I blinked as the blue words appeared in my sight.

Master selected: Hamu.

+50 xp. Total: 900 xp.

My new blind master peered at me with his eerie gaze as if expecting something. I paused to make sense of what had just happened. If I was the disciple of Hamu's disciple, that naturally made Hamu my master as well. It wasn't a common situation, but it wasn't unheard of, either. Usually such extended chains of discipleship were brief. The old master would pass on, and the younger ones would take their place as the hierarchy renewed. In cases where it wasn't transient, the elder master would usually be gone from public sight or otherwise removed. Was that the case here?

"Will I meet Hamu?" I asked.

Euleban didn't reply, merely grinning at me.

"Are you Hamu?" I tried.

Euleban laughed at that. "Are you trying to flatter me?"

He spun around before I could question him further. He beckoned over his shoulder. "Come."

I hesitated, looking at the other unmoving forms sprawled on the ground. The light here was still patchy, the walls and ground uneven. I wasn't sure, even if the Breach Drill was over, whether the others were, in fact, safe.

Euleban must have sensed my reluctance to abandon my teammates. He paused and spoke without looking back. "Do you want me to kill them?"

"What?" I reached involuntarily for Terminus before calming myself. He couldn't be serious. Needling a new disciple wasn't exactly unheard of.

I shook my head. "No. Of course, not."

Euleban flipped backwards through the air, landing on his haunches a mere inches from me. Though he was shorter then me in his squatting stance, his presence suddenly loomed large over me, a sliver of deadly serious aura washing over me.

The blue letters flared to life before me.

Instructions: You may select more than one answer. Use the plural command, Final Answers, if you have multiple choices.

Choose a life to sacrifice in exchange for power:

A) Alanna Vox

B) Naisha Leshander

C) Unit 5

D) Talen Koroi.

"Speak your choices, and I'll harvest them," Euleban said as I read the words. "One will make you the strongest in your class. Two will set you at the doorstep of the Hidden Realm. Three will see you through to the other side."

An icy knot formed in my gut at the blind master's offer. The Swordgeists had shown they were willing to sacrifice anything for their aims, and I, too, was an accomplice in what they had done. But to sacrifice my teammates now?

"How would giving up my own life lead to power?" I asked, my eyes resting on the blue letters spelling my name. "That makes no sense."

Euleban grinned at me with crooked teeth. "Would you like to find out?"

He was toying with me. He had to be. "None. My final choice is none."

"You can answer it later, but you should know one thing. In the end, all questions must be answered." Euleban flicked his fingers, and the blue words vanished. "That is your first lesson from me."

I frantically spoke the words in my mind, as if I checking for a wound. Question Log.

Question Log

Instructions: You may select more than one answer. Use the plural command, Final Answers, if you have multiple choices.

Choose a life to sacrifice in exchange for power:

A) Alanna Vox

B) Naisha Leshander

C) Unit 5

D) Talen Koroi.

No. What kind of madness was this? My eyes went back to Euleban. I wanted to scream at him that I wouldn't choose, but he was already walking away again.

"Come," Euleban said, his voice harsher this time. "A poor disciple makes his master repeat himself."

I kept my mouth shut and followed after him, glancing at the others once more.

"They will be unharmed," Euleban said, "unless they search for trouble. Come."

I quickened my pace to join him at his side, a half-step behind him, as was appropriate. He sped up, the tattered edges of his robe fluttering from the rapid motion of his legs. I had to send qi into my limbs to keep up as I raced down the hallway. The floor was becoming even now, more flat stone and less dirt or grass. The overhead light was also turning back to the steady blue of the alchemical lamps.

Ahead, the hallway branched to the left and right. Euleban sped up again, weaving left, then leaping off the wall at the last moment to dash into the right branch with a mad cackle. I sprinted after him, but when I rounded the corner, he was gone. The hallway immediately branched to the left and right again, the former sloping upward, the latter sloping downward.

There was a flicker of a shadow from the left branch. I ran, pushing myself even further to catch up with him. No matter, how fast I ran, though, the blind master outpaced me. There was always a hint, an echo of a laugh, a brief shadow, a speck of settling dust--something to indicate where he had gone.

Euleban led me on a chase for what must have been an hour through the labyrinth of hallways. At first, I tried to keep track of the passages, sketching a map in my head, but I had to abandon that effort after five minutes of desperate chasing. In the end, I was in what seemed like a never-ending curved corridor, with the soft sound of footsteps just ahead of me.

Something was off about the aura here. On a whim, I drew Terminus and slashed at the ground, sending a pebble-sized stone chip forward. It ricocheted off the curved wall, following the contour of the bend. I shifted my head at the last moment to avoid getting hit by a small stone from behind. I ran forward for another two dozen strides before finding the scratched mark in the floor again.

I was, impossibly, chasing myself. I stopped.

The light above me darkened, then grew bright again. I looked up to find Euleban peering out of a trapdoor in the ceiling. He grinned at me.

"Took you long enough." His face vanished.

I crouched and leaped with all my strength, catching the lip of the opening, and lifting myself through it. Once inside, I glanced around. The room was made of polished stone, similar to the other rooms, roughly the same size as the Homeroom, but the far half of the room was filled with enormous crates that looked to be made of metal, stacked from the floor to the ceiling. A thin, rustling sound echoed throughout the room, like wind rushing through a hundred vents. But the sound was soft, and I couldn't see or feel any moving air in the place.

Euleban sat on his haunches again within our empty half of the room.

I tried not to frown. "Was there a lesson in that?" I asked as politely as I could.

"No. I simply wanted to see how long you would keep running." Euleban bared his teeth. "Am I right, or did you learn nothing?"

I had learned plenty. That Euleban would not be a methodical, orderly master, as I preferred. He was going to be...one of those. Euleban shifted his head so that I could see into the depths of his empty eye sockets, as if challenging my sentiment. The naked view of his face unsettled me, forcing me to examine his question once more.

"The Academy...distance, shapes, buildings here don't behave normally here." I paused to try to make sense of what I had seen. "Things can change here. And the Breach Drill--it was as if they were trying to invade this place of change."

"The world can bend," Euleban said. "And when the world bends, it can touch other worlds."

"The Void Beasts come from another of these worlds?" I asked. "Those snake-like creatures?"

Euleban sniffed. "Those broodlings are the weakest of their kind. The creatures of the Void seek to bend their world closer to yours. If they succeed, they will overrun your home with a torrent of creatures the likes of which you cannot begin to imagine."

Something had been bothering me, though. "Why do the Void Beasts come from within the Academy?" I tried not make the question sound like an accusation.

"It's not what you're thinking," Euleban said with a chuckle. "The Academy exists at the nexus of your worlds. It is enough to keep the Void Beasts at bay, so long as the cracks between your worlds are faint and few."

The idea that another world was going to invade ours was, admittedly, difficult to accept readily, even though I had witnessed the Void Beast threat up close. But bending worlds? That was beyond me. I was a sword artist, not a god who moved between worlds--was that what the Swordgeists did? My eyes narrowed as I studied the blind master. Or what Euleban could do? How did he know so much about such things? And how did that relate to progressing as a sword artist?

Euleban must have read my thoughts. "You're right," he said. "Such things are beyond you. For now. But you'll need to know where you're going, won't you? The reason we gift you with power."

"To kill the Void Beasts," I whispered.

"No, to enter the Void and cleanse the threat. Permanently. To do that, you'll have to be much stronger than what you are."

He made it sound...like a war. I was a sword artist, not a soldier. But did I even have a choice? I would do what it took to protect the clan. The kingdom, too. For what was the purpose of gaining strength except to test it, and what was a more honorable cause than defending the innocent from a murderous threat?

"How much time do we have?" I asked. I had barely progressed, in the grand scheme of things.

"Enough, I hope," Euleban replied. "But the threat isn't all so far away, or so far above you."

I frowned, trying to parse his meaning. What threat was close to me? The only thing I could think of was the Empress.

"How is Empress Shih involved?" I asked.

"The dark alchemist meddles in things that she shouldn't."

"Can't you kill her yourself?"

Euleban frowned. "If only it were that simple. But back to your lesson. You learned that the world bends. Why else would I have you run like a she-dog chased by a pack of wolves in heat?"

I could think of only one other reason, a disturbing one.

"To make sure that no one was following," I said. "But couldn't you just--"

"No! We're instructors, not mercenaries, bodyguards, or soldiers. Only you can solve your world's problems. Not us."

Our world's problems. "You're not from this world, then."

Euleban didn't reply.

"Are we safe at the Academy?" I asked. "Who would intrude here?"

"You're as safe as you make yourself," Euleban said. "As for your second question, there's more than Void Beasts on the other side."

"But wasn't this an exercise? A Breach Drill, you called it." I had further questions, but Euleban cut me off with a sharp motion of his hand.

"I'll give you five more minutes of questions," Euleban said. "I suggest you use them wisely."

"Five minutes?" I asked.

Euleban smiled and jerked his head over his shoulder. "Hear that?"

The rustling sound from before was growing louder and more distinct. While the tone was off, it reminded me of the sound of cicadas on a summer night, almost like it was a living chorus--

I stared at Euleban, then at the metal crates. No. Those were hisses, and they were growing louder and louder.

"You caged Void Beasts?" I asked.

"Yes, and they grow hungrier by the minute, now that they've sensed your aura. They're quite obnoxious if they don't get to feed right away." Euleban tapped his foot. "Four minutes."

I had countless questions, but Euleban was making it clear that I would have to decide what to ask first. Finally have a master would still be well worth it, now that I could have some answers, but it wasn't as much as I had hoped. I turned over the jumble of questions in my mind, sorting through them. Classes.

Classes

Swordcraft I: 5%

Qi Shaping I: 0%

Geistech I: 1%

Beastlore I: 0%

"How do Classes work?" I ask. "What is their purpose? How do I advance?"

Euleban nodded. "Each Swordgeist lends a portion of power while you're actively enrolled in the respective Class. That power lets you accomplish more than you otherwise could on your own. Once you achieve mastery in a given Class, you'll be able execute a minimal level of techniques with your own strength alone. You can borrow more power, if you desire, for a more advanced Class."

I wasted no time in moving on. "How did I progress in Swordcraft?"

"Well, Ikari would ordinarily want you to make some progress in condensing sword qi. He's being generous by giving you credit for achieving the Sword Core technique on your own." Euleban scratched the side of his nose. "He's not that bad, you know. He loves his pointy things a tad too much, but don't we all?"

I felt an inkling of regret at not being appreciative of Ikari's teaching. Just a little.

"What do the bonuses I'm offered do?" I shook my head. I didn't have time to go through all of them, and I could guess, generally, what they were for. "Nevermind. What does the morsel of Void Beast meat reward do?"

Euleban held out an empty palm. "Do you want it now?"

I hesitated, then nodded. Bonuses.

Bonuses

Bonus question (1/2):

Select your bonus from the list below using the Final Answer command. You may answer this question at another time by invoking the Cancel command.

A) Chip of condensed sword qi.

B) Access to the Scry command.

C) Access to the Alchemical Laboratory.

D) Small morsel of Void Beast meat.

I double-checked the blue words, then made my selection. Final Answer, D.

A greasy, brown lump of charred meat appeared in Euleban's outstretched palm. Euleban clenched his fist slightly, squishing the meat so that a small trickle of reddish-tan liquid leaked out of it. He tossed the brown lump to me, and I caught the warm piece of meat.

Euleban winked with one of his empty eyes. "Got a little extra kick to help it go down."

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but Euleban shook his head.

"Time's up," he said.

The hissing had grown loud enough now to distract me from Euleban's words. I thought he was done, but he continued.

"That's the last question. When you eat this, it'll prime you to extract the remnant of qi found in Void Beast flesh." He gestured towards the hunk of meat in my hand. "Go on, you can eat while we continue."

I looked at the brown lump in my hand. Truth be told, it didn't look that different from a roasted piece of beef. I brought it to my lips, sniffing the smoky scent mixed with caramelized fat. There was a sharp peppery odor, along with a sweetness. My mouth began to water. I took a small bite.

The meat was divine. Perfectly juicy, tender, melting apart at the slightest pressure from my tongue. I quickly devoured the rest of the portion.

Euleban grinned. "My personal recipe." His face changed back to a more serious expression. "What I've told you up until now is from master to disciple. If you'd like me to answer more questions in the future, you'll have to earn my favor. What I'm telling you now, though, will be freely given to all the students."

I nodded, my mouth still half-full of meat. It was up to me, then, if I shared what I had learned with the others.

"One of the fastest ways of progressing through the ranks of a sword artist is to collect qi in the form of beast cores." Euleban gestured with his hand, and the tiniest speck of gold, the size of a grain of sand, appeared within his palm. He closed his fist, and when he opened his hand again, the glint of gold was gone. "The Void pythons you slayed are weak. Their cores are negligible, not worth collecting, but their bodies are still useful for another purpose. Tell me, what happens when you absorb a qi pill?"

I had finished swallowing the last of the meat. I wiped a bit of drool from the corner of my mouth before replying. A slight tingle may have spread through my body's channels, but I didn't feel anything else unusual, other than my stomach rumbling for more.

"You cycle the qi," I said, "refining it to remove the foreign essence and incorporate it into your own core."

"Exactly," Euleban said, "and that is what everyone else does. But someone skilled in Beastlore doesn't remove the foreign essence. He consumes and makes it his own."

But foreign qi was incompatible, useless until converted into a native form. I frowned but waited for Euleban to explain.

He nodded, as if acknowledging my patience. "This is the essence of Beastlore. While the flesh of a dead Void Beast contains scant qi, it contains enough of their foreign essence for training purposes. You task, then, is to consume Void Beast flesh until you can recognize and make the foreign essence your own. Then, you will be ready to move on."

"Is that it?" I asked. "I mean, what you'll tell everybody."

Euleban gave a sly smile. "Yes."

It was obvious that I still had numerous questions, but he had barely explained anything. "How, then, do I earn your favor? For more answers?"

Euleban's smile spread wider. "I thought you'd never ask." He tilted his head towards the metal crates, the source of a cacophony of hissing and screeching now.

"You're in charge of those beasties," he said.

* * *

Euleban called the room we were in the Stables, and it was my task, as his disciple, to care for the captured Void Beasts, which involved feeding them and cleaning the metal crates that served as cages. Euleban didn't bother to explain where and how he had captured the creatures, but it was clear that they would serve as a source of training materials, so to speak, of two kinds. First, to fight, and second, to consume, as he had said earlier.

After giving directions, Euleban had settled himself into the opposite corner of the room, making no indication of paying any attention to me. There were twenty metal crates filled with the hissing creatures, each a solid block of what appeared to be steel except for two small doors locked by simple qi seals. One was large enough for three men to crawl through together; the other was barely large enough to slip two arms through.

Off to the side was an empty metal crate, its doors left open. There were two more metal crates, as large as the others, but each with a single, unlocked opening. When I opened the first, the stench of rancid meat and blood filled my nostrils before I could make out what was inside. They were chickens. Hundreds and hundreds of dead chickens, still feathered, the corpses already decaying, waiting to be fed to the Void Beasts. All memory of the delicious flavor I had tasted minutes became distant and forgotten. I held my breath for a moment, but it was impossible to complete Euleban's task without breathing in the stomach-churning odor. I gave up and let the smell fill my nose, hoping I'd saturate any sensitivity to it soon.

The other metal crate held buckets of water and a bundle of rags in the corner. One of the buckets, a basic wooden thing with a rusty loop for a handle, was empty. I grabbed it and turned back to the dead chickens.

Feeding the Void pythons, as Euleban called them, involved hauling buckets of the chicken corpses to the metal crates, one by one, and using the smaller door to slide one chicken at a time through to the other side. I was no skilled crafter, but I could have thought of a dozen better designs to expedite the feeding. I was positive that the crate's design was meant to torment whomever was assigned to this duty. Namely, me.

I glanced back at Euleban, who was still in the far corner, scratching at his mangy hair.

"Will the other disciples help?" I called out. I pushed another chicken through the feeding hole, trying not to wince at the savage sounds coming from the other side of the metal.

Euleban stopped scratching long enough to look at me. "Other disciples?" he asked with a faint smile.

I was familiar with the tradition of sadism often taking place at the start of a discipleship. I couldn't be the only one involved in this, though. "The other students." I paused. "The nobles."

"How do you think your nobles would take to these tasks?" Euleban replied.

Images of the proud nobles pushing chickens through feeding holes flitted through my mind. And I hadn't even gotten to the cleaning yet. Oh, what I would have given to see Naisha mired in this mess, or even Alanna. I snorted in amusement, then gagged at the sudden intake of fetid air. That hadn't been a charitable or honorable thought. Karma was swift, sometimes.

"I'm the only one?" I asked.

"No one's going to help you, if that's what you're asking." Euleban lowered his head to scratch the back of his neck, indicating that he had no more to say on the matter.

It took me ten minutes to feed the required ten buckets worth of chickens to the first metal crate. After I closed the feeding hatch, hard crashes jarred the walls of the crate, but the structure held. I moved on to the next metal crate.

It took easily over an hour to complete the feeding. Afterwards, I prepared for the next step, cleaning. I returned to the first metal crate and found that the violent sounds from within had mostly settled. I dragged the single empty crate over to the first, straining even my Grandmaster body to do move the heavy weight. The larger doors slid open to the side, so it was a simple matter of aligning the two doors, letting the Void Beasts transfer over, and then cleaning the now empty metal crate.

At least, it was simple in principle.

When I aligned the two doorways, unlocked the qi seals, and slid the two doors open, both metal crates rattled and shook violently, accompanied by loud hisses. There was the narrowest gap, the width of paper, where the two crates touched, through which I glimpsed a flurry of motion.

I realized the problem as soon as the first of the Void Beasts had reached their new holding pen. There was no way to ensure that all the Void Beasts within one crate transferred to the other. The shaking structure rattled even more loudly, and the vibrations slowly drove the two heavy metal crates apart. I slammed the doors shut before the gap between them could widen and release one of the creatures.

I gasped and bent over, my hands on my knees, as a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over me. The earlier fights with the Void Beasts, using the so-called Sword Core technique, had depleted a good portion of my qi. And, for some reason, working alongside the constant hissing of the Void Beasts gave me a headache, one that went deeper than a physical one. My very soul ached.

I stood, placing one hand on the metal crate to my side. I sensed a nearby presence and withdrew my hand, reaching for Terminus. When I looked up, Euleban was standing before me.

"It'll do that, the constant clamor of those that want to kill you," Euleban said, his eyes glancing over the metal crates. "The wisps of their qi, their aura, clashes with yours."

I shook my head, trying to clear the dull pain within me. I had fought single, sometimes several opponents at a time, their killing intent clear, but this was a constant storm of inhuman, murderous lust. As soon as Euleban had pinpointed the source, I knew that his words were true. The hum of the Void Beasts grated on my whole being.

"How do I fight it?" I asked.

Euleban shrugged. "Bear it and grow stronger. But their aura oppresses you for the same reason that their raw qi is incompatible with yours."

What did that mean? It was the foreign essence, couched even within the aura of qi, that weighed heavily on me?

"I must make their aura my own?" I asked.

Euleban grinned, then bounded away to his corner of the Stables again. I watched as he started scratching under his armpit. I looked away as he itched his crotch.

Although I had deemed the task as pointless drudgery, it was training of a sort. I still didn't entirely trust the blind master, but if I was going to progress, I would need to make the most of whatever opportunity was before me.

I sat down cross-legged stone floor, dirtied from dried chicken blood, droppings, and more than a few misplaced feathers. I closed my eyes and reached for the pool of qi churning within my core. I had originally planned to cultivate for a while since the Stable, while filled with vile aura, was in fact rich with qi.

But perhaps I could do more. I breathed in deeply, my nose now accustomed to the odors, letting the ambient qi wrap around and seep into my body. I sent the qi within my core circulating outward to catch the fragments of incoming essence. Qi coursed through my body's channels and back into my core, where it churned further, before being sent outward again. In this way, I cleansed the incoming qi of its foreign taint and replenished my own core.

But as I cultivated, I reached for the fragments of foreign essence, trying to hold onto it. The action was against all instinct and intuition, as if I was trying to force myself to inhale a breath of water or stare wide-eyed at the bright sun. The foreign essence, fueled by the rage of the captured Void Beasts, was stronger than any I had experienced before, and for a moment, I could grasp its essence before my core washed it away.

I held a bolus of the foreign essence, keeping it intact as it cycled through my body. When it reached my core, I tried to hold on, but the intruding essence was too much. My core pulsed violently for a moment, and the ensuing vortex of qi within washed away the last remnant of the Void Beast within me.

It was progress, at least, to touch the foreign essence. Making it my own? That would take much time and practice, but Euleban's task was even better suited to training than I had first realized. For taking in foreign qi was usually done with potent doses such as qi pills. But practicing on a steady supply of qi pills, or the cores Euleban had mentioned, would be an impossibly expensive task. Here, though, I had a rich enough source of ambient, foreign essence that I could use to practice on the basics.

My initial impression of Euleban had been unfair. While his methods weren't glamorous, I could sense that they outlined a path to power, even if I didn't quite understand that path fully yet. And he was right. I could hardly imagine any of the others subjecting themselves to this task. I, however, found it oddly soothing, familiar even, to labor in this way for progress. I cultivated quietly as I sat, satisfied, as I regained my strength.

An hour passed. When I stood, replenished, Euleban was still in the corner, this time scratching one leg with the other. I studied him discreetly. Why was he still here? To watch idly? Surely the instructors could observe without being physically present. Did he have nothing else to do? Or was I supposed to engage him further?

I turned to the problem of cleaning the cages that still remained.

"The pythons," I called to Euleban, pointing to the metal crate. "How do I make them transfer between crates?"

Euleban bounded over to my side, grinning. "Ah, my young disciple. Let me explain. Join the two cages. Open the doors. When a Void Beast goes this way..." He pointed to the right with his finger. "Leave the door open. If it goes that way..." He pointed to the left. "Slam the door shut. Easy, right?"

I frowned at him, not believing his words. He had to be mocking me. When he didn't say anything further, I gave up and turned back to the metal crates, staring at them.

"I'll leave you to your work," Euleban said.

I glanced backwards, but he was gone. "Open and shut the doors," I muttered.

I tried picturing myself doing what Euleban had suggested. Not only did I find the idea painfully tedious, but I wasn't even sure if I could sense the oncoming creatures from either direction in order to slam the door down in time. Assuming that there was only one python going in a single direction, not to mention the myriad of other potential problems I could envision.

No, he couldn't have been serious about that. I surveyed the surroundings but couldn't find any more tools. There were leftover dead chickens. I could use them? I was supposed to clean the cages after the creatures had finished feeding, in case they left behind fresh spoor, but surely one or two chickens wouldn't matter?

I quickly joined the two cages again, opening the doors between them. This time, I opened the feeding door for the rightmost cage, then slipped one chicken inside as bait. The cages rattled as the Void Beasts sped from one to the other, but, at last, I couldn't hear any sounds from the leftmost cage. I slammed the doors shut, then pushed the metal crates apart.

I rapped on the supposedly empty crate, but nothing replied with sound or motion. I still drew Terminus, then tentatively open the large main door, ready for an attack. There was no Void Beast within, but a worse sight greeted me. The inner walls and floor were coated with mottled smears made up of bits of chicken gore, as well as what must have been the creatures' waste in the form of lighter streaks.

It took over three hours to scrub all twenty metal crates clean, shuffling the Void Beasts into a previously cleaned crate each time. Fortunately, the baiting trick worked well enough, and I had no mishaps with lurking Void Beasts.

I was finishing up, putting the used rags and buckets away, when something tapped against one of the metal crates, too loud to be from inside. I whirled, dropping a bucket full of dirty water to draw Terminus, afraid that I had left one of the doors open.

It was Euleban. He had somehow crept up behind me without my noticing him. He slapped his hand once more, lazily, against the side of the metal crate next to him.

"Sounds clean," Euleban said, looking once at the puddle of water spreading on the stone floor at my side.

I wasn't sure how he could judge cleanliness from sound, but I didn't question him. I sheathed Terminus and picked up a rag to wipe the fresh spill.

"Will there be more..." I eyed the metal crates as I scrubbed the floor. "More lessons for today?"

"That wasn't a lesson," Euleban said with a straight face. "That was your job. You're to feed the beasts and clean their cages once a day from now on. The supplies will be ready for you after lunch time. As for a lesson, if you'd like, you can stop by this evening and we'll work on consuming foreign qi."

I finished wiping up the floor, then nodded, not minding the job if it served some purpose. I was eager, too, for any further lessons. "Yes, tonight." I scrunched my face as I remembered the roundabout way I had arrived here. "But how do I return? The Directions command, I assume?"

"Yes." Euleban held up a finger. "I almost forgot. Payment for your job."

+1 xp. Total: 901 xp.

It wasn't much, ten points without the Assignment's curse, but it would add up daily. I bowed. "Thank you, master."

Euleban looked pleased, as or much as someone could without any eyeballs. "You can find your own way back, I'm sure?" This time, I watched as he darted out a set of wide double doors, opening and shutting them without making a sound.

I blinked. The doors had not been there before. Such was the way of things in this place.

I finished putting away the cleaning supplies, then planned what to do next. I had missed dinner, But I wasn't particularly hungry while having the wet stink of filth hanging from my clothes. I would welcome a bath and meal before returning for more lessons, then. Another hour of cultivation, too, to dwell on what had happened today, as well as to recover further strength.

Directions, Quarters.

A faint trail of blue light appeared in the air before me. The way back was different than the little that I remembered from my hectic first trip to the Stables. Yes, the path wound through turns and ramps, but it only took me a few minutes to make my way through them before finding myself back in the main hallway. The stone surfaces had also returned to their expected condition, no longer having patches of dirt and grass. There had been no sign of the others along the way, either.

I made my way to the Quarters, running into Kendra and her group. I paid them no mind as they made retching noises and fled in the opposite direction. Still, I hurried towards my room, not wishing to stir any trouble. When I opened my door, Alanna and Naisha were inside.

"Talen, you had a message--" Alanna said when she saw me. She had been gesturing to my bed, but her face turned tight. She brought her hand halfway up, lowered it, then brought it to her mouth and nose. "I'm sorry, Talen but could you..." She waved me away from the doorway.

Naisha had been sitting further away from the door. She scowled at my appearance, then gagged as the odor reached her.

"Get out! Get out!" Naisha shrieked.

"I need to wash up," I said. "I'll be quick." I took a step towards the bathroom, but Naisha picked up one of her swords and brandished it at me while pinching her nose with the other hand.

"Why does he smell like a cursed farm?" Naisha asked Alanna. "Do you see cows and chickens here? Someone tell that country boy that this is a school, not a farm. Argh!"

"Well, actually..." I dodged to the side as Naisha hurtled past me with her drawn sword, shrieking.

Alanna rushed out after her.

I'd have to see if I could wash elsewhere next time. Perhaps bring a spare change of clothes. I shrugged and said a silent apology to the others before heading to the side of my bed. On top was a small rectangle of parchment, neatly folded in half. My name was written across the front. I reached for the note, being careful not to soil my bed. The message had two short lines.

See me. Same inn. Today.

Elder Gri

The abrupt tone of the command didn't bother me. He was the head of our clan, after all. At first, though, I was alarmed, wondering whether Elder Gri had fallen into some kind of trouble. How had he passed along the message in the first place? But nothing in the message indicated trouble. He would have said something, at least, to warn me.

I grimaced as I realized what this was likely about. The healing elixirs--that had to be it. With everything that had been happening in the last two days, I hadn't had a chance to tell him what I had learned. He'd be disappointed, even more so if I waited any longer. Our curfew made it even less convenient to go out, although I hadn't tested how easily we could get permission to leave at night. I tucked the message into a corner of my bed and went to bathe.

Rather than simply rinsing off, I filled the tub and lingered in it, soaking as the nobles did. My body and mind were both weary from the events of the day, and I let myself take a few minutes of luxury. I tried to lean back, close my eyes, and settle into the comfort of cultivation from within the tub. I had made progress today, and I should have felt more restful, but I couldn't chase away the nagging discomfort at the edge of my thoughts.

The dark question that Euleban had given me lingered in my mind, but as terrible as it was, it didn't drain me as much as I might have expected. I was no stranger to facing death, and I'd face that question when it arose again. It was, as far as I could tell, out of my hands for now, an abstract decree that I couldn't make sense of. Or maybe, deep down, I didn't believe I would ever have to answer it.

No, something else weighed on me, and I couldn't quite place what it was for a moment. Then, I had my answer. Duty. Demands. That was it. I had always followed my duty, but the rising demands--not challenges, I welcomed challenges--surrounded me, shackled me. It had been different before when I had merely to focus on training my sword and body.

I had, effectively, two masters now. Elder Gri was one. Euleban was another. And that didn't count any obligation, voluntary or not, to the Empress. She had summoned me according to Five. Then, there were my teammates. Alanna had wanted to meet tonight, hadn't she?

I envied the hermits who shut off the world and lived for themselves alone, devoting their lives entirely to their sword artistry. But, no, that was a selfish desire, foolish, too, for where would I be without my elders? What secrets would Euleban reveal next? My teammates were undisciplined, prickly, or untrained, but surely there were things to learn from them. Even Empress Shih, more foe than friend, was a path to power through the Assignment I carried.

It was another question, and there was no escaping its immediate presence. Where would I go tonight? Four choice: to Elder Gri, to Euleban, to Empress Shih, or to Alanna.

I didn't mind the choosing part. It was telling the ones I didn't choose that would be prickly, political, even. The nobles would know how to handle that, but I was a sword artist. I balanced blades, not people.

I leaned backwards and sank further into the tub. One more minute peace. One more minute of simplicity.