out of. I wanted to explore areas that were pristine, untouched by Elf or Hindel. I wanted to know how my cultivation would progress and what martial skills and Dharmic spells I could master. I wanted to become the best version of Jai possible.

But just as important to what I wanted was what I didn't. I didn't want to grow old and useless, a burden on society. I had already lived that life. I didn't want my family to grow apart and distant, to only think about each other on holidays. I didn't want to fade from their hearts and minds until even my name was never mentioned on those days when the family gathered. I didn't want to stand by and do nothing when I could be a change for good.

At the heart of the matter, forfeiting the match would have no real impact on anything I wanted or didn't want to accomplish. Sure, I wouldn't win some of the rewards those that ranked higher would receive. I wouldn't have as much land to build my fief, but if I were smart and lucky, that wouldn't matter. Location was more important than size.

Growth. Safety. Family. Exploration. All of these desires could be accomplished now that I had earned a spot as an Inner Sect member at Four Elements.

There was no question I would accept the Emperor's offer. Even as my stomach lurched at the notion of leaving Elder Tye and Elder Cix behind, events with Elder An and his faction would just continue to spiral out of control until I was forced to leave the Sect, anyway. At least now I had a solution that didn't require me to take on the onerous path of a wandering cultivator.

"I'm still not sure what you expect of me," I began speaking, "but my trust in Elder Shadow is not as resolute as it was. You need me to serve as a diversion?"

I would make my decision, but since they extorted the virtue of truth, I would speak the truth. If my soul and Elder Shadows resonated, if we were kindred spirits, then I would speak to that truth.

"That I was forced to endure attacks, that I may have lost my life over the last year for no better reason that I can see, except to season me is reprehensible. I hope that is the reason that you allowed Braun and his ilk to act as they had, I would prefer you used his animosity to train me, then to think you simply couldn't be bothered or didn't care. I will continue to trust Elder Shadow as my teacher.

"But as a person?

"You put my life in peril, tossing the dice on fortunes outcome. Hoping I would and could find my way to this moment.

"Trust but verify will become the cornerstone of any relationship we forge from this point forward. I will trust you as it pertains to training, but not with my life or the goals I hope to accomplish over my life."

"Child," Umbra soothed, her hand reaching forward to offer comfort.

"No," I insisted, "I will finish. I refuse to be a pawn. Any further attempt to manipulate or use me will severe that last strand of trust that exists between us.

"You name me child, and for all your advanced years, that may be true. But I have reached my majority and I will be consulted from this point forward.

"I realize the difference between us may not allow for equality, but that isn't what I am asking for.

"What I expect concerns a measure of respect.

"That is the least that you can offer.

"It seems that in your family's quest for truth, you have forgotten basic common decency. I wonder if you might gain a greater capacity for the tenets of truth and justice if you turn the light of the truth that you extol as your clan's purpose on your actions. Ask yourself if it was just and right to manipulate an individual you consider 'child' as you have done."

The temperature in the room seemed to plummet as my words tumbled forth, but I didn't care. If they wanted to devote themselves to the truth, then they should face the truth of their actions. There was no reason for Elder Shadow to conspire and manipulate events. Flowing Water Sect was required to attend this tournament, I would have been required to compete. There was no need for Elder Shadow to think otherwise.

All he had accomplished had been as much a waste of time as it had an incentive. Time dodging Braun and his lackeys could have been better spent on training and getting stronger. Perhaps his method was more effective, and that overcoming adversity tempered the cultivator he was sculpting.

He seemed to believe that it was better to toss the baby into the water to teach him to swim.

It was a method that had its proponents. I had never been one of them. I saw no reason not to spend the extra few moments guiding, coaxing, and teaching a person the skills they needed. Elder Shadow's decisions may have been the impetus for how quickly I advanced, but it had been his decision, not ours. I wasn't certain there would have been a reason to rush through the stages if he hadn't set in motion events that required me to become stronger to survive.